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Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 34 Page: 654 (~1872)

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654 men shall congregate together that safety may accrue from invasion in secular government, so may the legions of a peaceful and spiritual kingdom be strengthened by assimilation within the pales of that cementing bond of unity that accompanies the gospel. But, having to treat of the gathering under another head, we shall not offer anything further here.

"In all that we have written heretofore, we have so closely identified ourselves with all the accepted men of the past who have been followers of Christ, that except we should ourself draw the definitive lines, it might justly be supposed that this was intended to be a general rather than a special disquisition.

"If the men of the past are to form a part of the great whole which is to be 'gathered in one' in the 'fullness of times,' it is essential that a proper estimate of them shall be formed by us, so far as our facilities for arriving at a just judgment of them may warrant an estimation.

"Seen through the haze and mist of a long period of time, the prominent men of past ages assume undue proportions. Weird and strange importance attaches to some; some are lost in the gloom of obscurity; while others shine out in the fairest light; the character of some is seen as the character of angels ought to be, while others inspire but a shudder at the darkness of their souls; this one is lauded as akin to the gods, that one condemned as a devil. The only true method of correcting the refraction which distorts the distant objects upon which we are gazing, is to approximate nearer to those objects, until the medium through which they are seen ceases to refract. We cannot turn back the wheel of time. We may reach up to its advancing spokes to lay hold upon them as they come within our grasp; but when once they have passed from beneath our hands they are gone forever. We can, however, by that peculiar process of retrogressive thought known to the thinker, place ourselves in juxtaposition with the men of every successive generation; and as their compeers, examine and weigh them. Let us in this light and by this process, without permitting ourselves

(page 654)

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