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Master . In thi 9 respect the constitution of the Guernsey Unitarian Society differs widely from our own : how far the difference is beueficial I do not pretend to say- An advocate for unbounded religious liberty , I am inclined to look upon the imposition of articles with jealousy . If any be expedient , no exception can be made to those which the Unitarians of
Guernsey have subscribed , and to which they require a subscription from others before they regard them as members of the church . Since the time just meutioned , the public services of religion have been regularly performed , and this chiefly through the zealous exertions of Mr . Weston , who , possessing the will , but not the ability , to devote him self entirely to the ministry , almost gratuitously performs the duties of that office . I wish I
could add that the exertions made by himself and his friends are eminently successful ; but the truth is , they are still a small band of Christian worshipers , and as such lightly esteemed at home , or regarded with suspicion ; unconnected abroad with those who hold the same
sentiments with themselves ; and uncheered by that religious intercourse in which it is deeply felt that as " iron sharpeneth iron , so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend . " That their labours are not prosperous , may be partly accounted for by a
reference to the same causes which operate to retard the spread of our opinions , and to limit the number of our congregations , in this country . When certain opinions are generally misrepresented , when they are said to affect in a very fatal manner the eternal welfare of those who embrace
them , it is not every man who is disposed even to investigate them , much more to make them his own . He looks upon them with suspicion and mistrust ; he fancies that some poison lurk $ beneath them : he turns from them with indifference , and not uufrequently with a secret dread of being captivated if he dare to approach them . He has been told that they are the suggestions of the arch ene
my of mankind , and he fears the fate of the poor bird fascinated by the basilisk glance of its enemy , aware of its danger , but at the same time uriable to provide for its safety by flight . With this suspicion and fear our own opinions have been regarded , especially where they have been for the first tirrie professed , and were decidedly at variance with established habits of thinking . And if any individual has been so consistent as to vauquigh the prejudices of hia owu mind ,
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and so bold as to enter upon an examination whether the things asserted by those who profess the strict unity of God be indeed so he is sure to find some friend ready to draw him away by mild means from the inquiry , or with presumption to warn him that he stakes the welfare of his soul in pursuing it .
There is , moreover , in the simplicity both of our faith and worship , but little to attract those who are disposed occasionally or entirely to unite with us in the services of the sanctuary . In stating the fact , I would not be understood to mean that it is an evil . We are aware
how much the province of religion is misunderstood . According to the ideas of many Christians , its office is rather to excite the feelings than to purify the heart—to influence the imagination than to convince the judgment . Religious excitement is now , alas ! greatly in demand , and to keep up this excitement a vast machinery is put in motion . This is an evil—one which , till lately , has only been
found to prevail in orthodox Dissentiug congregations ; but it is now spreading more widely , not only crossing the threshold of the Established Church , but entering into its public services , and insinuating itself into the more private engagements both of the clergy and the laity . To those who have long been subject to this excitement , what have we to offer of a similar kind as a
substitute ? We cannot fill them with raptures by the atjsarance that they are purified for ever by the blood of Jesus , nor terrify them with the horrors attendant upon a rejection of him as a propitiation . Iu a word , we cannot feed the flame iu which , as religionists , they only seem to live . They may be compared to the voluptuary , who cannot lose the stimulus he has been accustomed to receive from hi . i
highly-seasoned dishes , and has no relish for the simple viands prescribed and furnished by nature . In Guernsey a fondness for this excitement displays itself in a remarkable degree . In addition to the Calvinists aud Methodists—the latter especially are very flourishing *—there li a considerable party in the Established Church assuming , as in this country , the
title of Evangelical . To all of these the sentiments aud religious experience of Unitarians appear cold aud uninteresting . In a system which speaks so much to the mind , to trie passions ho little y which la characterized by openness arid-simplicity , and not veiled in inipenetrable mystery ; , whose object it is to refine and purify the ' heart , " to mould the humaji pausiona into love , " and not to excite the
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Intelligence . — Unitariumsm in Guernsey . 135
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/63/
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