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as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over ground which has been dignified by wisdom , bravery , or virtue . That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon , or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona . " Whether the eloquent enthusiasm of this writer was not raised in this celebrated passage beyond what the occasion absolutely called for , may
possibly be made a question ; but the principle to which he refers is a very important one , and exerts a material influence on the mental and moral character of man . In this sense , and it is a sense which is far from being practically uninteresting or unimportant , we may admit that the presence of God is more immediately and sensibly manifested in some places than in others . The principle has no doubt been greatly abused and perverted at all times to the purposes of superstition and imposture ; but that is no
reason why it may not be applied to a useful and beneficial purpose . The shrines and altars to which pilgrimages have been undertaken , and where offerings have been made during the ages of ignorance , in imagined expiation of unrepented guilt , are doubtless among the most remarkable proofs that ignorance is too often the mother , not of devotion in any desirable sense of the word , but of the most absurd prejudices , the most debasing superstition , the most immoral practices . But if on tracing the precincts of
Athens , where every step brings the traveller to the scene of some memorable incident ; if on surveying the still admirable and beautiful remnants of Grecian art which that classic ground even yet displays , the lover of ancient literature , and of every thing that is eminent or dignified in human nature , is impressed with extraordinary emotions ; if , when standing on the Mount of Olives or the banks of the lake of Galilee , he feels his heart warmed by a peculiar glow of affectionate interest and holy reverence , and can almost
imagine himself present when the same spots were rendered sacred by the miracles and discourses of our blessed Lord , is there any thing unreasonable in the conjecture that hereafter there will be manifested a similar prevalence of local associations , and that , while we believe that in all parts of the universe the presence as well as tlie immediate agency of the Great Supreme equally exists , there may yet be some places more fitted than others to bring this great truth forcibly home to our imaginations ? If it should be so , then , relatively to us such places will deserve the name of a local heaven .
As for the precise locality to be assigned to any peculiarly eminent display of the Divine presence and perfections , it is needless to add , that any attempt to indulge in such unauthorized speculations would be foolish and impertinent ; not less so than the equally groundless and extravagant conjectures to be found in the writings of eminent men , whose imaginations have outrun
their judgment , respecting the place of future punishment . These are among the hidden things which belong unto the Lord our God , and which , no doubt , for the wisest and most excellent reasons , he has seen fit to veil in awful but complete and impenetrable obscurity * Let us not attempt in such things to be wise beyond what is written . W . T .
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454 On the Locality of a Future State .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 454, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/22/
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