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with a mortal form , and the same voice which says , " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father , " says also , " Take my yoke upon you and learn of me : ' Exalted ideas of the Saviour bring in their train exalted ideas both of God himself and of man . Man , indeed , feels the glory of God in a thousand ways . But it is when he regards him as deigning thus to reveal and manifest himself to his creatures , that he perceives the most of condescension and benignity ; and then , also , he learns truths respecting himself and his own
capacity which otherwise he would but imperfectly have attained . If this Jesus , this being in whom the glory of God shone , was given " as an example that we might follow his steps , ' * who shall call that faithful servant presumptuous , who speaks of a growing likeness to God as the grand aim of existence set before us in the gospel ? Men may think little of these things except as matters of theological speculation ; but let them give up their minds fairly to the contemplation of a single truth of this nature , and well may we abide the result of the question — "Do not the grandeur and
beauty , the fitness and proportion , the mercy and consideration of the Christian dispensation , grow upon you , the more you contemplate yourself and it ? Is there any thing in the compass of thought so magnificent , and at the same time so soothing to human weakness ? Tired of the ever-renewed and painful task of self-justification ; sick of defending himself and creatures of the dust like himself from misrepresentation , the Christian , one would think , would gladly seize upon an undisputed verity like this , make it his own to
view in all its height and depth and breadth and length , and stay not till he had extracted from it hope and loftiness of purpose , and calm , determination that it should be his heritage and portion for ever . But , alas ! we look not often thus at the truths we most profess to prize . We wander on from one glorious field to another , like the vagrant butterfly , rather than the patient and devoted bee , which brings up the deep riches that are stored within the forms of beauty around her .
Yet the time must come , and the proof of it is greatly strengthened by the doctrine of which I speak , when tne practical application of much which now serves us chiefly as a theme for nice speculation or mere argument , will raise the human character above its present level of mediocrity . No one can look through society , and compare its state with the gospel standard , without feeling that what Christianity has already done for the world is little in comparison of what we are taught to expect it will ultimately do . And one of the principal reasons of this is , that the grand truths of the gospel have been hitherto regarded too much as commodities which we are to transmit one to
another , instead of letting them do their reformatory work in our own spirits .
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No . III . " Watchman , what of the night ? Watchman , what of the night ? The Watchman said , The moruing cometh , and also the night . " Isaiah xxi . 11 , 12 .
Few things are more deceptive , we had almost said mendacious , than official reports of the progress made by exertions for the furtherance of religion . Of positive and direct falsehoods we do not accuse their authors , but we ao accuse them of misleading their easy-minded followers .
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326 The Wutchman .
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THB WATCHMAN .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/30/
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