p. 1 | Holy Feeling by William Ellery Channing

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 5, 1857

Holy Feeling.

By William Ellery Channing

To myself the most effectual church is that in which I see the signs of christian affection in those around me, in which warm hearts are beating on every side, in which a deep stillness speaks of the absorbed soul, in which I recognize fellow-beings, who in common life have impressed me with their piety. One look from a beaming countenance, one tone in singing from a deeply moved heart, perhaps aids me more than the sermon. When nothing is said, I feel it to be good to be among the devout; and I wonder not that the Quakers in some of their still meetings, profess to hold the most intimate union, not only with God, but with each other. It is not with the voice only that man communicates with man. Nothing is so eloquent as the deep silence of a crowd. A sigh, a low breathing, sometimes pours into us our neighbor's soul more than a volume of words. There is a communication more subtle than freemasonry between those that feel alike. How contagious is holy feeling! On the other hand, how freezing, how palsying, is the gathering of the multitude who feel nothing, who come to God's house without reverence, without love, who gaze around on each other as if they were assembled at a show, whose restlessness keeps up a slightly disturbing sound, whose countenance reveals no collectedness, but a frivolous or absent mind! The very sanctity of the place makes this indifference more chilling. One of the coldest spots on earth is a church without devotion. What is it to me that a costly temple is set apart, by never so many rites, for God's service; that priests, who trace their lineage to the apostles, have consecrated it, if I find it thronged with the worldly and undevout? This is no church to me. I go to meet, not human bodies, but souls; and if I find them in an upper room, like that where the first disciples met, or in a shed, or in a street, there I find a church; there is the true altar, the sweet incense, the accepted priest. These all I find in sanctified souls.—Channing.