On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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.

    Untitled Article

    of the clergy * five shillings a-year from each of 500 contributors yields 125 / . a-year for the support of the pastor , and upon this understanding I may safely say , that , on an average , each of the 620 congregations with

    fixed pastors , contains 600 persons , and that hence the whole Dissenting population of Scotland , who have fixed pastors , must amount to 310 , 000 , and with the addition of the 100 congregations which have no pastors , and which may probably be taken at an average of nearly 300 each , we shall

    find thai about 340 , 000 persons belong to Dissenting sects in Scotland * I rather think that this is considerably below the truth ; but it is impossible to attain positive accuracy in such a calculation , unless the respective classes of Dissenters should undertake to

    order a census of their people .. Let me venture to hope , that they will see the propriety of such a measure , both lor their own satisfaction and that of the public . Such a body of Dissenters in the midst of an Established Church ,

    although apparently set in opposition to it , is-yet its greatest friend . The utter apathy into which persons , with a sure and steady income , are seen so often , nay , so uniformly to fall , when not roused by opposition , or contrast to their own conduct , would have long ere now shed its drowsy influences upon our Established clergy , to a

    much greater extent than it has done , had it not been for the positive knowledge and zeal of Dissenters , whom they saw around them , with no such advantages of a sure and permanent income , it gave me no small pleasure to hear this same sentiment come from the lips of two of the most sincere and able friends and ministers of

    the Church of Scotland , at a public meeting last summer . They acknowledged , with that true liberality which is always characteristic of the Christian whose heart is on the right side , the obligations under which the Church

    of Scotland lay to the Dissenters . " These men , " said Lord Balgray , on the Bench , a few months ago , when he had occasion incidentally to speak of the non-established clergy , " These men seldom come before us and the public in this Court ; but I , as well as n ^ ariy others , can give my testimony to the silently beneficial effects of

    Untitled Article

    theft- trfous and useful labours in the midst of their congregations . " The Dissenters are often taunted with the violent animosities which are sometimes produced in their congregations by a division of sentiment as

    to the choice of a pastor . For my own part , I confess I like occasionally to see a little wholesome squabbling , when it is not carried too far ; at all events , I prefer being occasion * ally exposed to the chance , which in practice is but rare , of some pretty fierce discussion , whether I carried

    my point or not , to the dead calm , and slavish and irreligious lukewarm * ness * which is almost uniformly produced in a congregation when a patron , perhaps a reckless debauchee , or something no better , thrusts into

    their pulpit a person whom they never saw before , and who , coming upon them as from a polluted hand , may well be suspected , notwithstanding all Certificates of due qualification , of participating in the debasing qualities of his patron-

    Untitled Article

    Bolton , Sir , June 11 , 1825 . BEFORE I submit some additional remarks in defence of Ordination

    Services , I wish distinctly to avow my hostility to all those corruptions which , under the name of religious observances , have arrested the progress of truth , or linked it with degrading superstitions * As friendly to moral

    emancipation from all spiritual dominion , as either your correspondent Mr . Johns , ( pp . 282—284 , ) or his auxiliary , R . A , M . ( pp . 280—282 ); as jealous of all foreign interference , whether of ministers or laity , with the internal affairs of our religious communities : and as desirous to see the

    abandonment of all anti-christian practices , I feel myself called upon to reconcile these views with the continuance of the service which has originated this discussion .

    It may be proper also to premise , that as I did not adopt , ana do not approve , so I shall not feel myself bound to defend , those corrupt cere * monies which the pomp and superstition of rival churches have appended to this service . The Romish and

    English and Calvinistic clergy , in the performance p f Ordination , assume an authority which appears to me aa ii& «

    Untitled Article

    iftfj * . Baher on Ordination Services among DUstnttrs . 345

    Untitled Article

    . xx . 2 y

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 345, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/25/