পাতা:দর্শন দীপিকা.djvu/৮৭

[ 30 J eminently hostile to their hopes of Salvation, But, I apprehend, this irjudicious mode of proceeding is productive of little utility; people do not like to be told that they are fools; and if they listen to those zealots it is. more from novelty than conviction: and as their heated imagination often leads those preachers beyond the bounds of prudence, in their strictures, which are not often delivered “with the soothing voice of persuasive eloquence, they, not unfrequently, derive from their temerity, somewhat more than the mere hissings of the multitude :-the stones of that country are not quite so. soft as cotton; and the swiftness of the preacher's horse is often the best shield for the protection of the riders tapital. Whether they merit such a return, for the zeal they thus manifest, is not my province to decide; but, I am afraid that such a procedure tends rather to irritate than convince;—that it tends to disturb the harmony of society, by inducing religious discussions qu controverted points;—and that it unhappily serves to exhibit Protestant * Reformers in an finamiable point of view ; dictating when they should persuade ; and dogmatizing when they should convince.—But the day of Amathema, I trust, is past; and we may be