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ance with the spirit of the New Testament , and with obvious fact . The cholera knows nothing of saint or sinner . Intemperate habits may predispose for its reception ; so may debility of frame , induced by bodily or mental exertions of the most honourable description . Its herald may not only be the wine-cup of the reveller , but the tear of the mourner , or the midnight lamp of the student . Warsaw suffered more
than Moscow . Constantine perished , it is true ; but Nicholas survives . Diebitsch was struck ; but another wears the blood-bought title to which he aspired . It is not thus that God judges the earth . Pestilence has its mission ; but not to make us * discern between the righteous and the wicked / Repentance has its obligations ; but to feel their force , we must distiriguish the sins for which its exercise is
enjoined . Concerning what particular sins * the sufferings of others * from the cholera are to warn the people of Great Britain to be penitent , it is difficult to say . If we ' ought to sing praises with understanding / we certainly ought not to talk of our transgressions unmeaningly or unfeelingly . The confession in this prayer deserves both these epithets . Were we to select an offence as most proper for allusion in this act of devotion , it would be best described in the words of St . James—* Ye
have despised the poor / If there be a great national sin , on which the cholera can be regarded as a judgment , it is this . The condition of the lower classes is an invitation to disease . But then the crime is perpetrated by one portion of society , and the calamity falls upon another . Not the authors , but the victims of institutions which engender poverty , ignorance , and vice , are the greatest sufferers from
contagious or epidemic disease . No ; the heads of the church could not have meant this , or they would not have combined for the prevention of that great political measure which , in its results , would more avail than all their forms for the improvement of the condition of the poor . They would have shown penitence by * mercy , and not sacrifice /
Mr . Acton ' s funeral discourse for his excellent and lamented coadjutor , Mr . Manning , has appended to it the address and prayer delivered at the interment . It is an appropriate and interesting sermon , from the words , * I have finished my course / The preacher treats of human life as a course of duty , of trials , and of discipline ; and concludes by a personal application of the subject to the character and
conduct of him who had been * upwards of fifty years the faithful and beloved pastor of the Christian church assembling' in George ' s Meeting House , Exeter . This simple and literal description is , perhaps , a stronger eulogy on the deceased , than the most eloquent tongue could pronounce . He who , in such a station , has been for half a century both 4 faithful and beloved / needs neither * storied urn nor monumental bust' to certify his worth or preserve his memory .
Of No . 3 , we have no hesitation in saying that it i « the ablest publication of Mr . Acton ' s with which we are acquainted . It is decided without being dogmatical , and controversial without being pugnacious , and Unitarian without being sectarian . With the hand of a masterbuilder he lays * the true foundations of peace and joy in believing / The necessity is shown of personal conviction * distinct views , sound principles , progressive attainment , and consistent conduct . The argument is broad and powerful . There id nothing of that petty and
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Critical Nutted—SingU SerMon * . 49
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 49, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/49/
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