one God—thus maintaining what the reason rejects as a manifest contradiction; while neither party has a distinct and rational view of the relation that exists between God, man's Creator, and the Lord, his Saviour—few or none understanding and acknowledging that these are one and the same Divine Being—at once God and Lord, at once Creator and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only God. Again, in regard to heaven and hell and the life after death, how few and vague are the ideas entertained—one portion indeed of the Christian world, and that a sect of considerable and increasing numbers (the Universalists), disbelieving and denying the existence of any hell or state of evil at all after death; and the great majority of Christians maintaining, at least in doctrine, (though often, doubtless, in their private reflections, having a more enlightened view) that the myriads yearly dying and already dead, will not rise again to life till some future distant day—and that all the long interval between is a dismal blank in their existence; for such, we know, is the common doctrine of the resurrection. Again, the Divine Word itself, the great and chief source of religious light—how (in the view of most men) is it covered with clouds and obscurity! Not being able to penetrate through the veil of the letter to the glorious truths that lie beneath, they see only its darkened surface—chequered with alternate light and shade—with the truth only seen dimly here and there, like the sun gleaming through clouds. And how many, being nearly in despair, have been inclined to throw away entirely the sacred
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