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existing altogether without air or without worship . The most rigid bensot of their present proceedings need not object to this plan as an unholy compromise . He who said , " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon , " would never have objected to the providing for those who were serving Mammon the opportunities and inducements for serving God . Let the one destroy the other ; but it must be introduced before it can operate . The preache r must get a hearing before he can convince and convert .
There would be no difficulty about such an arrangement as this if the promotion of religion were the primary object with the Church . In fact > the accommodation would only be the concession of a right . The churches are public property : they were built and are kept up at the public expense . What there is of private endowment is chiefly of Roman Catholic origin , which at the Reformation ( how equitably we do not now inquire ) became also the property of the state , that is , of the public . The public has a right to the use of these edifices in such a manner as is most conducive to the
public good . What says the Church to such a test of the sincerity and purity of its zeal ? If the stamp duty were taken off , religious newspapers would multiply . We have a few , but they struggle hard for existence . In America they abound . They would be powerful coadjutors in reforming the manners of the people . Here is a good opportunity for the Bishop to atone for that hasty insult to the press for which he has already been rebuked as he deftp ^ B a _ ^^ •_ ^_ ^ k
^ ^ ^ * served , but of which the recollection will scarcely be obliterated by the note , half explanation and half apology , which he'has appended to the passage in the second edition of his pamphlet . He will raise his mitred front in the senate to good purpose when he moves the peers of Great Britain to abolish a restriction which alone prevents the existence of this new but most effective machinery for diffusing knowledge and strengthening religious principle in the community .
Universal education , honestly and energetically promoted , is a means of gradual reformation so obvious and so powerful , that we need only mention it . With the exception of not more than a word or two , we join most heartily in the prayer with which our author concludes , that the Lord ' s-day may be hallowed according to the following description of its duties in the beautiful language of Jeremy Taylor :
" Such works as are of necessity and charity , is a necessary duty of the < lay ; and to do acts of public religion is the other part of it . So much is made matter of duty by tlie intervention of public authority ; and though the Church liath made no more prescriptions in tins , and God hath made none at all , yet lie who keeps the day most strictly , most religiously , he keeps it best , and most consonant to the design of the Church , and the ends of religion , and the opportunity of the present leisure , and the interests of his soul . The acts
of religion proper for the day are prayers and public liturgies , preaching , catechizing-, acts of charity , visiting sick persons , acts of eucharist to God , of hos p itality to our poor neighbours , of friendliness and civility to all , reconciling differences ; and , after the public assemblies are dissolved , any act of direct religion to God , or of ease and remission to servants ; or whatsoever else is good in manners , or in piety , or in mercy . "—Pp . 34 , 35 .
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Sunday in London , 395
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/35/
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