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their hearts , or scrutinize their motives , or regulate their thoughts and op inions , but this and far more than this is daily and hourly in our power over ourselves . To make Christianity , with all its purifying precepts , and elevating desires , and sanctifying authority bear upon all the points of our own character , and bring all our faculties and affections into obedience to Christ , is the work of a life—arid it is a work well worthy the labour and
devotion of a life , for it is one which if attained , by however difficult or toilsome a process , will eventually lead us on to * glory , honour ,, and irnmor * taliryf ^ others are to be made by our own example , by the thousand daily and almost imperceptible influences which arise from our own most apparently indifferent actions , from our careless conversation , our unstudied habits and expressions , in short , the external result of our whole associated and combined character . And what an awful consideration is this ! when we look within
and see a world of so many powers , and faculties , and feelings , an empire of mind so extensive and so varied , passions involving so serious a responsibility , given for the noblest uses , yet capable of the most dangerous perversion , the only value of which consists in the direction of them ; when wesee all this , we must be struck with the great importance and almost heavenly office of the trust committed to our charge , we must feel the impossibility of it-s being done for us by any other being ; we must ^ kttiffM ^ ge \^ ith ;" -hlriiailityy ^ with conscious self-respect and joy , that our Creator has dignified us with this sacred charge , the regulation and improvement of ah immortal soul . If
we are false to this trust , it matters not how great are the advantages bestowed upon us—however various our opportunities , or kind and solicitous our friends , or extensive . our abilities , it will avail us not . - If we are carelesS ; and do not watch earnestly , sincerely , and unremittingly , there wiJl be a _ confusion within which we may vainly endeavour to rectify in future ; indolence will waste the finest genius , and obscure ; the noblest powers ; selfindulgence will degrade the finer feelings of the soul ; and * evil habits once formed , we may possibly struggle in vain to free ourselves from their tyxatiny No evil stops short in its career , and this may be but the beginning of the
perversion . The waste of splendid gifts , the ingratitude for means of good , is the commencement of a want of discipline which will be still more felt in the deeper trials and temptations of life . When restraint is not put over the feelings , then indeed is the anchor of the soul lost , exposing" it helpless and unprotected to all the stormy changes and sorrows of the world . And where but in Christianity can this anchor be found ? Where else can we look for the highest purity of motive , the most animating principles of aetion , the most exciting and sustaining hopes ? Where else shall we find , so well set
forth , the law of self-government , the certainty of accountableness , the knowledge of our moral nature and our final destiny ? Nay , where else shall we find no clear an exposition of the character of our Heavenly Father himself , or the knowledge of those glorious attributes which are the foundation of all our belief ? Science and philosophy have penetrated the mysteries of nature , find revealed them to our gaze , but they have never penetrated the deeper mystery of things divine ; here their ingenuity has paused , their pride has 4
been shaken . It has been said to them , Hitherto shalt thou go , and no further . ' It is Christianity alone that , in a thousand doubtful cases , continually occurring , where the man of the world would hesitate or yield , or see fi o call for conscience on so small an occasion ; it is Christianity that says these things are all interwoven with high and eternal consequences , with events mightier and greater than themselves ; they have an important bearing on character ; and thus it forms that pure and elevated strictness of principle , which views every circumstance of this life in connexion with a
Untitled Article
UNITARIAN CHRONICLE . 79
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1833, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2609/page/15/
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