copy lying before us is of the Fourth Liverpool Edition, 1824: and the discourse was also reprinted at Newcastle in 1820. How much it struck the public mind in America, when it first appeared, is evident from the extract given by Mrs. Cappe from a letter of her American Correspondent, Dr. H., in a coinmunication inserted in the Mon. Repos. for 1820, p. 14; to this we refer our readers for some interesting information respecting the rise of the Unitarian Church at Baltimore, a town which stands next to New York in commercial importance. The letter must have been written about four months after the delivery of the Sermon; and Dr. H. then says, "It has passed through two large editions in Baltimore, (eight hundred copies of the first, it has been said, were taken up on the day of its publication;) and two editions have been printed in Boston. It is eagerly read; and the impression which it has made, and is making, is very great." Indeed a Correspondent, writing from Charleston at the close of the same year, (see Mon. Repos. 1819, p. 128,) says, that "Mr.Channing's Ordination Sermon at Baltimore went through eight editions in four months. Not less than 15,000 copies were sold in that period; and it is yet in high demand."

The striking and extensive effects which have since followed, we have already stated in our first article under this head (p. 104); but these various facts clearly prove, that the public mind in the United States had been gradually getting into a state of preparation for the adoption and manifestation of Unitarian sentiments. It often happens that doubts and perplexities are long felt, almost without the individual's notice of the state of his mind or he may have been conscious of darkness, and believed it impenetrable; and the light of truth may have burst forth, all at once, with such convincing and almost overpowering radiance, that the honest heart could not but receive it almost instantaneously. Such cases occurred at the time of the Reformation; and they have occurred in the present day, and in our own country. In the United States, the freedom from the imposing influence of a wealthy and powerful establishment, long and

closely connected with the state,-an advantage which we can hardly appreciate till we observe how that influence operates to check a disposition to inquire as well as to interfere with its predisposing causes, and the steady and judicious efforts of intelligent men to weaken the force of opinions which they deemed erroneous, together with the unsuitableness of these opinions to the liberal spirit of the gospel and the increasing enlightenment of the times, had contributed in no slight degree to cultivate the soil. When Dr. Channing's Sermon, at Baltimore, was published, numbers saw that they believed no more than he taught; and a still greater number who, perhaps, had thought but little on the distinguishing tenets of religious parties, or at least never received with conviction the doctrines of Orthodoxy, saw that this was a form of Christianity which approved itself to the heart and the understanding, and adopted it as a remedy for their doubts, or as a solid ground for their attachment to Christian faith. Many more were doubtless set to think on the subject by the representations of the discourse; but the progress of those who have to work their way for themselves is less rapid and striking, though usually most effective and permanent.

There is not a more interesting intellectual process, than what often takes place in the last case; when he in whose heart the genuine holy love of Christian truth has taken up its abode, is seen examining with caution, leaving his heart always open to evidence, yet never rejecting an opinion, and receiving an opposing doctrine, till he has fairly considered their respective evidence, labouring under difficulties, yet not discouraged by them, but patiently surmounting them; till at last he discerns, with satisfied judgment, the leadings of Christian truth, and then, with manly fortitude, and the determination of Christian principle, avows and acts upon his convictions, and does what in him lies to lead others to embrace them.

Of Dr. Channing's Baltimore Sermon, a short notice was given in our volume for 1819, p. 635. It is distinguished for its calm, comprehensive statement of the leading points to

tianity, instead of losing its application and importance, is found to be more and more congenial and adapted to man's nature and wants. Men have outgrown the other institutions of that period when Christianity appeared, its philosophy, its modes of warfare, its policy, its public and private economy; but Christianity has never shrunk as intellect has opened, but has always kept in advance of men's faculties, and unfolded nobler views in proportion as they have ascended. The highest powers and affections which our nature has developed, find more than adequate objects in this religion. Christianity is indeed peculiarly fitted to the more improved stages of society, to the more delicate sensibilities of refined minds, and especially to that dissatisfaction with the present state, which always grows with the growth of our moral powers and affections. As men advance in civilization, they become susceptible of mental sufferings, to which ruder ages are strangers; and these Christianity is fitted to assuage. Imagination and in. tellect become more restless; and Christianity brings them tranquillity by the eternal and magnificent truths, the solemn and unbounded prospects which it unfolds. This fitness of our religion to more advanced stages of society than that in which it was introduced, to wants of human nature not then developed, seems to me very striking. The religion bears the marks of having come from a Being who perfectly understood the human mind, and had power to provide for its progress. This feature of Christianity is of the nature of prophecy. It was an anticipation of future and distant ages; and when we consider among whom our religion sprung, where, but in God, can we find an explanation of this peculiarity?"-Pp. 36-38.

If we did not feel the hope that every one of our readers will become (if not already) acquainted with this invaluable discourse, we would subjoin the concluding pages: but it will be more interesting to them to select for themselves; and we doubt not that the perusal of the whole will contribute to give energy to their faith and fervour to their thankfulness.

We should now proceed to Professor Norton's very able and valuable pamphlet, but as this is less known among us, we wish to be somewhat inore detailed in our account of it, and will defer our notice to another number. As, however, we are desirous that our readers should be apprized of all the American Unitarian tracts republished

1825.) Price 4d.

Substitutes for Religion. Extracted from the Christian Disciple. Liver pool, 1824. Price 4d.

A Sermon delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, Christ, in Federal Street, Boston, as Colleague Pastor of the Church of June 30, 1824. By William Ellery Channing, Pastor of the said Church. Liverpool, 1824. Price 6d.

Memoirs of the Rev. J. S. Buckminster, and the Rev. S. C. Thatcher. Reprinted from the Memoirs prefixed to the Sermons of the respective Authors. Liverpool, 1824.

The Duties of Children: A Sermon delivered to the Religious Society in Federal Street, Boston. By W. E. Channing, D. D. Reprinted from the fifth American edition. Liverpool, 1825. Price 2d.; and a liberal allowance made to schools, and to those who buy to give away.

Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the Means of promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge (U. S.) University Press. London, 1825. Reprinted for Charles Fox and Co. Price 3s. 6d.

Three Important Questions Answered, relating to the Christian Name, Character, and Hopes. By Henry

In the imprint it is said to be sold by C. Fox and Co., 33, Threadneedle Street; and probably all the Liverpool reprinted American publications may be had from Mr. C. Fox.

Ware, Pastor of the Second Church in Boston. Bristol, 1825. Price 4d. A Discourse on the Proper Character of Religious Institutions, delivered at the Opening of the Independent Congregational Church, at Salem, on Dec. 7, 1824. By Henry Colman. Liverpool, 1825. Price 6d.

A Sermon, delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. W. H. Furness, as Pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, Jan. 12, 1825. By Henry Ware, Jun., of Boston. Liverpool, 1825. Price 6d.

1825. March 24, at Prospect Place, Walworth, at an advanced age, the Rev. BENJAMIN GERRANS, a gentleman no less eminent as a classical scholar than as an Orientalist. His faithful and elegant translation of a Persian MS., entitled, "The Tooti Namet," and "The Travels of Rabbi Benjamin," from the Hebrew, placed him high in the estimation of the admirers of Oriental literature. A domestic calamity, added to intensity of study, bad for many years occasioned ach strong feelings of misanthropy, as to deprive his family of the advantages anticipated from the exercise of his powerful genius aud deep researches.

At Clifton, on the 19th of May, FANNY, wife of Michael Hinton CASTLE, Esq., and fifth daughter of the late Rawson Hart Boddam, Esq., formerly governor of Bombay.

The period of protracted suffering which preceded her dissolution would have dwelt with unmingled anguish upon the memory of the friends who wituessed it, had it not been for the submissive resignation and disciplined feeling she evinced, which shed a brightness even on the dark chamber of suffering and of death.

After contending for nearly six months with a formidable disease, anxious for recovery, and attentively pursuing the means calculated to promote it, the unabdued state of the complaint, and the ravages it had committed on her constitution, impressed her with a full conriction that she had not long to live. It was not without a painful struggle that she relinquished her last hope of recovery. She admitted that she felt it a severe trial, blessed as she was with Every thing that could render life desirable, to resign all her earthly enjoyments; and she could not, she said, contemplate without awe "the unknown state" upon which she was entering.

Having, however, once gone through the process of reconciling her mind to the idea of death, she maintained to the last moment of her existence, which continued for nearly a month longer, the

most perfect resignation to the Divine Will, and exhibited a state of mind alike interesting and edifying to those around her.

Many, she said, in her circumstances, derived all their support and consolation from a reliance upon the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and the doctrine of the atonement, (these were her own sentiments before she left the Established Church), but in her view the Scriptures neither required nor warranted the belief of such a doctrine; and she was convinced that those opinions could not afford greater support and satisfaction to the dying, than she experienced in resting her hopes upon the mercy of an all-good and almighty Parent, who directed all events to answer the best purposes, and who had promised eternal life to the obedient and humble followers of his Son, Jesus Christ. After expressing the most kind and Christian feelings towards those who differed from her in opinion, she observed how extraordinary and unaccountable it appeared to her, that any should feel such confidence in their own judgment upon the doctrines of the Scriptures, as not only to decide that they were right and all others wrong, but presumptuously to limit the favour of God, and the promise of eternal life to such as believed as they did, denying the blessings of the gospel to those who, with equal earnestness, equal talents, equal investigation, and equal means of ascertaining the truth, had arrived at a different conclusion.

During the interval referred to (from the time of her giving up all expectation of recovery to her dissolution, a period of nearly four weeks), when her strength enabled and her sufferings permitted her, she took an affectionate leave of her children, and of the various members of her family, by whom she was watched with the most anxious solicitude and tender attention. Sometimes she would send for friends not belonging to her family, bidding them adieu, and giving them some trifling memorial of her regard. Those who were present at these scenes, can best tell how affecting and

impressive they were. She particularly requested that her children might be brought up in the belief of the doctrines of Unitarianism, and was very solicitous before she left the world to dedicate to God, by baptismal service, the infant whose birth immediately preceded her illness. Lying on her death-bed, in the presence of her husband and three other children, and surrounded by those relations whom she most dearly loved, the affecting ceremony was impressively performed by the Rev. John Rowe, twelve days before her death. She went through it with much calmness, and expressed the great satisfaction it had given her.

Occasionally, when the cheerful sunshine beamed through her chamber window, or when her eye rested upon the bright green of the vernal foliage, recollections of the many earthly blessings which Providence had conferred upon her would crowd upon her mind, and she would say with tears, "Even now I could wish the bitter cup might pass from me; but I am resigned to the will of God, convinced that he knows what is best for me."

At times, during the agony of her sufferings, after asking how long she could live, and expressing her carnest wish that Providence would release her from her painful existence, she would reproach herself with want of resignation, and declare her firm conviction that her trials were intended for her good; and often while most diffident of the power of her faith to enable her to bear with fortitude her heavy affliction, she was exhibiting to those around her a remarkable example of the influence of religious principle in imparting a patient and dutiful submission to the Almighty will, and evincing that frame of mind so characteristic of the humble Christian.

They who delight in contemplating a triumphant death-bed, and consider that salvation is certain only to such as, elated with the imagined glories of heaven, and confident of possessing them, profess a wish to resign all the joys and duties of this life, would derive no satisfaction from the quiet, unostentatious close of the life of this interesting and amiable woman. Here were to be witnessed no ecstacies, no enthusiasm, no violent excitement, no fancied contempt for the comforts and enjoyments of the world, no presumptuous claim to the favour of Heaven; but, with a deep sense of the important sphere of usefulness in which, as the mother of four young children she was placed; with an acute sensibility to the comforts she was blessed with; with an earnest desire to continue in the society of those she so tenderly loved; and in the performance of the va

rions duties of a wife, a mother, a daughter, and a sister, which she had hitherto discharged in so exemplary a manner; she submissively bowed to the will of Heaven, sincerely lamenting her frailty and imperfections, yet humbly hoping for forgiveness, and the possession of that blessed immortality which Jesus Christ had brought to light, acknowledging the support she received, and uniformly declaring her unhesitating belief that her sufferings and her death were wisely and mercifully appointed.

Nor was it, to those who had the privilege of witnessing it, an uninteresting testimony to the efficacy of the great principles of the Gospel over peculiarities of religious faith, to see her surrounded by her dearest friends, most of them differing from her in opinion, yet all mingling with hers the tears of separation; joining with her in devout aspirations to their common Parent for consolation and support; and uniting with her in the humble and confiding hope of a re-union in that state where sin and sorrow, sickness and death, will be known no more; and thus manifesting their full accordance in the explicit declaration of Scripture that "he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."

June 9, at his house in Artillery Place, Finsbury, in the 82d year of his age, the Rev. ABRAHAM REES, D.D., F. R. S. &c., of a decay of nature, which had been for some time visibly approaching. Of this eminent man, who had been active and distinguished in the literary world, and particularly among the Protestant Dissenters of London, for more than half a century, we shall hereafter give an ample memoir. His naturally strong mind, his various knowledge, his habits of business, his urbanity and courtesy, his eloqueuce, his commanding presence, and his up right and honourable character, created for him a place of no ordinary importance in society; and his loss will very long be deeply felt, and especially by those that had the peculiar happiness of his friendship. It will give great pleasure to many of our readers to learn that his end was without pain, and serene, and Christian. His congregation shewed their respect to his memory, and gratitude for his invaluable public labours, by undertaking his funeral, at which the several bodies with which he had stood particularly connected, (Dr. Williams's Trus tees, the Presbyterian Ministers, and the Managers of the Presbyterian Fund) attended in consequence of special resolu tions to this effect. His body was carried to the chapel in Jewin Street; and on

Saturday the 18th inst., the congregation and the other gentlemen who wished to pay the last tribute of respect to him, assembled at the Library in Red-Cross Street, and thence proceeded to the chapel, where Dr. T. REES delivered an Oration, in which he sketched, with an able hand, the mind and character of the deceased. The procession then moved to Bunhill fields, where the service was concluded. The pall was borne by six ministers of the Three Denominations. The next day, Sunday the 19th instant, the funeral sermon was preached in Jewin Street, to a crowded auditory, by the Rev. R. ASPLAND, on a subject which was ever near the heart of the deceased, viz. The Reunion of Christian Friends in a Future State. The Rev. D. DAVISON, the Doctor's recently-appointed colleague, conducted the devotional services on this occasion. (Dr. Rees had appointed, by his will, the two gentlemen before-named, that officiated in the funeral services.) Both the Oration and the Sermon are, at the request of the family and congregation, to be published.

June 13th, in the 71st year of her age, at Reading, after eight days of painful suffering, Mrs. Champion, whose sound

sense, sincere piety, domestic virtues, liberal spirit, active charity, ardent friendship, conjugal and maternal affection, endeared her to all her family and friends, and rendered the time of her departure from this life a season of deep affliction. Her sorrowing family will long cherish her memory, in the pleasing anticipation of a happy reunion in a state of couscious being, where death will have no more dominion over man, or power to rend the sacred bond of mutual affection. The deceased had in early life embraced the Calvinistic system of religious belief; but she gradually abandoned it; and, after having adopted the doctrine of universal restoration, from the writings of Mr. Winchester, she became, for the last fourteen years of her life, a decided and zealous Unitarian.

June 15, at Leigh Rectory, near Rei gate, Surrey, in the 58th year of his age, SAMUEL WILTON, Esq, eldest son of the late Dr. Wilton, formerly minister of the Weigh-House, East Cheap, who, though he has been long dead, and died at an early age, is remembered with esteem and respect as the friend and champion of religious liberty. (See his Review of the Thirty-nine Articles.)

DOMESTIC

RELIGIOUS.

Manchester College, York. THE 38-9th Annual Meeting of the Trustees of this Institution was held in the Cross-Street Chapel Rooms, Manchester, on Friday the 6th of August, 1824, when, it being determined in future to hold the Manchester Annual Meeting of Trustees on the Thursday nearest to the first full moon subsequent to the 22nd of February, the anniversary of the foundation of the College, the meeting adjourned, at its close, to the 3rd of March last, having first passed a vote requesting the officers of the College to continue in office until that day.

On the 3rd of March, Samuel Kay, Esq., having been called to the Chair, the proceedings of the Committee since the former Annual Meeting were read, approved of, and confirmed, and votes of thanks were passed to the several officers of the Institution, for their services during the past year. The following officers were then elected for the year ensuing, viz. Joseph Strutt, Esq., President; James Touchett, Esq., Peter Martineau, Esq.,

Daniel Gaskell, Esq., Abraham Crompton, Esq., the Rev. John Yates, and the Rev. John Kentish, Vice-Presidents; and George William Wood, Esq., Treasurer. The office of Visitors continues to be filled by the Rev. W. Turner and the Rev. Dr. Carpenter, and that of Public Examiners by the Rev. Dr. Hutton and the Rev. John Gooch Robberds. The Deputy Treasurers were re-elected with the addition of Mr. Johu Bell for York and the neighbourhood. At a second adjournment of that meeting held on the 7th of April last, Ottiwell Wood, Esq., in the Chair, Mr. S. D. Darbishire and the Rev. J. J. Tayler were appointed Secretaries, and Mr. Samuel Kay and Mr. Samuel Allcock Auditors, and the Committee was re-elected with the exception of the Rev. John Grundy, Mr. Edward Hanson and Mr. Robert Philips, Juu., who are succeeded by Mr. Benjamin Heywood, Mr. Samuel Allcock, and the Rev. Robert Smethurst.

The number of Students in the College during the last Session was twenty-nine, viz. ten Lay Students and nineteen Divinity Students, of whom twelve were on the foundation on full exhibitions, and