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    prevailing , as to conceal every other agency , and engross exclusively the attention of the mind . There are preparatory and there are critical stages in the progression of society ; the preparatory are those when the soil is prepared and the seed sown ; when knowledge is slmpljfiedLand

    disseminated ; the critical , when the fruit is ¦ reaped ; when the depths of the social world are broken up , when old things pass away , and all things become new . The promulgation of Christianity was a critical stage . Things were brought to a crisis ;

    then was the 'judgment of the world ; ' trial issued in condemnation ; and after condemnation came the 1 restitution of all things ; ' that new order of social life spoken by the mouth of all the prophets since the world began . In the process of this renovation it was that Paul

    uttered the words , ' Lord , what wilt thou have me to do ? ' The present day is one of the critical periods of society . The season of preparation has done its work , and the season of change is come . ' Now is the judgment of the world , ' and

    now will 4 the ruler of this world be cast out / Old things have been weighed in the balance and found wanting ; and out of the breaking up of the worn-out frame there will arise forms and energies suited to the wants and wishes of the new hearts

    and new minds to which the day of preparation has given birth . In such a crisis Unitarians would do well to imitate the great Apostle , and ask each for himself , and all collectively , 4 Lord , what wilt thou have us to dor The answer-to . this question , is involved in . the condition in which we

    stand as at body relatively to the mass of society ; for duty springs out of opportunity , and the talents each man has are in every case the voice of God declaring what God would have him to do . What is our condition in reference to principles of conduct ? They are the same as Vol . II .

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    those whose triumph the bulk of tfie nation are now joyously celebrating ; they are the principles of entire and unrestricted liberty of thought , spirit , and action in things both human and divine , not for ourselves only but for every man . What is ojur _ cojiditio . nJn _ referenee-to-our ~ -sen

    timents ? They are not , it is true , popular in themselves , but to the manner in which they have been formed every day adds an homage and almost everyintelligent tongue utters a meed of praise . Our sentiments are founded not on tradition , not on antiquity , not on the authority of

    great names , not on deference to the decisions of councils and synods ; on . none of these exploded bases ; but on , free and full inquiry , on evidence , on reason ; on the joint operation of mind and heart searching after that

    truth which by its agreement with their own wants and impulses may harmonize the action of both , and makerrelig iona delight as well as a duty . If I have read at all right the moral condition of society , I have in these words spoken not only of ourselves but of it . The knee is no

    longer bent at the shrine of ignorance and superstition . The intellect no longer stultifies itself by pronouncing its own incapacity and requiring its own prostration , but men are now carrying a keen and searching eye into every principle , sentiment , and institution . They want not by *

    gone decisions , but personal and wellgrounded convictions ; they want truth . This is the want of the day ; a hungering and thirsting after that bread which by its consonance with the head and the heart may prove the -life of the soul . Nothing -but this , not the husks of sectarianism ,

    not the rust of antiquity , not the froth of empty declamation , not the effervescence of preternatural excitement , nothing but the pure milk of the word —of intelligence and reason—of genuine human emotion , nothing but this do men care aught for , and no thine : but this will they receive .

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    . Unitarian cftTtomcLE . 49

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    . E

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1833, page 49, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2607/page/17/