The Big Many

Can you keep a secret? I can. At Great Hucklow some months back we were told of past Lindsey Press publications released online. It would be announced to the General Assembly and then become available. Now it is available. Lindsey Press publications not currently in print are available in full and also scannable, with text [from Optical Character Reading] underlying the picture scan, so therefore practical. I see that the latest available are year 2000. A few of these I have on my own shelves, and some I am pleased to see some publications that I have wanted and never found. Some are hefty downloads, but no more than a piece of music uncompressed to go on to a CD.

I suggest downloading text is done in conjunction with a text editor like NoteTab Free. First set with CTRL+SHIFT+P for the pasteboard (automatic pasting when copying anything. I went to James Martineau Selections by Alfred Hall from 1950. I see that text comes off the .PDF with very many line breaks. So then, starting at its page 34 [.PDF page 18], I copied GOD EVERYWHERE PRESENT going across to page 36 and down to page 37. These automatically copied, much down the left hand side because of the line breaks. Then in NoteTab highlight all the text you want in one paragraph, and then it is CTRL+J to join the lines in each case. Initially line gaps may need closing; you might first want to insert page numbers for later referencing. I also made a clip that, once this lines joining and further compressing is done, removes added spaces, irregularities and makes all paragraphs regular. Once this is completed, the text is suitable for use in any essay or worship service. I note that the source text, to the right of each page/ column, is not scannable. So type that out, but also find out what it indicates for referencing. That early material scanned as H o w of Thought on Sacred Things, 2 vols. (" Hours ") [on page xii, .PDF page 7] and which should be Hours of Thought on Sacred Things, 2 vols. etc.. Referencing needs to be about the source book and its online source version as a .PDF file with its URL and own pagination and the date of acquisition.

The result of those actions, and no further editing, except for bracketed page numbers for what was above, follows (here indented):

GOD EVERYWHERE PRESENT

It is thought incredible that a Being infinite as God should reveal himself through anything so small as the person of a man, or become in any way identified with one particular created soul. And so it would be, if his special presence with Christ involved his absence from any corner of the universe-if his light were fainter in other [page 34] minds for being so rich and full in Christ's-and he were less with remote worlds, for being more with ours. Whoever conceives that God in berson came and lived the human life, and so dwelt inAthe villages of Galilee and the courts o f ~erusalem, as to be in the least with-drawn from ~ h e s s a l ~ and Rome, from the planets or the Pleiades, has faith worthy of the Lycaonian peasants, who took Barnabas for jupiter and Paul for Mercury. The Infinite cannot become finite, the Eternal retire into time, the ocean of everlasting power turn into one of its own mountain streams. But what hinders a limited nature being filleh throughout and pervaded by the unlimited? a human soul from so absorbing the Divine spirit as to leave no room for any-thing of lower grade? In excluding all but himself from the spirit *of Christ, and permitting neither shade nor flaw G the clearness of his image there, God did not vacate any other medium of expression, or prejudice his living agency in any portion of space or thought. No star t-hroughout the firmament missed him the more, that he so pu;ely shone in that fair life. No sorrowing, heart cried to him in vain, because the angel of con-solation was watching in Gethsemane. No guilty will was left without his warning look, because he was in the desert, strengthening his holy one to triumph over temptation. It is not as though the grace and power of God were a quantity that could be used up. From not a place, not a moment, not a creature, did the divine tide ebb to make the flood that rose within the soul of Christ. Nay, were there not a sacred effluence abroad, there could be no concentration on a point. The lens which brings the sunbeams to a focus makes no darkness in the air; "and a mind which gathers into it the rays of holy love and goodness, not only leaves all else bright as [page 35] it was before, but shows of what a pure and brilliant essence the shadiest of visible humanities still have a share.

Thus the OCR scanning - it left out Hours II xv. - was not perfect (which, for reproducing, needs correcting to the image of the text), but not bad at all. I see that in some publications the image scanning is upside down in places, which just needs prior .PDF display correction. In Notetab you can set up gaps and markers between pasteboard copying, so it is best to copy off a .PDF paragraph by paragraph for easier reconstruction between line breaks later.