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of the people a capacity to enjoy and to understand them . It is therefore wisely contemplated in this institution to which my motion refers , to employ men of superior mind and character , for they are best calculated to act with a healing influence on those below them . The
effect that they will produce will be like a scene with which you , Sir , are not una , cquaiuted ; for it was , I believe , about the time of your residence in that lovely Isle of Wight that the remarkable phenomenon to which I refer occurred . Perhaps it may not be generally understood what is meant by a land-slip at the back of that island . At Rome distance
from the sea there is a range of lofty rocks , covered with a soil teeming and prolific . There the myrtle blossoms in all its beauty , and in the autumn rich ears of wheat bend over the dark brows of those frowning rocks , while below towards the sea all is barren , wild , and unproductive . At the time of which I speak the soil above these cliffs movedit rushed over the brow—it descended on
the barreu spot beneath . What was the consequence ? All above remained as rich and as fertile as before , while below , all amongst fragments of bare rock , monuments of the past , there came a rich vegetation of all the productions of the earth , spreading themselves in novel luxuriance over this newly-acquired domain . And so will it be in this our mission :
the minds of enlighteued and honest men will be precipitated on those below , creating a moral fertility where now all is wild and barren ; the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them , and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose . - Repeated allusion has this evening been made to our visitors from
other countries . What better greetiug can we give them , what nobler recollection of this meeting , to enjoy themselves and tell their fellow-countrymen , than the institution of a mission so purely Christian , so blessed in its spirit and results , as that contemplated in the resolution before us ! We have Irishmen
here ; natives of the land where popular agitation has recently conquered for them popular rights . Let them return and tell their countrymen that we too are about to agitate , but not with the violence of public clamour . Such missions
will descend on the poor and wretched gently as the angel on the pool of Bethesda , stirring the waters with that agitation which has the power of healing and of blessing . Let the Trausylvanians return and tell their compatriots , that while they maintain an
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equality with the other religions of the state , and have their share of the public honours and trusts , we are claiming a moral equality wit hot her Christian persuasions that occupy England ; and that having equalled these in our pursuit of troth ,, we will not allow them to leave us behind in any pursuit of love and mercy . There are Freuchmen here ; let them return and tell the brave men of Paris that we are in the barricades of theology ,
struggling in the holy insurrection ^ of reason against ecclesiastical and sectarian domination , but that we fight as the Jews of old were prepared to do , when with their weapons girded on they rebuilt the temple of the Lord . In conflicting , we cease not to build , till the spiritual temple of the God of righteousness and love shall be up reared in purer glory than that of old . Let our American brother return and tell the Unitarians
there , that we are following their example , and glad to be their imitators in the cause by means of which they are repaying the old world its discovery of their continent , by discovering for it in their turn a new world of charity : let him tell them that theirs is an example of which we are proud , and of which we hope by worthy labour to reap the harvest . And when our Orieutal friend
shall return , if return he must , ( long be it delayed !) to his native regions , may he have , to report that Europe is not only as supreme as he esteems it in sciences , arts , and arms , but is beginning to aspire to a supremacy in benevolence which shall annihilate all other supremacies , and even in the end its own , by assimilating and exalting human feeling and
human character in all the regions of the world . The Rajah remarked to me the other day , with somewhat of an indignant feeling , that he had been shewn a painting of Jesus Christ , and that the painter was false , for he had given him the pale European countenance , not remembering that Jesus Christ was an oriental . The criticism was just . Those theologians have painted falsely too who have portravedi Christianity as a cold and
intellectual religion , and not given it that ci $ v oriental colouring of fancy and of feeling with which the Scriptures glow , and by which they possess themselves not only of the mind , but the heart and soul of man . Oh , thus may our religion appear , creating the whole human race anew in the image . of the Creator ! This , Sir , is what I would see realized : this , I believe , must arise from the adoption of the motion ; for I cannot help feeling that our example will be
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420 Intelligence . r- ? Unitarian Association .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 426, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/66/
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