Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/190

184 not large, generous, loving and all-embracing, but narrow, selfish, conceited and unprogressive.

The very opposite of all this are the spirit and doctrines of the New Church. These doctrines everywhere exalt charity or love above faith or belief, and teach us to judge people by their lives rather than by their creeds. They teach us to think and speak as kindly of those who differ from, as of those who agree with us in doctrine, and to regard and treat as brethren in Christ, all who exhibit a Christian temper and live a Christian life. They teach us that all who have the Master's spirit, are owned and accepted of Him; that perfect agreement in forms of faith is neither to be expected nor desired; that variety is the truly divine order in the moral no less than in the physical universe; that the Word of God is an infinite Fountain where all souls may drink and be refreshed;—a Fountain from which some may draw higher and purer, otbers lower and cruder, forms of truth, according to the purity of their motives, the strength of their trust, the measure of their obedience, and the completeness of their self-abnegation. They teach us that there are "many mansions" in the heavenly Father's house, corresponding to the many kinds and degrees of good in men, and to the many forms of faith or phases of truth; and that all who earnestly seek to know and humbly strive to do his will,