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will treat their minister , before they have heard the address of the officiating preacher . Spectator says , that Mr . Turner , in his address to the students at York 4 €
expressed his gratification at learning" that it was their general intention to solicit the advice of their Elders respecting their conduct as ministers of the gospel . " If Mr . Turner referred here to Ordination Services - I
can only say that the time when these take place , does not appear to me to he the proper time for such advice being" given . This advice should be given them when they first turn their thoughts to the ministry , before they have determined on being * ministers .
It is at this time they should have impressed on their minds what they would have to do , and what difficulties they would have to encounter . When Mr . Turner or Mr . Any One in the capacity of tutor of an academy has recommended a young man to a
congregation , the recommendation itself is a pledge that he is qualified to undertake the charge from his having had all needful study and advice ; and for any one afterward to mount the pulpit , and , as it is said , deliver a charge , seems to me to be a great piece of mummery .
Backed as he is by the direction of Scripture , how can there be any thing in the range of Christian duty that it can be * ' unbecoming * and presumptuous" for a young man to advert to > If there be any thing of this kind , it must be on account of the
youth of the young man . But if this juvenility be an evil , the old fathers in the pulpit should go round at stated periods to remedy this evil , and to inform the churches ; else , for ten or a dozen years , that is , till a minister
gain the weight and experience that thirty or thirty-fire years in the world will confer , the assembly would be lacking that advice which it is " presumptuous" for young men to offer . 1 ovvji , Sir , that I think the
circumstance that our congregations are committed to the care of such young men , as have been lately chosen sole pastors , is a very great evil . They may be respectable for their behaviour and talents , but they cannot command that respect which older men can do ; they cannot have the same iveight . 1 attribute to this source the defici-
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ency of devotional spirit , which lias been charged , and not altogether without reason , on the Unitarian body . I am not aware that we can remedy this evil ; but I am quite clear Ordination Services will not effect it .
It perhaps is maintainable , that this deficiency of devotional spirit may arise from the increase of knowledge . When the apostles lived , they delivered to men a new discovery , that " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself j" a discovery this , which had been in the first instance committed
to them only . During successive ages , the clergy were the only persons possessed of learning : the communication of their knowledge was a link of attraction between them and the
people ; and if they were pious , or enthusiasts , or devotees , as many were , the peopl # insensibly , from endearment , caught their manners and feelings . Now , congregations know as much as their ministers : they come to sit in jucSgment on them , quite as
much as to be led by their judgment . This after all may , Sir , in the unscrutable workings of Providence , be preparatory and necessary to the establishment on earth of that general mental illumination and correct
feeling , which will render it needless for us to have ministers to say to any , ci Know the Lord , but when all shall know him , from the least unto the greatest . "
May I , before I conclude , Sir , allude briefly to another subject , which , by adverting to more than one object , may seem like reviewing your miscellany . As , however , you think it right to let an American do
this , ' you will perhaps permit an Englishman to do the same . I agree with your correspondent E ., that it is highly desirable to circulate tracts ; and the plan proposed by that writer , I should think , is very practicable . But I cannot confine it to American
tracts . They are very excellent in their way , I allow ; but they are not equal to the sermons of our own ministers , when our wants are considered . They arc too much of the
old Unitarian , or A nan stamp . Doctrines are too much kept out of sight in them , at least in those which have fallen into my hands . As the union of piety and morality makes the perfect Christian , so I conceive the union of
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On Ordination Services . 551
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1825, page 551, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2540/page/35/
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