the expectance of a union that will supersede the ties of consangunity; these are adventitious; reason or choice has no part in their constitution. The intercourse and civilities resulting from family connection are matters of convenience, duty, and obligation, rather than that attachment which springs from a nobler source-unity of spirit, similarity of intellectual powers, the same ardent love of truth and perseverance in pursuit of it, regardless of adverse or extraneous circumstances. Jesus bestows the dearest appellations on those who do the will of His Heavenly Father. And to Peter, he said, "Whatsoever thou bindest on earth, shall be bound in Heaven," and the converse. Those who shall receive my doctrine, who shall be united through faith in me, believing in my resurrection as the only assurance of that eternal life which I have promised them in the name of my Father and yours, and whose lives shall accord with my precepts, which it will be now thy province to teach, will form a connection indissoluble, a family or church, against which the confines of the grave shall not prevail." C-N.

THE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY.

We know not a greater change, or one that has tended more to the advancement of human happiness, than that which has taken place in regard to the relative position of the sexes. Woman, from being treated as the slave of man, the mere object of his passion and caprice, or the plaything of his leisure, is now become his confidential friend, his companion and counsellor; now inspiring him with fortitude and decision to the performance of worthy deeds, now tempering his ardour with the bland spirit of moderation and calm reflection, that cannot fail to impress the wisest with a deep sense of her worth.

By nature, the guardian of our infancy, she is not only become instrumental to the instruction of our youth, but men are not ashamed to acknowledge their obligations to her intellectual powers. Touched by her hand, points of a moral and domestic nature are conveyed to the mind with a soothing tenderness, a heart-pervading delicacy, to which the bolder research of man seems scarcely adequate.

The prevalence of Religion must ultimately subvert the power and dominion of the oppressor, unbend the heavy burdens, and restore the slave to all the privileges to which, as man, he has a rightful claim.

Under the law of Moses, polygamy and slavery were both tolerated; and, though not expressly forbidden by the gospel, their termination is not the less certain through the operation of its benign influence on our hearts. CN.

THE TRINITY.

AN ORIGINAL ANECDOTE.

A CERTAIN divine, in the city of New York, was suspected of heresy. His brethren in the ministry thought proper to appoint a committee to wait upon him and catechise him. They called at an appointed time, and after the usual salutations on such occasions, the interrogatories were commenced; and after several questions, by way of introduction to the main subject, the all-important question was at length put.

"Are you," said the chairman of the committee, "a believer in the holy and ever blessed doctrine of the Trinity?"

"Indeed, brethren," said the shrewd divine, "before I answer this question, either in the affirmative or negative, permit me to enquire what you mean by the doctrine of the sacred Trinity? I suppose that the subject is important, and I never think it proper to play upon words; if you will explain yourselves I will answer you."

"What we mean by the sacred doctrine of the Trinity, is the well-known doctrine of three persons in one God."

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But, permit me," said the divine, "further to enquire what ideas you attach to the word person? You say the well-known doctrine of three persons in one God, but you are aware that different classes of Christians understand the well-known phrase, three persons in one God, in very different senses. Explain yourselves, brethren, and I will endeavour to satisfy you on the subject."

Indeed, sir, you must be well aware that the doctrine of the sacred Trinity is a profound mystery; it is a doc

trine above human reason, it cannot be explained or fully understood."

Well, brethren, if you do not understand your own question, I do not see how you can reasonably expect that I can; and I am not prepared to answer any question that I do not comprehend. Whenever you will put your question, in any form to convey intelligent ideas of what you mean, I will give you an answer to it, and until this is done, I think you would be unreasonable to press for an answer. Perhaps, I believe what you call the doctrine of the sacred Trinity, and perhaps I do not. This can never be determined till your ideas of the doctrine are explained."

The committee were thunderstruck, and a long pause ensued. At length, the reverend divine added “I believe firmly all that the Scriptures say respecting God, our heavenly Father, his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit. But as it respects the ten thousand idle and foolish questions that have been invented in the schools, which neither the inventors nor any body else understood, and which only serve to play the fool with the learned, and confound the unlearned; as a minister of Jesus Christ, I have nothing to do with them. It is my business to preach the gospel, as recorded by the evangelists, illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and explained and enforced in their episties. And provided that I and my people understand our Bible, and reduce it to practice, we think that is quite sufficient for us without any additions or substractions.”

The conversation ended, and the committee retired.

BIGOTRY CURED.

Often when argument is useless on some minds, ridicule produces the desired effect.

WHEN Dr. Thomas, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, was chaplain to the British Factory, at Hamburg, a gentleman belonging to the factory died at a village about ten miles distant, and application was made to the clergyman of the parish for leave to bury him in the churchyard. The

parson enquired of what religious sentiments he had been, and was told that he died a Calvinist.

Then," said he, "he cannot be buried here; there are none but Lutherans in my churchyard, and there shall be no other."

On this being told to Dr. Thomas, he immediately took his horse and went to argue the matter with the parson, but found him inflexible. The doctor at length gained by ridicule, what he had failed to accomplish by the force of reason.

"You remind me," says the doctor to the priest, "of a circumstance which once happened to myself, when I was curate of a church in England; I was burying a corpse, when a woman came and pulled me by the sleeve in the middle of the service. Sir, sir, I want to speak to you.' Pr'ythee," I said, "wait till I have done. No, sir, I must speak to you immediately! Why, then, what is the matter?" Why, sir,' she said, 'you are burying a man who died of the small pox next my poor husband, who never had it.'”

This story had the desired effect, and the curate permitted the remains of the Calvinist to be interred in a Lutheran churchyard.

THOUGHTS ON THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN.

LETTER III.

THE results of the reflections suggested by our examination of the Scriptural account of man's first disobedience, has been, if I mistake not, to show that it furnishes a very inadequate foundation for the enormous and appalling structure which has been erected upon it. From this narrative we have no authority to suppose that Adam's nature was thenceforth corrupted and debased, so as to become altogether depraved and sinful. Still less are we told that this sinful nature was transmitted to the remotest generations of his posterity. Not a word do we find from which we should be led to suspect that all mankind are the objects of punishment for Adam's sin, "that they have lost communion with God, and are justly liable to his wrath and curse for ever." If it be admitted that all mankind are personally affected by the consequences of this transgression, and especially that we have been thereby subjected to the dominion and the fear of death, (though it should not be overlooked, that not even this is to be collected from the history as given by Moses, when taken by itself), there is reason to believe that these consequences, as far as we are concerned, are no marks

of God's wrath and displeasure, but are rather proofs of his love; inasmuch as they are necessary parts of a salutary, though, perhaps in some instances, a sterner and more forbidding discipline, by which our moral natures may be raised to a higher standard, and which has a tendency, unless counteracted by our own folly, to place us in a state not perhaps so inviting, but more really conducive to our moral progress and substantial happiness than that of our first parents.

Such is the conclusion which we seem to be authorized to deduce from our general reasonings and principles, when taken in connection with the narrative of this first transgression in the book of Genesis. But it may perhaps be said, "though nothing more can be inferred from this passage, there are many texts in other parts of the Bible from whence the deficiency may be supplied, in which the received doctrine is more distinctly and fully expressed." Why, so we might naturally suppose; and I have no doubt that those who are contented to receive without examination the vague and random statements of controversial writers and preachers, very commonly believe it to be the case. The fact, however, is so completely the reverse, that there are but two passages in the whole Bible where the consequences of Adam's sin considered as affecting the condition of his posterity are even alluded to. Both of these occur in the writings of St. Paul; but when rightly understood, will not be found to teach anything more than what is very seldom disputed, and what I at least am by no means disposed to call in questionnamely, that as a consequence of the sin of our first progenitor, death, (meaning by that term the dissolution of these mortal frames at the termination of our present state of existence) came upon all mankind.

One of these texts can give us no trouble, because the thing is obvious. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."* These words evidently imply (they do not absolutely affirm even this, but they imply) nothing more than that by Adam's sin he and his posterity were subjected to that death which might never have been followed by a revival, had not God provided that mankind should be made alive again at the last day, by that dispensation which is made known to us through Christ, and assured to us by his death and resurrection.

The other passage is found in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, from the twelfth to the nineteenth verse. It cannot be denied that this is an obscure and difficult passage; though it seems to me that our admitting the doctrine commonly supposed to be taught in it has no tendency to render it less so. The obscurity arises partly from the Apostle's very peculiar style, and partly from his use of certain Hebrew forms of speech, with which we are less familiar. I may add, that our translators in the authorized version might almost be thought to have studiously made it still more puzzling, by adopting, in several instances, an awkward, involved, and hardly English form of construction.† I will subjoin

C C

1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.

See particularly the 15th and 16th verses,