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    " Watchman , what of the night ? Watchman , what of the night ? The Watchman said , The morning cometh , and yet it is night . " Isaiah xxi . 11 , 12 . Under the title of the Watchman , it is our intention to submit to our readers a series of articles in illustration of the religious spirit of the age . What is thought , said , and done , whether among Churchmen or Dissenters ,

    Orthodox or Heterodox , will , as far as time and space permit , be noticed . While the religious state of our own country will , from its superior importance , claim the chief share of our attention , we shall not be unmindful of religion and its concerns in foreign lands . Our materials we shall be careful to draw from authentic sources . Sermons , whether from the pulpit or the press , periodical publications , and books on religious subjects , will form the documents for our lucubrations . Let it not be supposed that we shall

    discourse with cynical severity on the proceedings of those whose creed varies from ours . In them we see much to approve as well as something to condemn ; and as our object is to benefit our readers , and not to fan a sectarian zeal , we shall have an eye open for merits as well as for defects ; nor , on the other hand , let it be imagined , that all appears fair and bright to us in the communion to which , on account of its principles , we deem it an honour to belong . On the contrary , we see not a few things which require rectification , and we would rather condemn the errors of our friends more harshly

    than those of our opponents . In this , pre-eminently , honesty , we are persuaded , is the best policy . Nor have we any reason to fear that the ears o £ Unitarians are so untrained to the sound of truth as to feel umbrage at being told in honest phrase wherein they err . Paley has an excellent sermon with the title— " to think less of our Virtues and more of our Sins ; " deeming ourselves exonerated from the duty—exonerated by the general principles of human nature , of expatiating upon the merits of Unitarian Christians , we shall be chiefly solicitous to point out defects with a view , not to crimination , but to their removal .

    If there ' s a hole in a' your coats , I rede you tent it ; A chield ' s amang you taking notes , And , faith , he'll prent it . We venture to hope that the papers of the Watchman may effect something more than contributing to the interest of the Repository ; that they may give to bigotry and intolerance a check by a prompt exposure and

    uncompromising reprobation ; that they may set forth , with all due commendation , whatever is praiseworthy among those from whom we differ , to our serious attention , and , in some cases it may be hoped , to our speedy adoption ; that they may , in some measure , serve to rectify our own injudicious p lans , and bring prominently forward wise and successful efforts for the furtherance of what Unitarians deem the truth ; and , in short , that they may make us know

    our dissentient friends better than we have done , bringing our minds into contact with their minds , an < J , enabling us to take of their spirit , as far as it is a spirit of love and of a sound mind . Something of this sort , a series of articles of the kind now contemplated , may , we are sure , effect . We hope the present effort may prove not wholly useless , and we beg for it the indulgence of our readers . As Watchmen we will be found at our post—eschewing the spirit , we would seek the vigilance , of Argus ,

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    ( 183 J

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    THE WATCHMAN .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 183, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/31/