On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    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

    Untitled Article

    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

• Citation
  • 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/