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Since the last half-yearly meeting, this Association has formed a friendly union with the Somerset and Dorset Unitarian Association, and has also become a branch of the "British and Foreign Unitarian Association."

Kent and Sussex Unitarian Missionary Association.
SIR,

THE Unitarian Association for Kent and eastern part of Sussex, after the regular employment of Mr. M. Harding, as Missionary, for the last four years, have been compelled by a diminution of their funds to terminate their engagement with this zealous "Advocate of the faith once delivered to the saints." The friends of Unitarianism residing within the operation of this Association, deeply regret that Mr. Harding should be thus arrested in his useful career, and that the sacred cause in which they are engaged be, in this part of the kingdom, deprived of his support. They are, however, in some measure consoled by the reflection that considerable, and they hope lasting good, has been effected by the Missionary exertions in which the Association has been employed. The Committee beg to make the following extract from the Missionary's Report, inade at the Annual Meeting of the Association holden at Chatham, the 29th of June last:

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Though the past year fails to furnish us with a record of the brilliant victories of truth over error, it supplies facts and circumstances which cannot fail to be highly gratifying. Preparations have been made for building at least two chapels for the worship of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, where but for the existence and influence of this Association, the attempt would not so much as have been thought of; and last, but by no means the least, this Association has had the honour and happiness of being signally instrumental in saving a handsome chapel (viz. at Cranbrook) from being sold by public auction, and converted to common purposes. The reflection of having secured valuable premises, rendered additionally so from containing the ashes of revered worthy predecessors, and of being the means also, under the Divine blessing, of perpetuating the sacred cause of Truth in a populous town, will, if duly appreciated, never fail to impart a rich anticipation of glorious recompense."

The Committee persuade themselves that the members of the Association, and the friends of pure, undefiled religion generally, will readily lend their aid towards enabling them to give some regular and effectual assistance to the rising societies at Sheerness, Biddenden, and Benenden, and for keeping up the interests of the Association, which has now been in existence for thirteen years. It will be immediately seen, that though the resources of the society may not allow of the constant employment of a Missionary, yet that a much smaller sum

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Intelligence.-Clerical Intolerance.

than would be required for this purpose may be still raised and advantageously employed. The Committee therefore take this opportunity of soliciting the continued contributions of the public, and of impressing on the members of the Association the necessity of renewed and increasing exertions in the work in which they are engaged.-The Committee think it due to the character of their late Missionary to publish the following testimonial with which they furnished him on his quitting the office which he had so usefully and so honourably sustained:

This is to certify that Mr. M. Harding has for the last four years, under the direction of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Association, acted in the two counties as Unitarian Missionary. And the Committee lend their willing testimony to the ability and good conduct which he has in that capacity displayed, and to the success which has in several instances attended upon his labours; and they much regret that the limited funds of the institution prevent their continuing him in the office."

On behalf of the Committee,

JOHN GREEN, Secretary.

Clerical Intolerance.

[From Besley's Exeter News, Nov. 25, 1825.]

Ir will scarcely be credited that, in this enlightened age, a Clergyman could be found superstitious enough to deny Christian Burial to an infant, because it had not been baptized! Such superstition, however, does exist. A child of Mr. George Mortimer, of Islington, in this county, aged about twelve months, died last Monday. The time fixed for the funeral was Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday the grandfather of the child, Mr. John Mortimer, called on the Rev. William Woolcombe, the Clergyman of the parish, and requested him to attend; but was astonished (as every person must be) to find that Mr. Woolcombe refused to bury the child, because it had not been baptized. The parents are Dissenters, but have their family burial-place in the parish churchyard, and there the parents wished their child to be. But who was to perform the last sad office" over the little corpse? In this moment of difficulty the distressed parents sent to a Dissenting Minister residing at Bovey Tracey, about three miles distant, requesting him to attend, and he did so. A grave was dug, and the little corpse, followed by fourteen persons in decent mourning, and several others, was brought from the house of its parents, about a mile from the churchyard, and taken to the grave, whilst the Minister was obliged to stand on that part of the churchyard fence which was nearest the grave, and from thence the funeral address was made to the mourning attendants: and thus the melancholy ceremony was performed. Alas, for the country! When will such ignorance of real Christianity, such worse than Popish superstition, cease?

THE

Christian Reformer.

No. CXXXIV.] FEBRUARY, 1826.

[Vol. XII.

Essay on the Character of Moses.

THERE are four several points of light in which we may consider Moses; as the head of a religious dispensation, a lawgiver, an historian, and a prophet. But we must take our account of him chiefly from the Bible. On the one hand, Josephus, with the view of enhancing the reputation of the Jews, has related many things concerning Moses which are doubtful, if not fabulous; while Tacitus, a celebrated Roman author, has gone into the opposite extreme, for the sake of vilifying a people whom he and his countrymen seem to have regarded as the dregs and "offscouring" of mankind.

On Moses the honour was bestowed of delivering a numerous race from slavery and oppression, and of rendering them a distinct and mighty nation. His preservation from death, during his earliest infancy, was not a little memorable and in the circumstances and the instrument of it we clearly trace the Divine hand. Having become the adopted son of the daughter of the King of Egypt, he was educated at court, and instructed in the learning of the Egyptians.* But he preferred danger to ease, the worship of the one true God to idolatry, and the active efforts of benevolence and patriotism to the luxury of a palace. When he had reached manhood, the depressed situation of his brethren, the Israelites, so affected his mind, that he burned with an eager desire of avenging their wrongs and ending their sufferings. He saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew; and instantly Moses slew the Egyptian. Being, in consequence, threatened by Pharoah with capital punishment, he fled to the land of Midian, where he kept the flock of Jethro, whose daughter he married.

While he was in this situation, God commissioned him to undertake the deliverance of the Hebrews from their abject servitude. If any person ask, whether Moses might not, and did not, receive the suggestions of his own mind

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as divine communications, and whether those assurances of success on which he relied, were not merely the dictates of his enterprising spirit and fervent temper, I answer, that the event proved the contrary. It is not possible to resolve the signs and wonders wrought by him into facts short of miraculous. He who can bring himself to suppose that they were nothing more than the effects of a superior acquaintance with the powers of nature, must not be forward to charge credulity on believers in revelation. Moses, as appears from the history, was reluctant to go into the presence of Pharoah, in order to demand from him the release of the Israelites, nor was his reluctance soon or easily overcome. In reply to the heavenly command, he urged the unwillingness of the people to credit his assertions and respect his authority: he urged his own want of the talent of persuasion; and a miracle was found necessary for the purpose of silencing his doubts.

Concerning the personal character of Moses it may be remarked, that his piety was ardent, habitual, and, for the age in which he lived, enlightened. To his honour it is recorded that he was eminently meek. But we cannot wonder that his patience and gentleness were occasionally disturbed by the provocations which he experienced from the obstinacy and perverseness of the Israelites. Sacred history is not silent respecting the blemishes of his character and the errors of his conduct; both of which, however, bore a very small proportion to his virtues. In Moses superior talents were adorned by a strict and uniform adherence to religious principle, by the warmest love to his country, by unremitting fidelity to the interests of those of whom he had the care, and by a solicitude to administer impartial justice. It is evident that he was signally qualified for being the mediator between God and the seed of Abraham, for acting as the head of a religious dispensation, the grand object of which was to preserve and spread abroad the knowledge and worship of the one Jehovah.

He is next to be regarded as a lawgiver. The code which, under the especial sanction of the Deity, he enjoined on the Hebrews, was of two kinds-ecclesiastical and civil. In the ecclesiastical division of it were included the directions relating to sacrifices, festivals and the tabernacle, or, in language sometimes employed on this subject, to

holy things, times and places-in the civil division, all those which respected the temporal and national welfare of the people. As to both, he judged and acted under the immediate influence of God yet his inspiration, doubtless, left room for the exercise of his own knowledge and sagacity.

What, though some unbelievers have attempted to cast ridicule on his numerous and minute precepts in respect of sacrifices: what, though this matter has been ill considered and represented by many of the friends of revelation ? Men of competent reflection and candour will not here be forward to express censure or astonishment. The great design of the Hebrew ritual was to guard the chosen seed from the contagion of idolatry. Every command, every prohibition, contained in the Levitical system, had this end in 'view. Such was the method by which Divine Wisdom saw fit to prove the fidelity and obedience of the people, and to secure them, as far as possible, from revolt against their Almighty Ruler.

In the legislative ordinances of Moses for the civil government of the Hebrews, we discern a comprehension of understanding and a humanity of temper superior not merely to the character of the laws of other states in that period of the world, but, further, to the genius of several codes in modern times and in Christian countries. Moses, as the lawgiver of the Jews, was the instrument of an unspeakably greater lawgiver: none of his institutions are calculated to promote his own honour, separately from the solid benefit of his people.

Let us now contemplate him as an historian. The first five books of the Old Testament are commonly ascribed to his pen and, though it must be admitted that some passages of them could not, from the nature of the case, have been written by him, the usually received opinion upon this head appears correct in substance. External testimony declares that Moses was the author of these books: the style and the contents strengthen this attestation and it were difficult, if not impossible, to assign any other date or source of the Pentateuch.

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A more interesting narrative was never presented to the world, except in the memoirs of the life of Christ, and in the records of the publication of his doctrine. It is in the highest degree simple, beautiful and grand, and every where authenticates itself. The impartiality and faithful

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