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Children we are Of one great Father , In whatever clime Nature or chauce hath cast the seeds of life . All tongues—all colours : neither after death Shall we be sorted into languages Aud tints—white , black , and tawny , Greek and Goth , Northern , aud offspring of hot Africa .
The All-Father , he in whom we live and and move , He , the indifferent Judge of all , regards Nations and hues and dialects alike . According to their works , shall they be judged , When even-handed justice in the scale Their good and evil weighs . All creeds , I ween , Agree in this , and hold it orthodox . P , S . R .
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The True Worshipers . To the Editor . Sir , We live , 'tis said , in an age of liberality , and many laudatory encomiums are lavished on the comely virtue . Without wishing in the least to disparage the culture of truly candid and liberal sentiments , or to circumscribe their influence in society , yet I believe , that as extremes
are generally injurious , so extreme liberality , though viewed with indulgence , may be pushed so far as to be productive of very pernicious effects , especially when connected with religion . Thus it appears evident to me that much of the professed liberality of the present day is of very mischievous tendency , inasmuch as it undermines the foundation of all motives
to a siucere pursuit of truth j because , whatever be the result of anxious inquiry and painful research , the opinions cousequeutly formed are of comparatively little importance ; its influence tends to the removal of all distinction between right aud wrong , and , by destroying the boundaries , to the confounding of truth with error .
Nor do there appear to exist more ardent votaries of this fashionable idol than are to be found amongst the Unitariaus . Whilst other sects manifest their sense of the value of religious truth by their strenuous and reiterated exertions aud unremitting zeal in support of what they deem the cause of Christ , the cold and formal Unitarian is too courteous to
impugn , and too liberal to object , to the faith professed by others , however widely it may differ from his own . From its
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effects , his liberality seems to have converted Christianity into a system of abstract truths , requiring merely a cold acquiesceuce of the judgment , rather than as a divine revelation to be received with a soul-pervading conviction of its unspeakably deep importance .
It is , indeed , suspected , that beneath this plausible liberality exists much of the old spirit of time-serving and truckling to expediency ; that it is too often used as a cloak for indifferentism , a defence for the timid , aud a convenient evasion for the irresolute , the latitudinarian , and the sceptic . Had Nathan , in our day aud generation , denounced iu
plain and unvarnished language the royal adulterer to his face , or had indignant virtue characterized the sanctimonious pharisees as hypocrites and whited sepulchres , it is more than probable that such ungenerous , uncharitable conduct would have offended " ears polite , " and the praises of gentlemanly courtesy and liberality been chaunted in full chorus to the skies . Had our Puritan forefathers
been educated in such a puerile and mincing school , the cause of Nonconformity would never have existed . That it does exist is perhaps to be lamented ; it is so painful to polished and delicate minds virtually to condemn so many
' * . true worshipers , " by presuming to assemble for the worship of God other thau under the patronage of an established hierarchy , or , at any rate , beueath the auspicious sanction of some veuerable creed , a monument of ancestral wisdom .
I , for one , protest agaiust that spurious liberality which destroys tlie importance of religious truth , as founded on private judgment ; which forces that judgmeut to subserve to the dictum of others , aud hides in obscurity principles which may peradveuture be obuoxions to the venal attendants on courts and palaces .
If I conceive aright , true liberality has nothing to do with opinions , but simply with those who hold them . Its legitimate direction is to men ' s motives , not their conclusious . A Christian may , nay ought , to witness a good profession , and manfully combat in defence of what he believes to be the truth of God aud
of his Christ . Believing that the pure aud holy system of Jesus is debased by worldly corruptions , he ought to denouuee them y to doctrines by him deemed wrong or fallacious , he is bound to allow no quarter ; with error he dare uot effect a compromise ; and this without sacrificing his charity as a Christian , or
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 127
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 127, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/55/
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