On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
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
them to watchfulness over thought , imagination , and passion ; to establish them in an intimacy with their own souls . What are all the Christian virtues which men are exhorted to love and seek ? I answer , pure and high motions or determinations of the mind . That refinement of thought which , I am told , transcends the common intellect , belongs to the very essence of Christianity . In confirmation of these views , the human mind seems to me to be turning itself more and more inward , and to be growing more alive to its own worth , and its capacities of progress . The spirit of education shews this , and so does the spirit of freedom . There is a spreading conviction that man was made for a higher purpose than to be a beast of burden , or a creature of sense . The Divinity is stirring within the human breast , and demanding a culture and a liberty worthy of the child of God . Let religious teaching correspond to this advancement of the mind . Let it rise above the technical , obscure , and frigid theology which has come down to us from times of ignorance , superstition , and slavery . Let it penetrate the human soul , and reveal it to itself . No preaching , I believe , is so intelligible as that which is trae to human nature , and helps men to read their own spirits . "—Pp . 29 , 30 .
This is , indeed , truth . Let preachers acquaint themselves with revelation , well and deeply ; but let them also study the great book of human nature . Let them enter into more familiar acquaintance with the good of all parties , and into closer alliance with our better and best feelings . Let it be their delightful part to appeal to these ; to found their teaching and preaching upon them—to build less on the hope of doing good by appeals merely to selfish hopes or fears , and more upon the spontaneous approbation of excellence , of which no mind is wholly destitute . Let the contemplation of the Saviour g grand aim , reconciliation and sanctifi cation , be ever before them * Let them cultivate fervid and glowing devotion , assured that many hearts ask for it and are cheered by its presence . In fine , let them wander more at large over the wide field of human emotions , having fellowship with every thing lofty , animating , and benignant , and they cannot fail to be useful preachers .
Untitled Article
Lines . 93
Untitled Article
[ From " A New-Year ' s Eve , and other Poems , " by Bernard Barton . } I saw a ruin , mossed and grey , A desolate and time-worn pile : With ivy-wreaths and wall-flowers gay , In morning ' s cloudless sunbeams smile . I saw a dark and gloomy cloud : It drifted towards the glowing west ; Tinged by the setting sunshine proud , It seemed in more than beauty drest . I could but think to age were given Charms which might lapse of years defy ; To darkest sorrow light from Heaven , And hope of immortality .
Untitled Article
LINES .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/21/
-