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Untitled Article
What facility for learning have some i how arduous is acquisition toothers ! Some are slow to acquire , but find retention easy ; others part with information as quickly as they receive it . A dunce in one branch of knowledge will prove a prodigy in another . Even the period of life has an influence on the faculties , and as premature talent sometimes ends in disappointment , so early dulness is requited by tardy yet durable success . In the heart what . .
variety I Some natures are heavy and sluggish , others active ; some constitutionally cold , others ardent ; some grossly and basely selfish ^ others ofa lofty disinterestedness ; one man's heart is moved only by the things of sense / another's burns with a holy benevolence , and finds delight in mental exercises and refined engagements . Now these diversities are of power sufficient to give
a tone to the character throughout life . I do not say they cannot be modified ; they can , and greatly ; but still more will they modify every influence to which the character is subjected . Except in rare cases they mainly determine what sort of persons we are to be . With them , education is mighty ; opposed to them ; it is a child in conflict with a giant . But the fact is that generally their influence is not counteracted , but left to work silently and
incessantly in the formation of the character . I hardly need remark , that no office requires more than the Christian -ministry a union of mental and moral excellencies . Ought not he who has to enlighten others , to be himself a man of an active no less than a well-informed and well-disciplined mind ? To foster the exercise of intellect is one duty of a person whose very office calls on him to encourage every thing which wars against sense , and elevates the character . But vain will the
attempt be made by those whose mind nature has endowed with a niggardly hand . They will be little more than barren retailers of others' thoughts , touching all subjects without imparting living energy to any , and speaking to the mind without that kindred vitality which , as with a creative power , says , let light be , and light is ; which impregnates while it enlightens , quickening thought in the very act of imparting information . No early dedication can secure this mental energy , but may send into an office an
inferiority of talent which might in another station have made its possessor useful and happy . Ought not he to possess a susceptible and glowing breast who has to kindle the affections of others ? There can be no greater mistake than to send into the ministry men , however ' excellent , whose bosoms are constitutionally cold . The great object of the
pulpit should be to rouse ; not merely to tench people their duty ; but far more and rather to impel them to perform it ; to excite an intense and durable interest in whatever is good , holy , and benevolent ; to alarm the slumbering conscience , to quicken the sense of obligation , to throw a veil over the enchantments of earth , and disclose the splendours of heaven * Here , if any where ?
Untitled Article
162 THE TRUTH TELLER . ¦ v -m- ¦¦> <¦ . . jm m 4 Ik . # •¦ v m < m " ¦ • • »
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1833, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2615/page/2/
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