Where people's fathers and mothers before them have been
Pagans, and Catholics, and Mohammedans, you don't blame THEM
for being so. You regret their error, and strive to lead them
back into the right path; only they are not inflammatory. But
to have people go out from the faith of their fathers with
malice aforethought and their eyes open--well, that is not
exactly what I mean either. That is a sorrowful, but not
necessarily an exasperating thing. What I mean is this: I
see people Orthodox from their cradles, (and probably only from
their cradles, certainly not from their brains,) who think it
is something pretty to become Unitarianistic. They don't
become Unitarians, as they never were Orthodox, because they
have not thought enough or sense enough to become or to be
anything; but they like to make a stir and attract attention.
They seem to think it indicates great liberality of character,
and great breadth of view, to be continually flinging out
against their own faith, ridiculing this, that, and the other
point held by their Church, and shocking devout and
simple-minded Orthodox by their quasi-profanity. Now for
good Orthodox Christians I have a great respect; and for good
Unitarian Christians I have a great respect; and for sincere,
sad seekers, who can find no rest for the sole of their foot,
I have a great respect; but for these Border State men, who
are neither here nor there, on whom you never can lay your
hand, because they are twittering everywhere, I have a profound
contempt. I wish people to be either one thing or another.
I desire them to believe something, and know what it is, and
stick to it. I have no patience with this modern outcry
against creeds. You hear people inveigh against them, without
for a moment thinking what they are. They talk as if creeds