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ackno wledged and lamented * But on the whole there has been an honest intention a wholesome integrity . The recollection of it recreates his thoughts , delights his imagination , and invigorates his heart : and it must be recollected , that this sentence of the Saviour is the final sentence ; it . is the ultimate sanction of his Master , delivered at the termination of his course , and in the presence of an assembled world . Its accents vibrate powerfully on his ear , — Well done , thou good and faithful servant , enter thou into Uie joy of thy Lord . ' " —613—616 .
With his own compositions , Dr . Evans has united in this volume , those of several other writers , some original . Amongst these we perceive some respectable verses in praise of Education , by Mr . Edward Cox , of Liverpool . But the greatest curiosity of
this kind , is a sermon of the late eloquent Mr . Fawcett ' s , which Dr . Evans read , by request , on a funeral occasion . From the description of it , as " taken in short-hand' * by one gentleman , and " altered" by another , we were not prepared to expect a finished specimen of the orator ' s fascinating "
style ; and we suspect that it was one © f the preacher ' s juvenile performances , and that it is ill-reported into the bargain . There are still visible the sparkles of Fawcett ' s genius . We lay the introduction before the re&der * premising only that the text is 1 John iii . 2 , Ft doth not yet appear whet we shall be .
cc Curiosity is the most universal spring of human actions ; by its vivacity dark scenes are often cleared , and the beatttifulness of truth shed abroad . We are most eager to discover what we Are forbidden to know . Whatever is secret will awaken curiosity , and set it on th ^ watch ; there is a wantonness in the
human mind which leads us to wish for what we cannot possess : the same extravagance possesses us in what it does not concern us to know ; and it 3 s this which makes us pry into futurity . Hence the veneration the ancients paid to augury , oraetea , &c ., —fotft peace to the tying prophets ! The edenes of futurity
are hidden from us by a darkness no human eye can penetrate ; to complain of it were unjust . Our powers were best confined to make us virtuous and happy , that our darkest moments might have hope , and t ) hat the gaiety of to-day might not be saddened by prospect of sorrow to-morrow - « > and that wha Providence wrote a dark sentence , humanity might * > eaf it . it i » wisely , it Is kipdJy done ;
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the hand which has concealed futurity has hidden sorrow from us . ¦ " In oar views of futurity we feel ^ a anxiety about the length of our days 9 but the object which strikes us jndgft * and raises all our curiosity , is , the unseen World ! The world mysterious is the most sublime idea which can strike our minds , and much of its sublimity id the darkness which hides it from lis ; all its grandeur is conducted in the most profound silence ; reason ' s clearest glasses
have not been able to describe ( descry } it * Many travellers have been there ; but none ever returned : the most lively wit is but dark and vain conjecture . Imagination looks with a straiued eye ; but not of an object to be seen ! When the bell mortality tolls , we follow the mortal to his home ! we see the body laid among worms and dust : where is the spirit
gone ? Close shuts the grave , nor tells one single tale . Perhaps there are spirits continually about us ; have charge to keep our ways ; ward off dangers we do not see . Those intimate companions and familiar friends are perfect strangers to us ; profound silence is enjoined them .
Perhaps the spirits of our departed friends visit us continually ; they tided to tell us all their secrets , ' but now tell us none . Thus benighted , who shall giv £ us information ? If any could tell us of scenes beyond the grave , how we should hear them ! When we see a dead
body , how we wish to know where the spirit's gone ! We ask it questions , but it answers not . This profound secresy of the mysterious state is what makes futurity so very awful * How awful to plunge , at a venture , where we know not ! It startles the most
hardened , it even shakes the virtuous heart . That this mysterious darkness will ever rest on the World of spirits , is no reflection on the goodness of God /'^ -Pp . 423 —429 .
According to bis wonted familiar manner with the public , I ) r . Evans speaks unreservedly , but always kind- * ) yi of the living and the dead . One of these notices may mislead the reader . Having inserted " a List of the Subjects [ and Preachers ] of the Sailers * Hall Wednesday Evening Lecture from 1795 to 1810 /* be remarks , in a
" Postscript /* that one half of the ininUters are deceased , " whilst the truly venerable Thomas Taller , in the 92 d year of his age , and long deprived of his sight , is about tip take his flight to a better world" p . 762 * Now , though this was Written some months ago , vve ar $ able to congratulate Dr . Evans that tbe respectable gentleman
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Review . ~ rEvans ' s Tracts ^ Sermons t and Funerni Orations . WS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 109, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/45/
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