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    They proceed to give some account of these labours , which they trust will show that this extraordinary religious excitement has been met by a corresponding zeal and activity on the part of this Association - } and

    that it has done something more , " w ^ tEinTc 7 ~ th ^^ iiT " aiTy ^ Tevious ~ yeai ^ to diffuse just and scriptural views of religion , and to sow through the land the seeds of an enlightened piety , an enlarged charity , and an exalted and generous virtue .

    The most efficient and useful instrument of the Association , thus far , has been the publication of Tracts , explaining the views and urging the principles-of pure Christianity . At the time when this Association was formed , in the year 1825 , there were but few plain and popular expositions

    of our distinctive opinions . There were , it is true , several admirable vindications of the Unitarian faith , in which its claims were set forth with great power and'learning : but they were large , expensive , and rare , and consequently did not obtain that wide and general circulation which

    they deserved . Other smaller treatises , whose titles we need not specify , were more brief and cheap , and easily obtained ; but then they laboured under the defect of not being perfectly level and obvious to common minds . Written as they were by professed scholars and theologians ,

    they seemed to imply and require in the reader a familiarity with the general history and argument of the controversy , which none but they who have made' it their particular study , can be supposed to possess . They were admirably adapted to thinking , intelligent , well-informed

    minds ; but were not sufficiently plain and elementary for the unlearned and humble inquirer . Considering the persons for whom they were designed , they were perfect in their kind , calm , lucid , logical . But to the mass of the people , to those who were asking , may we know what this new doctrine whereof thou

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    speakest is ? They were not acceptable . They shot over their heads , instead of striking at their understandings and their hearts . Tracts of a different character were needed —certainly not less able , nor written by inferior minds—but more simple

    ^ and—ear-nestr- € Oining ~ direc . tl ^ tjGUtlie _ point , and throwing light upon the dark and dubious topics of controversial theology . A class of writings was wanted , which , derfejrng their arguments for Unitarian

    Christianity from the Bible , should show its harmony with reason , and establish its authority by evidence so plain , that every one could comprehend it , so close that no one could evade it , and withal set forth in

    language so persuasive , and in a manner so devout and fervent , that prejudice might be disarmed , and the favour even of opposers be conciliated . This , every one will allow , was a difficult and delicate task , not to be accomplishediristshtaneously ^ but by patient and persevering effort . The Executive Committee of this

    Association , convinced of the importance and necessity of the work , have for seven years been labouring to effect it . They have done all in their power to procure to be written , and circulated through the country , tracts of the character above described . And though they are fully sensible of the deficiencies and chasms which

    yet remain to be filled up in this department , yet they feel that they may congratulate the Association on the many excellent pamphlets , both doctrinal and practical , being eightysix in number , which have been printed under its sanction .

    ¦ it will be seen . by looking atJhe catalogue of these tracts , appended to this Report , that there is a good variety in their subjects , A prominent object , of course , was to vindicate and recommend the ne . glected doctrine of the simple unity of God ; and accordingly we find a . good proportion of the tracts bearing directly on that point . Others are designed

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    252 UNItABIAN CHRONICLE .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 1, 1832, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1825/page/12/