New England witnessed a sublime example of Christian virtue in a Catholic bishop? Who, among our religious teachers, would solicit a comparison between himself and the devoted Cheverus? This good man-whose virtues and talents have now raised him to high dignities in Church and State, who now wears, in his own country, the joint honours of an archbishop and a peer-lived in the midst of us, devoting his days and nights, and his whole heart, to the service of a poor and uneducated congregation. We saw him declining, in a great degree, the society of the cultivated and refined, that he might be the friend of the ignorant and friend. less-leaving the circles of polished life, which he would have graced, for the meanest hovels-bearing, with a father's sympathy, the burdens and sorrows of his large spiritual family-charging himself alike with their temporal and spiritual concerns-and never discovering, by the faintest indication, that he felt his fine mind degraded by his seemingly humble office, This good man, bent on his errands of mercy, was seen in our streets under the most burning sun of summer, and the fiercest storms of winter, as if armed against the elements by the power of charity. He has left us, but not to be forgotten. He enjoys among us, what, to such a man, must be dearer than fame. His name is cherished, where the great of this world are unknown. It is pronounced with blessings, with grateful tears, with sighs for his return, in many an abode of sorrow and want; and how can we shut our hearts against this proof of the power of the Catholic religion, to form good and great men? These remarks, we trust, will not be perverted. None will suspect us of Catholic partialities. Of all Protestants, we have fewest sympathies with the Romish Church. We go farther than our brethren, in rejecting her mysteries, those monuments of human weakness; and as to her claims to infallibility, we repel them with an indignation not to be understood by sects, which, calling themselves Protestant, renounce in words, but assert in practice, a Popish immunity from error-a Popish control over the faith of their brethren. To us, the spiritual tyranny of Popery is as detestable as oriental despotism. When we look back on the history of Papal Rome, we see her, in the days of her power, stained with the blood of martyrs, gorged with rapine, drunk with luxury and crime. But what then? Is it righteous to involve a whole Church in guilt, which, after all, belongs to a powerful few? Is it righteous to forget, that Protestantism, too, has blood on her robes? Is it righteous to forget, that Time, the greatest of reformers, has exerted his silent purifying power, on the Catholic, as well as on ourselves? Shall we refuse to see, and to own with joy, that Christianity, even under Papal corruptions, puts forth a divine power?-that men cannot wholly spoil it of its celestial efficacy?—that, even under its most disastrous eclipse, it still sheds beams to guide the soul to heaven?—that there exists in human nature, when loyal to conscience, a power to neutralize error, and to select and incorporate with itself, what is pure and ennobling in the most incongruous system? Shall we shut our eyes on the fact, that, among the clergy of the Romish Church, have risen up illustrious imitators of that magnanimous Apostle before whom Felix trembled; men, who, in the presence of nobles and kings, have bowed to God alone-have challenged for his law, uncompromising homage, and rebuked in virtue's own undaunted tone, triumphant guilt? Shall we shut our eyes on the fact, that from the bosom of this corrupt Church, have gone forth missionaries to the east and the west, whose toils and martyrdom, will not be dimmed by comparison with what is most splendid în Protestant self-sacrifice? We repeat it, not boastingly, but from deep conviction, that we are exceeded by no sect in earnestness of desire, for the subversion of the usurped power of the Catholic Church-of its false doctrines-and of its childish ceremonies, so often substituted for inward virtue. We believe that these have wrought, and still work great evil. Still we see, and delight to see, among those who adhere to them, the best attributes of men and Christians. Still we are accustomed to refresh our piety by books which Catholics have written. Still we find one of our highest gratifications in those works of art, in which Catholic genius has embodied its sublime and touching conceptions of the form and countenance of Jesus; has made us awed witnesses of his miracles and cross; companions of his Apostles; and admirers, with a tender reverence, of the meek, celestial beauty of his sainted mother. With these impressions, and this experience, we cannot but lift up our voices against Protestant as well as Papal intolerance. We would purify Protestantism from the worst stain and crime of Rome, her cruel bigotry, her nefarious spirit of exclusion. The Detector.-No. 1. If there's a hole in a' your coats, I rede you tent it, A chiel's amang you takin' notes, Oh, an' you talk of conscience, I must have mine eye upon you. It was, I think, an accurate knowledge of human nature, which dictated the remark of that incorruptible patriot, and sincere lover of human happiness, FLETCHER of SALTOUN, "Make who will the laws of a country, give me only the writing of its ballads." The spirit of the obser vation is as applicable to the progress of religious as of political knowledge. Whatever enactments a government may pass, in opposition to free inquiry, or in condemnation of a particular faith, though the supposed misbeliever may be excluded from the world's honours, and his opinions be branded by public odium; yet even against such fearful odds, will truth, and sometimes even error, make head-buffeting with sinewy nerve the current of prejudice, and gaining disciples by the very measures which were meant to crush its dissemination. If, proverbially, the blood of the martyrs be the seed of the Church, it is no less a truth, that in persecution's school, the strong and godlike energies of humanity are elicited; and efforts will there often be made, for man's rights and the Almighty's glory, which put to shame those dwarf-like conceptions and labours, which too commonly characterize the people when they are "at ease in Zion." But let all religious denominations enjoy an equality of privileges-let there be an open field, and no favour:" yet, if relying on the adage of Truth's omnipotence, the means by which it is to acquire the throne of dominion be neglected; if the possession of the public ear be yielded, without a struggle, to any class, who, knowing its value, aim at securing it, it surely needs no prophet to divine the inevitable result. The axiom, unless there be a cause there can be no effect, is as true when applied to morals and religion, as it is in philosophy. It is while men sleep, that the enemy sows tares. When, however, there is a deep-rooted antipathy in the public mind, to any particular sentiments; when "all that the nurse and all the priest has taught" is confirmed by fashion's powerful laws, and the seductive pleadings of interest, backed likewise by the anathemas of an Established Church; if, under these circumstances, the believers in the obnoxious and misrepresented faith, sit idly by, and allow the full tide of calumny to sweep past them, without an attempt to resist its demoralising influence; if they will not strive to strip the scales of prejudice from the intellectual vision of the public; if, with stoical indifference, they can witness the character of the Father dishonoured, outraged, the moral loveliness of the Saviour lessened, degraded, destroyed; if no feeling of gratitude to God induce them to stand up for insulted and traduced human nature; if the improvement of themselves and children, the freedom of the mind, the eternal happiness of mankind, founded on individual virtue, and secured by divine benevolence, be not all-sufficient motives to lead them to "be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,"-ought any one to be surprised at the slow progress of what they deem truth? is not a weighty, a fearful responsibility incurred? No one, I think, can look round on the Unitarian portion of the Christian world, and not acknowledge the supineness by which many of its members are characterized. It is to that supineness that I attribute much of the ignorance so prevalent, as to what really is the Unitarian faith. By numbers, it is supposed, that Unitarians believe neither . in God nor devil; others imagine, that Christ is altogether rejected; and the surprise, the astonishment which some have experienced, when, on entering our assemblies, they have heard the Saviour preached, in all the divinity of his mission, his doctrines, his precepts, and the hopes he has inspired, has been at once gratifying to our love of Gospel truth, and a severe rebuke to the negligence which had so long held a brother man in the chains of mental slavery. There are those who cannot be persuaded, that Unitarians celebrate the Lord's Supper; whilst others, because they in verity comply with the dying exhortation of their revered Master and Lord, pronounce them to be idolators. One class affirm, that Unitarians believe in purgatory; another, that they reject the resurrection; they are styled merit-mongers, because they declare, with the Apostle, "that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord;" again, they are said to be the promoters of every species of immorality, because they deny the divinity of the Epistles! Can it be proper that these vituperations should go unchecked? Is it fitting that libels and calumnies should be daily uttered and reiterated, till, from their constant repetition, those who know better, are almost persuaded of their validity, and no voice of warning be raised-no attempt at exposure be made? "Shall Truth be silent, because Error frowns," and babbles, and anathematizes? No: surely, no. Rather should the spirit be stirred up, to brave the encounter with fanatic ignorance and sectarian presumption, nor should any missile, hurled by however worthless an opponent, be unnoticed or unregarded. If it be a theological Goliah, who, in the pride of his orthodoxy, defies the armies of the living God, let him feel that "a smooth stone out of the brook," though cast by a feeble hand, and though, agreeably to the intellectual character of the times, it present a different appearance to the more "carnal weapon," is yet of power sufficient to cause polemic arrogance to bite the dust. And if hoary-headed ignorance, wearing the garb of sanctity as its protection, or youthful conceit, fancying itself secure by its obscurity, should venture to assail the character and impugn the motives of others, whose only crime is, that they differ from them in matters of religion, let them be taught that "the school-master is abroad," and that he is as able as willing to chastise arrogance, and instruct those who are in darkness. That I may not be accused of proposing to others, labours in which I would not cheerfully engage myself, if the Editor of the Christian Pioneer approve of my remarks, I shall be glad to bear my part in noticing any thing which may present itself to my observation, either in Scottish periodicals, or the language and conduct of the religious teachers of the land, which may appear to me to demand exposure and correction. In the Edinburgh Christian Instructor for February, there is a long and laboured Article on Dr. Channing's Discourse at the installation of Mr. Motte. That it should be noticed at all in that work, is well. It may induce some persons to read it, whose attention might not otherwise have been directed to its pages. That the notice should exhibit all the acrimony by which the Instructor is usually distinguished, surprises me not. Misrepresentation and calumny, in that quarter, past experience would lead me to expect. But scarcely, even from the Instructor, was I prepared to meet the ignorance and apocryphal statement which that Article manifests. The Reviewer begins by affirming, "To the Unitarians of this country, we owe the reprint of this discourse." This is untrue. It was reprinted in Edinburgh, by a highly respectable bookselling firm, entirely, I believe, on their own account, and without the knowledge of a single Unitarian. But this calumny is invented in order to heap odium on the Unitarians, whose motive, it is afterward said, was, under colour of Channing's fame as a writer on Milton and Napoleon, to vend "the poison of heresy," and "to give currency to an insolvent bank-note." The metaphors are as accurate as the statement. The Reviewer is equally correct in his assertion, that it is on the ground of Channing's literary fame, "that he is now introduced to the British public as a theologian." Introduced!-Good. Why, it was as a theologian that "the British public" became acquainted with Dr. Channing. It was, amongst other publications, that admirable exposition and defence of Christian Unitarianism, preached at Baltimore in 1819, and that luminous and powerful statement of the evidences of Christianity, delivered before the University in Cambridge, Massachusets, in 1821, which called up in the public mind, an anxiety to read any work which Channing might afterwards publish. Of these sermons, to say nothing of other discourses, several editions have been printed both in England and Ireland, and many thousand copies have been circulated, and, I believe, nearly 20,000 of one of them in America. Nay, had it been even the |