if you have resolved to devote to this object the energies of your mind and the labours of your life; if you have détermined that whether your talents be five, or two, or only one, they shall be actively and perseveringly exerted to this end, fear not; a field of usefulness will not be wanting to you-God will find some spot of his vineyard for you to cultivate and enrich with profitable labour. Your ambition, since it is not to be great or wealthy, or to shine in the eyes of your fellow-men, but simply to serve God in Christ and to do good, shall be gratified, and shall carry you forward in your upward way to a rich reward. Yes, Gentlemen, I venture to assert that there is not one of you now before me, who shall enter upon and pursue the Christian ministry from truly Christian motives, that shall be condemned to till a barren soil, or find your labour unrewarded at the end. Without these motives, unguided, unsupported, and uncheered by piety and virtue, the man of greatest talents will do nothing; with these motives, the man of moderate abilities, strengthened from above, shall go ou his way rejoicing, and in the day of retribution shall be found to have brought "his sheaves" with him. If you would succeed, then, in the high and holy object of your wishes, I trust, as well as of your choice, frequently review, and, where it is necessary, rectify the motives by which that choice has been decided. When it was first made, you were younger than you now are, and, in the case of some of you perhaps, your motives, even though what was good in them may have preponderated, were not altogether unmixed with baser matter. Thoughtlessly, indolently, or good-naturedly, acquiescing in the wishes of your friends, you may not perhaps have given to the subject that serious and deliberate attention which its importance demanded; or you may have permitted motives merely temporal-the consideration, for instance, of the manner in which your worldly prosperity, rank, and estimation in society, were likely to be affected, to exert an undue influence over you; or your zeal, though sincere and even of a serious character, may not have been that pure and holy zeal which alone will avail to support you through all the trials, difficulties, and possible privations of a Christian pastor's life; it may have been a zeal rather for the speculative than the practical, the intellectual than the spiritual, exercise of your profession; rather for Unitarianism than for Uni.

tarian Christianity. Should any one of these suppositions, or of others of a similar nature which might be made, prove true, your motives will need revision. If, on the other hand, they be altogether excellent, and pure from every worldly mixture, you cannot seriously review them without gaining fresh strength to run your course successfully. You have already put your hands to the plough, my friends, and nothing but a solemn aud deep conviction that you could serve your Lord and Master better and more acceptably in some other field of virtuous exertion, would warrant you in turning back again. If from any worldly motive you were now to forsake his service, you might well fear to be forsaken by him. If you were to become ashamed of him, you would have reason to apprehend the arrival of a day when he must declare himself ashamed of you. My object, then, is to induce you to cherish reflections, under the influence of which you will advance with growing ardour in that course of virtuous exertion upon which I trust you have already entered with enlightened understandings aud willing minds. Your character and conduct, your respectability and success as students, I hesitate not to say, will be materially affected by the light in which you view your future destination, and the reasons which determine you to devote yourselves to it. Review, then, with seriousness your motives for entering into the ministry. Cherish a deep sense of your personal responsibility. Cultivate personal holiness. And we shall see the fruit in your diligently prosecuted studies, in your conscientious and cheerful conformity to discipline, in your growing proficiency in knowledge and in virtue. And hereafter you will reap them yet more abundantly, in the salvation of your own souls and those of your brethren. Gentlemen, we congratulate you most cordially on the spirit of good order and manly subordination which we understand has taken place of those boyish follies and irregularities to which, on some former occasions, it has been painful to us to advert. I have observed with pleasure-and am happy to say that the experience of my respected colleague confirms my own-a considerable improvement in your answering at the present examination. I would conclude as usual with earnest exhortations to virtuous perseverance, and with the cordial expression of affectionate good wishes for your welfare.

Twelfth Annual Report of the Liverpool Unitarian Tract Society, July 6, 1829.

THE Committee request your attention to the remarks they have to make upon the occurrences of the past year, and upon the present state and prospects of the Society. They cannot resign their trust without expressing the conviction which they feel of the usefulness of the Society of whose affairs they have had the superintendence. What they chiefly regret is, that efforts are not more gene rally made to apply its benefits where individual exertion alone can be of service. As far as they have themselves been able to make observation, they fiud a very great desire to read, and they can conceive of nothing which is of more importance than to direct this desire to useful and improving books. They have made a grant of tracts to the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch Association to the amount of 57., and one also to the amount of 31. to the Lancashire and Cheshire Missionary Society, from whom they continue to receive satisfactory accounts as to the use made of the former 31. worth. From two persons who kindly consented to become the organs of distribution in the neighbourhood of the town, they have received representations which would at least warrant a belief, that if others would make the attempt to attract attention to the books of the Society, they would not find their labour entirely thrown away. To apply the test of a change of character, or to look for improvement in the morals of these districts, requires a longer period than can at present be looked back upon; but your Committee think they have sufficient ground for hoping that this will ultimately be the effect, when they know that the hours of relaxation, which to the labouring classes are the most dangerous, are more or less occupied with reading. They wish it, however, to be understood, that the districts referred to comprise only the neighbourhood of the Potteries and Birkenhead: with the exception of these two places, they fear few attempts are made among persons likely to approve of the books of the Society to recommend their perusal. They would earnestly solicit assistance, from persons residing in and about the town, in the distribution of books which enforce the practice of the pure morality of the gospel, either without any direct reference to its disputed doctrines, or founded upon what they receive as the

most correct views of the character of

God.

The funds of the Society, it will be perceived, are fully adequate to the exertions that are made in the application of them; and as many members leave the whole of their subscription in the hands of the Committee, they are not likely to diminish much. The stock of books is also good. Among those which they have added during the past year will be found many of a purely moral tendency, which they find to be at present the most sought after. Little, indeed, could have been added in the way of controversial reading, and they would be glad if a greater number of tracts of a practical tendency, and suited to adult persons, could be pointed out to them. The Society is much in want also of some cheap book, the tendency of which is to confirm the reader in the belief of the doctrines of Christianity.

Your Committee believe that they have now made such an arrangement as will insure the regular receipt of American pamphlets suited to their objects, and they hope that a more extensive choice will afford their successors the opportunity of providing many works which will be acceptable to the Society. In conclusion, upon this head your Committee would remark, that as upon their present plan they will have on sale single copies of many works which they do not include in the Catalogue, persons who may wish to have them can at any time be made acquainted with the contents of the list.

Your Committee cannot close their Report without thanking you for the confidence you have reposed in them; they would, however, remind you that no Committee can of itself give efficacy to the Society: it may be judicious in the application of its funds, it may check useless waste, but it cannot distribute tracts, it cannot enlighten the ignorant or reform the guilty-these must be the work of individual exertion, perseveringly and judiciously applied. They therefore appeal to you, on behalf of their successors, to become yourselves, and to influence others to become, distributors of the tracts, under the conviction that a blessing will attend the promulgation of his gospel whose command it was to his disciples-" Go and teach

all men."

Synod of Ulster and the Re

monstrants.

WE gave a report last month, from an Irish newspaper, of the arrangement agreed upon by the Committees severally appointed by these bodies. Although substantially correct, there are two particulars in which it requires amendment. The Remonstrants do not separate as Unitarians. Some of them are not so. The following extract from their address to the Synod is an excellent statement of the principle of the Secession :

"The question at issue between us is not, as has been frequently asserted, a question of doctrine: it not, whether Trinitarianism or Anti-Trinitarianism, Calvinism or Arminianism, be most accordant with the word of God. Upon these points we acknowledge a variety of opinion to exist, even amongst ourselves. The real subject in debate, therefore, is not the absolute truth or error of certain theological tenets; but simply this, whether the sacred Scriptures be a sufficient or an insufficient rule of faith and duty; whether the Ministers and Licentiates of the General Synod shall be permitted, without molestation or injury, to inculcate those views of Christian doctrine which, in their own consciences, they believe to be true; or shall be required, under the penalty of the most serious worldly loss, to teach the opinions approved by a Committee of their brethren, no wiser and no less fallible than themselves, although they should believe those opinions to be utterly erroneous; and, finally, whether the people of the Presbyterian communion shall have full liberty to elect pastors whose religious sentiments accord with their own, or be limited in their choice to such individuals as may have regulated their religious profession by the standard of human authority. We press it upon your serious consideration, that this is the real and only question at issue. Absolute Truth can be determined only by an Infallible Tribunal; but Liberty of Conscience, which is the divinely chartered right of every Christian, may be mutually conceded, and ought to be conceded in the fullest extent, by those whose theological views are most directly opposed to each other. Whilst, therefore, we are by no means indifferent either to the maintenance or extension of our own peculiar opinions, we desire to hold them in charity with all men; and, in conformity with our uniform practice, we shall never attempt to press their adoption upon others by any authoritative or penal enactments."

It also appears that the regium donum is to be enjoyed by the successors of the separating ministers. The parties excluded from it are those who may hereafter retire or be expelled from the Synod.

The following extracts from the proceedings of the Synod at Cookstown on the 18th August, are taken from that useful little work, the Christian Pioneer.

"As the case of Mr. Ferrie mainly occupied the attention of the Synod when met at Lurgan, we notice the resumed proceedings respecting it.

"The Committee appointed at Lurgan, to inquire into Mr. Ferrie's religious opinions, gave a report of their proceedings. Several letters were read from certain ministers and professors in Scotland, in reply to applications from the Committee, but none of them contained any positive information. Letters were also read from Mr. Ferrie, in which he stated that he was most anxious to give every explanation, and as he had never knowingly preached any thing contrary to the doctrines' contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith, he was ready, as the most likely method of giv ing general satisfaction, again to subscribe it, as an evidence that he still believes it to contain the doctrines of our holy religion.' In consequence of this, the Committee resolved, that the proposal now made by him, solemnly to renew his subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, appears so reasonable, that we recommend it to be accepted, provided it be done in a satisfactory manner, in presence of Committees from both Synods' (the Synod of Ulster and the Reformed Presbyterian Synod).

་

"We feel impelled to place in juxta position with this voluntary offer, as John Milton has it, to subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which unless he took with a conscience that would retch, he must either strait perjure or split his faith,' the following language and act of the Rev. William Porter, the Clerk of the Synod. Mr. Porter rose, but it was some time before he could obtain a hearing. The Moderator and many of the members attempted to persuade him from addressing the house, anticipating what he was about to say; and begged him not to come hastily to any determination, but to let the Synod judge. is now,' said Mr. Porter, ' rendered necessary, by what has fallen from some gentlemen, that I should state to you clearly my own determination. The present is not a convenient time for you to choose a successor to me in office, and

It

I am anxious to prevent any embarrassment on my account. I shall, therefore, during the ensuing year, discharge the duties peculiar to my situation, with as much zeal and attention as I ever did. I shall attend your next meeting, and read your Minutes. I shall give every facility in my power to the man whom you may appoint to succeed me; and I shall then retire from my situation as your Clerk. To me the emoluments of my office are a matter of some consideration; but, under existing circumstances, I must endeavour to live without them. The God in whom I trust will support me through the difficulties of life. Confiding in him, therefore, I shall thankfully resign my situation into your hands; for it is not possible that I should continue, from year to year, hearing those principles abused which I most conscientiously hold, and those opinious which I believe to be founded on the word of God, characterized by the worst of epithets.'

"The present result of Mr. Ferrie's offer was such as he might naturally have anticipated from the parties. He might have seen that nothing but his absolute prostration, his giving himself up, bound hand and foot, soul and body, would satisfy such persons as Messrs. Cooke, Dill, and Carlile. There was evidently a bitter personal feeling, strong and exasperated disappointment, at the bottom of the whole matter. Though the Committee appear to have been willing to go through with this affair of subscription, yet not so the Synod. After a lengthened discussion, their decision was, That the doubts of this Synod concerning the orthodoxy of Mr. Ferrie, being still unremoved, our Committee be directed to continue their correspondence with that gentleman, and take such other steps as they may deem most effectual, in order to ascertain his religious sentiments and fitness for the office of Professor; that our Committee be empowered to act in conjunction with the Committee of the Reformed Synod; and that, in the event of the doubts of our Committee being still unremoved, they be empowered, in conjunction with the Committee of Theological Examination, to adopt such measures as to them shall seem meet, in order to provide instructions in Moral Philosophy, during the ensuing session, for the students of this body.'

The Wareham Chapel.

THE Ordination of the Rev. James Brown to the pastoral office of the Independent (Calvinistic) Church and congregation assembling for public worship at the Old Meeting-house, Wareham, took place on Wednesday, the 14th September.

The Rev. T. DURANT, in returning thanks for himself and the friends at Poole, observed, that most of the persous present were doubtless aware that some insinuations had recently been thrown out in some public prints, that the parties who now held possession of the Old Meeting-house had no right and title to the building. Now, he must beg to say, that he had been well acquainted with, and deeply interested in, all the proceedings which had for many years past taken place in the congregation assembling at this place of worship; and, without pledging himself for the infal lible character of such proceedings, he was still prepared to say, that the place of worship really belonged to the body of Christians who now meet in it for devotional purposes. He felt convinced that his friends would think with him when he said, that if the property of the Old Meeting-house had been obtained, or was now retained, only upon legal ground-if it was not held upon the strictest principles of equity and honour, its possession ought to be relinquished; nor could this Association consistently give their countenance and support, as they had this day done, to a congregation so circumstanced. Convinced, however, as he was, of the right of the present proprietors to the pulpit of the Old Meeting, he thought it right to allude to certain wanton and cruel aspersions which had been thrown out recently in a periodical work called the Monthly Repository. Feeling strongly the strict honour and equity which had characterized the proceedings of this congregation, he should now beg to propose, "That three gentlemen be appointed to investigate the whole of the transactions in question, and that they do report to this Association accordingly."

The Rev. GEORGE HUBBARD, of Corfe Castle, rose to second the Resolution of his friend, the Rev. Mr. Durant. He highly approved of the observations which had just fallen from that gentleman, and he begged leave to nominate the Rev. Mr. Durant, whose amiable temper and disposition, and whose inflexible integrity, are well known throughout all the churches; and, to co-operate with him, he would propose the Rev. Mr.

Keynes, of Blandford, and the Rev. D. Gunn, of Christchurch; who should be requested to scrutinize with the utmost closeness and rigour all the transactions of this congregation which had of late years taken place, and should make their appeal for information to foes as well as friends. He could only say, that if a gentleman in this congregation, now present at his side, and who had recently been made the object of scurrilous attack, really deserved to be called a religious scoundrel, then this honourable and respectable assembly could no longer lay claim to what he was sure it was en titled to, the character of honesty and respectability. Nay, he would go further, and say, that the sooner they got out of such company the better.

The Rev. J. E. GooD suggested whether it would not be proper to associate with the gentlemen nominated, one of Unitarian principles, lest it should be supposed that the investigation partook of a partial and exclusive character.

The Rev. G. HUBBARD said, that in his opinion it would be exceedingly inconsistent to introduce only one Unitarian to aid and assist in this important scrutiny. He would, therefore, nominate Dr. Carpenter, the Rev. Mr. Aspland, and the Rev. Mr. Fox, that there might be an equal number of Unitarians and Orthodox on the Committee; for a case like the present, which was strong not only in law, but in morality and principle, need fear no scrutiny from

friends or foes.

The Rev. Mr. DURANT begged leave to suggest, that it might, perhaps, be objected, that we have nominated gentlemen on the other side of the question, residing at a distance, and whose numerous and public occupations might prevent their agreeing to such nomination.

MALACHI FISHER, Esq., of Blandford, said, that it might, perhaps, suit the feelings of the opposite party to appoint some Unitarian gentleman of Wareham. Some one then suggested, whether there would not be a propriety in nominating as this person, Mr. John Brown, who has seceded from the Old Meeting, and now attends the Unitarian place of worship.

The Rev. J. P. DOBSON said, that he conceived it would be improper to nominate any person on this Committee of investigation who might be considered as a criminating party.

The Rev. Mr. CASTON, of Sherborne, said, that inasmuch as the orthodox body of ministers in this county had appointed three of their own friends to be upon

this Committee of investigation, he thought it might properly be left to the Southern Unitarian Association to choose any three ministers of their own party to take part with them in the scrutiny.

The CHAIRMAN then put the following Resolutions to the Meeting, which were cordially and unanimously approved :

1. That this Association do now appoint the Rev. Messrs. Durant, Keynes, and Gunn, as a Committee to investigate the title of the congregation now in possession of the Old Meeting-house, Wareham, to that place of worship, and report to the Association thereupon; and that it be left to the Southern Unitarian Association to appoint three ministers of their body to meet and co operate with the above-named gentlemen in this investigation.

2. That the Rev. Mr. Durant, the Secretary of this Association, do communicate the above Resolution to the Southern Unitarian Association.

Bolton District Unitarian Association.

THE Seventh Half-yearly Meeting of tion was held at Bolton, iu the Meetingthe Bolton District Unitarian Associahouse, Moor Lane, on Thursday, Sept. 24. The Rev. Franklin Baker, of Bolton, conducted the devotional services, and the Rev. James Taylor, of Rivington, have left all and have followed thee." preached from Mark x. 28, "Lo, we Many of the neighbouring ministers and gentlemen afterwards dined together, and spent the afternoon in an agreeable Mr. Brandreth, of Bolton,

manner:

The Rev. John

being in the Chair. Cropper was appointed the Supporter to Mr. Baker, who preaches at the next take place at Park Lane, on Thursday, meeting of the Association, which will April 29th, 1830.

MADRAS.

B.

Extract of a Letter from W. Roberts to the Rev. W. J. Fox.

Or the congregation at Secunderabad, under Abraham Chiniah. A. Chiniah was one of our late Laozaru Aandiapak's hearers; he came to Madras with some merchandise, in October 1821; his stay at Madras was very short; received bap. tism in our chapel, being about twentyeight years of age: having taken a small collection of Unitarian tracts in English, and a few in Tamil that were in hand writing, and returned to Secunderabad ; a while after he became an Hospital