judgment which the
apostle delivers in the parallel chapter of the Epistle to the Romans
(the 14th), he says, "I know, and am persuaded of the Lord Jesus, that
there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything
to be unclean, to him it is unclean." In other words, whatever may be
the abstract merits of the question--however in God's jurisprudence
any particular act may stand--to you, thinking it to be wrong, it
manifestly _is_ wrong, and your conscience will gather round it a
stain of guilt if you do it.

In order to understand this more fully, let us take a few instances.
There is a difference between _truth_ and _veracity_. Veracity--mere
veracity--is a small, poor thing. Truth is something greater and
higher. Veracity is merely the correspondence between some particular
statement and facts--truth is the correspondence between a man's whole
soul and reality. It is possible for a man to say that which, unknown
to him is false; and yet he may be true: because if deprived of truth
he is deprived of it unwillingly. It is possible, on the other hand,
for a man to utter veracities, and yet at the very time that he is
uttering those veracities to be false to himself, to his brother, and
to his God. One of the most signal instances of this is to be seen in
the Book of Job. Most of what Job's friends said to him were veracious
statements. Much of what Job said for himself was unveracious and
mistaken. And yet those veracities of theirs were so torn from all
connection with fact and truth, that they became falsehoods; and they
were, as has been said, nothing more than "orthodox liars" in the
sight of God. On the other hand, Job, blundering perpetually, and
falling into false doctrine, was yet a true man--searching for and
striving after the truth; and if deprived of it for a time, deprived
of it with all his heart and soul unwillingly. And therefore it was
that at last the Lord appeared out of the whirlwind, to confound the
men of mere veracity, and to stand by and support the honour of the
heartily true.

Let us apply the principle further. It is a matter of less importance
that a man should state true views, than that he should state views
truly. We will put this in its strongest form. Unitarianism is
false--Trinitarianism is true. But yet in the sight of God, and with
respect to a man's eternal destinies hereafter, it would surely be
better for him earnestly, honestl