On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
LIMITED SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY NO OBJECTION TO ITS DIVINE AUTHORITY.
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY AND REVIEW . NEW SERIES , No . XLVI .
Untitled Article
The comparatively small portion of the globe over which the blessings of Christianity have hitherto been diffused , the immense multitudes at this late period who are still immersed in all the depths of superstition and idolatry , and the slow progress ( if there be any progress ) made towards a more ex ^ tensive propagation of the gospel , is among the difficulties in the counsels of Providence . It is one of those secret things which God has reserved to himself , and which it would be presumption for us to attempt to fathom ;
though we feel the most entire confidence that it is intimately and necessarily connected with the most wise designs for the greatest and most extensive good of the whole human race . It is certainly a result widely different from what we should have anticipated for a religion emanating directly from the Deity , which we should naturally have presumed would long ere this have literally prevailed and covered the earth as the waters cover the depths of the sea .
But though we feel it to be a difficulty , it is one which we cannot allow in any degree to affect our faith in the tTuth of the religion itself , because it is in no way connected with the direct evidence by which the divine origin of the Christian revelation is established . To the believer in natural religion , who has not seldom urged this as an objection to Christianity , we might easily reply , by asking in our turn , what portion of mankind is it who have been enabled to acquire the principles of your Teligion of nature ?
If the world , as you profess to believe equally with ourselves , is governed by a . Providence , how is it that ignorance , barbarism , and wickedness , so generally prevail ? But to answer the objection b y retorting it in this manner would be neither necessary nor desirable , because it would be to admit the relevancy of the objection itself . " It is enough to say that , admitting the fact in all its extent , which indeed is what no one can deny , the direct evidence for the truth of the gospel history remains as before , and the conclu-
Untitled Article
OCTOBER , 1830 .
Untitled Article
VOL . IV . 3 A
Limited Spread Of Christianity No Objection To Its Divine Authority.
LIMITED SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY NO OBJECTION TO ITS DIVINE AUTHORITY .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/1/
-