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Untitled Article
the monument-of ; the exploded orthodoxy of ancient times ! Until within a very recent period , the Unitarian , as such , would have found little to gratify him in the religious sentiments of the inhabitants of this district . Recent circumstances have , however , demonstrated , that the latent-spark—was- ^ there , —and—that—it wanted only the kindly breeze to call forth its native vigour .
Previously , however , to the appearance of Mr . Shenton as a Unitarian preacher , the grossest darkness pervaded the minds of the people with regard to the sentiments of Unitarians . This ignorance would , in all probability , have still remained , but for the circumstances which called
him to labour in the diffusion of Unitarian sentiments , Mr . Shenton formerly laboured in this district as a preacher among the Primitive Methodists . He became a convert to Unitarianism—tendered to the
Methodists his resignation , which was reluctantly accepted ^ and has for the last six months been actively employed under the auspices of the Manchester Unitarian Village Missionary Society , in diffusing a knowledge of the prin * ciples of Unitarianism .
The following extract from a report of Mr , Shenton s , appended to the Eighth Report ( 1831 ) of the above Society , will show the nature and extent of his labours : —* I shall now proceed to state our times of preaching at the respective places * and the numbers who attend . Our
times of preaching are as follow : — Little Hucklow , every other Sabbath morning ; Tideswell , in the afternoon ; Ashford , every Sabbath evening ; Over Haddon , Monday evening ; Sheldon , Tuesday ) Longsjone , Wednesday >
Flagg , Thursday . Secondly , the average numbers who attend our services are as follow :- ^ LittJe Hucklow , fifty ; Tideswell , forty ; Ashford , sixty ; Over Haddon , forty ; Sheldon , fifty ; Long * stone , fifty ; Flagg , sixty ;—total , three hundred and fifty / . This statement will enable us to
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appreciate the following extracts from a letter of Mr . Shenton ' s , dated May 4 , 1832 , five weeks after the delivery of the preceding statement : — 1 It is with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret ' * that I take a retrospect of my labours during the last five weeks . With the highest satisfaction-lr-h ave-witn ess ed-the-growin g attachment of my hearers to our doctrines , —and the practical tendency of those doctrines , as evinced in the amended lives of those who have
embraced them , — -as also their power to support the mind under the pressure of the heaviest afflictions incident to mortality . ' . . . ' At Ashford the cause still continues to prosper , for we have recently had an accession of several new converts to our views , and our olo ^ r friends are more and
more desirous to disseminate those views . Here the greatest harmony and good-will prevails amongst us . Our progress has been greatly im * peeled for want of a more convenient place in which to hold our public services . Notwithstanding this , our congregation is much larger than that of the Wesleyan Methodists , who have a neat and commodious chapel , situated in the centre of the village . *
, . . * At Flagg my visits have excited great interest , and our services there are attended by the more ret spectable persons in the neighbourhood / * ? . 4 My plan at this place has been to state our views of the essentials of Christianity , without saying anything condemnatory of op * posing systems . I thought this might
answer a better purpose than a more direct attack on orthodoxy , In this I think I am likely to be correct ; for I have not hitherto heard of any objection being made , by any individual , though several Primitive Methodists were present . In a word , our pros- * pect at this place is very encouraging ; In Sheldon , Unitarianism is evidently making progress . Our congregation
* The regret resulted from his having had to contract his operations on account of illness .
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UNITARIAN CHRONICLE . 123
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1832, page 123, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1718/page/11/
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