There are some who come upon our platform, and give us the aid of names
and reputations less burdened than ours with popular odium,who are
perpetually urging us to exercise charity in our judgments of those
about us, and to consent to argue these questions. These men are ever
parading their wish to draw a line between themselves and us,
because they must be permitted to wait,--to trust more to reason than
feeling,--to indulge a generous charity,--to rely on the sure influence
of simple truth, uttered in love, etc., etc. I reject with scorn all
these implications that our judgments are uncharitable,--that we are
lacking in patience,--that we have any other dependence than on the
simple truth, spoken with Christian frankness, yet with Christian
love. These lectures, to which you, sir, and all of us, have so often
listened, would be impertinent, if they were not rather ridiculous for
the gross ignorance they betray of the community, of the cause, and of
the whole course of its friends.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242