Prospects of Unitarianism.

WE are not daunted by that seeming preponderance of Trinitarianism over our own views of the divine nature, which at present exists in the Christian world. There is much to encourage us in a review of the past, much, in the spirit of the age, much in the concurring tendencies of existing sects, and much more still in the character of our doctrine itself.

The progress of Unitarianism for the last hundred years, we do not presume to say, is miraculous, but, under every point of view, it is certainly astonishing. Far more reasonable would be the assertion of an immediate interference from heaven to explain this phenomenon, ,.than it is to account for those local excitements denominated revivals of religion. In the latter, an ignorance of the principles of human nature has ascribed to a direct divine agency what is merely the combined result of sympathy, of deeply excited personal fears, of the absence of political and other stimulants to enthusiasm, of a natural reaction from a long state of spiritual coldness and sloth, and of other

causes, which we may take some future opportunity to enumerate and illustrate. But in the progress of Unitarianism, we see it silently and humbly springing out in every unconnected quarter, like the other works of God. It has borrowed little aid from sympathy, for, alas, it has had to encounter the most violent antipathies. It has not been ushered up to its growth by the operation of personal fears, since a thousand times more efforts have been made to scare converts from its pale, than to draw them into it. It is not the child of passion, nor the nursling of sentimental enthusiasm, nor scarcely even now the object of any thing like combined and systematic efforts.

We make these statements simply by way of comparison, and not at all for the pharisaical purpose of really arrogating to ourselves any special protection from heaven. It is enough for us that the age of Christian miracles gave an impulse to the propagation of truth and holiness through all succeeding times. It is enough that Christ deposited the leaven in the mass of human nature, for we believe it will ferment there under the ordinary operations of Providence. It is enough that he dropt the mustard seed in the soil; we are assured that the plant will grow. The comforter, we believe, is still manifesting his gentle and beneficent influences, but it is by the instrumentality of a studied and preached gospel, and by the communication from man to man of such ideas and feelings as peculiarly belong to Christianity. That the Deity' altogether refrains from influencing the hearts of his rational creatures immediately, we are not so philosophical, so epicurean, as to affirm. But we should be glad to know what token he has given us, that the direct

operation of his spirit is more real in the crowd of a prayer-meeting, than in the closet of the incipient Unitarian, who bends over his Bible, and studies, and prays, and feels his mind opening into the marvellous light of truth, as calmly, as irresistibly, and as gladly, as the morning ushers in the day.

We can put our finger on four prominent places in the map of Christendom, where orthodoxy, since the era of the reformation, was planted with a strength and deepness, which mere human foresight would predict could never suffer it to be eradicated, but where the result has utterly baffled such prediction. We allude to Geneva, the realm of the despotic Calvinto the whole region between Poland and the Rhine, in which, wherever the reformation was established, the strict dogmas of Luther once almost universally prevailed to the Presbyterian Churches throughout England and Ireland-and lastly, to New England. Now contemplate, for a moment, the silent, yet mighty progress, which our views have developed just in those four regions on the globe, where alone Christianity has been partially or wholly released from her alliance with power, or where the religious principle, and the spirit of inquiry, have together and unimpeded exerted their energies. What Unitarian, on glancing at this picture, should be discouraged at seeing all the wealth, the learning, the exertions, the bitterness, and the zeal of orthodoxy, confederated around him, to multiply missionaries, to found theological institutions, and to plant churches, for the sake of perpetuating doctrines, which do violence to scripture and reason? Look at the past, we say, and judge by that of the future.

A few years ago, Unitarians used to predict, though not very earnestly or emphatically, that the efforts of orthodox missionaries in India, so far as they were successful at all, would sooner or later terminate in the establishment there of Unitarianism. But did our most sanguine anticipations imagine that a Rammohun Roy would so soon feel his way alone through the system of Christianity presented to him, till he should arrive nearly at what we believe the simplicity of the gospel? Did we expect that the propagandists of orthodoxy itself would so soon write home, as they have already done, to their employers in England, and profess their conversion to the Unitarian faith? Did we look forward to the institution in India itself of two or three congregations, where pure Unitarian Christianity is adopted and inculcated?

To come home again, and survey the progress of our cause in single neighbourhoods. In any given spot where Unitarianism has arisen for the last few years, what changes and fluctuations of feeling with respect to it have come within the experience of every one at all interested! How have we learned to bear the brunt of the storm, which obloquy, bigotry, and false zeal, have blown with an infuriated blast against us! In many places, the name of Unitarian is already beginning to become honourable, where, but a short time since, he who dared to assume it did it only at the expense of a suspicious and withered reputation. A Unitarian chaplain has already proclaimed the simplicity of the gospel within the walls of our central capitol. In vain have pulpits denounced us-and private circles hunted us down-and Bible societies refused our subscriptions-and hypocrites started back with an

affected and glowering shudder on learning at what church we worshipped-and little children been encouraged to scoff at our little children;—we are every where holding up our heads; the public clamour no longer makes us half believe we have done wrong, and almost inquire of ourselves whether we have not been picking pockets, instead of comparing scriptural texts; the films on the eyes of our adversaries are loosening, if not absolutely dropping off; hatred is softening into respect, and the spirit of exclusion is melting into that of toleration. This happy process, it is true, is as yet very far from being perfected every where, or perhaps any where; but he must be a superficial observer of the course of public opinion, who does not perceive the tide, on the whole, making against intolerance, as surely as the ocean tide advances up the shore.

And all this was to be expected, as we intimated in the beginning of these remarks, from our second source of encouragement, the spirit of the age. Unitarians calculate much on this. Mere authority bears nothing like the sway which it once did. The sentimental worshippers of antiquity are growing fewer in number, and are learning to value religion for its essence, rather than for its rust. Or, should this poetical class of believers continue to flourish, Unitarianism, even though it could not claim, as we hold that it can, the character of the only true antiquarian form of Christianity, is yet every day increasing its recommendations on this score, and two or three hundred years hence, it will exhibit as beautiful and imposing an antiquity, as any sect now does, with the exception of the Roman Catholic alone. That active curiosity, which is pushing its researches into every other