William M'combie

Modern Civilisation in Relation to Christianity William M'combie

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864. Excerpt: ... exertion is but a passing phase; that, in its higher as well as in its lower forms it will be overcome; that human life shall yet be purified from that soul-selfishness which is mainly taken up with "my own salvation," as well as from that secular selfishness which looks only to " my own profit." Man, as a savage, cares but for himself, or, if for any beyond himself, at most only for those to whom his passions and affections immediately attach him. The ties that bind men to each other multiply with their culture and their artificial or acquired wants. Relations of mutual interest are now established between the most distant peoples, and they increase and extend just in proportion as new wants arise, or more come to experience them. The various classes of men, and the various nations of the world are now interested in each other as they never were before. They cannot help being so though they would. They are not only impelled, they are compelled. We now require our brother's services so much that we must, in a sense, become his keeper. And to be so after the fashion of the Southern Planter, or His Holiness the Pope, will not longer do. Coercion by the will of another is an anachronism whether it be physical or spiritual. The cords of organic life are taking the place of external force. Yet synchronous with this there is going on an equally distinct and manifest process of disintegration. Wherever there are old political and social organisations, save in Christendom alone, this process may be observed. In Turkey, in China, in Japan we find the one common fact--a tendency to anarchy and social dissolution. In India our dominion has been interposed in arrest, so far, of the same process. Indeed, it will be due to the agency and influence of the Christian nati...