oo common sentiment which paints religion with sombre hues,
and couples it with the most forbidding associations. It has tended to
drive some to seek in the more liberal atmosphere of Unitarianism the
liberty of conscience denied them by orthodoxy; and all this it might have
avoided by a clearer recognition of the gospel teaching on this subject:
by being less afraid for the purity of the truth, and by throwing
Christian presence, and Christian participation, and Christian sentiment
boldly into the midst of the people's amusements, with a view less to
exscind than to regulate.

I say, "less afraid for the purity of the truth." For Christians shrink
from an experiment so bold, especially after so large a proportion of
amusements has been usurped by the Devil through their neglect to
interfere. The church is shy of a faith in the power of good which comes
eating and drinking; which sits at the table of publicans and sinners. The
conviction grows on me that Christians have too little faith in the
gospel. They do not trust it enough in popular reforms. They realize that
evil is a tremendous power, alike to be feared, whether it wear the armor
of Goliath, or sing its sweet seductions in the form of a siren; and their
instinct of preservation extends beyond themselves to the truth itself.
They regard truth as a tender stripling, to be rolled up in mufflers, and
suffered to walk out only in charge of certain staid nurses of theory; and
not as a man of war in panoply, and with strength enough to take care not
only of itself, but of them and their trusted theories too. They are
afraid the evil will overwhelm or corrupt the truth; that the leaven,
instead of imparting virtue, will be spoiled by the deadness of the lump.
We need have no such fear for it. All the developments of the age show
that the world needs it in closer contact with its evil than it has ever
been yet. It is sometimes urged that in pursuing this course, Christians
will bring upon themselves from the world the charge of inconsistency, and
moreover will grieve weak Christian brethren. But surely this principle
may be pushed too far. With the very fullest recognition of the obligation
upon Christians not to let their good be evil spoken of, and not to wrong
the weak conscience--concessions made for the sake of Christian charity are
surely not required to extend to all the vagaries of individual prejudice,
nor to the abandonment of principle. And there is a principle