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dUcusston and inquiry * to be open to the members and such friends as they may introduce , Which would operate as the sure means of promoting that union and co-operation Which are essential to the very existence of a society . Io fact it can at present hardly be said , that our congregations are societies , since they are deficient in those social meetings and intercourses which identify a society .
7 . That the members should habitually carry on a system of home missionary eztertUms , by the distribution of tracts and by social religious conversation in their respective neighbourhoods , and report progress , once a month , at a meeting of the elders . A wide field of usefulness Would here be opened to the society , particularly the female part , Whose leisure time might thus be occupied in the befit of causes .
8 . That a public breakfast or tea-party , similar to the Moravian love-feast , should he held in the vestry or other convenient place , at least four times a year , for the members of both sexes and their friends , and which could not fail in promoting that fellowship so essential to the prosperity of a Christian society .
Such was , in substance , the plan of nay late excellent friend , for the improvement of Unitarian societies ; and to which I am not aware of any solid objection ; whilst it certainly promises the most essential advantages that a Christiaa church can and ought to
possess : and I cannot help thinking how gratified the worthy Doctor would have been had he lived to see the lately-discovered work of the great Milton , in which . several of the more important parts of the foregoing plan , appear to have been suggested by that mighty mind nearly a century and a half ago .
Were such a plan * adopted , then indeed wowld our churches wipe away that " plague-spot from their portals " to use the " Second - thought" words of a late talented seceder from our sacred cause ; that pestilential and withering apathy , which so often impedes their prosperity , and even threatens their vital 6 Ktinction , and to which the finger of soorn is so often pointed , in triumph , by the
advocates of the popular faith . Th « n would our waroi-hearted zealy resulting necessarily from social communion and cooperation in the cause of Christian truth , remove the stigma so frequently and unjustly ca » t upon our whole body , that we are a cold * hearted people—the frigid zone and frozen region of Christianity ; that our professed liberality respecting the sentiments of others , is nothing but
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mere indifference to the importance of truth ; that we are not in earnest even in the profession of our own avowed theological opinions ; that we are a worldl yminded people ; and that our religious impressions are too weak to produce
any bond of social union amongst ourselves . I hope , however , to witness the time , when a call for the adoption of the foregoing , or some other adequate plan for promoting union and co-operation , shall jjrise simultaneously throughout the Unitarian body . G . P . H .
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On e late Address to the Thr < me . To the Editor . Sir , Sept . 12 , 1830 . I have observed , in the public prints , a wortliy example of moral decorum , in an addxess to the king , on his accession , from the freeholders lately assembled at York . They refer to the demise of George IV ., without hazarding a compliment to his memory , and their condolence with his successor is confined to
the affliction of the royal family , in which the public could wot , reasonably , profess to share * You have inserted ( p . 641 ) , an address , on the same occasion , from " the Protestant Dissenting Ministers , in and about the cities of London and Westminster ; " learned and religious men , devoted , by their profession , to the especial advancement of Christian C ( simplicity and godly sincerity ; " and who may be fairly presumed to have sat more constantly than those involved in the perplexities of civil life , at the feet of him , who c < taught as one having
authority- — ' L ^ t your yea , be yea , and yonr nay , nay , for more than these cometh of evil . ' The example , then , which Christian ministers hare afforded to the public * on their late admission to a royal audience , cannot be a subject of unseasonable Inquiry .
In your third volume , ( N . S . 428 , ) " the Body" are described as " somewhat courtly , " Such a propensity would , naturally , eudear to them a longconceded privilege of admission to the royal presence , in their collective capacity , whenever they request to appear with an address of condolence or of
congratulation . There , as you remark , they are exposed to " the influence of earthly splendours /* while some , probably , " for the first time gaze on palaces and kings /' You add , " there was a Queen , who was not addressed . " That hapless wo-
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718 Miscellaneous Correspondence *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/62/
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