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vour to confine my remarks to its protable influence on a congregation . Your correspondent thinks , " that if the office were shared by many , the qualifications now centred in oue would probably be diffused over a large number , and that worldly thoughts and worldly habits might receive a great check . " This is indeed * ' a
consummation devoutly to be wished , " but , to effect it , all must become preachers ; for the legitimate inference from this paradoxical hypothesis surely is , that it is only those who teach that learn ; thus , the pulpit would be converted into a school-room for morals , aud the preacher
would be the only pupil . How pitiable would be the fate of the majority ! for as the average size of congregations would supply at least fifty desirous to learn , the advantages of religious instruction "would be limited to about one Sunday in the year , liven granting that each person would be more beuented while he
officiated , there cannot be a moment ' s hesitation under which system a congregation , taken collectively , would be more likely to improve . But I would go further , and venture to doubt whether benefit would accrue even to the individual : love of display would be engendered , conceit gratified , vanity fostered , envy excited ; but where would
be religion ? where the Christian graces ? Allow me to ask , whether the " Observer" would recommend throwing open the pulpit to all who may wish to enter ? Is each individual to judge of his owu fitness , or through what ordeal are the candidates to pass ? I will not dwell on the disadvantages that might arise from the educated and the
uneducated , the rich and the poor , following each other in close succession ; for these distinctions are as nothing compared with the infinitely more important one between those who are worthy and those who are unworthy to fill the sacred office . Persons , in process of time , might presume to enter that spot , where only the voice of religion ought to be heard , aud bring under discussion the
heterogeneous mass of Deistical doubts : perhaps , on the following Sunday , at ) effort would be made to refute them ; on the next , a rejoinder might be attempted ; and thus the pulpit would become an arena for polemical discussion ; much zeal might be displayed , but not the * ' zeal according to knowledge ;" much ingenuity might be exhibited , without a particle of that wisdom which is alone * able to make Uh wihe unto sal-
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ratiou : " instead of preaching Chri s * , *' each might preach his own crude notions , his own peculiar dogmas . And let it not be supposed a chimerical supposition , that such a result might ensue ; for , were this system adopted , who would be most anxious to push themselves into notice ? Not the humble , the pious , the consistent . The humble Christian is too
deeply sensible of his own deficiencies ; the pious Christian , estimating highly the advantages a hearer enjoys , wishes not to renounce them ; and the consistent Christian is aware that , as his secular puisuits unavoidably engross much of
his time , he cannot be so competent as those whose uoble office it peculiarly is to allure to brighter worlds and lead the way . " Who then would aspire to the high station ? Would it not be the presumptuous , the superficial , the dogmatical , those who , puffed up hy a * '
little learning , ' are prompted by their vanity to display it ? And what would religion gaiu—rather , would it not lose its awful sacredness , its chief attractions , its most powerful influence ? Those who , like the Athenians of old , would ' spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
new thing , ' might crowd to such a temple to have their faucy amused , their curiosity gratified , their love of novelty satiated ; but , under such a system , would ** those who came to scoff , remain to pray ?"—Woukl the sinner find stronger inducements to become virtuous ?—the afflicted receive purer cousolation ?—the youug be better trained in the ways of virtue ?—or the aged find their path to ' the valley of the shadow of death" strewn with fairer flowers ?
No ; the turbid draughts brought by this motley group in unhallowed vessels , during their hasty visits to the founts of salvation , could not be so invigorating as the pure streams drawn from the fountain head , by those who devote their whole lives to fertilize the barren soil , and prepare a rich harvest for the heavenly garner .
Let those who think they cannot learn unless they teach , gather around them their children and domestics ; ler each become the priest to his little flock , and then his labours will , ' * like those of mercy , be doubly blest , blehsing him who gives , and ihose who receive . ' * Let him attempt to give them as much valuable instruction a » , with gratitude we ought to acknowledge , may be derived from the sermons of our ministers , and he will find that to accomplish this ,
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 341
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 341, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/53/
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