But may not public opinion, or even the Church, decide wrong? It may,
and, no doubt, does sometimes. So may any court, man can establish;
and it may turn out that the world may become so bad, or the church
may become so perverted or corrupted, that a man can not get a fair
decision. Still, it is the best that can be done, for us all to be free
alike, before the court of public opinion, and the church, and if we
should get a wrong decision here, the last or final appeal is to the
court of heaven, to the judgment of the Great Day. But in a country
like this, where a man has been among a people all his life; been an
upright and true man; conducted himself with consistency and propriety;
there must be something very singular in his course, and peculiar
indeed, if he can not get a fair hearing and decision from public
opinion, or from the church. There must be something very peculiar in
his course to unsettle their confidence; to start doubts in their minds
in reference to his soundness; to fill the public mind with distrust.
There must be something not _straightforward_.