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Untitled Article
the four quarters of the globe , wherever the Trinity is taught , there exist persons who look on it and its kindred doctrines as little better than old wives' fables . The effect has taken place among a class of men , whom of all others , the true Christian would wish to find side by side with himself ; men , some I grant , of a low , if not gross turn of moral feeling , but many of inquiring , well-informed , and vigorous miiasTTh ^
kingdom , such persons are found on every hand . To be supposed to hold the doctrine , the majority of intelligent men would consider a disparagement of their understandings . An external show of respect they may out of courtesy use , if the doctrine be made the topic of conversation . This , as other antiquated follies of their fellow-men , they treat with the semblance of consideration , if for no other reason than that it was once the popular belief , and still holds its empire in the minds of many sincere , devout , yet not
over strong-minded Christians . We would not be understood to affirm that the whole intellect of the country is ranged on the side of unbelief , but we do maintain that a great part of it is imbued with scepticism , while much is decidedly antichristian , so far as belief is concerned . We say so far as belief is concerned , for the moral , and intellectual , and spiritual influence of the gospel is felt throughout the frame of society , and it sometimes happens , thiit those have most of it who -profess least .- While this ~ ccra »' sideration may serve to abate the pain .. one must feel at the
extent to which the unchristianizing agency of Tnnitariantsm has gone , it is grateful to have reason to think that there are some of the class we have spoken of , who , while they have divested themselves of the corruptions , hold fast the form of Christianity , and are in their convictions , though not , as one could wish , not as yet in their avowals , with that band of primitive believers , who , from this country have done much to send forth the sounds of the pure gospel on all the winds of heaven , and to plant them in human bosoms in all parts of the earth .
If from England we pass to France , we . find the number of Antitrinitarian unbelievers hugely and most painfully increased . In the Catholic community few adult males can be found who still adhere to the faith of their forefathers . The churches are denuded of men , the worship is left to the women , the belief to the priests , who , though paid for believing , are not thought to be
profuse in their returns . Ihe one God , though unhappily it may be only under the character of the God of nature , is ail-but unirversally the sole object of the homage which Catholic France pays not in churches , l > ut in the heart . The absurdities of the Trinitarian faith have fallen from the mind , as the dry and withered leaves fall in autumn , never to be gathered up again . In the Protestant French Church , there is a division into Trinitarians and Antitrinitarians .- The first may be the majority , yet is the second highly respectable , both in numbers and in influence ,
Untitled Article
336 THE TRUTH TELLER .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1833, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2625/page/16/
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