Who holds an
even balance in weighing evidence, equally guarded against rejecting
the old, because it is old, or the new, because it is new? I know not,
unless such as have apprehended the _urwahr_--the essential truth,
which throws all temporal considerations into the shade.
There are two difficulties in the way of attempting changes in the
existing state of things, with good prospect of improvement. The first
arises from the force of habit, and a reluctance to try a new, it may
be, hazardous course. The other form the little discrimination
exercised, when men set about in earnest exchanging the old for the
new--discrimination to avoid treating the old as necessarily
antiquated, and the presumption of "laying again the foundation" of
all things. And these difficulties will hardly be met successfully,
except by men, in whom the fear of God has cast out other fear.
The intelligent part of the people of southern Europe have been, for
many years, more thoroughly divested of reverence for the papacy, than
was Luther in the days of his greatest vehemence. But they have
quietly taken things as they are. They have wanted Luther's substitute
for superstition--a fervently religious spirit.
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