the book of human nature...

Channing's great message was the dignity of human nature and in this continuation of yesterday's sermon he states it in noble terms. 

"II.-—This leads us to consider the voice of Wisdom that utters itself from the Spiritual World, the world of moral and intelligent beings, the Humanity of which we each form a part. This topic is immense. For the book of Human Nature has no end. New pages are added to it ever day through successive generations. The moral and religious truths, which Wisdom may draw from the human soul, from human life, from human experience, cannot be exhausted. Prom these I shall select one great lesson only, which all history attests. This lesson is that there is in human nature-an.element truly Divine, and^worthy of all reverence /that the Infinite which is mirrored in the outward Universe is yet more brightly imaged in the inward Spiritual world; or, in other words, that man has powers and.principles, predicting a destiny to which no bound"can be prescribed, which are full of mystery, and even more incomprehensible than those revealed through the material creation...

[A reason that we have this false view of human nature] "is that most men rest in a half-wisdom, which is worse than ignorance. They who speak most contemptuously of man tell the truth, but only half the truth. The wounds and sores of human nature, which they delight to expose, are real. In condemning human crimes they invent nothing, they exaggerate nothing. History and experience do testify to a widespread taint of selfishness and injustice in our Race. They, who assert the greatness of human nature, do not differ on this point from its vituperators. They do not bandage their eyes. They see as much of guilt as the man of worldly wisdom. But here lies the difference between them and the worldly wise. Amidst the passions and selfishness of men they see another element—a Divine element, a Spiritual Principle. They.see powers and affections always struggling against evil in the human heart, which are celestial in their nature, and which speak of an immortal destiny. In these they discern the true interpretation of Human Nature, in its origin and its end. Let us avoid half-wisdom. It is the root of the most fatal prejudice. We wrong individuals not so much by falsely ascribing to them defects, as by taking one-sided views of their characters as a whole...

But I do not stop here. If I did, I should lose the great lesson that Wisdom proclaims from every page of history. This lesson is, that Man, with all his errors, is a wonderful being, endowed with incomprehensible grandeur, worthy of his own incessant vigilance and care, worthy to be visited with Infinite Love from Heaven. The Infinite is imaged in him more visibly than in the outward Universe...

As yet, we have but approached the true greatness of Human Nature. We corne now to views of the Soul which thrill us with transport, for the utterance of which all language is feeble, and towards which all thought is but a , faint approximation. Man, though human by nature, is \/ capable of conceiving the~Idea of God, of entering into strong, close, tender and purifying relations with God, and even of participating in God's Perfection and Happiness. We hear this great truth unmoved. It is a truth to wake the dead! It ought to exalt our whole life into joy. What I have thus far said is but a preparation, for this. I have - spoken of the principle of the Right, the Good, the Holy. But without this Idea of God—the Perfect Being—the moral principle would pine and die in its conflict with evil. I have spoken of the unbounded tendencies and aspirations of this principle; but without an Infinite Father for their object and support, such aspirations would be vain yearnings, and would soon give room to despair. This moral nature within us, so alive to the Right, is still weak and imperfect, needing to be nourished, fortified and fulfilled by communion with Supreme Excellence. It needs a Perfect Being for its love...

And now it may be asked, what are the practical uses of these views ? I answer, the greatest of all truths are the most quickening. And to nothing so much as to the obscurity, that eclipses them, is the low standard of the Christian World to be traced. Again is it asked, why I am so anxious to declare these views of human nature now ? I answer, I prize these views because they confirm my faith in Jesus Christ, and give reality to the great hope that Christianity sets before us. Jesus came, as he taught us, to create men after the likeness of God, to breathe into men a divine virtue, and to prepare them for the heavenly life...

Another practical use of the views now given of human nature is this. In proportion as they are received, they will transform essentially our modes of relationship, communication, and association with our fellow-beings. They will exalt us into a New Social Life. Indeed they will give an entirely new character to social intercourse. That intercourse must be determined by the estimate we form of human nature. He, who looks on man as little better than a brute, will live with men as brutes...With this great truth in his heart a man cannot insult a fellow-man, for he beholds the Divine in the Human. He can call no being low in whom his own highest powers and affections are wrapped up. Can you conceive then of a truth so practical as this doctrine of the greatness of man as a moral being ? It will create a New Earth...

My friends, how little do we know ourselves! How unjust are we to ourselves! We study everything else but the Divine Principle within our own Persons. The truth may be on our lips. But in how few hearts does it live! We need a New Revelation—not of Heaven or of Hell— 'but of the Spirit within ourselves."

Blessings