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Untitled Article
from the church , was to be prohibited . Now it must be admitted , that with the very best intentions , und with the most pure feelings of piety , to a great part of mankind r
especially to young people , such a Sunday must have been intolerably tedious , so that the attendance upon public worship would be a great relief from the monotony of the day , and indeed a considerable source of amusement . At present , however , when the Sunday is regarded as a day of grateful and innocent leisure , when we are allowed to contemplate the beauties of nature , and to listen to the conversation of
friends , when in short all occupations are admitted that tend to improve the feelings or character , Sunday is no longer a weight upon our hands . The effect that this
change will have on our attendance upon public worship is too obvious to be pointed out . A third cause which I shall mention , is the alteration which has taken place in our domestic habits , which makes the
attendance upon public worship more inconvenient than it was formerly , I principally allude to the hours of rising , meals , &c . The inhabitants of towns are obliged to sit up late in the evening , and of course to rise later in the morning than was the custom with their ancestors , so that if a family live
at any distance from the place or public worship , it requires a total vhangc in the economy of the whole household to attend upon service while it is performed so < arl y in the forenoon , and a com . plete alteration of the hours of nieals , to attend public worship in the afternoon . Now it must he admitted , that this revolu-* lIt > n of hours is a . considerable
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evil , no doulpt a much less evil than a neglect of the ordinances of religion , but still it is an incon-i vpnience , and one which it must require no small effort to overcome . Another circumstance
somewhat analogous to this , but as far as I am qualified to jud ge ^ one of more importance , was pointed out to me by a professional friend , with whom I was talking over the subject . He
remarked , that the modern dress of females was so little adapted to the English climate , that there was considerable clanger incurred by their walking along wet roads , and afterwards sitting in a cold and
probably damp building during the time of public service . Our grand mothers , who enveloped their persons in stuffs and woollens , were proof against a degree of cold and moisture , which would be certain death to the half-clad females of
the present generation . This it may be said applies entirely to the females , but I shall reply to this , that where females are prevepted from attending public worship , we seldom observe much regularity in the other parts of the family . I
might justly be charged with ignorance of a subject which I have undertaken tfr illustrate , were I to omit mentioning as a cause of the decline of public worship , a conviction that the practice is improper . Such an opinion has been
supported by a man highly respectable for his learning and virtues ; but I apprehend that I am correct in saying , fhat the opinion has gained very few real converts . To those who are pre-disposed to
neglect public worship , any arguments against it will be acceptable , but I have never yet met with a man who could say , that they had produced conviction i n
Untitled Article
On the Decline of Presbyterian Congregations . 325
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1809, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1737/page/23/
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