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not indeed an adequate remuneration , ( for what can remunerate such services ?) but the payment of a debt of justice on the part of the Fund , they were also desirous of connecting it with some plan of further use * fulness ; and accordingly suggested to Mr . Wright the expediency of his residing , when not engaged in Missionary journeys , in or near London , to which he promptly acceded . The objects contemplated in his removal
( which will take place in next Autumn , speedily after his return from the West of England ) are , that he may preach occasionally , during the Winter months , in the villages round London ; and principally , that he may be instrumental in organizing a system of local preaching , by which public worship may be carried on in places where already there are many individuals of the Unitarian persuasion . The immense population of the
villages and towns in the vicinity of the metropolis , the degree of information which is diffused , and the facility with which the operations of your Missionaries may be directed , render this hitherto untouched field of Missionary exertion one of vast importance and promise , beyond perhaps any which has yet been attempted . Should your Committee
succeed in calling into action a sufficient number of properly qualified local preachers , as coadjutors with Mr . Wright , they anticipate from this plan the most beneficial results to the Unitarian cause . Surrounded , as we should soon be , by a number of rising congregations , strength would be given to our cause , and vigour to our operations , such as would have a reviving and animating influence even to the remotest districts .
Our expenditure has been large , but will not , we trust , be deemed either lavish or useless . The general state of Unitarianism is most encouraging , and we may add , that the share which the Fund has had in producing that state , justifies the perseverauce of its supporters , and calls upon them to continue their aid , and to recommend it to the attention of
others , with unabated zeal . It is not for us to decide as to the mode in which that support should be bestowed , but the intimation may be allowed that congregational collections are peculiarly acceptable , as they afford an opportunity for many persons to contribute , whose poverty forbids their becoming subscribers , and who , by contributing , acquire an interest in the proceedings of the Society , and an acquaintance with the state of
religion , which they might not otherwise feel or acquire ; and also because the sermons which , it is presumed , would generally be delivered on such occasions would , in another way , promote the objects of the Society by directing attention , with greater effect than in the usual routine of preaching , to important subjects , and to the best mode of benefiting our fellow-creatures , by striving for their emancipation from the gloom of mystery , the chains of bigotry , and the fury of fanaticism .
Fellowship Funds , now happily becoming numerous , will not , we hope , forget an Institution which may be considered as their parent , and their subservience to whpse prosperity was one of the chief objects in the mind of that most excellent and lamented man by whom they were projected and recommended , and of whose pious zeal they are so appropriate and honourable a memorial .
Merely to serve a party , or to gain numerical strength , the exertions which have been already made , and those which are now recommended , would be exceedingly misplaced . We have a nobler and u pairer aim * The corruptions of Christianity tend to rob God of his glory and man of his solace ; they perplex piety and confound the understanding ; they excite animosities which are bitter , and delusions which are dangerous ; they raise a mighty barrier between the supposed regenerate and unre-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1819, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1711/page/9/
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