212 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



the struggle for places and distinctions, in which all are 

 involved who, like you and me, must live by science as well 

 as for it, leads to rivalries, heart-burnings, and disappoint- 

 ments, and sows, with the devil's help, the seeds of envy, 

 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Nothing but the 

 restraining grace of God, and the presence of His Spirit, 

 and the all-prevailing mediation of the Saviour, can keep 

 us from falling. Nothing but the full realization of the 

 manifest and yet ever-forgotten truth, that God is much 

 greater than all His works, and a far nobler object of love, 

 can elevate our affections." 



To Mr. Alexander Macmillan, Cambridge, in 1850, 

 " In what you say of Christ and His example, I cordially 

 join. It is a blessed thing, as a friend said to me, to have 

 a creed ; not that any man will be bettered by adopting 

 one, unless it is his soul's belief. I mourn, however, over 

 many whom I know, who are always learning and never 

 coming to a knowledge of the truth ; who are bewailing 

 the bigotry, narrowness, and effeteness of modern churches, 

 and seeking for some new catholicon to heal all. Far be 

 it from me to defend our religious bodies from many of 

 the charges made against them. Men are both worse and 

 better than their creeds, which are but imperfect standards 

 by which to try them. Religion should be a life, not a 

 doctrine ; and if we cannot find what it should be as the 

 former, from the life of our blessed Lord and Saviour, I 

 know not where we shall find it. Often do I think of those 

 startling words, ' When the Son of Man cometh, will he find 

 faith on the earth 1 ' If men, instead of fretting themselves 

 because their neighbours are foolish religionists, would leave 

 them and their real or supposed follies alone, and go to 

 Him who is all wisdom, and all holiness, and all love, they 

 would find differences of creed adjust themselves in the 



