grim piety...

A. P. Peabody served as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard from 1860 to 1881 (and as professor emeritus until his death.)  The following excerpt comes from one of his later works, "Christian Morals: A Series of Lectures."  The lecture is "Moral Beauty" in which Peabody decries a certain kind of "corpse cold" piety...

"As the beautiful in nature is more than the useful, so is the beautiful in action and in character more than the good. Straight lines and sharp angles do not look beautiful to the eye; nor in life, speech, and conduct do they seem beautiful to the mind. In natural beauty the lines seem continuous, so gently does curve melt into curve. In character, however good, there is no beauty in sharp angles, in brusquerie, rudeness, abruptness, least of all, in fits of goodness which have their beginnings and endings, with the life, though not bad, on a lower plane, in the intervals. Even when there is no lack of continuity, a character may have inflexible rectitude, literal veracity, habits sedulously conformed in the smallest minutiae to the rule of right, and it may have our entire approval, our sincere though cold admiration, yet may have no beauty. There is a style of goodness that reminds one of a skeleton hung on wires, in which conscience is unrestingly active, but the imagination torpid even to death, — which repels sympathy, and makes virtue unlovely. A heaven thus peopled would seem no paradise. Grim piety may be of subjective worth to the individual soul, but its objective value would be represented by a negative sign."

Blessings

the most persuasive argument...

From an 1835 edition of "The Unitarian" magazine (the final issue before it became part of "The Christian Register") A.P. Peabody provides a timeless lesson for Unitarians...

"A Holy Life the Most Persuasive Argument...

Reader, are you a Unitarian ? you have embraced what you regard, not as an obscure and unreasonable, but as a definite, rational, and scriptural system of faith, to which many of your fellow-Christians are warmly opposed. Their opposition to you is sincere, conscientious. They honestly fear that your doctrine is not according to godliness, — that it will not bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. Upon many of them argument will have no effect, for their fears will make them deaf to argument. But the eloquence of a holy life may win them. You believe that your system is preeminently adapted to form pure and holy characters. Show, then, the superior value of your faith by your works. Be tolerant even to the intolerant, liberal to the illiberal, charitable to the uncharitable. Be faithful to every religious, every social, every personal duty. Keep the will of God constantly before you as your rule of action. Be not disheartened, though opposition hold out long, and still seem as violent as ever; for, by persevering in a good course, if you win not the favour of man, you at least gain that of God. And in time, those who now oppose you may be brought, if not to believe with you, at least to hold fellowship with you. And then you will have the satisfaction of having overcome their enmity, without having employed a single unchristian art or weapon. Such victories have been won."

Blessings

the far heaven of religious joy...

Yesterday's post reminded me of this sermon by Theodore Parker.  Best known, of course, for his fiery denunciation of slavery and injustice, and for pushing the limits of the Unitarian establishment, Parker was also deeply pious, and his "Sermons of Religion" are a BU favorite.  Their flavor is given in this excerpt:

"There is no great growth in manly piety without fire to conceive, and then painstaking to reproduce the idea,— without the act of prayer, the act of industry. The act of prayer,— that is the one great vital means of religious growth; the resolute desire and the unconquerable will to be the image of a perfect man; the comparison of your actual day with your ideal dream; the rising forth, borne up on mighty pens, to fly towards the far heaven of religious joy. Fast as you learn a truth, moral, affectional, or religious, apply the special truth to daily life, and you increase your piety. So the best school for religion is the daily work of common life, with its daily discipline of personal, domestic, and social duties,— the daily work in field or shop, market or house, " the charities that soothe and heal and bless."

Blessings

emancipated from the thralldom of appearances...

Ulysses G.B. Pierce concludes his summary of methods that Epictetus advises if one is to live a life of philosophy.

"The law of use and disuse is also invoked by the teacher. By this law old manners and habits vanish away through disuse, and new habits are established by continuous practice. Here is the law: Darwin could have stated it no more clearly: " Every skill and faculty is maintained and increased by the corresponding acts; as the faculty of walking by walking. And thus it is in spiritual things also. When thou art wrathful, know that not this single evil hath happened to thee, but that thou hast increased the aptness to it, and, as it were, poured oil upon the fire. Wouldst thou then be no longer of a wrathful temper? Then do not nourish the aptness to it, give it nothing that will increase it, be tranquil from the outset, and number the days when thou hast not been wrathful . . . but if thou hast saved thirty days, then sacrifice to God in thanksgiving."Thus it is that old and vicious habits may be extirpated and wholesome manners developed.

Self-examination also has an important place. The disciple must watch himself as he would an enemy. He must know how the matter stands with himself. Epictetus commends to his followers the lines of Pythagoras:

Let sleep not come upon thy languid eyes
Before each daily action thou hast scanned;
What's done amiss, what done, what left undone;
From first to last examine all, and then
Blame what is wrong, in what is right rejoice.

 Epictetus also avails himself of the law of auto-suggestion. The principles of philosophy are to become part of ourselves, finding lodgement in the subconscious and becoming a second nature; so that these principles may uphold and guide one even in sleep or in despondency.

Furthermore the power of visualization is utilized. The disciple is to have always before him the form and type of character to which he aspires, the mental picture of the perfection toward which he would grow. As a sort of super-self this image must transform us into its own likeness...his recital of methods, by no means exhaustive, will suffice to show how seriously Epictetus regarded the matter. For what he contemplates is nothing less than the highest virtue of which man is capable and the fulfilment of the promise of our spiritual nature. So he admonishes us: " Hold thyself worthy to live as a man of full age and as one who is pressing forward; and let everything that appeareth the best be to thee as an inviolable law." 91 Thus the wise man and good is to educate and discipline his moral faculties until he is emancipated from the thralldom of appearances and finds himself superior to the pressure of circumstance. Such an endeavor issues in tranquillity, magnanimity, freedom ; and the Stoic, " while imprisoned in this mortal body, makes fellowship with God his aim."

Blessings

Wouldst thou be good?...

What, according to Ulysses G.B. Pierce, is the Stoic way of life?  How does one start along this path? Today and tomorrow, a brief overview.  I, for one, am reminded strongly of Henry Ware Jr...

"Therefore the first step of progress is the laying aside of all self-assurance and complacency. The disciple must become a fool, in order that he may become wise: he must empty himself of all vanity before he can be filled with wisdom. " Wouldst thou be good ? " he asks; " then first know that thou art evil." Therefore the beginning of philosophy is the consciousness of our own weakness...

Moreover the disciple is cautioned not to announce the fact that he is " taking a course in philosophy." He is to make no proclamation of his new resolve, and is not to speak much of things philosophic. " Fruit grows thus: the seed must be buried for some time, hid, grow slowly in order that it may come to perfection. Let the root grow, then acquire the first joint, then the second, and then the third: in this way the fruit will naturally force itself out." ...

Epictetus next recommends that the new resolve be aided by a new mental and moral environment. As physicians advise a change of climate, so the disciple should make for himself a new and congenial atmosphere. " Do you also introduce other habits than those which you have: fix your opinions and exercise yourself in them. Fly from your former habits, fly from the vulgar, if you intend ever to begin to be something."...

Blessings
(Photo:  the Door of Humility, Bethlehem)

no royal road...

To my way of thinking, one of the most important ideas advanced by the Boston Unitarians was that of salvation as a continuous work, a "path of progress."  Ulysses G.B. Pierce reports that Stoicism (via Epictetus) says much the same...

"From the foregoing it must be obvious that such a faith as Epictetus contemplates is not to be attained in a day or without great effort. Nor does the great Stoic so imagine. He indulges no illusions on the subject. The life according to nature must obey the universal law of growth. " Nothing great," he warns us, " is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time. Is then the fruit of a fig-tree not perfected suddenly and in an hour, and would you possess the fruit of a man's mind in so short a time and so easily ? " The path of virtue is a path of progress. For virtue not only may be taught, but it must be taught. The moral heights cannot be scaled, but are to be gained only by a long and tortuous ascent. Towards these moral summits the teacher himself leads the way, at once guide and companion; and Epictetus gives his followers certain definite instructions regarding what is at best a long and difficult journey.

At the outset it should be observed that Epictetus holds out no false and alluring hopes to those who seek his instruction. There is no royal road to philosophy. The disciple must come prepared to " scorn delights, and live laborious days." He must be willing to be laughed at and mocked. Like an athlete, he must go into training. He should count the cost ere ever he enter the lists. For Epictetus wishes no halfhearted disciples. " You must watch, you must labor; overcome certain desires; quit your familiar friends, submit to be despised by your servant, to be held in derision by them that meet you, to take the lower place in all things, in office, in positions of authority, in courts of law. Weigh these things fully, and then, if you will, lay to your hand."

Blessings

every spot is home...

Before his long and influential ministry at All Souls in Washington DC, Ulysses G.B. Pierce served congregations in Decorah, Iowa,  Pomona, CA, and Ithaca, NY.  Here is more from the introduction to "The Creed of Epictetus"...

"It is by virtue of this belief in the universal Providence that we have the Stoic conception of the World Citizen. We are to name ourselves after the most lordly of our dwellings, not after the most miserable. Therefore Epictetus commends to us the habit of Socrates who, upon being asked what was his native place, was wont to claim, not Athens or Corinth, but the universe. And with Epictetus this is no mere figure of speech, but a truth leading to many practical conclusions. For thus man is to regard himself as a living member of the universe, a citizen not an alien, a fellow-member not merely an integral part. The world is his Fatherland, and every spot is Home. " Can any man," he asks, " cast me out of the universe? He cannot; but whithersoever I may go, there will be the sun, and the moon, and there the stars, and visions, and omens, and communion with the Gods." And being members of the family universal, we are to hold nothing as profitable for self that does not contribute to the good of the whole. For as the foot is useless and dead save as a member of the body, so the individual fulfils himself only through this universal relationship. To keep this kinship inviolate and to suffer nothing to sever this relationship must be the constant aim. The good man, accordingly, is he who submits himself to God just as the good citizen submits himself to the laws of the state.

A direct inference from the belief in God as Father relates to the nobility and worth of man. For by origin, nature, capacity, vocation, and destiny man's divine ancestry is witnessed. If he could fully appreciate this truth, never would he think meanly or ignobly of himself. If kinship with Caesar would exalt one, what should be the elation upon knowing that we are sons of God! And should not this avail to rescue us from all despondency and to set us free from all fear?"

Blessings