ecclesiastical dictation, who are under no half-bondage to early associations of external religion, who are unalarmed by the spiritural terrors of early life, to whom God has given, not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power and of love, — it remains for us, without the smallest measure of self-complacency, with reasonable and grateful humility, to remember that our responsibilities are commensurate with our advantages. Collectively, we may not be able to accomplish all which the wants of the times appear to demand. Yet each one in his place and at all times can fearlessly and manfully speak the truth in love. By his daily actions, if not by his words, each one may bear testimony to the reality and power of an inward faith, which not only as to an existence beyond death, but as to the triumph of holiness, liberty, and love, among men on the earth, "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The spirit of power and spirit of love which mark the energy of the age, represent and enforce the spirit of unity which is the true Unitarianism; - that which unites men in heart and action, despite all theoretic or speculative differences;- that which regards all names, rites, forms, and churches as nothing in themselves, but as symbolic expressions, visible organs, or modes of declaration, all valuable more or less, as means, as helps, but not as ends,the ends being integrity of life, a harmonious, intelligent, and spiritual growth, to which all expressions, forms, and words must be subservient, and useful only in proportion as they subserve these ends. Not even forms and ceremonies which subserve these ends should be despised. We should address the imagination as well as the understanding, and cultivate taste as well as reason. We must collect and combine the dispersed elements of truth, and consolidate them into a substantial faith. Such appears to be the tendency of the times. Such is the felicitous consummation of an approaching period in the world. Whatsoever occasion may appear at times for discouragement to persons and personal exertions, there is abundant ground for cheerful and deepening trust in general progress, peaceful unity, and the reign of fraternal love. Some timid souls, wanting confidence in the power of faith to win its way, feeling a new and stronger pulse throbbing in the Church, are alarmed lest it should prove an unhealthy symptom. They seem to fear some feverish phase to which death itself may follow. Instead of faith, this shows a sad distrust of the religion they profess, a want of confidence in God himself. Some spirits in the Church are busy enough to repair the breaches in the old walls by which the flocks have been fenced in. But their zeal is unavailing, for every moving train of steam-cars shakes down as much brick and mortar as the Sunday preaching builds. Every flash along ten thousand electric wires rejoins and mends the threads of human sympathy, as rapidly as ten thousand pulpits can consume and separate them. The tree of human brotherhood, which Jesus transplanted from its narrow nursery in Palestine into the unfenced garden of the world, though by mistaken husbandmen it has been tied down and dwarfed, and the dew and sunshine shut out by ec clesiastic coverings, has still been growing, and has now reached a growth so stately, that it cannot be inclosed in the hot-house of a narrow church. Its roots have deepened, and its trunk has strengthened, and its boughs expanded, till it rejoices in the light and heat and showers of heaven itself; sweet birds are singing in its foliage, and men of every name are gathering in its grateful shade, and beginning to enjoy its delicious, unfailing, and immortal fruits. DISCOURSE V. THE FIRST SIN.- ADAM AND HIS POSTERITY. THE WHY EVEN OF YOURSELVES JUDGE YE NOT WHAT IS PROBABLY No one concise embodiment of doctrines is so well known, or read and remembered by so large a number of both children and men, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The 16th question in that Catechism is, "Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?" The answer is, "The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression." "The covenant," these words suggest the first inquiry. What evidence is there of any covenant having been made with Adam? A covenant is an agreement, a contract, or bargain, between two parties, who mutually pledge themselves to certain conditions. Now what does the Genesis account represent as having passed between Adam and his maker? In chap. ii. ver. 15, it is said: "The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This is the only language in this whole account which can be made even a pretext for this theory of a covenant. And every word in it is at variance with every idea of a covenant. Instead of an agreement between two parties, there is an imperative command given in the most authoritative manner by one party, without even a promise of obedience by the other party. For anything the account gives us to the contrary, Adam may, at the very moment of hearing this command, have resolved to exercise his own choice as to whether he would obey or disobey. There is not a single instance, in the whole Old or New Testament, where the term covenant is used with reference to anything that occurred at the creation, or this account of the creation or formation of man. And yet, as if expressly to contradict this account and all that is said in Scripture on the subject, the 12th question of the Westminster Catechism is, "What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?" The answer is, "When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon conditions of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death." But there is not a syllable of any such covenant, on any such |