animation. He did not attempt to conceal the deep satisfaction
with which his heart was penetrated. He modestly referred his friend to
Dr. Barlow, as a far more able casuist, though not a more cordial
friend. For my own part, I felt my heart expand toward Sir John with new
sympathies and an enlarged affection. I felt noble motives of
attachment, an attachment which I hoped would be perpetuated beyond the
narrow bounds of this perishable world.

"My dear Sir John," said Mr. Stanley, "it is among the daily but
comparatively petty trials of every man who is deeply in earnest to
secure his immortal interests, to be classed with low and wild
enthusiasts whom his judgment condemns, with hypocrites against whom his
principles revolt, and with men, pious and conscientious I am most
willing to allow, but differing widely from his own views; with others
who evince a want of charity in some points, and a want of judgment in
most. To be identified, I say, with men so different from yourself,
because you hold in common some great truths, which all real Christians
have held in all ages, and because you agree with them in avoiding the
blamable excesses of dissipation, is among the sacrifices of reputation,
which a man must be contented to make who is earnest in the great object
of a Christian's pursuit. I trust, however, that, through divine grace,
I shall never renounce my integrity for the praise of men, who have so
little consistency, that though they pretend their quarrel is with your
faith, yet who would not care how extravagant your belief was if your
practice assimilated with their own. I trust, on the other hand, that I
shall always maintain my candor toward those with whom we are unfairly
involved; men, religious, though somewhat eccentric, devout, though
injudicious, and sincere, though mistaken; but who, with all their
errors, against which I protest, and with all their indiscretion, which
I lament, and with all their ill-judged, because irregular zeal, I shall
ever think--always excepting hypocrites and false pretenders--are better
men, and in a safer state than their revilers."

"I have often suspected," said I, "that under the plausible pretense of
objecting to your creed, men conceal their quarrel with the
commandments."

"My dear Stanley," said Sir John, "but for this visit, I might have
continued in the common error, that there was but one description of
religious professors; that a fanatical spirit, and a fierce a