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* o direct your attentiou to the state of die funds of this Institution . Not only is the commencement of a City Mission impracticable , until answers promising sufficient aid are received to the circular which has been issued on that subject ; but all new plans of usefulness , and many such might be engaged in with
great prospect of success , are for the present precluded . Several very deserviug applications on behalf of ministers , congregations , and local missions , have been passed over unavoidably , and with great regret on the part' of your Committee , from the absence of disposable resources . The plain fact is , that the contributions to the Institution are
inadequate to the vigorous pursuit of its various objects . New fields of usefulness have opened before us , the cultivation of which requires increased exertiou to furnish the requisite funds . Either the pecuniary meaus of the
Association must be largely increased , or several of its objects , which might be prosecuted with effect , must remain in abeyance . It is hoped confidently , that in this alternative the Unitarian body will uot hesitate . Assuredly it would be practicable for the Committee to reduce the
annual expenditure within the limits of the annual subscriptions , even were they less than they are , but it must be by the sacrifice of a corresponding portion of the moral good for the accomplishment of which their labours and your money are alike contributed ; a consummation most devoutly to be deprecated , and to which they can uot believe that their successors will ever be
driven . A brief statement of the plan and objects of the British aud Foreign Unitarian Association has been recently printed , which those of the friends of the Institution who have not already been supplied with it may obtain on application at the office , No . 3 , Wai brook Buildings : this tract will shew the variety aud importance of the plans to be carried on , and f urnish , we hope , all the in formation and inducement which
can be needed to secure that prompt liberality and active exertion on the part of the Unitarian denomination at large throughout the kingdom , which will ensure prosperity and success . " The present times , both in our own
and in other countries , are f ull of promise ; men ' s minds are every where excited ; it cannot but be expected that the most momentous objects of human reflection should soon demand the general exercise of thought : and whenever religious * tonics are commonly and fairly in-
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vestigated , we know that truth must prevail . The times of reformation are at hand ; and let us endeavour , accord * ing to our ability , to accelerate their approach by exciting inquiry , exposing error , and disseminating knowledge ; so 8 hall we best glorify God and bless our fellow-creatures . " We have anticipated in this notice of the Report , not to break in upon our narrative of the transactions of the meeting , which we now proceed to narrate in order .
The Rev . Chairman . —My Christian friends , your Committee have done me the honour to desire that I should take the Chair on this occasion . It is well known for what purposes , and with what success , this Society has been incorporated . It is now five-and-tweuty years ago since some of us , who believed on deep and solemn conviction that the Unitarian doctrine was the pure Christian doctrine , and the only one that in this eulightened age could save Christianity from rejection , united to form an Association for the purpose of making known clearly , meekly , aud , I trust , wisely , our seutimeuts to our different brethren
of this great country . From that time to this we have , in various forms , appealed to the people $ aud our appeal , like another reform appeal which has lately been made , has been well and nobly answered . It is true we have not made converts by towns and by couutics —it is true we have uot been able to * keep down all bigotry and intoleranceit is true that we have uot been able to prevent a strong feeling existing against us in the minds of the religious public : but it is also true that , at least , we have
takeu the stiug out of the serpent of bigotry ; and though that serpent may be as much as ever disposed to annoy , still the power is wanting ; and the speeches even of those who are most fiercely arrayed against us are very different I roui those which were delivered
when the Unitarian Fund was first established . We are at the present moment standiug in a somewhat new position with regard to the public : there is no one , perhaps , within the walls of this chapel who is not aware that at a late meetiug of all classes aud denominations
of the Chmtiau world , Unitarian ism was put on its trial , the question beiug whether it was fit and proper for those who deemed themselves orthodox to co-operate with those who professed the Uuitarian doctiiue . , 1 am happy to say that without any effort on the part of the Unitarians—without a single Unitarian
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Intelligence , — Unitarian Association * 4 UJ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 413, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/53/
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