Men and Movements in the English Church

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898. Excerpt: ... are the sons of God, and to suppose that its witness depends upon some feelings or tempers or experiences which separate them from their fellow-creatures. To Maurice this seemed the mother-heresy. Must it not seem so to us all? Christ is our Peace, and all the promises of God in Him are yea. If we must fight, we have a better cause than our own notions. Maurice speaks of the difference between godliness and sentimental religion, which consists in feelings about God; and between godliness and systematic religion, which consists of notions about Him. He can have little sympathy with those who give only the husks of truths in systems, or those who give only the juice of truths in feelings. To know that God does not depend upon our feelings, but our feelings upon God; to know that we must claim a certain spiritual position as our right before we can realize it in our apprehensions; to be assured that we have the Spirit of God within us, and that He is distinct from all the emotions, energies, affections, sympathies, in our minds, the only Source and Inspirer of them all; this is most necessary for us, the peculiar necessity, if I am not mistaken, of this age. To learn that what they could grasp by faith was theirs, was the task of our forefathers; it is a precious truth which they have left to us, and we must not let it go. To learn that there is a substance for faith to lay hold of, and that faith does not create this substance; that there is a deep ground and source of faith, deeper of course than all the acts which proceed from it--this is our task. These were the principles with which Maurice addressed himself to his work. Whatever the subject might be which was immediately before him, this was the sort of background against which it took its shape. He...