True Manliness: From the Writings of Thomas HughesHughes, Thomas
Religion
True Manliness: From the Writings of Thomas Hughes
Hughes, Thomas
Conduct of life
There is no respect of persons with God, no acceptance of any man on
account of his religion or his profession; under whatever religious
garb, he that loveth is born of God, he that doeth righteousness is
born of God. There is no danger in being ready to appreciate simple
goodness and to refer it to the working of the Divine Spirit wherever
we may find it; there is the greatest danger in failing to appreciate
it. This is doctrine of unquestionable Divine authority, which we may
often have opportunities of putting into practice. Let us remember to
cherish it in all our dealings with those who do not belong to our
own church. Let us be afraid lest nature and the flesh should make us
intolerant and unsympathetic; let us be sure that Christ and the Spirit
would win us to modesty and reverence and sympathy.
CXLIV.
“There is one body and one spirit, even as ye were called in one hope
of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” With this unity,
there are distinctions of function; and each member, St. Paul holds,
has his own gift of endowment to enable him to fill his own place.
Christ is the great Giver, and besides these gifts to the several
members of the body, he gave to the body as a whole the apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, by whose various
ministries sinful and self-willed men were to be moulded into true
members, and ultimate perfecting of the body to be accomplished. St.
Paul looked forward in hope to the time when the Body of Christ might
be not only ideally perfect, but actually perfect also, in its adult
growth and in the harmonious co-operation of all its parts.
CXLV.
There may be every sort of defect and irregularity in the men and
women whom Christ has called to be his members. The unity is not made
by them, and does not depend upon them. Their business is to _keep_
the unity, to conform themselves to it. The supernatural body of
Christ is the _ideal_ one, and it is realized with various degrees of
imperfection wherever men acknowledge Christ as their head.
CXLVI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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