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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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Untitled Article
vernment has been a traffic in human vices and numan tntsery , and that rto whole nations , once oppressed and degraded , are awakening to feel their Wrongs and to assert their rights , thus making the present day big With the tnost transcendency important destinies ;—how can one fail to hope that the error spoken of has waned to wax no more , and that the time is cording when every honest man will lend his aid in an honest cause ; when every ' ¦
^ P * t * * ! ¦ . * * a * mm *^ fc « < k mm . m <* . «•* -ft . _ Christian will deeih himself bound by his name to speak and think and write and act for God and his country ; when the great truth shall be recognized in the mind and illustrated in the conduct , that the science of government is one and a roost important branch of the gteat science of morals . Yes , with mo * rals , with religion , with all that the Christian desires most for his fellow- * creatures , whether here or hereafter , with man's greatest duties and
brightest hopes , with his best susceptibilities and highest destination , is the science of politics most intimately connected ; so that the moralist may teach and the minister preach in vain , except their efforts be made under the auspices of an honest and enlightened government . How often , for want of this , have the efforts of the philanthropist been traversed , and the labours of Christ ' s ministers been robbed of their hardly-earned reward .
True it is , that from the corruptions which have been too often allied with the ruling powers , the atmosphere of politics has been too troubled and foul for the Christian . This , combined with the fact , that Patriotism has generally been so narrow in its spirit as to contravene the law of Christian love , has given support to the error which selfishness originated . But corruption has prevailed because the greatest have not always been the best men of a
state , and because the Christian has neglected his public in the prosecution of his private duties ; and narrowness of spirit is not an essential feature in the ^ Patriot ' s character , for Jesus was a Philanthropist as well as a Patriot . He loved his country , and he loved his race , and he died as he lived in order to save them both . The good of the world and the good of the holy land were blended intimately in his heart . Where his eyes first opened and his boyhood was spent , where imagination opened out her fairy land , the spot which friendship and love had rendered holy ground , and the hearth round
which smile had answered smile , and heart glowed to heart , the jilace which prophets had hallowed and poets inspired , which religion bad consecrated and even the Almighty deigned to visit , —there his spirit rested with a heart full of love ; but other scenes expanded before his view and engaged the whole ardour of his benevolent souk From land to land his spirit travelled iover ocean and mountain , through valleys and homes , and wherever it met with one in human form fitted to etnoy a beautiful world and to reach a
blissful heaven , there it lighted and grieved with affectionate concern that sin had injured , if not destroyed , nature's adaptation , and longed and found the way to raise , even out of the wreck of the earthly tabernacle , a building in every human soul , not tnade with hands , abounding in happiness and eternal in the heaveris . Of a similar character should be the Christian ' s patriotism .
The love of cotmtry and the love of man should be blended in his soul . For the Patriotism of the many we have no commendation . Sometimes it is but the guise which selfishness and ambition take to forward their designs . At the best it limits its regards to the welfare of one nation , and that welfare it seeks in ignorance at the cost of every other . In ignorance we say , for in fact—and of thTs truth men are tjow beginning to catch some glimmeringsin fact , the weal of one is the weal of all , and , conversely , the weal of all is the wfeal of o ? ie . All mankind ate members one of another . TTiey are
Untitled Article
SJt& Christian Patriotism .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 378, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/18/
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