Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/128

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116
SKETCH OF CONNECTICUT,

of true piety. They sometimes exhibit an excess of that zeal, which we are reproached for being deficient in. We should guard against condemning those, who differ from us in opinions, or forms. They may have as much sincerity as ourselves, and though "man judgeth according to the outward appearance, you know who looketh upon the heart."

"Land o' Goshen! why Lady! You don't think that all the crutters, who call themselves Christians, are as right as we, do ye? There's the Episcopalians, I went to their church, once at the landin' a' Christmas I think they call'd it. I took it at first, for a merry-makin', there was so many green branches plastered up here and there: but they kept such a perpechual jumpin' up, and sittin' down, that afore they'd done it made my bones ache as bad as a hard day's work. What religion there is in readin' prayers out of a book, I never could see. Then there's the Baptists, who think a man is to be saved, by sousing over head and ears in cold water. But these Methodist folks seem to me the most strangest of all. Why they don't hold to the doctrine o' lection, and them that won't believe the Bible, when it's as plain to 'em as the nose on their face, have denied the faith, and are worse than an infidel. They make a long talkin' too, about arrivin' at perfection, and Amariah he holds forth consarnin' it. But I'm sure he's a great deal more unparfect than he was when he was just a larnin' by heart in his catechise, that "no meer man since the fall is able to keep the commandaments." Now, he must go racin' to all the night