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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.
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Untitled Article
world , even while they are not inattentive to their means of making it a scene of pleasantness , full of a consciousness that they have a better inheritance in reserve . I wish to see them , ' * not slothful in" this world ' s " bosi ness , " and , at the same time , " fervent '• in a benevolent and devotional
spirit . I wish to see them instructed both « ' how to be abased , and how to abound , " how to suffer , and how to enjoy , I wish to see them * ' patient in tribulation , " " rejoicing in hope , " rich in the treasures of a filial reliance upon God . And for this , I apprehend , they must be instructed in knowledge of a higher kind than that which is called useful . For this they must karn , not of the historian , not of the political economist , not of the
mathematician , not of the instructor in the arts of this life , but of Christ . It is he who must strengthen them for all these things by faith in his mission , doctrines , and promises . Granted , it may be said . But in order to bring men within the reach of Christ ' s instructions , what need is there of other books than that which contains his own words ? What need of other societies than that which has for its professed object the circulation of the Scriptures ?
Let it not be understood for a moment , that out Book and Tract Society professes to supersede this last-named Society , or to teach Christianity better than it can be taught by the Christian records . It is rather to be considered as a humble , but not always unimportant auxiliary to the circulation of the Bible . Suppose you find , in some minds , prejudices against the Divine authority of the Bible . Suppose , when urging men to read and consider the words of everlasting life , they ask you how you know that the Bible contains such words—how you know that Christ was sent by God . It
would take a long time , in mere conversation , to state all your reasons for so believing . Besides , there are few men who have words so much at command , as on a sudden to do full justice even to the best arguments . But it would be easy , in such circumstances , to say , " Here is a Tract which will briefly answer your questions , and tell you why I am a Christian ; and if when you have read this , you wish for additional information , I will put you in possession of books in which you will find it . " In this way the prejudices which had prevented attention to the Scriptures may be removed , and
a hearer be obtained for Christ . But suppose , again , you find believers in the Scriptures , and attentive readers of them , perplexed by some things which they read , doubtful how they must understand their Divine Instructor , and perhaps distressed because they cannot discover all the evidence which they had expected of doctrines familiarized to their minds as Christian truths . Here again it will be a
useful help to any conversation which you may have with them on their difficulties , if you can put into their hands some work on the point in Qu estion , or tending to throw light on some obscurities of the language of the Scriptures . Another case in which a . seasonable and important use maybe made of the stores provided by the Book and Tract Society , is , when you happen to
be in company with those who evidently have no knowledge of the doctrines which you believe to be essentially Christian , except through the misrepresentations of controversialists . Perhaps they are serious and religious persons , and on that very account you are the more grieved and pained to hear them speak in terms of censure and dislike of names and opinions which you hold in reverence . But if they are , indeed , such persons , they wiH be the more open to the appeal , ** does your law judge any man before it has heard him ?•• They will be the more likely to admit the reasonableness of the request , « understand first , and then rebuke j" and they will not , pro *
Untitled Article
Lancashire and Cheshire Booh and Tract Society . 391
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/31/
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