Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 by T. W. Allies

Author:T. W. Allies [Allies, T. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 4064066184414
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2021-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

Sunday, July 30.—I have just heard at S. Roch a sermon which lasted more than an hour and a quarter, delivered, for the most part, with great rapidity, and a vehemence of tone and action which would have frightened an English audience. The preacher, l'Abbé Du——, showed very considerable power both of thought and expression. I should have preferred a less rhetorical display, both in manner and matter. But power there certainly was. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, saith the Lord." He began by saying we were all under the reign of a sophism; this sophism was, under a great variety of shapes, the preferring the present life to the future. He then dwelt with great force and beauty on our Saviour's life on earth, that He was God, and that He was a carpenter; that He worked for his daily bread. Now God can do nothing but what is perfectly good and wise; therefore, when He assumed this servile condition, it was a work of perfect wisdom and goodness. He came to do His Father's will. And this one condition runs through all degrees of human society, alone making them acceptable to God,—to do God's will. Glory, genius, success, the wonder and admiration of our fellow men; all this is nothing. To do the will of God will alone open the kingdom of heaven—Jesus Christ stands ready to open the kingdom of heaven to generation after generation of those who, sealed by the fore-knowledge of God, and working with His grace, do His will—and to those alone. There was no key to the present state of things, to these terrible conflicts, this incessant agitation, but one; that life was but a day's labour, an hour's—nothing in comparison of eternity. This life was not the proper condition of humanity. It was fallen—the Saviour's proper work was to restore it to its normal condition; but that normal condition can never be here. Here it is a work of reparation, slow, painful, full of obstacles in proportion to the depth of the fall, but always merciful. Who would give a patient the full nourishment which he could take in health? Now, here we are all patients of Jesus—all—and to our latest moment. We shall never return to our normal condition on earth, but in eternity. You are all workmen and workwomen; idleness is a capital sin—idleness will shut out from heaven—Jesus Christ has taught us to work, every one in his estate. The work is one, though the condition may vary,—to do God's will. It will not be asked us whether we had genius, skill, power to embrace the works of God in our thought; but one thing only will be asked us,—whether we have done our work; that very work which God set us,—to do His will. And this is why society is suffering now to its utmost depths. This world is made the end, the limit, the object, the reward—eternity is put out of sight. "On a ôté Jesus Christ au travailleur de la pensée, au travailleur de l'art, au travailleur de la terre.

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