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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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Extract from a Sermon on the Duty of Christians to imitate the Example of Jesus in his Compassion towards the Paralytic , according- to the Measure of their Ability : preached at Maidstone , Sept . 15 , 1822 , by the Rev , G . Kenricky in behalf of the Rev . •/ - Gisburne and his distressed
Family * Mark ii . 11 : " Arise , and take up thy bed , and go thy way into thine house . " HE crowd assembled in the T court where our Saviour was preaching , were greatly surprised at the apparent presumption of the
command to such an unfortunate creature as he who lay before them , to take up his own couch and walk ! It might for a moment be suspected that it was intended in mockery of his hopeless calamity ; but the mandate is no sooner issued than it is obeyed . The
shrivelled limbs , withering in premature old age , become instantly animated with new youth , the vital curreut rushes with tne rapidity of lightning into its almost forsaken channels , and he who could not lift a hand
now bears his own couch , to prove the completeness of his cure . " Go into thine house / ' adds Jesus . Significant words ! What transport would his arrival occasion there ! Joy would almost blind the eyes of his household , while he walked with the firm ,
unwavering step of health into his own dwelling . Blessed change ! He went out by the will of others ; he returns of his own accord : he went out with a mind dark , confused and cloudy , an
eye vacant and unmeaning- ; he returns with a countenance beaming with intelligence and animated with joy : he went out borne of four ; he returns bearing his own couch : he went out the pitied emblem of Divine
ehastiseinent ; he returns a monument of Divine mercy ! Which of us , my brethren , would not rejoice to become the honoured instrument in communicating a happiness like this to the afflicted and
respected brother and his destitute ho usehold whose cause I am now pleadin g ? Were it conceivable that any of us should be so highly favoured ny Him who is all-powerful to make whole as well as to wound , to restore * The sum of 12 / . 14 * . 9 d . was collected on the occasion .
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as w ^ H as to destroy , with what delight should we recall that warning persuading and exhorting voice which has been often heara in the church ,
snatch away the veil of oblivion which covers Ae events of his past life , and pour the oil of 4 \ oy on the heads of his widowed wife 9 and these orphan though not fatherless children / This is an exercise of our benevolent
feelings which is not vouchsafed to us . The Father hath reserved it for the Son of his love . We are far too frail and sinful to be so blessing and so blessed . But , thanks be to God , the generous emotions of your bosoms need not be ungratified . Channels
are provided in which every stream of benevolent affection may run , and into which , I doubt not , you jare this moment eager to pour them . Were
I pleading the cause of a Heathen , I should do it with confidence , grounding my claim on the admitted plea of the Syro-Phenician woman , that the dogs may be permitted to partake of the crumbs which fall from the
children ' s table . But here is a Christian brother , and a Christian minister , suddenly deprived of the means of providing for those whom God hath given him . Does any one ask , What return shall I have for my money ?
That you will enjoy any great temporal reward for what you are about to give , I dare not promise you . The objects of your beneficence are not likely , by your utmost efforts , to be placed in a situation where they will have the power of conferring great favours on others . I cannot even assure
you that their parent ' s tongue will invoke on your heads that blessing which prospereth ; for a hand whose doings I presume not to question , has commanded it into silence ; and his family altar I almost fear may be cold . But you will not be without your reward even in this life . These tender plants
which are springing up around his board , which but for you must be speedily uprooted from their places , and cast forth to grow wild in the desert , or be scorched in the sun or
choked by the weeds of vice , trained by your hand and watered by your beneficence , will grow up in luxuriance and fertility . And perhaps it may be the lot of some of you m the weary journey of life , ' when deprived of those
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Extract frdm a Sermon preached in beJualf of the Rev . J . Gisburne . 547
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1822, page 547, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2516/page/27/
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