Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly • Paragraph 273
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

Truth is quiet--error is noisy and boisterous; truth is meek--error is proud and self-sufficient; truth is modest--error is bold and forward; truth is diffident--error is confident and assuming; truth is resigned to the will of God--error is self-willed. To arrive at the truth is not the design of such persons. It is not their eternal interests, nor those of their fellow creatures that stimulate them to effort. They read the Scriptures, not as honest inquirers after truth, but with a view of finding something that will give support to some preconceived opinion, doctrine, creed or ceremony. That will give support to some abstruse doctrine, form or ceremony, which has no direct reference, whatever, to their eternal interests, nor to their duty and obligations to their Creator, nor yet to their fellow creatures. Their motives and intentions are dishonest, their professions insincere and hypocritical, and it is not in the power of their bigoted and corrupt minds to comprehend, "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report."