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    not see that it was sent from heaven , to call forth and > exalt human nature , and that this is its great > glory f " - * -Pp . 12—15 . i f . , The remainder of the Sermon is occupied with the ^ p licati ^ n ' of tlie truth which has been illustrated to the correction of certain prevalent mistakes . Among these are particularly specified and e ^ p osedM the ' fill 6 wing : First , theirs " who , instead of placing the glory of Christianity i ' ri 'the pure and powerful action which it gives to the human mind , ieetti t 6 thihk that it is rather designed to substitute the activity of another fat our bwn .

    " They imagine the benefit of the religion to be , that it enlists on our side an Almighty Being who does every thing for us . To disparage human agency seems to them the essence of piety . They think Christ ' s glory to consist , not in quickening free agents to act powerfully on themselves , but in changing them by an irresistible energy . " Secondly , " the propensity of multitudes to make a wide separation between religion , or Christian virtue , and its rewards . " Thirdly , the low ideas attached to the word salvation . And , fourthly , the gross notions commonly formed of heaven , and of the methods by which it may be attained . From these we select the third :

    " Men ' s ignorance of the great truth stated in this discourse , is seen in the low ideas attached by multitudes to the word salvation . Ask multitudes what is the chief evil from which Christ came to save them , and they will tell you , * From hell , from penal fires , from future punishment . ' Accordingly they think , that salvation is something which another may achieve for them , very much as a neighbour may quench a conflagration that menaces their dwellings and lives . That word hell , which is used so seldom in the sacred pages , which , as critics will tell you , does not occur once in the writings of Paul ,

    and Peter , and John , which we meet only in four or five discourses of Jesus , and which all persons , acquainted with Jewish geography , know to be a metaphor , a figure of speech , and not a literal expression , —this word , by a perverse and exaggerated use , has done unspeakable injury to Christianity . It has possessed and diseased men ' s imaginations with outward tortures , shrieks , and flames ; given them the idea of an outward ruin as what they have chiefly to dread ; turned their thoughts to Jesus as an outward deliverer , * and thus blinded them to his true glory , which consists in his setting free aad exalting

    the soul . Men are flying from an outward hell , when in truth they carry within them the hell which they should chiefly dread . The salvation which man chiefly needs , and that which brings with it all other deliverance , is salvation from the evil of his own mind . There is something far worse than outward punishment . It is sin ; it is the state of a soul , which has revolted from God , and cast off * its allegiance to conscience and the divine word ; which renounces its Father , and hardens itself against Infinite Love ; which , endued with divine powers , enthrals itself to animal lusts ; which makes gain its god ; which has capacities of boundless and ever-growing love , and shuts

    itself up in the dungeon of private interests ; which , gifted with a self-direct * ing power , consents to be a slave , and is passively formed by custom , opinion , and changing events ; which , living under God ' s eye , dreads man ' s frown or scorn , and prefers human praise to its own calm consciousness of virtue ; which tamely yields to temptation , shrinks with a coward's baseness from the perils of duty , and sacrifices its glory and peace in parting with self-controul .

    No ruin can be compared to this . This the impenitent man carries with him beyond the grave , and there meets its natural issue and inevitable retribution , in remorse , self-torture , and woes unknown on earth . This we cannot too strongtyfearv To ttt&e , in the highest sense of thfct word ; is to lift < toe folfcn spirit frotn this'dejp ' tefr , 'to heal the diseased mind , t ^ restore iti fco ^ e&asffiyaud freedom bf thought , conscience , and love . yThisKwqsi ycfoitffl y tftft ; SQlvM 9 i |> ft > ¥ which ( Christ ahed Mstblod . Fort Jjiis . the . Holy ^ pjiwjt i ^ givjen \ tu ^ l , to \ % h \ $ all the ttfuttra of , Ghw ^^^ ,, , , ,. .,, ; , '

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    664 Channing ' s Design of Christianity .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 664, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/8/