the religion of Jesus. Having the spirit of the author of our faith, the thing named follows of course. If you believe in Christ, and have his spirit, you will be active in his cause; otherwise, you are a pretender, and have not yet entered the Christian school. What we want in our denomination is neither more nor less than what is wanted in all denominations. Intellectually, he had no doubt about our views. If he was ever led to question, it was because sometimes there might seem to be a want of earnestness; that we don't believe as we should that Jesus is Christianity, and have not his spirit. So far as this is the case, it is no matter what our creed is. The Church is better without us than with us. Looking as we must at the fruits, there may be doctrinal error, and yet the right spirit, in many who will give the Church their hearty support, and be wherever a Christian influence is to to be exerted.

Rev. Mr. HEDGE of Providence next addressed the meeting.

He would ask, What should their denominational activity be? Should it be propagandism and proselytism? If the quality of the denomination was to be judged by its activity in this respect, it could not claim a very high rank in the ecclesiastical world. He said they were not a proselyting sect, not a society of propagandists, never had been such, and, as he believed, never could be, consistently with their position. It was a remarkable fact, that the proselyting zeal in religious sects had generally been in inverse ratio to the purity of their faith. But there was an important distinction between proselyting zeal and missionary action; the former aiming to break up a settled faith, and to draw its believers over to some other faith; the latter being a species of activity which meets a want understood already to exist. This was the kind of action which, as a denomination, they were called to engage in, and which was perfectly consistent with their position, not as a sect, not as Unitarians, but as Christians; and they were to engage in this species of action simply because Christianity exists by self-communication; that is the condition of its continued

existence in the world; and the moment the Christian Church ceases to be missionary, it ceases to exist as a positive religion.

Their denomination, then, must be missionary. And under what conditions? In the first place, it should be consistent. They must act historically, in conformity with their own past, with the organic ideas of their religion; and in order to that, they must understand their whereabouts. Now, he would ask, what was this specific thing that they represented? what was their work in the Christian world, their aim, on which they founded their right to be? Like all other denominations, they had a negative and positive side; the former being their protest against what they believed to be the errors of the elder Church, —not only against prelacy, but against spiritual domination of every kind; and the latter including the two ideas, first, that Christianity is progressive; that at no period of its history can it be said to have reached its consummation; and second, that Christianity is a charity, a philanthropy, essentially humanitarian in its character. The speaker said, that he thought they, as a denomination, might claim to have endeavored to be faithful to this idea; and that they had taken an active part in all the philanthropic movements of the day, and in some taken the lead. He urged that their activity must be consistent with this position, negative and positive; that they must be true to themselves, and act in obedience to the or ganic ideas of their denomination; and the most effective means to be used for prosecuting their work, he thought, were the same that they had been using for the last twenty years, — the publication of tracts and books explanatory of their idea of Christian truth and education.

These were the two great engines of propagandism, and were entirely consistent with their position. Although they had already done much, they might still greatly increase their action in this way. The speaker extended his remarks upon these points, strongly urging the necessity of wider education. He said, if they could only hold their own, they would have nothing to fear; but they had not always done that. The young of their Church were going forth into other communions; but this would not happen if

they had received such education as their denomination might impart to them. Let the Sunday School education be systematic; and in this connection he hoped that the time would come when the instruction of the young would be more in the hands of the pastor than at present.

He said that the Association had existed about a quarter of a century, and it could not be denied that it had done a great work. These walls, he said, reminded him that a great work had been done. The production of such a mind and such a life as that of Dr. Channing, whom he considered as the truest type of Unitarian Christianity, was of itself had nothing else been accomplisheda great work. Moreover, it had done a great work in multiplying the views and doctrines of other denominations. Compare the state of the theology of New England then and now, and the truth of the remark would be seen. He closed by seconding the motion for the acceptance of the Report.

Rev. EDWARD E. HALE of Worcester was then introduced.

He said that he was always inclined to see the positive side, and would speak of the positive side of our operations. We were trying to lift up the civilization of the world. We should inquire what was the course of the ark of the world's salvation. Those who row the material side are working vigorously, with even and powerful strokes of their oars. We are on the spiritual side to do the same; to see that they have not been pulling us round. The voice of Christianity to civilization is, "Friend, come up higher." We want to lift men up physically, intellectually, morally. “The kingdom of heaven cometh," is always advancing; but sometimes the advance is hardly visible. The speaker illustrated this by a graphic description of the letting in of the Cochituate water into the conduit, and picturing the slowness with which, to eager spectators, it covered the bottom, and began to fill the reservoir, twentyfive acres in extent; seeming for a long time only trickling rills or a shallow, muddy pool. It was thus during the first three centuries with Christianity as it flowed out into the world. But it will roll

on, increasing and deepening as it spreads, as long as the throne of God shall endure, or the Son of God shall live to make intercession for us. What way shall we help this progress? It must startle the angels to hear such a question. Is the world, sitting down, to lift itself up? Where is the external point for our levers to rest on? Where do we get our own motives? Our venerable friend has told us how or by what force the work is to be done. How can we preach except we believe? and we must preach the faith which has saved us, or not preach at all.

.Rev. ANDREW P. PEABODY of Portsmouth was then invited by the President to speak on the practical view of Christ's character, and remarked in substance as follows:

Christ is his religion. Christianity consists, not of abstract principles, but of mercy and truth made incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth.

Through Jesus alone is the personality of God revealed to us. Independently of the Gospel, the tendency of cultivated minds is toward Pantheism. Plato and his disciples were Pantheists. In modern Christendom, wherever historical Christianity has been set aside, the movement has been in that direction. The rationalism of Germany, for the most part, ignores a personal Deity considered as a distinct object of reverence, worship, and prayer. Pantheism is in fact the religion of nature. The Almighty is hidden from mortal eye behind the springs, within the wheels of the mechanism of the universe. By miracle, and, above all, by personal manifestation, as through Christ, he detaches himself from his works, and becomes a separate object of intelligence, homage, and confidence.

Jesus, too, not his words, but his living, dying, loving personality, is essential to our repose under the burden of repented sin. Sacrifice is the language of love. The parent makes sacrifices for his children, the patriot for his country, the philanthropist for his race. It is sacrifice alone that can make love felt, or render it the object of assured trust. In the death of Christ, God speaks to

man in the well-understood language of sacrifice, and gives us the - pledge of his pardoning mercy in the only form in which man could fully appreciate it and repose upon it with entire satisfaction.

Jesus also is our hope of immortality. We are not insensible to the analogies of nature or the tendencies and aspirations of humanity, that point to continued and renewed existence. But such considerations come most promptly to our minds in our unburdened and happy seasons. In the time of need we demand personal asWe crave to see immortality brought to light, the eternal life made manifest; and can derive immeasurably more support and consolation from a single glance of realizing faith at the broken sepulchre of Jesus, than from the whole array of natural arguments for immortality.

surance.

Finally, we rely on the personal presence and sympathy of Jesus. Our religion binds us to the Son no less than to the Father. In duty and in conflict, he treads the wine-press at our side. And as we look forward to death, it is not on the abstract truths of his Gospel that we rely for support, but on his personal guidance through the valley of the shadow; and our dearest hopes are all expressed when we can say to the Good Shepherd, "I will fear no evil; for thou art with me."

Rev. RUSH R. SHIPPEN of Chicago, Ill. was invited to address the meeting on the need of missionary labor in the West.

He thanked the Association, in behalf of his brethren of the West, for the aid which had been extended to them by the Unitarians of New England. He could not claim to be a representative of the West, that mighty region which reaches from lake to gulf, that young giant of the world, but in its obligations to them, in its gratitude, its reverence, its sympathy, he might claim to be its fair, though humble representative. In regard to the wants of the West, one word, he said, was sufficient. What did they want? Every thing that man wants. Of the material advantages of civilization, of every thing conducive to worldly progress, they were fast obtaining an abundance. But for spiritual nutriVOL. XXV.- No. 285.

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