By the late Dr. J. C. RYLE, of Liverpool.
CONTROVERSY in religion is a hateful thing. It is hard enough to fight the devil, the world and the flesh, without private differences in our own camp. But there is one thing which is even worse than controversy, that is false doctrine tolerated, allowed and permitted without protest or molestation. It was controversy that won the battle of the Protestant Reformation. If the views that some men hold were correct, it is plain we never ought to have had a Reformation at all! For the sake of peace and appeasement we ought to have gone on worshipping the Virgin, and bowing down to images and relics to this very day! Away with such trifling. There are times when controversy is not only a duty, but a privilege and a benefit. Give me the mighty thunderstorm rather than the pestilential malaria. The one walks in darkness and poisons us in silence, and we are never safe. The other frightens and alarms us for a little season. But it is soon over, and it clears the air. It is a plain Scriptural duty to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,” (Jude iii.).