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Untitled Article
love . On this principle alone , carried out into all its bearings , do we arrive at the full manifestation of the spirit of the gospel . This is the spirit of Christ , which makes and marks us bis ; in extending its influence we are advancing * his kingdom ; and in its final diffusion will the objects of his mis * sion be accomplished . "—Pp . 23—25 .
" Here , again , it is too common for them to separate what is called holiness from the real duties of man upon the earth . What constitutes the good and godly man , in the common estimation of religionists ? It is notorious that the duties which become so simply because they are means , are placed
in the very first rank . Heaven forbid that we should undervalue prayer and praise , both private and social ; reading the Scriptures , hearing sermons ; but their worth is in their use . It is our duty to form our characters to the devotion and benevolence which , rightly employed , they may be made so powerfully to promote in us . Their obligation is secondary , not primary ; it relates not so much to themselves as to their influences . It is a fearful
mischief that they are so often raised , as habit or opinion raises wealth , from being pursued as means for an ulterior object , to being themselves the final object . They do not constitute the good man , the real Christian . How extensively have religionists been alienated from the great duties of social life ! Engaged in praying and proselyting , how seldom they act upon the public mind and public institutions and conduct , so as to imbue them with the spirit of the gospel ! How else could it be that even the progress of natural science should still often have to struggle with theological
prejudices in Christian countries ? That slavery should still exist in Christian countries ? That wars should still be waged between Christian nations ? That the administration of justice should still be so imperfect under Christian legislation ? That many and some most grinding oppressions should still be practised in Christian communities ? That universal education , whatever approximations are made , should still be so limited , both as to extent and as to the worth of the instruction , as it is in Christian countries ? That to all great advances in the state of society there should still be such mighty obstacles as there are in Christian states ? That institutions framed and
conducted for the express object of elevating the moral , mental , and physical condition of the great mass of the people , should still be almost unknown in the arrangements of Christian nations ? In devotion to such aims as these , combined with the diligent cultivation of the personal and domestic virtues , is the Christian character exhibited . But these graft not well on the stock of popular systems ; nor have they ever borne , nor seem they ever likely to hear , a harvest of such fruit . They are stigmatized as worldly aims ; if they be , it is in the sense in which , among others , Christ came to save the world ,
and make his followers the salt of the earth . They are now the largest sphere for those good works without which faith is dead . Were it not the honest blunder of fanaticism , it would be the pitiful excuse of servility or selfishness , that should exclude them from the sphere of religion and morality . The presence of the gospel in a country ought always to be visible b y . an atmosphere of knowledge , freedom , happiness , and improvement , ever spreading and brightening around it . Nothing can more degrade Christianity , than taking this class of actions from under its cognizance ,
Untitled Article
Sermons at the Anniversary of the Irish Unitarian Society . 673
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 673, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/21/
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