登陆注册
4614800000037

第37章

It is difficult to imagine how the association of lovers and friends can be very fine and close and good unless the two who love are each also linked to God, so that through their moods and fluctuations and the changes of years they can be held steadfast by his undying steadfastness. But it has been felt by many deep-feeling people that there is so much kindred between the love and trust of husband and wife and the feeling we have for God, that it is reasonable to consider the former also as a sacred thing. They do so value that close love of mated man and woman, they are so intent upon its permanence and completeness and to lift the dear relationship out of the ruck of casual and transitory things, that they want to bring it, as it were, into the very presence and assent of God. There are many who dream and desire that they are as deeply and completely mated as this, many more who would fain be so, and some who are.

And from this comes the earnest desire to make marriage sacramental and the attempt to impose upon all the world the outward appearance, the restrictions, the pretence at least of such a sacramental union.

There may be such a quasi-sacramental union in many cases, but only after years can one be sure of it; it is not to be brought about by vows and promises but by an essential kindred and cleaving of body and spirit; and it concerns only the two who can dare to say they have it, and God. And the divine thing in marriage, the thing that is most like the love of God, is, even then, not the relationship of the man and woman as man and woman but the comradeship and trust and mutual help and pity that joins them. No doubt that from the mutual necessities of bodily love and the common adventure, the necessary honesties and helps of a joint life, there springs the stoutest, nearest, most enduring and best of human companionship; perhaps only upon that root can the best of mortal comradeship be got; but it does not follow that the mere ordinary coming together and pairing off of men and women is in itself divine or sacramental or anything of the sort. Being in love is a condition that may have its moments of sublime exaltation, but it is for the most part an experience far down the scale below divine experience; it is often love only in so far as it shares the name with better things; it is greed, it is admiration, it is desire, it is the itch for excitement, it is the instinct for competition, it is lust, it is curiosity, it is adventure, it is jealousy, it is hate. On a hundred scores 'lovers'

meet and part. Thereby some few find true love and the spirit of God in themselves or others.

Lovers may love God in one another; I do not deny it. That is no reason why the imitation and outward form of this great happiness should be made an obligation upon all men and women who are attracted by one another, nor why it should be woven into the essentials of religion. For women much more than for men is this confusion dangerous, lest a personal love should shape and dominate their lives instead of God. "He for God only; she for God in him,"phrases the idea of Milton and of ancient Islam; it is the formula of sexual infatuation, a formula quite easily inverted, as the end of Goethe's Faust ("The woman soul leadeth us upward and on") may witness. The whole drift of modern religious feeling is against this exaggeration of sexual feeling, these moods of sexual slavishness, in spiritual things. Between the healthy love of ordinary mortal lovers in love and the love of God, there is an essential contrast and opposition in this, that preference, exclusiveness, and jealousy seem to be in the very nature of the former and are absolutely incompatible with the latter. The former is the intensest realisation of which our individualities are capable; the latter is the way of escape from the limitations of individuality. It may be true that a few men and more women do achieve the completest unselfishness and self-abandonment in earthly love. So the poets and romancers tell us. If so, it is that by an imaginative perversion they have given to some attractive person a worship that should be reserved for God and a devotion that is normally evoked only by little children in their mother's heart. It is not the way between most of the men and women one meets in this world.

But between God and the believer there is no other way, there is nothing else, but self-surrender and the ending of self.

同类推荐
  • 玉清无上内景真经

    玉清无上内景真经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 独醒杂志

    独醒杂志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • ASTORIA

    ASTORIA

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 茗笈

    茗笈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Smoke Bellew

    Smoke Bellew

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 天禄阁外史

    天禄阁外史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 陛下有难,万兽支援

    陛下有难,万兽支援

    神武大帝和好兄弟自相残杀了,然后重生到了动物园被关了起来,一只胖胖的大熊猫,一只骄傲的公孔雀……陛下有难,大兴王朝群臣救驾啦!神武大帝神武大帝已经快忘记自己的本名了,他活着的时候,没有人敢直呼他的名字,他死了之后,更没有人会记得他的名字了。或许有一个人记得,就是现在住在他对面的那个家伙,说到底,他会沦落到现在这个地步,原因可以全部归咎于那家伙造的孽。
  • 易世九歌

    易世九歌

    玄黄易鼎,天地有变!这是个在科技爆发即将开启星际文明的大时代,却又恰遇上古灵气复苏。想把科技和修仙有机结合,进入现代修真文明,又碰上了一场末世灾难,妖兽崛起丧尸遍地。如今乃大争之世,一切却都乱套了!
  • 宋宫十八朝演义

    宋宫十八朝演义

    此书记述了从宋太祖赵匡胤“陈桥兵变”夺取北周天下,至宋钦宗赵桓“北狩”间168年的北宋历史;从宋高宗赵构南迁至幼帝赴水而死的152年的南宋历史,共记录了三个多世纪中18位宋代皇帝的宫廷生活内幕,其中“黄袍加身”、“杯酒释兵权”、“斧声烛影”及“莫须有”三字狱等重要事件都在宏大的历史背景下展开叙述,是一部史实性较强的、寓教于乐的历史演义。
  • 成唯识论

    成唯识论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 春秋原来是这样

    春秋原来是这样

    本书是一部通俗历史读物,是历史中国系列中的一部。共分50个篇章,从春秋五霸(齐恒公姜小白、晋文公姬重耳、宋襄公子兹父、秦穆公瀛任好和楚庄公熊侣)到春秋名相(管仲、宴婴等);从著名兵法家(田穰苴、孙子)到春秋名臣(伍子胥、范蠡等);再由儒家的代表孔子到道家的代表老子,还有对中国文学史上第一部诗歌总集《诗经》的介绍,等等,作者将春秋近三百多年的历史用一种独特的方式展现在读者面前。
  • 致命诅咒

    致命诅咒

    在这个大雾弥漫的上午,一辆丰田陆地巡洋舰四驱越野车蜿蜒行驶在距高州市区一百多公里的盘山公路上。车上只有两个人,一是丁石富,一是黎昕。丁石富是高州巨富,身家数亿,作为高州铅锌矿有限公司董事长,他控制着大西南一带开采特色矿的命脉,并以此为经济基础,发展衍生出多个分支机构,涉及房地产、百货连锁、金融股票、旅馆餐饮等数十个行业,资本扩张十分迅速,且丁石富又积极参政议政,热心公益事业,历任市政协委员,挂有高州市企业家协会理事长、市慈善总会名誉会长等多个耀眼的头衔,在高州市是个手眼通天、叱咤风云的人物。黎昕则是他的助手兼司机,四年前就跟在了他的身边。
  • 草原:绿野千里的画卷

    草原:绿野千里的画卷

    从著名历史学家翦伯赞所著的《内蒙访古》一书,我们知道了呼伦贝尔草原是中国少数民族的摇篮,中国历史上的鲜卑人、契丹人、女真人、蒙古人等,都是在这个摇篮里长大的,又都在这里度过了他们历史上的青春时代,他们都是从这里向西敲打长城的大门,走进黄河流域,走上中国政治历史舞台的。美丽的呼伦贝尔就是中国游牧民族历史舞台的大后台。
  • 末日豪雄

    末日豪雄

    末世降临,胖子林大海为了寻找自己的心上人,千里迢迢以身涉险,期间发生了一连串惊心动魄的故事,兄弟义气,红颜知己,人心险恶,绝地求生等等,无数可歌可泣的画面为你描绘了不一样的末世!
  • 苏磨呼童子请问经伴侣

    苏磨呼童子请问经伴侣

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。