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present not so many hundreds are raised from the same sources for the same purposes . JOHN THOMSON . P . S . A friend , whose name is well known to your readers , and which , did 1 feel at liberty without his permission to mention , would insure attention to the subject , favoured me with the following remarks in reply to a rough sketch of the project detailed above . " The increase of calls on
Unitarian benevolence is a pleasing sign of the advancement of truth , but I agree with you that as at present carried on they must exhaust and weary . To all religious societies , indeed , the advice is applicable ; but to small associations of detached converts who are
at too great a distance to join an established congregation , and not yet sufficiently numerous or opulent to build a place and maintain a minister , I would particularly recommend St . Paul ' s advice to the Corinthians about
' collecting for the saints , ' ( 1 Cor . xvi . 2 . ) 'On every first day of the week let every one lay by as God hath prospered him . ' Let them never fail to meet regularly for public worship every Lord ' s day , & : c . Let there be a box with a slit in the lid
into which every one may put in according to individual discretion and convenience , from a halfpenny ripwards , and without any one knowing its amount but himself . Let it be periodically opened by appointed officers , and a regular account kept of its produce . What is more than is wanted for the relief of occasional
distress , or for benevolence to other charities , should be carefully put out to interest and managed to ' the best advantage : and thus without any burden upon them , a fund would in time be raised equal to all their wants . In already established larger congregations , Igreatly approve your regulations for the fellowship fund . "
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Sir , Bridport , Sept . 26 , 18 J | 6 . IF you think the following observations calculated to obviate the objections to the divine government , of one of your Correspondents , whose signature is Y . N . [ p . 277 , 1 and " to vindicate the ways of God to man , " by inserting them in your truly liberal Repository , you will oblige , Your " . * respectfully , THOMAS HOW&
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" - "Vity ^ f THAT human life ! 3 a chequered scene of good and evil , of pleasure and pain , of the exhilarations of hope and the mortification of disappointment is a point of no doubtful disputation The most unfortunate of our felJQw creatures have some Comforts or other remaining , to * sweeten the bitter cud which is given them to drink , whilst imperfection and uncertaint y characterize th £ enjoyments of the most prosperous . The estimate of the W piness or infelicity of the present
condition of men , is much influenced I think , by the peculiar constitution and state of mind of the person who makes it , and the views he entertains of the divine government . If he lie subject to depression of the animal
spirits , and also has embraced a ~ rind system of religion , looking on the Deity as an object rather of dread than of love , dooming the greatest part of mankind , by an eternal and irreversible decree , for the offence of their
first progenitor , to unavoidable and endless misery ; the estimate of human life formed by such a one will probably partake of the gloom of his disposition and the rigour of his creed . Good Dr . Watts was in one of his
melancholy moods , and had not the most cheerful views of religion , when he composed the hymn containing the following lines . ** Lord , what a wretched land is this , That yields us no . supply , No cheering fruits , no wholesome trees , Nor streams of living joy !
But pricking thorns through all the ground , And mortal poisons grow , And all the rivers that are found , With dang ' rous waters flow . Yet the dear path to thine abode , Lies through this horrid land . Long nights and darkness dwell below , With scarce a twinkling ray . " JVatts , H . 5 dv B . * . Your Correspondent , Y . N . in the Monthly Repository for May last , p . 277 . seems to me to have thoroug h-
ly imbibed the spirit of the lines ju * auoted . He looks at human I « e through a glpomy medium , and sees nothing in it but evil . As to tbe inquiry he proposes for disc ussion , whether happiness or misery , preva ^ in the present state ( but which n does not hesitate to decide hinise » » a manner most unfayoarable
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680 Mr . Howe in Answer to Y > N . s Oljectioii to tlie Divine Governm / M *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1816, page 580, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2457/page/16/
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