# To the Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory, on Reading His Sermons on Daily Devotion, in Which That Duty Is Recommended and Assisted explained — Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

> Chapter companion for Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley.

## What happens

The speaker praises Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory for his sermons that cultivate habitual grace and refined sentiments, inspiring virtue and exposing vice. The poem contrasts divine wisdom with atheistic notions of chance or self-made order, affirming God's providential guidance. It concludes with a blessing for Amory's eternal fame beyond this transitory life.

## Themes in this chapter

### Divine Providence and Nature

The poem asserts God's providential guidance over creation, rejecting the idea of a self-moving universe or chance.

### Virtue and Moral Guidance

Amory's sermons are depicted as cultivating habitual grace and inspiring youthful minds to aspire to virtue.

## Character check-ins

### Thomas Amory

Addressed as the subject of the poem; praised for his sermons on daily devotion and for revealing God's divine essence.

### Unknown Narrator

The speaker who extols Amory's work and reflects on virtue, vice, and divine providence.

## Key lines

> Artists may paint the sun’s effulgent rays, But Amory’s pen the brighter God displays

While artists can depict the sun's bright light, Amory's writing reveals an even greater divine reality.

_Highlights the superiority of spiritual insight over artistic representation._

> As if the clay without the potter’s aid Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made

It is as absurd as clay shaping itself without a potter, implying that creation cannot exist without a Creator.

_Uses the biblical metaphor of potter and clay to argue against atheistic materialism._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poems_on_various_subjects_religious_and_moral_se/chapters/to-the-rev-dr-thomas-amory-on-reading-his-sermons-on-daily-devotion-in-which-that-duty-is-recommended-and-assisted
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poems_on_various_subjects_religious_and_moral_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poems_on_various_subjects_religious_and_moral_se/chapters