According to the first
Law of Motion, every body continues in its state of rest, or of
uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be
compelled _by impressed forces_ to change that state. This is also a
first law of Christianity. Every man's character remains as it is, or
continues in the direction in which it is going, until it is compelled
_by impressed forces_ to change that state. Our failure has been the
failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces. There is
a clay, and there is a Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould
the clay.
Whence, then, these pressures, and where this Potter? The answer of
the formula is--"By reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord we
are changed." But this is not very clear. What is the "glory" of the
Lord, and how can mortal man reflect it, and how can that act as an
"impressed force" in moulding him to a nobler form? The word
"glory"--the word which has to bear the weight of holding those
"impressed forces"--is a stranger in current speech, and our first
duty is to seek out its equivalent in working English.
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