M. I will call my friends now. They hear my voice, and will respond to
my wish.
The multitude assembled, and the elder proceeded to address them.
“Thou hast a work to do, my friends. The wisdom of a superior circle
hath delegated to me the duty of undoing the errors I have inculcated
among the minds of those with whom I have labored. Nothing is more
sincerely regretted, than my wrongs. It has been my honest endeavor to
do away wrong; but I find many errors, which I have taught, and now
it becomes my pleasing duty to correct them. Among those errors, none
stand more prominent than the doctrine of imputed righteousness, and
the fears and selfishness which it has encouraged. The principle, which
imputes to another what he never had, or will possess, is fatal to the
idea of impartial justice, and wrong in its effect upon individual
responsibility. I have found that wisdom, which discloses the fact,
that thy wrongs can not be justly imputed to another. Neither is it
just for another to assume thy wrongs without thy practice. Indeed, thy
wrongs are thy own, and no one can make them his own without adopting
them. When they are adopted by another, that mind is as criminal as he
who first practiced them. So, will it be seen, that no mind can claim
happiness because another is virtuous. The virtues of the wise must
become our own, or they will not promote our enjoyment. Thou knowest I
have taught thee to hope for good, because thy Savior was righteous.
As well might mind hope for good, because God is good. There never was
a time when God was not good, but what availeth his goodness, until it
becomes thy own; and to become thy own, it must become thy practice.
Because one mind is good, or just, or right, it is not true that all
are so. And yet the doctrine I taught thee, encouraged the expectation
that, because thy Master was good, he would impute his righteousness
unto thee. As well might the claim of thy righteousness be maintained,
because another was exalted to a circle of purity. Thou hast no lessons
in nature to sustain the doctrine of imputed righteousness. All law,
which recognizes equity and justice, repudiates the slander upon the
name of Jesus. He transfers no good to thee, which thy condition will
not receive as thy own inheritance. Thou shouldst not depend on being
saved from thy wrongs, otherwise than by forsaking them. No good can
come unto thee in wrong; and so long as thy wrongs remain, the good
of thy Master availeth thee nothing. To be saved, thou shouldst not
depend on the good of another, but on the good thou mayest attain by
seeking wisdom, and forsaking folly. What, therefore, I have taught
thee, inconsistent with this sentiment, I would ask thee to abandon;
for no good can arise to thee from any source, without thy wisdom shall
control thee to make it thy own. And, when it is thy own, it is not
another’s. Read thy lesson of wrong no more, and forsake the teaching
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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