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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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he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him , has not our teacher been the Bible ? If we know him to be a God of love , if with filial confidence we repose in him as our Father , if we believe that all events are directed by the best means to the best ends , if we have been led to seek and find mercy at his throne of grace , if the Jove of him has cast out distracting and corroding fear , what has been our instructor but the Bible ? If we have beeti
able to pierce the veil which shrouds futurity from the eye of mortals , if the mind has been relieved from anxious thoughts of its future destiny , if in standing around the couch of departing friends we have known the land whither they were going , and the way by which we ourselves might follow and join them—if mortals have found the road to immortality , and sinners the road to salvation , our instructor has been the Bible , our guide and our
confidence Jesus Christ . But in mentioning that Divine Teacher , what a crowd of thoughts press upon the mind ! The mere exhibition of such excellence as his would have been a blessing to man . Apart from the eternal consequences of his death , his example would have been invaluable . The appearance of his virtues in a human form would have tended to elevate the tone of human excellence , and the contemplation of them to make men conformable to their likeness . But Jesus did more than this for the human
mind . He invested it with a dignity truly sublime , for he led it forward in the way to immortality . He taught us that our distinguishing faculties were not to perish in the tomb ; he stimulated our exertions by the offer of an eternal reward ; he enlarged and elevated our thoughts by leading them to aspire to eternity . Our rational nature , apart from the discoveries of the gospel , is a load to us heavy to be borne . We have then the fate , but not the contentedness , of brutes . We are to die and to perish , and we know it .
Our friends are to die and to perish , and we know it . And this knowledge haunts the mind with incessant thoughts of gloom , and , filling the breast with repining , takes the half of happiness away from life , and doubles all its ills . In every enjoyment the thought of destruction intrudes , in every calamity the uselessness of suffering is felt , and originates complaints of the Divine ordinations . But on the proclamation of pardon and eternal life , the mind rises to a new existence , its load is gone , its anxiety and apprehensions are
dismissed ; all its feelings take a new and a radiant colour , its tone of thought and action is heightened , from the earth it has sprung aspiring to heaven , and it has now an energy , a range , an elasticity , and a nobleness , of which before it was utterly devoid . We cannot believe , then , that Christianity is not a rich intellectual blessing . Does it not proclaim liberty to the captive ? Does it not scatter our mental darkness ? Does it not satisfy our thirst for knowledge ? Does it not lay open futurity to our view ? What knowledge is there which it is essential for a mortal to have that it does not offer ?
Who now , except he reject the gospel , has mental anxieties or apprehensions respecting his origin , his duty , or his end ? Upon whose mind is there a veil of darkness ? All is bright as the radiance of a summer ' s sky — all that concerns our great interests . And suppose this light to be removed , its passing away would be like the departure of day and the coming on of night . Where then could you look for information ? Who could kindle
up another sun ? Where would the labourer and the poor man find instruction ? Reason ' s short sight would fail to penetrate the gloom . Heathen darkness would again oppress the minds of the many . No matter what a few might or might not discover , the mass of the people would be involved in gloom . Again it might be said , My people perish for lack of knowledge . All the machinery invented by Christian benevolence to diffuse Christian
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Christianity an Intellectual Good . 443
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 443, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/11/
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