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Untitled Article
Yet in the midst of the evils to which the neglect , has given oeea * sion , indications are seen of the high powers which the Creator has planted in their bosoms . The capacity of their minds you see in those rare but noble instances in which the poorest have risen to rank above princes in the proud and grateful hearts of benefited myriads . The capacity of their hearts is evinced in the
parental beneficence by which , in spite of counteracting influences , many a cot is blessed ; and in the very machinery—a machinery of beneficence " almost as pure and large as the history of the race supplies—in the very machinery by which the Sunday School , in its vast length and breadth , is supported * And for proof of their spiritual susceptibilities , look at every church throughout the land . Not many rich , not many learned are called ; but now , as in
primitive days , it is rather the poor that hear the word gladly . Even in the abandoned , traces of a spiritual nature are found , which , though defiled by attendant vices , or marred by superstitious extravagance , will bear comparison with what is seen in the life of men who , because they are more opulent and exalted , look on
them with ineffable disdain . Away , then , with the monstrous notion—a notion not the less to be deprecated because it may be one rather of practice than profession , —that the poor have not capabilities as high , pure , and holy as the classes most favoured in the world ' s esteem . Yes , not a child can you look upon , however humble its origin , however saualid its abode , however scantv ever humble its originhowever squalid its abodehowever scanty
, , its clothing , but has a mind that will operate to the advantage or the detriment of its possessor—to the increase or the diminution of political misrule and calamity ; but has a heart to benefit or injure—to bless or curse a household , perhaps a neighbourhoodit may be , a nation ; but has a spirit to offer upon the altar of its heavenly Father the purest and richest incense of praise and
service , or to desecrate its Maker ' s holy name , and suffer the tribulation of his chastisement . Look not , then , on the poor with contempt ; despise not the least of these little ones . They have an intellectual , a moral , and spiritual nature , as good in its native endowments as that of the opulent and powerful ; and , with the aid of education , destined perhaps to rise , through the robust energy of their mind and the impelling force of necessity ,
to a higher rank of true excellence and dignity than , in the ordinary sense of the term , the most favoured classes . Certainly , whatever may be their future lot , they have , received of God a mind to compete in sublimity with the highest intellect of the race ; a heart to feel as keenly , as purely , as richly as the best of
Christian parents ; and a soul of equal worth with that of the proudest noble of the land . But , says the objector , look at their degradation . Is there not as much and as foul degradation m lordly halls and the palaces of kings ? And amid the degradation IB there not virtue , of the greater price because acquired under greater disadvantages ? And to what U the degradation to be
Untitled Article
162 Sunday School Education *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/18/
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