I know persons who cannot get on anywhere; but, according to their own belief, the fault is not in themselves, but in their surroundings.
I could sketch you a brother who is unable to do any good because all the churches are so faulty. He was once with us, but he came to know us too well, and grew disgusted with our dogmatism and want of taste.
He went to the Independents who have so much more culture, breadth, and liberality. He grew weary of what he called “cold dignity.” He wanted more fire, and therefore favoured the Methodists with his patronage.
Alas! he did not find them the flaming zealots he had supposed them to be: he very soon outgrew both them and their doctrines, and joined our most excellent friends, the Presbyterians.
These proved to be by far too high and dry for him, and he became rather sweet upon the Swedenborgians, and would have joined them had not his wife led him among the Episcopalians.
Here he might have enjoyed the otium cum dignitate;* have taken it easy with admirable propriety; and have even grown into a churchwarden; but he was not content; and before long I heard that he was an Exclusive Brother!
There I leave him, hoping that he may be better in his new line than he has ever been in the old ones. “The course of nature could no further go”: if he has not fallen among a loving, united people now, where will he find them?
Yet I expect, that as Adam left Paradise, so will he ultimately fall from his high estate.
* Latin for “leisure with dignity”
Source: Sermons In Candles, Lecture No. 2 [read online]