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year, or once in five years! It is an absurdity. And is it not at the least as great an absurdity, to forget the Parent of all for a series of years? You might as well blot out not only the word affection, but the thing itself, from under the whole heaven.

Every day is a miniature life. It has its infancy, its youth, its maturity, its age, may I not say, its death? Then follows a resurrection, and another day or miniature life succeeds. Nothing appears to me more obvious than that every day must embrace, to a very great extent certainly, all the duties of life. Every affection which a human being ought to cherish at all, should be cherished every day. And I do not hesitate to say that no one, whether ten years old or fifty, can pass a whole day, without thinking of his parents, and yet not diminish his love for them. No more do I believe that any individual can safely spend a whole day without thinking of God. Every morning at the least, he is bound to lay his plans with reference to his will. And how many times in the progress of the day, nay, how constantly should the love of God call forth our gratitude, awake our reverence, confine our confidence, and fix our devotion!

Has God said, Son give me thy heart only

once in five years? Has he said; Promote my glory by forgetting me, except occasionally, or at long intervals; and only think how you can best serve yourself? Or has he taught us both by the precept and example of his Son to do every thing according to his will; and to remember him in all things and under all circumstances?

Why then did I fail to make this conclusion at the time above mentioned ? Because I had adopted the principle, as a leading one, that the scriptures could teach us nothing in advance of our experience. For example; when experience has taught us that "Blessed are the peace makers;" then we know, I used to say, that the passage in Matthew which affirms this, is truly "revealed." But until our experience has taught us a doctrine, no such doctrine can properly be said to be revealed to us. A given chapter in the Bible may record twelve or twenty doctrines, but they are of no service as a revelation to us, till we have tested the truth of them by experience.

Strange indeed it was, as it now seems to me, even on the principles I then adopted, that I did not perceive how there may easily be such a thing as the true believer's realizing or experiencing, in a peculiar manner, the presence of God, in proportion to the intimacy of his communion with

him; or in other words according to the growth and elevation of his piety. But so it was; I did not perceive it.

Thus, while I professed to believe in a revelation, I believed it in such a manner as to make

it no more a revelation than any other book, unless it contained more truths than any other book; and nothing is more obvious than that this is equivalent to believing in no revelation at all. Yet I am well assured that I was not alone. A number of highly intelligent "liberal" Christians at that time held to the same, or nearly the same principle. That they all did, or even a majority of them, I do not believe; for I have more respect for their understandings than to believe it. And that any one now does, although only four or five years have passed, is quite another question, for their creeds are no more fixed than Dr. Priestly's was; and they often vary them as much in five years as he did his.*

Hence as has been said before, I was both a

* Dr. Priestly said he was at first a Calvinist, but afterwards became liberal. Proceeding onward, he at length, came to the conclusion that Christ was as fallible as Moses or any of the prophets. He candidly says; "I do not know when my creed will be fixed."

believer in revelation, and an unbeliever-and the same was true of every thing else. There was scarcely a doctrine drawn from the Bible, by any sect, but I could say I believed it, meaning in my own way. In other company, I could also say, most conscientiously, that I disbelieved it—reserving to myself the right of explanation. I have since wondered, a thousand times, how I could so impose upon people; and still oftener, how I could reconcile such a course, to my sense of honesty or propriety. Gradually, however, this habit of saying a thing with a view to have it understood in a certain manner and reserving to myself the right of interpreting it in a different manner, so grew upon me that it was extended into other matters, and I found my regard for truth in the common concerns of life diminishing. now for the first time suspected that my "liberal" sentiments had an unfavorable influence on my moral and religious character, though even now I did not fully admit it, because I was unwilling to do so.

It was

It was not long, however, before other circumstances confirmed my suspicions. My supposed converts made no progress. They would hear my remarks; (for I spent a good deal of breath among them) read my books, or rather those

which were furnished me "to make a wise use of;" and bestow large censures upon other doctrines and sects. But as to doing anything for the promotion of "liberal principles," they would not lift a finger. This tried me-but I was not discouraged. I still, on the whole, believed-or rather tried to believe the fault to be in myself, or the manner in which I proceeded, rather than in the doctrines which I taught.

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