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Genevese pastors for preaching moral serm , did he forget the sermons of Barrow on Industry ? I do think it shews the excessive barrenness of
what the orthodox have to say against USf when they resort , as they so frequently do , to the wretchedly futile charge of our preaching and listening to moral discourses and sermons , in which Jesus Christ is not expressly
named , &c . * One cause , I suspect , of the animosity of Calvinists against modern G eneva , is , the admirable system of catechetical instruction which is in such active operation there . It must somewhat excite their jealousy to see their own instruments and apparatus of defence so successfully employed
by their opponents . The systematic efforts which are at this moment making for the instruction of the young * by so called " orthodox" Christians in America are prodigious . Each little Sunday-School Committee is not contented with
labouring ia its own private sphere ; but there is a great rage among them to generalize and nationalize the business , and make it present an imposing front l ) y enlisting numbers in the cause , and uniting distant communities and different sects in the pursuit of one object . Our peculiar federative
constitution of government , leads us perhaps into these ambitious whimsies . They parade thousands and thousands of youths through the str eets , with badges and banners , on anniversary days , and assume the dangerous title of National
Sunday-School , &c . Verily these children of light are growing wise in their generation . Yet I see not much to fear ultimately in their mightv operations . The Assembly ' s Catechism is no longer the text-book
among a majority of the schools . Lessons of scripture are committed to memory , and books , I believe , are generall y used , which , though in many points exceptionable , are not quite so injurious in their tendency as the old Westminster farrago of incomprehensible metaphysics and absurd theology . To the eye of philosophy and experience , many a Calvinist Sundayschool is now a sweet and gentle and Phable little nursery of future sturdy , ^ depende nt , thinking Unitarians . vr . Smith in Reply to Mr . Bake-
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tcelL What a pity that these gentlemen should 30 widely differ as to the ' * chief object" of Dr . Smith ' s argument 1 Diverging thus at the very central point , it is no wonder that the farther they have proceeded , the farther they have seemed to depart from each other .
Feeble , oh , feeble , art thou , Dr . Smith , in thy argument , ( numbered 1 , ) to shew that M . Malan did not violate the Consistory ' s Regulation Silence would have been a better way of backing thy friends than this .
Where is the mighty inspiration and superior unction in the extract from that preacher ' s writings on p . 669 ? Passages , equally eloquent , pious , and sound , might be found in many an Unitarian ' s sermons . I do not think
the passage is in perfectly good taste It possesses that strained aim after merely rhetorical effect , so common among the French divines . Dr . Smith's next argument ( 2 ) is strong . In Are * . 3 is an unhandsome
insinuation , as if the present Genevese clergy did not € C adorn their Christian profession by the fidelity of their preaching , and the purity of their conduct . Whatever may be their
speculative errors on metaphysical and critical subjects , it seems cruelly nneandid thus to impeach the very spring of their internal motives , and to throw
a stigma on their moral characters . The distinctions run between religious tftleration and religious approval are very well . But Dr . Smith should recollect , that toleration may be violated by the manner in which those doctrines are condemned which
cannot be approved . After all , this Monsieur Malan , I fear , is acquiring an importance by the present controversy , which scarcely
belongs to him . Dr . Smith and all ot us will ere long probably be ashamed that we ever took any concern about the yearly receipts and expenditures of a noisy sectary and boarding-housekeeper . We shall wonder how we
could ever have pondered on his " outfit of beds and furniture , " or felt perplexed to know whether he employed two , or throe domestic servants . The lovers of theological scandal and domestic investigation will , no doubt , be glad if Dr . Griscom , of New York ,
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Critical Synopsis of the Monthly Repository for November , 1824- G&d
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 655, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/15/
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