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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
There is a paramount duty to th « consideration of who may be conciliated , or who offended , a duty to ourselves and to Truth , the duty of preserving simplicity and sincerity of character , and of promoting a knowledge of the truth on every subject in which man is interested . With this obligation no
lower expediency should ever be allowed to clash . If Unitarianism be identical with religious truth , its cause must be benefited by whatever tends to the elucidation and diffusion of truth . If not , it ought to be impeded , and there would be nothing to regret in its annihilation . So felt its late Advocate , and our conviction on this topic is best expressed by a quotation from the Preface to his Letter to the Unitarian Christians in South Wales :
" But it seems that my friend has been informed that what Mr . B . has said on the subject of the Sabbath , ' has injured the cause of Unitarianism in South Wales / I am sorry for it ; but when I see it to be rny duty to assert what I believe to be important truth , or to oppose popular error , it is not my custom to inquire who will like it , or who will dislike it ; what party will be offended and weakened , or what will be gratified and promoted by it . My
sole object is , at least it is nay desire that it should ever be , to approve myself to conscience and to God . As to the acceptance and success of my honest , however humble , exertions , I am willing" to leave it in the hands of Him who will carry on his own cause in the way and by the instruments which he shall himself select and qualify for the work . I am satisfied to have had it in my heart /'
This is alike manly and pious . To cherish this spirit in Unitarians does more good to their cause , and to them , than can ever be balanced by evils resulting from the offence which some take , and others affect to take , from the plainest speaking . The suppressed opinion , the remote allusion , the delicate implication , the ambiguous phrase , the refuge of Scripture language adopted in one sense by the writer , but probably interpreted in another by the reader , all these he held in scorn as questionable practices or unworthy
artifices . He wished to make no proselytes , to conciliate no favour , to avert no odium , by such means . And if the dexterity which they imply may sometimes appear to do good , it is only a fallacious and evanescent appearance . Our cause is really weakened by the converts which can be thus obtained , and the hollow truce which can thus be patched up . What is still worse , is its corrupting influence upon ourselves . It bringeth a snare . It enfeebles the perception of the beauty and the worth of Christian simplicity .
Covered from detection , even by the individual ' s own conscience perhaps , under the abused names of Prudence , Moderation , Candour , and Charity , it degenerates into indifference in principle and cajolery in practice . And where this tendency is happily held in check by strong principles and confirmed habits , it yet renders useless , and sometimes worse than useless , those who were qualified by attainments , character , and station , to promote largely the spread of pure religion .
If there have not been wanting instances , among Unitarians , of a zeal which has overstepped the boundaries of Christian charity and of good manners—but which theTe is always also amongst us an adequate moral power to rebuke and repress—it is by the opposite error that a far greater injury has been inflicted . The congregations which have dwindled and declined
have been those in which Unitarianism was not preached ; in which by a systematic avoidance of its peculiarities , and abstinence from controversy , the influence of the pulpit was enfeebled , so that the aged became lethargic , and the young went into the world ignorant and undecided , an easy prey to the sceptic or the fanatic , or still more frequently to the all-absorbing Lsta-
Untitled Article
On the Character and Writings of the Rev . T . Be Is ham . 165
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/21/
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