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* We agree with you in your reverence for antiquity inTespect of the faith ; and desire nothing more than that by their comparative claims to antiquity our respective religions should be judged . We feel that grace as well as authority is conferred by every evidence of long duration . We can enter into your reverence for your doctrines , because they were held by Saints in cloisters which have crumbled to dust , by
heroes and anchorites whose arms were the relics of centuries gone by , or whose rocky abodes have retained their sanctity for a thousand years . We can understand your emotions on receiving sacraments or witnessing ceremonies which fostered the devotion of the saintly and the heroic of the olden time , and which filled the Christian temples abroad with music and fragrance , while in our land the smoke of Druidical sacrifices was ascending offensively to Heaven . But we
thus sympathize because we too refer our worship to ancient days . Our hearts also thrill under the impulses which are propagated from afar . We also delight in spiritual exercises , because they are sanctified by long-tried efficacy ; and enjoy our devotion more , because the same hopes exhilarated , the same trust supported , our spiritual kindred of the remotest Christian antiquity . In our Churches we believe we feel the spirit of brotherhood which first gave to the believers one
heart and one soul . In the silence of our chambers , or amidst the solitudes of nature , we are open to the same incentives to prayer and praise which visited Peter on the house-top , and Paul amidst the perils of the sea . When intent upon the words of life , we , like the Apostle , are impelled to exclaim , * ' O ! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! " And were the times of persecution to recur , we doubt not but that , at the very stake , the consciousness of fellowship with the holy Stephen would add vigour to our courage and
splendour to our hopes . We refuse to perpetuate the imposing ritual of the early ages because it is not antique enough ; but whenever we behold two or three gathered together to worship with the heart and voice alone ; when we see men assembling on the first day of the week to break bread in remembrance of Christ , in the simplicity of the primitive ordinance ; when we see teachers , in all external things like their brethren , gathering wisdom from the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field , —we could almost forget the lapse of ages in sympathy with those from whom they separate us/—p . 6—8 .
From the same Essay we take an accurate and philosophical description of the growth , in the human mind , of the notion of a Deity . The description is introduced by the author in order to found upon it an argument for the Divine Unity : — * If we examine our own minds , we feel that our first notions of a God are low and earthly . We conceive of Him as of an earthly parent , watching over our sleep with bodily eyes , furnishing our food with a bodily hand , and following us from place to place with a material presence . As infancy passes away , our conceptions become less gross . We think of Him as omnipresent and invisible ; but , deriving our notions from our experience , we conceive of him as subject to emotions and passions . We believe in the real existence—if not of his smiles and frowns—of his joy , sorrow and anger , pleasure and pain . We can then imagine his knowing and remembering all that has ever
Untitled Article
480 Miss MarUneatCs Prize Essays .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/48/
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