"
"Well, they shoot ahead, or drop astern, as the case may be, but they
soon get on another tack, and leave the old ship clean out of sight.
When folks once take to emigratin' in religion in this way, they
never know where to bide. First they try one location, and then they
try another; some settle here and some improve there, but they don't
hitch their horses together long. Some times they complain they HAVE
TOO LITTLE WATER, at other times that they HAVE TOO MUCH; they are
never satisfied, and, wherever these separatists go, they onsettle
others as bad as themselves. I NEVER LOOK ON A DESARTER AS ANY GREAT
SHAKES.
"My poor father used to say, 'Sam, mind what I tell you, if a man
don't agree in all particulars with his church, and can't go the
whole hog with 'em, he ain't justified on that account, no how, to
separate from them, for Sam, SCHISM IS A SIN IN THE EYE OF GOD. The
whole Christian world,' he would say, 'is divided into two great
families, the Catholic and Protestant. Well, the Catholic is a united
family, a happy family, and a strong family, all governed by one
head; and Sam, as sure as eggs is eggs, that 'ere family will grub
out t'other one, stalk, branch and root; it won't so much as leave
the seed of it in the ground, to grow by chance as a nateral
curiosity. Now the Protestant family is like a bundle of refuse
shingles, when withed up together (which it never was and never will
be to all etarnity), no great of a bundle arter all; you might take
it up under one arm, and walk off with it without winkin'.
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