"In my travels I can say with propriety that I have experienced much sorrow from the 'divisions' that exist among Christians, the party censures that are cast one upon another, and the imprudent conduct that obtains among public and private members of different churches. Such things harm 'the oil and the wine;' by them candid friends are caused to stumble in their way, and the hands of the wicked are strengthened. I have concluded, Sir, that a great amount of the divisions that now exist arose very much from tradition and the different ways in which men have been educated, though we must confess that the instructors or preachers are the principal cause of the divided state of the Church. The censures to which I allude flow often from ignorance, from self-righteousness, from a lack of the 'fear of God before their eyes;' and we may say that true brotherly love will remedy all the imprudent conduct by which brethren of the Christian profession annoy and perplex each other. These divisions do not arise so much from different parts of the doctrine of Christ as many imagine; but from the doctrines and commandments of men, which St. Paul, 2 Tim. 2: 23, speaks of as 'foolish and unlearned questions that do gender strifes;' questions which confuse the minds of thousands, which separate chief friends, and in which often the mind is lost in its deliberations as it turns upon subjects we cannot comprehend or understand; sometimes on things of futurity which do not immediately concern us. Thus we get lost, and the foundation is laid for Deism; and there appears the worst of fruit. It is a matter of joy to me that divisions among Christians are to end at last, 'and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.' I do not make these observations to cast reflections on any religious people, but because these things have and do greatly occupy my mind.