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both men and animals alike " lie down in the grave and the worms cover them : " and as if this were not enough , the former accelerate their mutual destruction by intemperance and oppression , by war and bloodshed . But . —is this all ?—Is death the final
extinction of man ? Do the countless myriads of his race fade away from before our eyes as leaves in autumn , to return no more for ever > In this life all things frequently ** come alike to all ; " there is indeed a natural
tendency of virtue to happiness , and of vice to misery , which bespeaks a wise and gracious administration ; yet in many instances these are awfully counteracted , which denotes an unfinished and imperfect system . Here , notwithstanding all the bounties of
Providence , I find no absolute rest , no satisfying felicity ! I feel an immense void in ray mind , a desire and a hope of something greater and better ! And are this desire and this hope impressed upon me in vain > Is the mind of man no better than a quality ;
a jumble of atoms , or an organized machine , which perishes with its mortal companion ? Shall those images of bliss , which are perpetually floating in our imaginations , prove at the last but ideal phantoms , and never be realized in substantial forms ? Is
there no reward for the righteous , no punishment for the wicked beyond the grave ?—This cannot be , whether I consider the nature of God , or the nature of man : the Deity I must regard as a moral governor , man , as an accountable being : there is ,
therefore , a future state , in which the present inequalities of the Divine plan shall be fully adjusted . But , —what is this future state ? I anticipate it with delight , but it eludes my researches ! I aspire to rise above this sublunary sphere ; fcevond that flaming orb ; this azure sky y these glittering stars ]
But do not i aspire tdo high ? Is it not enough to have b * en once introduced to this goodly scene , Co have beheld the fair fate of nature , and enjoyed so large a share of the Divine beneficence ¦? Or , can the Aliiiighty be indebted to bis ftfaiJ , erring anil . sinful creatures r—By no me ^ n s . But may I not consider Fim with ¦ reverence ,
as being just to his own perteciions ? la there not a harmoni / of the divine attributes , necessary to cc piplrte the Bwral exactor of the i > eity t ao 4 %
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" justify the ways of God to man 1 " ^ . But again—what is this future state ! Is it to continue only for a few yean or ages , and then to terminate in dissolution ? Purely this can never be ! The Creator of the Universe must
needs he immortal in his very nature and essence ^ vvhy may not jf become immortal by favour and by gift ? jf He sball indeed raise me from the clods of the valley , it cannot bethought that it will be only to tantalize
meor that Fie will cause me once more to see the light , only to plunge me into an abyss of eternal darkness i I will therefore believe in a future * tafe , and hope for its eternal duration : that when the angel of death shall cover me with the veil of mortality , and
loose the mysterious cord , which unites my unseen spirit with this earthly tabernacle , I may have my part and portion , through the rich bounty of my Creator and Judge , in the possession of ineffable and neve *> ending felicities . ( To be concluded in our next )
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%%% Advantages of An Education at the University of Glasgow .
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Sir , Glasgow * Oct . 6 , 1815 . AS " a friend to Unitarian Christianity , I feel grateful for every exertion which professes to have its support in view ; and nothing could give me more pleasure than to see all
the members of our faith strenuously engaged in " every honourable method , " to encourage a dissent from established error . But in our zeal for the good cause , we may occasionally
act without due thought and refleo tion j we may even betray some degree of ignorance while we are influenced by the best motives . Th < truth of this sentiment was strongly
impressed on my mind , by the perusal of a letter ih the number of your Monthly . ^ Repository for M a > ' last , < page 2 & 6 ) entitled the " Necessity of a Dissenting Education for Lay Dissenters / ' The author of that
letter is highly - praise-worthy for the lively interest he feels in the cause of the eivibliberries of his country aud of true religion 5 but I am unvfiNmg to Relieve jthat hehas reetfmnu lided the only orthe beat method far preserving and increflbing these bussing * . I admit ** that a parent infringes * o right of * conscience iii his / iMW . ^^ lie endeavours to subject his min « ^ those impressions which will n ^ rally dispose buu to coxitjuue » ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 622, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/22/
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