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ther he should preach in a Unitarian chapel , lest it should reach the ears of his acquaintance in America , and create a prejudice against him . Yet , bow look at the names and the talents of those who advocate the Unitarian cause in America , and see what a change in a short time has- heen effected ! With ' a rapidity scarcely credible , the true doctrine has spread from the shores of the Atlantic to those of Che
Pacific , and from the Northern takes to the Gulf of Mexico . If 1 turn yoiir attention to India , what need I say more * than Jhat Rammohnn Roy is here this day to animate you by his example , and to cheer you by his countenance ? Dr . Bowring has well said that we may regard distant regions as distant ages . But while we are congratulating ourselves on the success of our cause , it will be welt to turn back to those who laboured in
times past , and by whose aid the cause was so essentially benefited . The Uuitarians penetrated into Transylvania two centuries and a . half a £ o ; there they found the soil congenial ; there they found a prince who said , as a prince has said in our own time , " I am the king of my people , but not the lord of their consciences ; * ' there they found a sovereign who pledged himself that every man
should enjoy the free Irberty of religious worship . Under such auspices as these the Unitarians flourished j and it ought to be most gratifying to us to find within these walls the representatives of that church which is still ready to carry on the same great cause . And shall we not give these men a hearty welcome ? Owing to the Catholic ascendancy in Poland , the Unitarians were driven from that
country , and 400 of them found a ready asylum in Transylvania , the inhabitants of which country ? they rewarded' in the best way they could , by giving the or the benefit of their principles and example . Poland at this day is maintaining a noble " struggle in defence * of her civil liberty ; but should it be the will of an inscrutable Providence that the unrighteous cause should succeed—should it be the
will of Providence that ttiese zealous advocates of civil liberty should be driven from the land of their fathers , may we not hope that Transylvania will again be the asylum of Polish exiles ;* and that , feeling and enjoying" the benefit they derived from former Polish example , they will in their turn give instruction and assistance ^ so thart the time may be when ' we shall see within these wait * delegated fftmi ' Poland ae- Welt as Ttfansylvatila * . The resolution was then carried una-
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nimously , the Rev . Chairman observing , in putting it to the vote—I cannot propose this motion without mentioning what appears to me to be a debt of gratitude to a labourer who has been called from the vineyard : I am alluding to the Rev .
Mr . Severn * of Hull . Some here will remember a remarkable prayer of his made before the Unitarian Fund , in which he laid at the footstool of the Divine mercy the case of our neglected and almost forgotten brethren of Transylvania . Mr . Severn was the first that mentioned the
Trausyfvanian Unitarians at our meetings , who , in his characteristic mauner , he described as having fourscore churches , which must be called churches by the people of this country , for they had steeples and bells . Dr . Kirkland . — Permit me as an American , Mr . Chairman , to reciprocate
the expression of rntefest in the progress of Christian truth , and the kind personal greetings contained in the resolution just passed . They are in agreement with the friendly treatment and the brotherly love I experienced in visiting different places in the United Kingdom . The spirit of religious inquiry is abroad in the United States of America . It has done
something for received opinions in that country , producing from time to time explanations and concessions which reuder them really or apparently more consonant with acknowledged principles . But the human formularies of doctrine which are generally adopted , allow only a limited scope to the liberty of examination . It is amon £ those who refuse to be trammelled by articles , who take no standard of belief but the word of God , and admit no restraint on the exercise
of their right of judging but the love of truth , that the proper fruits of inquiry may be expected in their full extent . Those who act upon these principles in that country , though not'liable to all the discouragements vvhieh pertain to the
cause here , are still obliged ta' encounter great opposition . The laws of the land insure them civil fVeed ' orft i but hereditary opinion-, traditional faith , and prejudice , exert a prodigious power . We have reasons for thru king that the friends of libeVa ! sentiment ** in the Union will
increase ; they are already numerous in some parts or * the land . THfc * cause is seriousl y and' sincerely professed and ably * maintained : In the mean titrie ; we congratulate you' and ourselves oki your riTO 0 m * # iantt 60 I fttld prospects in this highly-favoured region ; FYom the East and * from Iflie tV ^ eatf We have * come to join you In t&e worship 1 of one * God 1-by one
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422 Intelligence .--Unitarian Association .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/62/
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