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
But the same great truth leads us to the discernment of other useful
thoughts. I might speak of them as connected with the divineness of all
toil which has for its object the increase of human knowledge, the
gathering together of the stored-up lessons of the past, the beautifying
of the daily life, the refining and spiritualizing of the daily thoughts
of the great brotherhood and sisterhood. It would thus be quite
justifiable to speak of the divineness of scientific toil, inasmuch as
that has for its aim the unfolding of the thoughts of God, of which all
appearances of the material world are the outcome and manifestation.
Thus too I might speak of the divineness of the work of those who enable
us to see the results of the Divine guidance bestowed on the world in
the ages past. I might speak of the divineness of the work of the artist
who devotes himself to acquiring skill in subtly entangling in the
colours he puts on canvas the sentiment underlying the landscape he
reverently looks at, which to him is a manifestation of a heaven of
beauty unseen by heedless eyes. I might also speak of the divineness of
the labours of the Christian poet, who presents to the world truth in
its feminine and most winning aspects.
When I should have spoken of all these things they could all be summed
up into one phrase--the divineness of Humanity. And this is what I have
faintly attempted to show necessarily springs up for recognition as the
doctrine of the Fatherhood of God presents itself to us in all its
impressiveness.
I must hasten to a close. I have said that Mr. Ruskin in what he asks us
with reference to our relation to the Church in other countries sounds a
note of catholicity. In what I have myself said as to Protestantism I
have urged nothing inconsistent with a thorough loyalty to the principle
of Christian individualism. But individualism in utter revolt against
authority leads only to confusion and to a multiplicity of tyrannies.
Individualism thrives best under the protection of a generous
all-embracing authority. Individualism before taking up the attitude of
revolt should consider that it, by brave patience and a reverent
submissiveness to all higher influences around it, may contribute
beneficently to the authority of the future, and increase the
generousness and catholicity of its sway.
I will further remark that Mr. Ruskin's words as to the Fatherhood of
God are also a catholic utterance. For the Fatherhood of God when
pondered upon helps us to see that no sphere of human effort is beyond
His control; that His house is one of many mansions of thought and
affection and loving toil; that His heavenly kingdom is one including
all domains on which human energies can be directed, over which human
thoughts can roam, on which human love can lavish itself.
_From the Rev._ CANON E. H. M'NEILE, _Liverpool_.
What is the exact question asked in Letter II.?
Is it whether the clergy are or are not teachers of universal science?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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