THE UNITARIAN is issued in monthly numbers, by JAMES MUNROE and Co., Cambridge, Mass. Each number will contain, on an average, 48 pages royal 12mo., i. e. octavo size], and be printed on good paper and with handsome type. The price will be two dollars per annum, payable on the first of March. To those who procure six subscribers a seventh copy will be furnished gratis. The usual discount to Agents. All letters and communications to be addressed to the publishers. Our Subscribers are reminded that payment becomes due on the receipt of this number. Gentlemen to whom subscription-papers were sent are respectfully requested to collect and forward to the publishers, James Munroe & Co., Cambridge, Mass., the amount due from the several subscribers whose names they have sent us. Our general list of Agents will be published as soon as it can be completed. It is our intention to notice all the books and pamphlets which we may receive, so far as they fall within the plan of our work. We would, therefore, respectfully request authors and publishers to forward to us copies of such publications. The Editors will hold themselves responsible for no articles except their own. JAMES MUNROE AND CO., are Publishers of the following works: Bryant's Poems. New edition, with Ad- Channing's Discourses. 3d ed. English Common-Law Reports, vol. 23. Good's Book of Nature, abridged, with Library of Entertaining Knowledge, No. 43. Martineau's Devotional Exercises. Memoir of Roger Williams. Memoir of John Cotton. Memoirs of Marshal Ney. Published by his Family. The founders of ancient religious systems were contented if they could procure the allegiance of single nations, and seem to have considered their systems strictly national,not as fitted for universal adoption. Jesus Christ first developed the noble plan of a universal religion. And we cannot but regard it as one of the strongest proofs of the divinity of his mission, that, while this grand conception appears never to have entered the mind of any ancient philosopher, statesman, or priest, it should have inspired the soul and directed the unremitted labours of a poor and illiterate peasant in an obscure and unenlightened corner of Asia. This idea of uniting all men as to their highest and most permanent interests, too vast, too majestically simple for the human mind, we are irresistibly led to attribute to divine wisdom. God, through Christ, has promulgated a system of religion which he designs for men of all nations and ages, and which, we think, must on examination commend itself as perfectly adapted to its purpose, and not only so, but as the only known religion which is fitted to become universal. We propose to point out some of those characteristics of Christianity which adapt it for universality, and which authorize the hope that it will one day subject all the kingdoms of the world to the Redeemer's sceptre. I. The first characteristic of Christianity which we shall mention is its adaptation to human nature. The founders of other religions have proceeded upon the presumption that all is not right in human nature, — that all man's innate appetites and propensities are not equally innocent, that not only his own evil creations, but a great part of his Creator's work is to be undone. Thus, some systems have required the mortification of the flesh, by renouncing the gratification of those appetites which were implanted for the preservation of our being; others, the surrender of domestic and social pleasures in themselves innocent and even virtuous; others, the confinement and degradation of that mind to which God has assigned no field narrower than immensity, no limit short of his own eternity. Now Christianity attempts no such change. It takes human nature as it came from the hands of the Creator, and recognises all its appetites, instincts, propensities, and powers as good in themselves and adapted to the production of good. It aims not to defeat, but to promote, the healthful developement of every principle of our nature, It establishes an equilibrium and a mutual subordination among all its constituent portions. It does for it the same service that is performed for the vegetable world by the united influence of the earth, the sun, and the shower, which do not pervert, but aid and complete, the designs of nature. Man is an animal being. He has appetites and functions which fit him for a residence in the material world and the enjoyment of material pleasures. Christ does not require the reckless renunciation of these pleasures, and of their medium, the body. He barely enjoins temperance, which is, in fact, the dictate, the demand, of nature. For without it health cannot be preserved; without it the zest of novelty must soon be lost; without it a temporary cessation of sensual enjoyment is misery. And Christ has farther shown himself the friend of human nature by assigning to the body, with its appetites, functions, and pleasures, its appropriate rank and sphere of usefulness. He has taught us that the body is the appointed means of spiritual discipline and improvement, inferior to the mind in dignity, subject to its control, unessential to its existence or its happiness. He thus attaches to it that relative value which will prompt his disciples to seek its gratifications without inordinate anxiety, to enjoy them temperately, and to forego or resign them cheerfully. He thus makes it subservient to the developement and cultivation of man's intellectual and moral powers, and therefore the -means of attaining more dignified and purer enjoyments than those of which a merely sentient being is susceptible. Thus is Christianity perfectly adapted to man's animal nature. Again, man is a social being. He is born a member of society, with numerous social connexions and interests. He is endowed with social affections and sympathies. Christ does not demand the abandonment of society, the dissolution of those bonds which connect us with our brethren, and a monastic seclusion from those whose friendship makes our joy. He, on the other hand, aids the designs of nature, by multiplying common interests, by cutting off the sources of jealousy and alienation, and subjecting social intercourse to the comprehensive law of universal love. He bids us regard each other, not as cotenants of the earth, but as coheirs of heaven, - not as fellow-travellers for a few days, but as companions for eternity, not as strangers casually connected, but as children of the same Father. He shows us that those distinctions of rank and fortune, which are so apt to alienate men from each other, are not and from their nature cannot be essential; that, with respect to their far-reaching and allimportant relations with God and eternity, the king and his meanest subject, the proprietor of millions and the beggar at his gate, are on the same level. He spreads over those sins, which are so apt to alienate us from our brethren, the mantle of charity. He establishes self-love as the measure of brotherly love. And, finally, he forbids us to look to death as the termination of our social relations; but gives us reason to hope that those friendships which Christian love here cements, will be formed anew and cherished forever in the light of God's countenance. Now it is undeniable that the interruption of our social connexions, while our social sympathies and wants remain, is one of the most fruitful sources of human misery; and that our nature demands: some bond of union over which space, time, sin, and death can have no power. This bond we have seen that Christianity supplies, and it is therefore adapted to man as a social being. Further, man is an intellectual being. He has powers which qualify him for the acquisition of knowledge and the investigation of truth. Christ does not repress the efforts of mental power, and chain the mind down to a few beggarly elements of knowledge or to an implicit faith in a few unintelligible propositions. He, on the other hand, supplies the wants of the mind. By making the body subservient to it, he removes the chief obstacles to its improvement, and furnishes it with an active and effective instrument for the acquisition of knowledge and strength. He regulates those |