Unspoken Sermons, Series I., II., and III.MacDonald, George
Religion
Unspoken Sermons, Series I., II., and III.
MacDonald, George
Sermons, English -- 19th century
But I leave this, because that which follows embraces and intensifies
this individuality of relation in a fuller development of the truth.
For the name is one "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."
Not only then has each man his individual relation to God, but each man
has his peculiar relation to God. He is to God a peculiar being, made
after his own fashion, and that of no one else; for when he is
perfected he shall receive the new name which no one else can
understand. Hence he can worship God as no man else can worship him,--
can understand God as no man else can understand him. This or that man
may understand God more, may understand God better than he, but no
other man can understand God as he understands him. God give me grace
to be humble before thee, my brother, that I drag not my simulacrum of
thee before the judgment-seat of the unjust judge, but look up to
thyself for what revelation of God thou and no one else canst give. As
the fir-tree lifts up itself with a far different need from the need of
the palm-tree, so does each man stand before God, and lift up a
different humanity to the common Father. And for each God has a
different response. With every man he has a secret--the secret of the
new name. In every man there is a loneliness, an inner chamber of
peculiar life into which God only can enter. I say not it is _the
innermost chamber_--but a chamber into which no brother, nay, no sister
can come.
From this it follows that there is a chamber also--(O God, humble and
accept my speech)--a chamber in God himself, into which none can enter
but the one, the individual, the peculiar man,--out of which chamber
that man has to bring revelation and strength for his brethren. This is
that for which he was made--to reveal the secret things of the Father.
By his creation, then, each man is isolated with God; each, in respect
of his peculiar making, can say, "_my_ God;" each can come to him
alone, and speak with him face to face, as a man speaketh with his
friend. There is no _massing_ of men with God. When he speaks of
gathered men, it is as a spiritual _body_, not a _mass_. For in a body
every smallest portion is individual, and therefore capable of forming
a part of the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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