He is one of the last voices of the old orthodox school, and I wish
there were hundreds like him. If ever a man believed in his
message, Wordsworth does. And though I cannot follow him in his
veneration for the Thirty-nine Articles, the way in which he does
makes me half wish I could. . . . It was full of wisdom and the
beauty of holiness, which even I, poor sceptic and outcast, could
recognise and appreciate. After all, he didn't get it from the
Articles, but from his own human heart, which, he told us, was
deceitful and desperately wicked.

`Confound it, how stupid we all are! Episcopalians, Presbyterians,
Unitarians, Agnostics; the whole lot of us. We all believe the same
things, to a great extent; but we must keep wrangling about the data
from which we infer these beliefs . . . I believe a great deal that
he does, but I certainly don't act up to my belief as he does to
his.'


The belief `up to' which Murray lived was, if it may be judged by
its fruits, that of a Christian man. But, in this age, we do find
the most exemplary Christian conduct in some who have discarded
dogma and resigned hope. Probably Murray would not the less have
regarded these persons as Christians. If we must make a choice, it
is better to have love and charity without belief, than belief of
the most intense kind, accompanied by such love and charity as John
Knox bore to all who differed from him about a mass or a chasuble, a
priest or a presbyter. This letter, illustrative of the effect of
cathedral services on a young Unitarian, is taken out of its proper
chronological place.