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good man is or ought to be so . It is an honour to labour in your Master's vineyard . There is not one of you , however poor , but can labour , and with most desirable effect . Canst thou not , poor as thou art , adorn the doctrine thou hast professed , and , by the irresistible attraction of a holy conversation , put calumny to shame , and draw the teachable to the house of prayer ? Canst thou not , by a punctual and regular attendance on the ordinances of
public worship , encourage thy minister , increase the attendance , and thus cause the temple to wear a more winning and respectable aspect ? Canst thou not in private visit the orphan and the widow in their afflictions , cheer the disconsolate , discountenance vice , and plead with the sinner ? Canst thou not inform the ignorant and instruct the young ; or if , perchance , like Moses , thou art " slow of speech , " canst thou not find many an eloquent spokesman who will ably plead the cause thou cherishest , though they speak not with the living tongue , but from the living page ? Each one of you has a sphere of influence—we ask you to let the sounds of the gospel be heard therein . Each one has a talent—we ask of you to occupy it . And if time and ability permit , we call upon you to proclaim in public what you feel in private , to assume the office of instructing others in that which , as Christians , you must have learnt . Every Unitarian society in the kingdom ought to have its band of tract-distributors , its band of missionary preachers , as well
as a pastor and a Sunday-school . For ourselves , we do not expect the change that we look for in the frame of society and of the religious world , until each Christian becomes , in some sort , a preacher of the gospel ; certainly not until the energies of lay-preachers are brought to serve the great cause . And as so many of our ministers are unfortunately shackled by the engagements of their schools , burdened and oppressed by two professions , each of which requires the whole of a man ' s energies , it becomes the more
important that members of their congregations should devote themselves to the work of preaching and teaching in their neighbourhoods . We call , then upon the individuals of which our corpmunion consists , to lend each his aid . Without the co-operation of the people at large little good can be done . In speaking of eminent men we often deceive ourselves ; much as is due to them , we are wont to rate their individual influence too highly . We talk of the dominion of a single mind ; but such a thing , in strictness
of speech , is not to be found . Single and unaided , no man ever established an empire over his fellow-creatures . In reality , we forget the subordinate agents amidst our admiration of the chief—the inferiors that surround him are lost from sight in the blaze of his real or imagined glory . Yet , though forgotten , they are essential to success . Without fellow-labourers , the skill and foresight of an architect , however pre-eminent they might be , would
lead to no valuable result . In the same way , the wisest master builder that ever laboured for the edification of the church of Christ , may , unless encouraged and aided by the operation of fellow-workers , spend his strength for nought , and labour in vain in the Lord . It was not by the surpassing and Herculean strength of an individual hand that those stupendous edifices were raised which still strike the traveller with wonder and admiration as
he follows the waters of the N ile , or ruminates amidst the ruins of Palmyra , or reflects on the ravages of time when surrounded by the splendid desolation of ancient Greece . No , the work was effected by ordinary mortals . One superior mind presided indeed , but all his great conceptions were carried into etfect by the united efforts of men like unto ourselves . Far in the depths of the ocean there arise mountain-rocks which , from the bottom
Untitled Article
868 Universal Co-operation in zealous Efforts required .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 858, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/42/
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