aims of life. And it is for the attainment of such t that most of the labor and struggle of this mad world directed. Even where business efforts seek ends tha not wholly as base as these, it is too seldom that the elevated to the high plane of duty, spirituality or reli The great tendency of the public mind, therefor earthward, not heavenward. And as sordid habits their channels in the soul for the flow of thought and ing, the higher realities of existence are not regar and churches are uncared for, except as they ministe the pleasures of the passing hour. Thus the pulpit be very popular and the sermon very exciting, or mind of the hearer will be in his warehouse or count room, or his body enjoying a comfortable repose.

I have thus spoken of the decline of pulpit attraction general terms, and suggested a few of the more promin general causes of it. There are, however, certain pe liar causes existing in different denominations, whic would call attention to briefly, before closing this a cle. If I am not greatly deceived, the growing unpo larity of the Orthodox pulpit, is very much owing to irrational dogmas which it inculcates. These are gro ing daily more distasteful to the better class of peo everywhere, sufficient evidence of which may be found the fact that the few clergemen of that school who ha somehow got a little better reputation for liberality a decidedly the most popular. H. W. Beecher, and I Bushnell will have more hearers than men of the sar talents who are supposed to have a more rigid cree Orthodox clergymen generally have sufficient learnin and talents to be influential, and their pulpits will becon attractive as their preachers become liberal.

The Unitarian pulpit is liberal enough, and has enoug of talents and scholarship, to be popular; but it has n enough of manliness and moral courage in the utterand of its whole faith. In this respect, I regard it as time serving and disingenuous. It will become influential a it assumes a true apostolical boldness. In proportion as shuns not "to declare all the counsel of God," it mus gain upon the public esteem and affections.

But how is it, I may be asked, that the Universalis pulpit is not more popular? It has not the offensive dog

mas of Orthodoxy, or the hesitating indecision of Unitarians, to render it forbidding; why then, is it not far more attractive? It is not the want of talents. No class of men, of the same number, it may be said without any vain boasting, embraces more native intellect than is to be found in the Universalist ministry. It is not the want of a liberal, genial, rational faith. No faith can be more so than ours. What we need most of all is a better education. Our ministry lacks in scholarship, in the preparatory training that comes chiefly and best from schools. This, I cannot but regard as our deepest want at present. More and more does it press itself upon my thoughts daily, from observation, enforced by the eloquence of a bitter personal experience. My brethren will surely bear with this plain utterance, for it reflects upon very few perhaps more than upon myself. True, we have quite a class now in our ministry, who are not deemed unworthy of the honors of the higher literary institutions. Some of them have been liberally educated, and many others through the bitter toils of years of self-culture have risen to almost equal attainments. But, after all, the majority of those who fill our pulpits have never been properly educated, either by the schools or by their own efforts. Passing, by a single leap almost, from the farm or the work-shop to the church-desk, with little more than the preparatory training which boys ordinarily get in a country town, though strong native talents have given them a good degree of success, yet their utter ignorance in regard to most of the scholarly attainments has lost them the sympathy of the better informed, and sometimes disgusted the more refined. I am very desirous to avoid being misunderstood in this statement. I speak of what is not so much their fault as their misfortune; though I cannot but feel that in many cases where early advantages have not been enjoyed, subsequent labor well directed might have done more to make up the deficiency.

To give our pulpit its best position, to render it as attractive as it may be, our preachers must have a more thorough preparatory training. They must be professionally educated, just as much as the lawyer, the doctor, or the tutors of a college. In the present age, as culture and enlightenment increase among the mass, nothing will,

answer as a substitute for this. It is imperiously dema and we shall continue to suffer until it is gained. joice, therefore, in the prospective establishment of co and theological schools for Universalists. And alt there are many other things, that I cannot now me which must constitute vital elements of an attractiv efficient pulpit, yet I humbly hope that through facilities for a better literary and theological training ministry may rise to a position which it has neve attained, and wield an inflence never before felt from Protestant establishment.

Tufts College, and the institution at Galesburg with the theological school about to be established in York, are promising heralds of the better time co Let the denomination keep them in its thoughts. our men of wealth give them the needed pecuniary ty. If they are seeking any of the decent aims of what better investment can our rich men make of the thousands wanted here, which are hardly a drop in ocean of their possessions?

M.

ART. XVIII.

Church History.

OUR present purpose is to offer a few commendation Church History as a part of educative reading and st for all classes. Within a few years a new interest been awakened towards this department of church lit ture, to be traced, in part, to the fresh manner of treat the subjects involved, the more comprehensive and th ough spirit of research, the clearer discernment of interlinking of the ages, and the superior candor and f dom from the power of mere class opinions. We thankful that this new interest exists, and that so abu dant and excellent are the means afforded to nurture a expanded it. It argues good things for the church u versal.

E

Our Master, on a certain occasion, gave a great thought which may here have our attention, affording us a leading idea for our guidance :-"Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up."

Our Saviour said this in justification of his course in setting the people against the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees respecting certain forms and ceremonies which were by them deemed essential. The Pharisees had complained of his disciples for neglecting certain forms enjoined by the "traditions of the elders," and Jesus, in answer, had shown that by these traditions they "transgressed the commandments of God," and thereby he at once destroyed all the moral force of those traditions. If the traditions contravened the commandments, they had no authority, and no ceremony enjoined by them could be binding. Jesus specified instances of this contradiction between the Pharisaic teachings and the commandments of God, adding, "And many such like things do ye." Mark vii. 13.

Here he sets the example of testing all human teachings by one standard, that is, Do they carry out or modify the effect of the Word of God? And, to give us courage to battle with error, to examine its basis and claims, to trust in the grand issue which the providence of God shall secure, he said to those of his disciples who asked him if he knew that the Pharisees were offended, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up."

This is a grand prophecy. Weeds drink up the life of the soil as well as useful plants, and it is good to see the labor of the husbandman where he plucks the useless plant, shakes the soil from its roots, and lays it bare to the withering influence of the sun. So must error be plucked up. While it has its root in the mind of man it drinks the life that otherwise would be given to truth. It requires for its support an expenditure that should be the supply of something good, useful and enduring. Man puts on it a false value, and it chokes the growth of whatever he may really possess of divine knowledge.

Jesus would have his disciples to be, not only teachers of truth, but destroyers of error; and he seems to intimate that they must not expect that by simply planting

the truth, they may expect its growth to crowd er of the mind, but a work at rooting up must be perfo Error must, many times, be dislodged in order to place for the planting of truth; and the destruct error may become like the withering of the pl weeds which impart in this condition nourishment soil.

There is something morally beautiful in the che ness with which Jesus contemplated the inevitable e ures of his truth. He foresaw, and foretold, how would be sown where his wheat was planted; and "the field" was "the world," he beheld the vari fortunes through which his kingdom must pass, an complete victory which should, in due time, be ad plished. That soul has the most of God who ha greatest trust in the omnipotence of the truth. truth and the mind were made for each other. has only human support; truth has divine; and it part of the best education of man to be interested in vicissitudes through which our religion has passed, he may see how imperishable are the teachings of C By this course we shall better estimate the value of labors of Reformers who, from age to age, have the rooters up of error,-who have called the pe from human traditions to the divine commandments, directed to God that reverence which men were pa to their fellows. This work has yet to be contin Traditions now usurp the place of revealed du Many doctrines, ceremonies, usurpations and van are plants which yet remain to be rooted up and bare to the consuming fire of the Sun of Righteousn and how can we be interested in this duty better than giving some attention to Church History, or to that vey of the great events, men, and opinions, which are n intimately connected with the history of doctrines methods in the Christian church.

To this I would invite attention. It is not a matter me ly for ecelesiastics, but for all to whom religion in its rity is of value, and who would discipline their powers the divine labor of separating truth from modifying err What the Saviour said should be done, in respect to rooting up of every plant not planted by his Father, i