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
634 On the Intellectual In / faenees of Christianity .
Untitled Article
Here is something ( little , if you will ) , but not the less real ancj palpable ; something which each of us may , if he please , judge for himself , whether it be so or not . That , which all who live with their fellow-creatures must know something of ; that , which
many learn at a shameful sacrifice of the finest characteristics of the man , is now shown to follow ^ as an almost necessary consequence , from the simple ., hearty reception and application of a very few grand principles . And thus is established , in this instance at leasts our general position , that to Christianity we may
confidently look to rescue our mental faculties from the perilous and weakening influences to which modern society exposes them . It would be endless to travel over the whole range of the virtues , evincing , in the case of each individually , how Christianity shortens a labour which would otherwise be sufficient to engross the entire mind ;—how it at once places us upon the highest pinnacle of moral wisdom , whence we may command
every nook and corner of the field of duty ;—how it puts into our hands , and trusts us , as beloved children , to use for ourselves , a few wide and all-comprehending principles , divinely fitted to do for us abundantly , above all that we can ask or think . We earnestly invite those , who feel the subject as it deserves to be felt , to make the trial for themselves . Thus is it that , to recur to the concluding statement of our former paper , the gospel of Christ Jesus is able to impart to the mind that fully and confidingly receives it , * consistency , vigour , unity , and loftiness : ' it is , that it brings the entire man under the constant and uniform operation of a few high , simple , changeless principles : it is , that it fixes in the depths of the soul ,
a presiding central force;—a force growing with its growth and strengthening with its strength ;—a force which quickens it to the reception , the assimilation with itself , the re-formation , and the outward expression , of the true , the pure , the great and the beautiful : it is , that it bestows at once , each in its perfection , the spirit of action and the spirit of contemplation ;—that it blends an untiring energy , an unflinching boldness , an unquenchable zeal in the cause of God and of man , with a calm , still , meditative peace , the peace of God , which passeth all understanding : ' it is , that it puts to silence the importunate jarrings of our often
dissonant powers and affections;—that in sweeping over the nerves and fibres of our intellectual and moral being , it takes in their whole range , attempers all in sweetest unison , and brings out , in its own full , clear , rich , heaven-born tones , a music which will never die .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 634, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/58/
-