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Untitled Article
this subjection can be otherwise than perfect freedom , is little else than to impugn the wisdom or the goodness of Him who enjoins it . To suppose that He who fashioned the intellect of a Newton or a Locke has set over it laws which distort its beauty or fetter and distract its powers , —that in a revelation from the Father of Lights , there is that which dims and darkens the great
lamps of this lower world , —that the author of every good and perfect gift thus qualifies and alloys the brightest of his bounties , —that he takes from the spiritual , what he had given to the natural man , —to suppose this , is to entertain views of his dealings with his creatures , as openly at war with the teachings of scripture as with our best moral feelings and aspirations . Should any of our readers then detect , or think he detects , exaggeration
in our opinions or looseness in our reasonings , —should he find a gap here and a blunder there , —let him not forget the firm vantage-ground on which we stand . That we are not heaping assertion upon assertion , and proof upon proof , to make good any wild and novel fancy of our own , but that we simply undertake to show in a few particular points how that is , which no consistent Christian can doubt must be , whether he see it or not .
We would state , as the groundwork of the views developed in this paper , what we think the experience of every reflective mind will confirm as a truth ; and what , if true , is a fundamental , deeplying truth , reaching far down into the mysteries of our inward being , and bringing up to our use , many a rich lesson of practical wisdom . We speak of what may be termed , the subjection of the intellectual faculties to , and their dependence upon , the moral *
nature of man . This is a subjection not de jure merely , but de facto . What we understand by it is this ; that the strongest and brightest powers will achieve little or nothing , except so far as they are animated , and concentrated , and guided by some great ruling motive . Such motive may be , in a religious sense , mean or reprehensible ; but let it be strong and engrossing , and it will , while it lasts , carry the intellect to heights it could never have
climbed by itself . It is an old remark , that thought , turned inward , has a corrosive power . It is no less true that it has a diffusive , or , if we may use the expression , a dissipative power , whereby , left to itself , it will wander uselessly and profitlessly over the universe , c seeking rest and finding none . ' But put before
the mind any visible and distinct object of exertion , and it bestirs its slumbering energies , rallies and concentrates its scattered forces , marshals them in a firm and ponderous phalanx , out of weakness becomes strong , and does valiant things ; surpassing itself , because forgetting itself . Various are the ways by which men , according to the different stages of their moral culture , bear
* The sense in which we here use this term , is somewhat larger than its ordinary import . Wo employ it as embracing the entire range of our desires , affections , and motives .
Untitled Article
<> 2 § On the Intellectual Influences of Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/52/
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