Divinity School Address

College Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838 loc: 1416

One is constrained to respect the perfection of this world, in which our senses converse. How wide; how rich; what invitation from every property it gives to every faculty of man! loc: 1424

But when the mind opens, and reveals the laws which traverse the universe, and make things what they are, then shrinks the great world at once into a mere illustration and fable of this mind. What am I? and What is? asks the human spirit with a curiosity new-kindled, but never to be quenched. loc: 1429

A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. Then he is instructed in what is above him. He learns that his being is without bound; that, to the good, to the perfect, he is born, loc: 1434

The intuition of the moral sentiment is an insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul. loc: 1448

These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed, that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, loc: 1463

The perception of this law of laws awakens in the mind a sentiment which we call the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. loc: 1472

the fountain of all good to be in himself, and that he, equally with every man, is an inlet into the deeps of Reason. loc: 1480

the oracles of this truth cease never, it is guarded by one stern condition; this, namely; it is an intuition. It cannot be received at second hand. loc: 1492

What he announces, I must find true in me, or wholly reject; loc: 1494

The doctrine of the divine nature being forgotten, a sickness infects and dwarfs the constitution. Once man was all; now he is an appendage, a nuisance. And because the indwelling Supreme Spirit cannot wholly be got rid of, the doctrine of it suffers this perversion, that the divine nature is attributed to one or two persons, and denied to all the rest, and denied with fury. The doctrine of inspiration is lost; the base doctrine of the majority of voices, usurps the place of the doctrine of the soul. Miracles, prophecy, poetry; the ideal life, the holy life, exist as ancient history merely; loc: 1497

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. loc: 1509

He saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world. loc: 1511

But what a distortion did his doctrine and memory suffer in the same, in the next, and the following ages! loc: 1513

Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion. As it appears to us, and as it has appeared for ages, it is not the doctrine of the soul, but an exaggeration of the personal, the positive, the ritual. loc: 1524

That is always best which gives me to myself. The sublime is excited in me by the great stoical doctrine, Obey thyself. That which shows God in me, fortifies me. That which shows God out of me, makes me a wart and a wen. loc: 1540

To aim to convert a man by miracles, is a profanation of the soul. loc: 1546

The second defect of the traditionary and limited way of using the mind of Christ is a consequence of the first; this, namely; that the Moral Nature, that Law of laws, whose revelations introduce greatness, — yea, God himself, into the open soul, is not explored as the fountain of the established teaching in society. Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. loc: 1559
Note: Is this w here Nietzsche conceives the idea that god is dead? Edit

It is very certain that it is the effect of conversation with the beauty of the soul, to beget a desire and need to impart to others the same knowledge and love. If utterance is denied, the thought lies like a burden on the man. Always the seer is a sayer. Somehow his dream is told: loc: 1563

The man enamored of this excellency, becomes its priest or poet. loc: 1568

The man on whom the soul descends, through whom the soul speaks, alone can teach. loc: 1570

the need was never greater of new revelation than now. loc: 1575

The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life, — life passed through the fire of thought. loc: 1601

thus, historical Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing it from the exploration of the moral nature of man, where the sublime is, where are the resources of astonishment and power. loc: 1629

Look to it first and only, that fashion, custom, authority, pleasure, and money, are nothing to you, — are not bandages over your eyes, that you cannot see, — but live with the privilege of the immeasurable mind. loc: 1672

The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world, is the highest applause. loc: 1696

The remedy to their deformity is, first, soul, and second, soul, and evermore, soul. loc: 1709