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Hinck& ' s Sermons . 697
usual attendant when rational and sincere , is well described as it appeared in the mind and manner of Mr . Hincks : — * It would be inexcusable not to make a separate mention of his piety , though it is essentially involved in the character we have so far described . As a minister , it was his high praise that his power lay chiefly in his devotional character . TheGod of his prayers was the God who filled the temple of his hourly thouo-hts . He had not to forg-et
any god of the earth when he sought the God of heaven . He looked habitually upon the present and the future world , upon sin , sorrow , and death , in the light of a father ' s countenance . In his unprovoked gentleness , in his bland manners , in his deep interest in all around him ; and in his hopeful and brightening , though mild and humble spirit , piety was ripening her choicest fruits . His devotional services had a peculiar character of reality , as though he were giving simplest utterance to the experiences of his heart . His imagination , dwelling habitually in the purest regions , seemed to form , with a perfect ease , the rich combinations of beauty and grandeur , and to gather all that is attractive in another world to recommend heaven to the gained and
unresisting heart . 4 That purity of mind and of imagination which rendered him so familiar with the visions and the imagery of a brighter sphere was connected with another , and though apparently opposite , yet a perfectly consistent , feature of his character . Every mind of a higher order , when it is perfectly innocent , and blessed with a piety in which there is no gloom or superstition , is keenly alive to all the pleasing associations of humour , and harmless gaiety and wit . Our susceptibility of this class of emotions , has a more intimate connexion with the hijrher part of our
nature than is generally believed . It throws bright colours over life , sweetening our social intercourse , enlivening all that is dull and gloomy , and surrounding us with a perpetual and cheerful sunshine . In the fine perceptions of a pure and religious mind there is often an exquisite relish for these peculiar emotions . This sportiveness and pleasantry of feeling was a very decided , though not a prominent , part of Mr . Hincks ' s character . There was too acute a feeling of propriety , and too accurate an observance of the due proportions of the several parts of his character , ever to permit this susceptibility to become too marked , or even to be generally known , except to those who were
admitted to the intimacies of his mind . His friends will remember with delight the mild and radiant light that played around his social conversation ; the blended affection and sportiveness of his temper ; the charm and freshness of those happy feeling's , and the beautiful connexion that subsisted between the piety and the playfulness of his mind . From the predominance , however , of other feelings and that refinement of mind which cannot exert itself freely , except where it is sure of being
perfectly sympathized with , this was a part of his character that was but little known . '—Memoir ^ pp . 22—24 . Of the discourses , which form the bulk of this volume , our opinion will be gathered from what we have already said of the high character and maturity of Mr . Hincks ' s intellectual attainments . Every candid reader is disposed to receive compositions of this nature , generally prepared in haste , and presented to him under
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No . 70 . 3 D
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 697, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/47/
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