Part 13 (1/2)

Two of my Quaker friends, who had aided me in my peace lectures, waited upon me and said, that it would be necessary for me, if I meant to continue to lecture in connection with the Peace Society, not to allowheterodox views I answered that I would not submit to one hair's breadth of restraint, nor to a feather's weight of pressure; and the consequence was, the withdrawal of all assistance and countenance from the orthodox portion of the Quakers in every part of the country

The Unitarians had long been observing ourso near to their views, they began to attend our s, and to court our company At first ere very uneasy at their advances, and shrank froradually gave way They were very kind They lent us books, and assisted us with the loan of schools and chapels They showed theracious in many ways And after the cruelty we had experienced froreeable I read their works with great eagerness, and was often delighted to find in them so 's works before, and now I read theht I read the work of Worcester on the Atonement, of Norton on the Trinity, and of Ware on a variety of subjects I also read several of the works of Carpenter, Belsham, Priestley, and Martineau Some of those works I published I also published a work by W Penn, ”The Sandy Foundation Shaken,” which soarded by the Unitarians as one of their party They invited me to preach in their chapels, and aided me in the circulation of some of my publications I preached for them in various parts of the country I was invited to visit the Unitarians in London, and I preached in most of their chapels there, and elco lay Whenpress, ave liberal subscriptions Several of their leadingat which the press was presented, and took a leading part in the proceedings

I had notwith the Unitarians before I found that they differed from one another very much in their views Some feere Arian, some were Socinian, and some quite Latitudinarian So, and soy, and said there was not an advanced or progressive idea in his writings; while others thought that everything beyond Channing bordered on the regions of darkness and death Some looked on the Scriptures as of divine authority, and declared their readiness to believe whatever they could be proved to teach: others regarded the Scriptures as of no authority whatever, and declared their determination to accept no views but such as could be proved to be true independent of the Bible Some believed Jesus to be a supernatural person, coive a supernatural revelation of truth and duty, and empowered to prove the divinity of His mission and doctrine by supernatural works Others looked on Christ as the natural result of the moral development of our race, like Bacon, Shakespeare, or Baxter They looked on arded all the Bible accounts of supernatural events as fables They were Deists One I found who declared his disbelief in a future life There was a gradual incline fro, down to the principles of Deism and Atheis, afterwards Sir John Bowring He was one of my hearers at Stamford Street Chapel, and co me the modern John Bunyan

He had been pleased with the si character of my illustrations He invited me to his house, showed me a multitude of curiosities, which he had collected in his travels round the world, made yptian Pyramid--the skull of a prince, who, he said, had lived in the days of Joseph,--he alsofive voluary, and other countries, and so was a member of Parliament, and he took me to the House of Coot me into the House of Lords, and did all in his power to make my stay in London as pleasant as possible

Another London gentleman as very kind was Dr Bateman, the Queen's assistant Solicitor of Excise He took me to several assereat ones of the land, I was introduced to a New Zealand chief, a strong-built, broad-set, large-headed, lion-looking man It was hinted that he knew the taste of hu at that moment, what rich contributions so their respects to him, would make to a New Zealand feast At one of those assemblies there was a tremendous crowd, and I lost nificent and strange-shaped head-cover, that nate of the land

Dr Bate showedforto the fund for the purchase of a stea a number of their friends to contribute I was also introduced to Dr

Hutton, minister of Carter Lane Chapel, and preached and lectured in his pulpit And I visited theChristians, was introduced to the leading members of the society, and was presented with their publications I preached at Hackney Chapel, where I had William and Mary Howitt as hearers, ere introduced to me after the sermon, invited reatest possible kindness, and did as ood and kind people could do to otten

Awas called in the assembly rooive reat number, the principal part, I suppose, of the London Unitarians ive ood wishes I spoke, and my remarks were very favorably received; and so athered roundthe position in which I found reat between the treat been accusto-continued and flattering ovation I was receiving frohly cultivated people in the country, that if I had lost htful excitement it could have been no matter for wonder

But it was ed for quiet I wanted to be at home with uished, but older and more devoted friends I fear I hardly showed h for the honor done me, or made the returns to my new friends to which they were entitled They ht me rather cool in private; but they knew that I had been bred a Methodist, a plain Methodist, and had lived andMethodists of the plainer kind, and never before been fairly outside the Methodist world

And so, sight-seeing, and the current kind of chat, or even the multiplication of new friends and acquaintances They knew too that I had a business which required my attention, and a vast quantity of letters to answer, and parties calling for my help in alth to find reeable and generous friends and acquaintances there, and return to quieter and calmer scenes, and more customary occupations, in the country

But I never was permitted to confine myself within my old circle of acquaintances, and my old sphere of labor, after s were given in the Unitarian newspapers and periodicals, and spread abroad through the whole country The result was, I received invitations to preach and lecture frodom, and from many places that were not of so much importance; and many of those invitations I was induced to accept I visited Bristol, and had a welco asUnitarians there, and had a grand reception, and a course of lectures in the largest and most splendid hall in the city And the place was crowded I visited Bridgewater, Plymouth, Exeter, and Tavistock, with like results And then I had calls to Yarham, Sheffield, Hull, Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Stockton, and other places without nureeable society, and in every place I enerous friends It is true I ion but the name; but I met with others, and that in considerable numbers, who really feared and loved God, and ere heartily desirous to prohbors These were delighted to see and hear a ious vieas full of Methodistical zeal and energy, and who had power to attract, and interest, and arded me as an Apostle of their faith They believed the htened and liberal Christianity was at hand They hearkened to my counsels, and set to work to distribute tracts, to ianize city missions, to employ local preachers, and to circulate books of a popular and rousing character And both they and I believed that a great and lasting revival of pure unadulterated religion was at hand And it took some time to dissipate these pleasant hopes, and throw the well disposed and more pious part of the Unitarians down into the depths of despondency again But the th

You cannot kindle a fire and keep it burning in the depths of the sea

And it is as hard to revive a dead or dying church, especially when its ministers and schools are supported by old endowht the infection of infidelity, and becos

And this was the case with Unitarians Many of the trustees, and a considerable portion of the wealthier ard for anything about Christianity but the name and a little of the form Some had such a hatred of what they called Methodist fanaticisious life or earnestness And they had such a horror of cant, that they canted on the other side Their talk about religion was little else but cant Their talk about cant itself was cant They had quite a dislike of any thing like religious zeal, and had a dread of any one who had been a Methodist, especially if he retained any of his Methodistical earnestness The word unction was a term of reproach, and the rich, invaluable treasure for which it stood was an offence They wished to enjoy theent, fashi+onable way, and have just so ion as was requisite to a first class worldly reputation They had no desire to be regarded as skeptics or unbelievers; that would have been as bad as to have been reputed Methodists; but they would have nothing to do with any sche in their churches, or with any interference with the custohbors Some, and in certain districts many, even of the poorer members, were utterly indifferent, and in soion In sorossly i and drinking clubs The endowments were spent in periodical feasts

There were also cases in which the chapel and school endowments had fallen into the hands of individuals or families, who looked on them and used theations had disappeared, and even the chapels and school-houses were rapidly hastening to ruin

And there was everywhere a tendency doard from the Christian to the infidel level If churches do not labor for the conversion of the world, and endeavor to becoeneracy, and utter degradation and ruin are inevitable And the tendency, at the tihout the whole little world of Unitarianism was doards to utter unbelief In many minds there was as much impatience with old-fashi+oned moderate Unitarianism, as with old-fashi+oned Christianity or Methodism They wanted preachers ould openly assail the doctrine of the divine or special inspiration of the Bible, and the supernatural origin of Christianity, and try to bring people down or up to the pagan or infidel level of mere sense and reason

The Unitarians required no profession of faith; so that deists and atheists had the same title to membershi+p as believers in Christ They administered the Lord's Supper, but they had no church discipline, so that people defiled with the filthiest vices had the saht to communicate as people of the rarest virtues Even the ministers were not required to make any profession of faith, so that deists and atheists were admitted, not only into the churches, but into the pulpits

I was not aware of these things when I first became identified with the Body It is possible that the Body was not so corrupt at that time as it was after Any way, at the time of my return from infidelity to Christianity, both deists and atheists were as, let them read my pamphlet on Unitarianis Unitarians themselves, to the truth of these stateeive to a enerally was sure to render ious portion of theto come out fros and endowood; but this they were not prepared to do Many even of the better class of Unitarian ministers were fond of a quiet literary life They were students, scholars, and gentleood to be where they were, and yet not robust, and daring, and energetic enough to make their way intowas not popular It never would have moved the ible to the kind of people who crowded to s They could not therefore havetheone and helped theht have answered for them; but it would not have answered for them to come out and battle with the rude, coarse, outside world And even if good, earnest one to their aid, it would have caused a rupture and division in the church

My labors therefore could do little more than rouse the better portion of the Body to a temporary zeal and activity, and transfer a number of my friends to their communion

And I and my friends were out of our place, and out of our element, in their society The earnest words we spoke were not 'like fire a into the water Instead of us kindling theot possession of the Unitarian House, was _too_ strong to be overpowered and cast out by anything short of a miracle of Omnipotence And that was out of the question Christ can save individuals, but not churches To members of a dead or depraved church his words are, 'Come out of her, my people' And there was, and there is, no revival, no salvation, for Unitarians, but by their abandonment of the Unitarian fellowshi+p, and their return to Christ as individuals So you ot where it was iood, even if I had been better myself, and where it was iever doard, with all surrounding influences calculated to render my descent every day radually slid, till I reached at length the land of doubt and unbelief My descent was very slow It took me several years to pass froant forms of Unitarianish I was delighted beyond reat dislike for some of his remarks about Christ and the Atonement And when I first resolved to publish an edition of his works, I intended to add notes, with a view to neutralize the tendency of his objectionable views; but by the tiot his works into the press, those views appeared objectionable no longer

I still however regarded portions of Theodore Parker's works with horror His rejection of in of Christianity, see his ”_Discourse on Matters pertaining to Religion_,” by the contemptuous manner in which he spoke of portions of the sacred Scriptures I was enchanted with , and with such a powers, and with so oodness, could go to such extremes seemed a mystery And I resolved, that if ever I published an edition of _his_ works, I would add a refutation of his revolting extravagances Yet tiht me, in a few years, to look on Parker as my model man