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Untitled Article
of designating the office . But I am greatly desirous of seeing ,- ^ or if this may not be , that others should see , —a new class of ministers arising for this service , who will consecrate themselves wholly to it . The continuance of a minister in this office , and in the place where h _ e _ shalLjex ^ ercise it , is , I think , of far more importance than in that of our churches .
Nay , more , I venture to say , that a minister will not only be able to do thrice the good in the fifth year in which he shall labour in this field , which he could do in the first ; but that , at the close of each successive year in it , if he shall possess the true spirit of his ministry , he will find his soul bound to it by stronger ties- — by ties , the disruption of which would be among tire most painful of the trials he could be called to bear .
Let it then be called , if so it shall be preferred to call it , a missionary service . But I beseech its patrons and supporters to seek for it men , who will give to it all their faculties and all their days . And T equally beseech those who may be disposed
to engage in this good work , to enter upon , it with the sentiment , if they shall find themselves suited for it , that for this work they will live , and in this work they will die . If such a ministry can be obtainedand it should be demanded till it is
obtained , —and made commensurate with that part of the -population of cities which is not under the pastoral charge of the ministers of their churches , not only will much thus be done to supersede the necessity of the cumbrous police which is now thought to be essential to large
means only , can the divinely benevolent design of our Lord in regard to this part pf the population of cities be accomplished , that they shall be blessed or made happy here and hereafter through his Gospel .
I come then to the question- —The objects of this ministry , and the principles of operation in it , what
are they 1 By giving such aii answer as I may to these questions , something may perhaps be done to aid any one who is interested in the subject to decide , either respecting himself or another , whether he have the qualifications that are required _ for _ it .. - ^_ . - ¦ -- ^
First , then , let us look at the objects of this ministry . What are they ? What are their claims upon us ? What are our responsibilities in regard to them ? I assume—and may I not ?— -that the Gospel of Christ is to be preached to all who shall be willing to hear it ;
and to the poorest and most ignorant , as well as to the wisest and richest of men . How , then * I would ask , are the great body of the poor of cities to be blessed through the Gospel or the religion of Christ ? By the ministry which is established in the churches of-cities ? As Our
religion is now administered in these , churches , this cannot be . In these churches , or religious societies , there are often more than two , and sometimes more than three hundred families , which demand the frequent personal attentions of their ministers . They demand also not only careful
and laborious preparations for the public instructions of Sunday , but other occasional , and it may be frequently recurring services , which require the retirement and study of th e minister * who would wisely and profitably discharge them . And yet , while no large city in Christendom
lias ever comprehended in its religious societies more than threefourths of its inhabitants j arid while , in many cities , even a much larger gEQpQxtiQn of their inhabitants Has for ages been unconnected with any
of their churches or religious societies the guilt of leaving this large number imcared for , with respect to their spiritual condition , their moral exposures , and the objects of the Gospel concerning them , seems hardly to have occurred to the mind of the most zealous and phUanthro-
Untitled Article
, UNITARIAN CHRONICLE . 20 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1832, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1821/page/27/
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