"This Epistle, is therefore a legacy to the Christians of all ages"
About this Quote
A single sentence, stiff with ceremony, and it still carries a quiet power: Strachan is trying to freeze a moment in time and sell it as permanent. Calling an epistle a "legacy" isn’t just pious praise. It’s a claim of ownership over the future. Legacy implies inheritance, stewardship, obligation. You don’t merely read a legacy; you receive it, and you’re expected to keep it intact.
Strachan, an Anglican clergyman and institutional builder in British North America, wrote in an era when churches were not only spiritual authorities but political ones. Debates over who counted as legitimate Christian leadership were inseparable from questions of empire, education, and social order. So "Christians of all ages" functions like a rhetorical land-grab. It erases local disputes, denominational fractures, and historical change by insisting that the message transcends them. When you universalize your text, you also universalize your interpretation - and quietly marginalize competing readings as temporary or rebellious.
The syntax does work here: "therefore" pretends the conclusion is unavoidable, the product of reason rather than persuasion. The comma after "Epistle" slows the cadence, giving the line a lectern-like gravitas, as if it’s already halfway to scripture. Subtext: continuity is virtue; novelty is suspect. In a world where modernization and sectarian pluralism were accelerating, Strachan’s sentence is a defensive fortification dressed up as pastoral reassurance - tradition presented not as preference, but as destiny.
Strachan, an Anglican clergyman and institutional builder in British North America, wrote in an era when churches were not only spiritual authorities but political ones. Debates over who counted as legitimate Christian leadership were inseparable from questions of empire, education, and social order. So "Christians of all ages" functions like a rhetorical land-grab. It erases local disputes, denominational fractures, and historical change by insisting that the message transcends them. When you universalize your text, you also universalize your interpretation - and quietly marginalize competing readings as temporary or rebellious.
The syntax does work here: "therefore" pretends the conclusion is unavoidable, the product of reason rather than persuasion. The comma after "Epistle" slows the cadence, giving the line a lectern-like gravitas, as if it’s already halfway to scripture. Subtext: continuity is virtue; novelty is suspect. In a world where modernization and sectarian pluralism were accelerating, Strachan’s sentence is a defensive fortification dressed up as pastoral reassurance - tradition presented not as preference, but as destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Bible |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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