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what it is now , while the grounds of moral obligation remain the same . In the present state of society and consequent position of every individual in it , it is all that the most enlightened piety can do to keep the spirit free to be acted upon by the holy influences which , being essentially fitted for universality , shall , at length , operate upon all minds . The struggle with very gross temptations is now long and severe to the wisest and best of us ; while
thousands occasionally fall , and myriads have little power to resist . Almost all these grosser temptations , whether of prosperity or of adversity , spring out of the social system by which one man ' s loss is another man's gain , and the natural consequences of actions are delayed or averted . Penal enactments present a very insufficient opposition to such temptations , as the awful amount of social crime testifies every day . When the ends of individual life are duly regarded , the aims of society ( which are themselves but means ) will be certainly fulfilled . If labour were more equally distributed ,
individual capacities would be more easily distinguishable , and as a consequence of this , the rewards of labour would be more appropriate and secure . Then the temptations of self-interest would be weakened , as there would be less want , and men could not covet or grasp with impunity . The pressure of necessity being removed , men would have leisure for the pursuit of high and higher objects ; and the absence of the grosser temptations would leave them
free to be wrought upon by the fine influences created for them and ever awaiting their reception ; while the state of society should itself generate these impulses perpetually , especially those which proceed from the reciprocal communion of minds at ease and earnest in the pursuit of things unseen and eternal .
Here we must stop ; not because we have transgressed the bounds to which sound reason warrants our advancing ; but because the prospect is already as extensive as we can take in at one survey . It is no region in the clouds that we are contemplating ; it is a land of promise stretched out before our eyes in all its distinct reality . The prophetic voice of philanthropy has long announced to us a state of society in which every individual shall be employed according to his capacity , and rewarded according to his works : and in the meanwhile we are ready to hail the appearance of any
" Thoughts on Man , " which shall not only supply desultory facts and observations , but suggest means for securing to him all his rights and cultivating all his capabilities .
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Whether the general tenor of the Christian revelation be considered , or its express injunctions , or the method taken by Jesus and his apostles to disseminate their principles , we find the gospel a system fitted to encourage and foster the exercise of mind . It breathes a spirit as free as the winds of heaven . It not only abstains from laying shackles on the intellect , but
declares and vindicates its right to freedom . From servitude it brings the mind into the glorious liberty of the sons of God , and exhorts it in addition to stand fast therein , and to be no more burdened with the yoke of bondage . Wheresoever , in consequence , the power of Christian principles is in operation , there must exist mental freedom , and with mental freedom the natural results of it—mental activity and mental excellence . Thus Chrisli-
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440 Christianity an Intellectual Good .
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CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL GOOD .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 440, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/8/
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