III.
I have a dear wife, who is ever my guide;
Wooed and won in the shade
The witch-hazel tree made,
Where the brook sings its song
All the summer day long,
And the moments in harmony glide,
Like our lives they in harmony glide.
"THE CHRISTIAN GREATNESS."
(PASSAGES FROM A MANUSCRIPT SERMON.)
BY THE REV. ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D.
THE OFFERING OF CONTRITION.
That deepest lowliness of all--the prostration before God, the prostration
in penitence--is the highest honor that humanity can achieve. It is the
first great cardinal requisition in the Gospel; and it is not meant to
degrade, but to exalt us. Self-condemnation is the loftiest testimony that
can be given to virtue. It is a testimony paid at the expense of all our
pride. It is no ordinary offering. A man may sacrifice his life to what he
calls honor, or conceives to be patriotism, who never paid the homage of
an honest tear for his own faults. That was a beautiful idea of the poet,
who made the boon that was to restore a wandering shade to the bliss of
humanity--a boon sought through all the realm of nature and existence--to
consist, not in wealth or splendor, not in regal mercy or canonized
glory, but in a tear of penitence.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178