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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
and it was also an aid to them in the unhappy change they occasioned . By the regenerators , therefore , it was naturally regarded with suspicion , with a portion of dislike , if not contempt . At least its excesses were bewailed , and in avoiding them the friends of truth would but too easily , and even unconsciously , be propelled to Jthe extreme of coldness . It would seem to be a law of human
changes , that they should take place by such , revulsions as cause society , in its religious as well as civil relations , to vibrate incessantly between extremes . Regeneration is the work of man ' s weakness as well as man ' s strength ; his littleness as welt as his greatness is mingled with tft ^ and passion , therefore , and prejudice conspire to make it sudden instead of gradual , and to hurry it to an excess , in which it is perhaps equally wrong as the error from which it sprung . And who does iiot know that there is in man a tendency to be what he has been , so that whatever faculty of his nature he has for some time exercised , the action of the same
continues spontaneously even till the end of life * unless cheeked and countervailed by deliberate and well-sustained " opposition . The intellect that has been cultivated retains of itself the activity which it hence acquired , and by that activity will soon , unless counteracted , acquire the dominion of the breast . And so powerful and elastic is the spring whose energy has been excited * that the action irr individualTeases wUr mostly continue : tillthe Vital : powers , the prime movers of the mechanism , shall be arrested by the hand which gave them motion . Even after the individual has
ceased to breathe their influence in part remains , but the change which was previously almost impossible , may now be effected . What could iiot be done in the man , may be effected in the mass . The regenerator has taken his prejudices and perversions to the grave with him , and left the truth which he brought to light as a heritage to society . His successors may enjoy the reward of his labours without paying the heavy price he paid . In his light they see light , but they are not of necessity influenced by his mental habits . They may rival him in the purity of his creed , and surpass him in the warmth of their heart .
This is the peculiar duty of Unitarian Christians in the present day . The mental regeneration , at least so far as they themselves are concerned , is consummated . There remains the application of the truth discovered to the heart . Our predecessors , with great cost and as much merit , cultivated the mind ; our business is to kindle the bosom . They wrought an intellectual work ; our duty is with the spiritual man * It was their peculiar function to explode error ; it is ours to illustrate , apply , and enforce truth . Their labour was demolition , ours is edification ; they made men think , we have to make men feel ; into their labours we have entered , and as it is the fortune of no one man , of no one age , to bring forth perfection , their labours it is our business to complete . I cannot see vvhy the Saviour should not be loved with genuine
Untitled Article
226 THE TRUTH TELLER . *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 1, 1833, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2619/page/2/
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