It promises the kingdom of peace
and love, not to a few solitary souls, but to man. He is indeed a
servant of Christianity, who has learned its universal purpose and
labors therefor; who does not so much seek to be saved himself, as to
bring salvation to all the world, who sees that his own private life
and development are forever involved in the universal progress. He is
ignorant of the true idea of Christianity, who has not understood that
it demands not so much that one should be careful about his own
spiritual perfection, that he should watch himself, and by private
remorse and tears seek a far-off heaven, as by a generous self-
forgetfulness and self-devotion, seek to build up the kingdom of peace
and love among men, and make heaven a reality here, and not the hope
only of a distant future and a different sphere of existence.
It is time, my friends, that this long divorce between the natural and
spiritual worlds should be broken off, and that we should know that
even now we may breathe the celestial ether, and have our common life
transformed and illumined by infinite spiritual glories.
We have said that the end of Christianity is not the salvation of
individuals; but do not let it be thought that we overlook the worth of
individual character.
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