On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    860 Miscellaneous Correspondence.

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    F)N Social Communion And Co-Operation.

    evidence we cannot doubt Us authenticity , and consequently cannot doubt the reality of the personages and facts therein contained . Thus far convinced , we mmst acknowledge the validity of the preten - sions of these men to be vehicles of the

    will of God , and then we are the veriest fools , if we do not diligently learn amd stricily obey their injunctions and admonitions . A certain patriarch is once represented to have said , " They have Moses and the prophets , let them hear them . " I wish a counterpart to these words were constantly sounded in the ears of professing Christians , < 4 They have Jesus and his apostles 5 let them hear them . "

    Now , as to Dr . Spencer's regulations ; I must say that he seems inclined to banish 4 < reverend individuals" in rather a summary way . Why does he do this ? As a Christian , he is not justified in his attempt , without arguments from that record on which , after all , we must found our religious belief and practice . Jf they are authorized by the inspired

    Jesus , and his inspired delegates , such a class of men should be perpetuated . If such a system was not countenanced among the primitive Christians , ( which I , in my solitary musings on the contents of the New Testament , cannot discover , ) neither should it prevail amongst us . However , being rather a novice in theological pursuits , I crave the opinion of

    yourself , Mr . Editor , or any of your readers on this , which I , as well as G . P . H 3 consider a matter of importance . Knowing through Jesus and his apostles in what way we shall please God best , and insure an entrance into liis kingdom , the plan of " social cominunion and co-operation , " adopted by them and their iid mediate disciples , ( if

    it can be ascertained , ) must be the only one for Christians . Any addition to it , however well-intended , must be a no inessential ; or rather , it must be an encumbrance , imposed with no . slight degree of arrogance . Hut tho . se who think to make security in God ' s favour doubly secure by doing a little more than we can see clearly enjoined and practised among the primitive Christians , or who

    think an alteration defensible , and even necessary from the change of the times , I ask , how these notions are reconcilable with the oft-repeated assertion that the essentials of Christianity are suited to men of every age , nation , rank , constitution , and climate : I ask , how they can imagine that what Jesus and his delegates considered abundantly . sufficient for proselytes from Judaism , a system of

    F)N Social Communion And Co-Operation.

    burdensome rites and ceremonies , and for converts from Paganism , a system et absurd and horrid rites and ceremonies , should be insufficient for persons trained from the cradle to the profession of Christianity , and in a country where their ancestors arid their neighbours ' have been so trained for many generations ? 1 believe that an observance of Dr . Spencer ' s first rule would be productive

    of the most beneficial results , and prevent the recurrence of such a remark as that made by Rev . J . J . Tayler , in his Anniversary Sermon : " A careful observer of the times can hardly resist the persuasion that religious controversy has , in this country at least , almost reached the limits which are as yet attainable with our existing means of criticism and interpretation . " But , at the same time , let the biblical students never cease striving after " that moral grandeur and pathos at which the soul of man relents . " Let them be " doers of the word , not hearers only . ' By following the advice contained in such tracts as Mr , Tayler ' s

    Sermon and Dr . Priestley ' s on Free Inquiry— tracts whose spirit harmonizes with the recommendations of Jesns , they will perhaps disprove the assertion of G . P . H ., " that originality cannot be expected in ordinary and hackneyed subjects beyond mere expression . " This study , perhaps , " would enable the ministers ( i . e . the divinitv-class , or , 1

    hope , nearly all tlie congregation ) to devote their time , talents , and learning , much more usefully than they can do now , either by transposing the work o » f a thousand predecessors into" an arrangement " of their own choice , by labouring in the hopeless effort ( by means of compilation ) of creating all things new , which are in fact as old as the creation . "'

    It i . « , doubtless , desirable that any minister or reader should have ( as recommended in Rule 3 >) " a popular ,, correct , and pleasing talent at recitation ; " and lie is most likely to possess this who speaks his own sentiments from his own heart , in what is to a religious mind the most fascinating of all language , th < e unsophisticated language of rational

    conviction and of nature . The cars , that cannot be fascinated by such appeals as those of our great exemplar , are entrances to hearts and understandings that cannot be reached by the unostentatious glories of unoral excellence and solid religious truth . If any minister in a Christian Church ought to bv . merely a speaking trumpet or mouthpiece , tLhrn the talent lauded by (\ . P . II . should be

    860 Miscellaneous Correspondence.

    860 Miscellaneous Correspondence .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 860, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/60/