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Untitled Article
. received from aii intelligent layman " in the county of Worcester :- — 'In this region , ' the writer ob ~ serves , * a Ghange of sentiment is constantly taking place . Unitarian Christianity is rapidly increasing in this county ; and it is increasing , too . not beGause there is an external
pressure that forces public sentiment into an unnatural channel—not because men flee to this out of hatred to orthodoxy—not because it is a choice of evils ; but because men
begin to learn that Unitarianism is of itself a great good ; because it increases the happiness , the prosperity , the moral excellence and elevation of the community ; more still , because men learn and feel that this
faith prepares them , more and better than any other , for the full enjoyment of a ' : ' i ! i § v ^ 6 nSiQ ^' ' existence ; for heaven , and Christ , and God . Men begin to feel that their minds may be elevated , that their aspirations of praise may rise purely to the throne-o £ the Omnipotent * that their
affections n \ a , y be purified , and that they can have right feelings towards their fellow-men , and Christ and God , without passing through that all ^ dissolving crucible , a modern revival . The protracted meetings the last season have , in my humble judgment , done more for our faith than we could Jhave done in the same
time by our most strenuous exertions / From the review that has now been taken of the operations of the Society during the past year , the Committee feel that they are authorized to congratulate its members on the present prosperous state of the institution , and upon the encouraging
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Untitled Article
where they are proclaimed—^ these are the facts which we would adduce as the grounds of our rejoicing . We rejoice then in these things . We rejoice in them , not as showing the increase of a sect or party , but as indicating the prevalence and
diffusion of highei . * and better views of religion . We do not rejoice as for the triumph of some novel doctrine . No , our faith is no new thing . It is as old as the gospel . We hold it to be the primitive faith , the very word of truth , that in the beginning ' was preached by Jesus . We hold it to be ¦ ' the faith once delivered to
the saints - —the faith of the Evangelists and the Apostles— -the faith of the three first centuries—the faith , that was sealed by the blood of martyrs and attested by the voice of ages . We avow and defend it not from a love of controversy , nor from an attachment to a distinctive name .
We love our views of religion , not because they are Unitarianism , but because they are Christianity- ¦ «—Christianity in a simpler and purer form"than tan be found in any other system . We do not deny that others
hold the truth—we trust they do ^—we believe they do ; but then they hold it , as we conceive , mixed with and adulterated by error ; and this error , so far as it is really comprehended and embraced , counteracts or neutralizes the effect of the truth .
We love Unitarian Christianity , because it is ¦* a doctrine according to godliness '¦—because it is eminently adapted to make men heavenly minded , spiritual , and holy . We know that it is often represented as a system of bare negations . To us it is full of positive , cheering , lifegiving truths . It makes , men holv and happy here , and it prejpar . es them for a blessed hereafter . We .
believe it on the authority of Scripture , and we believe it , too , * for its very works' sake / We love it for the good it . has done } n the world-We thank God that it gives us joy mi hope in belieying , and speaks
