oung men, are perplexed, bewildered, and some who, like John the
Baptist, were "burning and shining lights," become "wandering stars,"
and lose themselves, for a time at least, amidst the "blackness and
darkness" of doubt and despair.

CHAPTER III.

ANOTHER CAUSE OF UNBELIEF--BAD FEELING. THE AUTHOR'S CASE.

There are several other causes of doubt and unbelief which we might
name, if we had time; but we have not. There is one however which we
must notice, because it had considerable influence in our own case; we
refer to the bad feeling which sometimes takes possession of the minds
of Christians towards each other, or of the minds of ministers towards
their brother ministers.

You are aware, perhaps, that if you scratch the skin, and introduce a
little diseased animal matter to the blood, it will gradually spread
itself through the system, and in time poison the whole body. And if you
do not know this, you know, that if you take a little leaven, and place
it in a mass of meal, and leave it there to work unchecked, it will in
time leaven the whole lump. And as it is with things natural, so it is
with things spiritual. If you allow a little leaven of bad feeling to
get into your minds towards your fellow Christians or your brother
ministers, and permit it to remain there, it will in time infect your
whole soul, impair the action of all its faculties, and after alienating
you from individuals, separate you first from the Church, and then from
Christ and Christianity.

There is a passage in the Bible which says that judges are not to take
gifts; and the reason assigned is, not that if a judge accepts a present
he will, with his eyes open, wilfully condemn the innocent or acquit the
guilty; but that "a gift _blindeth the eyes_," even "of the wise," so
that he is no longer able to see clearly which is the guilty and which
the guiltless party. And there is another passage in the Bible which
says that "oppression driveth a wise man mad." The feeling a man has
that he has been wickedly, cruelly treated, excites his mind so
painfully and violently, that it is impossible for him to think well of
the character or views of his oppressor, or of any party, institution,
or system with which he may be connected.

As some friends of mine were canvassing for votes one day, previous to
an election, they came upon a man who could not, for a time, say for
which candidate he would vote. At length a thought struck him, and he
sa