persons, in all those questions and interests, which lie out of their peculiar province.

Such is the condition of human life. We are so constituted and so situated in this world, that we must take much upon trust. We must have faith in each other. Without it the business and the intercourse of life must stop. The few gleams of light, which we can call our own, are not sufficient to direct us, and if we would pursue our way in safety, we must borrow and appropriate the light of others. We must depend on their trustworthiness; on the confidence we place in them; in one word, we must act upon authority, where and whensoever, and it is almost everywhere and always, that our own knowledge is deficient. Now it is just so in religion. Here, too, where our personal knowledge fails us, and it is at best but a glowworm's light, we must act on the guidance of other minds. All that we can do here, as in the common affairs of life, is to ascertain, as well as we can, the ability and probity of our guides, and then follow their leading. Nor need we greatly mistake in this. The marks of trustworthiness are easily known. "The way

faring man, though a fool, need not err therein." Even children understand them well. Men are not often deceived, except through their over-easiness or willingness to be deceived. Truth and reality always bear their own divine impress, and they are recognised at once by the mind, as light is by the outward eye. In the strain of life, what is weak and unsubstantial gives way; and in the wear and tear of events, what is merely glossy and superficial is soon worn off. Since then, in religion, as in the affairs of common life, we must, in a great degree, depend on the knowledge and truthfulness of others, so God has given to us the capacity of recognising the marks of these in the concerns of religion, as in all things else. He has put his seal upon them, and none need fail to recognise it.

And now to apply these remarks to the subject before us, all this is emphatically true of the great instruction of the Gospel, and of the Great Instructer, Jesus Christ. He makes us to depend on the credibility and authority of the teacher here, as in the common concerns of life; but as the instruction is above and beyond all human knowledge and experience, and is, moreover, of unspeakable concernment, he has superadded to all those other marks of truthfulness and probity, which irresistibly inspire our confidence in ordinary affairs, the great, the infallible seal of a divine commission, that is, miracles; works which none

could do, unless God were with him; the impress of the Divine Authority; the authentic token of the Divine Presence; the universally intelligible signet of the Divine Hand. Thus, though the message may be one whose discoveries are amazing, whose directions are absolute and uncompromising, whose sanctions. are startling; though, as a whole, it may fill the mind with wonder, astonishment, and awe; yet we hesitate not, for an instant, to receive it, for we recognise therein the Heavenly Voice; we see the proofs of a Divine Interposition; the seal, the impress, the token, the signet of Almighty God are there, and we believe and adore.

We cannot but add to these remarks that the human soul needs this high and authoritative instruction; needs it for its guidance, needs it for its support, needs it, in both respects, in the strong sense of want. This has often been adverted to by serious and truly earnest minds, and cannot be too strongly stated. Men, left to the suggestions and intuitions and inferences of their own unaided minds, have even lost themselves in doubts, perplexities, and errors. The question of Pilate, "What is truth?" they have asked at a thousand earthly oracles, but have only been further confused by the various and contradictory responses which have been given. They have achieved high success in the arts which minister to the sense of beauty; they have made sure attainments in the exact sciences; they have drained dry the sources of merely animal enjoyment; but the inner wants of the spirit of man were not met; the thirst of the soul, for a true and satisfying good, was not slaked. How unspeakable, then, is the privilege of having an authentic guide in the great questions of religious faith and duty. These baffle the highest reach of the unassisted human intellect. Intimations we have, indeed, of their true solution; and when resolved by the light of the gospel, the mind yields to it, in glad and grateful acquiescence. But relating as these inquiries do to the character of God, his government, his designs in regard to man, his interest in us as individuals, the terms of his acceptance of us, and our future destination; they can be fully answered only as He sees fit to reveal them. This is true in regard to the highest human intellect. The most gifted sages of antiquity deeply felt this, and sighed for further light, and sighed in vain. And if this were the fact in regard to minds like these, what must, of necessity, be the condition of the great mass of men? Let the spiritual condition of the whole heathen world answer VOL. XXXII. 3D s. VOL. XIV. NO. II.

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this question. Let the mental and moral condition of those ever since, who have questioned or denied the truth of Christianity, answer this question. Let our own minds, restless, darkened, dissatisfied, seeking light from every other source, and baffled in all, answer this question. Let our hearts, sighing for repose, and the blessedness of a sure support, but finding none in their own resources, or in the broad earth around them, answer this question. Let our hopes, let our fears, let our misgivings under a sense of guilt and conscious need of pardon, answer this question. Yes, the best minds, all minds, feel the inevitable necessity of a light and help beyond their own resources, and they can only find it in an authoritative revelation from God Almighty; in precisely such a revelation as He, in his mercy, has given by Jesus Christ, his own dear and highly commissioned Son. Shall we not then prize this "great salvation," which thus meets all the deeper and more intimate necessities of the soul, and one which is authenticated by nothing less, and we would reverently use the expression, than the sign-manual of the Eternal Father of all ?

But this need is yet more keenly felt in the night of affliction, when all merely human support proves treacherous, and human succor fails; when the mind is overwhelmed by the pressure of outward ills, and yet more crushed with a sense of its own helplessness. Then, it requires, beyond all power of expres sion, a brighter light and a better help, than can be found in its own dark, feeble, questioning results. Then its own speculations, and reasonings, and suggestions, and intuitions are found to be untrustworthy. Then it instinctively seeks for guidance and aid beyond itself. Then, in filial awe, it gladly looks towards that full-orbed light that has arisen with "healing in its beams;" then in grateful submission it turns with the ardent and impulsive apostle to Jesus, and says, "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Thus "In weariness,

In disappointment, or distress,

When strength decays, or hope grows dim,

We ever may recur to Him,

Who has the golden oil divine,

Wherewith to feed our failing urns,

Who watches every lamp, that burns

Before his sacred shrine."

We have thus endeavored to explain and illustrate the authority, which Jesus Christ imperatively claims for himself, and

which is distinctly ascribed to him, by his immediate disciples and followers, in the Christian Scriptures, and particularly his authority as a divinely commissioned Teacher. We have endeavored to show that his peculiar mode of teaching, its direct effect, and the authentication of miracles to which he appealed, all concur to confirm his claim, as an authoritative and infallible Teacher sent of God. We have referred to the facts of the importance and need of such an authority to recommend and enforce the truths he taught; that it is only by authority of some kind, considered as distinct from the ordinary modes of moral suasion, that the minds of the great mass of men can be operated upon at all; that this mode of teaching is precisely analogous to that pursued by God in teaching most things else to man; and that we all experience the deep necessity of such a kind of instruction, both for our guidance and support, in such a world as this. And we now add, in taking leave of the subject, what indeed is an inevitable inference from these positions, that this Authority of Jesus is the all-concerning Fact of his religion; that without this, its peculiar force and significance are destroyed, and all its revelations, precepts, and sanctions are little more than a solemn trifling. Yes, we repeat it, the divine Authority of Jesus Christ, as a Teacher sent of God, is the all-concerning Fact of the religion of Christians. If he be nothing else than a good and wise man, with only a little more of that natural light which belongs to us all, then, indeed, may all the Heralds of his Gospel say, with the apostle, "is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." If men may reject his peculiar claims, correct his presumed mistakes, instruct him in his ignorance, rejudge his judgments, repudiate his teachings, just so far as they do not happen to coincide with the intuitions and suggestions of their own minds; if they, in fine, virtually Christless, may thus make themselves to be Christs, then we must say, with Mary, "they have taken away from our Christianity the Lord, and we know not where they have laid him." They have taken from our faith its great and distinctive principle; its power, its vitality are gone; its spirit is departed; and nothing remains of it but a dead letter. But

we have not so learned Christ." We have been taught in another school. We have sat at the feet of another Teacher. We have long been glad, in gratitude and meekness, to listen to Jesus," as one having authority," and rejoice to believe, that for this high purpose, among others, "God hath highly exalted

him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

ART. H.

J. B.

History and Prospects of Unitarianism considered with regard to the general Laws of a Religious Reform.*

IT has been of late a common opinion among Unitarians, that some changes were about to take place in the denomination. Those, who have expressed this opinion, have for the most part declared themselves unable to foresee precisely in what these changes were to consist, except that they were to be accompanied with manifestations of greater religious sensibility and warmer devotional feeling. These expressions have come from persons differing widely in education, habits, and opinions, of the most opposite characters, of all occupations and professions, of all degrees of temperature in religion from zeal to indifference, and often in localities so distant from each other, that the opinion or feeling could scarcely have been propagated from one to the other, but seemed wholly original in each, and wholly independent of any contagious influence whatever.

There may be something in the state of a denomination, differing from the usual and natural state of Christian denominations, to be attributed to peculiar and temporary circumstances, and to pass away with them. This may be distinctly perceived by some, and indistinctly felt by others. Thus, for instance, Christian sects have generally a certain amount of religious enthusiasm, which seems necessary to their existence, and manifests itself in certain modes of action. The absence of this in any denomination may be accounted for by situations and circumstances, which render its absence as natural as its presence would be in other cases. While its absence is natural, the want of this enthusiasm is not felt; but when

The substance of this article was a report to a meeting of gentlemen in April, 1840.