What was she after all
but a thin pipe for conveying disease from one generation
to another? She was bounded by insanity upon the north
and upon the south. I resolutely set myself to avoid all
argument with her; but she knew, with her woman's
instinct, that we were as far apart as the poles, and
took a pleasure in waving the red flag before me. One
day she was waxing eloquent as to the crime of a
minister of an Episcopal church performing any service
in a Presbyterian chapel. Some neighbouring minister had
done it, it seems; and if he had been marked down in a
pot house she could not have spoken with greater
loathing. I suppose that my eyes were less under control
than my tongue, for she suddenly turned upon me with:
"I see that you don't agree with me, Dr. Munro."
I replied quietly that I did not, and tried to change
the conversation; but she was not to be shaken off.
"Why not, may I ask?"
I explained that in my opinion the tendency of the
age was to break down those ridiculous doctrinal points
which are so useless, and which have for so long set
people by the ears. I added that I hoped the time was
soon coming when good men of all creeds would throw this
lumber overboard and join hands together.
She half rose, almost speechless with indignation.
"I presume," said she, "that you are one of those
people who would separate the Church from the State?"
"Most certainly," I answered.
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