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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
N . I beg your pardon , but I do not just now mean by articles , but by opinions . How comes it that a Clergyman must not be a member of parliament , must not engage in politics , must not leave his ministerial work for some other , without a hue and cry
being raised against him ? _^ .. _ J&y , _ IluXsujr ^ N . Yes ; sir , and so is every man's that cometh intoMtEislvorlci ^ It is an evil fashion to leave holiness to clergymen . L . But the clergymen themselves prescribe duties to their people .
N . Much too often ; but I do not think the best-informed ministers do so ; they tell us what they themselves think , feel , and understand ; they lay open to us the counsels of the hearts of other men , their predecessors ; they explain to us the difficult things of Scripture , they help us to unravel the Wsteries of human nature ; but they leave the application to oursel ves , and rightly , in my opinion , the claims of inspiration having ceased . T . You would not much admire the ministry of my neighbour B . I have heard him scold his people through a sermon of an hour ' s length , for not coming to church twice a day to hear him .
N . Then I should call him a test-maker . How does he know that coming twice a day to hear him will best promote religion in his people ' s hearts ? I have heard besides that his i § a large parish , and that the walk to and from the church consumes great part of the Sabbath leisure of many . How can he , how dares he say that the men who stay away are unholy , the men who come religious ? Does he think at all of the dressing , and gossiping , and frittering away of time which these walks often call forth , or does he ever take into the account the effects of an hour or two
of quiet Sunday meditation in the labourer ' s own cottage , with his children at his knees ? T . Yet 1 think the Clergyman perfectly right to say what he feels of public worship himself . N . And so do I ; but he is wrong * I think , in confounding Sabbath-keeping , and a religious spirit , with the arbitrary employment of a few hours . L . Anything more ?
N . Alas , there is no end . Look at education ! how little toleration is shown there . Scarce one out of many parents dares to bring up a child as he or she would like to do , if the intolerant remarks of neighbours and friends did not forbid . What follows ? the few who dare venture feel themselves already condemned , and hence a spirit of defiance , which is nearly as bad as the contrary extreme .
L . But surely the modes of education are endless . N . Not endless , though very numerous ; and so are sects numerous ; but every member , of every sect , is no less shackled by the notions prevailing therein . L * But , sir , it seems to me that what you cull toleration is a
Untitled Article
138 DrAtoGim .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1833, page 138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2613/page/10/
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