the unfortunate, and succor the distressed could shut her ears to the cry of the oppressed because shielded under the imposing panoply of law. It was this circumstance probably that modified the severity of his judgment and the sharpness of his criticisms which, in after years exonerated him from much of the harsh censure visited on his co-laborers in the same cause.
He saw that it was possible for people of the most honest intentions tenaciously to cling to error, and how easy it was for the conscience to be so misguided as to set the form above the substance when clothed in the imposing garb of religious ceremonials. There is no association so hard to break off as that which binds individuals together in a religious organization, and very justly so. Starting with principles founded on the highest emotions of the soul, however erroneous the intellect may be in reducing them to practice, there is a bond which has commanded the reverence of childhood, and strengthened with every succeeding year, both through storm and sunshine. The friends who have stood by us in the most solemn hours of life and proffered their words of sympathy and consolation, accompanied by deeds of kindness which should entitle them to our life-long gratitude, are not to be parted from without a struggle. Neither should any difference of opinion demand a separation from them; but at that time social standing was measured by allegiance to certain prescribed tenets of religious belief, and social proscription meted out accordingly. Few were the spirits bold enough and strong enough to breast this
