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suited to make this ministry one of the greatest of blessings which can be extended to cities . The difficulty , I imagine , of finding fit instruments for it , arises from the want of distinct conceptions of its objects , and of the means of accomplishing them . In some important respects , the
service is a new one ; and the experiment of its usefulness and claims has yet been but very partially made , Even those who have been the longest engaged in it , have much to learn of the duties and interests which are involved in it . We may , however ,, give the results of our observation and experience in the work ; and
these , perhaps , will furnish the best lights which can . be obtained , respecting the qualifications of the instruments which are to Be sought for it . Happy shall I be , if , by any exposition I can give of the objects of this ministry , and of the principles of operation which have been adopted
m it , I may do anything to induce those who are qualified to offer themselves for the service , and . thus forward in any measure the benevolent designs of those , who are waiting only for the agents whom they may commission and employ in it .
Allow me , however , before I enter upon this topic , to express my ardent desire , that the friends of this ministry will do what they can , in its first establishment , to secure its . permanency , by appointing those alone to it , who will be disposed to devote to it their hearts and their lives . I
should be deeply sorry to see this office made a mere stepping-stone to the ministry in our churches j and , certainly , not less sorry to see men called to it , who , having shown their incapacity in every other department
of useful exertion , have therefore been thought to be at least qualified to act as ministers to the poor . The truth is , that if this ministry shall be committed to incompetent , however zealous agents , it may be an instrument for the increase , rather than
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the prevention of the -evils it is intended to stay and to correct ; and it will very soon be followed , first by the distrust , and then by the discouragement , even of those who were the most earnest of its supporters . Here , indeed , is not only scope , but demand , as well for the energies of
intellect and of judgment , as for the zeal of affection and of benevolence ; nor do I believe that there is any better school for the cultivation of the intellectual and moral nature , than is to be found in this service . I have been accustomed to speak of this office as a ministry at large for the poor of cities * This has not
arisen from any general objection to the term missionary , as applied to the service . No one has a higher respect than I have for the office of a Christian missionary . When I first entered upon the service in which I am now engaged , I felt a happiness to which no language can gi ve-expression , in the thought , 'I
am now a missionary to the poor . ' But after I had passed a year in this work , and had learned something of the extent of the field in which I was labouring ; of the condition , and the character and wants , intellectual and moral , of the subjects of this
ministry ; of the variety of the objects constantly demanding attention and the diversified modes of operation that are required in it ; and , above all , when I . perceived , that little comparatively could be done that was effectual of much good , till the minister was trained for the
service by discipline and experience , and till he had obtained also the decided respect , and confidence , and even affection of those with whom he should become connected" in , this office ; I then felt the importance of 1
makingthis a permanent ministry * In my first semiannual report of the second year of my service , J therefore proposed this permanent minis - try , and called it ' a ministry at large for the poor of cities . ' I have no strong predilection for this mode
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£ 0 t UNITARIAN" CHRCXNICLE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1832, page 202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1821/page/26/
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