of these things? Not that boasting may be indulged. Let that for ever be excluded: Deep humility we should always cultivate; and to God let our praise unreservedly be rendered. In glancing at such facts, I am desirous of suggesting encouragement to your exertions. Where so much has been done, beyond our expectations, though certainly not beyond our wishes, unrelaxed and augmented zeal will naturally produce effects of far greater magnitude; just as additional impulses given to a body already in motion cause it to advance with accelerated rapidity and a surer aim. "Christian zeal is the spirit of love and of a sound mind,' as well as of energy: let benevolence and knowledge therefore, not less than perseverance, be eminently the property of ours. Let us watchfully guard against the temptations arising from our situation in the religious world, from the controversies of which, at present, we unavoidably are the ob jects, and in which some of us may be parties. Nothing like railing must be returned for railing: we must reply in meekness to those who oppose themselves; we must inform them, plainly and mildly, that what they object to us, has been objected, and with the same injustice, to Christians of the earliest ages-and in the temper of those Christians our vindication must be made. If some individuals, who follow not with us, shew a disposition to employ unhallowed weapons, of attack, or of defence, let us, with united fortitude and gentleness, protest against the principle and condemn the act. Let every measure to which we have recourse, be worthy of our high and sacred cause, be the effect of a happy conjunction of wisdom, zeal and kindness. With that cause let us not intermix any foreign topics: let us not attempt to support it by any other means than those which accord with its spiritual and heavenly origin. Let us refuse to make our individnal efforts, our favourite plans of usefulness, the test of the benevolence and judgment and piety of our brethren. In one word, let us adorn our doctrine by the cultivation of knowledge, but especially of religious virtue; cementing our union by social acts of worship, and exercising that devout and moral vigilance, which our circumstances particularly demand. For solid worth of character recommends truth more powerfully, and subdues prejudice and opposition more completely, than even the strongest reasoning."-Pp. 55-58. ART. III.—An Introductory Address, quence are felt by all readers, though they cannot be easily described. This" Address" abounds in them, and we wholly mistake it, if it does not mark out its author as destined to great usefulness in the Christian church. He speaks" to the Reader" of himself in the following truly interesting manner : "The author of the following Discourse, and defence of Unitarianism, is not a hereditary Unitarian. He is a convert. The renouncement of the doctrine of the Trinity cost him many pangs. It was the faith of his fathersthe faith which he cherished-the faith which men hoped he would defend-and glad would he have been, when he began to suspect its erroneousness, if he could have excused himself from an impartial inquiry into the evidences of the opposite doctrine. But this he could not do. A strong suspicion that all was not right in his creed having been excited in his mind, by a cause from which one would not have anticipated such an effect-excited by an orthodox sermon— he could not stifle it as some can do, by calling it a temptation of Satan, or by some other convenient expedient. He felt himself bound to inquire. He did inquire, and the result was, what some call heresy, and what I call truth. "But, besides the duty of inquiry, he felt that he had another duty to performthat of avowing his belief. This duty also he performed; and though poverty was before him-though obloquy was before him-though it grieved him to thwart a father's wishes, who, having conducted him through eight sessions of education in the University of Glasgow, was now so near the close of the long preparation, to be so painfully disappointed, he nevertheless became an Unitarian preacher; and now, as a defender of Unitarianism, he calls upon his Trinitarian countrymen, as Christians, to 'search the Scriptures; as Protestants, to scorn subjection to human authority, to be manly in the exercise of their own understandings-to be unprejudiced, that if his be the truth they may embrace it, and that if theirs be the truth, they may with some reasou reject his error."P. 5. The "Address" appears to have been delivered by Mr. Logan, though the occasion is not explained in the title-page or preface, on his taking the pastoral charge of the Unitarian Church at Dundee, which has been kept together, and we believe partly raised, by the unostentatious but useful ministry of Mr. Robert Miller. The young minister adopts a text, which as applied to himself is rather quaint, but perhaps not ill-chosen for a Scottish auditory: it is Acts iii. 6, Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee. Appropriating these words, Mr. Logan tells his flock that he gives them 1. his prayers: 2. his diligence; 3. an honest independence of sentiment; and 4. the cordiality of the brother. His language on this last topic is worthy of a disciple of him who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister:" "Receive from me all the cordiality of the brother. I am your brother; aud I trust that you shall (will) never find me unworthy of the name of brother. I have no desire to play the priest. I hope to be at all times amongst you as a brother amidst his brethren-cordial and unaffected. I would (should) wrong you did I think that I would (should) expose myself to your rudeness, by unbosoming to you my cordiality. No, surely, while I ensure your respect by diligence, by sobriety, by integrity, by decorum, and by piety, I cannot forfeit it by an unassuming intercourse with you. Let me, then, never keep any rail around me, to debar from friendly converse with me, the poorest of my hearers. Let my home be open to all as a brother's house, and let my heart be open to all, impartially and tenderly. Come, my brethren, to me in your doubts, that I may help you to solve them; come to me in your troubles, that I may be helping to console you; come to me in your joy, that I may divide it with you. O come, and though silver and gold I may have none to give you, yet if I increase your faith and your spiritual happiness, it will nevertheless be mine to rejoice in being a benefactor "-P. 11. With equal frankness and true Christian simplicity, the preacher next reminds his people that he expects from them, 1. Independency both in thinking and acting for themselves; 2. the defence of their principles; 3. the assembling of themselves together; 4. the adorning of their doctrine by their conduct; 5. brotherly love towards one another; and, 6. indulgence to their minister's labours. He then addresses the fathers, the brothers, the sisters, and the children of his people, and implores for them all the Divine benediction. This whole "Address" is singularly different from certain inaugural sermons of Protestant Dissenting ministers on this side of the Tweed, which betray a hankering after the Established Church. The author is a devoted champion of religious liberty. He is ardent and courageous iu the maintenance of unpopular truth. His spirit is moved at the contemplation of that cowardice which would betray the best of causes; and the most eloquent passage of the "Address" is that in which he calls upon his new flock to stand forward in defence of their Christian principles. We cannot forbear quoting it. "But farther, my friends, there is expected from you likewise a serious attention to the precept, Hold fast that which is good.' I wish you, in understanding, to be men. I wish you, in zeal, to be the good soldiers of Jesus Christ.' You are exhorted, not only to be inquirers, but also to be defenders, and defenders firm and unwavering. How easy comparatively now your compliance with the exhortation! If there was a time, my brethren, when to avow the truth was to incur the spoiling of your goods, and the loss of life itself; if there was a time when the struggle was vo less a struggle than one between conscience and the fear of the dungeon, the gibbet, or the stake, what will those say for themselves, who, ou account of the comparatively little inconveniences to which they might now expose themselves in the cause of truth, skulk from her standard, and seek a hiding place amongst the crowd? The blood of the martyrs cries out against them. Those men, who braved all the terrors of sanguinary persecution, who counted not their very lives dear for the truth-who fought the good fight of faith, in spite of sword, of fire, of rack-how must they shame the cowardice of him who, only because of the annoyance of a relation, or the sneer of the bigot, or the fear of any earthly inconvenience that may now accompany the avowal of truth, would make shipwreck of a good conscience,' and would see the cause of truth injured by his desertion. If those who have given their very lives for the truth, could not have excused themselves, had they saved even their lives at the expense of truth, how and where shall those stand, who, at the expense of truth, have purchased but some paltry convenience, which truth might now require them to forfeit ? You fear the hiss of the serpent, do you? What if you had to brave the sting of the serpent? What if bigotry not only mocked you, but martyred you? What if the call to come to the standard of truth-what if that call had come to you when the Author and the Finisher of your faith arose proclaiming, He that taketh not up his cross to follow me, is not worthy of me'? What if that call had come to you when Hamilton and Wishart gave their bodies to be burned for truth? Or what if that call had come to you when your Servetus was bound to the stake of martyrdom, and endured the fiery furnace? Is it now, when all sit under their fig-tree, none daring to make them afraid; is it now, when intolerance has lost its sting, and cannot kill; is it now, when the heretic can hold up his head amongst his fellowcitizens can have his church among his fellow-citizens-and can fearlessly lift up his testimony amongst his fellow-citizens is it now that there would be a pitiful skulking from the standard of truth-a pitiful mingling with the crowd-a pitiful looking on at the tardy progress of truth, without the will to co-operate and to help? Scorn the cowardice. Detest the iniquity, and stand forth and hold fast undismayed, and let not the blood of those who have been martyred for truth cry out against you."-Pp. 14, 15. The "Appendix," containing a statement and vindication of Unitarian Christian doctrine, is excellent, and with a very few and slight alterations would form a most suitable tract for distribution by our Book-Societies. The following explanation of a little peculiarity of opinion in the Unitarian Church at Dundee, will interest the reader. "Any view of the death of Jesus that is consistent with the supremacy of the Father-with the truth, that God the Father is the author of our salvation,that it was his love that sent Jesus to be the Saviour of men ;-any view of the death of our Lord, consistent with this truth, we consider a Unitarian view of that great event, whether Christ be regarded as the direct, though instrumental procurer of our forgiveness and our immortality, or the indirect procurer of these blessings by means of his doctrine. This we say, the more especially for this reason, that several of the congregation to which we belong, maintain a view of the death of Jesus, which, while it avoids all that would imply that there was any change effected upon the Divine mind, by that event, or that there was any inconsistency between the Divine perfections prior to it, or that God the Father was not strictly and supremely the Author of our redemption; yet, at the same time, regards Jesus as the direct instrument of our forgiveness and our immortality."-Append. p. 21. dress" to general perusal. No EnWe cordially recommend this " Adglish bookseller's name is inserted in the title-page; but we doubt not that it may be procured of any of the usual venders of Unitarian publications in London. POETRY. On reading some late intricate discussions in the Monthly Repository on the Doctrine of a Particular Providence. VOL. XVIII. O never, never from thee tear 4 Q Though the fair tree of knowledge show'r That simple Faith whose fruit is Prayer! O pause-If 'mid those darker themes, The simple Faith which causeth Pray'r- That cheering faith whose glories steal, This simple Faith, whose fruit is Prayer! Ye visible spirits! bright as erst Young Eden's birthnight saw ye shine Yet sparkling from the hand divine; Gold frets to dust-yet there ye are ; Enshrin'd an everlasting soul!- Could man but see what ye have seen, Ye saw rapt Zoroaster send His soul into your mystic reign: Ye saw the adoring Sabian bendThe living hills his mighty fane! Beneath his blue and beaming sky He worship'd at your lofty shrine, And deem'd he saw, with gifted eye, The Godhead in his works divine. And there ye shine, as if to mock The storm, the bolt, the earthquake's shock, Drought, famine, plague, and flood and flame, Are nought to you-ye smile the same, Aye, there ye roll-emblems sublime That more divides the soul and sod, |
