Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-01-13
MORNING APPEAL.
SUNDAY READING.

" are glad to he able, amid the sulphur
nus o,lo"s o. tie restiferous wr,n; cling over the
roJro!a'css p;5, to be reminded that there was
once sweet consistent "hetcrodox' mind
which, fearless Of the future, because pos
~essed OF a u;nd conscious Of right, dwelt SC
eurely among better things than the contem-
p!aton Of reward held out to bride the way
ward soul to pursue the paths Of goodness,
aud thought OF bettertL' ngs, than punishments
which are "a hangmal whip to hold the
wretch i'll order" VIII is better, the calm,
rruth-telling manful p .rker or the founder
ing self-doubting Beecl ct Let us listen, my
beloved, to the words If the bravest and pur-
est soul that ever Illuminated an American
pulpit. We quote from a sermon preached
by Theodore Parker from / } ohn ". :; Love
5 of God. < 4
The highest degree Of love IS that state of
feeling in which you are willing to abandon all,
YOUR comfort, convenience, and life, for the
sake Of another, to sacrifice your delight in
him to his delight in you, and to do this not
merely by yolition, as an act of conscience,
and in obedience to a sense Of duty,-not
merely by impulse, in obedience to blind feel
ing, as an act of instinct, but to do all this
consciously, yet deliglltedIy, with knowledge
Of the consequences, by a movement which is
not barely Instructive and not merely of the
viii, bat spontaneous; to do all this not
merely out of gratitude for favors received,
for reward paid in advance, or for the sake
IF happiness in heaven, a recompense after
wards; with feeling of grateful obligation,
30 wish for q recomp3nse, but from pure, en-
tire and disinteresteI affection
This highest ideal degree of love is some
times attained, but, ike all the great achieve
lnents OF human nature, it is rare. There are
few masterpieces in sculpture, painting, arch
itecture, in poetry or music The ideal and
actual are seldom the same in anyperformance
IF mankind. It IS rarely that human nature
rises to its highest ideal mark; some great
hearts notch the mountains and leave their |
line high up above the heads OF ordinary men,
-a history and prophecy. Yet the capacity |
for this degree of love belongs to the nature of
man as man. The human excellence which is |
%ctual in Jesus, IS possible in Iscariot; give
linn time and opportunity, the man will ap-
lear il him also I doubt not that the worst
man ever hanged or even honored for his
crime, will one day attain degree of love
which the loftiest men now cannot cUmpre-
bend. This power OF lowing to this degree,
it seems to me, is generic of the nature of
man; the absence of it is q mark of immatu-
rity, of greenness, and cloWnishness of the
heart. But at this day the power Of affection
IS distributed as diversely as power of mind
or conscience, and SO the faculty of loving is
by no means the same in actual men. All
are not ri once capable Of the same quantity
Of love
These are also different degrees of love oc-
c,sioned by the character of the object of af- :
lection. All cannot receive the same guam
rity. Thus you cannot love a dog as well as a
man, nor a base, mean man so much as a great , g.,
noble man, with the excellence of mind and
conscience, heart and soul. Can you and .,
love an Arnold as well as a Washington! a :
kldnapper as well as philanthropist! God :.
may do 50, not you and L. SO with finite be- =
ings the degree of love is affected by the char !
'''cOA VI pou1I INC SiDJCCt anu Ille oDJtCL Oh az
lection.
Hitherto Justice has not been done to the at %
fections in Religion. We have been taught u
to fear Cod not to love Him, to see Him in Il Il
the earthquake and the storm, in the deluge,
n the ten plaques of Egypt, in Ut
5he 'blacA DEATH" or The cholera; not to Il
zee God in the morning sun, or in the evening u
ull of radiant gentleness. Love has little to 81
10 with the popular religion of our time God "
5 painted as dreadful Eye, which bores !"
through the darkness to spy out the faults of
men who must sneak and skulk about the di
World; or as a naked, bony Arm, uplifted to W
rush his children down with horrid squelch er
o endless hell. The long line of scoffers from IT
.ucian, their great hierophant, down to Vol bl
aire and his living coadiutors, have not So
named the priesthood from such revolving to
IMAGES of deity. Sterner men, who saw the vo
,yeliness Of the dear God and set 1t forth in or
oily speech and holy ife,--to meet fate ON M
arth far harder than the scoffers doom - TT
ley cannot yet teach men that love of GOD bu
tsts every fear away. lu the Catholic my co
lology the Virgin Mary, its most originalcre- fel
lion, represents pure love,-she and she pc
one. Hence is she (and deservedly) the pop en-