Every one is a layman, so far as he is guided by the counsel and
experience of another, within the sphere of religion, where he is
comparatively a stranger. There is not here the tyrannic aristocracy,
which you describe with such hatred; but this society is a priestly
people, a perfect republic, where every one is alternately ruler and
citizen, where every one follows the same power in another which he
feels also in himself, and with which he, too, governs others.
How then could the spirit of discord and division--which you regard
as the inevitable consequence of all religious combinations--find a
congenial home within this sphere? I see nothing but that All is One,
and that all the differences which actually exist in religion, by
means of this very union of the pious, are gently blended with one
another. I have directed your attention to the different degrees
of religiousness, I have pointed out to you the different modes of
insight and the different directions in which the soul seeks for
itself the supreme object of its pursuit. Do you imagine that
this must needs give birth to sects, and thus destroy all free
and reciprocal intercourse in religion? It is true, indeed, in
contemplation, that everything which is separated into various parts
and embraced in different divisions, must be opposed and contradictory
to itself; but consider, I pray you, how Life is manifested in a great
variety of forms, how the most hostile elements seek out one another
here, and, for this very reason, what we separate in contemplation all
flows together in life.
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