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sublime, but which, we doubt not, under the guidance of Infinite Wisdom and Love, will eventually lead to the happiness and exaltation of our race. It also beholds great principles of Moral Reform urged with an earnestness, and received by multitudes with a fervour, which fill us with the brightest anticipations respecting "the good time coming." Never before in the world's history, were such endeavours made to advocate the sacred causes of Education, Peace, Temperance, Mercy mingled with Justice in the treatment of wrong doers, and generally the elevation, physically, intellectually, and morally, of the great masses of the people. Of all these instruments for raising our brethren, none appears to us more important than the TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. It seems to be a pre-requisite to the appearance and success of all the others. It is the Pioneer who must level the hills, exalt the valleys, bridge the rivers, and hew paths through trackless forests, before the march of the others can be effectually proceeded with against sin and sorrow, "conquering and to conquer." Temperance appears to be the root, whence, if it find a genial soil in society, if it be watered by selfdenial, if there beam upon it the beautiful sunlight of sacrifice for others' good, if there breathe over it the delicious airs born of aspirations after other's well-being, will produce abundantly, as its proper branches, and as its natural fruit, Education, and Peace, and Enfranchisement, and Self-culture, and hundred other moralities.

Nothing keeps the Working Classes especially, down so completely, so hopelessly, as their attachment to Strong Drink, countenanced and patronized as it is by the example, though admittedly not so flagrant, of the classes immediately above them. We are ourselves convinced, that no reduction of taxation, however extensive, that no prosperity of trade, however enduring, that no augmentation of wages, however permanent, that no supply of the necessaries of life, however abundant, that no extension of political privileges, however universal, can materially improve, either the corporeal or the social condition of the great body of our countrymen, so long as they devote so large a portion of their earnings to Intoxicating Beverages: Will it be credited, and yet it is a truth undeniable as it is appalling, that Sixty millions of Pounds sterling are spent annually, in these kingdoms, in purchasing the means of this one contemptible and often brutal indulgence? If this vast pile of wealth were poured into the blazing crater of Etna, if it were "drowned in the

depth of the sea," we should not so loudly complain, nor should we so deeply lament. But we do not give it away for nought; and what do we get in exchange? Enormous loss of property, and of time, and of health, and of intellect, and of morality, and of piety; and equally enormous acquisition of suffering, and disease, and ignorance, and crime, and irreligion. The working men's share of this outlay, which must amount to nearly thirty millions, would enable them at once to educate their own children, to connect themselves with our Mechanics' Institutions, to attend to sanitary measures, to provide themselves with comfortable homes, to be really independent, and possessed of self-respect, and thereby also of the respect of others, and to procure each man for himself, without any new legislation on the subject, a voice in framing the laws by which they are governed. When our people become a sober, or rather, as far as intoxicating draughts are concerned, an abstinent people; when that day arrives, but we much fear not till then, may we expect to see our in other respects highly favoured Island, become the "merrie England" which poets and romancers fable her to have been in the days of medieval twilight. Well, then, does it become the Working Classes especially to know, that all reforms must have their birth from within; that, if they seek elevation, they must, and they can, and they should elevate themselves. It also becomes the Middle Classes, by the influence, not only of their exhortations, but what is infinitely more effective, of their example, to aid their humble brethren to heave off their shoulders this mountainous weight which now crushes them to the earth. Particularly does it seem incumbent on those who profess to teach others the way that leads, through Christ, to the Infinite Father, to withstand the greatest vice of our land and times, inasmuch as it is the hideous and prolific parent of nine tenths of the other crimes which prevail. Unitarians, and Unitarian Ministers have not stood aloof from this great movement, nor from any other; but while we admit and record the fact with rejoicing, we should like to see them occupy the position to which both their principles and their acknowledged philanthropy entitle them, nearer the head of the Temperance army. By no means with which we are acquainted, would our ministers especially recommend, with such effect, our beautiful theology to the respect and regard of the great mass of the community. Moreover, one of the sweetest of earthly joys is the consciousness, that, by denying ourselves

a pleasure or a comfort, we are preventing a weaker brother from falling into the gulf of ruin.

R. E. B. M.

AN HOUR WITH THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD;

OB,

GLEANINGS FROM DR. HAMPDEN'S WORKS.

DIALECTICAL Science established that peculiar phraseology which we now use, in speaking of the Sacred Trinity as Three Persons and One God.-Bampton Lectures, p. 130.

The whole discussion [on the Blessed Trinity] was fundamentally dialectical. p. 104.

No one can pretend to that exactness of thought on the subject of the Holy Trinity, on which our technical language is based.-p. 150. There is much of the language of Platonism in the speculation on the generation of the Son, and the procession of the Holy Spirit.p. 117.

The orthodox language, declaring the Son "begotten before all worlds of one substance (sic) with the Father," was settled by a philosophy wherein the principles of different sciences were confounded.p. 137.

The divine part of Christianity is its facts; the received statements of doctrines are only episodic additions, some out of infinite theories which may be raised on the texts of Scripture.-p. 390.

The application of the term punishment to the sacrifice of our Saviour belongs to the Aristotelic philosophy.-p. 250.

The bane of this philosophy of expiation was, that it depressed the power of man too low.-p. 253.

Christ is emphatically said to be our Atonement, not that we may attribute to God any change of purpose towards man by what Christ has done, but that we may know (sic) that we have passed from the death of sin to the life of righteousness by Him (sic).-Ib.

Atonement, in its true practical sense, expresses the fact that we cannot be at peace without some consciousness of Atonement made, not that God may forgive us, but that we may forgive ourselves.— p. 252.

The notions on which the several expressions of the Articles at large, and in particular of the Nicene and Athanasian creeds are founded, are both unphilosophical and unscriptural, belong to ancient theories of philosophy, and are only less obviously injurious to the simplicity of Faith than those which they exclude.-p. 378.

The speculative language of the Creeds was admitted into the Church of England, as established by the Reformers, before the genius of Bacon exposed the emptiness of the system which the

schools had palmed upon the world as the only instrument for the discovery of all truth.-Ib.

The Orthodox ought to have contented themselves with the name of original sin, to designate the moral fact of the tendency (sic) to sin, in human nature. p. 224.

A positive deterioration of our carnal nature is a scholastic notion. -p. 225.

The idea, that the corruption of nature exists in infants, is the result of theory.—p. 221.

The notion that faith is a source of the knowledge of God, is derived from an Electic philosophy, in which the mysticism of Plato was blended with the analytic method of Aristotle.-p. 80.

The conception produced in the mind by speaking of grace operating and co-operatiny, grace preventing and following, is very erroneous. p. 187.

The doctrine of the Sacraments is based upon the mystical philosophy of secret agents in nature, Christianized.-p. 314, 15.

The assertion of a real and true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, resulted from the original Platonism of the Church.―p. 72.

The use of expressions, being made a "member of the body of Christ," or being "incorporated" ("engrafted into the Church," Art. xxvii.,) as equivalent, is owing to the confusion of ideas prevalent in the early church on the subject of baptism.-p. 324, 5.

The decision as to the intrinsic efficacy of the right of baptism, can be only speculation.—p. 344.

Unitarians, in that they acknowledge the great fundamental facts of the Bible, do not really differ in religion from other Christians.Observ. pp. 20, 21.

Revelation teaches only that God has manifested himself relatively to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.—Sup.

We are not to take the words or propositions written by the inspired writers, as the substance of the revelation, instead of looking to the authenticated dealings of God in the world.-Observ., p. 14, (first edition).

All opinion, as such, is involuntary in its nature. It is only a fallacy to invest dissent in religion, with the awe of the objects about which it is conversant.-Observ., p. 5.

Granting, for the sake of argument, that the dogmas of the Church are precisely what they were in the earliest age of Christianity; or that such a coincidence, if it existed, would be a test of a perfect theology (which I do not admit), it is evident, at any rate, on examination, that a great deal of the false philosophy of former times is involved in the expressions which convey them.-Observ.

REVIEW.

Death Punishment Indefensible; Man forbidden by God to take Man's life. By John Green. London, J. Chapman; Birmingham, Belcher, Allen, Osborne, Guest.

THIS is a plain, honest, commonsense, Scriptural appeal on the important subject to which it relates. It was delivered to the Congregation assembling in New Hall Hill Unitarian Church, Birmingham, a congregation founded by individuals long engaged in Sunday School teaching, and mainly ministered to by them. Amongst the most active and persevering of this energetic and praiseworthy band, has been the Author of this discourse, and we are happy to meet him in this field of labour also, as we have rejoiced to cooperate with him and his coadjutors in their other works of Christian usefulness.

The subject of Death Punishment for crimes in contravention of human law, is one in which we have ever taken deep interest. To our minds such punishment is barbarous, irrational and unchristian. Multitudinous facts prove its utter inutility in deterring from the commission of crime. It is at best but a bungling expedient on the part of Society to get rid of the criminal, and give itself no further trouble about the matter. The pernicious consequences to which it gives rise are great and flagrant. It has often had the effect of nurturing crime instead of destroying it. It has demoralized thousands. It has sanctioned vengeance, and repudiated mercy. It has set at nought the rightful objects of punishment, and sacrificed life at the expense of amendment and reformation. It is a violation of the Christian law, and an infringement on the prerogative of God. In every possible way has the truth of these assertions been demonstrated; argument has been exhausted on the subject, and yet strange to say, there are those who cling to Death Punishment and its melancholy exhibitions, with revolting tenacity, and law and Gospel are still strained to its upholding, whilst Authority defeated in argument contents itself with saying, It must be, and relying on its pliant majority in Halls of legislation, for a season sets at defiance right, and truth, and justice, and fact.

Therefore is it of importance that the subject should continue to be presented to the public investigation, and this discourse of Mr. Green's is a useful addition to the array of evidence which has been brought to bear upon it. Others have thought so as well as ourselves, for "several hearers of

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