I hope my readers, if I should ever have any, will remember that what
I wish to do is to give some account of the manner in which we sought
to be of service to the small and very humble circle of persons whom
we had collected about us. I have preserved no record of anything; I
am merely putting down what now comes into my mind--the two or three
articles, not thirty-nine, nor, alas! a third of that number--which
we were able to hold. I recollect one or two more which perhaps are
worth preservation. In my younger days the aim of theologians was
the justification of the ways of God to man. They could not succeed.
They succeeded no better than ourselves in satisfying the intellect
with a system. Nor does the Christian religion profess any such
satisfaction. It teaches rather the great doctrine of a Remedy, of a
Mediator; and therein it is profoundly true. It is unphilosophical
in the sense that it offers no explanation from a single principle,
and leaves the ultimate mystery as dark as before, but it is in
accordance with our intuitions. Everywhere in nature we see exaction
of penalties down to the uttermost farthing, but following after this
we discern forgiveness, obliterating and restorative.
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