"Oh! I cannot find it in this bible. The Unitarian bible is different from ours." When the simple fact is, that in every Unitarian pulpit in this country and in England, in every Sunday school, and we presume in every family, the common King James' version is used, because, but only because it is considered, on the whole, the best translation we have. Again, there are misconceptions of our principles. It is sometimes stated, that we place reason above revelation; when our real doctrine is that as both revelation and reason are from God, they cannot contradict each other, even if revelation contains truths which transcend reason. Once more; it is not unusual to hear an opinion expressed by one leading Unitarian, attributed to the whole body, by Orthodox Christians, who are accustomed to creeds and formularies of faith, because it is not known that the only creed of Unitarians is the Bible. Which being the case, as no two minds can see the same portions of truth through the same medium, and as no one can comprehend the whole truth clearly, of course there must be, among those who seek truth with freedom, great diversity of opinion. Lastly, there is an arrogance displayed in the treatment of Unitarians, which is intolerable. For example, a minister of the Gospel, not long since, dared to say in the public prints, that we were propagators of Infidelity. What! Are our churches built, and do we statedly assemble to read the Scriptures, to worship and meditate upon our Christian duties, in hypocrisy and open mockery of heaven? As our last words in life, we would say, that our chief desire is to be formed anew, after the image of our Lord and Master, and our earnest hope is that the kingdom of heaven may come, through the inspiration of the Spirit of Jesus, in every human soul. We would unite with our friends of other denominations in their prayers and labours for the moral elevation of man; we would take them heartily by the hand in the great work of Christian Reform, and welcome them to co-work with us as Brethren.

And this leads us to remark, as a second reason for desiring to explain our views of the Fundamental Truths of the Gos pel, that we have a sympathy with the essential faith of our fellow Christians, which they do not recognise; while they, in turn, have such a sympathy with us in our essential faith, as they would be surprised to discover. We never enter an Orthodox church without finding more that the heart can respond to, than the reason is forced to deny; and not seldom are our Orthodox friends, to their own amazement, led to confess, "Well! you are Christians, after all." We know of

no doctrine held dear in other denominations, of which we do not think the root can be found in some truth or fact admitted by ourselves. And if, with unprejudiced minds, our interpretations of scripture and reasonings upon the great principles of the moral universe and the events of man's moral history, were listened to, it would be found, we think, that instead of overlooking any thing which other Christians are convinced of, we differ from them chiefly, where we differ at all, in analyzing these truths or facts more thoroughly, and observing more of their relations with other truths and facts.

This last consideration suggests a third reason for desiring to explain our views of the Fundamental Truths of the Gospel; which is this. Humbly but confidently we believe, that it is our privilege to have escaped from many of the traditional errors which have, in the course of ages, been infused through the pure and simple doctrines of Jesus. We think we have been more successful than most of our brethren, in returning to the beautiful consistency of primitive Christianity. We feel as if we could help our friends to comprehend their own essential faith more distinctly, by removing from the vine of truth the parasite weeds which sap its strength. From a sense of the influence which our views have already exerted on our own hearts and lives, low although our spiritual attainments may be; and from a full conviction, that if we were faithful to it, our faith would justify us, and all who heartily receive it; that it is better fitted to the wants of the soul, more simple, more consistent, more rational, more free, more generous, more beautiful, than the faith of any denomination, we would address curselves to all candid and liberal minds.

And as the corner stone of our belief, we would explain our views as to what we understand to be the first, the last, the fundamental and the crowning doctrine of the Gospel, the existence of a Heavenly Father. Whence shall we draw our knowledge of this great central truth? We answer from Jesus; to whom we look "as the author and finisher of our faith." It is our purpose, therefore, to discuss now not philosophical speculations or metaphysical arguments as to the nature, attributes and modes of being of a God, for which other occasions are more appropriate, but the Christian view of the Infinite Moral Being, the view which the Son of God gave of the Father.

"No man knoweth the Father but the Son," said Jesus, and we respond to his assertion. His mode of teaching the first great truth of religion was wholly original and peculiar. When mystified by logical systems, when wearied by theories,

with intellects perplexed, and hearts chilled, we come back to the simple and sublime utterances of the Prophet of Nazareth, with wonder at the profound wisdom with which he adapted himself to the human soul. "Never man spake like this man." There are no lengthened reasonings to weaken the clear announcements of the truth which he knows; no vague phraseology to cloud the bright conviction, which broke forth from his soul like a day spring from the world of light. "He testifies of that which he has seen." God was not to Jesus an idea, but a living person; not an abstraction, but a near friend. He speaks of God as of one he communes with. His allusions are all spontaneous and free as of a soul filled with the consciousness of God's present love. He needs not to speculate about the sublime fact of an ever-living, all-loving power, for the divine goodness warmly embraces him. "He is in the bosom of the Father." Now to our minds a great lesson of religious truth is taught by this peculiarity of manner, in which Jesus communicated his sense, if we may use the expression, of an Infinite Spirit. Doubt is disarmed by this appeal to our innate reverence, and intellect is enlightened by the affection awakened in the heart. Thought may not comprehend the Supreme Mind, but all feelings of our nature concentrate harmoniously in the adoration of the Father. Our moral nature apprehends that to which understanding cannot attain. It is through the love of the soul that we are raised to spiritual knowledge.

Now whence originated this peculiar method of religious teaching, if that can be called teaching which seemed rather the expression of emotions too full to be repressed? We see no other explanation than that given by Jesus. It originated in his peculiar union with God. "The Spirit was given to him without measure." "It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." The mode of this relation we do not deceive ourselves by attempting to explain. We leave the great fact announced in the reverent expression 'conceived of the Holy Ghost,' in its sacred mystery. We know not the origin of any spirit. But in the birth of Jesus we are brought nearer than anywhere in human history to the sublime fact of a soul springing into conscious existence and the free exercise of power immediately, from the life-giving Parent of all. From the time when the earnest boy, gracious and lovely, "who had increased in favor with God and man, as he grew in stature," said to his wondering friends, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business,"-till the hour when he breathed forth his agony in those words of tri

umphant trust, "Father! into thy hands I commit my spirit," we recognise a fullness of God in him, such as we see nothing approaching to elsewhere. And not only do we learn the fact, that God is thus the Father of souls; but in this nearness of the all Holy One to him, who, in his pure innocence, was "the beloved Scn," do we see a proof of the presence of the Deity, quite transcending all other signs of his agency. We discover that goodness in a human soul is a condition of God's manifestation in the brightest form in which this earth is capable of displaying the eternal majesty. Nature with its harmonious processes, glorified as it is with beauty, and bursting as it is with life, is a faint emblem of an all-vivifying spirit, when compared with this Christ, who walks before us in his sweet dignity, transfigured with the light which beams from the spirit of "the Father who is in him."

This sense of union with God, this consciousness of life from the Eternal Being, streaming through and pervading him, called out in Jesus a corresponding love and devotedness, which give us a knowledge of the Father, such as we could never derive from the feelings produced by experience in ourselves. The devoutness of Jesus is as original and peculiar as his modes of speaking of God. It is so confiding, so simple, so free. In him we see the true liberty of a child of God, the liberty of a soul where selfishness is cast aside.There is nothing which separates him from his Father. "He is one with God." Is he in the desert, where weary and faint, thoughts enter his mind of anticipating Providence, and by clear displays of miraculous power, forcing that conviction, which God intended the gentle influence of his moral perfections and of the truths which he uttered should produce? How instantly does reverence subdue the selfish suggestion! “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." When misunderstood by friends, suspected by those he would aid, hunted by spies, way-laid by enemies, he is upheld by the felt support of an unfailing friend, "I am not alone." The shame and agony of his crucifixion rise in the still gloom of midnight to his imagination; but the sublime consciousness that he has "kept his Father's commandments, and thus abides in his love," comes like an angel to strengthen him; "The cup which my Father has given me shall I not drink it?" His joy was in perfect self-consecration to that heavenly voice, which spoke with persuasive command within him; "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." How deep must have been his conviction of the power of love in the Father, when thus through the exercise of disinterestedness, Jesus felt that he

was entering into the very glory of God, and gaining a sway over human hearts forever. In the beauty and strength of this piety of Jesus, we see as by reflected rays, the bright perfections of the Father, who was the object of affection.

But the devoutness of Jesus was only one manifestation of the Holy Spirit with which he was filled; and it was his whole character, which chiefly reveals the Father. Well might he say, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Jesus fills our highest conceptions of Moral Life. He is the Incarnation of Goodness-Good manifested in the flesh. When he lifts the down-trodden and the outcast with those words which reprove while they encourage, "Go! and sin no more," we seem to hear the voice of Him, who created and still sustains us, pleading with our forgetful hearts to turn to him. When he declares the purpose of his mission thus: "The Son of Man has come to save the lost," it is as if the all-seeing One was welcoming back the returning prodigal with these words of love, "This my son was dead, but is alive again." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," said Jesus, and when we connect with this expression that other so full of tenderness, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," we feel that his self-sacrifice was indeed the true type of Mercy enduring forever. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," was his dying bequest, and what a new world is opened to our contemplations, in the thought that a disinterestedness stronger than death, manifested through death, is the only true symbol of the bliss of Heaven. Where shall we see God, if not in the life of him, who, while he was the sternest in his demand for rectitude, was the most patient with perversity, and while he was himself untouched by evil, had the tenderest pity for the tempted, whose hope grew out of his own conscious power of goodness, and whose respect for man's nature was measured by an experience of the worth of a living soul? "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him, for God is Love," is the sublime assertion of the Apostle; in Jesus then indeed "dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

Who then is this Father, "of whose glory Jesus is the brightness, and of whose person he is the express image?" His essential nature, his modes of being, according to our understanding, are not spoken of by the Great Teacher. His character and relations are alone revealed. "This Spirit, who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth," and who "seeks as worshippers" those who in filial reverence and gratitude will devote themselves to his free service, is "perfect in love, caus