Christianity and Modern ThoughtPeabody, Andrew P. (Andrew Preston)
Religion
Christianity and Modern Thought
Peabody, Andrew P. (Andrew Preston)
Unitarianism
If however, in spite of all this, we are sometimes tempted to doubt
whether the power of the truth which Christ represents is to win the
mastery, or whether it is destined to be lost in the great struggle, we
must remember that its authority is that of elements that are
fundamental in human nature. The spiritual instincts may be repressed:
they cannot be exterminated. As in every little creek and inlet along
the shore the water answers to the call of the ocean, and feels the
might of the outgoing and the incoming tide, so in human life deep
answers unto deep.
We must remember, too, that Christ is not a mere teacher. His power is
not alone that of the truth he utters. It is no mere accident of history
that the higher truth and life which we have been considering confront
the age as Christian truth and life. They receive a power from their
union with Christ which they could not have received, even had the
thought of men attained to them, without this. We have looked at the
external form of his life and at his teaching in their relation to the
age. There is yet another step to take. There is still an inner reality
to be unveiled. Behind the power of his teaching is the power of his
personality. In this is found the climax of the antithesis in which he
stands to the present. The tendency of the present age is, consciously
or unconsciously, to disown personality. The laws which make the
substance of its thought, the mechanism that makes the framework of its
life, both tend to assert themselves against the power of a free
personality. We may illustrate this by the modern method of warfare. In
ancient times the victory depended on the strength of the individual arm
and the courage of the individual heart. Now it depends more upon the
drill of the army and the clear head of the general.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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