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

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1891 - 260 pages
 

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Page 1 - 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 119 - 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 208 - 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 very long time is weariness and vexation of spirit; it is that our present life, in so far as it is healthy, rebels once for all against its...
Page 208 - ... may some day have a memory of mine. No force of imagination that I can bring to bear will avail to cast out the youth of that very imagination which endeavours to depict its latter days; no thoughts of final and supreme fatigue can help suggesting refreshment and new rising after sleep. 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...
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 118 - 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 1 - Thou, whose love is changeless Both now and evermore; Source of all conscious being, Thy goodness I adore. Lord, I will ever praise thee For all thy love can give, But most of all. Oh Father, I thank thee that I live.
Page 75 - 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 102 - I would that the great principles of justice, kindness and a reasonable charity to all, might be universally recognized, taught and practiced.
Page 116 - Every man and woman should be launched at mature years upon society furnished with a code of the purest moral and religious principles to guide his or her action in all the varied relations with society which life may develop. Let us each and all cultivate in ourselves and in our children acquaintance with the God within us, the conscience which frowns or smiles upon us as we do wrong or right! The measure of our intimacy with God, the character of the principles which guide us, are shown by our...

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