e to unfold, and to defend them, while they will be embraced
exclusively by those who misunderstand, degrade, and debase them.
Because the unlettered are absurd, must the able cease to be religious?
If there is to be an abandonment of every Christian principle because it
has been unfairly, unskillfully, or inadequately treated, there would,
one by one, be an abandonment of every doctrine of the New Testament."

"I felt myself bound," said Mr. Stanley, "to act on this principle in
our late conversation with Mr. Tyrrel. I would not refuse to assert with
him the doctrines of grace, but I endeavored to let him see that I had
adopted them in a scriptural sense. I would not try to convince him that
he was wrong, by disowning a truth because he abused it. I would
cordially reject all the bad use he makes of any opinion, without
rejecting the opinion itself, if the Bible will bear me out in the
belief of it. But I would scrupulously reject all the other opinions
which he connects with it, and with which I am persuaded it has no
connection."

"The nominal Christian," said Dr. Barlow, "who insists that religion
resides in the understanding only, may contend that love to God,
gratitude to our Redeemer, and sorrow for our offenses, are enthusiastic
extravagances; and effectually repress, by ridicule and sarcasm, those
feelings which the devout heart recognizes, and which Scripture
sanctions. On the other hand, those very feelings are inflamed,
exaggerated, distorted, and misrepresented, as including the whole of
religion, by the intemperate enthusiast, who thinks reason has nothing
to do in the business; but who, trusting to tests not warranted in the
Scripture, is governed by fancies, feelings, and visions of his own.

"Between these pernicious extremes, what course is the sober Christian
to pursue? Must he discard from his heart all pious affections because
the fanatic abuses them, and the fastidious denies their existence! This
would be like insisting, that because one man happens to be sick of a
dead palsy, and another of a frenzy fever, there is therefore in the
human constitution no such temperate medium as sound health."

CHAPTER XL.

Since the conversation which had accidentally led to the discovery of
Miss Stanley's acquirements, I could not forbear surveying the perfect
arrangements of the family, and the completely elegant but not luxurious
table, with more than ordinary interest. I felt no small delight in