Words from Wm. Ellery Channing

Channing is among my most favorite thinkers and preachers. Here are some good words from his sermon "Spiritual Freedom" :

"I mean not to disparage political science. The best constitution and the best administration of a state are subjects worth of the profoundest thought. But there are deeper foundations of public prosperity than these. The statesman who would substitute these for that virtue which they ought to subserve and exalt will only add his name to the long catalogue which history preserves of baffled politicians. It is idle to hope, by our short-sighted contrivences. to insure to a people a happiness which their own character has not earned. The everlasting laws of God's moral government we cannot repeal; and parchment constitutions, however wise, will prove no shelter from the retributions which fall on a degraded community."

Strong Medicine

Okay, this is strong stuff . I won't comment much upon it; like someone has said, if I paint a picture and have to put "this is a horse" under it, I have not painted very well. :-) I do think you could profitably spend a month pondering these excerpts from Diary of an Old Soul by G. MacDonald. They are full, not so much of lifeless 'systems' as living wisdom. Like the difference between Enlightenment-style, scientific systematic theology versus stories and tales that present truth in a captivating, enchanting, living way.
Please don't be shy about leaving comments :-)

16.

How many helps thou giv'st to those would learn!
To some sore pain, to others a sinking heart;
To some a weariness worse than any smart;
To some a haunting, fearing, blind concern;
Madness to some; to some the shaking dart
Of hideous death still following as they turn;
To some a hunger that will not depart.

17.

To some thou giv'st a deep unrest--a scorn
Of all they are or see upon the earth;
A gaze, at dusky night and clearing morn,
As on a land of emptiness and dearth;
To some a bitter sorrow; to some the sting
Of love misprized--of sick abandoning;
To some a frozen heart, oh, worse than anything!

18.

To some a mocking demon, that doth set
The poor foiled will to scoff at the ideal,
But loathsome makes to them their life of jar.
The messengers of Satan think to mar,
But make--driving the soul from false to feal--
To thee, the reconciler, the one real,
In whom alone the would be and the is are met.