Poets and philosophers are naturally
heretical, because they take the short road of genius which others find
it difficult to follow. But all believers finally arrive at the same
destination.
He entered the theological seminary at Bangor in 1849 and graduated in
1851. It may be he went there with a youthful idea of reforming the
church. At any rate his boldness of thought and free utterance brought
him into suspicion with his fellow students, and at one time reports
were in circulation that he was to be expelled for heresy. With his
customary directness he went to the president, Dr. Pond, and inquired if
there was any truth in this. The doctor, who really liked Wasson,
received him with a kindly, patriarchal manner and said: "Do not be
troubled, my young friend, we all have our seasons of doubt. I have had
mine; but take my word for it that it is all right. For look at those
saints up there in glory. How did they get there?" Such an argument was
not likely to relieve the fermentation in his mind. Walking the streets
of Bangor at this time was Dr. Frederick Henry Hedge, the man of all
others who might have solved Wasson's doubts in a satisfactory manner,
and with whom Wasson afterwards found himself in more complete moral and
intellectual sympathy than with any other of his friends. Wasson saw him
frequently, but had no opportunity of making his acquaintance.
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