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years to the diligent study of the Jewish and Christians scriptures , < md from time to time most con * scientiously unfolded and enforced those sacred truths from the pulpit , which he believed to be most conducive to the moral and
religious improvement of his hearers . He did not often dwell on subjects which are merely controversial , it being his great object rather to form his hearers to a
truly Christian temper , than to render them acute disputants ; conceiving , that love to God and good will towards all men , as his children and our brethren , is the very essence of the gospel . Most
particularly did he avoid in his public discourses the unedifying disputes , at this day so warmly agitated by many very worthy persons , on the subject of a
celebrated sermon lately published by a clergyman of the established church * . What might be his precise opinion respecting the particular fact to which that sermon
relates , I am not competent to state , but he greatly disapproved of the extreme importance attributed to the controversy by some , and of the spirit pf party excited by it in others . In all the social and
domestic connexions , as a neighbour , a mastefof a family , a friend , a father and a husband , his con . duct was not only exemplary hut singularly amiable . For some years he took a limited number
of young ladies as pupils , who in consequence enjoyed a privilege which very seldom falls to the lot of females , and who will long have reason to rejoice in the enlargement of mind and valuable acquisition of useful knowledge ,
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which by this means fell to their share . Few persons had more enlighk ened views than out * departed friend , of the true nature and
great importance of civil and religious liberty , to the prosperity , improvement and happiness , both of the governors and governed . No one more warmly admired the English constitution as exhibited
in its native purity , or more sincerely regretted every deviation from its genuine principles . The war system , so unduly extolled by those who are interested in its continuance , a multitude alas how numerous ! he sincerely deprecated . One of the latest acts of his life was the address
made by him in the Cloth-hall at Leeds , which he delivered with uncommon animation , on the subject of the petition for peace . To one or two of his friends who
differed from him in opinion , not as to the object of the petition , but as to the time of presenting it , he feelingly replied , u Whe » ther it be the time or not , I will not dispute , but this I know , that
it is my time , and that as an aged minister of the gospel of peace , I feel itan imperious duty to bear this public testimony . " It is much to be regretted that Mr . Wood should have puSJished so
very little . To himself indeed it is now of no impoitance that the knowledge of his literary eminence should scarcely have extended beyond the confined circle of his own immediate connexions ; but
to them , and to society at large , the loss is very great , for the treasures of . wisdom and knowledge which he had accumulated ,
• Sec a Sermon , by the Rev . Francis Stonei
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232 Memoir iff-the late Rev * W \ Wood , of Leeds , by Mrs . Cmppe .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/4/
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