Make concessions. Agree with him. It
does him good to unburden himself of these things. He has been
cherishing them for years--laying them up against Christians, against
the Church, and against Christianity; and now he is startled to find
the first Christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost
entirely agrees with him. We are, of course, not responsible for
everything that is said in the name of Christianity; but a man does
not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and no man has a
right to give up his Christianity because there are spurious or
inconsistent Christians. Then, as I already said, creeds are human
versions of Divine truths; and we do not ask a man to accept all the
creeds, any more than we ask him to accept all the Christians. We ask
him to accept Christ, and the facts about Christ and the words of
Christ. You will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed
the man's objections, and possibly added a great many more to the
charges which he has against ourselves.
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