Vigils Reading

A reading from

ST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

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Persons are aware from the mere force of the doctrines of which the

gospel consists, that they ought to be variously affected, and deeply and

intensely too, in consequence of them. The doctrines of original and actual sin,

of Christ’s divinity and atonement, and of holy baptism, are so vast, that no one

can realize them without very complicated and profound feelings. Natural

reason tells us this, and that if we simply and genuinely believe the doctrines, we

must have these feelings; and we profess to believe the doctrines absolutely, and

therefore we profess the correspondent feelings. But in truth we perhaps do not

really believe them absolutely…and therefore our profession of feeling outruns

the real inward existence of feeling, or we become unreal. Let us never lose sight

of two truths, – that we ought to have our hearts penetrated with the love of

Christ and full of self-renunciation; but if they be not, professing that they are

does not make them so.

Another still more common form of the same fault, yet without any

definite pretense or effort, is the mode in which people speak of the shortness

and vanity of life, the certainty of death, and the joys of heaven. They have

commonplaces in their mouths, which they bring forth upon occasions for the

good of others, or to console them, or as a proper and becoming mark of

attention towards them. Thus they speak to clergymen in a professedly serious

way, making remarks true and sound, and in themselves deep, yet unmeaning

in their mouths; or they give advice to children and young men; or perhaps in

low spirits or sickness they are led to speak in a religious strain as if it was

spontaneous.

Or when they fall into sin, they speak of being frail, of the deceitfulness of

the human heart, of God’s mercy, and so on: – all of these great words, heaven,

hell, judgment, mercy, repentance, works, the world that now is, the world to

come, being little more than “lifeless sounds, whether of pipe or harp,” in their

mouths and ears, as the “very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and

can play well on an instrument,” – as the properties of conversation, or the

civilities of good breeding.

I am speaking of the conduct of the world at large, called Christian; but

what has been said applies, and necessarily, to the case of a number of well-

disposed or even religious men. I mean, that before we come to know the

realities of human life, it is not wonderful that our view of religion should be

unreal. Young people who have never known sorrow or anxiety, or the sacrifices

which conscientiousness involves, want commonly that depth and seriousness

of character, which sorrow only and anxiety and self-sacrifice can give.

I do not notice this as a fault, but as a plain fact, which may often be seen,

and which it is well to bear in mind. This is the legitimate use of this world, to

make us seek for another. It does its part when it repels us and disgusts us and

drives us elsewhere. Experience of it gives experience of that which is its

antidote, in the case of religious minds; and we become real in our view of what

is spiritual by the contact of things temporal and earthly.