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interests; of exciting us to cultivate the principles and dispositions, and to form the character and habits, which will secure for us the approbation and love, and eternal service and enjoyment of God. These wants then, instead of being evidences that our nature comes corrupted from the hand of God, are his wise appointments for our trial, and preparation for a better world. Let us but feel that they belong to our immortal nature, and let us seek for the satisfaction of them, in our preparation for the christian's immortality, and in their strongest excitement, ours may be the language, and the feeling of the apostle, 'as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet, possessing all things.'

There are truths in the extract which we shall next give, from the Rev. Mr. Kendall's CHARGE, which we desire to see acknowledged and practised upon, by christian ministers and their people, much more generally than they are at present.

"To the purity and dignity that belong to the pastoral office, add the meekness and humility, the gentleness and condescension, that were exemplified by our great High Priest, who has passed into the heavens. Beware of that austerity of manner and that gloominess of deportment, which would leave the impression, that religion must never be named nor approached, but with an altered tone, and a disfigured face.' Let it be seen by our own example, that there is nothing forbidding in her attire, nothing stern, but to profligacy and vice, in her address; nothing unsocial in her intercourse with mankind. There may be cheerfulness without levity, and sobriety without moroseness. If you put on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be clothed with humility, and your adorning will be that of the hidden man of the heart, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. Perfect yourself in that most important gift, an aptness to teach, connected with patience and meekness in instructing those who are slow to learn, and slower to believe, resisting the truth and opposing themselves. Keep the example of Christ always before you, and follow his steps. If you are reviled learn of him not to revile again. If you are called to suffer for righteousness' or truth's sake, threaten not; but commit yourself and the cause to Him who judges righteously. Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

How many are there in the christian community, who seem to think that there is a vast deal of religion in an austere demeanour and a gloomy countenance! Now, we could never perceive that a long face, a stiff step, or a sepulchral tone of voice, had any virtue or piety in them; or that all together they were worth one grain's weight of true holiness;-though we have indeed seen, and been shocked to see, that these solemn mockeries have served as blinds to the eyes of ignorance, and been worn as cloaks round the dark forms of corruption. Seriousness will always be felt and always be manifested by a man of any feeling, on truly serious occasions; but we cannot imagine why a person should not be cheerful because he is a clergyman, or why he should throw a cloud over every company he approaches, because he inculcates the animating and benign doctrines of christianity.

We shall conclude our extracts with one from THE RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP, by the Rev. Mr. May.

"It is with the acknowledgment of our common fallibility, and with the purpose of mutual improvement, that we welcome you to the liberal studies as well as the arduous labours of our holy profession. We welcome you not as the dictators, but as the helpers and partners of our faith and joy. We 'bid you God speed' in the sacred paths of religious inquiry and christian duty. Go on then, following 'the Bible, the Bible only' as your guide, however it may lead you to dissent from the confessions of Assemblies and the systems of those who have denominated half the christian world. What is it to you and me, that Calvin and Socinus believed one thing or another? The great inquiry with us is, what doth Christ teach? and we should be so absorbed in this inquiry, that it would be pardonable in us to forget that Calvin and Socinus ever lived."

We are happy to hear that the Society over which Mr. Dewey is settled, is flourishing and united; and it is our prayer that it may long continue to be so under his ministry.

Spirit of Orthodoxy.

ONE of the most remarkable manifestations of this spirit, which has for some time come under our notice, is contained in a letter from the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, an Episcopalian clergyman of Boston, to the editor of the Christian Observer, in England. This letter was published in the Observer of November last; and the passage to which we refer is the following.

"No one in England can feel the effects of schism as we feel them here. The conflict of religious opinions unsettles the minds of the laity, produces religious indifference, leads to the neglect of public worship, destroys the respect paid to the clergy, and consequently their influence, and naturally terminates in the cold skepticism of Unitarianism, or in the wild ravings of enthusiasm. The most illiterate sects, and those who accord best with the corrupt and depraved nature of the unrenewed heart, are likely to become the most numerous."

It is not surprising that such a piece of ungrateful misrepresentation as this, should create considerable sensation in Boston, and be censured by some of the publications of that city as it deserved. We will lay before our readers two articles which we have seen on this subject, and then offer a few remarks of our own. The first is from the Christian Examiner. Immediately after quoting the extract from Dr. Jarvis' letter, the Editor observes;

"Have we estimated so very erroneously the state of things among us? Does justice require it to be reported of us, that this is the part of the world where, to a peculiar degree, the minds of the laity are unsettled, religious indifference prevalent, public worship neglected, respect denied to the clergy, and their influence destroyed? where unbelief and fanaticism

divide the public suffrage, and the most ignorant and profligate sect is the most sure of proselytes? Is this a picture exact enough to be transmitted to the other side of the ocean as our likeness?"

The next article is from the New-England Galaxy. It is signed "AN EPISCOPALIAN," and was written by a member of Dr. Jarvis' own church. This circumstance renders it particularly interesting, and shows how generally prevalent is the feeling in Boston against all intolerance and bigotry. The piece begins with the obnoxious extract, and proceeds thus;

"The above is an extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Jarvis of this city, to the editor of the Christian Observer. Before I make any remarks on it, I must be allowed to say, that for the character, public or private, of the writer, no one can feel more respect than myself. I have witnessed the single minded devotion, with which he has given himself up to his pastoral duties and the welfare of the church. I have often heard those touching appeals to the hearts of his people, with which he enforces the truths of his religion. What I may not treat with anger, I may however be allowed to lament. I cannot but lament that the Rector of St. Paul's has committed himself by a statement, mistaken, I think, in its facts, and wrong in its reasoning, and that too to a foreign clergyman. Is it true, that the conflict of religious opinions in this city has made all the bad effects he attributes to it? Where is public worship more universally observed? Where are the clergy more generally respected? They cannot, it is true, combine their influence in favour of one set of opinions. But the conflict increases their individual respectability. And why do we hear so

much of the "cold scepticism of Unitarianism?" I am no Unitarian myself, sir, but I must respect the piety and simple devotion, which marks them here, however mistaken I may believe their opinions. That system, in the belief of which such men as Abbot and Buckminster and Thacher have died, and which Freeman and Kirkland, and Channing and Sparks still live to adorn, must be respected.

"Dr. Jarvis, in a subsequent part of his letter, speaks of the Episcopal church as destined in his opinion, some time or other, to unite these opinions. This can never be. No church can unite all christians unless it establishes an infallible power on earth, and then only while all believe this power to be infallible. The church of Rome only can make this claim with any consistency. The time for such claims, thank God, has for ever passed by. Nor is it desirable that we should think alike on religion more than on any other subject. We cannot preserve the unity of belief; we may however keep the unity of the spirit in the bond

of

peace. Amid these differences we may preserve our fellow-feelings bright and pure; we may learn to respect that faith, however mistaken, which bringeth forth good works; we may realize, if we please, that state of feelings, which might lead us in another world to look back on these differences with regret, and think of them as the shadows of a summer cloud, which for a short time has darkened our sun, but will then have passed rapidly away."

These are the remarks of a truly liberal, candid, and independent man. While he continues to respect the character of his pastor, he is not blind to so great a mistake as that which he has just committed, nor does

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