To Mrs. David Lane.
ST. DAVID'S, April 14, 1867.
DEAR FRIEND,--Why should I write to you about the things you speak of
in your letter which crossed mine? How vain to attempt to discuss such
matters on note-paper!
But, without discussing, I will tell you, in few words, what I think.
The vitality of the Christian religion lies deeper than the miraculous
element in it. The miraculous is but an attestation to that. That
is authority to me. The authority of God is more clearly and
unquestionably revealed to me, than in anything else, in the inborn
spiritual convictions of my nature, without which, indeed, I could not
understand Christianity, nor anything else religious. These convictions
accord with the deepest truths of Christianity, else I could not
receive it. Jesus has strengthened, elevated, and purified these
natural [295] convictions in such a way,--by such teachings, by such a
life, by such an unparalleled beauty of character,-that I believe God
has breathed a grace into his soul that he never-has [given] in the
same measure and perfection to any other. Effects must have causes, and
such an effect seems to me fairly to indicate such a cause.
But there are those who cannot take this view; who look upon the
gospel as simply the best exposition of national religion ever given,
without any other breath of inspiration upon the record than such
as was breathed upon the pages of Plato or Epictetus. Now, if they
went further, and disowned the very spirit of Jesus, rejected the
very essence of the gospel, certainly they would not be Christians.
But this they do not; on the contrary, they reverently and heartily
accept it, and seek to frame their lives upon this model. Am I to hold
such persons as outcasts from the Christian fold, to refuse them my
sympathy, to accord them only my "pity "? Certainly, I can take no such
ground.
The peculiarities of certain individuals--the "cold abstractions" of
one, and the rash utterances of another--have nothing essentially to
do with the case; nor has the hurt they may be thought to do to our
Unitarian cause anything to do with the essential truth of things. Nor
do I know that extreme Radicalism does us any more harm than extreme
Conservatism. I belong to neither extreme; and my business is, without
regard to public cause or private reputation, to keep, as far as I can,
my own mind right.
The fact is, you are so conservative on every subject,--society,
politics, medicine, religion,--that it is very difficult for you to do
justice to the radical side. But consider that such men as Martineau,
Bartol, Stebbins, [296] Ames, and Abbot are mainly on that side, and
that it will not do to cast about scornful or pitying words concerning
such. As to __ I give him up to you, for I don't like his writing any
better than you do.
I think the great Exposition which you are soon to see may give you
a liberalizing hint. There, the industry of all nations will be
exhibited. All are bent, honestly and earnestly, upon one point,--the
development of the human energies in that direction. And it will infer
nothing against their good character, or their titles to sympathy and
respect, that they differ more or less with regard to the modes and
means of arriving at the end.
Well, you will go before I come to New York. God bless and keep you,
and bring you safely back!
Ever your friend,