On this page

• Text (2)

  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

• 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

    brethren * ' the interest of true religion may be so materially advanced ? I do not ask for large subscriptions , 1 ask only for what every one can give , without any inconvenience . to himself , and [ hope soon to have the gratification of hearing that £ sum has been remitted to our

    frieuds at Brighton , which may materially assist them in extricating themselves from their present difficulties . Begging to be excused for thus intruding on your notice , with a true statement of the case , as far as I am acquainted with it , aud hoping my unsolicited interference may be productive of the desired effect , I remain * &c , An Old Friend to the Causr op Unitarianism .

    Untitled Article

    Mr . JVhitfield on the Obstacles which oppose the Spread of Unitarianism , Sir , To the Editor . When the many obstacles , which oppose the spread of the opinions we are accustomed to identify with pure and genuine Christianity , are impartially considered , it excites but little surprise that we form , and are likely to form , the

    minority in the Christian church . It requires some penetration , though perhaps not a very exalted share , to distinguish between the tenets of orthodoxy and those regarded as sacred by Unitarian Christians ; it requires some courage to forsake the place of worship long frequented , and the friends with whom the

    solemnities of religion have been long performed , for the society of those whose religious sentiineuts are misconceived , and whose sincerity is suspected ; it requires some fortitude to bear the odium attached to a profession of which it as yet partially true , alas ! that it is every where spoken against .

    Many are the causes which unite thenstrength in riveting in the mind certain opinions on the subject of religion . Early impressions , aud long-continued habirs of thought ; the sanction of pareuts , of preceptors , and friends ; the fear of wandering from the path of truth into the mazes of error } the warning voice of the anxious , but it may be mistaken ,

    adviser ; these and other circumstances restrain the mind from exerting its full powers of discrimination , even where a disposition is manifested to discover the truth or falsehood of opinions venerated even from infancy , aud sometimes lead to that indolent aud cold profession of Christianity which deprives it of all its cfttcucy , aud plac e * it , indeed , in " the

    Untitled Article

    frigid zone . " When , however , we behold our Christian brethren anxiously * freeing themselves from the shackles of prejudice , calling forth the latent powe r * of their minds , aud directing them to the investigation of those subjects which are at the same time the weightiest , most important , sacred , aud awful , it is with no common feelings of satisfaction . It is a glorious spectacle to watch the flight of a mind freed from every impediment

    which error and prejudice have woven around it , soaring aloft to the regions of divine truth , and catching from the divinity herself some rays of celestial light ! It is a spectacle which tills us with admiration , and prevents our sickening at the contemplation of ignorance , avowed and made a boast of by those who forget what belongs to their nature , aud , iti Scripture luuguage , " hide their talent in a napkin . "

    I have been led to these remarks by the wish to place on your pages some extracts from a letter , whose writer has lately become known to me , and who appears to be both zealous and conscientious in his search after religious knowledge . Dissatisfied with the tenets of Trinitarianisni , he has been long engaged in a close examination of the Holy

    Scriptures , with the view of ascertaining , for himself , the doctrines of revelation . Declining the assistance of commentators and expositors , he has- instituted a comparison of Scripture with Scripture ; and that his success may be the more decided , he has with laudable industry

    devoted such a portion of his time as business permitted , to the learning of the Greek aud Hebrew languages . I have lately leut him the numbers for the last year of your valuable work , which he has read with much care and equal pleasure . This short account will suffice to introduce the extracts to which I

    have alluded . To those extracts I must refer you for the results which have followed the diligent and praiseworthy efforts of my correspondent .

    EDWARD WH 1 TFIELD . llminster , Feb . \ Q , 1828 , " It is one happy trait of the Christian religion that its grand design is a union of hearts and interests under the heavenly dispensation of one bond of fellowship and one family connexion . On this consideration no apology is needed for the familiarity with which I may acquaint you of the progress of my deliberations on subjects connected with Unitarianism .

    Untitled Article

    ChreasloMl Correspondence ** § S 9

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 269, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/53/