Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day ThinkingCoffin, Henry Sloane
Religion
Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking
Coffin, Henry Sloane
Christianity -- 20th century; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
Our faith in God as Self-imparting by His Spirit makes possible our
confident expectation that He can and will incarnate Himself socially in
the whole family of His children, as once He was incarnate in Jesus.
Christians who devote themselves to fashioning social relations after
the mind of Christ, and inspiring their brethren with His faith and
purpose, are conscious that through them the Spirit of God is entering
more and more into His world, revealing the Father in the new community
of love, which is being born. Sir Edward Burne-Jones once wrote: "That
was an awful word of Ruskin's, that artists paint God for the world.
There's a lump of greasy pigment at the end of Michael Angelo's
hog-bristle brush, and by the time it has been laid on the stucco, there
is something there, that all men with eyes recognize as Divine. Think
what it means: it is the power of bringing God into the world--making
God manifest!" Men and women who are molding homes and industries, towns
and nations, so that they embody love, and influencing for righteousness
the least and lowest of the children of men, are putting before a whole
world's eyes the Divine, are helping build the habitation of God in the
Spirit. Through them God imparts Himself to mankind.
God over all--the Father to whom we look up with utter trust, and from
whom moment by moment we take our lives in obedient devotion; God
through all--through Jesus supremely, and through every child who opens
his life to Him with the willingness of Jesus; God in all--the
directing, empowering, sanctifying Spirit, producing in us characters
like Christ's, employing and equipping us for the work of His Kingdom,
and revealing Himself in a community more and more controlled by love:
this is our Christian thought of the Divine--"one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all."
CHAPTER V
THE CROSS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account