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susceptible of the former being remarkably prone to the latter , he instructed the prophets and teachers to harangue the people for several days , concerning the lawfulness and even necessity of taking more wives than one , which he asserted to be one of the privileges granted by God to the saints . " The
historian adds , " Every excess was committed , of which the passions of men are capable , when restrained neither by the authority of the laws nor the sense of decency . " A similar , but by no means equally flagrant , instance of the union of sensuality and religion has , we are informed , been exhibited among the Southcotians , and especially that branch of them who term themselves Israelites , and reside at Ashton , in Lancashire .
For a long ; time , connected with the chief men of the Millenarian school , the Rev . G . C . Smith had pursued his labours for tlie benefit of sailors . It seems that our sailors , on coming into harbour and on shore after thenvoyages , are exposed to wholesale robbery at the hands of the most abandoned of men and women . Mr . Smith-, who has himself been brought up on the seas , has for years been endeavouring to provide them with a refuge , and the means of spiritual instruction . The object has every appearance of
being laudable ; but how has it been prosecuted ? Judging from certain statements which Mr . Smith himself has made , we have most pregnant suspicions . Of course , Mr . Smith proceeded in the usual way . He issued prospectuses , called public meetings , convoked his declaimers and mustered his own eloquence , resolved into existence institutions and committees , visited the country , travelling from town to town , and speechifying wherever he came . All the ordinary machinery , and more , we are disposed to think , than the common portion of clap-trap used on such occasions , was
employed , and employed to good effect . In the last year above £ 3000 were collected from the bon homme , that easy creature John Bull , by Mr . Smith and his agents . Well , out of this money there are officials both small and great—secretaries , travelling orators , and the lo-ng list of et cetera—to be paid , so that no small portion of the collected money is consumed ere it can reach the object for which it is given . We are here reminded of the following anecdote : — " Notwithstanding the sufferings of his father , Charles the Second , it is well known , endeavoured to raise money by the unconstitutional means of a benevolence . The collectors of the same came to the
house of an old lady , in the town of Pomfret , and having told their errandj " Alas ! alas ! " said she , " a poor king indeed , to go a begging the first year of his reign ! But stay , I will bestow something on him ; " and telling them out ten broad pieces—" Here ! "" said she , " take these . " The officers were going away very thankful for what they had got . " Hold ! " says the lady , " here are ten more to bear the charges of the other , and then , perhapsy some of them may reach him . " So with our sea-orator , the Rev . G . C .
Smith and his gallant companions , the church maritime—they need no small sum to enable . them to carry the gifts of the saints to the objects for whom they are intended . And so strongly impressed with the impropriety of the ¦ way pursued for levying contributions was he who , of ail others , was the most likely to know—the treasurer , Captain Gambier , that he thus implored Mr . Smith— " Humble yourself under the mighty hand or God ; hut , O ! as
you love the salvation of your soul , do not attempt to bolster it ( the Society ) up by any more worldly methods . " We fear that we cannot limit our disapprobation to the Society for the Sailors ; we fear that religion is made by too many of our institutions to serve as a craft whereby the conductors get their bread and something to boot ; we fear that there is too much truth in the following charge made by one who knows no little about the religious
Untitled Article
34 The Church Maritime . —Expenses of Religious Societies .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/34/
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