of supporting and satisfying minds, in the state now supposed. There have been, not long since, some distinguished converts in Germany to the Catholic faith. I could easily conceive of one of them as saying,-" here at last I find rest; I find certainty and refuge in the infallibility and absolution of the Holy Church. This, too, is the accumulated support of ages, built on the virtues and sufferings of fathers and confessors and martyrs. How, also, am I affected with the real presence of the body of Christ in the sacrament, with the guardianship of saints, and the interceding tenderness of the Holy Mother! I never was so impressed with any religion as this. I never found such joy and peace in any. This is the religion for a sinner! This is what my depraved and burdened nature wanted!"

"Yes," replies the sound Protestant, "but it would not move me, nor support, nor comfort me. The impressiveness of a religion does not depend, altogether, upon its truth or falsehood, but very much on the state of the mind that receives it." And this is what we answer to the Calvinist. We say that Calvinism would make no kindly nor renewing impression on us. And as to comfort and support, it seems to us in some of its features, the most cheerless and desolate of all systems.

5. But I must hasten to the last objection that I intended to notice. It is said that there is a fatal coldness and deadness in the Unitarian system, that there is no excitement in it, no reality, no seriousness, no strictness; that it is fitted to gratify the proud, the philosophic, the worldly and the vicious.

I must again remind the reader, in the first place, that this is just what new views of religion may expect, and

what they have always in fact encountered. It is no strange thing that strangers to the practical sense of our principles should not confess their power. All this cry was raised against the Reformation, as loudly as it is raised against us.

Nay, it may be admitted in the second place, without any prejudice to the cause I maintain, that new views in religion will be most likely to attract the attention of those who are least prejudiced in favor of the old that is to say, of the less religious; and of persons, too, who have been less religious, in many instances, for the very reason, that they could not bear the errors of the popular faith. Nay more; it may be admitted that new views of religion, however true, will probably do injury to some. There are some of the most extraordinary confessions to this effect, from the lips of the Reformers. New views are liable to unsettle the minds that hastily receive them; and some that are averse to all religion and to all selfdenial may vaguely hope, that another doctrine would be more indulgent to their vices. Yes, and they may make not been abused? This

it so; for what good thing has great subject, in fact, has been so treated and taught, that in religion most of all, men are apt to show themselves superficial and weak creatures. And it is not strange that those who have dwelt long in darkness should be dazzled and bewildered and led astray by the light, or that liberty should be a dangerous thing to the enslaved. What if Christianity had been judged by the state of the Corinthian Church?

And yet Christianity came as a religion of power and strictness, and so I maintain that it still is found to be in the form, in which we hold it. If others who are experi

mentally ignorant of it, may testify against it; we who have felt what it is, may be excused if we testify in its favor. And I know that I speak the language of hundreds and thousands, when I say that religion to us is the one theme of interest-of unspeakable, undying interest. We would not exchange the sense we have of it for thrones and kingdoms. To take it away would be to take from us our chief light, blessing and hope. We have felt the power of the world to come, and no language can tell what that power is, can tell the value of an immortal hope and prospect. We have heard the great and good teacher, and we feel that never man spake like this man. By him, we trust that we have been brought nigh to God, and this nearness consummates the infinite good, which we embrace in our religion.-On all this I might dwell long and abundantly; but I will not trust myself to say what I feel that I might say for many, lest I be accused of "the foolishness of boasting." If I am, I must adopt the apostle's justification, and say I have been "compelled." For how can men who feel that religion is the great resort of the mind, and the living interest, and the animating hope, consent to the charge, that all on this subject, is cold and cheerless as death among them! We should be ungrateful for the first of blessings if we could be silent. We have communed with religion in sorrow, and it has comforted us; in joy, and it has doubly blessed us; in difficulty and trouble, and it has guided and calmed us; in temptations, and it has strengthened us; in conscious guilt and error, and this religion has encouraged and comforted and forgiven us, and we must testify our sense of its value. It is here that we have treasured up the joy and hope of our being; it 24*

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is here that we have poured out the fulness of our hearts; and if this is to be cold and dead, we ask in the name of sense and truth, what is it to feel? If this is philosophy, God give us more of this philosophy. Yes, it is philosophy, divine and heaven-descended; it is truth immortal; it is religion, which if it can be carried on within us, will, we are persuaded, through God's mercy, lead us to heaven.

I have now completed the views, which in conclusion, I intended to give of some of the popular objections to Unitarian Christianity. Let me warn every man, in close, to beware of taking any light and trifling views of the religion, on which he founds his hope. If any views that ever enter our minds tend to slacken the obligation of virtue, or to let down the claims of piety, let us discard those views at once and for ever. Let us take a viper to our bosom sooner than lay a flattering unction to the soul, that will make it easier in sin. Sin is the sting of death, and it will kill and destroy all that is dear and precious to an immortal creature. Religion only, is life and peace; and it is also, zeal, and fervor, and joy, and hope, and watchfulness, and strictness, and self-denial, and patience unto the end.

JESUS THE IMAGE OF GOD.

THAT Apostle who has said to us, "Be ye imitators of God as dear children," has said of Jesus, "He is the image of God," and "His dear son;" assuring us, moreover, that "God, who commanded the light to shine out of

darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ." To be

conformed, then, to our holy Lord, is to have the likeness of God. To embody in our conceptions of the divine character, those qualities which most ennoble the character of Jesus, is to have just sentiments towards his Father and our Father. Thus it is we may have access to God

by his dear Son.

Thus that we may become one with Jesus as he is one with God.

When Peter speaks of the "majesty" of Christ, he tells us of "the honor and glory which he received of the Father," when there came that voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." But so much as this does not seem honor enough for many Christians to render to their Saviour. Not content to say with Paul, that Jesus is the image of God, the brightest reflection of the Everlasting Light, they would identify the copy and original, the Father and the Son, and declare that Jesus is not only the likeness of God, but God himself. In this they do what is not warranted by the strongest language in which the sacred writers have expressed their reverence and admiration of the Saviour. If actually identical, the one cannot be the image or likeness of the other. For who is ever styled his own image, the likeness of himself?

There are many important applications to be made of the truth, that Jesus is the image or express likeness of God. The chief of these relates to devotional sentiment. We can contemplate the Infinite Being in this "unspotted mirror" with the best possible advantages for exciting the heart. In no way can we more easily touch the springs of emotion, and call forth all our love, than by