320 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME.  [1844, 
of my ambition being high and honorable, as well as— 
moderate. . 
Though I bal that I often — always — fail to do 
my whole duty, yet I do not feel, nor believe, that a 
perfectly consistent Christian course would expose me 
to persecution ; nor that obloquy is a test of Christian 
character. These are to be borne like other evils, 
when they are incurred in the course of one’s duty ; 
but surely they are not to be sought, nor viewed as a 
test. Under the circumstances under which we are 
placed, would our unexpectedly meeting with poser: 
be any test to us that we were doing sieht? ould 
it not lead us to suspect we had been at 5 ee unwise ? 
Such men as Payson or Edwards, though they may 
often have been pitied, I suspect, were never perse- 
cuted. But, while I think you take a one-sided view 
and assume an unscriptural test, in your own case, I 
thank you most sincerely for your kind admonition to 
me, and will try to profit by it. My sheet is fairly 
I 
ull, 
I need not say how delighted I should be to see you 
here ; but you must not come till the spring has fairly 
commenced, at least. The weather is excessively un- 
pleasant, the roads almost impassable ; it snows every 
three or four days, and not a speck of green is yet to 
be seen. A month later it will be comfortable here. 
I fear I shall not have a place to receive you before 
autumn, as a house is yet to be built for Dr. Walker. 
But I should still like to have a visit from you in the 
course of the summer. 
Dr. Gray was always deeply interested in the reli- 
gious thought of the day ; reticent in regard to his own 
religious feelings and sensitive about any exhibition 
