On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ascribe the success , and to him we are to render the glory . I know not , indeed , the sphere of human action , in which human need of divine aid is more impressively taught , than in the services of this ministry .
Strangely constituted must be that ^ miird 7 ~ whi ( chr"amidst " "the--speetaG 4 es that are here daily witnessed , at once of human weakness , and exposure , and want , and suffering , and of the power of human propensities and habits , and amidst the embarrassments and trials which are here
daily to be met , shall not often and strongly feel its personal insufficiency for the objects , for the attainment of whicli the gospel yet calls for human interest and sympathy and co-operation . But , blessed be God , this very gospel assures us that he will not withhold his holy spirit from those who ask him for it . This
is the first and the last , the beginning ^ and the end , of the encourage-_ ments to- this ministry "; nor can I conceive that any one who should attempt this service , independently of this divine aid , would long obtain the remunerations of his worky which would induce him to continue in it .
But while I plead for a special ministry for the poor , I am fully aware that our religion knows of no substitute , and that its believers should not think of proposing any for that extended and personal connexion between the wise and the
ignorant , the rich and the poor , the virtuous and the vicious , at which our Lord aims in the sentiment addressed to them without discrimination , All ye are brethren . No one , indeed , I think , who has watched the operations of this ministry , can doubt whether it have done much in our city to quicken and extend a sense of the relations into which
Christianity would bring the classes of society Avith each other . And let me here observe , that something will also , I hope , be done in this cause by the publication of Degerando ' s 4 Visitor of the Poor . ' I commend this
Untitled Article
work to the readers of my Reports , in the belief that it is suited to do much to make the service to Which it calls its readers profitable at once to those who may engage in it , and to those to whom this service may be extended . . . . . ' _—The-pas . t ^\ y . in . fcer > jt _ will be remem- ^ bered , was one of unusual severity : of
it was ako a js ^ ason unusual sickness . Bu ^ althpugh there was a proportionally unusual demand for fuel , and although its price was onethird higher than in several preceding winters , there yet was not , I think , any unusual suffering among the poor from a want of the means of warmth and comfort . The cold
weather of the winter began very eady , and public sympathy with the suffering was strongly exeiteH among us . The rich were liberal in their contributioTis for the necessitous , and the ^ distributors of their bounty were faithful in the appropriation of it . Much moral evilyI { believe ,-was $ hus prevented , and much moral , as well
as physical good , was . promoted . There are , without doubt , cases of an unwise and injurious distribution of alms among us . But I believe there is as little ground for complaint , or for apprehension on this subject , in our city , as in any city of equal numbers in our country , or in the world .
Of my own services , during the last six months , I can only say , that I have endeavoured to do what I could . At the close of the last December I was taken from my work by a dangerous illness , which confined me to my house for five weeks ; and I have recently been absent from the .. city , JotjwgfeLjlayjk _ Jfoy
visits , therefore , for the last half year have been but thirteen hundred and twenty-one , and these have been divided between four Jiundred and fifteen families , I have been obliged also , from inability to preach , wholly to relinquish the services of the chapel . A recurrence to this last circumstance , and to the fact , that
Untitled Article
316 UNITArAaN CHRONICLE .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1832, page 216, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1823/page/8/
-