On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (1)
-
Encouragement derived from past Success. 31
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.
-
-
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
the skies , demanding the restitution oflost rights , and the enjoyment of that full and fair liberty of mind and soul which the Creator intended to be the portion of each of his intelligent creatures . The faint and incipient accents of such an outcry are to be heard in ahnost every part of our land , and unless its demands be complied with , they will grow and swell till the fear of Belshazzar be struck into the hearts of all those whose interests are hostile
to the interests of the many . But it will not , we hope , we believe it will not come to this . The few are gradually yielding , ignorance and prejudice decreasing , oppression narrows the sphere of its domination , antiquated absurdities are beginning to be disused by the lips as well as banished from the
mind . One after another , links of that chain have fallen by which the human mind has so long been bound . And the day is coming , and if the friends of humanity are tTue to their duties , the day must speedily come , when freedom of mind will be restricted neither by court or church patronage , nor by the laws of fashion , nor the circumvallation of creeds , nor by penal enactments , nor by private and petty persecutions .
Rara temporum felicitas , ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere . Happy and rare period , to use the words of the great Roman historian , when each may think what he judges true , and utter what he thinks ! The word of prophecy will then have its fulfilment , and every man sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree , none daring to make him afraid . We live in hopes such as these , because of the history of the past few months , as well as of the signs of the times . Contrary to the expectation of every friend of
Christian liberty , the question which opponents , where it suited their turn , chose to make a religious as well as , what it really was , a political one , —the great and all-absorbing question of Catholic Emancipation has , during the past year , been set at rest in a way which , if not entirely unexceptionable , was yet most gratifying . After this we despair no longer . Our hopes have arisen , and become firm expectations in relation to the great questions which involve the moral and religious welfare of this nation . We had before heard and said ,
" No good effort can be lost . " We believed so ; but we had reason also to join in the prayer of the apostles , that our unbelief might be aided . The mind assented to the general principle—the heart needed a splendid instance of illustration . That has been supplied . All our feelings relative to human improvement have received a reality and a vital power . What our eyes have seen , and our hands handled , we now testify . Success has inspired confidence ,
and confidence renewed strength . And the way in which strength should be employed has been indicated—the way to victory ; so that we at length judge it to approach to certainty that a good cause will not fail , except by the bad faith of its professed friends . Let us but be good men and true , found at our posts , sturdy in their maintenance , earnest to advance , and faithful to hold , and the enemy must retire till the land is ours , and mental and moral liberty is enjoyed in all its borders .
Meanwhile , let us avail ourselves of the stop which the beginning of a new period of time seems to afford , in order to pass in review some of the features of the religious world , which we have not been able to dwell upon in our former communications . " The religious world "—a strange and motley mass , composed of elements the most dissimilar , some of them the most revolting .
Perhaps of all the worlds into which the rational creatures that cover this globe of ours are divided , not one of them is so replete with features so diversified and hostile . The sporting world , the gay world , the jovial world ,
Encouragement Derived From Past Success. 31
Encouragement derived from past Success . 31
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/31/
-