The Monthly Repository and Review of Theology and General Literature, Vol. 1: January to December, 1827 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from The Monthly Repository and Review of Theology and General Literature, Vol. 1: January to December, 1827

Every acquisition of knowledge, everything man has done or may do for the temporal interests of his race, is more or less valuable accoiding'as it appears to lead more or less directly to this point. He feels it his duty to consider what influence his conduct may have upon those who are in any way connected with him, with a care similar to that which he has exercised in calculating what was best for himself. Hence charity, in its most compre hensive sense, is, next to piety, the virtue upon which he lays the principal stress; because, well understood, he is persuaded it will be found to include nearly all the other virtues. Charity then, in the Christian, we may define the desire, put into action, that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the trut Nor is active proselyting its only or principal work for it may operate strongly when it is silent, noiseless and unobtrusive. It is far more frequently than men are willing to allow, a negative thing the mere abstaining from what will do harm the' simple power pf ekample the habitual self-restraint which a strong desire to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us will lead us to impose upon ourselves; the perpetual wish neither to do nor say, nor (as preparatory to these) to think any evil thing which may impede the growth of religion in the midst of those with whom We have to do.

Mitch has been said about active charity, but its passive quality has not met with the attention it deserves. So much stress is laid in the gospel upon this as a means of promoting the interests of the human race, those interests which the gospel was sent to promote, that it may well surprise us to see readers of the Bible so practically unmindful of it - se anxious to do good so careless, particularly in small matters, about doing harm. It must be said of Unitarians that they are, as a body, generally attentive to the social and moral duties: this has been acknowledged by those least willing to allow them the praise of having attained to a correct faith: but standing upon high ground here, they are perhaps the more apt to forget that there is a spirit of habitual attention to lesser things which marks a greater advancement in the Christian life than even the practice of the most exalted virtues. The person wlio,'from purely Christian motives, forbears making a remark or doing an act which may wound his weaker brother, has unquestionably succeeded in attaining to a more useful degree of reli ion than he who brings Christianity in on great occasions, but is content wit a worldly standard on smaller; and they who refer a lower motive when they might have the strength and life imparted y a higher, forget that in adopting the former they have with drawn from religion the testimony which she had a perfect right to require at their hands. But surely a deep sense of the importance of making the most of our short abode here, should teach us the value of slight opportuni ties of impressing religious obligation on ourselves and others. To turn petty evils into sources of good, trifling impertinences into'the means of im proving the Christian temper; to hear kindly what others have to advance in their own behalf, be tender to their prejudices, careful not to shock them unnecessarily; to shape our conduct not merely with reference to its effect on ourselves, but as it may affect others; all this is the part of Christian charity, and it may bring in no despicable aid to the cause of Christian truth.

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