Lectures and Sermons 1882 Author:Thatcher Thayer General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1887 Original Publisher: Thayer Subjects: Sermons, American History / General Religion / Sermons / Christian Religion / Christian Ministry / Preaching Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing... more » text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: The Vicarious in Natural Affections. IN GENERAL INTERCOURSE ; IN LITERATURE ; IN RELATION TO NATURAL LAW. rnp I HE natural affections have much to do with the de- I velopment of human nature. Their strength and -- purity signify largely the good estate of society. Their weakness and corruption mark surely human degradation. They afford channels for moral character, though not in themselves moral character. Hence, they are all the more striking illustrations of the vicarious. They are exercised more or less vicariously, of necessity. The selfishness or unselfishness of the person exercising them, need not be considered : even the happiness or unhappiness which they minister makes no difference. It is safe to state, generally, that men, in the natural course of these instinctive feelings towards their fellow creatures, do bear in themselves, much of what belongs to others. Thus in the relation which is the beginning of human society, the truer the union, the more there is of reciprocal assumption. Much of this is intelligent choice ; the willing taking upon self, what is anothers. When we have admired some act of wifely devotion, some long continued endurance, and have spoken of the costly sacrifice, we were not careful to note, that by the necessary working of this structure of humanity, what appeared to us so lovely, was by the vicarious mode which we are studying. Again, in many instances, persons bound byties of kindred, are drawn into vortices of mis...« less