The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-11 00:00:00

BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

The weekly meeting of this Board was held
yesterday; Mr. Granger in the chair. There
were also present :—Messrs. Pateshull, Baker,
Wood, Hall,Rhodes,Hoiner,Fisdiau,l3illinahaiu,
Giles, Guest, and Fereday. The minutes of the
last meeting were read and confirmed. Ad-
mitted into the house during the week, 16 ;
discharged, 5; born 0; dead, I , remaining, 336;
Corresponding week last year, 366. Out-door
relief Kingswinford district, .£24 is ;
Stourbridge district, I:15 53 61 ; Halesowen
district, £l6 1:28 Oil ; relief of non-resident
7s CI ; total -057 Is 04; against £6O 19s 04 last
year. . _

• The quarterly hills were ordered to be pe'd.
The sanitary Meeting WilS held after the
Boa'-d. The Medical 01lieer of Health attended,
and applied to be furnished %Ali the death-rate
of the district which was acceded to.

I Gods, or for:making :,them up to that number.
, He believed these manifestations of God to be
unlimited turd manifold. He was able to re-
cognise the doctrine:of.standard churches as to
the Trinity if it was allowed to be taken in
that light; but the doctrine that the Father
was God, the Son was God, and the Holy
Ghost was God, and that the whole three
persons were co-eternal—that doctrine appeared
to him to be the doctrine of untruth. He was a
unitarian, however, not only because he re-
, garded that truth to be the best of all true
, religions, but because he was a Christian and
he took the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ
, our Lord to be his guide, and not the ideas
which were derived from the twisting of a few
• obscure passages of Scripture. It was generally
admitted that the teaching of the whole Testa-
ment was in favour of unitarians. "The Lord
thy God is one Lord, and thou shalt serve only
Him," that was the language which was con-
stantly used in the Bible. There was no men-
tion of three Gods. Could they reconcile such
expressions with the belief in a plurality of
Gods or of persons in the Trinity. People were
taught to believe that such expressions as" Let
us make man in our own image," signified that
a plurality of Gods was meant. Instead of that
it was simply an expression of majesty such as
is used by kings and others in power at the pre-
sent day. The expressions, "Holy, holy, holy,"
1 which were also used as an argument in favour
I of a belief in the Trinity, were nothing more
than the remnants of the polytheistic language
which was in use at the time the words were
written. He thought he had thoroughly shown
that no one could have raised anything from
such expressions as these in opposition to the
modern belief in the unity of tiod. In like
manner when they turned to the New Testament
he found the same facts about the unity of God
reiterated. Here in the Sermon on the Mount
God is one
God,'occur tabu
ehdseew
• told
urdd
Christ
them
to pray, e'r th ett
oa uLgboahly. td hist,oy apostles
Father."
ho
w
to he onw,
The lecturer quoted several texts from the
teaching of Christ and his apostles to prove the
unity of God, such as" That they should know
Thee, the only true God," and the words of
Saint Paul, " To us there is only one God, the
Father." " One God, one Faith, one baptism."
He (the lecturer) then spoke of the mission of
Christ and the unity of God with his creatures,
and said we were children of God and sons of
God in like manner with Jesus, and should
follow his teaching- Not that religion was im-
proved by Jesus ; but Jesus Christ brought that
religion home to our hearts, and made us believe
in God our Father. He cared not with what
dear expressions or phrases the writers in the
New Testament tried to show their reverence
for that holy being who had done so much by
his example for mankind; but they should re-
member it was only Saint John, of all the
apostles, who spoke of Christ as the "Only be-
gotten son of God." They must not use the
sophisms and arguments of the ascetics and
philcsophers of °Greece and Constantinople ,
when they came to the burning expressions by ,
which the men of the warmer feelings of the !
East were wont to testify their regard for those
whom they loved. They (the latter) spoke in
poetical language which the others were incap-
able of judging from a proper stand-point, as
they had no poetry in their compositions. To
show them that the words of Saint John were
only an ordinary expression he cited Saint Paul,
who spoke of tilos° whom he had brought to a
knowledge of God as his own begotten. This
showed that Christians had no authority for
saying as they did in the Nicene Creed that
Chrbt was not made but begotten. How could
they prove that to be so. The lecturer went
on to state that there was not one passage in the
Bible which states this doctrine of the Trinity;
still less is there one with defines it; still less
is there one which enforces it; still less is there
one which threatens with eternal torments those
who do not believe it. True, there occurred in
the first passages of the Gospel of Saint John,
these words, " There are three that bear record
in heaven ; the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost." But it was admitted by all the most
eminent modern commentators, such as Bishop
Bloomfield, Dr. Adam Clarke, and others, that
this passage was a modern interpellatiou, and,
consequently spurious, and unworthy of belief,
and he understood it was contemplated to leave
it out of the new revised editions of the testa-
ment. But even if they kuew that these words
were genuine it would make Christians pause
before they would build up from that slight
foundation the theory of the doctrine of the
Trinity. The fact that this doctrine of the
Trinity was not taught,in the Bible was one of
the great arguments used by the Roman
Catholics for the teaching of the church to be
substituted for that of the Bible, as the latter
was not clear upon this great doctrine. He
asked, how it was that this doctrine had fastened
itself ou christian belief ? The laity and the
people were monarchists, and believed in one
God, but by degrees the people were out-talked,
and the priests brought in the doctrine of the
Trinity. Even in our own Book of Common
Prayer we can see the growth of this doctrine of
the Trinity. First we have the Apostle's Creed,
then the Nicene Creed, and lastly the Athanasian
Creed. The first teaches there is but one God
the Father, the second that there are also God
the sou, and Holy Ghost, and the last threatens
all who do not believe in the doctrlso with
damnation. He was, then a unitarian because
he was a Christian, and the doctrine of the
Trinity was not taught by our Lord and his
apostles. The belief in this doctrine of the
Trinv.y would alwayS prove a stumbling-block
to Christianity. Mahometanism took its rise
through this corruption, and 100,0110,000, of
people were taken away from the Christian
church because they refused to believe in this
do.ttrine of 3 plurality oh Gods. This corrup-
tion that was introduced into the christian
faith took the form of three Divine persons—
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The people
could not believe it then any more than they
can now, so they made themselves a family
trinity, such as is found in Catholic countries
now—the Father, the Mother, and the Son—and
it was this trinity that Mahornet ruse up against.
The belief in one only true God would be lost
in such a Pantheism as that. Mahoinet made '
a provision against any of his followers being
lkd away from a belief in one God by having
it stated in their prayers. In the Mahometan
prayers there is one which commences with the
declaration that there is but one God, and his
name is Almighty. In certain passages of the
Koran it is also stated that God would ask Jesus
at the last day how it WAS that he had taught
the people there were two other Gods besides
him, he would reply that he told them only to !
" Worship God their Lord and his Lord.- The
Christian religion was constantly being split up
in dissent through this belief in many Gods, ,
and also where the Christian Missionaries
went they constantly found this doctrine !
emberassing and impeding their progress.
Dr. Colons.) and Bishop Mackenzie, both I
stated that this was constantly the case in ,
the course of their missionary labours. On the ,
contrary, until the doctrines of the Trinity was 4
broached they found no dilliculty,for the Hindoos
Massulmen, and others, took the greatest in-
terest in comparing the truths of the Bible with
their own doctrine; but when they came to ,
speak of the Trinity they would listen no longer;
and he quoted Bishop Mackenzie on this point,
who said " But of course, when it comes to the
main doctrine of our belief (tueanins that of the '
Trinity) it is this same thing which makes I
Mahometanisin so bitter against us." The i
lecturer went on to say that half of our men of
science are beginning to repudiate this doctrine.
This creed had proved to be the enemy of know-
ledge and the destroyer of charity. These I.
creeds seem to forget that God is our Father, t
and that our duty is to serve him. They seem '
to forget that we have sisters, and brothers, ;
and wives, and fasten their little logic on the
" must be's" of the Divine existence—to one
being "not made, or begotten, but proceeding." I
He said that though TrinitarLins affected a I
belief in a tri-une God, practically, they did not
accept it ; and asked in proof of this assertion
otlsenfo
ntnit,lohebeoultititb, lneei
riorrttdybt
oowid)ltey,
cesdhoi :di
tot
ihoayfeffy,G,trhsldi
eeoeeds:Tt.t
hor ietiTt
its
shtryiemi
who was there that ever addressed their prayers
lr
etnicsTtbnahernreesdy
offered up prayers to both the Father and the i
then went on to say he was a unitarian because ;
liberties of conscience respected to rights
an
extent as amongst them. The Rev. Dr. Bourne
said that amongst no other body of men living
was there a finer sense of truthand honour than
amongst unitarians. There was no other re-
ligious body who had not at some time or other
persecuted some of its members for following ,
their religions convictions. They had no •
articles of faith, no creed, end no schisms.