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rants , nor could tlieir visits to that country be upon any fixed or regular plan as to the time within which they should succeed each other ; yet who that is acquainted with the effects
produced by their exertions in that country will say that the money spent in those journeys was " sadly misapplied /* and the labour € t for the lftost part thrown away *"* ? The labours of the Missionaries in Cornwall were
itinerant , yet to those labours the existing Unitarian cause in that county owes its origin . I might mention several congregations in Lancashire , not to mention other counties , which were originated by the labours of a Missionary when itinerating . The case Mr . I . W . refers to as in
point , to support his assertion ^ and conclusions , my early missionary journeys ( for such they really were ) in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire , is directly against them ; for in those journeys I acted completely as an itinerant , I had to walk between 200 and 300
miles , and risit , preach , &c . in ten or twelve different places , towns and villages , in less than three weeks : nor was it in ray power to visit many of the places in Lincolnshire , and
certainly none of those in Yorkshire , upon the regular plaa Mr . I . W . talks of , i . e . at any fixed revolution of time . I usually performed the journey twice , sometimes thrice , in the course of the
year j but I seldom , if ever , could fix the time of a journey until a few days before it took place . I could not tell him there was but one Unitarian at Thorne when I first visited that small town : for I found not one there at
that time . My plan in the journeys Mr . I . VV . refers to was , to preach in any town or village , however obscure , where I found an opening to do so , and I did it frequentlv in unlicensed
places , once in a market-place . Yet it is of the course 1 pursued in these journeys lie says , " This is the way in which the few Missionaries we can obtain should proceed for the present : " nnd that too to support his opposition to itinerant labours , preaching in unlicensed places , the open air , &c . ! If Unitarian Missionaries are to decline # oing to any town or village till they
know beforehand ' * they can find a welcome reception even from a few , " choosing only to venture themselves in those <( £ ood towns or villages "
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748 Remarks on Mr . /• PPorsley ' s Letter ori Missionary Preaehitig \
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wherei they can find every ? comfortable , not to say gentetel , fctfebmmod& ^ ion , loll ft ! theit £ ase , and bei treated as gentleirien , they wilt sbe \ v theihBelves unw 6 rthy of the character they sustain , and give sanction t ^ the ? imputed orthodox charges , of coid-lfeaitedness and want of zteal .
The itinerant labours of < mr Mis ^ siotiarie'tf have been of iinpott&rit service , not only ivhctt thejjr have originated new coiigregatioii ^ but by contributing towards the fevivalM the cause in old societies which they found
in a low and decayed state ; atad by exciting the attention of persons irt towns and villages within a few miles 6 f established places of Unitarian worship , who have afterwards attended such places . In those parts Of the country where our Missionaries have
travelled and laboured the most , I believe , it will be generally admttted , that their labours have not been thrown away , and that the money spent in their journeys has not ' ^ beei * sadly misapplied . "
Mr . I . W . seems much displeased with our Missionaries for * ' preachingin market-places , or on the open quays , or on the sea-shore , or in the public streets . " But why should this displease him ? Have we not the example of Christ and his apostles for preaching in any public plaed where we can obtain hearers t I have
sometimes preached in such places as he has mentioned to large assemblies * who have attended with as much decency and order as if they had been in a meeting-house or church . I ever felt it a dutyif I found people
dis-, posed tp hear me , and could obtain no building for them to meet in * to preach to them on any convenient spot in the open air ; but I never did it unless I had good reason to thiak there would be no disorder nor
tumult ; nor did I ever ori such occasions meet with the abuse or the pelting Mr . I . W . talks of , nor with any serious interruption whatever . If our Missionaries , when they arrive at a town or village , must not preach till they have hired a place to preach in , and then must wait at their inn till
they can have the place registered , from many towns and villages they will be quite excluded ,, as they will not be able to procure places ; and if they visit many places and -succeed
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 748, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/44/
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