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Untitled Article
we have viewed the matter , is the one which would make the question of secession most bearable—for we humbly trust we do prefer the prosperity of this society to our own aggrandisement or gratification . But even here an important objection meets us . The elements of this opposition are , we think , wrong and unchristian ; in yielding to them , we should conceive we were serving the cause , not'of God , but of evil . Many of our brethren do not wish for our brotherhood ; that is true ; but we believe there are
some who do not think themselves beyond the possibility of gaining improvement even from a Socinian , and who feel it a good thing to see him doing a good work . We would not then make a bustle about the matter , act nor talk as if we were of much consequence to the society—but we have committed no offence against it—it admitted us at first , and can allege no new charge against us—and , whilst we think its cause to be holy , and its
proceedings , in the main , calculated to promote the grand end for which it was designed , we are yet to learn why we should desert it or be hindered from doing it good . In endeavouring to r do unto others as we would that they should do unto us , ' we have often found that the spirit of the rule obliges us to a course of conduct not in conformity to the immediate expressed wish of our neighbour : and that calm and religious consideration of what we
ought to wish done or not done for ourselves , must precede the inquiry what we ought to do for him . Try the present question thus : —The distribution of the scriptures is one of those works , which it clearly appears to us is a duty which ought to be done >— our better mind admits it , our heart welcomes it—would we then be hindered in this work ? ^ o , surely . Would we wish to hinder it in another ? Again we must answer , no . We have then
no alternative—we , in like circumstances , would have him do , even in spite of us , as we are doing to him—we would have him maintain his good purpose , even if through any perversion , we should for a time be desirous of thwarting him—and this is the good which , it seems to us , we can , in the present instance , do our
neighbour , —to address him , not as intoxicated , but as sober—to fultil what will eventually be his desire , if it be not now—even now his conscience , whenever he will let it speak out , is with us . Let him have to thank us , in due time , that we have listened to ours—that we will go on in the work he knows to be good , though he and an host be against us .
Untitled Article
The Bible Society Question . $ S ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1832, page 337, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1812/page/49/
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