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Untitled Article
opening vision reveals , till his thanksgivings reach the ends of the earth and compass the starry heavens . Of the more sacred heights and depths which teem with realities instead of shadows , he knows not yet , nor has learned to praise creative and preserving power as manifested in the external creation
for its true grandeur and ulterior purposes . Of the spiritual creation he knows nothing till long after he has been accustomed to adore the Maker of unnumbered worlds . When the rich mysteries of the sublimer creation beicorae dimly discerned , he petitions less fervently for external good . As they wax clearer , his fears perish , his desires subside , his hopes pass through perpetual mutations till they become incorruptible , and his praise is of a kindred nature , however far inferior to that of the unseen world . He thenceforth
regards the moving heavens only as they send their melodies through the soul ; the forms of the earth only as they are instinct with life ; and , no longer calling inanimate forms to witness his praises , he appeals from the infant on his bosom to the archangel who suspends new systems in the furthest void for sympathy in his adoration of the Father of his spirit . —Of higher subjects of praise man knows not , nor can conceive . It is bliss enough to discern the end of human worship , ( in kind , if not in degree , ) and in some rare moments , in occasional glimpses of a celestial Sabbath * to reach it .
O that our earthly Sabbaths could bear something of this character ! But as long as so many ranks of mind join in its services , those services must be too high for some and too low for others . Blessed is the season to multitudes , and holy its rites to innumerable worshipers . But its benefits are of a specific kind ; its devotion is peculiar , and can in no degree supply the place of
private communion . Alas , then , for those who join not in its rites ; and alas also for those who look not beyond its rites ! Strange , that any should turn away coldly from the divinely-kindled altar , where multitudes are thronging to cast in their incense , and returning with the reflection of its glory in their faces ! Yet more strange that any should avoid the still solitude where the fount of this glory welleth up for ever !
Surely there shall be solitary communion hereafter as there is on earth , a peculiar devotion of the inmost spirit to which there can be no requisites of outward circumstances . Here , while good men communicate by heart and hand , while the pure bring to the light the movements of tjie spirit , there is a tacit reserve , there are workings which are known by each to exist in the other , but which are testified by no sign , and could be revealed by no such testimony . Hereafter , though that which is now an intermitting refreshment shall be then the prime element of being , there will surely be , amidst the most perfect congeniality , the most entire sympathy in a common joy , a silent recognition in each of a treasure of incommunicable peace .
Untitled Article
Sabbath Musings . 239
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/23/
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