Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third SeriesRobertson, Frederick William
Religion
Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third Series
Robertson, Frederick William
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
There are others who have thrown aside entirely this idea as
chimerical; who have not only ceased to hope it, but even to wish it;
who if it could be realized, would consider it a matter of regret; who
feel that the minds of men are various--their modes and habits of
thought, their original capacities and acquired associations,
infinitely diverse; and who, perceiving that the law of the universal
system is manifoldness in unity, have ceased to expect any other
oneness for the Church of Christ than that of a sameness of spirit,
showing itself through diversities of gifts. Among these last was the
Apostle Paul: his large and glorious mind rejoiced in the
contemplation of the countless manifestations of spiritual nature
beneath which he detected one and the same pervading Mind. Now let us
look at this matter somewhat more closely.
1. All real unity is manifold. Feelings in themselves identical find
countless forms of expression: for instance, sorrow is the same
feeling throughout the human race; but the Oriental prostrates himself
upon the ground, throws dust upon his head, tears his garments, is not
ashamed to break out into the most violent lamentations. In the north,
we rule our grief in public; suffer not even a quiver to be seen upon
the lip or brow, and consider calmness as the appropriate expression
of manly grief. Nay, two sisters of different temperament will show
their grief diversely; one will love to dwell upon the theme of the
qualities of the departed, the other feels it a sacred sorrow, on
which the lips are sealed for ever; yet would it not be idle to ask
which of them has the truest affection? Are they not both in their own
way true? In the same East, men take off their sandals in devotion; we
exactly reverse the procedure, and uncover the head. The Oriental
prostrates himself in the dust before his sovereign; even before his
God the Briton only kneels; yet would it not again be idle to ask
which is the essential and proper form of reverence? Is not true
reverence in all cases modified by the individualities of temperament
and education? Should we not say, in all these forms worketh one and
the same spirit of reverence?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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