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Untitled Article
ministry , that the Annual Meetings of the Association may supply to everyone extensive information respecting our mutual exertions and necessities , and animate the zeal , and promote the Christian fellowship , of the whole . I will not leave this topic , to which my ho-pes have naturally led me , without specifying it as one of the great advantages of the Association , that it will afford opportunities far beyond any other means at present possessed ,
for free communications and suggestions respecting plans of Christian usefulness either more immediately connected with the engagements of the ministry among Unitarians , or such as have a more extended operation , and in which our people share with us or take the lead . Our younger brethren in the ministry might thus often obtain the results of experience and observation , and sometimes be preserved from perplexity and error . We might all aid one another by counsel and sympathy ; we might become acquainted
with each other ' s views , encouragements , and difficulties ; we might be stimulated by the success , or instructed by the failures , of others ; and , without any of that spiritual interference which has often proved the bane in other religious bodies , and without that encroachment on more private rights which would speedily interrupt the best purposes and aims of union , much might be done by such communications to promote the welfare of individual communities among us . It would obviously be out of my power to specify ,
in detail , the application of this suggestion ; but it embraces much which might contribute to the best ends of Christian fellowship ; much that cannot be reduced to rules ; much that could not easily be defined in anticipation ; which yet might amply reward those who " stand and wait , " and who , observing the finger of Providence , are ready to take opportunities as they occur , and so " serve the Lord . "
The time should not , I think , be far distant , when every separate community among us , whether constantly uniting for the purposes of Christian worship , or associated to promote , in other ways , the common objects of this Association , will become so connected with it , that each may effectually contribute its proportional share , not only of pecuniary aid , but also of intelligence , experience , and active co-operation . Where all are accustomed to judge for themselves , ( and never may Unitarians surrender this privilege , ) it may be some time before the judgment of all will fully accord even in
plans of general usefulness . In reference to the immediate object , —that result will be accelerated in proportion as it is seen that those on whom the executive agency of the Society must mainly depend , use their power , with the influence it will give them , as a trust , and steadily direct its operation to the purposes for which it is received ; that they employ the means it puts in their hands of promoting great good , with simple aims , with sound judgment , and in the spir it of Christ ; that they act in hearty concert with each other , with cordial union with those remote from them , under a deep sense
of accountableness , —not so much to their brethren who have the same common objects in view , as to the great Head of the church , and with earnest desires that through him God may in all things be glorified . The want of prompt co-operation from less connected communities , if it should in some cases occur , should be regarded , not as arguing deficiency in
zeal or in confidence , but as naturally arising from want of information ; and still more from the difficulty of obtaining attention , without personal communication , where so many important interests of a public nature are calling for the exertions and intelligence of those who are engaged in the extensive concerns of life . Such discouragement must sometimes occur ; but time will rectify it ; and it will lessen in proportion as those who value the prin-
Untitled Article
Reasons for mutual Encouragement and Co-operation . 317
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 317, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/21/
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