of sacred truth, and made them instantly familiar with what it had taken months and years of another's efforts to discover. Perhaps an imperfect system of truth would make our advance in knowledge more sure than it would be without any system. But give us a crystalizing nucleus, and it will draw out God's sometimes hidden and often undetected truths, and make them shine in beauty, order and strength.

It is a great thing to be able to say of these forms of sound words that it makes the religious and social character better. Nothing can be more unfortunate in the attempt to form a happy character, than to shut out the knowledge of the past, and to think of building up only through and from one's self. The man who has the wretched conceit of despising all authority, is one of the most uncomfortable creatures that God suffers to live, like one of the monstrous things of which geologists speak in the old chaotic world, fit only for a scene where no human, rational life was found. The desirable thing is to be free from this individualizing, and selfish spirit. One way to effect this will be to lead us from our narrow and selfish conceptions into the symbols of faith which the united wisdom of others has sketched. It is a great work accomplished, when any of these narrow and independent thinkers have been brought into an interested communion of thought with the wise, good, and sober-minded of all ages. Then their character becomes humble and lovely, and with the spirit of a little child they take their proper place in the community, which is made glad, according as its members cherish affectionate and truthful feelings.

It is impossible to reach the highest Christian state without this humbled feeling. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Some of the most valuable specimens of Christian character have been found, where they have been accustomed to take their creed and hold to it through evil and good report. The pure piety of Scotland has often been rightly traced to its abundant and faithful training in those "sound words" which are but a condensation of the Bible. The scriptural intelligence, deep repentance, and warm-hearted love for God and man, so marked in the fathers of New England, has been well supposed to grow out of their strong and well arranged

systems of faith, which brought the word of God into so condensed a form as to raise the venerable men who adhered to them, above the deformities of conceited and half-informed disciples to the measure and proportions of the happiest and truest Christians.

ness.

In contradistinction from these, multitudes of Christians, and Christian scholars care to develop only single points. Some cultivate a redundant fancy, and become fretful, because others will not follow their dreams, and try to restrain their waywardSome magnify the "personal reason," and in the wildness of investigation lose all reverence for authority, and go as far as can be well conceived, from the feeling an apostle commends, "in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Others give an exaggerated importance to exegesis, until through their severe processes, the passages of Scripture, not only have no "double sense," but no "single sense," from which you can draw devout feeling.

Thus in one way or another, men are crowding out of the line which is safe and happy for society, and religion, and can only be brought back by a new and tender regard for those general sentiments upon which common sense and devout disciples have long relied. The complete character must have the broad basis, and the strong Christian feelings cannot be expected without the depth of Christian sentiment.

It is not to be forgotten that Scripture sustains the principles of this discussion, to which reason and common sense naturally lead us. The apostle shows how much he valued the past as an instructor, when he thought it best to present Christianity through Judaism, though it was encumbered with traditions, and full of ceremonies which being ritual were then out-dated. The reference to Judaism for the purpose of illustrating and impressing truth is as marked in the Epistle to the Galatians, though they were not Jews, as in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In describing the minister of the Gospel unto Titus, the apostle says he is one that holds fast the faithful word, as he has been taught." In the sixth of Romans, he speaks of the servants of righteousness as distinguished from the servants of sin in this, that they "obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered them." In the letter to Timothy he says, while

animating him to have the complete character of a minister of Jesus Christ, "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me."

To this advice of Scripture, and this common sense and rational view, many will be indifferent. They prefer to go forward as if every thing were unsettled, and consider nothing reliable and beautiful, but what they have made from comparative chaos. Many people think they can drive the chariot of the sun, and they do not find out their mistake until they have thrown the orb of day into fragments, and spread ruin over the world.

ARTICLE II.

LIBERAL RELIGION.

Too many, Judas like, are guilty of betraying Christianity with a kiss. They compliment it only to crucify it. They prove themselves its worst enemies by claiming to be its truest friends. Exceedingly sensitive to any suspicion or charge of scepticism, they yet have no faith in Christ, and do not hesitate to set aside as" exploded notions" all the most cherished and firmly established doctrines of inspiration.

For such a course they sometimes attempt to apologize by coolly telling us that they wish they only could believe, that they admire of all things the "moral grandeur" and the "ethical beauty" of many parts of the Bible, that they esteem Jesus Christ, that they consider a simple, child-like faith a very desirable thing, but they are not credulous, their genius is restless and speculative, and, therefore, they cannot believe in the old theological dogmas, and, they profess, reluctantly, to resign themselves to the penalty of their extraordinary intelligence! Personal arrogance it is true, except in a few cases, is hardly bold enough to enter such a plea, yet it is expressly and constantly made by the leaders of this school for their blind, admiring followers. One has said, for instance, that:

full of the religious spirit.

"Even the protests against Christianity are oftenest made by men Many of the unbelievers' of this age are eminent for their religion. It is a sad thing to look at the noble and large-minded men who, in this country have become disgusted with the popular theology and so have turned off from all consciousness of religion. In a better age they would have been leaders of the world's piety."

The habitual assumption of men of this class is that by following the law of progress they have got beyond what is called Christianity, and that, guided by the light of reason, they have risen into a higher region of truth and beauty. They are not positive that they have on their side all the integrity, but they do claim to monopolize all the intelligence, and the mere circumstance that a man does not think with them, is sure proof that he is not "scholarly," or that his scholarship lacks "breadth,” and he is given to understand that his faith in the teachings of inspiration, is opposed by "the accepted results of the profoundest learning of the age."

It will be found, as a general rule, that these very persons have no special claim to preeminence for wisdom; but "having heard that it is a vastly silly thing to believe every thing, they take it for granted that it must be a vastly wise thing to believe nothing," and thus they become sceptical. Or, if saved from this extreme, they are found displaying their pride and folly in attempting to patch up and propagate some eclectic system of faith; and, setting aside the claims of the Bible, denying the divinity of Christ, and arraying themselves against every feature of vital Christianity, they claim to have found a better religion— a religion the principles of which are truer, and the fruits of which, they promise, shall be richer than those of any of the old theologies.

This they call Liberal Religion, and in the present article we simply propose to glance at its theory, and to notice the two prominent forms of its development.

As to the theory of religious liberalism, the most plausible expression of it is found in the writings of the late Theodore Parker. Religion, he tells us, consists in a sense of dependence;" and, recognizing this as a universal sentiment, asserts that there is but "one religion, though many theologies." In

this view and it is the prevailing notion among those who are opposed to evangelical Christianity even though they may not be in full sympathy with Parkerism" a sense of dependence" is made the essence of all religion, and wherever this is discovered, whether among people civilized or savage, there we are to recognize true religion, for whether they follow the teachings of Zoroaster, or Confucius, or Christ, these are only their theologies, and they have after all but "one religion."

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Contrary to this notion, we maintain that these theologies must spring from fundamentally different views of God and truth, and that to confound these is to countenance idolatry and encourage the grossest iniquity. We hold that there is but one true and living God, and that in order to render him acceptable service, we must have some proper conception of his divine charThey that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Adoration paid to the sun, moon and stars, therefore, will not be accepted as devotion offered to the Father, Son and Spirit. Admiration for the beautiful in nature will not be acknowledged as equivalent to love of holiness in God, and prayers and oblations offered to Jupiter will never be appropriated by Jehovah. The Lord our God is a jealous God, and in his word he has declared that we shall have no other gods before him. According to the views of our modern progressive religionists, however, there is no necessity or reason for such a command, since we may pay our devotions to what we will, even adoring images, and bowing down to stocks and stones, and, provided only we do so under a sense of dependence," we are religious, and just as truly so as if, with an enlightened mind and a lively faith, we should offer our homage and address our prayers to the great Jehovah !

But this theory is based not only on an indifferent view of the character of God, but also on a most gross conception of the nature and claims of truth. It wholly ignores the fact that truth has a stable or permanent law, it makes it purely subjective, leaving it entirely at the caprice and option of men to modify or reject it, allowing each individual to set up and follow a standard of his own, destroying in fact all distinction between truth and error in religion, and making it a point of no moment what is believed: because no matter what, all are es