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which we think unsound and of disastrous tendency. We cannot dismiss the subject without a few remarks of a more general character.

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In the first place, we can discover no occasion for the blows which have been laid so thickly upon our ecclesiastical state. The practices which are pronounced so hurtful seem to us harmless and beneficial. We need not repeat what we have already said of the troubles which must now and then arise out of every condition of things. Let the principle advocated in this discourse prevail, destroy what ecclesiastical unity we have, dissolve our associations, extinguish our denominational sympathies, and let every man work "in his own place and sphere, unencumbered" by these vexatious ties, will there be an end of trouble? Will nothing again occur to perplex or distress us? Is individualism a principle of such mighty efficacy? We doubt it much.

Mr. Putnam says we shall at least secure consistency, shall relieve ourselves from a false position, shall be true to our principles. What there is in our principles inconsistent with such a measure of sectarian action as we have exhibited, it requires a keener sight than ours to discover. We have detected no disposition in our body to introduce a despotism over conscience, to impose tests in contravention of personal rights, or to build up a "church establishment." We have freedom enough, latitude of opinion enough, private judgment enough. Pray let us have a little union, for love's sake, and a little cooperation, for truth's sake. We shall endanger no principle to which we have ever clung, by making our ecclesiastical relations somewhat more intimate than they are. There is no need of our becoming "less decidedly a denomination" than we are, in order to our securing "a high and true position." We hold such a position now. Let us not be tempted to forsake it by any deceptive appearance encircling some other mountain-top.

According to the writer of this discourse we have nothing to bind us together as a denomination. In attempting to maintain a union of this kind we are not only going against our principles, but trying to make bricks without straw, playing the part of Egyptian task-masters with ourselves. "We have not the essential requisites of

a denominational existence." Incidentally, however, Mr. Putnam reveals to us the cement, and basis of our union. "Our strength," he says, "lies in the sympathy which our more free and rational, though somewhat indefinite, theology finds among intelligent and influential men." We want nothing more than this. It is this "free and rational theology on which our denomination rests, and "sympathy " in such a theology which binds us together. This is strong enough for all our purposes. It has made us so much of a denomination as we are, and it may give us yet more of coherence and stability.

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We are glad to believe, that it is too late in the day for the doctrine of this discourse to find general favor. It may please some minds and disturb others, but it will not unsettle our usages nor turn back the current of opinion which is setting so strongly in an opposite direction. For twenty years and more the principle of union has been unfolding its value to our eyes, and proving its efficacy in our hands. We are not prepared to give it up on account of some incidental or temporary inconvenience. Its advanta ges are a thousand-fold greater than the evils which are charged upon it. We shall not unlearn the lesson of a quarter of a century, and begin to spell our duty from a new alphabet. We cannot do it, if we would. Nature is stronger than argument and eloquence. It is argument and eloquence. And nature will compel us to seek that interchange of sympathies, which is the security of our denominational existence. They who think alike in this age of the world find one another out; and that men should acknowledge common convictions, in this period of enterprise and philanthropy, and not propose to each other a common action, is just one of those dreams of the closet, which, thank Heaven! can never be realized in actual life. A denomination we are, and a denomination we shall be, so long as there are any of us left. It is not very long since we were told that Unitarianism was at its mortal hour. It survived that prophecy; and was never more active or more efficient, never gave more signs of life and never supplied occasion for more cordial sympathies or more intelligent affinities, than now. Cooperation is one of the demands of the age, and we do well to fall in with it. The theory of individualism is utterly impracticable. If it could once have been

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carried out, it is now opposed by all the tendencies of modern society. Acute observers and profound thinkers have alike acknowledged the power of association. It is a mighty instrument in the hands of evil; it may be used most efficiently in the service of truth and humanity.

We cannot give up our denominational existence, we cannot forsake our religious associations, we cannot resign. our ecclesiastical usages to the past. We would multiply rather than diminish ties which impose no irksome restraint, would draw more close, rather than loosen, the bonds of our union. We remember those whose sympathy gave us strength in former days, and to whose efforts as we joined our own, we felt how much is gained by combination of wills and labors. We cannot forget their example. And least of all, can we be silent when we are called to adopt a principle, which would not only inscribe folly as the title of what we esteem the best part of our past history, but would compel us to relinquish our present agencies for the diffusion of Christian truth and moral influence. "What charitable agency, combined or individual, need be stopped," if we accept his doctrine, asks Mr. Putnam. With such a question before us from his pen, we almost doubt if we have not read his whole discourse backwards. What agency be stopped? Go and put this pamphlet into the hands of the officers of our associations for missionary purposes, and tell them to act upon its principles; and they will resign their places instantly. Our anniversary meetings must cease, our tract depositories be shut up, our social gatherings be branded with obloquy; and Christian zeal, instead of breathing the healthful air of sympathy, must live upon its own energy till that is exhausted, and then it may die, and no one mourn its departure.

We believe that a better history than this will cover the future. And so does our brother, whose discourse has called forth these remarks. But the principle which he has commended to the consideration of his Christian brethren would lead by a logical and inevitable process, if it should be adopted in practice, to these consequences. And therefore it is, because we value our religious faith and wish to see it spread far and wide, that we have not hesitated to express our dissent from the deliberately formed opinions of one whom we respect and love.

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E. S. G.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

A Discourse delivered in the West Church in Boston, August 3, 1845. By CHARLES LOWELL, one of the Ministers of the West Church. Cambridge: Metcalf & Co. 1845. 8vo. Pp. 25.

A Discourse, delivered in Dublin, N. H., September 7, 1845. It being the Sabbath after the twenty-fifth Anniversary of his Ordination. By LEVI W. LEONARD, Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society. Keene. 1846. 8vo. pp. 28. The Church of the Disciples in Boston. A Sermon on the Principles and Methods of the Church of the Disciples. By the Pastor, JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Delivered Sunday morning and evening, Dec. 7, 1845. Boston: B. H. Greene. 1846. 8vo. pp. 36.

A Discourse, delivered in the Church of the First Congregational Society in Burlington, Sunday, December 21, 1845, the Anniversary of the Sabbath which preceded the Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth. By OLIVER W. B. PEABOBY. Burlington. 1846. 8vo. pp. 22. The Kingdom of Heaven. A Sermon, preached at the Installation of Rev. John T. Sargent, as Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Somerville, Mass., Wednesday, February 18, 1846. By WILLIAM H. FURNESS, Pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. With the Charge, Right Hand of Fellowship, and Address to the People. Somerville. 1846. 8vo. pp. 48.

A Sermon preached at the Installation of Rev. A. M. Bridge, as Colleague Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in Bernardston, Mass., Feb. 18, 1846. BY CHANDLER ROBBINS. Together with the Right Hand of Fellowship, and Address to the People. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1846. pp. 42.

Individual and Public Reform. A Discourse delivered on Fast Day, April 2, 1846, at the West Church in Boston. By C. A. BARTOL, Junior Pastor. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1846. 8vo. pp. 16.

The Sin and Danger of Self-Love, described in a Sermon preached at Plymouth, in New England, 1621. By ROBERT CUSHMAN. London: Printed. Plymouth [Massachusetts] Re-printed by Nathaniel Coverly, 1785. Boston: Published by Rebecca Wiswell, 1846. 12mo. pp. 35.

The Connection between Geography and History: A Lecture delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at

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Notices of Recent Publications.

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Hartford, Conn., August, 1845. By GEORGE S. HILLARD. Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1846. 12mo. pp. 43. Lecture on the Necessity of Physiology, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at Hartford, August 22, 1845. By EDWARD JARVIS, M. D., of Dorchester, Mass. Boston: W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1845. 12mo. pp. 55. An Address at the Opening of the Town Hall, in Brookline, on Tuesday, 14 October, 1845. By JOHN PIERCE, D. D., Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Brookline. Boston. 1846. 8vo. pp. 52.

An Address on Temperance, delivered in the Town-Hall, Brighton, Sunday Evening, Dec. 21, 1845. By FREDERIC A. WHITNEY, Minister of the First Church. Boston: B. H. Greene. 1846. 8vo. pp. 22.

An Address on Pauperism, delivered before the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in the Central Church, Winter Street, on Sunday Evening, February 22, 1846. By JOHN T. SARGENT, Pastor of the First Congregational Society in Somerville. Boston: B. H. Greene. 1846. 8vo. pp. 40. Remarks on a Letter from the Hollis Street Society to their Unitarian Brethren, with the Documents relating to the recent call of a Minister by that Society. Boston. 1846. 8vo. pp. 22.

Remarks on Europe, relating to Education, Peace and Labor; and their Reference to the United States. New York: C. S. Francis & Co. 1846. 8vo. pp. 42.

Sketches of a few Distinguished Men of Newbury and Newburyport. By S. SWETT. No. 1, Capt. Moses Brown, of the United States Navy. Boston. 1846. 12mo. pp. 23.

The Panidea; or, an Omnipresent Reason considered as the
Creative and Sustaining Logos. By THEOPTES. Boston: T.
H. Webb & Co. 1846. 8vo.
A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument. By a CITIZEN OF
VIRGINIA. New York. 1845. 8vo.

pp. 176.

pp. 91.

Dr. Lowell's Discourse was preached at the expiration of forty years from the commencement of his ministry in the West church, the small wooden building, in which he began to preach, standing almost alone in the fields, (though on the site of the present edifice,) in a part of the city then called "New Boston." The author speaks as to "familiar friends," in the tone of sincerity and affectionate confidence and with the directness which have uniformly marked his pulpit performances. He states the principles which have governed him in the conduct of his long ministry, leaving historical details, or a more full exposition of his views and of his position in respect to religious parties, to a very interesting appendix. Mr. Leonard's Dis

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