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powers to live in this world , without acquiring some idea of a superior power . The idea may be vague , it may in adverse circumstances be comparatively weak , it will in each case vary in its elements according to the aspects of nature with whjch the mind is familiar . Still the idea exists , and generates . corresponding emotions . There may even be persons unable to
explain their emotions respecting superior power , yet emotions of this nature they possess . The human being is made so as to feel his Creator ' s existence , $ nd in part his attributes ; the world in which man is placed is fitted to communicate to him a feeling of superior power . This feeling rises up of neq ^ sity in the pro gress of life and the workings of nat ure ' s frame . It descends into the human heart in the sun-beam and in the
shower * The seasons bring it with them and place it in the bosom . The lightning strikes it into the soul , and the thunder makes it pervade the frame . The beasts of the field speak of it to the intelligent mind of man , and each human being , though in many cases unconsciously , breathes it into the bosom of his fellow . There is not a star twinkling in the arch of heaven , there is not a herb on the wide-spread earth , there is not a leaf on the trees of the field , there is not a voice in the vocal air , there is not a
creature in the watery deep , but lends its aid to imbue the soul of man with the sentiment of religion . Whatever the devotees of system may say , we hold } t to be an indubitable fact that religion is natural to man . The feeling , jthe silent recognition , the recognition of the heart , is universal . Wherever man is , there God is felt to be . That surely is natural to man which all
human natures , however diverse in situation and in culture , invariably feel . In fact , the religious sentiment is as natural as the love of parent and the joye of kindred . Nay , these emotions , if the human being in its infancy be separated from its parents and its kind , may be prevented from coming intp existence , but you cannot remove a living man from the universe of God , and cannot therefore take him from the teachers of his Creator ' s
existence . As long as the heavens are above a rational creature ' s head , and the earth under his feet , as long as the air surrounds him , and the sun jvarms him , as long as the deep gives him food , and the thicket gives him shelter , so long he cannot do otherwise than have a feeling of superior power ; so long will there exist bonds of union between man and God , and go long wjll religion as a sentiment abound in the world . It is our firm
belief that the man does not exist devoid of this feeling . The barbarian may be ignorant of , thpugh strongly swayed by its influence , the hardy sceptic may try to reason himself out of a belief of God ' s existence . Yet the feeling is in the heart , and neither inability to explain the emotion nor doubts of its existence can expel it from the bosom . There it is , and there if will remain , till the course of life be run , and many are the occasions when the tokens which it gives of its existence are so striking ; , that even the
sceptic ' s mind is forced to recognize its presence . Wherever man is and the universe around hin > ,. there God is recognized—recognized not , merely witt } tfre , lips , not merely in tfye mind , but in that which more or less influences all other faculties- ^ -recognized in the heart ; all recognize a superior ppwer , ^ 11 are linked witji the Creator by the golden chain of feeing . The wprshipof Gq 4 is therefore po-extensiye with the farnily of ipan , a . nd religion bounded only by tfye limits of the habitable world . This being the case ,
t ]> e whole race of man is related not only to a common Father , but each to each . Trtiis world is a world of brothers . Vary it is true they do , but their points of agreement are rqore numerous , and we will add , more important , than their points of difference . They all recognize a common Creator , and
Untitled Article
606 Lord Byron ' s Theology .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 606, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/22/
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