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unanimous request of the meeting , tliat it be iorwardf ^ $ P the Monthly Repository for insertion . . - Report of the Committee , 1820 : Christian Friends *
We are again assembled in the place in which our Society was fprmed and its first General Meeting held ,, and we may now confidently appeal to such of you as have attended all or even any of these Anniversaries ^ whether it has not been good for us to have united in the propagation of our common faith , and to have cherished a spirit of Christian friendship among the members of our various societies . * Since the establishment of this Association , many hundreds of tracts have been put into circulation . The number distributed since the last Meeting is 334 , and the stock now in hand ( not including those ordered in the present year ) is 436 " .
ft has been highly gratifying to us that , year after year , our Meetings have been attended with fresh proofs of their utility . Every anniversary has brought additional members , and wherever we assembled , if any doubts had previously existed
as to their expediency , they have given way to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction . As , therefore , the utility and advantage of this Society is no longer a matter of uncertainty , but is acknowledged by the concurrent testimony of all our churches , we are desirous that all our Unitarian
brethren should cordially co-operate with us in forwardiug its objects , of which the principal one is the diffusion of what we regard as-gospel truth , by the distribution of books . We would invite them to aid us in giving circulation to those admirable and convincing arguments in defence
of pure and undented Christianity , which the catalogue of our Society contains . If we regard truth as important , and Christian truth as most important ; , if it is our wish to edify one another ; if we desire that the benevolent and heart-cheering spirit of the gospel should supersede the
narrow and cheerless system which is taught in popular creeds and confessions of faith , let us unite in giving effect to those means " by which ends so desirable may be accomplished . If it be given to few to reason like Locke or Lardner or Priestley , it is yet in the power of us all to give currency and circulation to their
writings , to b & * . r , our decided testimony to the truths , which we profess , and to claim for them the attention and examination < # our Christian brethren . tJnitananism can no longer be liidL ¦ . # Ijas ceased to be confined to the closets of the learned , an « U | Jjrpwed by Christians of all ranks and classes . Thousands of
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the poor have felt its value , and borae their testimony tp its truth . It i » not , therefore , a . matter of choice whether ft * advocates shall gird , on tljeir armour . We meet in pur respective hpuses of prayer avowedly for ,, the < worship of the
One God , and for this we are called upon to give our reasons . , ~ I ^ t ugs not shrink from the challenge , The weapons of truth are in our hands , and , believing them to be all-powerful , let us use them with full assurance of final success . These are not times for shrinking from a manly and open avowal and a fearless defence
of our principles . We are more , than ever subjected to calumny and misrepresentation . Not only by > all classes of our fellow-christians are we " spoken against , ' * but even Unbelievers have joined in the senseless cry . To vilify the professors of Unitarianism has been found so sure a road to preferment in
the Church , that we have seen our judges on the bench imitating the example of the established priests , and travelling out of their way to traduce us . Far be it from any of us to imitate such conduct ; we are not to answer reviling with reviling , but we are bound "to give a reason for the faith that is in us" to such
gainsayers . When we are accused of blasphemy , it is our duty to hold up to the examination of our fellow-Christians the works of Priestley and Lardner and other champions of our faith , and to say , " such is the blasphemy which we profess . " These repeated attacks will at least have the effect of promoting union and co-operation among us . Those who
have been languid m the cause of truth , will feel the necessity of exertion . The principles and the spirit of our venerable ancestors , the old Nonconformists , will still live in our churches . Their hatred to oppression , their love of liberty , their desire to remove all the degrading obstacles which hinder the spread of truth , will animate their successors in the
discharge of their duty , and will impel to an active exertion of their influence in behalf of those means by which its further and complete promulgation may be attained . Adopting the same views of the character and government of God , and of the ultimate destiny of man , let each
study to contribute all in his power to the promotion of those views of Christian truth which we are convinced would ameliorate the heart , and roof ; ou £ from it every persecuting feeling , which would make man regard his Creator as . a kind and beneficent parent , and ajUL mankind as brethren . If this be QW fflfePf wither the calumnies of the bigoted and the selfish nor the attacks of the hireling defenders
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Intelligence . —Eastern Unitarian Society . 483
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 483, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/39/
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