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The evidences of Christianity, from its own character, appear to thicken around us in proportion as we become familiar with it. We have alluded to a few of those, which have most force, and will bear to be most dwelt upon. There are others, which are less tangible, less easily defined. They are to be felt rather than formally stated. They partly grow up with time, and with an intimate use of the instructions of Jesus. The sorrows of life, the gradual falling away of the objects of our earthly affection, and the effects of age in impressing us with the hollow nature, the uncertainty and emptiness of all worldly pleasures and distinctions, tend to render us more and more sensible of the needs of spiritual natures. Christianity is found to answer those needs. Its capacity of ministering to our growing wants daily developes itself. The language, in which it addresses us, appears no earthly voice. It has heavenly power and majesty. The character of Christianity, and of its founder, adds vast weight to the external evidence in its favour. It forces us to conclude, that it is not the offspring of fraud or fiction, that it is the child neither of fanaticism nor imposture. It is noble in its aim and beneficent in its tendency. It is such a religion as we might suppose our Father in heaven would bestow on us. It is recommended to us by its intrinsic excellence-its spirit, its object, its doctrines, and its sanctions.

If we throw off a reverence for Christianity, where shall we go for information on the subject of our duty and hopes? Where shall we find a substitute? Where shall we find a system so free from imperfection and deficiencies; so full of instruction and solace; so well adapted to refine and exalt our natures; so fitted to make us faithful to the numerous important trusts committed to us as men, as citizens, as servants of God and candidates for the rewards of a better life? On what shall we rest? We are weak and imperfect;-as such, we need guidance and restraint; we are exposed to attacks of adversity, to affliction and sorrow, and need comfort and support. Christianity furnishes all. It addresses itself to our hearts in language, which mere philosophy is incapable of employing. Suppose it founded in delusion; we could hardly wish that delusion to be pointed out to us; for our most sacred hopes would be overthrown, and the sources of our best consolations become dry. Suppose it founded in delusion; the delusion is fitted to make us better and happier. It is a pleasing, not a melan

choly delusion. It is pleasing to believe, that the universe has a Father and Preserver. It is pleasing to believe, that this short life is not the whole of our being; that an immortal spirit is lodged within us; that we may hereafter go, where sorrow and care, and disease and death can no more reach us. But Christianity, we are confident, is no delusion; the hopes it inspires are not fallacious; the virtue it attempts to infuse is something more than a name. We would preserve in our minds, and in the minds of others, a deep veneration for it. If we throw off such veneration, our hopes are weakened, but our apprehensions and fears remain; our solace is impaired, but our sorrows are not diminished.

A work of merit on the internal evidences of Christianity is, at the present day, much needed. We wish that some one, qualified to execute it successfully, could be found willing to undertake such a work. Those who have hitherto attempted performances of this kind, lived in times when Christianity was greatly darkened and disfigured, and their productions partook of the narrow and corrupt spirit of the age. But Christianity has now thrown off the heaviest encumbrances of error. The garb of human workmanship, which had been drawn around it in multiplied folds, is falling away, and its genuine form is daily becoming more fully exposed to view. It is time that a popular work were attempted, which should awaken the attention of the slow and careless to the impress of divinity which that form bears. A work of this description is more wanted, and, if happily finished, would he productive of greater benefits than any work we could name. But it is not one, which admits of being executed in haste, or by a feeble hand. The topics alluded to in the foregoing remarks, form a part only of those, which should be introduced and illustrated in such a performance. The doctrines of Christianity must be fully stated, accompanied, perhaps, with some incidental notice of the laws of criticism and interpretation, which are employed in establishing them. But the length to which we have protracted our observations admonishes us to forbear. We have thrown out such suggestions, as we deemed important. We submit them to the judgment of our readers.

Notices of Recent Publications.

6. A Discourse delivered at the Dedication of the Stone Church of the First Parish in Portland, Feb. 8th, 1826, by J. Nichols. With an Appendix, containing a Memoir of the Parish. Portland. James Adams, Jr. 1826. THIS is a sensible and very appropriate discourse; not one, indeed, in which the author shows his greatest reach of intellect, but a discourse which demonstrates the deep interest he felt in the occasion, and which breathes throughout a spirit of true christian kindness, and of tender regard to the people to whom he ministers.

'No sentiment,' he says, ' more strongly suggests itself or more elevates this present moment to our feelings, than that we have come together to officiate in consecrating to God an altar and a memorial to outlast ourselves; where our children may be reminded of his everlasting truths, and where incense and a pure offering may go up to him from generation to generation. We are now then to consider what it would be worthy for rational and christian men to set forth for the glory of God and the perpetual memory of mankind; what all times shall be able to understand; what shall have power to live through all vicissitudes of opinion; what no future progress of the human mind shall probably pronounce to have been of transitory importance, to have passed away with the period, or to have been unworthy of this occasion.' p. 4.

The following extract is written in the spirit of charity of which we have spoken.

'Again, in endeavouring to speak in the proper spirit of this occasion, we desire explicitly to set apart this house in the most cordial fraternity with the whole christian family. We are not suffered to forget, that in consecrating it to God, we have resigned it to him and to his church, and are bound to hope, that we have done it not only with piety to him but with suitable sentiments of fellowship toward them also. We wish not no exclude them by any interpretations of ours so as not to leave them in the fullest enjoyment of their own. And we should desecrate, we fear, the sacred nature of this duty, by terming it prudence or even charity. It is more than either. It is holy and solemn justice to the prerogatives of conscience and to the spirit and precepts of our religion.' p. 10.

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The Memoir of the Parish' appended to the sermon, is judicious and entertaining, and we should like to see this commendable practice followed on all similar occasions.

7. A Sermon, preached February 15, 1826, at the Dedication of a New Church, erected for the Use of the South Parish in Portsmouth By Nathan Parker, Minister of the Parish. Portsmouth, N. H. John W. Foster. 1826.

WITHOUT being less appropriate to the occasion on which it was delivered, the sermon now before us, is more occupied with unfolding general principles, and has less of what is of merely local interest, than the one we have just noticed. In

other respects, what we have said of that discourse may, with but slight modification, be said with equal propriety, of this. To call it an eloquent sermon, would be to give it higher praise than it deserves. But not to say it is the production of no ordinary mind, or to deny that it has beauties, would be doing it a worse injustice. The author's thoughts appear to be always clear, just, and well defined, and are not unfrequently conveyed to us with great force of expression. An extract or two will not only justify our remarks, but lay before our readers views and feelings which we most cordially approve, and would have circulated as widely as possible.

'That holiness,' says the author, which christianity labours to produce, is no fanciful, or arbitrary, or useless thing. It supposes, that all the faculties of man are good, and that they are all brought to perform their appropriate offices. Christians are introduced into the temples of God, to worship him, not as an almighty tyrant, and with such sacrifices as a tyrant would delight to receive, but as a Father. While their understandings adore him, their affections learn to cling around his attributes. They go not from the sanctuaries of religion, from their schools of piety, to cloister themselves from the world, lest they should tarnish their purity by mingling in the transactions of men; but they go forth to obey a Father's commands, and to imitate the perfections, which they adore. They are to stand forth amid all the temptations of life, and to be preserved from pollution by the strength of their principles, and the purity of their taste, breasting the storm and gathering strength from its violence. They are to show, amid a host of moral dangers, a divine purity; and their christian virtue is to be estimated by the fidelity of their obedience, by the amount of their usefulness, compared with their means of doing good.' p. 5.

To the inquiry, by what means is this holiness to be produced, it is replied, that

Truth is the mighty agent to be employed to render man a partaker of a divine nature. Through the instrumentality of truth he is to be born into the kingdom of Christ and of God. By the sword of the spirit he is to make a successful defence against the enemies of virtue, and to gain a victory, whose laurels will never wither. And truth, to become the powerful instrument of man's regeneration, must be known, believed, felt, and obeyed. To be known, the truth must be intelligible. An unintelligible article of belief is a contradiction in terms. It is as impossible to believe a proposition, the terms of which are not understood, as to see objects, on which not a ray of light is permitted to fall. It is not by unintelligible articles of faith, that man is born to virtue and to God; but by truth, which is perceived, clearly perceived. It must also be believed and felt. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. To become a powerful moral agent, truth must interest the affections. If it deeply interest the affections, it will be obeyed. If the truths of the Gospel, the truths, taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles, be perceived, believed, felt, and obeyed, man is blessed, he is prepared for that immortality, which Jesus has revealed.' p. 6, 7.

These, to be sure, are very simple and common views, and recommend themselves to every understanding. But then how far are some of them from being orthodox! Again

We have a creed, we believe a creed, and we love the principles of our faith. We trust in God, that those, who come up hither in all future time,

will find the light of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God beaming forth here, guiding their minds, comforting their hearts, and directing their affections and hopes to that world, where is no darkness at all.

'But while we assert the necessity of a creed, we as unhesitatingly assert, that it is not only every man's privilege, but every man's duty also, to form his own faith by the best use of the powers, and means of knowledge, with which God has furnished him. No formal professions of faith in doctrines, which are either clearly or darkly set forth, will have any good effect upon the character. The truth must come fairly into the mind and heart; and a few truths thus embraced may work wonders. That the mind may be urged to activity in acquiring the principles, which are to be its nourishment and its health, it must feel its responsibility, the infinite consequences attached to a faithful use of its powers, and be left at perfect liberty to learn what Jesus has taught, and what man ought to believe; and there should be no odium attached to our open avowal of opinions, which have been formed in uprightness. Thus a becoming confidence will be expressed in the cause of Christ, and the truth, as it is in him, may be expected in all its simplicity and loveliness to beam forth upon the minds of men.' pp. 8, 9.

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We would gladly follow our author further, but that we have already exceeded our limits. Appended to the sermon, however, is a note, containing, besides several memoranda' for the history of his parish, some remarks and statements respecting the terms of Christian communion, which, as they add the force of example to opinions we have long held ourselves, we cannot refrain from laying before our readers.

'There is pressing need, that the terms of Christian communion be rendered more simple, more truly evangelical. All good men, who believe in Christ, ought to be encouraged to come together around the table of their common Master, forgetting speculative peculiarities, and holding steadily in view the great purpose of christianity, which is to make men truly good. This has been a favourite principle of the South Church. It has been thought, that the introduction of it fully into practice is of the highest importance. A disposition has ever been manifested among us to receive all into Christian communion, who acknowledge Jesus to be a teacher, sent from God, and who manifest a disposition to learn his truth, and to obey his commands. Errors they might embrace (and who is free from them?) but it has been believed that the most promising way to correct error is to administer the truth in love, and to encourage men to use all their Christian privileges, and to perform all their duties, unembarrassed by party creeds.

'We are gratified to be able to state, that this is no new principle in the churches of this vicinity. Among the sentiments of the associated ministers of this vicinity, expressed in a report, made in 1790, is the following, which was adopted by this church; "That the profession 'churches have a right to demand, is not an assent to any human creed, confession, or summary of Christian doctrines; but a general profession of faith in Christ, repentance of sin, and the hope of the mercy of God, through him, expressed either in words or writing, as the person offering himself shall choose." When these sentiments were recommended to our churches, the Piscataqua Association could boast a Stevens, a M'Clintock, a Haven, and a Buckminster. It ought to be a subject of congratulation, that the South Church has never abandoned, but has steadily maintained these sentiments. Till they are more widely embraced, we can have but feeble hope of the peace of Christ's church. pp. 18, 19.

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