Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/173

Rh service of use in society? Supposing, for instance, that the will and understanding of man are principled in charity and faith, and that these heavenly graces in the inner man do not extend their influence to the outer man, so as to fix themselves in good works, and thus to bring forth their proper fruits, what must be the necessary, but terrible consequence? Will not those principles presently stagnate for want of circulation? Or (to change the metaphor), will they not be like birds flying aloft in the upper regions of the atmosphere, hut never descending to the earth to build their nests and produce their young? Will not the man himself, too, be an imperfect man, and comparatively like a head and heart destitute of arms and hands to execute their purposes? Will he not also be an unhappy man, since employment, especially if under the guidance of love and wisdom, or of goodness and truth, is one of the principal sources of happiness; agreeable to the express words of the, “If ye know these things, are ye if ye do them?” [John xiii. 17.]. Will not therefore the very religion of such a man be vain, since the manifest end and design of all true religion is, not to make a man idle and unprofitable, but rather active and useful, by bringing his charity and faith into operation; and thus rendering him an