Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the ChurchRuskin, John
Religion
Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church
Ruskin, John
Church of England -- Clergy; Lord's prayer; Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 -- Correspondence
Let me use this opportunity of saying that in the letters we are now
considering there is a feature which ought not to escape those who are
desirous of deriving good from them; and that is that in their very
condensed form no time is taken for explanation or expansion. Mr. Ruskin
speaks as unto wise men, and asks us to judge for ourselves what he
says. But my own experience, after frequent perusal of them, shows me
that there is a vast fund of truth in them which becomes apparent only
after patient consideration and reflection. Without desiring at all to
bestow extravagant praise on my kind friend, or any other distinguished
man, it is only fair and just to own that the truth that is in these
letters shines out more and more the more closely they are examined. It
is a gift that God has given him, which has cost him far more pain,
worry, and vexation, through all kinds of wilful and envious, as well as
innocent and unconscious misrepresentation, than ever it has gained him
of credit or renown.
This principle leads me to view _now_ with approbation what I could not
read at first without an unpleasant feeling. The sentence: "Nearly the
whole Missionary body (with the hottest Evangelical section of the
English Church) is at this moment composed of men who think the Gospel
they are to carry to mend the world with, forsooth, is this, 'If any man
sin, he hath an Advocate with the Father.'" And when I first read it to
my reverend brethren, hard words were spoken of this passage, because in
its terseness, in its elliptic form, it easily allows itself to be
misunderstood. Yet the paragraph contains the essence of the Gospel
expressed with a faithful boldness not often met with in pulpit
addresses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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