Nay, Seth lad; Im not for laughing at no mans religion. Let em follow their consciences, thats all. Only I think ud be better if their consciences ud let em stay quiet i this church--theres a deal to be learnt there. And theres such a thing as being over-spiritual; we must have something besides Gospel i this world. Look at the canals, an th aqueducts, an th coal-pit engines, and Arkwrights mills there at Cromford; a man must learn summat besides Gospel to make them things I reckon. But t hear some o them preachers, youd think as a man must be doing nothing at alls life but shuttings eyes and looking whats a-going on inside him. I know a man must have the love o God in his soul, and the Bibles Gods word. But what does the Bible say? Why, it says as God put his sperrit into the workman as built the tabernacle, to make him do all the carved and things as wanted a nice hand. And this is my way o looking at it: theres the sperrit o God in all things and at all times--weekday as well as Sunday--and i the great works and inventions, and i the figuring and the mechanics. And God helps us with our headpieces and our hands as well as with our souls; and if a man does bits o jobs out o working hours--builds a oven fors wife to save her from going to the bakehouse, or scrats at a bit o garden and makes two potatoes grow instead o one, hes doing more good, and hes just as near to God, as if he was running after some preacher and a-praying and a-groaning. George Eliot Adam Bede 1859
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:16:17 +0000