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of the Marquis bf Londonderry . B 4 B
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ed , and the eensttre which in any of these tostftaaces fe # s on an action so rash , is justified , and serves as a warning- to &WTQ&&dinfr friends , or as a guide to public opinion : but what impression can be made on a mind bereft
X 1 1 1 . . « of reason , and reduced to the naopings of melancholy ? Nor can party spirit , that cruel hardener of the human hearty here obtain a satisfactory triumph , since we have mourned over a Whitbread and a Romilly , who fell
overwhelmed by a similar fate with that of the late Secretary of State for the Foreign Department . It might , perhaps , be useful to ascertain the religious and ; noral habits of those who have been subject to these sad aberrations of the intellect , to see whether a
foundatiou had not been laid in a long prior train of thought , or of injurious modes of life . This , however , would require a most intimate acquaintance with the turn of character , difficult for
persoas placed at a distance to obtain , where much room migit be left for conjecture ; and this might often be unjust . We may perhaps observe ,, that the unfortunate state of mind
which leads to these rash acts , is more frequent in high and wealthy life than in the more humble departments of society , as if there were something in the very elevation which m ? ay cause a man to lose the just poising of his mental powers , and dash him down
the precipice . The slavery of pleasure , the rivalry of honour , the clashing of strong interest , the fever of ambition , the eagerness for wealth , have all , in their very nature , a harassing influence on the &oul ; and may gradually prepare that enfeeblement of the intellect which declares itself
at a latter period : and we may add , that the mild corrective of the genuine gospel of Jesus is seldom much appreciated by the great ones of the earth . B them Christianity is too often viewed as an affair of the state ; as the nasis of a grand national establishment
* ° r powerful and , influential families , eager for church dignities - , but seldom 0 £ key exporj £ » ce the a ^ ujtary awe S or the balimr conaolatiojis true . rrfigioa pires . Their p ^ Vfe ^ -endiog- cqj » - ™ * f with the pride and pojeop of the ^ » * Ueir speculations on the J&Oe ° f . empires , the subtleties of court in-•* JF **> in which tfaey are adepts , ob ~ 8 the light of evangeM troths ,
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stifle' the voice of pr&yer , check tbe aspira&ons of the soUJ after immortality , and chain it down to eartk ; and . thus passion breaks in pieces the fences of the love of God , and of religious hope . If , therefore , this rest ~ less play of the passions , united wkU tUe abandonment of pure religion &nd the calmer pleasures of domestic life , lead gradually , though imperceptibly .
to the misplacement of the affections , to the alienation of the mental powers * , and thus to suicide , what a lesson to parents to keep their youth within the sober enjoyments of life , and under the influence of a heart-felt
religion , and of gentle family affections Still , with all this care , the ways of God are often to us inscrutable ; and it is our duty to draw a veil over the misfortunes of those who fall i » to the hopeless state which leads to aelf-destruction , when those misfortunes cannot serve as a beaeon to others : an 4
eases do happen which baffle all our investigation . Our duty is , then , to sympathize with those families in which these deplorable events take place ; to mitigate every pain , and to
dispose tl * e mind to seize every consolation reason and religion can offer . We should petition for the abolitioa of that barbarous and superstitious law which makes the survivors the
victims of another ' s rashness . In the present case , we must weep with the afflicted widow , and remember that nd one of us can assure himself that he or his family shall escape so dreadful a visitation . I am well convinced
that not one of us in this respectable Christian assembly , can have the most remote conception of falling under so deplorable a misery ; yet so , probably , thought the once youthful and
aspiring Lord of Londonderry in his increasing prosperity : so thought many of the wealthy , and I will add , of the good , who have been driven by loss of reason to such an act of desperation .
And surely no one ought to say he stands on a toweriqg eminence more solidly fixed than theirs . All these hoped that years of peace were before them . ; many might from their rank or talents ex-1
pect years of glory , andthat they should then ^ o down to tKe . ^ rave , full of piety mxA Full of days . O , my brethren in Christ Jesiis , left ud address $ ie throne or ^ EBviiie grace , you for m ^ I For you , and all of us for each ' oi&ei %
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1822, page 543, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2516/page/23/
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