The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-03-24
Specta1 Contributors.
PERSONAL RELIGION
BY REV. A. C. BARRY, d. D.
(Lodi. Wis.,

(LOdl, WIS.,
1 have recently been reading, with
good deal of interest, book entitled
Thoughts on Personal Religion" the
author of which is Rev. DR.. Could
borne of the English church. The
leading idea of this treatise, as he tells
us, is well expressed by passage from
work given him by friend:
1.-THE Oftener | read Jeremy Taylor,
the more | am satisfied of the excellence
of his method of recommending holi-
ness to the heart and Imagination, as
well as to the understanding Of frail
man by dwelling on the infinite love
and condenscensiOn of our gracious
Father in taking so much pains to
make it attainable, if not easy and by
mixing it up with every act and duty
of ordinary life, so as to make every
hour spent in the world, as we'll as in
the closet, when sanctified by its mo
tive, an act of religion and obedience.
have often wished to hear Christian
ity inculcated from the pulpit on this
principle. "
After quoting the above DR.. Could
borne calls attention to what has been
more or less present to his mind
throughout his argument; that these
three thOughts,-the power of attain
ing, under Gods grace, real, though
gradual, growth in sanctity the posi-
bility of making the homeliest acts of
common life contribute to this growth;
end the expedieney. of giving to such
topics as these much more room than
they generally occupy IN Christian
teaching. 1t is what he has to say upon
the several branches of his subject that
propose to eondense into two or three
articles of moderate length.
The old error is fast dying out,-at
least it has only faintest recognition by
intelligent Christian minds,-that by
one grand and decisive experience,
or by some swiftly descending convic-
tion as from heaven, man suddenly
parts with his old self, and the full meas
ure of the religious life is his possess
sion. 1t is the better thought even of
those who still hold to sudden and mar
velous conversions, that the newly born
are but babes, and not full statured
men and women that single step for
ward is not completed race that the
heights of heaven are not won at a
bound, but by slow and patient climb
ing. Plainly as the New Testament
writers have shown us, that we do not
become Christians, all full of grace and
glory, by one mighty effort, or by sin
gle act of penitence and submission it
is hard to account for the widespread
and long-cOntinued belief, that the
whole work of religion may be per-
formed in an hour, or in moment,
and as easily as the hand can be turned
over. 1t would seem, sometimes, as
though really sensible persons, when
they come to deal with the subject of
religion, part with their common sense,
and indulge in the widest yagaries.
Generally speaking, while nothing,
scarcely, is more inquired about and
disputed about than religion, our views
concerning it are often of the sOrriest
kind. In the common apprehension it
is clothed with so much that is mys-
terious and out of The way, or associa-
ted with processes so unnatural and in
comprehensive, that it is little else
than an enigma, a something shadOwy
and unreal and while we are reminded
that its possession is not only matter
of the first Importance, but of the most
urgent necessity, the way to it is made
most difficult to find. Thus religion, to
the great congregation of outside peO-
pie especially, is in fog, is a strange
puzzle, is something foreign from hui
man nature, and when possessed, it
may be added, bitter cross rather than
starry crown.
Clearly, that is a false view which
makes religion to be unnatural, as
though it were a lost faculty restored,
or a new attribute with which the soul
is endowed We have religious ma
lures, just as we have intellectual ma
lures and religion is to be sought as
we seek knowledge, by ways no more
doubtful, and the employment of means
no more extraordinary. True, divine
help is essential, and there is no deny
ing that religion, in no small part, is
the result of spiritual processes. Alone
we could not get on in the work of re-
ligiOn-in the pursuit of eternal life.
And yet, as many would have it, reli-