A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D. D.

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W. Crosby & Company, 1841 - Unitarian Universalist churches - 80 pages

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Page 15 - If the child be left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker, of its relation to society, to grow up in an atmosphere of profaneness and intemperance, and in the practice of falsehood and fraud, let not the community complain of his crime. It has quietly looked on and seen him, year after year, arming himself against its order and peace ; and who is most to blame when at last he deals the guilty blow ? A moral care over the tempted and ignorant portion of the state is a primary duty of...
Page 22 - The excise on ardent spirits has now been diminished nearly a million sterling. History records no revolution like this ; it is the grand event of the present day. Father Mathew, the leader in this moral revolution, ranks far above the heroes and statesmen of the times.
Page 4 - I have wished, ever since his removal, to express my reverence for his character, and my sense of the greatness of his work. To these topics I invite your attention. But before entering on them I propose to consider a more general subject, which was often on the lips of our departed friend, to which he constantly recurred in his writings, and on the comprehension of which the permanence of the Ministry at Large chiefly depends. This subject is, the obligation of a city to care for and watch over...
Page 9 - The glory and happiness of a community consists in vigorous efforts, springing from love, sustained by faith, for the diffusion through all classes of intelligence, of self-respect, of self-control, of thirst for knowledge, and for moral and religious growth.
Page 49 - Her reserve and shrinking delicacy threw a veil over her beautiful character. She was little known beyond her home : but there she silently spread around her that soft, pure light, the preciousness of which is never fully understood till it is quenched. The good Providence which adapts blessings to our wants, was particularly manifested in giving to our friend such a companion.
Page 76 - ... the labours of the pulpit, and his mind, which had become much interested in the condition of the neglected poor of our cities, sought an opportunity of conducting a ministry peculiarly suited to their wants. On the 4th of November, 1826, just twenty-five years from the day of his ordination, he preached his farewell sermon at Chelsea, and immediately commenced his service in Boston, to which place he soon removed with his family. He was at first assisted in this work by a private Association...
Page 40 - He seized on any thing good which might remain in the fallen spirit ; on any domestic affection, any generous feeling, which might have escaped the wreck of the character. If he could "but touch one chord of love, one tender recollection of home, one feeling of shame or sorrow for the past, no matter how faintly, he rejoiced and took courage, like the good physician who, in watching over the drowned, detects a flutter of the pulse, or the feeblest sign of life. His hope in such cases tended to fulfil...
Page 21 - There men and women, old and young, were alike swept away by what seemed the irresistible torrent. Childhood was baptized into drunkenness. And now, in the short space of two or three years, this vice of ages has almost been rooted out.
Page 49 - Her calm, gentle wisdom, her sweet humility, her sympathy, which, though tender, was too serene to disturb her clear perceptions, fitted her to act instinctively, and without the consciousness of either party, on his more sanguine, ardent mind. She was truly a spirit of good, diffusing a tranquillizing influence too mildly to be thought of, and therefore more sure. The blow which took her from him left a wound which time could not heal. Had his strength been continued, so that he could have gone...
Page 66 - I should not say, that he was idle, or indolent, or without a strong desire of improvement. His principal pleasure lay in a devotion to the more open and facile branches of literature, and especially of English literature. History, moral philosophy, poetry, the drama, and the class of studies generally known by the name of belles-lettres, principally attracted his attention; and in these his reading was at once select and various. The writings of Addison, Johnson, and Goldsmith, were quite familiar...

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