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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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The Unitarian Mourner comforted . Letter III . ? To Mrs . — on the Death of her Father . Sept . 28 , 1820 , My dear Madam , WHEN I visited two months ago , for the purpose of paying my public tribute of sincere
respect to the memory of your excellent father , it was a source of great satisfaction to me in the discharge of what was in other respects a painful duty , to be assured from their own mouths that I had administered some
consolation to his weeping family . But , alas ! the Christian comforter has performed but half his office when he has attempted to soothe the first moments of anguish . There are tears which having been brushed away with that magnanimous resolution which
springs elastic under the immediate pressure of affliction , return to their wonted channels , and there are losses of which we are rendered more deeply sensible by reflection . And now that you are deprived of the services of a
regular preacher which I know you highly appreciate , I greatly fear your minds may be too much occupied on the darker parts of the providential event of which you have become the subjects .
It is a very allowable , and I am persuaded you will find it a very consolatory employment of the thoughts , to compare your own condition with that of others , your sources of comfort under sorrow with theirs . The result
will , I am persuaded , be a grateful conviction tkat , as Christians and Unitarians , you are possessed of unspeakably greater privileges than any of the sons or daughters of the large family of affliction throughout the world . Direct your thoughts first to the uninspi red Heathen philosopher ,
with-We regret that we could not bring ll article into the Ia 8 t Number as we promised , p . 20 , and that we can now mj only one letter ; Eo .
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out any certain rule of duty or assured promise of reward or punishment hereafter , excluding : the Deity it * jbjfe thoughts from all concern in the direction of the affairs of the universe , and regarding pleasure as the great object of human life , or proudly maintaining in spite of the smarting experience o £ every hour of life , that there is no evil
m pain , and therefore despising all those considerations which might sustain the heart under its burthens . Next look at the Heathen vulgar , having no superior beings to look up to but such as are weak , passionate and wicked like themselves , by whom
rewards or punishments in this and in that future imaginary world , which their poets describe , are distributed as caprice or revenge may dictate , with little regard to moral excellence or guilt ; with no compassionate Saviour , instructor and comforter to whom to
a PP * y 9 no almighty , merciful and gracious Father , into whose bosom to pour forth the heart ' s secret sorrows . Look at the disciple of Mahomet , panting after an unhallowed heaven of sensual pleasure above , as a recompence for the sufferings and mortifications of the present life , and ascribing the whole circle of human events to
resistless , all-governing fate , which hears no prayers and exercises no compassion . Look at the Indian widow , indignantly flinging away life as a worthless
faded nower , whea it can no longer be enjoyed in the society of the lord of her affections , and wasting , in an uncalled-for sacrifice , that fortitude which , better directed , might have insured her a martyr ' s crown .
Contemplate the loud and extravagant grief which was indulged in , even by the chosen people of Grod of old , which called forth the rebuke of our Saviour , and you will be convinced
that within the fold of Christ alone % narrow and confined as are its present boundaries , the fountain of life , the well-spring of everlasting consolation , is to be found .
But how cati we sufficientl y lament , that many of the followers of the great Shepherd have been content to drink the waters of life mixed up with the most pernicious ingredients , and have even attempted to disturb the serenity smd clearness of the sacred , inexhaustible fountain , itself ! Observe the Ca-
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The Unitarian Mourner corrifvrted . 16 t
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es pecially when that author writes in verse , since a poet is aot confined to the beaten track of common life , or compelled to tread only in the foot-Qtpos F of his own experience . . J BRETTELL .
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Y "I . XVII . V
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 161, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/33/
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