THE LATE SECESSION. 185 eccentric, that they come out of the furnace blended into one common mass, and are reproduced as if formed of one common material. Ours is also pre-eminently an age of controversy. Is not charity sometimes recommended with uncharitableness, and religion vindicated irreligiously ? But are there not a thousand other subjects better calculated for its legitimate exer- cise ? " Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth," on all other topics ; but here, though one dash the other in pieces, he does not always es- cape unhurt himself. But shall the word of " the High and Holy One, the word of Him who sitteth on the circle of the earth," be made an arena for the com- bats of its puny inhabitants, whom the prophet represents by the most conternp. tible insect ? But although, as we have already ob- served, if truth be attacked, it must be defended, the Christian controvertist never engages in offensive war. He
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