Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches

Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church

DEAR MR. MALLESON,--I could not at once answer your important letter: for, though I felt at once the impossibility of my venturing to address such an audience as you proposed, I am unwilling to fail in answering to any call relating to matters respecting which my feelings have...

Chapters

2. Letter I. will explain the origin of the series that come after.

The question laid down in this letter, cleared of all metaphorical ornament, is, as is perfectly natural and instinctive with Mr. Ruskin, one which goes down to the foundation o...

20. Letter X.--"Forgive us our trespasses." The explanation of trespasses,

and substitution of _debts_ for it, is admirable ("Dimitte nobis _debita_ nostra"), and admirably illustrated by the sins of omission being condemned in Christ's judgment,--"I w...

1. LETTER I. 3

DEAR MR. MALLESON,--I could not at once answer your important letter: for, though I felt at once the impossibility of my venturing to address such an audience as you proposed, I...

3. Letter V.) speaking with condemnation of a plan of salvation which sets

forth the Divine Son as appeasing the wrath of the Father in heaven, does not himself give expression to words, as to the love of the Father, which almost imply that in his esti...

10. LETTER X

Whatever justice there may be (and no doubt there is much) in Mr. Ruskin's accusations against us clergy, he is surely under an entire misapprehension in the charge which he her...

21. PART XIII., with 4 Full-page Designs, 5 Canto Headings, and 4

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. In Eight Designs. By WALTER CRANE. Printed on Japanese silk paper, and mounted on cardboard. Each copy is signed by Mr. CRANE and numbered. Buckram,...

14. LETTER XI

This concluding Letter calls but for slight remark,--of many portions we feel _O si sic omnia_! That there is much sorrowful truth underlying the unmeasured denunciations which...

11. LETTER II

This Letter professes to contain an "exact question," which is somewhat singularly inexactly put. In its strict grammatical form it asks for a definition of the members of a Cle...

12. LETTER III

A second question is now propounded respecting the Christian Gospel. "The Gospel of Christ" is spoken of in a connection which seems to indicate that Luther and Augustine were e...

13. LETTER IX

This Letter, after endorsing the expressions of the preceding one, deals apparently with Capital and Labour. The clergy, if not required to divide the inheritance among their br...

9. LETTER VIII

Page 25: There is surely a mistake here. Personal sanctification and national prosperity are very different things. A nation has no existence except in this world; therefore its...

8. LETTER VII

Pages 20, 21: Mr. Ruskin seems to me to draw most strongly the very comparison to which he objects. Surely the kingdom of Christ _is_ the kingdom of His Father. (Rev. xi. 15, xi...

17. Letter VII.--"Thy kingdom come:"--not an allusion to the second coming

of the Son, which we cannot hasten, but to the coming of the kingdom of God the Father, which we can. This is again illustrated by the "Crown of Wild Olive" (I daresay it is by...

19. Letter IX.--"Give us this day our daily bread." Yes, but we must work

for it. "The man that will not work, neither shall he eat." A cardinal point with Ruskin: "But if you do" (_i.e._, wish for God's kingdom), "you must do more than pray for it, y...

6. LETTER V

The Lord's Prayer is elementary teaching for Christians, but it is not the first thing to be taught to those outside the family of God. The truth that we have a Father in heaven...

7. LETTER VI

Page 14: "For _other_ sins," etc. I think this is an incorrect comment. The force of the threat is positive, not comparative. The language of the law is similar towards every sin.

16. Letter VI.--"Hallowed be Thy name." How do we fulfil the hope in our

lives? How do we betray it? Not in swearing only, as we are apt to think, but in the blasphemy of false and hypocritical prayer to, and praise of, _preaching about_ God (last pa...

5. LETTER IV

Here I answer, No. The Lord's Prayer was not intended to be a statement of the Gospel, but the language of those who have accepted it. No doubt the terms of the prayer may be so...

18. Letter VIII. begins with a hit at the pleasure priests take in their

Have they ever taught "Thy will be done," as it should be--1. In our own sanctification; 2. In understanding that will, and doing it, and striving to get it done (knowing their...

15. Letter V.--A clergyman's first duty is to make the Lord's Prayer clear

and living to his people. This is what Ruskin has elsewhere insisted on in other matters--"clear," know your duty and your belief; "living," realize it in your life--realize it...

4. LETTER III

Here is a definite question. My answer is, Yes, but we do not refer to the Thirty-nine Articles for a statement of the Gospel, but rather to the Apostles' Creed, which contains...