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Untitled Article
is come , and too often he tnfeets with indifference—Indifferencethis is the adversary against whidh we have to struggle;—indifference , this deep wound of our age , which , when God perseveres in wishing to expose it by warnings so terrible , persists in remaining in a base and frozen sleep . My brethren , reckon up the
faithful of this capital , and the number of our temples , and you will be sorely afflicted at the number of the absent . Are they all then impious men , incredulous scoffers ? No ; they are what it is easy to be- —they are indifferent . To watch is to take trouble ; to sleep is to avoid it altogether ; and the church of God is always too far from the habitation of the indifferent man . Yes , but God
is near ; death , perhaps , is near ; and judgment is certainly not far off : and to the tomb they must go down , and to judgment they must appear ; and what account will they give of this life ? what will they say before God ? Lord I have slept!—Awake thou then , thou who steepest , and arise from the dead , and Christ shall gite thee light . And when one snatches himself from this torpor , when one shakes off for a moment this fatal indifference , how often , as a
last adversary , do we meet with that convenient resignation , by which he submits to receive from his parents the religion they have professed , as a legacy which he cannot refuse to accept . One of the favorite declarations of the present day is this , —* I will not change my religion , I will keep that of my family , and not offer it the affront of chusing another—good for my
ancestors , it is good enough for me . ' My brethren , this excuse is sincere , or it is not . If there is sincerity in it , we will respect that sincerity , and we will not look into it for an adversary ; but then let us see the proof in their following up this profession , —this paternal inheritance which they refuse to alter . To bear the name of a sect which our ancestors bore is not to have their
religion ; and I avow with sorrow , when I hear this excuse offered by men who , as the only mark of their faith , have received a baptism which has left no trace on their brow , and have made their first communion the remembrance of which has passed from their memory even before they understood its meaning ; when I hear tnen who live without piety , without prayer , and without hope , who disdain even to think of the religion which was imposed upon
them in their infancy , and who will not appear in a Christian temple until their cold carcass is carried thither , —when I hear these men say and repeat that they will keep the faith of their fathers , I am compelled to reply to them , that , without regarding what they say , they lie to God and to men ; that they unjustly offer
Ihe piety of their ancestors as an excuse for their own lukewarmness ; and that their fathers will themselves rise up against them In judgment ; for their fathers had a religion , And the sons , apparently so respectful , have none . I have reckoned up , I think , ft . ll our adversaries;~—false shame , pride , indifference of mind , and prejudice of birth , *—these are they
Untitled Article
422 - State and Prospects of tkk
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/62/
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