What, in fact, can be more
disastrous, and yet more inevitable, than to mistake our corrupt
instincts for the voice of God, or, on the other hand, to condemn the
Divine intimations as sinful? How can we avoid at every instant
committing the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the ineffable
Holiness? And if, indeed, the distinction be groundless, are we not of
necessity dislocating our conceptions of the universe, and hopelessly
perplexing our sense of duty?
Take, for instance, one common topic which is typical of the general
process. Divines never tire of holding up to us the example of Christ.
If Christ were indeed a man like ourselves, his example may be fairly
quoted. We willingly place him in the very front rank of the heroes who
have died for the good of our race. But if Christ were in any true sense
God or inseparably united to God, the example disappears. We honor him
because he endured agonies and triumphed over doubts and weaknesses that
would have paralyzed a less noble soul. The agonies and the doubts and
the weakness are unintelligible on the hypothesis of an incarnate God.
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