Chapter XX

Lessons I have learned.--1. Men slow to learn wisdom by the experience of others.--2. Danger of bad feeling.--3. Of a controversial spirit.--4. Old ministers should deal tenderly with their younger brethren.--5. Young thinkers should be prayerful, humble, watchful; yet faithful to conscience and to truth, trusting in God.--6. With Christian faith goes Christian virtue.--The tendency of unbelief is ever downwards.--7. Unbelievers are not irreclaimable.--We should not pass them by unpitied or unhelped.--8. Converts from infidelity must look for trials.--They must not expect too much from churches and ministers. Paul's case.--9. They must risk all for Christ, and bear their losses and troubles patiently.--10. They should join the Church, right away.--Not look for a perfect Church.--Keep inside.--Bear unpleasantnesses meekly.--Stones made smooth and round in the stream, by the rubbing they get from other stones.--Reformers should move gently, and have long patience.--The more haste the worst speed.--Killing rats.--12. Unbelief, when not a sin, is a terrible calamity: a world of calamities in one, 406

CONCLUDING REMARKS, 437