His reverence for the Bible should
make him feel that we most realise our own personality when we most
connect it with that of our fellow-men; that acts are not to be
contemplated apart from the actor; that more of what is acceptable
to the God of Truth may come forth in men striving with infinite
confusion, and often uttering words like the east-wind, than in
those who can discourse calmly and eloquently about a righteousness
and mercy, which they know only by hearsay. The belief which a
minister of God has in the eternity of the distinction between right
and wrong should especially dispose him to recognise that
distinction apart from mere circumstance and opinion. The
confidence which he must have that the life of each man, and the
life of this world, is a drama, in which a perfectly Good and True
Being is unveiling His own purposes, and carrying on a conflict with
evil, which must issue in complete victory, should make him eager to
discover in every portion of history, in every biography, a divine
'Morality' and 'Mystery'--a morality, though it deals with no
abstract personages--a mystery, though the subject of it be the
doings of the most secular men.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25