Proteus or unity in nature.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland, 1822-1889.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proteus or unity in nature. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Perseus was, before he can hope to get the better of the Gorgon, or spirit of evil in one shape or another, whose will it is to prevent him from gaining the object of his hope, his Andromeda, by turning him to stone. Nay he can not quite get rid of the fear that he is already punished in this manner in some measure for failing to secure these gifts, for may it not be that he is partially de- vitalized, materialized, turned into stone, whenever he- persists in mistaking, as he does do continually, matter for spirit, death for life, a dead idol for the living God ? And if he can arrive at this point he has not to go much further in order to be able to accept as true what is more clearly revealed in Holy Scripture about faith and prayer and spiritual gifts and the necessity for self-sacrifice, for he will be quite prepared to allow that the many defi- ciencies in human nature of which he is so painfully con- scious can only be remedied when that is imparted by which human nature is assimilated to the Divine Nature —when, in fact, the prayer of Christ for His disciples is answered, even this— that they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us—that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Instead of being staggered by these words, he will cling to them as containing the fullest assurance of the truth of the doctrine about which so much has been said, the doctrine of unity in diversity and diversity in unity, with the Divine Being as the centre of unity. Instead of looking upon faith and prayer generally as of necessity opposed to law, he will recognize in these acts the natural means by which he is to attain to his full stature as the image of God. Step by step along a firm pathway he will arrive at this conclusion, and at every step he will feel less disposed