The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-01
THE RELIGION OF sELF-REsPEOT.

THE RELIGION OF SELF-RESPEOT.
FALSE doctrine, if very widely
spread in a community, can scarcely
fail to affect in some measure even
those who do not accept it. We are
all more or less influenced by our
moral environment. Opinions which
are in the air, so to speak, though
they may not be opinions which we
ourselves adopt, may influence our
conduct or our attitude of soul, more
than we know. Take the fact of the
doctrine of the fall of man having SO
| long held wide sway in Christendom,
and deeply impressed the minds of the
great majority of church-goer with
| the notion that human nature is NOR
ally rotten at the core, and average
mortals incapable of any goodness
worth the name. We reject this
doctrine as false and unscriptural.
Yet if the ideas which it generates
are everywhere floating about us,
they must have certain moral effect
upon everybody, the deniers of the
doctrine not excepted. The effect
upon the latter may be only slight,
and scarcely recognised, but it may
be real. Without our being conscious
of it, these floating opinions may
subtly weaken in some of us our be-
lief in our own goodness; they may
not wholly repress our self-reverence,
but they may tend to discourage its
development. Who can understand
his errors? asks the Psalmist. And
who can understand the influence
upon mans soul of errors which he
individually may reject, but which
are inwoven into the texture of the
common thought of his nation?
Only very strong and very indepen-
dent souls rise above this influence.
If from any cause one hesitates to
think oneself capable of holiness, one
will never ascend SO any great height
of holiness. To doubt whether one
ought to reverence oneself, whether
one ought to think highly of ones
spiritual capacity, is to smite ones
soul with paralysis. Faith in ones
moral nature and ones moral in
stinct is the very first condition ofthe
genesis and expansion of the religi-
ous life. The world certainly needs
to have the religion OF self-respect
preached a great deal more than it
| has ever been preached in times past.
Yes: proper self-respect is needed
in religion as we'll as elsewhere. Ex-
aggerated self depreciation is worse
than selfconceit. Whilst we think
modestly of our present spiritual at
tainments, we should learn to think
highly of our spiritual capacities and
possibilities. An Eastern fable re-
lates that Stuff saint died and went
up to paradise. "Who art thou?"
asked the warder. Zone who is less
than nothing" "Then thou art too
insignificant to enter here" The Sufi
retired in dismay; but he reflected
that, even if he were what he pro-
fessed, God was in him, and he had
no right to give such an answer.
| He returned. 'Who is thereH at
is myself, blessed Lord" The gate
swung back on its golden hinges to
admit him. We should carry right
estimate of our dignity and worth
into all the experiences and activities
of life. Says Milton truly, THE
proper and just honouring of our
selves is the radical moisture and
fountain head from whence every
laudable and worthy enterprise issues
forth" An unbiblical theology,
which fosters the notion of trans
mitted depravity, and pessimistic
philosophy, which regards this world
as the worst possible, and the human
race as doomed to ultimate failure,
are the two great causes which make
the amount of selfrespect among
men much less than it otherwise
would be. They are the best friends
of humanity who are striving to lead
it forth from the darkness of baneful
creeds into the blessed light of the
everlasting Gospel.
self-reverence. self-kno Wedge. selfcontrol,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
Says living preacher, as has often