ur forgiveness for her creed. One is astonished
that she can be as good as she is, believing as she does. The
utmost stretch of our intellectual charity is to allow the old wine
to be put in a new bottle, and yet she regrets the absence of the
old bottle--she really believes that the bottle is the important
thing--that the wine is but a secondary consideration. She misses
the label, and not having perfect confidence in her own taste, she
does not feel quite sure that the wine is genuine.

_Question_. What, on the whole, is your judgment of the book?

_Answer_. I think the book conservative. It is an effort to save
something--a few shreds and patches and ravelings--from the wreck.
Theism is difficult to maintain. Why should we expect an infinite
Being to do better in another world than he has done and is doing
in this? If he allows the innocent to suffer here, why not there?
If he allows rascality to succeed in this world, why not in the
next? To believe in God and to deny his personality is an exceedingly
vague foundation for a consolation. If you insist on his personality
and power, then it is impossible to account for what happens. Why
should an infinite God allow some of his children to enslave others?
Why should he allow a child of his to burn another child of his,
under the impression that such a sacrifice was pleasing to him?

Unitarianism lacks the motive power. Orthodox people who insist
that nearly everybody is going to hell, and that it is their duty
to do what little they can to save their souls, have what you might
call a spur to action. We can imagine a philanthropic man engaged
in the business of throwing ropes to persons about to go over the
falls of Niagara, but we can hardly think of his carrying on the
business after being convinced that there are no falls, or that
people go over them in perfect safety. In this country the question
has come up whether all the heathen are bound to be damned unless
they believe in the gospel. Many admit that the heathen will be
saved if they are good people, and that they will not be damned
for not believing something that they never heard. The really
orthodox people--that is to say, the missionaries--instantly see
that this doctrine destroys their business. They take the ground
that there is but one way to be saved--you must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ--and they are willing to admit, and cheerfully to
admit, that the heathen for many generations