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Sir , Horncastle , March 4 , 1828 . Apprehending that my friends in different parts of the kingdom will
wish to hear what prospect I have of success as a minister in my new situation , and that a short communication on the subject will not he unacceptable to the Unitarian public at large , I send you the following remarks for insertion in the Monthly Repository , should they be thought worthy of a place in that valuable publication .
First , a few preliminary remarks may be necessary before I come to the point on which I propose communicating information . Many of your readers are aware , that the old chapel at Kirkstead , and the lands appropriated to its support , had been taken out of the hands of the Dissenters , and illegally withheld from them , until the lands were recovered , by an expensive law-suit , some years since , and that the lands only , not the chapel , were recovered . During the time the property was kept from us , the old chapel was used , as it still is , as a Church-of-England place of worship , and the Dissenting congregation became completely extinct . -
After the property was recovered , a new chapel and other buildings were erected ; and there was public service conducted in the chapel for a very short time only ; but no regular congregation collected , nor any minister fixed there until my appointment by the Trustees ; the gentlemen in the trust having , very properly , concluded that , as there was no congregation , it would be best to let the chapel remain closed for a few years , in order that the proceeds of the estate might defray the expenses of the law-suit , and the debt incurred by erecting the chapel and other buildings .
Kirkstead is an obscure village ; the state of society is certainly low , under every view ; the inhabitants have had scarcely any means of religious , or even moral improvement . The preceding short remarks may give your readers some idea of the state in which I found things on my removal into Lincolnshire , and the commencement of my ministry at Kirkstead , at Michaelmas last . I found a chapel , but no congregation , nor any individual Unitarians : of course it
was new ground ; I had to break it up , and collect the congregation : and this was to be done in a village , in an obscure corner of the country , among completely uneducated people , some of whom could not even read , very few of whom had paid any serious attention to religion , and whose moral state was , generally , far from being good . I felt that the work before me would be attended with difficulties , neither few nor small ; that it would require much prudent , steady , unwearied , and persevering labour to raise an Unitarian congregation in such circumstances ; but having had much experience in preaching among the poor and unlearned , and believing Unitarian Christianity to be identical with the gospel which Christ and hisapostles preached to the poor and unlearned , I did not doubt but that by prudent and zealous exertions , through the blessing of God on my labours , I Bhould succeed . I have delayed sending you any communication on the subject till I should have tried the ground , and be enabled to form some estimate how far I may reckon upon ultimate success : having now made the trial for about five months , I think I may venture to speak with some degree of decision on the subject .
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SUCCESS OF MR . R . WRIGHT ' S MINISTRY AT KIRKSTEAD . To the Editor .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/18/
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