Thoughts on Religion and Morality: The Existence of God, His Character and Relations to Humanity : Religious Duties Growing Out of Human Relations with God : Morality and Our Relations with Each Other : Being Convictions, Principles and Duties which the Author Desires, in So Far as is Consistent with Freedom of Thought and Expression, Should be Inculcated at the Bell Street Chapel, Providence, R.I.1891 - 260 pages |
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acknowledge action Agnostic animals ascer Atheist beautiful believe Chapel character character of God charity child Christian system churches comprehend conscience consciousness constituted creeds crime death dignity Divine Father divine law Divine Power divine principle doctrines duties growing earth effects endowed error evil exercise existence experience faith feel fellow creatures Free Religious Society freedom gift God's grades gratitude guiding principles happiness harmony higher Power highest honor hope human liberty human mind individual intelligence justice justified kind knowledge laws of nature liberty and power living man's manifested mankind matter mental mind and heart mother natural laws organized Orthodox Christian ourselves parents perceive perfect race reason reflection religion and morality sects sense sentiments sincere smile Solar System superstition system of religion teach thank Thee things Thomas Paine thought tion total depravity true relations truth uncon Unitarians virtue well-being wisdom wise and beneficent worship
Popular passages
Page 3 - God of the Granite and the Rose ! Soul of the Sparrow and the Bee ! The mighty tide of Being flows Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee. It leaps to life in grass and flowers, Through every grade of being runs, While from Creation's radiant towers Its glory flames in Stars and Suns.
Page 121 - Equally commendable is it to brighten up old and accepted virtues, and to place them in a better light, that they may appear more attractive. That we may do this we should start from the central point of our advent into existence, and outline and consider our duties in these nearest relations of life...
Page 210 - If then we do not want to die now, nor next year, nor the year after that, nor at any time that we can clearly imagine ; what is this but to say that we want to live for ever, in the only meaning of the words that we can at all realise ? It is not that there is any positive attraction in the shadowy vistas of eternity, for the effort to contemplate even any...
Page 3 - Whom flow rays of Light and Joy : from Whom all do proceed, in Whom all live anew, to Whom all must return. May He rule our thoughts aspiring to His Sacred Heart." " God of the granite and the rose ! Soul of the sparrow and the bee ! The mighty tide of being flows Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee. It leaps to life in grass and flowers; Through every grade of Being runs, Till from Creation's radiant towers Its glory flames in Stars and Suns.
Page 78 - ... and is manifested in all the operations of nature and in all the qualities and powers of human life, we may look up, each in his own way, to the Source of all things in trust and confidence. Let us adopt for ourselves and teach our children a religion that honors God and sustains the dignity of man. The true religion is one of faith in an infinite Righteousness and Love and the working out of these principles of the Divine Nature in human life.
Page 120 - It is becoming almost universally accepted as a fundamental truth, that obedience to the laws of the moral nature constitutes virtue, and confers the happiness which alone follows upon virtue. In other words, God has so constituted man that the performance of his highest duties, when actuated by the highest principles of his nature, secures to him the greatest amount of happiness possible to him in this world.
Page 77 - God our divine Father; we can obey His will as we ascertain it, and so further His intents and purposes of righteousness in this world. How may we do this? By learning the laws he has instituted for the government of man and of all nature. These laws being instituted for our best good, an intelligent self-interest would lead us to obey them. But there is a higher reason, even gratitude, a principle of high honor toward Him who has so richly endowed and blessed us.
Page 104 - I would that the great principles of justice, kindness and a reasonable . charity to all, might be universally recognized, taught and practiced.
Page 203 - I attended a church 200 alone I should have the presence of God ; for where there is real sincerity and some degree of reason in religious exercises, I believe He is always present. I desire to help form a Religious Society which can say, " We are inside of Christianity, as we are inside of all the religions of the world, in every truthful principle which Christianity or any other system of religion inculcates! And we are outside every belief and principle of Christianity or other religious system...