One thing I saw at intervals, and at last with complete and
agonized distinctness, that however I preached these truths, they had
little visible effect upon the lives of others. Those to whom I
preached lived after all much as other people lived. I did not find
them more magnanimous than the ordinary men and women of the world, nor
less liable to take offense, to utter harsh words, to indulge in
resentments, and to retaliate on those who injured them. I did not
find that they loved humanity any better than their fellows; like all
mankind they loved those who loved them, and had domestic virtues and
affections, but little more. It was impossible to say that
Christianity had produced in them any type of character wholly and
radically different from that which might be found in multitudes of men
and women who made no pretense of Christian sentiment. Christianity
had no doubt imposed upon them many valuable restraints, so that
without it they might have been worse men and women, but this was a
merely negative result. Where was the spectacle of a character
composed of new qualities, a life wholly governed by novel impulses and
principles? I could not find such a life; nor ought I to have been
surprised; for I could not find it in myself. I also lived much as
other people did, except that I had a higher theory of conduct.
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