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    slight diminution of the bitterness of feeling which once prevailed against us . The Legislature has set us upon a footing of equality with other Dissenters , and we are no longer branded by the law . As Dissenters , we are raised , in common with others , to a less unequal enjoyment of our country * 3 favours . In the recent struggles for liberty , both for ourselves and the Catholics , we have by our conduct risen in the estimation of all liberal men . The spirit of the times is in our favour . Men now dare to think , and in

    some instances to utter their sentiments . Inquiry is proceeding on every side . Reformation is gradually spreading around us . All the elements of society are fermenting ; their quiet is broken ; and the result will mainly depend on the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the enlightened patriot and the well-informed Christian . Let but the present activity of mind have its full development , and the present forms of Christianity cannot endure .

    Creeds and confessions will crumble away before it . Who shall shew a better way—who shall exhibit a purer faith—who shall set forth Jesus in his unsullied excellence ? It is the duty , it ought to be considered the dearest privilege , of Unitarian Christians . And except they rally round the ark of God , it will , it is our belief , be carried away captive ; the land will be visited with a season of darkness and coldness in the form of unbelief .

    Rather let us avail ourselves of this seasonable juncture . The fields are white to harvest , but the labourers are few . All things are ready ; let us enter in and possess the land . "But , " rejoin the cautious and the timid , " is there not a fear of the body becoming zealous overmuch ? " We humbly think not—that no fear can by any possibility be more unfounded . A review of the last thirty years will shew that burning zeal is no essential element in our communion , and if we have been right in the views we have taken of the actual predominance of the intellect over the heart amongst Unitarian

    Christians at the present moment ; if impediments and chills , difficulties and discouragements , exist in any thing like the degree which we have been led to declare they do , the most zealous amongst us need not fear of his zeal overstepping the limits of moderation . We perhaps look upon zeal with rather different eyes than some others . When founded on principle , and constant in its action , and regulated by charity , it bears to us an aspect

    truly sublime , and the Saviour we love mainly for the righteous and fervent zeal he shewed in his holy and beneficent undertaking . Of one thing , however , we may all rest assured , that without zeal no cause can spread . Such is the uniform testimony of history . All the great moral changes which society has undergone have been effected by the ardour of zeal . What , indeed , is zeal but another word for enthusiasm ? and to enthusiasm the

    world is more indebted than to any other principle of the human soul . The intellect may discover truth , but enthusiasm only can give it prevalence . This is peculiarly true of moral and religious truth . The Apostles succeeded in their benevolent efforts , and the Reformers in theirs , because they were enthusiastic in the cause to which they had devoted themselves . Nor do we think it possible for an impression to be made on the multitude , on a mass so dense and impervious to whatever wears the dress of novelty , without the

    aid of those lofty , commanding , and irresistible emotions , which are implied in enthusiasm . 'Xh& rays of the sun , the drops of the rain , fall too gently to arrest their attention ; the lightning and the thunderbolt are needful to arouse and penetrate them . And we are persuaded that if , instead of desultory efforts , we arose , as a body , to an attitude of defence and onset against sin and error , penetrated with the deep , earnest , yet tender spirit of the gospel ;

    Untitled Article

    856 Signs of the Times . — Zeal essential to Success .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 856, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/40/