spell of intolerance and bigotry. No. Then let the name be heard no more, as the designation of a place of worship, or of an organized sect. Then let the powerful majority, by dropping the use of its past appellation, amalgamate with itself in feeling those who yet remain divided from it in opinion, and no name but that of Christian be known in the temples raised to the honour of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. S. G. BULFINCH.

Means of Providing the Cure and Preventing the Spread of

Infidelity.

[Concluded from page 421.]

WE proceed to our last topic and inquire, 1. What means for preventing the spread of Infidelity are suggested by a consideration of the personal power of the Christian. We speak here of the direct influence exerted by the mind of the Christian over the mind of the Infidel. In the exertion of that influence in what light shall the Infidel be regarded? As Philanthropists we are to engage in a work of love, as Philanthropists we are to look upon the Infidel in the light not so much of a guilty as of an unfortunate being. All moral evil, so far as we are called on to act in regard to it, should be considered rather in the light of a misfortune than in that of a sin. We stand not here or anywhere as the judges of men, it is not our special duty here or anywhere to guage and measure the depth of irreligion and crimes, to pass sentence on those illdeserts which Omniscience alone can estimate, and Infinite Justice alone consider rightly. So far as we do consider the sinfulness of any course of conduct or set of principles we are to consider it in reference entirely to the further object of our benevolent action. Moreover we are to regard and treat the Infidel as a friend, a brother, and an equal. We are not to speak in the tone of spiritual authority, we are not to assume the air of chosen champions for defending the laws of God. We are not to appear as if occupying any fancied eminence of virtue, but, in the expression already used, we are to stand towards the Infidel in the relation of friends, of brothers, of equals. We desire to insist upon this,-there has been so much Infidelity created and so much Infidelity confirmed by a course of treatment the opposite to that of which we are speaking.

Still further that influence of the Christian upon the Infidel mind, which is to be most efficient, is the influence of direct personal communication from individual to individual. This direct action between the minds of believers and those of unbelievers is at once the most obvious, the most powerful and the most neglected of all the means of counteracting Infidelity. This moral power of the living conscience is the most irresistible of all powers. There is no baseness of degradation that can shield itself, if it would, from the influence of that lofty holiness of the breathing man, which is brought to act through deep sympathy upon it. The uneasy conscience of the wretched sinner directs his eye even against his will to the high example. There is a charm in it which he cannot resist, -a spell binds all his faculties as if his probation were about to be ended, his power of choice and action taken away,and as if that conscience which he has been deadening in the low pursuits of the world, and searing in the heat of his own fiery passions, were already commencing those torments which must punish the ill-spent life.-The action of such a lofty mind upon the feelings of the sinner may be regarded as virtually a rebuke and sentence upon sin, as the decision of a voiceless tribunal premonitory of that future sentence of threatened condemnation which a higher tribunal will pronounce. Oh,that this first decision might more frequently avert the last! "Without the Law," says Paul, "sin was dead." Now this direct influence of the Christian's mind embodies the Law, and gives it fresh life and a double energy. And because the Law is not applied to their hearts in this living shape, sin is dead in thousands. By such influence upon the mind of the spiritual Infidel the revelation is made to fall upon it like a burning light, and to scatter the mists of self-deception.

We have no doubt that these suggestions as to the spirit in which we should undertake this great work will meet the views of society, yet in order that the path of duty in a matter so important may be as plain before us as possible, perhaps we may be permitted to speak very briefly of the consequences that result when that work is carried on in a different temper,-when Christians leave Unbelievers entirely to themselves, open upon them their battery of argument and reproach from a distance, and seem to determine that whether they live or die they shall live or die under the Infidel standard. What are the consequences, then, of this spirit and this action in regard to Unbelievers as a body and as individuals?

1. How will Infidels be affected as a body? Let the higher orders of society, let the great mass of respectable men withdraw from any particular class of the community, and that class is of course thrown back from all other classes upon itself. The individuals which compose it strengthen each other in their common character and common pursuits with a common sympathy, especially, if, in addition to this line of division between the public generally and these despised men, they are attacked with persecution and reproach, they will be compressed into a systematic, thoroughly organized, and thoroughly disciplined company, a company ever strengthening itself with new accessions by means of that sympathy which real distresses and just complaints have occasioned.-Now the Infidels of the present day and especially in this country, are such that by their own energy they could never come to constitute a consistent and solid phalanx arrayed against Christianity. The congregation of the Infidel preacher would naturally be even more than now a floating, unsteady, unsympathetic congregation. But if Christians, instead of opposing Infidels as a body, and compelling them to defend themselves in a body, would act upon them by that individual influence which we have recommended, and not as disputatious partisans, but as the kindest of friends, Unbelief, having in itself no essential unity of character and strength, would be resolved into its original elements, the junction of its parts would be completely destroyed, and we might hope that private labour and private love would shortly succeed in checking its progress. There would be no armies of Infidelity to attack if the only weapons used by Christians were "the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith and the helmet of Salvation.”—Infidelity must be a cold unsocial thing to every man's feelings, for it is adapted to no man's nature. With this icy weight at their bosoms men surely cannot feel any the more inclined to gladden each other's hearts in the full gush of a mutual sympathy. Unbelievers may rejoice in each other's sympathy when they are the objects of a fiery persecution,—but that they can bring each the solitary dissatisfaction of his own heart, each the rebuke of his own conscience, the thwarting of his own desires, the calling down of his own soul from a heavenly hope and a heavenly flight to a narrow place opened in the soil of this dim and narrow earth, each his extinction of every bright image of the past and glorious vision of futurity in the darkness of that narrow place, that they can regard all these things as presenting a fit occasion for the joy of their mutual sympathy, that they can rejoice greatly in the conviction that they

have but a few days to rejoice in, we cannot force ourselves to believe. Infidels cannot congratulate each other that they are Infidels. They may have a reciprocal delight in their mutual support of each other against what they regard as a common foe, they may congratulate each other that priestcraft, as they call it, vainly strives to fix its fetters upon them, they may mutually rejoice that they have spurned from them those whom they regard as the tyrants of the human mind, but they cannot feel and express a mutual joy that they have rejected every principle of a religious faith, and if the the course recommended be pursued most surely these other occasions of joy will be taken from them. Infidelity is not satisfied with itself. It would not be revealed to itself. It glories in what it is not, and is ashamed of what it is. It loathes its own deformity. These remarks of course do not apply to all Infidelity. They would come near to having this universal application were Christianity perfectly free from corruptions in the minds and lives of her advocates, and were her doctrines rationally promulgated to the world. Infidelity and vice would then, in Christian lands, be nearly synonymous terms. For another reason Infidelity would not naturally possess the strength of united action against Christianity. There are devoted to its support none or very few of those master-spirits, those examples of intellectual and moral glory, which give strength and consistency to any cause. There are certainly no great lights before which those of other men "stand still." Christianity has risen to the loftiest rank of mind, and is extending her power down through every gradation of intellect and character to the lowest. She is every moment raising sinners from the mire of sensuality into her heavenly light. Infidelity has the highest region of her intellect in a comparatively low and dark place and she is constantly descending. Christianity made truly pure and truly rational would always and in every place check her triumphs.

2. We can say but a word of the effect which a spirit of reproach and persecution displayed by the Christian must have on the unbeliever as an individual. We may however describe it briefly in remarking that it keeps him in unbelief. Such a spirit only gives greater activity to those internal causes of unbelief which consist in bad passions and perverted judgments of truth. The object should be to give the predominance to his high principles and noble affections. Moreover we compel him to regard us as enemies. Loud and frequent as declarations of real friendship and good-will may

be, with such a spirit we shall appear to him as enemies. In such a case good professions are but reacting forces. The consequence of course will be to increase his hostility towards us, our brethren, and the cause we mutually support. But with the opposite spirit we should have an opposite result. Christian Intellect made active and powerful by Christian Love, addressing its appeal to the highest capacities and best affections of every opposer of the Christian Faith, must disperse the darkness from every Infidel's mind as mists are scattered before the morning sun. Christianity thus made operative becomes self-luminous. Like a pure and strong conscience it bears its testimony in itself. And if it go forth thus to enlighten and cheer the world, no man can escape its radiance, no man can pluck it from its sphere. What then is the sum of that which by our personal action we are to do against Infidelity and for the Infidel? What is the motto by which we should guide ourselves in contending for "the Faith once delivered to the Saints." Permit us to propose the following,-Personal Holiness, Religious Activity, Christian Love.

1. Could there have been any doubt as to the first of these qualities we should have already spoken of it, not only particu- larly, but above and almost in exclusion of all things else. If the corruptions of Christianity make some Infidels, the corruptions of the Christian make more. Christianity rests on the holiness of her advocates. Take this away and her walls crumble and her empire declines. Would any one so exert his strength, as to strike at Infidelity the deadliest blow in his power. Let him increase the virtue of his own soul.

2. Yet our holiness must have in outward nativity an expres sion of its inward life. Christian intellect and Christian goodness unfelt by the world, so far as the world is concerned, are nothing but unapplied powers; they are like undiscovered principles in nature. To us the direction to be active comes with emphasis. We have something to say on the question whether our particular faith, whether Unitarianism is to be anything more than an idea, a principle, an abstraction, a scheme. May our lives answer it rightly.

3. Yet, lastly, this activity must be prompted and attended, it must be assisted and sanctified, it must be made powerful and acceptable, by deep Christian sympathy and love.-Let us consider then,

1. That, in the treatment of Infidelity, violent means used as remedies serve only to confirm the disease which has fast