In our religion we find no law requiring uniformity of thought. Think the same things. Be of the same opinion. These and like statements are no part of our religion. Faith and opinion are not the same. All Christians have one faith, "the faith of Christ." "Be of the same mind and of the same judgment." "Speak the same things." These are to be taken in their proper relations. The made up judgment is the result of faith in the judgment of Christ. "I judge nothing by myself; he that judgeth me is the Lord." The one great mind enjoined is the result of thought upon the one great subject of the life of Christ, which is given as the light of men. These imperatives are summed up in the beautiful expression, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Uniformity of thoughts or opinions is a very different thing. A man would be considered worse than a knave who would throw chains around the human intellect, so as to put an end to progress in thought; it would be the stagnation of all in which we are most interested. Christians are not to be charged with any such wickedness, for they are using all their powers to produce thought; money and talent are freely bestowed in many ways to get men to think, and then decide, not in reference to opinions but facts; not in reference to things which are matters of opinion only, but of the living object of faith, Christ and Christian duty. There is no system of things in which investigation, liberty of thought and action, upon all matters of interest to our humanity, both as respects this world and the world to come, is more encouraged and insisted upon. Wicked and unholy thoughts only are prohibited.

Who would paint every flower of the same hue? Who would trim all the trees of the forest into one and the same shape? Or, who is so foolish as to want all faces cast into one mould? Who would chain human thought or mould the opinions of men so that they should not only be one in Christ, the greatest living fact in history, but one in every other being known in the world's history—one in opinions? The freeist thing in the universe is thought. The liberties of thought are charter liberties from the King of Kings. The spirit of man is free in its normal state. You can not chain it in slavery against its will. No. It knows no servitude but the voluntary. But, then, its wanderings are many. In the field of search after beauty, rectitude and truth, many minds may come into collision. But greater evils would result from chaining them all to one spot, and thus ending progress in many things of interest lying in the realm of thought. Of all the varieties known among men those of thought are the most sublime and useful.

This variety causes the investigation of every interest; it brings every truth and every error to the surface.

Men have made many attempts to check the onward march of intellect. But every attempt in that direction is marked by some great dread. Men are not anxious to put on the brakes unless they are in fear of being wrecked. Nothing is more dangerous in any government than perfect indifference to public interests. Men in places of public trust always need watching. Irresponsible power, it is said, would corrupt an archangel, and is, doubtless, unknown among the inhabitants of the better land. Among men there is great liability. Every political candidate has his accusations, his promises, and scheme, with which he confronts his rival and agitates the minds of the people. So we have been saved from that stagnation of thought which has retarded progress among other nations. Many men, seeking office, have been wise enough to see the danger to their interests of an expose of corruption. So they have been perfectly willing that mechanics, artisans and farmers should investigate and expose to public view all the questions of interest belonging to our government, but good Christians, "and especially preachers, entering the field of political investigation, at once forfeit their right to the crown of life.(?)"

But just how it is that lawyers, doctors and politicians will all reach heaven in spite of political action, and preachers will sink to perdition on account of the same, is a problem among problems that has never yet been satisfactorily solved. Are we to conclude that such men as Generals Hancock and Garfield, along with a great many more, had, and have, no religion to be disturbed? Or is there a double portion of sacrifice, the sacrifice of principle and liberty, demanded at the hands of ministers of the Gospel of Christ? How is this? We are anxious to know. Are the politicians of the country the voluntary scapegoats of the nation, who risk their own salvation for political toil, which, from its character, would, according to a very common opinion, kill out the religion of all the saints in America? Surely we ought to feel grateful to the political sinners who so willingly take all the risk of being shut out of Paradise that they may have the exclusive right of controlling the offices of the government. They seem to say to us Christians, Hear us, ye hard-thinking toilers and aspirants to the realms of bliss while we proclaim to you the perils of our position; we warn you against the crime of accustoming yourselves to the investigation of the political and civil interests of the day, and let not your devout meditations be disturbed by secular pursuits. Read your Bibles and other pious books; attend to all your prayer meetings and all your philanthropic societies.

What is the object of all this pious policy? Is it to keep the national mind as far as possible in a state of political stagnation, or, otherwise, to ostracise politically the preachers of the land with reference to party success? How is this? Are the preachers of the United States a dangerous element in our land? If they are, then the fewer we have of them the better we are off. Do any but infidels take that view of the subject? It correllates with infidelity, but not with Christianity.