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Untitled Article
, 4 ng n ^ ay eventually pjcove seed cast into good ground * we cannpjt say ; but in J&e estimate of our present condition , we shall not h $ far wrong if , on tfyis point , we speak of things which do not appear , as of those which do not exist . If we turn from the Report to cases within our own knowledge , we
must , we fear , enter the same verdict , Tlie mji ^ sionary gpint which had arisen in the West of England , mainly at the instance of that excellent and devput servant of Christ , tlie Rev . G . B . % wne has no t long surviv ^ cj Jbirji who gave it birth . In Lancashire , a local Missionary Society languishes for want of means . On that account it has contracted tbe sphere of its
operations , and been obliged to withhold assistance which had been solicited from a district in which there was and is ample promise of success , while some of its valuable preachers have either relaxed or withdrawn their exertions through | he discouragements which they have had to encounter an almost every side . Fifom causes of rather a different , but still adverse character , the missions conducted by the young men educated at the York College have been froni time to time diminished , till now they have , with the exception of that to -Welburn , little more than a name to Hve . This declension is the more to
be regretted because the cultivation of a missionary spirit is the cultivatio n pfihe spirit of Christ , and pre-eminently , therefore , the duty of his ministers . And for ouEselves we are fully persuaded that no discipline could by any possibility exert a more favourable influence on the minds of probation ^ ; ers for the pulpit than active and judicious missionary exertions . Asid , ; n ^ tr withstanding an opposite opinion , we have no doubt , and we speak what v ^ e know , that the most active missionary will be found the best student ^ excd
img , that is , m moral character and in . application to his studies ; / vy ? hile t ^ e exercise in preaching , and the intercourse with the poor , which will T ^ e con * sequent on his missionary labours , will be the very best preparation he . couigt jiossibly pass through for the duties of the pulpit and the duties of the pastor * which when he settles in the world he will have to undertake . When qn ? remembers the extreme care taken by the ancient orators and dialecticians to fit themselves and others for the task of public speaking , and also tfye evident improbability there is that in this art alone he should excel who had
never learnt , it does seem strange that ministers should ever have been dis ^ missed from a place of preparatory discipline without having occupied # pulpit perhaps a half a dozen times m the whole course of their studies * JLa this manner scholars , mathematicians , jpetit-maitres , may be made— preach * ers never , tet not the missionary spirit , then , leave the nurseries ^ p £ oiui ministers ; it will . do students of divinity far more good thin ' a hundred leq ^ tures on the pastoral care , or the art of oratory . Do not let it tie supu 6 secl to
tqat we speak in ( parsgement of lectures . True , we set no gr ^ at y ^ juq on the efficacy of teachers of elocujtipn . If Qod has not made a niaj ^ e ^ pq u ^^ t , if actual pr ^ ctipe has not developed his capabilities , elocutionists cano ^ t ; &fflgfe \ h ? Y W pervert , pnd they often have perverted , nature , and naaxJe fl ^ aj ; ^ bsijrd f which in it ^ tf wa $ tolerable . The chief * if not the only gop 4 tp fee derived froni teachers of elocution , consists in the correction of inacquracier qf prpjqiun ^ tiop ., and that may be better attained by mingling ingqotl (? oci ^ ty ; Wq say again , therefore , tefc not the laissipnary spirit depart ir ^ m wr cc > j ) te ^ e&r The ^ ir wprst enemy could not dp them a worse service . than
to put dowa mj&ituftons , bavjng for their object the furtherance amongst the people pf \ he Mpsearchahje ricjves pf ^ l * rist Thrpug ; hout the kingdom , |; he result , of the missionary labours ynclertaken by Unitarians of late , haat beep a < Jisapppinting one . How happens this ? Ch iefly , we doubt not , feecausje the spirit of Unitarians in this kingdom is
Untitled Article
762 Missionary Societies .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 762, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/18/
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