On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
ceeded to act upon it * But how were they to act ? To remove this rebellious brother from his situation would have been harsh ; to suspend him would have been inconvenient ; they , therefore , very wisely determined to censure him , and to forbid him his usual place in their deliberative council for the space of one year , P . 151 .
Such is the history of this unfortunate dispute . While we see here an illustration of the evil of establishments , even in their best and most inoffensive form ; while we rejoice in our Christian liberty , and congratulate ourselves that in prosecuting our schemes for the advancement of what we deem to be true religion , * ' none are permitted to rise up and make us
afraid , " we certainly do think that the pastors of Geneva could not , consistently with what they owed to themselves , have acted very differently from what they did . Had they required M . Gaussen to apologize for the disrespectful language he had used , instead of withdrawing his letters , they would have been more likely to succeed in their immediate object , and would perhaps have avoided a refusal which they might have foreseen . But we are not surprised that they required what they did ; and we
are clearly of opinion , not only that they were justified in all the steps which they took , but that their taking those or similar steps was the only way in which they could assert their own rights , and maintain their abused authority . If the discipline of their church was to be kept up , punishment was to be inflicted on one who obstinately refused to submit j and had they been less decided in the notice they took of the offence which had been committed , they might have seen their privileges disputed , and their authority set at naught , in a manner still more flagrant . We must also say , that throughout this whole proceeding , the Venerable Company displayed a degree of candour and of temper , of charity and forbearance , which are deserving of all praise , and which their refractory member would have done well to imitate . But M . Gaussen does not seem to approve of conciliatory measures . Though he was left very much at liberty to pursue his own methods of instruction , provided only that the
catechism was repeated , and though he appears , from his letter of November 12 th , to be satisfied with this permission , yet it is a matter of notoriety that he has since hired a room for a Sunday evening service at Geneva , and that he is taking measures which clearly indicate that he contemplates the formation , not of a dissenting church , but of a new one in the bosom of that which is already established in his own city and canton . What
may be his success , remains still to be seen . In the mean time , we trust that late events will only have served to stimulate the clergy of Geneva to proceed more vigorously in the correction of those abuses by which their religious institutions are disfigured . If they have laws which fetter free inquiry and discussion , let these be rescinded without mercy , and without delay . If their catechism be confessedly faulty , let it be speedily revised . If the Scriptures be read , and the hymns sung in their churches , in a style
Untitled Article
614 The Past or 8 of Geneva and M . Gaussen .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 614, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/38/
-