controversy, whether or not the Father be the supreme and only God. Luke x. 1, 2, is next adduced, where our Saviour, being solicited by his disciples to teach them to pray, does not direct them to say, "O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons in one God;" nor, "O God, the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us; O God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us; O God, the Holy Ghost," proceeding from the Father and the Son, "have mercy upon us;" but, "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art, in heaven, hallowed be thy name," &c. Similar is the injunction in Mat. vi. 6, 9, "Pray to thy Father," and in Luke xi. 13, the Father, we are taught, answers as well as hears our prayers, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Mark xi. 25, 26, corrobates this conclusion, "That your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." To which the language of our Lord, John xv. 16, may be added, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." If it were possible for these passages to leave a doubt, whether or not Jesus was to receive divine worship, that doubt must disappear, in reading the following express injunction of Christ, John xvi. 23, "In that day," after his resurrection, "ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." As in every case, so in this, the practice of our Lord was in strict unison with his precept; and, accordingly, we find that he prays, not to his divine nature-not to God the Holy Ghost-not to the holy and blessed Trinity, but exclusively to the Father, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. Mat. xi. 25, 26, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Mat, xxvi. 39, 42, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." John xi. 41, 42, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; and I knew that thou hearest me always." Let the worshipper of a Trinity read that most beautiful and touching chapter, the 17th of John's Gospel, and he can scarcely, we think, fail to observe the contrast there subsists between the prayers of Jesus and his own, relatively to the object to whom they are addressed. If, then, the Father is the only proper object of worship-a point as clear as Scrip

Y

ture can make it-then, by the clearest inference, the Father is the only God, agreeably to the teaching of Paul, "To us there is one God, the Father;" and the assertion of Jesus, "This is life eternal, to know thee, the Father, to be the only true God." For religious worship is the peculiar right of God; and he who claims the exclusive appropriation of it, to whom only it is due, is the only God. In consequence, Jesus Christ is not God, except Jesus Christ be his own Father. However high, then, the character or the nature which he possessed, he is not God. The establishment, therefore, of the supremacy of the Father, and there are many other modes of proof than that now alluded to, is the decision of most of the questions controverted by Unitarians. Is it asserted, for instance, that Jesus is God? The answer is, "To us there is but one God, the Father." Is it asserted, that he has two natures? That does not make him the Supreme God; for "the Father" only is "above all." However exalted, then, he was, or is imagined to be, the Father is supreme, and Jesus subordinate. Thus is established the essential principle of Unitarianism, the rights of the Sovereign of the universe vindicated, and a Supreme Father, and, consequently, infinite benignity, regarded as the presiding agent over human destiny. We cannot conclude these remarks better than by a quotation from a tract, the production of that eloquent and profound writer, Dr. Southwood Smith:

"When the disciples of our Lord, perceiving that he, like themselves, was in the daily habit of praying to the Father, and to no other person or being, expressly asked him if this practice were right, and he assured them that it was, by directing them to continue the use of the common language,—could they possibly believe that they were to worship two other persons besides the one invocated in the form prescribed? Could they conceive that Jesus Christ himself was one of those other persons?. He whose most humble and devout addresses to the Father they so often witnessed, could they imagine that this very being was the Father, or an essential part of the Father? If so, to whom could they suppose that his devotions were addressed? Could they imagine it was God praying to God; or were they aware it was his human addressing his divine nature? Suppose this to be true, must not the discovery of it have overwhelmed them with amazement? When first the conviction of it entered their minds, must it not have absorbed all their faculties in astonishment and awe! When they came to discover that a Being who had every appearance and property of a man; with whom they had always associated as such; whom they had seen hungry and athirst; whose weary steps, as he travelled from place to place, on the business of benevolence, they had so often accompanied; whose slumbers they had

watched, and to the wants of whose nature they had so often ministered; when they came to discover that this being was not what he appeared, and what they had hitherto supposed; that he was not a man, but the self-existent and immortal God; or, at the same time, both God and man,-what a moment must that have been? What amazement, what awe must have seized them? With what reverence must they have approached him? When in future they saw him kneeling down to pray, when they watched him wrapped in devotion,-how must they have looked one upon the other? How must that extraordinary situation, for that most extraordinary Being, have impressed their minds? Is it possible that it should never have caused a single expression of surprise to escape them? Or that, when they were commissioned by this wonderful personage, to disclose these astonishing facts to the world, they should never speak of the error into which they at first fell; of the manner in which it was removed; of the sensations that overwhelmed them on the discovery of the stupendous truth; that, on the contrary, they should continue to speak to him, and of him, as if none of these things had ever happened; that they should represent him in all manner of situations but that one which must have been infinitely more memorable and interesting to them than any other, and should give him all manner of high and dignified appellations but that one which is most exalted of all, and the most descriptive of his nature? The term God-man, essential to the hypothesis that Jesus Christ possesses a human and divine nature, was invented as soon as the doctrine was con ceived; but being altogether absent from the minds of the writers of the New Testament, the term which is descriptive of it, is no where to be found in the records of his life and doctrine.

"To conclude. What is it renders any body of Christians worthy of the esteem and friendship of their brethren? Is it an invariable and close adherence to the Scriptures? Unitarians contend, that they can not only express every peculiarity of their faith in the very words of Scripture, but that there are no other words by which they can express them with so much precision and energy. Are they asked concerning their faith in God? They answer in the words of Paul, "To us there is but one God, the Father." 1 Cor. viii. 6.-Are they questioned concerning his nature? They reply in the words of John, "God is love." 1 John iv. 8.-Are they asked concerning their belief in Christ? They answer with Peter, "Jesus of Nazareth is a man approved of God by signs and wonders, which God did by him." Acts ii. 22.Are they questioned concerning his office? They say with Paul, "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. But what other sect is there that can thus express the peculiarities of their faith in the language of Scripture? Where do the Trinitarians find their favourite phrases, Trinity, Triune God, incarnate God, God-man?

"These are some of the considerations which weigh upon the minds of Unitarians, which they can remove by no effort, and to which they call the serious and solemn attention of their fellow-christians." G. C. S.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Christian Pioneer.

I offer for insertion in your periodical, the former portion of a discourse, delivered last New-Year's-Day; should the remarks which it contains, appear of sufficient interest and importance to render it expedient to present them to the public, through the medium of your pages, the remaining portion shall be duly forwarded. This, from one who sympathises deeply in all your exertions towards the establishment of vital and primitive Christianity in Scotland, and who prays the God of Truth to bless both you and yours. PETER.

A New-Year's-Day Discourse.

Eccles. viii. 5,-A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. Also, Eph. v. 14,-Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

ANOTHER year has passed away. We have made another stride towards our graves, which appear standing out, in the dim and shadowy perspective of futurity-rising before us in a more magnified aspect-glowing with a more startling brightness-defined with a more appalling distinctness! and many, who, at its commencement, stood firmly and fondly by our sides, radiant in youthful comeliness and grace-boastful in the conscious elevation and display of power, and exulting in the freshness and smiling promise of the new paths which were opening up before them-stretching out in rich and variegated vista-or venerable in the decline of their days-their hoary head encircled by a radiant halo of many an endeared remembrance-have fallen into theirs, and are now sleeping the sleep of death! Ere the one on which we have just entered, shall have told its hours, we may be lying, stiffened and shrouded, beside them! This is an awful subject of contemplation:-"Our hopes and fears start up alarmed, and o'er life's narrow verge look down-on what?—a fathomless abyss, a dread eternity!"

Many and sad are the mementoes that abound both within our own breasts, and in the world without us, to call our attention to the rapid flight of time. The little green hillocks that swell, side by side, in the church-yard, press upon the heart of the parent, and tell her in language, O how audible! that the period has been, when

her steps, now lonely and joyless, were thronged by a gay group of laughter-loving innocents, wantoning in the heartsome glee of childhood, each striving who should present the gaudiest flower to deck the bosom of its mother! The path matted over with weeds-the flowers littering the soil with rank luxuriance-the honey-suckle untrained around the trellised porch, waving heavily to the midnight breeze, like drooping banners over a warrior's tomb-the low dull moaning of the crumbling harp, breathed in fitful sighs, responsive to the wintry blast-speak of a home now desolate, once the abode of intelligence, peace, and innocence of a hearth now deserted, once the centre of domestic happiness and social mirth. The wild notes of frantic melody, that fall upon the ear in heart-rending numbers, as we pass the cell of the brain-stricken maniac, speak of a period, when a heart, now cracked and jarred, throbbed light, and quick, and joyous, and shot forth the tendrils of a pure, and fervid, and hallowed affection. Alas! that such promise should have withered beneath the blight of neglect! And a voice now hoarse and dissonant, discoursed most exquisite music; and a frame now manacled to a dungeon's floor, sprung graceful and free, like an antelope over the mountains!

But it is not alone from the changes that take place without us, that we are forced to note the lapse of time; our own heart is a fertile field for observance, replete with solemn warnings, and wise admonitions, and holy lessons, which, would we but mark, and fasten our regards upon, and appropriate to our moral necessities, would yet work out a glorious regeneration of the character, and cause to emanate from within, a manifestation of excellence, bearing upon its front, in legible and enduring characters, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."

He alone, who, after having walked the scenes of life, and surrendered himself to its manifold and intoxicating, and seemingly felicitous enchantments, seeks the bosom of retirement, and in quiet and sober feeling, undertakes the severe task of a faithful and impartial examination of self-can truly estimate, with how impressive an announcement, the changes that take place in the human beart, intimate to us the lapse of time. We look for the simple-heartedness and single-mindedness of childhood, and, in its place, uncover the low cunning of fraud, and