the fruit of this spirit...

Computer problems and a busy weekend kept me away from a new post for a few days. Rev. Buckminster returns this morning with a wonderful sermon that locates our misapprehensions about religion, not in doctrine but in temper...no matter your religious views, may the fruits of righteousness, peace and joy be yours.

"MISAPPREHENSIONS AS TO THE NATURE OF RELIGION.

Romans, XIV. 17. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT MEAT AND DRINK; BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND PEACE, AND JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST.

In these words are described, with much truth and conciseness, the nature and the effect of religion. It consists in the practice of righteousness, and it is accompanied with a spirit of peace and joy, resulting from an habitual confidence in God, the author of all moral and religious happiness... that contented and joyful state of mind, which belongs to a man of real devotion, who possesses confidence towards God, and that filial spirit which makes duty easy, afflictions light, death harmless, futurity promising, and the whole course of the Christian life cheerful, active, and full of expectation...

The spirit of Christianity is that which is peculiar and essential to it, and which may exist where its forms are impracticable, and where the terms of belief are not defined. It is that which constitutes a man a Christian always, and everywhere ; in his church or in his family, in his prayers or his pleasures, in the fullness of his strength or in the last fainting exercises of his expiring life.

1. The spirit of our religion is, first, then, a spirit of faith. This always has been, and always must be the earliest principle of a religious character. For it approximates what is remote, it illustrates what is obscure, makes us see what is invisible, feel what is intellectual, realize as present what is actually future, and receive as strictly certain, what is in truth only highly probable. As the apostle says, it is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen and future. The spirit of faith is also a spirit of confidence in God, like that of a child in the paternal character of a father, or like that of a pupil in the superior wisdom and information of a master. The Christian feels the highest trust in the wisdom of God, and a tranquillizing persuasion of the benevolence of his designs

2. The spirit of Christianity is, secondly, a spirit of devotion. God, who compasseth the path of his servants is also in all their thoughts. The idea of God can never present itself to the mind of a real Christian, when he is not prepared to entertain it; therefore it is never unpleasant, never oppressive. He sees God in everything; the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary, the minute, as well as the vast; the painful, the pleasant, the material, the intellectual...

3. The spirit of Christianity is, thirdly, a spirit of love. I need not here repeat the passages, which assure us that he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him. If there ever was a scheme which had love for its origin, its tendency, and its consummation, it is that of the gospel. The man who embraces it, shares a benefit with millions of individuals, it may be of worlds. It is impossible for a man, who is interested in the mediation of the Son of God, ever to feel as if he were alone in the world; for, in his relation to Jesus, he is bound to others by that fine union of sentiment, which cannot be felt in the perishing connexions of time. Christianity binds us so closely to the happiness of the universe, that the Christian rejoices continually in the prospect of good...

4. Once more ; the spirit of Christianity is a spirit of joy. Not that the tranquillity of a Christian is not liable to be disturbed by the pains and sufferings of human nature, or that he exhibits the inconsiderate folly of the perpetually riotous and gay. But the state of his affections should be that of humble and devoted tranquillity. To rejoice in the paternal character of a being of whose presence you can never be unconscious, to adore a being of whose protection you can never despair, or whose direction of your lot you can never suppose to be otherwise than merciful and just, is surely all that can be necessary to permanent joy...

My friends, I can extend these remarks no further. Believe me, whatever we may call ourselves, whatever, in the hour of occasional reflection, we may wish to be, it remains as certain as the word of God, he that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his, and the fruit of this spirit will always be righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. May God correct our errors, inspire our breasts, and teach us to feel the spirit of his religion."

Blessings