Now, sir, when I have conceded most liberally to the above, what does it all prove? Why, sir, one act of obedience to God is better than the most rigid conformity to all the precepts of men. The more devoted and sincere people are in error, so much more agreeable to the prince of darkness. What a meagre atonement does a demure countenance, and sanctimonious sighs and groans, and self-loathings make, for transgressing the law of God, and changing an ordinance. Take, for instance, the ordinance of laying on of hands for healing the sick. Had this ordinance been perpetuated in the Church, millions upon millions of the human family might have been saved from premature death. Through this ordinance, Jesus Christ has said, "_they shall recover_." Through the sceptical abandonment of this ordinance countless millions have not lived out half of their days. How much compensation does it afford to the countless victims of disobedience, for men to assume a grave long face, and strive to elongate the name of God by gracious sounds, as though the name of God was too short without being stretched for such holy lips. Take another ordinance, viz., the gift of the Holy Ghost, by laying on hands. What a flimsy and miserable equivalent for the absence of the Comforter, and spirit of prophecy and revelation, are seminaries of learning, and a multitude of oblations, and prayers, and frequent fasting! It is too much, sir, like the drunken boy, who, having broken his master's bottle, boastingly claimed credit for saving the cork! Neglect of the weighty matters of laws and ordinances are to be atoned for, by pious breathings in private journals for posthumous publication; and by elaborate sermons and comments, they make plain things profoundly obscure; and every year increases the necessity of additional learning, in order to disentangle the profound knottiness of theological disquisitions and exegetical comments. The very religious opposers of Jesus Christ, whose hands were accessory to his death, had a most fervent and devout spirit, and were eminently pious; but the doctrine of new revelations, and the gifts of healing, tongues, and prophecyings, disturbed the equanimity of their devout hearts, and their rage rose to the pitch of desperation and blood-guiltiness.