The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher; In Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MINISTRATION OF PAIN. " For I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in ua." The Hebrew was not, according to our modern interpretation ofthnl. term, of a philosophical nature. The Greek generated ideas in the intellect; and they pertained mostly to beauty and to the imagination. The Hebrew, deep in nature, gave forth his ideas from his heart. They were therefore more moods of fervent emotion. The expression of his philosophy was not the expression of a train of intellectual thought. It was, rather, somc form of experience set forth. The Apostle Paul, more than any other one of the writers of the liible, united these two elements ? the logical, intellectual power of the Greek mind, and the profound, emotive nature of the Hebrew mind. Therefore you shall find (and this is the peculiar difficulty in the interpretation of the Apostle Paul's writings) that while he maintains a certain exterior form of argument, or philosophical statement, it is, as it were, exploded here and there continually by the unbidden and tumultuous outpourings of his heart. And no man can interpret correctly who cannot bring himself into sympathy both with the inspiration which comes from deep inward moral life, and with philosophical forms and processes. Now, the eighth Chapter of Romans, it seems to me, is the greatest feat of moral philosophy that has ever been performed in this world. It is deeper, more comprehensive, and therefore more difficult in the form in which it stands, than any other part of Scripture. It may be exiled an epitome of Paul's philosophy of the itnircrse. Almost every moral question ever agitated finds some recognition here. Its very difficulties arise from the number and importance of the ...