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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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and the necessitous widow relieved from the expense of its maintenance . The number of recipients at present upon tlie books , is two hundred and twelve 4 and to discharge the exhibitions for the present year would require the sum of two thousand , seven
hundred and fifty pounds ; whereas the annual income upon which the Managers caa with certainty calculate , does not exceed the sum of two thousand pounds , or thereabouts , leaving a deficiency of seven hundred and fifty pounds .
The subscribers have been reduced therefore to a dilemma , either point of which has been pregnant with difficulty . . To curtail the annual exhibitions which the poor widows were accustomed to receive , and to which they
were probably looking at the end of the year for discharging the little debts they had necessarily contracted in the course of it , was distressing in the extreme ; but to proceed in granting exhibitions so much beyond the
income of the charity , appeared not only unjust , but highly imprudent , and a course which , if persisted in without a reinforcement of its funds , would , in a very short period , annihilate the Society .
As the lesser evil , it has been coneluded , to vote the accustomed exhibitions for the present year , and to make an urgent appeal to the body of Dissenters at large , for their benevolent aid , relying , < in humble dependence upon Divine Providence , ) that they will afford seasonable and
adequate assistance . It has at the same time been thought expedient , in order to prevent the widows relying with too much confidence upon a continuance' of the same supply , to accompany the exhibition with a communication , that , unless an immediate and very considerable increase should be made to
the income of the Society , a reduction must take place m the future exhibitions . The subscribers have also felt it their duty ( though they liave done it with great regret ) to adopt the following Resolution , viz . 44
Ti hat so long as the exhibitions to tlie widows already admitted upon their list of recipients , shall exceed tlie income of the Institution , the Managers cannot ^ with any propriety ,
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admit new cases . " However painful such a circumstance must necessarily prove , it can only be avoided by a very considerable augmentation of their income , or until tlie number of the present recipients be reduced .
The Managers are apprehensive that this Institution is not so extensively known as its excellence ^ nd utility deserve ; they have , therefore , resolved to make the nature , design and
present state of it as public as possible ; which , they trust , will prove sufficient to insure its success with the religious public , and especially with Protestant Dissenters .
It appears to the Managers , that , under existing circumstances , it has become their duty , not only to appeal to their Dissenting friends for assistance , but to suggest how such assistaace may be afforded ; and it has occurred to them , that if their respected
brethren in the ministry , in and near the Metropolis , ( and , indeed , throughout the kingdom at large , where it could be conveniently done , ) would make one public collection in the course of the present year , such a , circumstance would , without doubt ,
be productive of incalculable benefit ; besides which , if their respected friends among the laity , who are ia easy ( and they are happy to say that not a few are in opulent ) circumstances , would kindly become annual subscribers to the Institution , a vast
increase would , without difficulty , be made to its funds . And , although One Guinea per annum seems a sum so small as to be scarcely capable of effecting- any permanent benefit ; yet , let it be remembered , that if every
Dissenter , in aod near the Metropolis , who can afford it , were to adopt this suggestion , a fund would be raised not only competent to meet the exigency , but sufficient to place the Society almost beyond the possibility of future difficulty .
The Managers are fully aware that the Divine blessing aloue can insure success ; that " the silver and the gold are the Lord ' s / ' and * ' the hearts p > f all are in his hands . " This cause is pre-eminently the cause of God ;—concerning this we have his own gracious declaration , " A Father of tlie
fatherless , and a Judge of the widows , is God in his holy habitation ; " he hag graciously condescended to relieve the minds of his dying se * -
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344 Society for the Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers' Widows .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 344, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/24/
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