"immersion," or of "immersion" over "sprinkling"; that the "wax
candles," "lighted" and "unlighted," appear to you alike insignificant;
that even the jus divinum of any system of ecclesiastical government
is sometimes not discerned with absolute precision; and, in short, that
you look with contemptuous wonder on half our "great controversies."
If I mistake not, things are coming to that pass amongst us, that we
shall soon think of them almost with contemptuous wonder too.

Vale,--et ora pro me,--as old Luther used to say at the end of his
letters. I will write again soon.

Your affectionate Brother,
F.B.

----


Grange, July 7, 1851.

My Dear Brother:--

I have been with Harrington a week: I am glad to say that I was
under some erroneous impressions when I wrote my letter. He is not
a universal sceptic,--he is only a sceptic in relation to
theological and ethical truth. "Alas!" you will say, "it is an
exception which embraces more than the general rule; it little
matters what else he believes."

True; and yet there is consolation in it; for otherwise it would
have been impossible to hold intercourse with him at all. If he had