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Reading.
[Mar.
READING.
A SERMON.
BY E. H. SEARS.
“ Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weari
ness to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments : for this is the whole duty of
man.” Ecclesiastes xii. 12, 13.
There is a story of an Eastern, monarch whose purport is very
much like the advice of Solomon, and seems like another edition
of it. The monarch had a library which contained books enough
to load a thousand camels. “I can’t read all that,” he said to his
librarian; “just reduce it down and let me have the substance and
essence of it.” So the librarian reduced it down and put it into
a number of volumes which would make only thirty camel loads.
“ I have not time, nor strength, nor eye-sight to read thirty camel
loads of books; reduce it still more.” So the librarian distilled it
again and put. it into a number of books sufficient to load only a
single ass. “ Too bulky yet,” said the monarch. “ Reduce it more.”
Whereupon the librarian treble distilled it and reduced the whole
to these three sentences written on a palm-leaf: —
“ This is the sum of all science —Perhaps.
“ This is the sum of all morality—Love what is good and prac
tice it.
“ This is the sum of all creeds — Believe what is true.”
Solomon, the reputed author of the book of Ecclesiastes, had
literary resources, it would seem, not less ample than those of the
Kaliph of Bagdad just quoted. Solomon was himself a great
writer of books and a great reader. He composed or collected
three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five oriental songs.
He studied botany, natural history, astrology and necromancy, the
ancient spiritualism, so that there was a concourse of strangers
from all countries to hear his wisdom. Arabian legends even to
this day preserve traditions about him which harmonize with those
of the Hebrew scriptures. They describe him as:—
“ The kingly sage, whose restless mind
Through Nature’s mazes wandered, unconfined,
�BT874.J
Reading.
51
Who every bird and beast and insect knew,
And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew.
To him were known, so Hagar’s offspring tell,
The powerful sigil and the starry spell,
The midnight call, hell’s shadowy legions dread,
And sounds that burst the slumbers of the dead.”
And yet, a great deal of this supposed knowledge, indeed all
he had gathered about the starry spell and the state of the dead,
would probably be reduced in the last analysis to—perhaps. And
his three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five canticles
he distils down into this sentence: “Fear God and keep
his commandments.” How true is one of his proverbs
still preserved to us, “ There is nothing new under the
sun.” And the gathered wisdom of one age anplies to the prac
tice of all ages.' It still remains true that of making books there
is no end, and if we are to read them all, it would not only be a
weariness to the flesh, but a whelming flood of nonsense upon the
brain. Making books has become the art of inflating the currency
of mind and thought, not merely pouring knowledge from one
reservoir into another, but diluting it till only a pale tinge of it is
discernible.
New discoveries in science are heralded forth,
specially in geology and anthropology, which are gopag to super
sede Revelation. We buy up the books and read them through,
and so far as religion stands affected we reduce tlie new science
in them to a “ perhaps,” or at most to such a compass that you
could write it out on a palm-leaf. We say this without denying at
all the progress of discovery in physical science and mechanical
arts and all that goes to affect our physical comfort and well-being
in this world, and our knowledge of human nature so far forth as
it has gone into history and been crystallized there. But for
all the purposes of individual improvement, edification and sub
stantial knowledge, we must adopt the same process now that the
Kaliph adopted and that Solomon recommended. Instead of casting
ourselves at random on this ocean of a watery literature, we must
select, distil and concentrate if we mean to read to any purpose or
any wise and beneficent end. And now in unfolding the subject
let us endeavor to see, how reading books may be made, not a
weariness and a means of deterioration, but a means of moral
health, progress and enlightenment.
�52
Reading.
I. And the first condition is to read with a moral purpose and aim.
That done, all the rest will follow in its natural order. The moral
law applies to reading as to anything else. Reading, like business,
has a twofold province. One is work and the other is play.
One requires thinking, the other is relaxation from'all thinking.
Both have their use, for play as well as work has its rightful place
in the economy of life. But if a man plays all the time, he be
comes lazy and shiftless and there is a relaxation of all his muscles,
and he becotnes demoralized and a burden to himself. If
reading is all for amusement and under no controlling moral
purpose and direction, the muscles of the mind become flabby,
and instead of evolving intelligence, the faculties are dulled and
dimmed and the very power of earnest thinking is well-nigh gone.
In reading for amusement, we float simply; we give up all self
direction on a stream of words and drift along with the story. We
only read that which comes very near to our own level. But
to read with a moral aim, requires of us to grapple with books
which are above our level; to gird up the loins of the mind; to sift,
compare, concentrate and note down, with pen in hand, and ar
range and find what is wheat and what is chaff, winnowing out the
one and saving the other upon our palm-leaf. And this calls into
exercise the higher ranges of the faculties ; the power of attention,
the power of intellect, the moral taste and the moral judgment,
till the muscles of the mind get the consistency of iron. I think
we overestimate the benefits which mere reading is calculated to
give. We forget that in some of the grand epochs of history the
greatest readers were the greatest dolts, and the men of the most
practical common sense could hardly read at all.
Charlemagne, the master mind of his age, from whom more than
from any one person modern history takes its rise, if I remember
well, could neither read nor write, for all the learning was in the
keeping of the monks, the narrowest and most senseless of all
classes. Reading, like affairs, ought to enlarge our horizon and
kindle our intelligence, and if it does not accomplish this, the art
of printing might just as well not have been discovered, so far as
we stand affected individually.
II. Reading then with a moral aim, what will be its special di
rection and purpose ? Evidently the first thing which one will
�•
■
1874.]
Reading.
*
*
53
want to know and understand will be the nature of the house he
lives in. I mean the body which we inhabit, on whose conditions
our work in the world so much depends. This mechanism which
we call a body is wound up, so say the physiologists, to ’ go an
hundred years, and then to stop its motions gently and without
pain. But instead of that it rarely runs down, but its wheels are
crushed and broken on an average within less than forty years.
The organic laws are the statute-book of the Almighty, written out
within us by his own finger. All needless violation of them is in
temperance in some form and the breaking of the Divine com
mandments. And it is just as much our duty to learn them and
keep them as it is to learn and keep the ten commandments
of the decalogue. For this is the very foundation of all
our spiritual building and enlargement. Morbid conditions
of the body often generate morbid conditions of mind. Anger
in one may produce anger in the other, and the whole
fabric of religious faith and hope go down in night because
the physical flooring has been broken through and d^troyed. 1 A
living writer tells us that the very foundation^ of womanhood here
in America are becoming sapped and undermined; and that both
manhood and womanhood will dwindle away together unless we
come back to obedience. His array of facts is worthy of some
thing better ,than senseless denunciation.®-{They demand thought;
ful study at least on the part of all teachers and parents, for man
hood and womanhood go down together, if at a#. It all shows us
that there is one book, which at the beginning every one ought to
read under a solemn sense of®espon&bility, — our own book of Life,
which the psalmist calls the Book of God, in which all our mem
bers are written. It should be read till its lessons stand out in let
ters of light, and with the assurance that if disobeyed, they will
turn to letters of fire. And when we read and understand, we
are not only learning the Divine Laws and how to keep the com
mandments, we are drawn up among the Divine wonders beyond
any which romance has ever told, and join in the adoration of the
Psalmist, “ I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made.”
I do not mean to deny that there is a moral meaning in sick
ness, and moral uses of pain, and that sometimes the spirit within
�54
*
Reading.
[Mar.
puts on a clothing of beauty and grace which transfigures and hal
lows all this clay tabernacle, and shines even brighter through the
rents made in it by disease and suffering. That, however, is when
sickness comes in the order of the Divine Providence, and is re
ceived and accepted as such, and cannot be helped. But the normal
state in which we best serve God and man is health, which means
wholeness,—-wholeness of mind, body and soul, in which all their
consenting harmonies are a song of praise, for then we do not
know where body ends and spirit begins, so perfect are their
chimes and melodies. Very often a violation of physical law
away back in childhood begins with slight derangement, which
grows and grows into growling discords that shake the whole fabric
into dust, just because a person would not read carefully this book,
in which all his members are written, and read it under the injunc
tion, “Pear God and keep his commandments,”-—the prime com
mandments written all over and within you.
III. And we come to a third condition, that in all our reading
we observe carefully the laws of perspective. In reading books
we simply put the glass to our eye for the enlargement of our
vision. The field enlarges in two directions, one direction through
space and one through time; one going round the globe and beyond
the stars, and the other back through the ages to the beginning of
things. But in this immense field things near are more important
to us than things far. He who tries to explore this immense field
indiscriminately will be lost and bewildered. Things that are near
first, things that are far off afterward ; things that lie about me
first, my own state, my own people, involving the questions of to
day, that I may knowhow to act in my own sphere and how to vote
and how best to discharge my duties to the community and coun
try I live in. These come first; and there is biography, and ro
mance which is veined with history, all of which can be selected
and arranged so as to light up the sphere of my personal duties
with growing illumination and kindle the fires of patriotism at the
same time. With this controlling purpose, reading has a plan and
a growing interest, and study and amusement get so blended that
you hardly know where one stops and the other begins. Whether
you are reading the American histories or the Cooper novels, they
all combine to one end. They light up this sphere of American
�1874.]
Reading.
•
55
life and manners and scenery, where the great modern drama is
rolling along in which every young man and woman has a probation
and a part’ to play. Reading with such a plan will be sure to touch
one’s enthusiasm, and when this has once been kindled it is the
pledge of all true progress; for it wakes up a hunger and thirst
which larger plans of reading and improvement are to satisfy.
And then the perspective enlarges in both directions, taking in new
fields of vision as long as we live, and revealing God in all history
and all nature and giving unity to the whole.
IV. And this brings us to religious reading; though if one
reads with a controlling moral purpose, it is all religious, or becomes
so, at last. But then there is a separate class of what are called
distinctively religious books, and it seems to me a capital mistake to
read only what lies down upon our own level. A faith that is worth
having is never gained in that way. It is gained by reading what
is above our level, and demands concentration, and comparison, and
sifting and analysis, and reconstruction, till we are drawn up into
the heart of great subjects and are fired and greatened by the
themes.
Simplicity in religion becomes exceedingly simple when it only
deals in vague generalities ; and then too it becomes exceedingly
commonplace and cold. Why did not the Lord give us merely
the ten commandments and the ten beatitudes, and there leave us,
or why did he not draw up a creed for us to learn out, and so save
time and trouble ? Because we want not merely the command
ments, but we want inspiration and inward power, so that the
obedience be glad, swift and spontaneous; and because the great
doctrines of religion in their glory and amplitude cannot be put
into a creed. They must be learned by a waking up of the facul
ties of the soul to see them in their harmony and beauty, and so
fill us with their warmth and comfort. Hence we have a Bible
which can be studied through a life-time, and on which eight thou
sand years of history are a commentary. And plans of religious
reading well followed are a constant breaking of the seals.
They keep breaking with some as.long as they live, till communion
with God is a prayer without ceasing, and the immortal life is so
nearly realized in this, that the two worlds, the natural and the
spiritual, are only halves of one harmonious system, interlacing
�56
Reading
[Mar.
each other by fine golden threads of intercommunion. But such
faith does not come of itself. It. does not come by prayer merely,
It comes from- plans of reading, thinking, believing and doing,
which a whole life-time is filling up, and which make the truths
of religion and the whole scenery of the spirit-world lie on the land
scapes of the soul with increasing warmth and effulgence.
• Simplicity I The alphabet is very simple. But if you stop with
it, it never unlocks for you the wealth that lies in language. The
first truths of religion are very simple, but if you stop with them
you will never see their power and combination. And that
we may see these, the Lord gives us one-seventh part of our time
for religious reading and thinking, so that the alphabet of religion
may combine in a language that spells out to us more and more .of
the divine riches.
To read with a moral purpose ; to read our own book of life ; to
read with just perspective; to read with a controlling religious aim,
so that the God in history and in. the Bible shall be near us to-day,—
these fourfold conditions once observed, books would not be to us
a wilderness without order. We might carry with us the principles
by which the knowledge we need would form and crystalize and
enlarge forever. To read only what is interesting because it floats
us easily, takes us down stream and takes us nowhere. To read
only to excite the sensibilities over imaginary suffering, makes one
more insensible to the real sufferings that lie in his daily path.
Hence, novel reading as the staple food of the mind, leaves the
intellect barren and the heart colder than ice ; but under a moral
purpose for the enlargement of our horizdn and our knowledge of
men, it has the same end that all history has ; it interprets the
great book of our human life. And the more we read with right
aim and perspective, the more shall we see that all history is a
drama with its unities and catch visions of a divine plan running
through the whole from the beginning, interpreting Divine Reve
lation and showing how every act of the drama prepares the one
which follows and leads on to some glorious catastrophe. The
broad sweep of the Divine Providence across the theatre of this
world will be seen in clearer illumination. The crimes and local
tragedies that harrow and distress us will take their subordinate
places, overruled and utilized in the grand march of humanity
towards its goal.
�Rebecca Amory Lowell.
1871.]
57
Your own consciousness of being involved in this plan will be
come more vivid and more blissful, and your duties in it more im
perative and more delightful. “ I will hide you in a cleft of the
rock,” said Jehovah to his servant, “ and cover your face as I
pass.” That is, you shall not see my face, but you shall see my
train after I have passed along. You shall see me in all past
history if you will read it, though you shall not see me before you
so as to overwhelm and repress your own free and spontaneous
agency. Glorious faith ! that the whole past of the world, includ
ing our own little world of to-day, from the heights of the future
shall be revealed as the bright train where the Infinite Father has
passed along.
REBECCA AMORY LOWELL,
We can imagine that to many of that wide circle who have
associated some of the best memories of their ^es with this
venerated woman, just now taken from our midst, the first thought
as they read her name upon our pages will be that we are doing
. her a wrong "by so public a mention; for, perhaps', tjie most con
spicuous trait in her character w^ that peculiar delicacy and
modesty which made her shrink from publicity and almost refuse
the grateful deference which her rare gifts and graces irresistibly
commanded in the intercourse with society. But, on the other
hand, they will remember that her constant desire always was
how she might best serve others, and there is a power of service
in the record of such a life which she would hardly decline to
render. We feel that few things are more helpful, and more
appropriate to the purpose of this Review, thanihe memorials
• of those who have so adorned and illustrated our Christian faith.
Miss Lowell was born in Boston, Nov. 13, 1794. Iler father
was John Lowell, son of Judge John Lowell, appointed by
Washington Judge of the United States District Court. Her
mother was Rebecca Amory.
8
�58
Rebecca Amory Lowell.
[Mar.
At the age of nine years she accompanied her parents to Europe,
and, during their three-years residence abroad, was placed by
them in a school in Paris, where she surprised her schoolmates by
her intelligence and the rapidity of her acquisitions. She, of
course, acquired the French language and always spoke it with
facility. Even at that early age she read Racine and Fenelon
with delight. When a mere child she evinced a strong love of
letters,\ and soon developed an enthusiasm for the beautiful and
noble in literature, united to a delicate critical taste. But, along
with this fondness for study and this intellectual development, was
a no less remarkable development of character. Her sweet,
gentle disposition made her universally beloved.
She completed her school education in Boston, and at the age
of eighteen she undertook the education of her younger sister,
then four years old, and of a little cousin. To their education
she devoted the best portion of her time for twelve or thirteen
years. After that she taught several of her nephews and nieces,
as opportunity occurred, and a few other pupils. Her method of
teaching was most systematic and painstaking. She attended to
every branch of scholarship, writing for her pupils volumes of
abridged histories, philosophies, &c., in French and in English,
adding, by way of wholesome variety and stimulus, the reading
aloud of poetry and romance and the best selections of light
literatui-e. There was a charm in her voice and in her enthusiasm
which could not fail to inspire the young minds with a desire
for culture and knowledge.
At a later period she was in the habit of receiving classes of
young ladies at her home for the study of history and literature,
and it was her delight besides to lend to young people from her
rich store of books on every subject, and foster in them the love
of useful learning.
Her care for the religious culture of her pupils was as constant
as for their intellectual culture, and-her influence in this direction
was very great. In 1832 she began to teach in the Sundayschool, first at King’s Chapel and then at Dr. Putnam’s, in Rox
bury, and continued this service without interruption till she had
completed her seventieth year. She kept her classes five or six,
and sometimes eight years, till the minds of her pupils became
�1874.]
Rebecca Amory Lowell.
59
mature, adopting, as in her secular instructions, thorough and
systematic methods, bringing in illustrations from every depart
ment of literature and life, and seeking to train them to habits of
accurate and conscientious thought on moral and religious questions
and to stimulate their higher spiritual sentiments and desires.
Very often young men continued in her class till they left for
college or for business life, and some men now in the ministry can
refer to her as one of those to whom they owe the most.
Since the death of her parents, in 1842, Miss Lowell has lived
with her sister in Roxbury, and it is in connection with this portion
of her life that she is chiefly known by the large portion of those
who will read this notice. It was an attractive New 'England
home, furnished without ostentation, but on a generous scale, and
with tokens everywhere of culture and refinement, and the visitor
was sure, not only of hospitable welcome! but of instructive and
profitable occupation. She was ready to be interested^ in every
subject. On all the topics of the day, political or social or literary,
she had clear and decided opinions, and was ready to support them
by argument or by illustration. Her memory was very remarkable,
and her references to history and literature were accurate and full •
of value.
In questions of politics and moral reform she was very liberal.
She was an early opponent of the system of slavery when such a
course was unpopular with many with whom she was associated;
but along with the intensity of her feelings and convictions there
was such sweetness of temper and such tender sensibility that in
her discussions she never wounded another’s feelings, and she won
by the contagion of her sympathy as much as by the force of her
argument.
Her active benevolence was manifested by her generous par
ticipation in all the charitable and philanthropic and religious move
ments of the day. During these many years there have been
few benevolent undertakings in this community to whichrshe has
not contributed, of counsel or money or of actual service, and
she was ready to give her aid to causes or to individuals of what
ever name or nation, with a sympathy as wide as humanity. One
who knew it well fitly describes hers as “ a life shared in just pro
portion between good deeds and gopd books, between the activity
�60
•
Rebecca Amory LoiveTl.
[Mar.
of kindness and the repose of culture,” “ such a life as does not
go out in darkness, but leaves a long trail of blessed influences
behind.” If we could summon the many men and women, now
adorning society, who could testify that they have been indebted
to her or to that home for much of what is most valuable in the r
character, we should realize how great and abiding the influence
has been.
i
It remains only to speak of her religious character. She was a
devoted Unitarian. Her interest in this form of faith began in
the days of Dr. Freeman, for whom she had a great veneration.
Afterwards she enjoyed, greatly Dr. Channing, and shared in his
opinions, and she was always earnestly watchful of everything that
pertained to the interests of this denomination. She was liberal
and open to every ne r phase of thought, and her convictions
were all grounded in reason; but nothing could disturb
the clearness and serenity of her faith. God was indeed her
Father, and Jesus was her Master and her guide and her most
loved Friend. She had a humble, childlike piety, and she culti- *
vated it by daily devout reading and meditation, and it pervaded
her whole being. In her activities and in her studies and in her
conversation she seemed to carry with her the air of this communion
with the unseen. It shone in her countenance and it gave her a
1
peculiar sweetness and charm. She retained to the very day of
her death perfect vigor of mind and freshness of feeling, with her
last words testifying to the glad assurance of her Christian faith.
We have tried only to give in simplest outlines a sketch of her
character, striving not to offend that sense of delicacy which would
forbid words of eulogy, and all the while, as we have remembered
how all this rare excellence kept itself from observation, we have j
rejoiced to think that there is much of this highest-type of Chris
tian living, nestled, fair and perfect, beneath the showy life of our
time — as the lily of the valley, of which she was always peculiarly •
fond, hides its fragrance and beauty under its broad, green leaves.
�
Dublin Core
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Reading: a sermon
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Sears, Edmund Hamilton [1810-1876]
Description
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Place of publication: Boston
Collation: 50-57 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: Edmund Hamilton Sears was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th century liberal Protestants. Sears is known today primarily as the man who penned the words to "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" in 1849. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From the Unitarian Review and Religious Magazine. Vol. 1 (March 1874). For content of complete issue see: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.8906965 (accessed 11/2017).
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[Unitarian Review and Religious Magazine]
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[1874]
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G5435
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Sermons
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Reading: a sermon), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Reading