Welsh Nationality, and How Alone It is to Be Saved: A SermonDavies, William Gabriel
Religion
Welsh Nationality, and How Alone It is to Be Saved: A Sermon
Davies, William Gabriel
Bible. Luke X, 42 -- Sermons; Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century; Welsh -- Ethnic identity
It is recorded by those who have sought the conversion of the savage that
his capacity for receiving Christian truth is commentate only with the
contracted character of his intellect, and the low range of his
attainments. If he does become a Christian, it is only such views of the
Gospel find an abode in his heart as accord with the feeble mental powers
which he possesses. And now I would ask, is this degree of truth all
that is absolutely necessary for salvation in _every_ ease? Being but a
child in intellect, the savage is not yet capable of putting away
childish things. But you may think he can be educated, and be thus
brought into a state of mind in which the seed of the Word may grow with
less stint. But then it is found that his capacity for education, except
in rare instances indeed, is very slight. So again I ask, after an
attempt has been made to enlarge his mind, is that measure of
Christianity which he is capable of realizing all that is absolutely
necessary in every case? I take it for granted that your answer to this
question is in the negative. Do you not believe that besides the
education of individuals, there is, as the result of this, the education
of the race; that as the sins of the fathers descend unto the third and
fourth generation of them who continue to hate God, the punishment for
violation of law increasing in intensity till the guilty race dies out;
so God’s mercies in the shape of increasing aptitude for knowledge,
refinement, and Christian elevation, are transmitted from generation to
generation among those who stedfastly love the Lord? At all events,
savage tribes when brought under the influence of civilized nations,
instead of becoming civilized themselves, disappear from off the face of
the earth. For as the wind which makes the larger flame burn more
brightly, extinguishes the lesser and feebler flame, so the manners and
customs of advanced life put upon savage nature a strain too heavy to be
borne; and this because such a nature needs to undergo that gradual
elevation of the race which it would take generations to accomplish.
What is the drift of these remarks? That the more the mind is developed,
both intellectually and emotionally, the greater becomes its power of
realizing the knowledge of good, and therefore of glorifying God—the
Good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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