tion, form the true Church of Christ, and are tended. by their Divine Head with equal love and care, I think our minor differences are allowed unnecessarily to divide and alienate us from each other. For myself, when I go up to the house of prayer, I wish to feel at one, and not at discord with the great body of Christian believers; I like to think of the Roman Catholic portion as represented by Pascal and Fenelon, the Church of England by Heber and Arnold, the various classes of Dissenters by Wesley, Baxter, and Watts.

I have passed over much in Mr. Bickersteth's first two chapters, because I find much that is only a different form of expressing convictions that are my own. As to placing our ultimate confidence in God, our Lord himself has taught us how to do this: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me;" and St. Peter says, "By him (i.e., Jesus Christ) we do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. And as to the subject of sin, I can only say it seems to me that a sense of sin must accompany a realization of our spiritual nature. Looking up to the mountain of holiness, from which

Christ calls to us, how can we help feeling the awful shadow it casts upon our characters and lives as they are? A Calvinistic theology may alter our phraseology, but increased spiritual light and life, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, are what must give our repentance reality and depth; and, if I am not mistaken, it will shew itself not by "much speaking" before men about our sinfulness, but by true humility and forbearance one towards another, and by "tears flowing inwardly upon our souls" when we are with our Father in secret. A conventional method of speaking on such a subject is especially to be guarded against. If we are Christians, a consciousness of sin will be sure to come to but let us not delude ourselves by supposing that any particular method of speaking of sin will make us Christians,

us;

As the same passage of Scripture is often appealed to in various connections in the Trinitarian controversy, it seemed to me better not studiously to avoid repetition. In order to form a true conception of those who dissent from modern orthodoxy, of their belief, practices, aims, and hopes, I beg the reader not to rest with my words, but to look into such

writings as the following:-Channing's Sermons, On the Church, On the Ordination of Jared Sparks, and On the Dedication of the Second Congregational Unitarian Church in New York; Rev. J. Martineau's Endeavours after the Christian Life, and Hymns for the Christian Church and Home; and Rev. J. J. Tayler's Retrospect of the Religious Life of England. In these works, the reader will, I think, find much to enlarge his mind and quicken his spirit. The books, the titles of which I subjoin, are more strictly of a controversial character, and have been of much service to me in the preparation of the present volume:-Yates's Vindication; Norton's Statement of Reasons; Lectures by Revs. J. Martineau, J. H. Thom, and H. Giles, in the Liverpool Controversy; and the Compilations of Wilson, Concessions of Trinitarians and Scriptural Illustrations, etc.

Whatever may be the deficiencies of our denomination, the present re-examination of the grounds of our faith has only served to renew and strengthen my own conviction, that God has entrusted to our Presbyterian forefathers and to us, the germ of the Church of the Future, viz., a catholic Christian spirit, which enables us to sympathize and coöperate

with the holiest and best, to learn from the wisest, to worship with the devoutest, and, above all, to drink individually, and without restraint, at the very fountains of divine truth and life. We do not imagine we have everything to teach our fellow Christians and nothing to learn from them. God forbid! The older and larger a denomination is, the richer ought it to be in thought, experience, and holy example. We need not, however, measure what we give and what we receive; we have only to be faithful to the light within us, and to thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as the source of all. In pressing forward to that blessed day, when the true unity of Christ's Church on earth shall be attained, no ancient sympathy need be given up. What we have to do is, to help others according to our ability, without too much pressing on them our individuality, always remembering that one is our Master, even Christ, and that all we are brethren.

HAMPSTEAD, March 27th, 1859.