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Untitled Article
with the two last of the three classes we have referred to ; but the drudgery of our cause must be gone through as well as its more congenial employments ; and this , not by an inferior order of minds , the hewers of wood and the drawers of water , to whom the drudgery of other causes may be committed . In religion there is no aristocracy of mind , no superior order to whom it may be permitted to delight themselves with the refinements which are wrought out of the irksome labour of their inferiors . In religion , each must be to all a servant for Christ Jesus' sake : each must be a labourer to
clear away the rubbish from the foundations , as well as the architect who is to erect the pile , or the philosopher who is to gaze into heaven from its pinnacle when all is done . Delightful as may be the expansion of views and the lofty speculations into which we may enter with teachable or congenial minds , animating as may be the strenuous intellectual exercise which we share with really philosophical unbelievers , these occupations must alternate
with the less hopeful ones to which we are compelled by Christian adversaries . Let there be no repining at this , since Paul had to remonstrate with corrupters of his own doctrine as well as to confirm his converts and to dispute with Athenians ; and Christ himself answered the cavils of the Pharisees in the morning , before he communed with his friends at Bethany in the evening , and reasoned with Nicodemus by night .
In proportion to the eminence of the advocate is the service rendered to the cause . Never , therefore , can the chief men among us feel themselves , privileged to decline the labour which , though apparently " never gpEling , still beginning , " carries with it a promise of recompense in the gradual spread of the truth , as well as in the gratitude of those who already hold it . It is many years since Mr . Aspland began to state the religious opinions of Unitarians . He has since been perpetually advocating and illustrating them ;
but he must still go back and state them again . They are still new ; they still rouse attention and cause wonder . As , however , this is a proof that new hearers are present to listen , as there is a hope that to these new hearers the truth will become familiar as it has already become to those who were new hearers at the beginning of his career , we are sure there is no danger of his growing weary of the service which the cause still requires of him , and on which awaits the gratitude of all to whom that cause is dear .
The sermon before us divides itself into three portions . The first consists of a reprobation of bigotry , and of suggestions of encouragement to those who suffer under it . The second exhibits the religious opinions in which all Unitarians are agreed , and those less important ones on which some difference of opinion exists . The third contains a summary of the accusations most current against Unitarians . We give extracts from the first and third . It would be an injustice to the intermediate portion to separate any part of it from its connexion .
" Whatever he the cause , the fact will , I take for granted , be admitted , that Unitarian Christians have been for ages , as they are now , a sect every where spoken against , and that the rancour with which we are ' spoken against' exceeds the common measure ( large as that unhappily is !) of theological hostility . The more eager and zealous religionists of the day , in
speaking of us , find no terms too gross , no censures too harsh and severe . Our arguments are fairly open to discussion , to objection , and ( if it be thought fitting ) to reprobation ; but these are rarely laid hold of except to be misstatea and distorted and falsely coloured ; they are commonly abandoned for easier and more inflammatory methods of arousing * the blind superstition and angry prejudice of the multitude . Ridiculous stories are propagated concerning us and lind ready credit with listeners whose ears have been previously
Untitled Article
Asptand ' s Sermon , 21
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/21/
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