ON THE RESURRECTION. PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR CHRISTIAN CONSIDERATION DURING EASTER. SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH DIVINES. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THE REV. HENRY STEBBING, M.A. LONDON: John Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly; WHITTAKER & CO. AVE-MARIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, MDCCCXXXV. J. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. THE influence of Christianity on the state of the world is acknowledged, but it is not estimated with any degree of care or exactness: many are the moral forces which it brings to bear on every portion of society; but who thinks of attempting to measure or reckon up the almost countless effects which result from their action? Whatever may have been said of the weakness of human reason, in its conflicts with passion and a perverse will, men of elevated thought have at all times exercised a very conspicuous influence over the opinions of their fellow-men. The ancient systems of philosophy were, without exception, based on the supposition that we require much help from wisdom to make us happy; that good has to be sought and protected by many a complicated process of reason; and that there is a constant struggle through the whole range of existence between happiness and misery, and right and wrong. In the mass of argument, of persuasive exhortations and maxims, which was accumulated in the illustration of these systems, every faculty of the human mind was appealed to, every chord of the human heart sometimes made to thrill with deep and intense emotion. The impressions thus produced on those who occupied the highest stations in the schools of wisdom, were gradually communicated to the humblest of their brethren; and large classes of society were thereby imbued with feelings which confessed the power of those mighty master spirits who ventured to examine the laws and tendencies of being. But in the little practical influence which the united systems of philosophy possessed, we find a demonstration of the melancholy fact, that that which flows from the heart or intellect of man, has an inherent imperfection, which prevents it from effecting any important improvement in human nature. The reasonableness, the truth, and beauty of all that genius creates may be felt; but the homage we render it is the homage of admiration, not of subjection; and in rendering this there is a consciousness of equality, which deprives the voice of the eloquent and praise-rewarded teacher of most of his authority. Thus the ancient world was not without light on many points of elevated morality; nor did it wholly fail in recognizing the power of those inward principles on which, as on an everlasting |