But perhaps then, the Universal, the Indeterminate,
which might be presented, when we seek that which is common to all
the members? Yet you are aware that, as a general rule, nothing can be
given or communicated, in the form of the Universal and Indeterminate,
for specific object and precise form are requisite for this purpose;
otherwise, in fact, that which is presented would not be a reality but
a nullity. Such a society, accordingly, can never find a measure or
rule for this undertaking.
And how could it so far abandon its sphere as to engage in this
enterprise? The need on which it is founded, the essential principle
of religious sociability, points to no such purpose. Individuals unite
with one another and compose a Whole; the Whole rests in itself,
and needs not to strive for anything beyond. Hence, whatever is
accomplished in this way for religion is the private affair of the
individual for himself, and, if I may say so, more in his relations
out of the church than in it. Compelled to descend to the low grounds
of life from the circle of religious communion, where the mutual
existence and life in God afford him the most elevated enjoyment and
where his spirit, penetrated with holy feelings, soars to the highest
summit of consciousness, it is his consolation that he can connect
everything with which he must there be employed, with that which
always retains the deepest significance in his heart.
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