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hetff figoSSstt . l ; . 4 to *^ Jaoai every iittelkctual tfjeynifcirt lias courted through Hfe- hiifl > relinqufehmg all to become tlie ' ^ Wg hted tutor of a blooming
off-/) r . J . P . Smith ' s Vindication of Dr . Haffner of Strasburgh . rWe extract the following truly excellent letter from the Evangelical Magazine for the present month . A writer in that work under the signature of " Alethia" had charged the Bible Society with employing an infidel in its service , Iti the person of Dr .
Haflher , and the same charge is preferred by a pamphleteer , we believe Mr . Haldane . Dr . Smith ' s reply is complete , and is highly honourable to his Christian spirit . We are happy to shew , by inserting it in the Monthly Repository , that we are always ready to do justice to the liberality of our Calvinistic brethren . Ed . ]
Reply to Alethia ; on Dr . Haffner s Introduction to the reading of the Bible . To the Editor ( of the Evangelical Magazine ) . Sir ' Homerton . Oct . 7 , 1826 .
IF the duty of vindicating truth and integrity from the presumptions of ignorance or the aspersions of injustice , can ever acquire an increase of obligation , it is when the person injured is not of our own party or sentiments , but is one to whom we feel ourselves
seriously opposed in matters of faith and conscience . I am far from imputing any improper motive to Alethia . I have no doubt that she * is an amiable and Pious person , but she has been imposed upon by misrepresentation .
. A gentleman for whom I have , dur-. lnR nearly thirty years , felt and cherished high respect , has printed and published , concerning- a distinguished Lutheran Rlvine , that he is a scoffer nt reli gion and an infidel ; and that il 4 m'ill r l ^ ^ * - . l . I l small Treatisewritten bthat
j , y lri 'ie professedly as an assistance 0 the reading of the Bible , was in'Wed to turn it into ridicule . These barges were thus brought in the tor toni ' inine signature obliges me 0 || si ( k ' r the writer as a lady .
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iiN > st positive manner , and ib a sttong tone of mingled indignation mtd contempt , against the Rev . Isaac Haffner , D . D ., Professor of Divinity in the University of Strasimrgb , Minister of St . Nicolas ' s , arid Vice-President of the Bible Society in that city . Shortly after reading these
accusations , I received , in a packet of foreign pamphlets , two Reports of the Strasburgh Bible Society ; the one at its annual meeting , Nov . 1 , 1824 , and the other , on the same occasion , Nov . I , 1825 . In both of these , the speeches of Dr . Haffner occupy a conspicuous station . To these speeches I could not but feel an attraction of anxious interest . I read them with close
attention , lo me they appeared to be the productions of a powerful and richlyfurnished mind , in an unaffected stvle of much energy and eloquence , implying ( unless they be a covering * for the grossest hypocrisy ) a firm belief in the divine origin and authority of the Revelations contained in the Jewish and
Christian Scriptures , and breathing an apparently sincere and ardent zeal for their universal dissemination . At the same time , there are indications in these speeches , that the doctrinal sentiments of their author are not in
close accordance with what I regard the primary doctrines of the Christian faith . This , however , is no new or surprising thing . We , in our own country , are sufficiently familiarized with the fact , that the foundations and the
pillars and external walls of the temple of revelation have been most ably defended , and their impregnability demonstrated , by persons of whom we entertain painful fears that they never entered its sacred gates , or fixed their abode in its interior
mansions-In plain language , their views of the contents of that revelation which they vindicated , have differed widely from what our convictions represent to us as the essential truths on which the hope and holiness of man depend . But are we , on that account , to call them infidels ? Are we to cry them down as
guilty of the most horrid duplicity ? Are we to class them , as Alethia does Or . Haffner , with such men as Chesterfield and Rousseau ? Are we to renounce every hope that , with all their deficiencies , they might derive important moral good from their faith , scanty as it unhappily was ? Are we
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fir . «/ . P- TrHittfs T ? in $ cdt ? on of Dr . Hqffn er , of Str as burgh . 749
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^ ' XXI . 5 D
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 749, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/49/
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