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neral body of Unitarians , would tend to afford satisfaction to the subscribers , to cherish a feeling sympathy and interest in the concerns of their Christian brethren , and animate their pious and benevolent ; exertions . I have been led to these
observations , Sir , by the Christian Fellowship Fund , just established in the Unitarian Chapel at Bridport * When the plan of this institution was first communicated to the public by the late greatlylamented Dr . Thomson , some objections to it occurred to my mind ; but more mature reflection , and the
satisfactory reports of those societies in which it has been introduced , have convinced me of their futility . 1 think I now perceive benefits resulting from it , both important in their nature , and extensive and permanent in their influence . With these views , and
knowing the readiness of many of my people to afford their aid in introducing * and maintaining a Fellowship Fund in our society , on November 22 , 1818 , I preached a sermon on the nature and advantages of this Institution , choosing for my text 1 Cor . xii . 25 ,
" The mem berk should Jiave the same care one for another . " When I came to the particular object of my Discourse , I stated , that " the plan of a penny-a-week Fellowship Funds in
Unitarian societies was proposed about two years ago , in the Monthly Repository , by the late Dr . Thomson , a respectable physician in Halifax . He has since , alas I been arrested by the hand of death , and ushered off the
stage of human existence , at the age of 36 , in the midst of his pious and benevolent labours for the glory of the one only living and true God , the cause © f Christian truth , and the good of mankind . Let this , my friends , be an effectual admonition to us , to
imitate him in what is so much to the honour of his memory recorded of him , that * it was the first wish of his heart to do good himself , and to teach others to do good in every possible way / Brethren , the time of our trial is short and uncertain i let us ,
therefore , improve it tp the best of purposes , whilst , lengthened out to us , that we may be rendered abundantly useful to society in our day and generation , and he qualified for the fellowship of the just made perfect in the heavenly kingdom - That good
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man to whom I have ju $ t referred , fthqugh dead yet speaketh , ' and the Institution which he has introduced into our societies , may possibly perpetuate the name of Thomson , when the monument of marble , about to be erected to his memory , is crumbled into dust . " ¦¦ . .
After shewing , what appeared to me , the various advantages of Fellowship Funds , I requested those present , who were friendly to the Institution , would have the goodness to meet in the vestry immediately after the
service , to assist in forming a plan of this kind fpr our society , A respectable number attended , Thomas Colfox , Esq ., was desired to take the Chair , and the following preamble to the rules proposed being read , was approved by the meeting :
*« As it is our duty to contribute , as much as we are able , to the promotion of what we deem to be Christian truth , and to the cause of bepevolence , it behoves us to adopt those methods which are best calculated to answer
these valuable purposes . Among institutions of this useful tendency , the establishment of Fellowship Funds appears to us to furnish an easy and convenient mode of aiding the diffusion of Unitarian principles , and of enabling our Christian brethren to erect chapels for the worship of the
only true God , the Father of all , agreeably to the dictates of their own consciences . Besides this , the concurrence of the members of religious societies in pious and benevolent exertions , will , we conceive , cement them more closely to one another , and animate their zeal in the common
cause of pure Christianity , as well as contribute to mutual edification , and to the permanent prosperity , harnaony and comfort of such societies . " It is not necessary for me to detail all the rules adopted at this meeting , being similar to those which have been often inserted , on these
occasions , in the pages of your Repository . The object of our Fellowship Fund is stated to be to present occasional contributipns to the erection or repair of Unitarian chapels ; to Institutions
for the liberal education of youth , and the diffusion of Christian knowledge ; to the support of civil and r ^ Jigious liberty , and to the relief of the riece » - sitous , especially of sufferer * for con- »
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JBridjport Fellowship Fund . A 55
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1819, page 155, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1770/page/19/
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