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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.
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Untitled Article
tfish C 6 dit& theteh&beS ctf it , to takfc the ehfflhfeti tec&ifrttk&nikid by themselves to their ^\ wVd 3 pectiTO places of worship ; the mbtf 6 ri w ^ s Aegatived by the casting vote of tfce Chairman ; ( a clergyman , ) and ih Consequence the Old-Meetih £ Society immediately
dedded on esikbE&bing a school for * themselves , April 1787 . One of the first resolutions of their Committed was , that the number of boys and girls should for the present be limited to 20 each ; and from tliat time to the present day the Institution has never reased to increase both in numbers and
ya interest , so that it has now to boast a regular attendance of from 400 to 500 children , under the sole , gratuitous instruction and management of a numerous and respectable body of teachers , most of whom were educated in the establishment , and many of them are now become heads of families . —
Part of the funds for the building has been raised by voluntary contributions , so that the rental for Sunday and weekly purposes will compensate the Trustees for the amount they may have to advance ; and a pleasing circumstance farther connected with it is ,
that the loan of £ 400 has been offered and accepted from the capital realized by the Society in their sick establishment , entirely appropriated to the schools . To commemorate the erection of the
building , the following inscriptions were engraved on strips of copper , rivetted together like the sticks of a fan , put into a bottle with an air-tight glass stopper , the remaining space was filled with dried pounded charcoal , and the bottle was then hermetically sealed and deposited in a cavity of the stone on a bed of dry sand :
1 . This building was erected for the purpose of a Sunday-School . 2 . A . D . 1820 , in the 1 st year of the reign of Geo . IV . 3 . Estimated expense , £ 1000 British currency . 4 . Calculated to accommodate 600 P « pils .
5 . Architects , J Sandud Copland , * \ John Edge . 6 . Pastors of the Meeting ( -House , The Rev . 5 Robert Kell , t Stephen Weaver Browne . 7 . Treasurer , Thomas Lee . Chapel Wardens , j *** Haughton , ' i Thomas Eyre Lee .
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8 ; Principal promoter of thef Institution * Jdraes Luckcock . The stbne was lfciil by the Rev : Sv W . Browne , after having delivered the following Discourse on tlie spot to a tery numerous and gratified auditory :
" The Almighty Creator of Hie tmi-^ er ^ e has connected ttte discharge of the duties of life with the * finest feelings of which we are susceptible , and the utility we are of to society is the purest glory we can offer to him . In the work in which we here engage , we
may indulge a sentiment of complacency , since our efforts are made for the advancement of the virtue , and consequently of the happiness of that part of the moral world with which we are more immediately in contact .
In our hands nothing can be more useful , nothing more honourable : it brings to the heart a delight better founded , and therefore far surpassing that of the conqueror , whose triumphs are founded on the miseries of
mankind , and of which the acclamations stifle in some quarter or other curses deep , if not loud . The prosperities of wealth are generally purchased with restless toil and eager competition : sometimes a secret injustice , or an overweaning anxiety , destroys all their
charm j the enjoyments of the voluptuous man , even when they ruin not his health , nor destroy his fortune , undermine his moral force , and prepare him for degradation ; but the instruction of the poor in religion , in morals , in the useful arts of life ,
presents to the benefactor of his species a perennial source of unalloyed satisfaction . No tares are sown ; the earth is not drenched with blood ; no bad passions are excited or strengthened $ the poor , on the contrary , are
trained to the virtues of their stations , and raised to a participation of the daily and common comforts of existence , and society at large receives the benefit . What peace and security for heads of families to have the
subordinate but indispensable duties of life discharged by those who are taught the responsibilities they incur , and who listen to the remonstrances of conscience \ Avocations are every where to
be found in the social state , in which the most attentive parents are continually obliged to confide to the care of servants , the children of their tenderest love , whose welfare is entwined with
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Birthttigtium Old-Meeting- SUndtiy Schools . ffe&
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 295, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/39/
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