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yancing the cause of human improvement were . not restricted to the pulpit . His co-operation was eagerly sought , and , so long as he was blessed with health and strength , as willingl y ^ - yielded , whenever any measure of public utility * was brought forward in the town in which Providence had
fixed his station . That religious faith which he advocated he considered to have its end in tie mental and spiritual elevation of his species ,. * and every thing which conduced to the same result he thought to be within his province ; he no more fancied that'bis sabbath duties
comprised the whole of what was required from him , than be conceived that the sum and substance of religion consisted in attending upon religious ordinances , Mr . Harrison committed to the press several publications ; but that modesty and unassuming disposition which have been mentioned as so
characteristiaQf . him , would-n ^ t allow him to seek for them more than the local circulation which the circumstances that gave rise to them de- * raanded , although they were possessed of a general and a permanent interest . During his ministry at Lancaster , in 1793 , he printed a series of devotional and other
services , such as are commonly used in Dissenting places of worship , in order , as he states in the preface , to remove something of that suspicion which then attached to seceders from the church , and to prove to the world that their public worship was not conducted in that careless
way and with that absence of religious feeling that was charged upon ttam . And admirably is the pubjj ..-c Jrtion adaptedto tnV purpose desi gned . Though , perhaps , few of the Unitarian public are . acquainted with this little work , the writer knows ° f none so well calculated for the use of congregations in the absence of a stated minister . It is much more convenient and contains more va ~ llety than Dr , Priestley ' s forms of
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prayer . He published also ariothei * excellent though little-known work , in a series of monthly numbers , called the * Christian . Instructor , or Qcca ^ sional Expositor . ' This was called "forth by a rude and ignorant attack upon the Unitarians , it is believed , jn ^ oi ] ye ^ l _ th-e _ JKendal ^ -Bewspapers 7 and consists of twelve short essays upon the principal points of the Uni-. tarian faith ; they are clear ,-
convincing , temperate ; every way honourable to the advocate , and calculated to serve the cause- he espouses ; He pr inted also , at-the , pressing entreaty of his hearers , . two or three sermons ; but these , though ' every way deserving of the most extended perusal , from the . cause already assigned , have reachecHlie hands of very few besides those to whom they were originally addressed . ¦ "
Mr . Harrison had , for some time before his death , laboured under * an infirm state of health , and was occasionally absent from his pulpit ; the last few months of his life . The Sunday but" one before his decease he was observed to preach with
greater animation than he had displayed for a long period , ( and his delivery was for the most part of a very animated character , ) as if he sought to pour out upon his beloved hearers his whole soul ere he left them , in the same way as the lamp gathers its expiring light into one
Maze before it expires in the socket . On the succeeding Sabbath he was up and dressed early in the morning , as for his usual services ; and though it was obviously impossible that he cou Id undertake them , his thoughts were all directed to his charge ; in the evening as i £ anxious to bid farewell to the
sanctuary in which he had so long and so faithfully ministered , he left his house with much difficulty , and sat awhile in the Chapel-yard ; on the ensuing morning , his spirit was summoned away by him who gave it . Providence granting a wish he had often and earnestly expressed , that he might , be spared a lingering' death ,,
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. ' eQRRESpaNDENcir * ... : 2 23 . j ¦ ¦ ¦ , „ ¦
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1833, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2617/page/31/
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