This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... SALVATION. INTRODUCTION. EVERY religion presupposes an unnatural, discordant relation of man to the spiritual laws of his being. Perfect, he would have no need of a religion, and would never originate one. Dependent and fallible, the sharp sense of weakness and spiritual want he cannot cast out, nor ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... SALVATION. INTRODUCTION. EVERY religion presupposes an unnatural, discordant relation of man to the spiritual laws of his being. Perfect, he would have no need of a religion, and would never originate one. Dependent and fallible, the sharp sense of weakness and spiritual want he cannot cast out, nor can he escape the obtrusive presence of the higher Powers. Deep mystery surrounds him, in which he can read little save the characters of law, written large and luminous. Finding himself out of harmony with the great order into which he is cast, he is filled with unrest, and sets himself to a solution of the problem of reconciliation. This consciousness of discord and the struggle with the problem how to attain harmony denote the beginning of religion, and his solution of the problem marks the degree and character of his spiritual insight. If his thought do not rise above Nature, his religion will begin and end in a propitiation of her supposed malign forces. If he attain the apprehension of a persona benignant Power and Will superior to the natural order, originating and imposing a moral law, his religion will be a sense of dependence upon God, worship, communion, aspiration for harmony with Him, indestructible confidence and faith. The nature of his idea of God will determine his conception of salvation. Salvation implies a bondage in certain evil conditions from which it is a deliverance. It sinks in man's thought to the level of release from temporal misfortune, social or political calamity, sorrow, physical pain or discomfort, or rises into the realm of purely spiritual relations, ', according to the note of his interpretation of the Supreme Being. Accordingly, its doctrine of salvation reveals the inmost character of a religion. It is...
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