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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.
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the daya gone by . Last night I read a tale of the Romish Church , and my heart recoiled at the picture of her iniquities . Tell me , how could it be that men bowed down themselves to her authority ?*• " My son , there is too much of limitation in thy question ; think again , and thy spirit will take a wider range . "
The young Godfrey pondered awhile . " I would fain know how or whence it was , " continued he ; ' * but perchance the better question would be , how came it that man , who feeleth within him the stirrings of an immortal spirit , could yield it to the governance of a child of earth ?" ** That , indeed , is far better . Observe then , my son , what takes place in the growth of the man , and so mayest thou read more clearly this mystery of Providence . In the first days of the child , its parents are all in all ;
from their mouth it receives the law . By them is its weakness defended from the enemy . But childhood passeth away , and youth cometh . Behold now how it struggleth with the fetters that bound its infancy ! How doth one break and another loosen \ yet still many remain . The parent hath led him , perchance , to living waters , but he gave them in scanty and
stinted measure ; and when the youth would have quaffed freely , he was harshly Tepulsed . But the time of manhood draweth nigh . The man lovetb , nay , honoureth , his parents ; but cannot give up his soul to them . They have pointed him to the fountain , and there must the labour end . His spirit must be . fed till it is satisfied , and they know not what will suffice it . Henceforth the work is between him and his God .
" Thus is it with the Christian church . In its first days it seemed to need foster fathers and foster mothers—dangers hung over it , and men clung to the powerful and the strong . The weakness of infancy found shelter in communities , and these again were banded together under one head . So grew the Romish church into power . But the childhood of that church passed away—youth leapt from its bonds ; yet still its course was checked . The mother had led it to drink at a stream far remote from the fountain
head , and many were the defilements of that stream . Now the youth returned to the pure source , but it feared to partake freely . It appointed one standard for all . It allowed not for the weak , nor yet for the strong . These must be gorged and those but scantily supplied . It deserted its fust mother , but chose guardians who doled out the pure waters according to their measure , and when a thirsty pilgrim drew nigh and craved a larger draught , he was driven away and the voice of slander raised against him . *' " Of what church speakest thou now , my father ?"
" Aias ! my son , of many . " " And will these things always be so ?" " No , my son . The time of manhood cometh . One generation teacheth a lesson to another . The guardians still stand at the fountain , and he who would * drink of the waters of life freely , ' must be prepared for their threatenings and cautions . But many there are , and more there shall be ,
who meekly put aside the offered measure—who press forward to behold tor themselves and quaff the precious waters—who are baptized in them unto newness of heart and life—who daily take in larger draughts—who feel their souls invigorated , and find in them indeed a well of life , springing up into everlasting life / "
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452 A Dialogue .
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T .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 452, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/20/
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