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Untitled Article
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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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Untitled Article
from the selfishness against which , in various forms , we have been warning the reader . It is so evidently hostile to all improvement , so fatal to the hopes which ought to be the Christian ' s chief treasure , and all arguments against it . are so obvious and so common , that the mere mention of it is sufficient here .
Of all these perils , those are the most formidable which endanger the sincerity and ingenuousness of the heart . But the soul may be lost where sincerity and resignation both exist ; want of circumspection alone may be fatal . How important is this truth to us ! A man may mourn most deeply and most truly ; he may earnestly desire to exercise resignation ; he may , with the utmost sincerity , declare to himself
that he does not wish one circumstance of his lot to be altered , and yet fall into snares as dangerous as any which can be found in the flowery paths of prosperity . He may arise in the morning , and pray with real devotion for resignation to bear , and strength to support , and then go forth , satisfied that the blessing of God is on him , and that he must necessarily be benefited by his trial . But when he enters the bustling scenes of the world , he fears to
surrender himself to his accustomed impulses of activity , and to his longformed habits of employment . He is ashamed if he find that the objects before him have beguiled him of his grief for a while ; he asks himself if the innocent enjoyment into which he was beginning to enter is not inconsistent with the regret which he owes to the memory of the friend he has lost , or the sympathy which is due to those with whom he is suffering . He remembers that he is in affliction , and has a vague idea that a peculiar frame of thought and manners must be maintained for some time after the blow has fallen . The
consciousness of peculiar circumstances hangs upon him , and makes him look in every face for condolence , in every occurrence for consideration to his feelings , in every word for sympathy . He has heard and read so much of the experience of persons under trial , and knows so well how their demeanour is made a subject of speculation , that he believes it necessary to relate his own feelings , and to watch that his own behaviour accords with his circumstances . If he writes a letter to a friend , he fills his sheet with
his thoughts of resignation ; he tells of his consolations , his hopes , and the blessings which remain to him ; and if he finds himself stopping his pen to choose his expressions , if he detects himself painting with words , if a suspicion flits across his mind that he is exciting his feelings in order to write , rather than writing to give a natural relief to his feelings , he recurs to the old impression that some record of his present state should remain , and that it is for the glory of religion that he should shew how great and how various
are her consolations . Thus he passes the day , desiring that the will of God should be his will , and believing that it is so ; but , in reality , thinking only of himself , and living only to himself . If , in the silent watches of the night , sad thoughts arise , and the tender remembrance of lost blessings comes to awaken the deepest emotions of his soul , he waters his pillow with tears , and indulges the anguish of a wounded spirit ; still assuring himself that he does
not and will not repine , and that this grief is only the fitting tribute of faithful affection . Again he rises , with an aching head and a heavy heart , wearied and enervated , and more engrossed with himself than ever , though he may again pray , and pray with sincerity , " Thy will be done . " What are the consequences of sueh-a ^ course of feeling and action as this ? What but daily increasing selfishness ; morbid feelings which , instead of retaining or deepening their intensity , must induce insensibility ; a gradual forgetfulness of God and disregard of duty ; a growing craving for the sympathy , the
Untitled Article
On the Dangers of Adversity . 561
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 561, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/9/
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