If the only object is present existence, such faculties are cruel, are
misplaced, are useless. They all show us that there is something great
awaiting us,--that the soul is now young and infantine, springing up
into a more perfect life when the body falls into dust."
"Man is imprisoned here only for a season, to take a better or a worse
hereafter, as he deserves it. This old truth is the fountain of all
goodness, and justice, and kindness among men: may we all feel it
intimately, obey it perpetually, and profit by it eternally!"
He was not a theist only, but a Christian. Here again, as in the argument
from Design, he followed Paley, laid great stress on Evidences, and
"selected his train of reasoning with some care from the best writers." He
said;--"The truth of Christianity depends upon its leading facts, and of
these we have such evidence as ought to satisfy us, till it appears that
mankind have ever been deceived by proofs as numerous and as strong."
Having convinced himself that the Christian religion was true, he was loyal
in word and act to what he had accepted. He remonstrated vigorously against
an "anti-Christian article" which crept into the _Edinburgh Review_; and
felt, as keenly as the strongest sacerdotalist or the most fervent
Evangelical, the bounden duty of defending the body of truth to which his
Ordination had pledged him.
Pages:
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284