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
ing into the immediate participation of immortal felicity , is not distinctly predicted in the Scriptures , Unitarians are uniformly agreed only in the conclusiop * that endless torments is a doctrine most remote from the designs of the all-merciful Creator . Were
inquiries more confined to objects nearer our observation , such as the nature and design of death , of the universal resurrection , some to the immediate fruition of immortal felicity , and others to a state of judgment , and just discrimination in the condition and
treatment of vicious characters , according to their various degrees of guilt , it is probable that the most satisfactory inferences would be derived respecting the wise and beneficent purposes of
God , although the ultimate result of his dispensations may exceed the reach of our faculties fully to determine , and as it respects the offending part of mankind , may at present be involved in awful uncertainty .
Much interesting information was received from our friends from different quarters . The free spirit of truth is exerting itself , by various methods , for promoting both its diffusion and its increasing influence on the minds of those by whom it has
been already embraced . Our Cranbrook friends , by their Secretary , ( Mr . W . Dobell , ) write as follows : — ** Our chief means of making- our opinions known , are by pulpit discourses , public conferences and private conversation . At our conferences we
occasionally have some written addresses from the younger part of our friends , both male and female , which do credit to'their understanding and their hearts , and which we wish to encourage , not only in our own but in all our societies . " The like rational
and interesting methods are actively pursued by our friends at Battle , where a variety of controversial tracts , chiefly by Mr . Wright , have been copiously distributed , and much
exertion has been successfully made in calling forth talent at their public conferences , which are numerously attended . This practice of engaging the active powers of the mind and its social affections in the mutual
investigation and discussion of truth , and thus of giving it a general interest and impression , which can never be produced while the faculties remain in
Untitled Article
passive inaction , has been partially adopted in most of our other societies . As the sublime truths of religion are distinguished from the gross errors with which they nave been confounded , by their readiness to court
the light , so it is by calling the mind into action , and infusing their sacred influences through the affections , a * they flow in social intercourse and free discussion , that they can be expected to maintain their sovereign sway over our conduct . While our
brethren are thus engaged in edifying one another , they are , we trust , aware of the peculiar care which is necessary , in rendering religious and moral truth intelligible , and consequently interesting to their children . The attention which some of our Maidstone
friends have devoted to this humble but useful undertaking ' , has proved the means of awakening an interest to the objects of religion and duty in their young minds , and the effects of it are apparent in their deportment . It appeared from the information of
two of our Dover friends that Unitarianism has recently made an extraordinary progress in that town . Its principles having been distinctly stated and illustrated , a great degree of interest has been very extensively excited , and the General Baptist
chapel , in which these laudable exertions are made , is now overflowing with a vast accession of persons , won by the force of evidence and the beauty of truth . A very effectual
instrument in the production of these great effects , has been of so humble a nature , that it may , serve as a useful hint of the practicability of promoting truth by much less costly means than those which custom has sanctified to
the support of error . One of those shops to which we resort to have the exterior of the seat of intelligence adjusted , has been very successfully employed by its worthy proprietor in furnishing the interior with just conceptions concerning the Creator . Numerous Unitarian Tracts have been
distributed from it , and ^ t has been made the centre of much interesting and profitable discussion . The attention of the trttly respect * able body of General Baptists having been drawn toward the great question concerning the object of worship , we find' them at their late association at
Untitled Article
502 Intelligence . *^—Kent and Sussex TJtiitarian Christia ^ i Association .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1817, page 502, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2467/page/54/
-