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OBITUARY.
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
the superficial , and the dogmatical , I would remind him that this is speaking vciy ill for the present state of Christian congregations under tbe influence of the system he recommends .
Iu apostolic times it was not so ; there we lind that tbe services were " not mo * nopolized by an individual , but shared by the fraternity ; nor is there a hint that even the administration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper was confined to the minister . " The same eminent
individual who admits this , adds , " But in all this we have no rule for the present day * " That the precedent of the constitution of the primitive church should not have the force of a rule , from which it is unlawful for us to depart , I can allow to Dr . Channing ; but it appears to me that in this case the example must at least be
viewed as presenting a very enviable picture of a Christian community , at whatever period established . Prophecy also seems to lead us expressly to a time when " the people shall be all priests , " when , instead of our considering it as a desecration of holy things that practical men , actively engaged in the work of life , should presume to give their word of exhortation , and breathe out the
fer-* Dr . Channing , in his Remarks on Milton .
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
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Mr . Thomas Latham . At Luttmiy in Lincolnshire t aged 58 , Mr . Thomas Latham , the minister of the General Baptist Congregation in that pariah . Mr . Latham was a native of Wig&D , iu Lancashire , and for the greater portion of his life was a Baptist of the
Calvinistic persuasion . About twelve years ago he was elected the minister of a congregation in that connexion at Laxfield , a village in what is called High Suffolk , a part of the country as remarkable fur the ignorance and intolerance of its population as for the badne&s of its roads . Here he continued
several years , exercising an acceptable ministry over a tolerably numerous society ; but his opinions having undergone some change , the outcry of heresy was raised against him , and every possible attempt was made to destroy his corn *
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vent address to Heaven , life itself and all temporal concerns shall be irradiated by the spirit of devotion . But your correspondent appears to me to take liis estimate of probable evil arising from some change in our manner of conducting public worship too
exclusively from the views of Unitarian congregations ; and I fear , amid all the intelligence , learning , and eloquence , which pervade them , it would be found , that while enlargement of mind will probably briug about the contemplated alteration in them sooner than in other
religious denominations , they are in reality less fitted by habit to introduce it than those of other communities . In the ranks of orthodox Dissenters , I believe , a majority of the influential fathers of families are habituated to the nse of daily extempore prayer and familiar expositions of the Scriptures : but is this
the case with us ? I believe not ; and we are therefore the less prepared for public ministrations . Iu such a state I accord with your correspondent iu thinking that the chances are against our receiving immediate benefit from a change ; but this consideration does not weaken my belief iu its ultimate necessity—its eventual utility . A Worshiper among Unitarian Christians .
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fort , to injure his character , and to drive him from the place , it is not worth while to relate the instances of nendi » h maliguity which , under the garb of Christian zeal , were practised against him : let us hope that their authors have long since been ashamed of them . But Mr . Latham was not a man to be easily put dowu by clamour or cowed by persecution , and it was an unspeakable
comfort and assistance to him , that iii his nearest fellow-labourer , Mr . Toms , of Framlingham , he found a warm , consistent , and powerful friend . With his assistance , and with the consent and app robation of a considerable number of his own flock , he stood his ground , and continued preaching for about a year after the change in his sentiments had been avowed to the people at Laxneld . At length , finding no abatement , but
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420 Obituary . — Mr . Thomas Latham .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/60/
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