On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
whose divine assurances of a future state of blissful immortality , beaming on his recollection when goaded by the anguish of worldly affliction to the very verge of despair , are at once more gratefully soothing and reanimating , than to the benighted and dismayed traveller , through those murky wilds of the desert where the savage brute roams relentless , are the earliest scintillations of the morning gleaming through the gloom . That the narrative should
have been made the subject of attack at all , is deeply to be regretted ; for the poison will be imbibed by many , whom no antidote to counteract its operation will ever reach . Convinced , as the writer of these remarks fully is , that the cause of Christianity , the present and future happiness of individuals , and the well-being of families and society at large , would be all
greatly prejudiced if the opinion respecting the falsity of the preliminary chapters jn Matthew and Luke were to become more prevalent , it would be to him a source of the highest satisfaction if he could but feel himself justi fied in entertaining an expectation that this his humble effort will in any degree be conducive towards vindicating the credibility and pure integrity of the holy Gospels of Matthew and Luke .
It remains for him to state , that if the strong feelings under which he is sensible that he has written , have exhibited themselves in any part of his observations , it behoves him , before he concludes , to protest in justice to himself , that they are directed entirely towards the doctrine itself , and in no degree personally against the advocate for such doctrine , much less has he been led away by any spirit of intolerance or party zeal : for , however
strong may be his opinion upon particular points of doctrine , he cannot but feel that those who totally differ from him may possibly be in the right . In his judgment , that person must have his mind imbued with more or less than human wisdom , who can venture to pronounce that his own doctrinal sentiments alone are sterling truth , and the tenets of all others who may happen to differ from him but merely base alloy .
Every rational inquirer , however superior may be his faculties of penetration and discrimination , cannot but be conscious , it is presumed , that the immeasureable sublimity of the subject too far transcends the limited powers of his shackled mind , for him ever to indulge the hope of infallibility . Perhaps in proportion as an individual becomes enlightened , does he entertain more firmly the persuasion that it is utterly hopeless to expect that his darkened intellect can ever attain sufficient energy and lucidness of vision to
enable him competently to comprehend the subject : and it may be , that he often repossesses himself after a range of thought , but to exclaim , in a mingled tone of humility and awe , " it is high as heaven—what can we know ?" And whatever creed may be the result of his anxious investigation , and however soundly rooted he may occasionally consider it , yet must a distrust frequently come across his mind , if duly sensible of his own fallibility , and cause him in doubt and fear mentally to prefer , to the great Source of all Wisdom , all Power , and all Goodness , a fervid though silent prayer , in the spirit of the following lines of the poet :
" If I am right , thy grace impart , Still in the right to stay ! If I am wrong , Oh , teach my heart To find that better way V * W . H . ROWE * Weymouth , Jan . 31 , 1827 *
Untitled Article
St . Luke ^ Gospel 261
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/29/
-