"Let us go on to perfection"--"Forgetting the things behind, and
pressing onward to the things before." Such language describes
distinctively the American character, and the spirit of Christianity.
Only, where is perfection? What are the things before? If, as a
people, we do fully take these expressions in their author's sense, we
may hope there is one element of agreement, betokening good for the
future.
It is encouraging, that the two rival systems, most boldly promising to
lead to perfection, both had their birth under political and mental
bondage. So evidently with Romanism, whether under its proper form and
name, or refined and disguised after the modern fashion. And the same
is true of the baptized infidelity imported from Germany. The German
mind is cramped and diseased by the bands which confine it. It is not
allowed to speculate freely on politics, and the many questions most
nearly touching present interests. Therefore, on the records and on
the doctrines which pertain to eternal interests, it falls with an
insane avidity for innovation, and runs into licentiousness a liberty
no where else enjoyed. Hence the levity, in dealing with things
sacred, in Germany often found in minds of the first and second orders,
here is taken up by those to the third and fourth--the copyists and
imitators; nay, by the buffoons who figure at the farces of mock
philanthropy.
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