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Patriotism in Women.

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The following is from the Circular which has lately appeared, in connexion with this work.

"It is proposed that about thirty women of the proper spirit and qualifications should assemble this autumn or winter in Cincinnati, to remain two months or more, as may be deemed expedient. Mrs. H. B. Stowe and Miss C. E. Beecher, under the direction of the Committee, (Rev. Dr. Elliott, Rev. Dr. Lynde, Rev. Bishop Smith, Rev. Jas. H. Perkins, Rev. Dr. McGuffey, Rev. Prof. C. E. Stowe,) will take the responsibility of preparing them for their peculiar duties; and then it is expected that the clergymen and home missionaries of various denominations will aid in securing their appropriate location, and cooperate in their labors."

Many will be the qualifications required for such teachers, and it may be easily seen that a peculiar preparation will be requisite for such a peculiar work. A self-devoting spirit there must be, the heart of a Xavier or a Fry; and not less, a competent judgment. It may be said that no teaching can bestow these. Those who have not the former, will soon retire; those who have not the latter, may learn how to supply the deficiency, partially, by patience, humility and caution. Into the particulars of this whole plan we will not enter, because to many they may seem chimerical, and they can be easily ascertained by those in whom any interest is awakened. Money-alas! if benevolent works could only be carried on without money! money will be wanted, but we are agreeably surprised by the statement, that "it is calculated that, on an average, one hundred dollars will pay all the expenses of each teacher for travelling, board, preparation, and location."

Whatever may be thought of the details of the project, all must like the spirit of the address, because it is fair, and it is modest. It exaggerates nothing, and it displaces nothing. Its author is not one of those reformers who begin by tearing down. Nor would she have women undertake what can and will be accomplished as well without them, nor touch what men can do better than they can. She gives patriotism a place among feminine virtues, though women are apt to consider it a masculine one; yet she would not have them think it acts only in times of great trouble, and only manifests itself in a Judith, Boadicea, or Maid of Saragossa. She would have us know that it may

animate the bosom of a school-mistress in a country village, and evidently understands that it is not a thing separate from all other forms of virtue; but that she is in fact the best patriot, who most faithfully discharges every known duty, even the humblest. Love of country is appealed to only as an additional stimulus, a fresh motive for exertion. Will not the virtues of every woman who can be roused to such broad and generous views of life as to glow with the love of her country, be of a high and noble cast? We fear it would be difficult in this whole country, where politics are a chief topic of conversation, to find any large class of women who ever think of their having any duty whatever as citizens. And yet, if it be a fact that a woman owes something to her country no less than a man, she can no more escape from this duty than from any other. Those who have not thought upon the matter, and therefore do not know whether they have any duty of the kind or not, are clearly bound to do this much-examine the subject. The bare intimation, that something which God requires us to do may be lying unnoticed and neglected by our side, ought to startle every conscientious woman into immediate search for it. And it will.

We have expressed a fear that this volume will be received with apathy. Many will not read it, or what is as bad, will read it carelessly, misunderstanding some parts, and taking in its solemn and weighty import but partially. But let those who feel the force of its statements do something for the cause, in some of the various ways which Miss Beecher indicates so judiciously; at least express their sympathy warmly, and so thaw others. In this power .of expression, few women are wholly deficient. If any think their capacity for action straitened by circumstances, they are under the more obligation to interest others, if possible, who can act. Their sphere of influence may be narrow, yet who knows that they may not casually present the subject to some human being, who will take a deep interest in it, be blessed with opportunities, and eventually become a blessing to the cause?

The Appendix to this work contains one note which we cannot fairly pass without comment. In "note A❞ the author, having "presented a mode of religious training adapted to schools composed of children whose parents are

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Objectionable Note.

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of different sects," adds a modification, which, we think, destroys the claim of the work to an exemption of the best kind. It is not exempt from sectarianism, and we are disappointed. Doubly so; because although we believe Miss Beecher to be above the desire of inculcating sectarian views on the present occasion, others will come to a different conclusion; and because we are sure that the perusal of this note will hinder, more than it will help, a noble cause. It is true, she cautiously states that "this modification she wishes to present to that class of parents who not only believe in the Supreme Divinity of Jesus Christ, but are in the habit of addressing their worship to Him distinctively." But are these parents the only individuals into whose hands the work will pass, into whose she wishes and earnestly seeks to have it pass? Does she not openly desire its circulation and perusal, and a cooperation with its designs, among all religious denominations? We do not

deny her right to insert such a page for the use of the readers whom she designates, but considering the work as avowedly intended for the whole public, and bearing in mind its claim to something above the diffusion of doctrines, we doubt her wisdom. Had a benevolent individual of the Unitarian denomination devised this plan, written this book, and sent it abroad in a similar manner, containing a page or two of strong, distinct Unitarianism, would not its circulation among other sects have been injured by it? Would Miss Beecher and her friends have been ready to place it in the hands of all whom they could reach? Would they have pronounced it right in the Unitarian, thus to use the opportunity of bringing his peculiar views before those who shun them?

Still it must be remembered that the passage to which we object is not in the body of the work, and ought not to interfere with its usefulness. We have spoken of it, not so much from any sensitiveness of our own, as from a knowledge of the general state of feeling on these delicate points, among all denominations. God speed the time when a simple, fervent, all-prevailing desire to serve the Lord and do good, shall amalgamate Christians into one humble, peaceful company of heaven-bound pilgrims, cheering each other on, instead of pausing to question and differ.

L. J. H.

ART. V.-ON CHRISTIAN UNION.

IN proposing to offer some remarks on Christian union, our minds naturally recur to that remarkable prayer of our Lord, as the very text and guide of our meditations:"Neither pray I for these alone, but for those 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 know that thou hast sent me."

The question naturally arises in the mind a question which we would ask reverently—has this prayer been answered? If it has, Christian union must be something different from what it has been commonly thought to be. Christians have not been agreed upon points either of doctrine, of ritual, or of Church government. If agreement upon any of these subjects be the oneness which our Saviour prayed for, then his prayer has not been answered; there has been no such agreement. In the earliest age, Arians and Trinitarians, and other successive parties separated by nice metaphysical distinctions; then, the Roman and Greek Churches; afterwards, the Catholics and Protestants; and since, many Protestant sects, - Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Pedo-baptists, Wesleyan, and Whitfieldian Methodists, Calvinists, Arminians, Pelagians; these have divided into almost endless partitions the visible domain of the Christian Church.

Let us then proceed to inquire into this great question, what is the Christian union? It is a question that has perplexed all times, and seems not yet to be settled, or at least not to have obtained any unanimity, among Christians, It might be argued by some, in a spirit unfriendly to Christianity, that since Christians have not agreed yet as to what their appropriate union is, there can have been no union whatever among them. But we think it will be found that there is a union, and always has been, of which they have less distinctly thought. Philosophers have not yet agreed what light and heat are, but still light and heat exist, notwithstanding all their disputes about them. What is the principle that draws and holds the planets in their orbits, men of science have not determined, and they have had

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Grounds of Christian Union.

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many theories about it; but the attraction has been none the less certain for that.

But to proceed; with regard to Christian union, three grounds have been taken. The first makes union to consist in having one visible Church and one visible head; the second, in a sufficient doctrinal agreement; the third, in the simple reception of Christ and of his spirit. Of these three kinds of union, the first is organic; the second speculative; the third moral or spiritual. Neither of the first two, it is true, proposes to exclude the last; but each one insists upon its own peculiar view as essential to Christian union; while the last rejects them both, that is, as being necessary, -maintaining that the simple faith in Christ and likeness to him are enough to make a man a Christian and to place him in the Christian brotherhood. Of these three grounds the first is occupied by the Catholics, who demand a visible uniformity and a common subjection to the Roman Pontiff; the second, by the predominant Protestant sects, who require an agreement in what are called fundamental articles of faith; and the third, by a large and increasing body of Christians, who maintain that the only legitimate bonds of Christian union are those good and pure affections which gather around the Christ and the Christian teaching, and are witnessed by a Christian life.

We have said that this union has been placed by Christians upon three distinct, formal grounds, -organic, doctrinal, and spiritual; or Catholic, Protestant, and ultra-Protestant. We may farther observe, to pass from the form to the nature of it, that this union must be one of two kinds, speculative or moral. That is to say, it must be founded on opinions, or affections; on creed, or character. The one attaches to the first two grounds; the other to the third. To accept the constitution and government of the Catholic Church, or to accept the fundamental articles of the predominant Protestant sects, is an office of the understanding. To recognise the living Christ, as our Saviour, Guide, Example, is the part of the affections.

Is the union of Christians - that oneness for which Christ prayed a speculative, or a moral union? Now we are prepared to answer; not the first certainly, for no such union ever has existed. If it be this, Christ's prayer has not been answered; for there is no agreement among