"When  I represent to myself true virtue, goodness; not that which is made up of outward proprieties and prudent calculations, but that which chooses duty for its own sake, and as the first concern, which respects impartially the rights of every human being, which labors and suffers with patient resolution for truth, and other's welfare, which blends energy and sweetness, deep humility and self-reverence, which places joyful faith in the perfection of God, communes with Him intimately, and strives to subject to His pure will all thought, imagination, and desire; which lays hold on the promise of everlasting life, and in the strength of this hope endures calmly and firmly the sorest evils of the present state; when I set before me this virtue, all the distinctions on which men value themselves fade away. Even I, with vision so dim, with heart so cold, can see and feel the divinity, the grandeur of true goodness. How then, must God regard it? To His pure eye, how lovely must it be!

 Think no man the better, no man the worse, for the church he belongs to. Try him by his fruits. Expel from your breasts the demon of sectarianism, narrowness, bigotry, intolerance. 

My friends, I know that I am addressing those who hold various opinions as to the controverted points of theology. We have grown up under different influences. We bear different names. But if we purpose solemnly to do God's will, and are following the precepts and example of Christ, we are one church, and let nothing divide us. 

 We may all unite hearts and hands in doing good, in fulfilling God's purposes of love towards our race, in toiling and suffering for the cause of humanity, in spreading intelligence, freedom, and virtue, in making God known for the reverence, love, and imitation of His creatures, in resisting the abuses and corruptions of past ages, in exploring and drying up the sources of poverty, in rescuing the fallen from intemperance, in succoring the orphan and widow, in enlightening and elevating the depressed portions of the community, in breaking the yoke of the oppressed and enslaved, in exposing and withstanding the spirit and horrors of war, in sending God's Word to the ends of the earth, in redeeming the world from sin and woe." 

William Ellery Channing.