Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/55

53 could overleap the one barrier, would hardly be restrained by the other.

I do not mean that there would be no evil in the differences of opinion which, under such a system, would be contained within our walls. There is evil in all differences. There is evil in the differences which exist between equally sincere and enlightened members of our church; and undoubtedly it would be a far happier state of things, had different minds never drawn different meanings from the language of Scripture; and Scripture therefore had been capable of being left to be its own interpreter, unencumbered with creeds, and articles, and systems of faith. But this is not the case: and the question, therefore, is, not whether there would be no evil in such a system, but whether the evil would be greater than that attending our present more strictly exclusive practice. I believe that it would not. I think, on the contrary, that the feelings of many persons would be conciliated in favour of our institutions—that reasonable persons would see that we were willing to concede where concession can be safely made; and that they would give us credit for resisting those changes in our institutions to which we cannot consent, not from selfish motives, but from sincere conviction of the dangers which would attend them.

Were all grounds of complaint as regards the professions of law and medicine thus removed, and