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of g * eat importance to-the objects of a religious teacher ; for of those who h aye . been recovered from gros £ vice , I believe that nineteen out of twenty will be found to have received early religious instruction ; and that their reformation , under God , is principally to be ascribed to the revived Influence of"lEis ~ instructidni "" Sorne , ^ also , have been reared-from infancy
in an atmosphere of sin , and have never received a strong impression of a religious principle , or had a strong sense of a religious obligation . Still they may not be , and in truth they are not wholly , without natural conscience ; and the skill of
the teacher is to be exerted upon this conscience , in awakening its almost deadened capacities . Some were early accustomeid to a'condition of at least comparative prosperity , and others have never known any other than a life of poverty . Having then obtained as perfect a knowledge as h e . can ... of ™ allwithin . and ..-without
which is conducing to the virtue or vice of the individual , the teacher will understand something of the nature of the -work which he will have to do ; of the objects to which he is particularly to direct his attention and cares ; and , of the means he is to employ to attain these objects . And though , after all that he may
thus have learned , his success may be far short of his hopes , he will , yet ^ .. tM ^ e ^ t 3 ^ t ¦^ Q JwlI $ eh . hjls ... ^ l fl u . ? .. enee shall be felt , attd to which the individual shall be brought to cooperate with him , have the satisfaction to know that he is working for a radical and a permanent reformation .
I would state another principle whicIHi ^ onsiaHily'lp "Be ^ cHerisfieH " and maintained in this ministry . I wean that we should be careful to carry into it a deep feeling of respect for the actual rights and capacities of the individual mind . I do not indeed suppose that this principle is of greater importance here than in any other department of the Christian
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ministry . But herej more easily perhaps than in the ministry of our churches , we may lose sight of it * What , indeed , ifc may be asked by some , are the rights which belong to a condition of ignorance , and dependence , and degradation , and sin 1 And what is the respect which is due
to him who has no respect for himself ? I reply that the capacities and rights of an immortal nature , of a being who must account for himself to God , and in whom the objects of the gospel of Christ can be accomplished only by his own free choice of truth and virtue and duty , have the . highest claims to the respect of a
religious teacher , even in the most wayward and debased of our fellowmen . For how is it but through his capacities * and rights of thought and . understanding , of judgment and affection , of choice and of will * , that any one is , or can be , a subject of the moral government of God , and accountable , to him ? Itis a newiworld
of interests , and as distinct a course of action , into which we are brought in our intercourse with our fellowbeings , by Christian sentiments on this single subject respecting them . Our own use Of these rights , and our improvement of these capacities may , perhaps , have raised us , in our moral condition , above some poor , degraded fellow-beings , even more thariswe are raised above them by the circumstances of our outward con-.
dlto . But enfeebled as these powers may be in them , and perverted and corrupted , they are not wholly lost ; for if they were , the individuals would not be proper subjects of the Christian ministry . A man may be regardless of his capacities and rights ,
andlincbrisciousi " of their" importance and worth , and of the responsibility which they bring upon him ; and it may . even be the high office of the * minister into whose charge h& ' may fall , to reveal this individual to himself . And what an exalted ministry is that in which we are called to "bring home to any soul a conception
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^ M ^ tW Itl ^ N CHBONlOliE . # 13
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1832, page 213, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1823/page/5/
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