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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.
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. To the Editor . Sir , The union of the various societies pursuing objects connected with . Unitarian Dissenters into one Association , was , in my opinion , very desirable , and I rejoice to see that the plan has succeeded so well . The junction , however , of several societies ( the object of each of which was an insulated one , imposing on its members no general view of the character and prospects of the denomination ) gives rise to various new and important considerations . When such a society not only undertakes the offices of all its predecessors , but plants itself on so broad a basis as to embrace all the modes by which the views and prospects of the denomination can be promoted , ( thereby discouraging , ana rendering in fact useless , any minor combinations for particular objects , ) I take it that it becomes its duty to use its faculties well ; to
follow no object so exclusively as to operate to the abstraction of that distributive portion of its general means which falls to the share of any other ; to weigh carefully the various modes in which the credit and usefulness of the body can be maintained ; and to apportion its exertions accordingly , fairly and equally .
Possessing and aiming at no discipline or authority except that of supplying the machinery for bringing individual zeal and good-will to bear on a common cause , with that convenience and facility which a welkcombined system of co-operation can alone supply , such a society should , as it appears to me , in order to discharge its duties effectively , consider well all the yarious means by which the moral and religious exigencies of its members may be supplied , by which co-operation can help the weak and draw aid
from the strong . It should regard every plan as lying within us . province by , Which its constituents can maintain an honourable character as a religious denomination for intellectual and moral worth , for a love of charity , peace and civil liberty . In short , whatever can give freedom , respectability and comfort to its worship , raise the character of its professors , and promote learning and worth among its ministers , should be considered within the view of such a society . What each would wish to see and feej in his immediate circle , the united assembly should strive by its acts , its advice ,
and its example , to promote . Desire to spread and to defend its own views of religious truth will be its general stimulants to exertion ; but it vyill also recollect that there is a state of repose as well as of operation to provide for and maintain a character in . Societies which had limited objects , all of them necessarily of an active character , had little of this sort to consider ; but when the general usefulness and character of a community are taken into view , many new duties will arise , and the question will nearly as often be started , What shall we be ? as , What shall we do f
With these views of the general scope and obligations of a society so constituted for the promotion of common objects , we may look at the various active operations by which those objects seem at present to be most conveniently pursued . The leading divisions of practical operations at home are , first , the promotion or assistance of Congregational Societies whose resources circumstances may abridge or render ineffectual . I am disposed to consider this by far more important than the second division of the Society ' s labours ,
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THE UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 402, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/10/
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