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Untitled Article
bur readers that we have given a just account * we will make a few extracts . " A meeting was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in this town- ' which was both numerously and respectably attended , and to which no interruption was given . " " We possessed in this instance the advantage of being permitted to speak without opposition" ! Certainly , with a bad cause to manage , the less " opposition" the greater the " advantage . " " Not the slightest
symptom of impatience or disorder appeared . " " The hearers seemed deeply impressed with the importance of the subjects brought before them . " " The meeting was most powerfully addressed by Mr . Gordon for about two hours and a half . A very respectable Roman Catholic stood in front , and the tears ran down his cheeks . " Even of him we hear nothing about conversion . Strange that so sensitive and lacrymose a hearer should not have been converted . However , the good man wept , and this was carefully noted ,
carefully reported , and carefully published . Tears , it seems , are precious things in the eyes of the Reformation Society , and so eager are its votaries to catch a few stragglers on the cheeks of their hearers , that we warn our friends , if any attend these pitiful addresses , and wish not to be advertised the kingdom over as < 6 respectable" hearers bedewed with tears , to restrain or remove all abundant perspiration which such meetings may excite , and which the eye of faith may take for the wished-for trickling tear . Again , " The meeting did not present any thing of interest out of the usual way . "
What I not one solitary tear ? «« I snatch a few minutes to say that our work prospers . 19 The meeting was what is usually considered an average turn out . What elegance of diction , what demonstrations of prosperity ! " Generally they have not taken amiss our discussion of their principles . " Further reason to " rejoice in the success with which it has pleased the great Head of the church to bless the efforts of our Society ! " The Reformation Society seems to be desirous of enjoying as often as possible the *< advantage' * of encountering no " opposition . " The Report mentions several cases in which disputants who offered themselves on the Catholic side were rejected , or hardly admitted to speak . " This meeting , as usual , was attended by a crowd of Romanists , and a cobbler of great polemical fame in the country stood forward as our antagonist , but we objected to him on the score of respectability . " Why ? Are not a cobbler's arguments as good as those of a prince ? Respectability quotha I Was he not an honest man ? Is not that enough to satisfy our reformers ? Matthew , if we
remember right , was a publican , not much more respectable , we opine , than a oobbler , and yet he was allowed , not to oppose , but to defend the gospel . The secret of the cobbler ' s being silenced lay , we doubt not , in his having " great polemical fame . " Aye ; he was too long-headed for our clerical talkers . He would have stuck to them like his own wax . They like not to come in contact with the sterling and vigorous sense of the people . We would match the same cobbler against ~ a « y score of the Society , and one or two of them may , for aught we care , be taken from the list of
Vice-Presidents , and write themselves bishop or lord . Another instance : " Just as the Chairman was about to pronounce the adjournment , a young aspirant to popular favour stood forward as our opponent , and was proceeding with a cut and dried speech against the second reformation , ( how magniloquent !) when the Chairman objected to hear him on the score of respectability . " By a special grace , however , it has happened that a layman was permitted to speak . " They brought forward two young men , « ons of tradesmen , ( alas ! if they were cobblers !) who by a liberal ( Heaven bless their Reverend liberality ) construction of our regulations were pro-
Untitled Article
328 The watchman .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/32/
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