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Untitled Article
* Mb . JPbesjpent , *« The Government not having thought proper to authorize the Institute to offer a prize for a discourse on the subject of Religious Worship , 14 ^ ke
the liberty of requesting that you will engage the Society of Christian Morality to make such an appeal to the writers of all Europe ; making it well understood that ithe essay must be written in French , and in favour of Liberty of Worship , otherwise the intention of the testator would not be complied wit h * I engage to remit the sum of 2000 francs to the author of
the Prize Essay . " ( Signed ) Charles D ' OutrepontV ' After some deliberation , the Society accepted , with proper acknowledgments , the offer with which it had been honoured by M . D'Outrepont , and named him one of its honorary members . A committee of seventeen
n > emt > ers ( among wfrQm were the Duke de Broglie , General Foy , the Cointe , de LaWyrie ., and the Baron de Stael ) w # s appointed to judge of the merits . of the essays ; and at the annual , meeting vin 1826 , M . Guizot read a report on the subject . From this it appears that no ' less than twenty-nine essays Avere sent in ; all of them in fayour of , Liberty of Worship , but differing widely in their character . Sorne were written by Catholics , some by
Protestants , sorne by philosophers . In one was found , " argument m all its independence ; in another , faith in all its fervour . " On the political part of the question , opinions differed as widely as on the subject viewed in a relig ious light . Almost every shade of variety was to be found in these discourses , and yet the fundamental condition of the prospectus was faithfijlly observefl . M . Gujzpt continues bis address in these words :
" What can be a more decided or a . more eloquent declaration in behalf of Liberty of Worship ? This principle seems but just known amongst qs ; the , growth of yesterday ; and yet it has already obtained such influence as to surmount all the differences that mark and divide mankind . It is no longer confined lfto the projects of philanthropists , or the systems of philosophers , no longer the doctrine of a party ; but the united voice of the public conscience , the expression of public good sense : one of those truths , at once sublime and simple , which is intelligible to the humble and to the lofty
intellect ; which triumphs over the attacks of those whose passions prevent their acknowledging it , and which takes its settled place in the maxims of the moral and Christian world . It is the object of our Society , Gentlemen , to profess and to maintain such truths as this . We are strangers to all divisions of sect , of school , or party ; we would gather up a , nd Jbring to jthe light whatever is interesting to the reason and the conscienceof all raen . We mwt not wait till a good principle be sheltered from pbloquy and ganger before we defend it . This would be paltry and ( Jisgracefql conduct . I * et , it only be disengaged from dark uncertainty on the one hand ; an ^ , on the
other , from those violent agitations which , sometimes accompany the progress ^ f human im provements . " When an idea has found its way from boo ^ s to common Jjfe ,, ancl der scendedfrom philQsqphjrto ^ ood se nse , from t ^ ie aspirations after libqrtv to the demands of justice ,, it js then , we ;^^ i ^ e -sensijjp that we rn > i ^ st atfqpjt it , that we must hold it upt as a relying point to aB eniigl H ^ 3 dj | ftin 4 s apd hpnest hearts . Let it not be supposed , Gentlemen , that tecai ^ erejjigiqus JiberjLy is arrived at # iis . P ^* we Vve ^ o ^ ing more to do in . j | p IhMt ' Without dwelling upon tfee obstacl es it still meets with , . we oqglititOjSeiye the moment ^ e ^ the . pu ^ Uc ini ^ d : isjixed , wppn it , fc > -A 8 K ® ^ iPMWPfl ^
Untitled Article
374 Society of Christian Morality , .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 374, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/14/
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