Excerpt from Confessions of an Old Priest

I have been for fifty years a minister in the church. I entered its ministry with enthusiasm, believing as I did that the church was the one organization in the world of divine institution, that it owes its origin to Jesus Christ, and that he was the unique Son of God. I have been reluctantly forced to ask myself whether any of these things is true.

So far I have been silent and have retained the commission which I accepted in good faith. I have done so for what seemed to me good and valid reasons. In the first place, I wanted to be sure. Fifty years is surely long enough for consideration. Now, having gone over the ground again and again I am sure. But I knew that an open avowal of my convictions would distress many souls, some of them very dear to me. In the second place, situated as I am, I am under no compulsion to teach or preach. I have served my full complement of years and have been honorably retired. When I do preach there is matter aplenty to furnish forth many sermons in the common impulse and motives of men outside all dogma.

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