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Untitled Article
selyting -bB cwried on with apostolic meekness and zeal , I must dissent ?;" for it is the Conviction of my min < f , that the more earnestly and assiduously we labour in this neld , the more shall wci be respected by those who
differ from us . This is an age ' of strong excitement : and it is indifference , and not zeal , which will bring down contempt and censure . The Unitarian Minister who will
condescend to take pattern by a Wesleian brother in the unwearied , indefatigable , laborious exertion of body and soul in ; a religious cause , may meet with opposition for a time ; but if his course be marked by mildness , tenderness towards others , and an earnest
application of principles to practice , he must , he will be finally respected . It is not from such men as these that the better part of Calvinists and Methodists shrink with fear and
trembling ; nor is it against such that most of their pulpit invectives are levelled . For our bishops , who sit in high places , and know nothing of labom " but the name , —for our worldly ohmk who ratter wish Unitarianism to
remain a small and genteel sect , —they have but little reverence ; and oftentimes , I fear , they are kept aloof from the plainer sort of Unitarians by the want of conciliation ; the lack of attention towards the prejudices of their education which they meet with among them .
It has often struck me , that many conscientious Unitarians would be better known and more valued by their Calvinistic friends , if the little caution they do exercise * in their intercourse with them , were not sometimes misplaced . They ate hardly explicit
enough when opportunities occur in stating the groutids of their religious opinions , or ra | h £ r they shrink from the , trouble of Explaining to their neighbours , when subjected to an illiberal remark , why they hold these opinions . They , in short , forget , or do not cl \ oo 8 e to consider , how often
these remarks have their origin in mere ignorance and mistaken zeal for the honour of God , rather than froth any real illiberatity ; and they will not stcwrto reason calmly with those who nmke them , , but content themselves with declaiming generally on want of Christian , candour and charity . In this , however , they are themselves nei-
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ther candid nor charitable , and still lesaf , ijtf seems to me , do € liey stmftr the interests of religion . The remarks of ignorant , partially-informed peopte , may be abundantly provoking ; btit every individual-ought to recollect , that it is one thing to take notice of every personal aspersion , and another to take every opportunity of rescuing religion from undeserved calumny : that no true Christian ought to grudge any labour or effort in the latter ; nor to
spare any degree of watchfulness in avoiding such actions as may reflect discredit on his principles . In short , what I wish to see among Unitarians , is a larger portion of that spirit of zealous charity , which led St . Paul to become i € all things to all men , if by
any means he might save some ; " a greater condescension to the weaknesses , tenderness for the prejudices and regard for the opinions of others . I am quite of the mind of the good divine who , when his friend expressed
some surprise at the meekness with which one of his flock received a very severe reproof from him , answered , € < O my friend , when there ' s love in the heart , you may say any thing . " Peapie will bear the strongest things from
those whose hearts they believe to be set upon their good . Instead of this , Unitarians are not sufficiently anxious to conciliate . They ought , sturdy * recollect how closely interwoven with the pious and devotional feelings <* f
numbers are those very tenets against which they war . They do not enough separate the pure gold from the dross ; nor reflect how rooted and built up in the prejudices of education individuals may be found , whose friendly regard for themselves and their pr inciples it is worth almost any labour to
gam . There is another point on which I would touch , but I feel that it ought to be done with delicacy . It is with reference to the friendships or , at any rate , combinations which Unitarians are led to form with others frtim political motives . It is so much the part of true Christians to bear thefr testi
mony , unshrinkingly , against public corruption , that we should be careful how we say a syllable which might ch $ ck the career of the upright , evenhanded politician . But it is attrely possible to serve one ' s country steadily and effectually , without connect-
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Hints to Unitarians . - 6 fS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/29/
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