On this page

• Pictures (1)
  • 
• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    I " * -v- > J * . For the same reason , T account the life and labours of the virtuous and venerable Priestlev to have been of the most im-|> ortant service . And let no one , who is enamoured of his notions , think , that , because he was mistaken in calculating upon the Tapid rise of Unitarian Churches ., his efforts have been in vain . He has enlarged the dominion of thought in both hemispheres ^ compared with which , what is the questionable praise of fiavine ; established a thousand Churches ?¦

    If man shall ever rise above the infancy of reason :, religfon wiH assume anew character , and its peaceful and cheering influence pervade society ,, leaving Churches and Chapels to be received as the marks of former barbarism , as the cultivated native of the islands in the South Seas must view the idols of his former gross idolatry .

    Religion is a principle which breathes through the whole frame of humanity , and its frightful extravagances ^ with which it lias filled the groaning earth , rise as so many proofs of its power , and the weakness of the being which it animates . Its influence is irresistible , nothing can arrest its progress ; but improved reason alone , can make its influence beneficient and genial . It has been seriously argued by more than one respectable author , that the Christian Religion ha £ hitherto had litttle ^ if any , practical influence on the moral conduct of men ; that it has ^ communicated no real improvement to the world . I think that the fact is unquestionable , and the cavise obvious . It has

    uniformly been taught as consisting of every thing besides pure roorals ; its energies , almighty as they are , have thus been thrown into wrong channels , they have raised the world in arms , established burthensome rites , prescribed unmeaning ceremonies r imposed useless abstinences , penances , pilgrimages , voluntary deaths ^ but they have never taught men to live soberly , righte ^ * msly , and peaceably in the world ! Give them a rig ht direction and the world is redeemed . The wind raging in confusion ^ covers the sea with wrecks ,, but its steady and settled impulse , received by the spreading ^ sails , swiftl y sweeps along tt > e vessel ^ to its destined haven .

    The happy time will arrive , and the genius will be found , whose holy office it shall be , to record the ravages of this great principle , misguided and abused , as things then only to be found in the rusty monuments of forgotten ages ^ and to trace , in all its errors and obliquities , the hand , ever planting , ever watering $ he Churches , established to declare and assert the mystic dog-r fnasof interested priests , and corrupt politicians . Finsbiivy-Square . Dec * 30 , 1806 . A . KIRKLAN Q ,

    Untitled Article

    240 Christian Churches .

    Untitled Picture

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/16/