CONTENTS. I. THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, AND THE DUTY OF THE UNITARIAN CLERGY IN RELATION TO IT An Address, read before the Ministerial Conference in Boston, May 29, 1850. By George W. Burnap, II. MAHOMET THE PROPHET OF ARABIA, AND BONIFACE THE 1. Mahomet and his Successors. By Washington Irving. 2. The Life and Religion of Mohammed, as contained in the Sheeah Traditions of the Hyât-ul-Kuloob. Translated from the Persian, by James L. Merrick. The Sixteenth Annual Report of the Executive Commit- tee of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches. IV. SYDNEY SMITH'S SKETCHES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, delivered at 2. A Manual of Prayer for Public or Private Worship. 3. Service Book, for the Use of the Church of the Dis- 4. Service Book for the Church of the Saviour. - Everett's Professor Park's Discourse, - Whipple's Fourth of July Oration, Dr. Allen's Essay on the Opium Trade, - Quincy's Memoir of John Bromfield, Boston Shakspeare, Gallery of Illustrious Ameri- cans, Smith's Moral Philosophy, - The Earth and Literary Intelligence. - Death of Neander, Addresses, Commencement at Harvard College, Phi Beta Kappa Society, The Dublin Review on Religious Intelligence. — Theological School at Mead- THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER AND RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY. SEPTEMBER, 1850. ART. I.—THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, AND THE DUTY OF THE UNITARIAN CLERGY IN RELATION TO IT. [An Address, read before the Ministerial Conference in Boston, May 29, 1850. By GEORGE W. BURNAP, D. D.] THE arrangement which has been made to secure at least one address to this conference each year, on some theological subject, has my entire approbation. It seems to me to be demanded by our position, both as seekers and defenders of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is due to ourselves, not only as ministers of the Gospel, but as in-, tellectual and studious men, already pledged by our ordination vows and our individual convictions, to devote our best powers to the promotion of theological science, the true knowledge of God, of Christ, of our duty, and our destiny. It is demanded of us by the position we occupy before the world. We have presumed to dissent from some of the leading dogmas of the great body of the Christian world, to demolish, so to speak, the theological edifice which ages have been building up. Its scattered materials lie all about us. The world has a right to demand of us that we do not stop here. They have a right to ask of us that we reconstruct those materials; and, moreover, that we raise up a more perfect and beautiful structure than that which we pull down. VOL. XLIX. 4TH S. VOL. XIV. NO. II. 15 Short of this they will not be satisfied, and, moreover, they will hold us guilty of a species of sacrilege, in having destroyed that which we are unable to replace. The human mind demands something positive; it must have a system of theology; and if the sects of Protestantism cannot furnish one, it will go back blindfold into the Church of Rome, and learn by heart the scholastic dogmas of the Dark Ages. I wish to impress upon the younger members of the clerical profession the necessity of the study of theology for their own sakes, for the growth, expansion, and discipline of their own minds. A clergyman's life, of all others, ought to be one of perpetual progress. His talents are given him, not that he may hide them in a napkin and bury them in the earth, but that they may be increased; the two talents must grow into two talents more, and he that hath five must not rest satisfied till he has added to them five talents besides. There is really no satisfactory reason why a clergyman should not go on to improve as long as he lives, or at least till his faculties are benumbed by the hebetude of old age. But what do we too often see? A youth of promise succeeded by mediocrity in later years, or, even worse than this, an actual decline of intellectual and moral power before the physical system gives any sign of decay. The years of academic life are usually marked by rapid advancement. An impetus is acquired which usually lasts for a considerable distance into professional life. Why is it not kept up? So we see a vessel launched. It slides down its artificial pathway, and enters upon its future element with a rush, not without clapping of hands and shouts of gratulation. But she is merely launched. That extraneous and artificial force which she gets but once, and never can renew, cannot suffice her for the shortest voyage. She has resistance to overcome; but, with neither sails to help her, nor the force of imprisoned elements to impel her on, her motion becomes less and less, till at last she stops, and idly dances on the waves, or floats back towards the shore. Such is the history of too many clergymen. In a few years their academic impetus is spent. They cease to make any new acquisitions; they even begin to lose the freshness of their original professional attainments, and be come incapable either of leading other minds, or maintaining that respect which is absolutely necessary to their usefulness in the Church. And why is this? The main cause is the abandonment of elementary studies. There is no growth of mind without these. The great reason why the years of academic life are marked by such rapid advancement is, that the mind is constantly exercised in elementary studies. The greatest proficients in music, those prodigies, as they are regarded by the world, who move whole cities by their coming, and hold multitudes as if bound by a spell of enchantment, pass a considerable part of each day in practising the gamut, and in making themselves familiar with the simplest principles of their art. So in the graver pursuits of the clergyman, the indispensable condition of continued improvement is constant recurrence to elementary studies,-to theology, and those branches of knowledge and accomplishment which are subsidiary to it, metaphysics, ethics, Biblical criticism, and the classics. In order to grow, the mind must grapple with subjects which task its powers to the full, just as the athlete makes it a point of discipline to strain his muscles every day to their utmost capacity. He who abandons elementary studies necessarily ceases to grow. The clergyman is under strong temptations to do this. He finds it an easier and more agreeable employment to read reviews and miscellaneous literature. He may satisfy his conscience with this apology for mental application, but it produces on him the inevitable effect of weakening his powers, and incapacitating his mind for taking broad, deep, original, or thorough views of any thing. With such habits, if he do not dwindle, he will not advance. But the probability is, that the mischief will not stop here. Nothing is easier than for a clergyman to waste a day in pursuits apparently literary and legiti mate, but which are in fact useless, if not pernicious. And how many days are thus wasted in desultory employments, in mere dread and aversion of the tug and toil of real study, of thorough investigation, of original thought, of patient elaboration! But things may even wax worse. Reviews and light literature may become too heavy and laborious, and the academical alumnus may round his literary career by reading the daily and |