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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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Sis , J < m . 6 , 1825 . Xl |^ PYE SMI 5 PH , in his repl ^ to JLJ < Wv * Bakevreli , thus expresses himself : " Yet I solemnly remonstrate with Mr . B . for representing my statements as if they had referred to personal holiness 9 and the unchangeable
obligations of universal virtue , when they are in the plainest manner restricted to the single point of the j ustification of a sinner in the sight of God . If he is so unacquainted with the doctrines of religion as not to be aware of this broad distinction , if none of the books of his excellent ancestors
hive descended to him , which miglit have giv ^ n lain the information , and if he choose hot to take the trouble of a little research , he must exejise rny reminding him that the paragraphs from vvhich he has garbled his extracts , sufficiently declared it . " [ Mon . Repos . XIX . 738 . 1
This broad distinction in the doctrines of Dp " * Smith's religion is not so palpable to me as the learned gentlemari ' s expressions indicate it ought to be ; and I would request the favour of him to reply to the following four questions . These I have so worded
as to jjive him the least possible trouble ; indeed a simple affirmative or negative may suffice * The correspondence of Dr , Smith having been public , I hope this request from oiie \ tfho is personall y unknown to him is not a breach of established decorum : —
1 . Is the justification of a sinner in the sight off God determined by the unchangeable obligations of universal virtue ?
2 # Will those persons who most habitually attend to the obligations of universal virtue , and who acquire most personal holiness , be the justified before God ?
3 . Will any such persons be excluded from the justification before God ? 4 , Will those persons who have less habitually attended to the obligations , of universal virtue , and who Uave less personal holiness , be preferred and equallv justified before God ? * THOMAS GIBSON . ¦¦
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] conduct ' , but -. ' . witii pleasurable ideas . Ajiejifotional spirit , when joined to a \ sound mind and cultivated understanding , is the source of such pure enjoy- * meat , that it may well ; be regarded as v one of the first and best of blessings . ]
Yet all religious fathers and mothers will allow that , in this department of education , the difficulties and the chances of failure are peculiarly great . What with enthusiasm . on the one - hand , and indifference on the other ;
and what between the opposite dangers of false refinement and revolting familiarity , and tobmjich or too little regard to the respective offices of reason and of the feelings in matters <> f } faith , a serious parent may well ^ be anxious respecting the event of a reli- ,
gums education . Meantime , it } s a blessing to be assured that an influence of this kind , if exerted with but a tolerable degree of rational earnestness , can hardly fail of having some
good effect upon the character . If it does not make a religious , it may a moral , being ; and reverence for the consistent example of a Christian parent may produce some portion of that effect on the heart and life which
we could wish owed its origin to a yet higher motive ^ Few sincere Christians , however , will like the idea of resting here . The grace and beauty of early character , which genuine personal religion alone can give , is too [ valuable a thing to be readily conceded ; nor can the most unsullied
renown make up for the want of that inheritance within , which will support the spirit of a man when the voice of applause is no more to him than the least murmur of the passing wind . , How earnestly then is it to be wished that parents had oftener the pleasure of seeing their children ' s minds not
only strengthened by just views and principles , but beautified by the presence of devotion ! Surely , if there be parents who think lightly of the , latter , pro \/ ided the former be secured , it should be enough to ask whether they are content with a kind of obedience from their own children which
is purely the offspring of a sense of duty , and has in it nothing grateful , nothing affectionate , nothing cheerful ? Do they not love to see the ardent mind and active hand evidently put ia action by the eager h < Jart ? If they do , then with what consistency can
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Questions to Dr . J . Pye Smith . \ j
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^— Thoughts on Religious Education . EVEJRY Christian parent must wish that religion should furnish his clnldt-en not merely with a rule of
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VOL . XX , D
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1825, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2532/page/17/
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