hope then that all collections will be forwarded to the Treasurer.

N.B. We find it is inconvenient for parties to send us an account of collections. We therefore beg leave to intimate that in future this need not be done, as the treasurers will furnish us with correct reports for publication.

TO OUR FRIENDS AND CORRESPOND- and supply such papers as we can approve of,
ENTS.

WE are happy to be able to state that our circulation is still on the increase. The stamped edition of the number for August is exhausted. A few, however, of the unstamped copies are still on hand, and those who wish to possess that number ought to order it through their booksellers.

But though gratified at our increase, we are far indeed from being satisfied with our present circulation, and we again call upon our friends to exert themselves on our behalf. Those who have not attended to this matter, can have no conception how long it takes to push a periodical or anything else into general notice. Advertisements inserted into all the daily newspapers, placards posted up on every wall, and paraded through every street, do not yet arrest the attention of one out of every ten for whom the intimation is intended. Nothing but a continued exhibition before the public eye, and ever-incessant dunning into the public ear, can succeed. We would, there fore again press upon all who take an interest in our prosperity to lend us a continued canMight not a placard be put up at the doors of our churches? Might not the doorkeepers and pew-openers, and other officials, be instructed to canvas, receive names, and distribute copies? Might not ministers repeat their public intimations; and both ministers and elders, and also deacons, collectors, and tract-distributors, in their visitations recommend the "Messenger." Our friends will suffer us to press this matter upon them.

vas.

We have had thoughts of printing a sort of tabular statement showing the numbers that are taken in the various towns or congregations. At present, however, we content ourselves with stating, that Manchester stands decidedly at the head of the list, and London, we are sorry to say, stands not so very far from the bottom as we could wish.

79

Some of our correspondents do not seem to understand the precise position the "Messenger was intended to occupy, or the line of subjects it was particularly meant to advocate. The "Messenger," as we understand it, was intended peculiarly to promote the various schemes of the Church. It is not a Review, although reviews are not excluded. It is not a doctrino-theological Magazine, although doctrinal essays will be admitted. It is the organ and instrument of all the great schemes in which our Church is engaged; and everything else must be kept in subordination to the advocacy of these our primary and principal objects.

and we promise them insertion in the "Mes-
senger."

:

ents, we have but one answer to give, and it | us to appeal to them for contributions to our is this: It is infinitely easy to wish. We columns. When we undertook the superinsometimes indulge in the luxury ourselves, tendence of the "Messenger," we assuredly and it is one of the few luxuries we do in- neither understood nor desired that its undidulge in. And then we wish our correspond- vided weight was to sink down and settle ents, instead of asking, would just send us upon our individual shoulders and yet so it such papers as they desire. We are quite has with a pressure which makes every bone certain that our labours of all sorts are fully in our body to ache. More of our time has, equal to those of any half dozen of our fellow in consequence, been devoted to its managewishers. Let them, then, give us their aid, ment than we can continue to give in justice to our other avocations. Our brethren, we trust, need only an invitation to come to the rescue. They must have spare hours, occasionally, on hand, which they cannot better employ than in devoting to our columns, and must have papers lying beside them, worthy of a wider circulation than they are otherwise likely to meet with. But let us not be misunderstood. We do not want sermonsof all species of composition the most unpopular; as little do we ask for dry doctrinal essays; and least of all for controversial disquisitions. Special heads and perorations of sermons, however, we shall be glad to receive. But what are particularly desirable are practical and devotional pieces, short, pointed, and unctional. What pertains to the history, constitution, schemes, and external affairs of the Church, in other words, what belongs more peculiarly to the editorial department, we shall gladly undertake ourselves. But we look to our brethren in the ministry and other lay friends for interesting and edifying contributions on other subjects.

Dr. Hutcheson's communication will appear
as soon as our space will admit of it.
We have received a communication from
the Rathbone-street Sabbath-school, Liver-
pool, containing a correspondence between the
teachers of that school, and some of the most
eminent superintendents of such schools in
the three kingdoms, upon the question whether
merit tickets should be used in Sabbath-
schools? The parties written to, unani-
mously answered in the negative. The
poetical piece from the same quarter we
have not yet had time to read, and cannot
therefore speak as to its chances of insertion,
only, we may state in passing, its chances
would be greater were it shorter.

An admirable address to the members of
the Juvenile Missionary Association, by the
Committee of St. Peter's-square Church, Man-
chester, has just come into our hands; and if
it had not been accompanied by an interdict,
it would assuredly appear in this number.
The grounds on which the interdict is based
are not tenable. Besides, we are not very
much disposed, in our editorial supremacy, to
pay much regard to any interdicts whatever,
when by violating them we are certain to pro-
mote the good of the Church, as we know
would be the case in this instance. All the
respect, therefore, we are disposed to pay to
this instrument is, to delay the publication,
in the hope that when it is known we are re-
solved to be contumacious, the interdict will
be quietly withdrawn.

We never hesitate to express our disappointment, or even disapprobation, when we deem that we have good cause, nor in advocating the claims of our Church do we much care whom we may offend. But we are just as ready, and need we say it? infinitely more delighted, when we have an opportunity to commend. Such an opportunity is now presented, and we most gladly seize upon it to express our heartfelt gratitude to the Session of the Groat Market Church, Newcastle-uponTyne, and to Mr. Matthew Cree, one of the elders of that Church, for one of the handsomest donations of books which the College library has ever received, and which will be found acknowledged in another column. Long after the generous donors have gone to their reward, will many an ardent youth receive mental illumination and spiritual counsel and pastoral impulse from this valuable contribution. And sure we are, as this was the wish of the donors, so will it be their most cheering recompense. Can we avoid, now that the subject is fairly before us, to press upon all our friends to go and do likewise?

From some we receive communications, wishing that great prominency should be given to the interpretation of unfulfilled pro- Our lady correspondent at Birkenhead (if phecy, that is, as we understand it, Millena- lady indeed it be, for the production looks rian disquisitions. Others request that we much more like that of an Esau's hand cased should give a leading attention to doctrinal in a lady's glove) is surely very simple, or she essays. A third class of correspondents are fancies us very green. Anonymous correvery anxious for a poet's corner-a fourth de-spondents, as they commonly deserve, receive siderate that we should take Sabbath-schools from us no consideration whatever. If our under our special patronage, and a fifth-but correspondent will give us her name, and it were endless to repeat the variety of tastes state distinctly what she means, we shall that come to us craving for their own peculiar endeavour to gratify her wishes. gratification. Now, to all these correspond

Our brethren in the ministry will permit

We received, but too late for last number, a very gratifying communication from Douglas, Isle of Man, which proves, as we always anticipated, that our excellent minister, Mr. Cleland, is every day rising higher in public estimation, and the collection in aid of the current expenses of the Church amounted to 237.

We have been kindly favoured by Mr. Ritchie, with a file of the "Friend of China,” from which we mean to give extracts in our next. We purpose also giving a paper on the religious movements in Germany, which we have been watching with intense interest, but have waited for their further development before we should notice them.

Mrs. Dawson, of Hampstead, will accept of our thanks for the donation of books to the library, which has been received too late to permit us to do anything more than merely insert this acknowledgement.

We are much obliged to our correspondent at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and agree with him in his censures and recommendations; but very much fear that the publication of his letter would do more harm than good. He will find by looking into the first paper in our number for August, that the official intimation was issued in due form, and that the fault rests not with official parties. We have also received his note of the 23d ult., and will attend to its contents. We shall be glad to hear from him again, and often.

It has been supposed, we understand, though on what grounds we cannot possibly divine, that the paper in our last on the Irish Presbyterian Church was a sort of Synodical manifesto, or at the least, was written by a conclave of ministers. We therefore beg leave to state, that like almost every single line in the whole number, it was the production, uncounselled, unaided, of the editor's

own pen.

"When the mists of superstition are dispelled without the realities of religion taking their place, the lowest orders of the community are in danger of sinking into a

STUDY, &c.

ON Sabbath the 9th of this present month of November the Synod appointed that public collections in all the congregations of the Church should be made in aid of the funds of the College. Need we urge any motives to

induce all parties to make those collections liberally, cheerfully, and on the appointed day? Does not every individual member of

our Church know that under God the success

Foreign and Jewish Mission Fund
Presbyteries' Proceedings

Reviews

......

The Editor's Own Column

....

........

Donations to the College Library...........

COLLEGE, COLLECTION, COURSE OF sential, prayers are essential also. Let us have both contributions to cause bone to come to his bone, until in all our students we possess the perfect mechanism of science and literature waiting for the animating principle from on high; and prayers for the Spirit of the living God to descend and animate that otherwise dead, although beauteous, machine, rouse up all its faculties, impel forward all its all its labours. Our College ought to be near energies, consecrate all its powers, and bless the hearts of all our people. Our professors are not the only parties on whom the training of our future pastors depends. Our people also, those that have access to the inmost altar in the holiest of all, owe it to the Church, owe it to the Head of the Church, owe it to the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to plead mightily for professors and students. Ought not our ministers to make this the subject of special intercessions in their public ministrations? Ought not this to occupy a prominent place in family devotions? Will not our ministers on the day set apart for the collections ask their people to pray for us? We are most urgent on this point, and trust our cry will be heard.

of all our schemes, the realization of all, all without exception, of our prospects depend upon our College? It is not the want of churches, congregations, missionary fields, or funds to carry on and out the largest enterprises that at present cramps us. It is the want of men, of ministers to labour in places imploring our aid, but imploring in vain, because we have not men to send them. There is not a town in England in which we might not have flourishing congregations had we just but the proper men to organize them. Our hearts bleed at the Macedonian cry that stuns us from every side. Our feelings are agonized at the loud outcry of our vacant congregations perishing for lack of the bread of life, without our having it in our power to send them a steward of the household of God to distribute to each person his own portion in due season. We know not what could induce us again to encounter what we have suffered for the last three years, both of exertions in procuring foreign supplies, and of pain that no supply could be obtained for our famishing people.

We are full of hope that the College will this session be well attended, and that the blessing without which learning often becomes, not a benefit but a bane, will be poured forth abundantly on professors and students. Our hope, we repeat, the hope of our Church is centered in the College, the fountain whence the waters of life are to be conveyed to all parts of our Zion. If the Church but does her duty by the College a few years will prove that our hopes are not misplaced or overinterests to the prayers and liberality of all coloured. May we again commend all its our people.

No. 7.

PAGE

107

ib.

108

ib.

ib.

109

ib.

ib.

110

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and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."

Such is a principal part of the last prayer which the Saviour while on earth offered for his Church.(John xvii. 20—24.) The object prayed for is the unity or oneness of his disciples, and the end assigned believe and know that thou hast sent me, or motive urged is "that the world may and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."

The object is unity or oneness, but oneand external observances? ness in what?-in all things, in rites, forms, This never existed in the Church.

The Gentile and

Jewish converts differed most materially
in rites and ceremonies, and this with the
entire sanction of the apostles. (Acts
xxi. 21-25.) The Hebrew converts
from the very outset retained certain of
their ancestral ceremonies which were
neither commanded nor forbidden by the
Saviour or his apostles; and had they
remained satisfied with this liberty of
worshipping God according to these cere-
monial observances, there is nothing in
the New Testament which affords ground
to conclude that this liberty would have
been restricted. It was only after they
attempted to impose what was a license to
themselves as a bondage upon others, that
dicted, for they were to the
not the liberty but the bondage was inter-
last
very per-
mitted to circumcise their children and
keep the law of Moses, although they were

But thus it must be and continue till we have obtained supplies of our own from our own College. Oh, let us send up a loud united prayer to the Lord of the harvest, that he would raise up, qualify, and send forth labourers into his own fields. Are they not ripe unto the harvest? Are they not waiting, inviting EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE; CONFER- forbidden to impose them upon others.

to be occupied? Are not the tares choking up the seed of the kingdom? The people perish, and who layeth it to heart? A responsibility which may well appal us is laid upon us, and but for the promise, the cry, Who is sufficient for these things? would be indeed the cry of despair.

But we have now erected the machinery for supplying not only our own wants but the wants of others, if only our people do their duty and God give his blessing. We are importunate for two things. We want large contributions, but we want also more frequent and fervent prayers. Contributions are es

ENCE ON CHRISTIAN UNION HELD
AT LIVERPOOL.

"NEITHER pray I for these alone but
for them also who shall believe on me
through their word; that they all may be
one; as thou Father art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be one in us;
that the world may believe that thou hast

sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them

While the Hebrew Christians were thus permitted to employ in the worship of God rites which had neither been forbidden nor commanded by the Saviour or his apostles, how did the Gentiles act? Was less liberty allowed to them? The whole tenour, as well as many express passages of the Word of God, attest that their liberty was to the full as extensive as that of the Hebrew converts. They were indeed forbidden to use certain customs which were either sinful in themselves, or

It is acknowledged on all hands that the Mosaic economy was much more rigid, and, so to speak, punctilious in its specification of rites and ceremonies, and matters of outward observance than the Christian dispensation. And yet it is a question which all who have considered the subject feel little difficulty in answering, whether personal liberty was altogether taken away, even under that economy? Whether, in other words, devotion was restrained within certain set forms, and the results of experience altogether discarded; in short, whether every rite, provision, and practice observed in Israel in the time of Hezekiah or of Christ, had been originally revealed and expressly required by inspired authority?

had been habitually associated with what | in consequence of an invitation addressed | we content ourselves with giving a mere was sinful. (Acts xv. 20, 28, 29, and by individual members of seven denomi- skeleton of facts, referring our readers for xxi. 25.) But this very principle of nations in Scotland, to individual members further information to the account which limitation proves how very extensive their of almost all the Evangelical denominations the London Committee were instructed to liberty must have been. in England, Wales, and Ireland, to meet publish from the authentic records of the together to consult as to the best means Conference, which will perhaps appear as of opposing certain of the great anti- soon as these lines. scriptural forms of error of the present day. Great were the fears, grievous the misgivings, both of the inviters and the invited, as to the results of bringing together materials apparently so charged with antagonistic and explosive elements. Some openly prognosticated that instead of union, the rent would become more wide and disastrous, and therefore declined to attend. Others resolved to be present, but apprehensive of the attempts that might be offered, determined to take very special care against all compromise or concession, which they feared would be attempted in order to effect a union. Others again prayed amid much misgiving, and hoped against hope for a favourable issue. And others still went merely as spectators, desirous to witness the proceedings, but as they anticipated no beneficial result, resolved to keep themselves disengaged from all participation in the conduct of affairs.

Uniformity, absolute, rigid, punctilious uniformity of rites and ceremonies is morally and physically impossible. And even granting that you could induce men to conform to the same precise routine of phrases, postures, and formulas, the uniformity would be merely semblable. The lively and the phlegmatic, the excitable and the unimpassioned, the enthusiastic and the unimaginative, would expand or contract your forms-instinct with life, would mould your ceremonies into plastic vitality, or swathe them with funereal bandages, until they would be as diverse in reality, however identical in form, or even in every line and lineament, as Lazarus on the mountain from Lazarus in his grave. Uniformity in every minute rite, in every punctilious form, was never commanded in the worship of God; or, what is the same thing in effect, are morally and physically impracticable, and yet almost all the disputes and dissensions that have ever taken place in the Church, have arisen from an attempt to reduce all the diversities of gifts, graces, and emotions, within the shackles of an unauthorized and impracticable uniformity.

But we have been withdrawn from the object we have at present before us, which is not to write a disquisition on rites and ceremonies, but to give a short account of the Conference on Christian union recently held at Liverpool. We had the happiness to attend that Conference, and till the day of our death, we shall deem it a cause of gratitude to have been present. Never did we attend, never on earth did we expect to attend, such a meeting. Whatever may be its proximate or ultimate results,—and our anticipations are very sanguine both as to their nature and their magnitude, among the more special causes of gratitude to Almighty God, which we can trace in a life which has been full of mercies, one of the very chief is, that we had a share in originating the "EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE."

The Liverpool Conference took place

On Wednesday, the 1st of October, there met at Liverpool, between two and three hundred of the most leading members of seventeen denominations, from all parts of the United Empire, including members of the Established Churches of the three kingdoms, Free Church, English and Irish Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, Secession, Baptists, Relief, &c., &c.; and as we looked round the Hall, and remembered the past controversies of the parties assembled, and reflected on the points on which they differed, our anticipations of even peace were certainly not very sanguine. The first session was spent in devotional exercises, conducted by Presbyterians, Prelatists, Wesleyans, and Congregationalists; and as we marked the identity of doctrine and the unison of sentiment that pervaded those prayers, we could not help feeling that there was actually unity and harmony here on the most momentous of our common interests, and that whatever might be our diversities in outward things, in life and spirit and heart we were certainly one. That those prayers had a most solemnizing and harmonizing effect-that they were prayers of faith, and were answered, was not only the opinion, or even the belief, but the felt experience of every person present. In fact, the results arrived at were not accomplished by discussion or votes, for there was no discussion or vote from first to last,-nor by conference or consultation, but by prayer and by the Spirit of the living God, granted in answer to prayer. The spirit infused into the meeting by those opening devotions remained unaffected to the very

close.

But we must be brief, and therefore

The object of the Conference was not to effect a union in the ordinary sense of that term, that is, an incorporation. This it was perfectly evident, from the diversity of sentiment that prevailed on various points conscientiously deemed important, could be accomplished only by compromise, concession, or concealment, and any union that could be effected on such a basis, must be necessarily insincere and hollow, at best only an armed truce, a masked peace. But it was acknowledged on all hands, that the points on which we were agreed were incomparably more important than those on which we differed. On all points that can be regarded as of the essence of the Gospel-all that is essential to the eternal salvation and even personal comfort of the sinner, there was a perfect identity of belief and profession; and not only so, but to a greater extent than had been anticipated, except by those who had specially studied the subject, it was found that to a very considerable extent, there was also an entire harmony regarding the comparative importance assigned to the various tenets, and even to the terms in which they should be conveyed. After some consultation in Committee, it was found that a confession of faith, embracing all the points that were by all deemed essential, could be agreed upon, and by a unanimous voice in the Conference as in the Committee, the following doctrines were adopted as the basis of the Alliance. I. The inspiration, all-sufficiency and sole authority of holy Scripture as the rule of faith and morals. II. The right of private judgment. III. Trinity in unity, and the incarnation of the Son of God. IV. The fall of man, and his consequent guilt and depravity. V. The redemption of sinners by the sacrifice and atonement of Christ. VI. Conversion and sanctification through the Holy Spirit. VII. Justification by faith alone. VIII. The divine institution and perpetuity of the ministry, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These eight tenets (which we give from memory, and consequently only in their headings) were declared to be fundamental, were unanimously adopted by the Conference, and required to be professed by all who became members of the "Evangelical Alliance," the denomination assumed by the Association then formed.

Four Committees, with power to add to their numbers, and form affiliated Committees, were named to sit in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Dublin, and were instructed to hold an aggregate meeting in Liverpool in January, and in Birmingham in April next. As the Liverpool Conference was only prelimi

nary to a still larger meeting which it was deemed desirable to convene, it was remitted to the London Committee to make arrangements for an Ecumenical Council to be held in London in the month of June next, and they were instructed to issue invitations to members of all the Evangelical Churches in the world to attend that general council in the capital of Evangelical Christendom. Various other practical measures were passed, which will be found in the authorized narrative. The Conference closed on Friday. Saturday was occupied by an aggregate meeting of the Committees, and about three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, this pentecostal assembly broke up in the spirit which pervaded all its sittings. How we wish that all Christendom had been present at that apostolic Agapae that feast of love!

Before we close this paper, purposely brief and imperfect, there is a remark or two which we must beg permission to offer. And 1st. We have already alluded to the devotional character of the meeting, but must repeat that this was one of its greatest charms. Every one felt that the Holy Ghost as a Spirit of brotherly love as well as of truth, was in very deed present with us. As Mr. James, of Birmingham said, in terms which elicited a response from every one present, we needed not the visible evidence of the lambent flames of Pentecost to convince us that the Spirit was in the midst of us; we felt it, and could no more doubt the evidence of our own consciousness, than we could the demonstration of our very senses. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name be the praise and glory," was the repeated exclamation of speaker after speaker.

that I might witness on earth other such | one united Church out of the discordant
re-unions as this," although the sentiment sects that now fill Christendom ?—and
appeared in words diverse from that of we answer, No; at least, not at present.
the aged Simeon, "Now lettest thou thy Some may on this account undervalue
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes what has been done and what it is still
have seen thy salvation," every one felt intended to do. But it just on this very
that the feeling was one, although and specific account that we are so rap-
diversely expressed, and that the one was turously delighted with what has been
just as natural and appropriate as the done, and the results we anticipate from
other.
it. In no one point do we perceive more
demonstrative evidence that the wisdom
which cometh down from above guided
the meeting than in the fact that, while
all the members of the Evangelical
Alliance profess the principles contained
in their confession of faith, they are left
at the fullest liberty not only to hold but
to teach their individual and denomi-
national views on other matters. There
is no compromise, concession, or conceal-
ment. There is no forcing or fusing to-
gether discordant materials. Each denomi-
nation retains its own peculiarities within
its own pale; and yet, when it enters the
sacred precincts of the Evangelical Alli-
ance it becomes Catholic. Beyond that
hallowed circle a man may be a Presby-
terian, or Prelatist, or Congregationalist,
as he will, but within it, as within the
portals of heaven, he is a Christian, and
only a Christian. Here Jew and Gentile
are terms unknown. Christ is all, and in all,
and only they are acknowledged who are
in him, and only because they are in
him.

3d. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of the whole meeting, was the most unflinching and intrepid maintenance of individual and denominational sentiment, combined with the largest toleration of the diverse sentiments of others. There was no concealment of individual opinions, no concession of denominational peculiarities, no compromise of conscientious principles. These were openly avowed on all sides, and yet there was not only no jar, but the purest harmony. It literally appeared as if we all had lost our previous passions, and had all been transformed into the spirit of the apostle who could rejoice, yea, and would rejoice, if only Christ was glorified, whether by his instrumentality or by that of those who opposed him. Statements, which at other times would have roused a tempest of discussion, were received with a smile of affection, just as a father kisses his contradictious child. Of a truth, the finger of God was visible in the meeting. The leopard and the lamb did lie down together, and the one was as meek and as sportive as the other.

But what is all this to end in-what is to be the practical result of these Conferences? We fancy we hear some business-minded man exclaiming, -and we answer, although there were no other result than what has already been 2d. The next most remarkable feature achieved, it is sufficiently glorious to of the meeting was the brotherly love that make the Liverpool meeting an epoch in pervaded it, and knit together heart to heart the history of the Church. It has already in a feeling of living and felt love and been demonstrated that the Church of unity. Men who had never met, shook Christ is one, one in doctrine, one in hands and conversed together as if they heart, and that it needs only to bring the had been sworn brothers; and, more children of God together to make them remarkably still, men who had spent their recognise one another as brethren. It lives in controversy confessed their faults has been proved that should the occasion one to another, craved and obtained mu- arise we are all ready to hold our diversitual forgiveness, and sacrificed their ties in abeyance and unite together as one rivalry and jealousy on the altar of bro- man, striving together against the common therly love. In fact, there was such an foe for the faith of the Gospel. It has atmosphere of love pervading the assem- been proved that the allegations of Rome bly, that one could not long breathe it, and Oxford and of the world that lieth in without partaking of its hallowing in- wickedness, regarding our irreconcileable fluence. For our own part we look on diversities and unappeasable antipathies all who were present as really and truly are untrue, and that let the enemy assail friends and brothers, and it is one of us calculating upon our disjointed and our most delightful anticipations of the disorganized array, and he will find us future, that we hope often to meet shoulder to shoulder, a sacramental band with the men whom we there learned to of brothers, linked together as an indislove. It was in truth a penumbra of the soluble phalanx to fight the battles of the glory of heaven-a foreshadowing of the Lord. Our short-sighted bigoted friends blessedness of the millennial amity. And may undervalue the results of this Conwhen the aged Dr. Leifchild, with tears ference, but our sagacious enemies must of joy suffusing his patriarchal counte-appreciate its importance and apprehend Dance, exclaimed, "I could almost even accordingly.

wish the term of my departure postponed, But is it intended, asks another, to form

Of a truth uniformity, as we have already said, never existed in the Church and never will, and incorporation has never been tried but it has ended disastrously whether for a time it existed in semblance, or the very attempt issued in a wider and more hostile disunion. Our principal ground of hope for the present attempt arises from the fact that incorporation has not been attempted, has not even been once thought of. Honest men who honestly differ on vital points never can coalesce, and the union of knaves, hypocrites, or Latitudinarians can never be permanent. This is a truth which, although self-evident, the world has been slow indeed to learn. The present indeed is the first instance in the history of the Church of an attempt at union without concession, compromise, concealment, or abeyance of principles. Many have been the attempts at incorporation. The Council of Florence in 1441 attempted to unite the Eastern and Western Churches.

Leibnitz and Bossuet attempted to reconcile the Lutherans and the Papists, and Wake and Du Pin the Churches of England and Rome; but, as must have been anticipated, if all parties were conscientious and sincere, the attempts not only failed, but brought the parties engaged in them into suspicion with their respective bodies. The Presbyterians and the Independents in 1692 formed in England what was termed the "Happy Union," but a most unhappy compromise it proved to the former, and