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trial : tai gitye up the bright dreams of hope , and the undoubting assurance of faith . One of our strongest reasons for objecting to the language too often employed by Christians towards Unbelievers * is , that it has a tendency to harden the heart against subh feelings . There is no guilt in a man ' s learning to doubt of that which he has never
believed upon , proper evidence . He must do so , before his faith can be established on reasonable grounds . We should help him on by our kindness , not beat him back by our illtimed reproaches . Our censures should be reserved for a far worse state of
the mind than this : for levity , for heartless disregard of consequences ; for habitual disrespect to the conscientious feelings of others ; for cold indifference to the eternal distinctions of truth and error . When these or
any of these , steal upon the mind , thenceforth the prospect is darkened indeed . The being we love has begun to extinguish his own light : the high tone of moral feeling is gone ; and having , in thi 3 respect , ceased to "do the will of God , " he will not , while this remains , " know of the doctrine whether it be" His .
There is a want of good sense , no doubt , in laying any great stress on the authority of the poets in matters which demand the coolest investigation . It is much to find them in general , as we do . friendly in their beat neralas we dofriendly in their best
, , days to devotion ; and we ought gratefully to acknowledge the pleasure we derive from the exercise of their faculties upon devotional topics . But even the influence they thus acquire over the heart , should not be received without reserve . Correctness of sentiment
is not to be looked for amid the revellings of the fancy , and it is possible that the weakness or warmth of poetic feeling may distort or modify much of what is substantially true in religion . I do not mean here to confine my remark merely to the practice of intermingling deliberate fiction with
scriptural truth , as in the case of Milton ' s Paradise Lost , though it 3 s worth observing how powerful an influence that one poem has long retained over the minds of religious readers—an influence , on the whole , both ennobling and salutary ; but surely calculated to uphold the domjs
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nion of several considerable errors Fojr one poet , however , who has pursued this path , there are numbers who have erred less obviously ^ buk <| uite as completely . € i There is ajreligrldn
which is poetical , theatrical , mystical ; which may furnish themes for the expression of fine sentiment , and the indulgence of transient emotion ; which delights to talk about sacrifices , but forgets duties , and has nothing to do with the unnoticed patience of obscure
suffering , the unpraised self-denial of humble goodness , the strong and silent feelings of habitual piety $ or , indeed , with any virtues , but what are splendid and popular , and tit for exhibition / ' " It is a religion not of the
understanding , and not of the heart . " * Yet this is , alas ! too . of ten the religion of the poets . They have loved their own thoughts too much and the word of God too little . They hare too often misrepresented the character of the Deity and their own . Often , too > in their impatience of what is humble and
common , they have refined upon the subject , until it has become too mystical and too delicate a thing to afford substantial comfort and joy . Often have they "darkened counsel by words without knowledge , " and spoiled the simplicity of religion by fanciful additions , or fastidious suppressions .
Ther $ is one other mode also in which poets may have done religion some disservice ia the eyes of the world . The inelancholy and contemplative among them have laid hold on the subject , and imparted much of their own gloom to it . People will not
discriminate here 5 and infirmities of the mind have been , most unjustly , charged upon religion . In a great proportion of instances , however , it will appear , upon the least examination , that the dejection and gloom complained of have been carried to , and not derived from ; the subject , and that they
are not more radically connected with that than with other subjects , pleasurable or painful . How often has poetical language imitated the dialect , if I may so express it , of genuine humility !—how often gone further in the use of terms implying the deepest penitence and self-abasement , than a ? " Thoughts on True and False Religion . "—Andrews Norton *
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Thoughts on the Connexion between Poetryland Religion . 101
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1824, page 101, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2521/page/37/
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