On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
[ The following Address is sent to the Monthly Repository at the request of some wlio heard it . With the exception of a few verbal corrections , and two or thred sentences which occurred at the time , but which I cannot uow recal , it is the same as when delivered . J . G . R ]
The subject of my discourse this afternoon was announced in the notice given this morning . The members of the Tract Society are to hold their Annual Meeting at the conclusion of the present service . What I propose is to say a few words in recommendation of that Society . I would state its objects , and point out the great use which may be made of it by those who are heartily desirous of doing good .
That I have , on this occasion , departed from the custom of prefacing my discourse with a passage of Scripture , is not because none could be found suitable to such a purpose . On the contrary , the difficulty would rather be to select out of many which enjoin on Christians the duty of seeking the welfare of their fellow-men , which bid those who have been converted strengthen their brethren , and which magnify the work of turning sinners from the error of their way .
All these objects are combined in that of this Society , which is , as stated in its first rule , " the circulation of books and tracts favourable to the cause of genuine Christianity and the practice of virtue . " Observe , my friends , the word " circulation . " For the whole spirit and utility of the Society depend upon the meaning which its members attach to that word , and upon the degree in which they act up to its meaning . If
their only purpose in associating were to supply themselves at a cheaper rate with instructive books for their own reading , this might , no doubt , be a very useful purpose for themselves and their own families . We might commend them for securing within their reach so much rational occupation and entertainment . But they would not , on that account , have any claim to be considered as a Christian and benevolent society . And I should almost as soon have thought of recommending from the pulpit any one of the subscription libraries in the town , as this particular institution .
Or again , if the members of this Society contented themselves with subscribing their money , and took no pains afterwards to select and distribute , either by giving or lending , such books and tracts as might seem likely to be useful , they would still be far from promoting the professed object of the Society , and that which alone I have undertaken to recommend . It might , indeed , be said that they would be doing good by merely increasing the means which would thus be placed at the disposal of others more inclined to
exert themselves . It might be thought a charitable and praiseworthy work , to keep pouring supplies into a reservoir of instruction , for the mere chance of its being drawn off by others in useful directions . But what if all the members of the Society should act on the same principle ! And , surely , if the principle be good for one , it is good for all . Yet what should we then have , as the whole result of the Society ' s operations , but an accumulating stock , and a yearly lengthening catalogue of unused books ?
The object professed by the Society , the object , therefore , which ought to be borne in mind by every one of its members , the object , in fact , to which every one should consider himself pledged , and that for which it appears to me peculiarly worthy of being recommended , is , as was before stated , * ' the
Untitled Article
( 389 )
Untitled Article
AN ADDRESS , IN RECOMMENDATION OF THE LANCASHIRE AND CHE- « SHIRE BOOK AND TRACT SOCIETY , DELIVERED IN CROSS-STREET CHAPEL , MANCHESTER . APRIL 24 , 1831 , BY J . G . ROBBERDS .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/29/
-