To be able to come to one's own conclusions about the messages of religious texts implies time and opportunity to consider and reflect on them; and preferably access to read and study them. In the late eighteenth century the complex language and theological concepts of Rational Dissenting sermons were often based on individual interpretation of Scriptures in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. This had largely confined their appeal to the educated, although Hugh Worthington, William Tayleur, and Theophilus Lindsey, for example, had been keenly aware of a need for dissemination of theological ideas to the lower classes. In the early nineteenth century this awareness persisted. The London Unitarian Tract Society aimed to reach out to the poor, devoting three tracts specifically for this audience: William's Return or Good News for Cottagers; a second tract by Richard Wright, the travelling missionary; and a third by Catharine Cappe, who was still actively involved in propagating Unitarian ideas. By 1820 the Newcastle Unitarian Tract Society was sending copies of its tracts to Sunderland, Liverpool, Leeds, and London. An article in The Monthly Repository recorded that The Christian Reflector and Theological Inquirer ‘was published in cheap numbers to furnish those who have not access to a variety of books with short expositions of Scripture’. That it was still being issued in 1821 clearly suggests that this need had not yet been met.

Richard Wright, son of a Norfolk labourer, travelled around the country preaching between 1806 and 1819. One of many of his published pamphlets stated his object as being:

Sold at 2d, its price made it accessible to the literate amongst the less skilled. Its length of fourteen pages suggests a serious attempt at simplifying a complex theological message, although it still required the reader to cross-reference the Scriptures. Wright's own preaching style was recorded by Robert Brook Aspland as ‘simple’, but, although he travelled extensively, ‘his great obstacle was the ignorance of the masses of the people’.