On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
they could with , as great ease and justice deny the Christian name or character to Trinitarians , as Trinitarians cjeny it to them . But such recriminations would place them too much oi | a level with those whose principles and spirit they disapprove , and would
lead , only by a more unpleasant course , to a result rendered previously necessary , vi 2 . the entire withdrawuaent of their subscriptions and support from an Association which has so far lost sight of its proper object as to erect itself into a tribunal of faith and
conscience . But we agam say that we hope better things , and that although nothing can be advanced to justify the language we hav ^ quoted , yet that in future the practice of the Association will more fully come up to its professions
The next passage worthy of notice is contained in the Appendix , No . II . p . 20 : " He has a pretty correct idea of the principles of our blessed religion : but there are certain doctrines which
he yet stumbles at , such as the Trinity . This , however , should not surprise us , for there are many among vs . even , to whom it is * a rode of offence and a stone of stumbling- ' On the other hand , he invariably admits of the justice of God , and begins to stagger at the idea of a sinner ' s being saved merely on the score of mercy . "
The Rev . D . Schmid , one of the Secretaries of the Calcutta Bible Association , addressed a circular to the Missionaries in which they " were requested to communicate any facts respecting the readiness of the natives to receive the Scriptures which might
fall under their experience , and any instances wherein the copies distributed appeared productive of spiritual good . * The above is an extract from that one of the only two communications he received in reply , which , as " being of a particularly pleasing nature is inserted in the A
, " ppendix . The person referred to in it , is described as a respectable Moghul inquirer into the merits of Christianity . It is evidently quite within the province of a Bible Secretary to inquire of Missionaries ** respecting the readiness of the natives to receive the
Scriptures /* because " the circulation of the Scriptures " . is ihe express object for which Bible Societies are in-
Untitled Article
stituted . But the interpretation of the Scriptures is no part of that object : on the contrary , it is in diFeet terms disavowed , # nd therefore the Bible Secretary seems to have forgotten both to whom he was writing and in what character he wrote , when he
requested to be informed by the Missionaries of " ¦ apy instances wherein the copies distributed appeared productive of spiritual good . ? ' How could a Missionary reply to such an inquiry without exhibiting his own peculiar views of the sense of Scripture ? What
One Missionary reckons spiritual good , another may reckon spiritual evil . Of this we have an example in the extract that hus beeu quoted . The writer represents a respectable Moghul inquirer as unhappily objecting to the doctrine of the Trinity , and
erroneously seeking to be saved " merely on the score of mercy . " Now , if tbe Secretary ' s circular had been addressed to a Unitarian Missionary , and if he had happened to meet with the same Moghul inquirer , how different the statements his reply would have
contained ! He would have expressed to the Bible Secretary the pleasure he had experienced in conversing with a respectable Mussulman who was willing to receive and read the Scriptures , and who had no other objection to Christianity except what was created
by the doctrine of the Trinity—an objection which of course was . at once removed , by informing him that this was no doctrine of Christianitv , but a gross and palpable corruption of one of its fundamental principles . He would also , no doubt , have stated the gratification which he had received
from observing his truly Christian state of mind ,, since he professed to hope for salvation , not through his own merits , or through the merits of any other being , but simply and entirely through the undeserved and unpurchased mercy of God . Would a reply containing these or similar statements have been admitted into the
Appendix , and referred to with approbation in the Report ? Such a reply would certainly have been of a much more " pleasing nature , " in the estimation of some of the subscribers , than that actually communicated . But no . The Bible Secretary , and Committee , and Association , would , at a single glance , have per *
Untitled Article
M 0 Calcutta Bible Association .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/36/
-