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erful reasonings , the pungent rebukes of the Reverend M . S ., had borne down or frightened away all the puny and feeble arguments which a helpless * illiterate" plebeian , although backed even by a * Oantabrigian A . M ., was able to adduce in vindication of the sacrilegious practice of Lay-preaching :
so that " the determination , on my part , was well nigh taken , never again with unsanctified fingers to open the sacred books , or expose my unconsecrated head in the reading desk or pulpit , those sancta santorum of the Christian
high priest . Arid although the equitable maxim , " audi alteram partem , " was not utterly forgotten , yet to little purpose did such passages as the following present themselves to the trembling recollection of the self-accusing sinner— " Ye may all prophesy ( preach ) one by one . " " He that is not against us is for us . " < s Be ye helpers of each other ' s joy , " &c . The arrows of , possibly , a D . D ., barbed by prerogative , and hurled with priestly
malignity , were too surely directed by the dexterous arm of this high-born champion of privileged orders , not to reach the very vitals of a self-taught , ( consequently ignorant , ) " self-created minister , " unpractised in controversy ,
and unequal in talent to even utter a deprecation , on his own behalf , in the imagined presence of a personage so awful and imposing as the academically instructed , the rightfully ordained Parson S . No , Sir , but I was about to
whisper to myself this admonition , < c keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God , and be more ready to hear , " ( or if there be no one to address thee , to silently retire , ) " than to offer the sacrifice of a fool , " when the truly able and convincing replies
of your liberal and zealous Correspondents , Mr . Rutt of Clapton , and the Reverend William Hincks of Exeter , in the Number for September , ( pp . 516 and 531 , ) attracted my delighted eyes , aud yielded a seasonable relief to my hesitating and terrified judgment .
The anxiety I felt on my own account , and my apprehensions on account of the Unitarian cause , were considerably allayed by the cogency of their united arguments . I soon resolved on rescinding my half-formed purpose . And I earnestly entreat all the Lay-preachers of the connexion who may have been
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alike disheartened b y the philippic of M . S ., to peruse with cool attention the valuable comments on it above referred to , and , I trust , that they likewise will determine to persevere iu the good work they have undertaken , on all fit occasions , not suffering theml selves to be diverted either b y the ridU cule of the learned , or the slanders of the malicious , from the faithful exercise
of their virtuous endeavours . What * my fellow-disciples of the same heavenly but unlettered teacher , what if ye be not able to express yourselvesin the nervous eloquence of- a Blair , or the polished periods of a Fawcett ; what , if even every sentence tUat may
escape your lips do not exactly harmonize with the syntactical code of Lindley Murray , or that to translate a text from Griesbach may be to you an impracticable task ! Be not dismayed ; ye must be worse than €€ illiterate , " and really unfit for your
Master ' s service , if ye cannot read with common propriety the plain word of God , in decent , intelligible English , offer a word of exhortation to your brethren , or prefer a sober , pious ,
sincere , and , therefore , acceptable petition to your Father who is in heaven . It is the sendee of the heart , and not of the lip merely , that God requires . And especially forget not , that if you cannot draw nectar from classic
fountains , or if the wine-presses of science offer no libations for you , wherewith to allay the thirst of your flock , the Saviour of the world will not disdain the " cup of cold water" from the springs of truth and honesty , which ,
in the spirit of his religion , you may have presented , in the course of your pilgrimage , to the meanest of hid disciples . " Verily I say unto you , inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of th ^ se , my brethren , ye have done it unto me . "
It is , Sir , not a little remarkable that the same Number of your Journal which contains the replies to M . S ., ( as though in corroboration of their justice and excellence even the grave would bear its testimony !) should record also
in the obituary the demise of an active and indefatigable Lay-preacher Q > p-556—560 ] who , duiing half a century , notwithstanding his multifarious secular employments , had zealously devoted much of his time and attention
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654 On Lay ~ Preaching .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 654, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/22/
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