Neville's standing disclaimer, and it is not a legal one - it is the only place where he states the moral position of his own teaching. He has just said that the faculty he teaches about will serve you as swiftly when your will is evil as when it is good, and he refuses either to withhold that or to pretend it is safe: I tell you, I acquaint you with God's law and leave you to your choice and its risk. He gives the analogy in the same breath. It's like electricity - because it could kill I shouldn't deny man's use of it, because it has done so many wonderful things in the world; and because it could destroy, why not use it constructively where it doesn't destroy. He goes as far as saying he has no power to stop anyone using it negatively, only the hope that they will not, and then adds the one deterrent he will offer, carefully hedged: he cannot conceive of delay in God's vision for a man, but he does believe that using it destructively may make the birth a more painful process - and he says at once that he cannot say it is true. About twelve lectures. It is the sentence to quote against any claim that the teaching is a morality in disguise.
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Own wordings
I acquaint you with God’s law and leave you to your choice and its risk
Because it could kill I shouldn’t deny man’s use of it
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LectureCounting the Cost
It’s like electricity. Because it could kill I shouldn’t deny man’s use of it. Because it has done so many wonderful things in the world, but it could destroy.
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LectureCounting the Cost
So I tell you, I acquaint you with God’s law and leave you to your choice and its risk. For he in you will serve you as indifferently and as swiftly when the will in you is evil as when it is good.
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