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FIRESIDE EDUCATION. |
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mind for usefulness on earth; it is sublime and godlike, by lessons of divine truth, to prepare the enfranchised soul for the enjoyment of eternal happiness in ' the bosom of its Father and its God.'"
To these judicious remarks I desire to add a few practical observations. In looking round upon the Christian world, we observe that people are divided into various sects. Though they all unite in making the Bible the basis of their creeds, and though these agree in certain fundamental points, yet they differ in some particulars. It is these differences on minor topics that cause most of the disputes among the various Christian sects. Each party claims that it has the true interpretation of the ►Scripture; and though the point in which it differs from other sects is usually immaterial, still it commonly lays great stress upon that point, and makes it essential to salvation ; thus limiting the mercy of God to those only who have adopted the peculiar tenets of that sect.
A little reflection will satisfy us that this is the narrow and selfish reasoning of a partisan spirit, solicitous to make proselytes. But let us not look on this with too much bitterness. Even in cases where it is obvious, to a calm and candid observer, that subordinate points of doctrine |
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