On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    style . The subject admits not of much pathos , and ornament would be unsuitable ; yet is there enough of both to add another charm to the sterling excellence of the composition . We think these two discourses , in their way , the best in the volume . It is difficult to decide where to begin or when to leave off extracting , where every passage appears of almost equal value . But we cannot choose amiss :

    " There are not wanting either reasons or rules for the government of the temper , even when the answer , the calm , deliberate answer to such a question , convinces us that we have serious cause for complaint or censure . Let it be that the language or conduct of another has done us real and great injustice . Is this more than we ought to expect , or to be prepared for bearing , in a world where , among other purposes , we are placed to be exercised by trials of Christian patience ? Surely our religion is something that ought to be carried with us into every business and occurrence of our lives . We are only

    half believers if our faith be not available for every situation , every scene , in which we can be placed ; and if the trial of our faith , whether on trivial or important occasions , do not work patience . Yet it is a common error and misfortune of those who make pretensions to religion , and even of those who really understand and feel much of its power and its value , to treat it as if its dignity would be lessened by its being made familiar with our daily walks of social and domestic life - It is reserved as something that is to secure our integrity when exposed to great temptations , or to console us in our great afflictions . It is remembered as a refuge and shelter from the furious storm i

    but it should also be remembered as the light , the sunshine of every day , and our vital breath at every moment . We arrange and divide our several duties ; we make distinctions of the virtues and affections which we ought to cultivate ; we enumerate and classify the motives to different modes of conduct j we have our considerations of prudence , of justice , of humanity ; but one word—religion—a true and hearty principle of religion , is itserf all these

    things , and more than all : it is the source and life of every right thought , the essence of all pure and amiable feeling , the soul of all morality and all virtue . To be religious , then , deeply , devoutly , and practically religious , as it is the same with being every thing else that is excellent , so is it a certain rule for th& attainment of charity which ' is not easily provoked . * A good temper is the natural and constant homage of a truly religious man to that God whom lie believes to be love , and to dwell in those who dwell in love . "—P . 61 .

    " — And even where the Christian spirit of meekness and patience has to contend with the most ungentle and unreasonable natures , it is by no means a hopeless contest . Perhaps the hardest trial of such a spirit , and one which should seem attended with the greatest discouragements , is , when a dutiful child sees himself excluded by an unreasonable prejudice and an unjust partiality from his share in the affections of a parent ; when , notwithstanding the most unremitting attention and care in the performance of every filial duty ,

    he yet sees the whole fondness of the parental heart bestowed upon another , who neither deserves it , nor cares for it ; when the object of this unjust neglect and dislike , though left by the unworthy favourite to support aud tend his parent in poverty , feebleness , and sickness , still sees all liis assistance , all his sacrifices , all His attentions , received with cold and sullen indifference , or , perhaps , with peevish and dissatisfied complaints . It is a melancholy fact in the history of human nature , that there have been instances of so strange and unhappy a temper as we have supposed on the part of the parent . But it is also an honourable fact in the annals of human virtue and human piety , that there have been instances in which even such a temper has not provoked the patience , or wearied out the kindaess of the child . And da these histories always close without announcing any victory on tUe part of filial perseverance ? Do they not sometimes tell us of the parent ' s being won over to

    Untitled Article

    Stfmmufor Families . 459

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 459, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/11/