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asked permission of their orthodox minister and his particular friends to have four Sundays in the year for their own use , that they might hear liberal ministers . They were refused ! Two-thirds of the town
wished only tojmve four days out of fifty-two to themselves , consenting -to—hear—and- ^ to ^ supp-oxt ^ jrjihodox ^ preaching the other forty-eight , and were refused ! Finding that a request so extremely , so extravagantly moderate , we might almost say , was de * nied them hy a minority , they said at
once that if they could not have so little , they would take a great deal . They therefore voted to use the house of worship two Sundays in each of several months . I am not sure how many , but less by a good deal than they could claim . They are now hearing Unitarian preaching such a proportion of the time .
In another neighbouring town , they have just dismissed their orthodox minister by a vote of two-thirds of the whole town . I have other places in inind , in "which something of the same kind has been done ; but as I have not personal , accurate knowledge of their movements , I will not attempt an account . I have stated enough to sustain me in two conclusions .
First , it is plain that the assertion made so often by the Orthodox , particularly in the Spirit of the Pilgrims —that we oppose four days' meetings and they lil $ e measures , merely because we fear their effects upon our own ranks—has no support in fact , if it have in reason . We predicted and we see all around us , that the effects are decidedly good for us
as Unitarians , disgusting many with the opposite system , and she wing juU the necessity of fearless and immediate action . And if we did not fear , that many who are driven from orthodoxy will be driven from all religion ; if we did not think it always wvong to desire or permit evil that good may come , partial good from great evil , we should rejoice rather
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160 UNITARIAN CHRONICLE .
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The ninth half-yearly Report of Dr . Tuckerman's labours as Minister at large ( or domestic ^ issibTial ^ y ) i ^ Boston ; U . S ,, has just reached us . We regret to see that his philanthropic labours were suspended , by dangerous illness , for several weeks . His visits during the six months ending May 5 th were 1321 , divided between 4 > 15 families . He strongly
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than lament / over these extrava * gances . After all , I must say for ntyself , it is not the principle of these multiplied meetings and unusual exertions ' that I object to , but the way in which they are conducted , the
enormities in do " ctrine and conduct wtyieh they are allowed to sanction , J ^^_ nieetings ^ jhemselves and the exertions may be ttgM 7 ~ TnTty ^ b ~ g needed , for religion ' s sake—but this is a question of some difficulty , on which I will not enter here .
Again—it is to be observed as of . some importance , that all these towns of which I have spoken have for many years , we may say always , been subjected to orthodox influences , and no other . They have had no Unitarian preaching at all , and in
most of them little Unitarian reading . In such circumstances , how has it happened that they have come out so generally anti-orthodox ? Is it not singular , that so many Unitarian Societies have been formed , and so many mare-are now ^ forming , Jnjthe hands of Trinitarians ? One would
suppose it might check a little Jthe tone of confidence with which they assert the intrinsic power , the obvious truth and excellence of their system , when they see that another and very different system is sowing its seeds in the very soil on which they
are labouring , and all they do seems but to quicken the enemy ' s tares , causing them to spring in , rank profusion and crowd , out ail else . May it not be , that thSy are striving to destroy the seeds which the God of nature has himself planted , and therefore striving in vain ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1832, page 160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1819/page/16/
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