Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Invisible Master, as of their own doing. And in the silence of the inner soul they worship the living God, even if they utter no sound. Yea, they may speak with Him face to face, and say:

[ocr errors][merged small]

VII.

G. G.

Personal Religion.

And Nathan said to David: Thou art the man! II. Samuel xii. 7.

Show me Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths; lead me in Thy truth, for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all day.-Psalms xxv. 4, 5.

'HE difference between abstract and personal religion will always remain; but the question for us to ask is, Is our religion sufficiently personal,-does it go deep into our motives, stir our deepest feelings, enter into our conscience, and influence our daily life?

My friends, it is impossible to have personal religion without fully realizing the personality of God. When God becomes personal, religion becomes personal, and worship becomes the sweetest and most indispensable work of the day. The finest ideals about God do not make religion. Even the finest poetry about God's nature does not make religion. Without personal religion how can there be spirituality? Without a per

sonal God-a God who has a mind, who has a will, who has holiness, who can reward and bless, who can comfort and overshadow and embrace us all-personal religion is impossible.

I.

HOU, whose breast is rest

In the time of strife,

In Thy secret breast

Sheltering souls opprest

From the heat of life.

Thou, whose ways we praise,
Clear alike and dark,
Keep our works and ways,
This and all our days

Safe within Thine ark.

PROTAP CHUNDER MOZOOMDAR.

VIII.

J

The Community of Saints.

To the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent is all my delight.-Psalms xvi. 3.

MAINTAIN that this simple religion which I have

tried to lay before you has the power of absorbing to itself all the resources of all the great religions. Believing in nothing more complex than that God is, and that He is good, that He is near, and that He is loving; believing in nothing more complex than that you are my sisters, my brothers, and my friends,-I have the spiritual wealth of all the great religions that ever flourished. What is there in the enthusiasm and

energy of Islam that I cannot accept? What ails my liberal religion that I cannot assimilate that energy, that fidelity, that monotheistic influence, that obedience to the laws of God? What ails me that I cannot assimilate the marvellous benevolence of Buddhism,-its self-conquest, its kindness to man and to beast alike, its tolerance, its equality of men and women, its poverty and simplicity? What is the matter with my simple theistic principles that I cannot absorb the wonderful insight of the Hindu into the spiritual constitution of the universe? Why should I not learn from him that introspection by which in his own soul he beholds the glorious manifestation of his supreme Brahma ?

II.

HOU, the Word and Lord

In all time and space,

Heard, beheld, adored

With all ages poured

Forth before thy face.

Thou whose face gives grace

As the sun doth heat, Let Thy sun-bright face Lighten time and space

Here beneath Thy feet.

IX..

PROTAP CHUNDER MOZOOMDAR.

Righteousness a Blessing for All.

for I

I will get them praise and fame in every iand where they have been put to shame will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes.-Zephaniah iii. 19, 20.

S for our customs, there is no nation which always makes use of the same customs, and in every city almost we meet with different ones; but justice is most for the advantage of all men equally, both Greeks and Barbarians: to this our laws pay the greatest regard, and so render us, if we observe them rightly, benevolent and friendly to all men, on which account we have reason to expect the like return from others—nor ought they to esteem difference of institutions a sufficient cause of alienation, but should look rather to virtue and probity, for this belongs to all men in common and is sufficient of itself alone for the preservation of human life.

The Jewish nation is, by their Law, a stranger to all such things (erecting statues and temples to men); they are accustomed to prefer righteousness to glory; for which reason that nation was not agreeable to Herod, because it was out of their power to flatter the king's ambition with statues or temples or any other such thing. FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.

UTHOR of being, source of light,

With unfading beauties bright;

Fulness, goodness, rolling round

Thy own fair orb without a bound:

Whether Thy suppliants call
Truth, or Good, or One, or All,
Grecian or Barbaric name,

Thy steadfast being is all the same.

X.

JF

Reasonable Contentment.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel; my inward part instructs me in the night time.—Psalms xvi. 6, 7.

F we wish to gain contentment, we might try such rules as these :

1. Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even of the weather.

2. Never picture thyself to thyself under any circumstances in which thou art not.

3. Never compare thine own lot with that of another. 4. Never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been, or were, otherwise than it was, or is. God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou dost thyself.

5. Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not thine. The heaviest part of sorrow often is to look forward to it. "The Lord will provide." E. B. PUSEY.

ERE let me pause, the quest forego;
Enough for me to feel and know,

That He in whom the cause and end,
The past and future meet and blend—
Speaks not alone the words of fate,
Which worlds destroy, and worlds create;
But whispers in my spirit's ear,
In tones of love, or warning fear,
A language none beside me hear.

« ZurückWeiter »