On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
we have two evils to avoid s both alike pernicious and deserving * our particular attention : —the one , a total neglect of any hind of education , •—the other , an education in the dootrines of % particular system of religion .
But to proceed . How is it , I would ask , that so few of our magnificent and spacious places of worship can , boast of having spacious school-rooms appended to them ? How is it that our public donation lists teem with items in favour of ministers and
chapels , and almost every other praiseworthy object , and not a solitary one applicable to that of Sunday-Schools ? Does not this seem to indicate that t ; he Unitarian grants , tacitly at least , to his Trinitarian brethren the preoccupation of the vulgar minds of the
lower classes of society to implant and cherish those very stamina which constitute his chief complaint , whose eradication is his greatest difficulty ? Or that he permits the most vigorous portion of their existence to run out
in the debasing , uniegenerative torpor of " blessed ignorance / ' until they are incapacitated for the reception of any thing opposed to that prevalent but pseudo-proverb , ie Vox populi vox Dei" ?
And is not the large expenditure in the erection of chapels ^ and the education and support of ministers , like the providing of hospitals and physicians for the cure of a malady which timely exertions might have prevented ?
Far be it from me , however , to depreciate the value or the respect of the ministerial office . Bat let not the din of surprise , at the tardy progress of Unitarian Christianity , which I firmly believe to be genuine Christianity , be re-echoed in our ears , whilst we are furnished with so obvious a
solution of its cause . Does not , I repeat it , the existence of the above fact , viz ., that of negligence in the education , and in the purity of the education , of the
youthful poor , taken iu connexion witU the requirement of candour in a man ' s sentiments , manifest a discrepancy which no argument £ au reconcile , no doctrine justify , no liberality conceal ?
Cannot we here also trace a foun - dation ; and is it not to be feared that , in some sejise and to a certain extent , a too solid foundation , for that odium
Untitled Article
which is so industriously levelled against Unitarians , that theirs is not the religion of those to whom the gospel is proclaimed to be peculiarly adapted , " the poor of this world" I Before I take roy leave , I beg to
propose to tny fellow-worshiper ? , and I could wish , fellow-workers , this simple question ,, —On what principle of reasoning , and from what motives can a Unitarian maintain an indifn ference to the education of the youthful poor ?
Having trespassed so much on your columns , I would , in conclusion , express my earnest wish of soo ^ finding the subject in better hands , believing it to be alike the cause of humanity , of religion and of God .
With an acknowledgment of my obligations for your kind accommodation , believe me , Sir , to be a friend to Unitarianism , and the retore , A FRIEND TO
SUNDAYSCHOOLS . P . S . To obviate any misconception of the above remarks , I beg they may be taken with some limitation . There are , I am happy to admit , exceptions to their general application . And I cannot hut name an honourable and exemplary one—Birmingham .
Untitled Article
20 § Nece&te jf of an Improved Version of ( he Scriptures .
Untitled Article
Necessity of an Improved Version of the Scriptures : a Vindication of Sir t /* . /? . Burges and Mr . Bellamy from the Censures of Mr , Home *
Sir , 1 AM disposed to consider your valuable Miscellany as a kind of neutral ground , on which contending parties may meet with less restraint to adjust their differences , than they can be expected to do in any place
assigned lor conference within then own respective territories ; and this reflexion , added to a very natural dislike of agitating questions in the midst of those who have for a long period ranged themselves on one particular
side , determined to concede nothing , and even inclined to look upon a discussion aa invidious and hostile , which may lead to & mere examination of the tenability of the post which they have assumed , has induced me to trouble you oil the present occasion :
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/10/
-