The Possible Life

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from The Possible Life: And Other Sermons It cannot be inappropriate for us, coming together as we do to-day after a period of separation, and about to enter on another year of common thought and work, to seriously consider why we are here, what business we have in hand, what justification there is for this religious institution, and for the more general institution of which this church of ours is an infinitesimal part. Mr. Balfour may be fully justified in his persuasion that men generally think and speak and act from habit and tradition and authority, but, when he adds "and not on reasonable grounds, " we say: "Hold there! Are you quite sure of that?" May it not be that habit and tradition and authority hold a good deal of reason, as it were in solution, that they are to a considerable extent reason gone into structure, that reason is the kobold of Scandinavian folk-lore which cannot be shaken off, but mounts the cart of household goods, and goes with them wherever they go? They reckon ill who leave him out. When him they fly, he is the wings. There is no reason here for our abdication of the rights of reason and their habitual exercise. However much of reason is implicated in habit and tradition and authority, there is plenty of unreason, too, which demands the exercise of reason for its elimination. And though, doubtless, the days would not be long enough for the reasoning out of every principle or persuasion upon which we act, and we may well be thankful for the fund of traditional principles and persuasions which we each inherit, yet does it behoove us to be adding something to this stock by the application of our own minds to many things. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.