A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.Wilberforce, William
Religion
A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.
Wilberforce, William
Christianity; Christianity -- Great Britain
"Drink deep," however, "or taste not," is a direction full as applicable
to Religion, if we would find it a source of pleasure, as it is to
knowledge. A little Religion is, it must be confessed, apt to make men
gloomy, as a little knowledge to render them vain: hence the unjust
imputation often brought upon Religion by those, whose degree of
Religion is just sufficient, by condemning their course of conduct, to
render them uneasy: enough merely to impair the sweetness of the
pleasures of sin, and not enough to compensate for the relinquishment of
them by its own peculiar comforts. Thus these men bring up, as it were,
an ill report of that land of promise, which, in truth, abounds with
whatever, in our journey through life, can best refresh and strengthen
us.
We have enumerated some sources of pleasure which men of the world may
understand, and must acknowledge to belong to the true Christian; but
there are others, and those of a still higher class, to which they must
confess themselves strangers. To say nothing of a qualified, I dare not
say an entire, exemption from those distracting passions and corroding
cares, by which he must naturally be harassed, whose treasure is within
the reach of mortal accidents; there is the humble quiet-giving hope of
being reconciled to God, and of enjoying his favour; with that solid
peace of mind, which the world can neither give nor take away, that
results from a firm confidence in the infinite wisdom and goodness of
God, and in the unceasing care and kindness of a generous Saviour: and
there is the persuasion of the truth of the divine assurance, that all
things shall work together for good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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