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ment of it in the multitude of men ? Who can understand the strength , ptirity , fulness , and extent of divine philanthropy , but he in whom selfishness has been swallowed up in love ?*'—Pp 10 , 11 . In investigating the manner in which our ideas of the Deity are acquired , we think there might have been more distinct reference to that transcendent moral manifestation of himself which he has given us in the character of
Christ . To see " the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" is a privilege dear to the heart of a Christian , and it is one which supplies a real want of the soul ; it is at once a means of acquiring the best knowledge of the Deity , and of ourselves . The very exhibition of such a character , and the universal feeling of admiration and sympathy for it , prove that God presupposes a moral nature in us , and wishes to improve it ; they prove also
his desire that we should enter into his own character ; and it is to the neglect of those plain passages of Scripture which represent the Son as the express moral image of the Father , that we must trace many of the most erroneous among prevailing notions . It does , indeed , seem extraordinary , how they who speak of the Father and the Son as different , in some respects uncongenial , characters , can understand those passages which speak of their entire and perfect unity . Here is a being , mild , loving , gentle , breathing
pardon and peace , willing to save and labouring to save us from the intolerable yoke of sin , with all the lineaments of the Eternal Mind stamped upon him . Again and again he assures us , "I and my Father are one . " Yet men are more willing to learn from an obscure text , from a disputed passage * They are ever saying , " Shew us the Father , and it sufficeth us , " forgetful of the reply long ago made— " Have I been so long time with you , and yet hast thou not known me ? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father , and how sayest thou then , ' Shew us the Father ? ' ' *
Neither the Sceptic nor the Christian is , perhaps , aware of the degree in which his ideas of the Deity are really derived from the knowledge of Christ . In the midst of our wishes that they were allowed to take more and more of form from this bright image of the Divinity , in mercy vouchsafed to man , we rejoice in the thought that it has had a most real and salutary influence on human nature . However great men ' s misapprehension of the Deity himself , we can hardly say that the character of Christ has ever been misunderstood :
the error has been in considering it apart from that of the Father , as if God and Christ were not truly one in all that we can conceive of mercy , goodness , and truth . It is really not always true that the " love of God is faintly apprehended by a human soul , because the feeling of love itself has been but feebly developed ;* ' for some of the gentlest , the kindest , and most benignant of human beings have most imperfectly comprehended the love of God ; nay , have held doctrines which must at times have seemed almost
incompatible with the feeling of his goodness . In cases like this , it is generally useless to urge the incongruity between natural feeling and what is considered as revealed testimony . Kevelation then , which expressly exhibits the true character of the Deity in shewing us that of Jesus Christ , is our only refuge ; and when from this survey we return to the sanctuary of our own bosoms and find an echo to every holy and pure lesson it has taught , we have a double conviction of the perfection of the object of worship , and of our own ability to comprehend it . To conclude with one extract more :
" The multitude , you say , want capacity ta receive the great truths relating to their spiritual nature . But what , let me ask you , is the Christian religion ? A spiritual system , intended to turn men ' s minds upon themselves ; to frame
Untitled Article
92 Channing ' s Discourse .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/20/
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