the temple. The first was called the Passover; it took place in the middle of March, and marked the commencement of the Jewish year; it lasted eight days the last seven were called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The second feast was the Pentecost, so called from its being held fifty days after the Passover, and was also called the Feast of Harvest, and the Day of First Fruits. The third and last feast was meant to commemorate the Jews' dwelling in tents or tabernacles. It was called the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of In-gatherings, for it was at this season that the fruits of the vine, &c. were gathered in. This feast took place in the seventh month (latter part of September), and lasted eight days, when they lived in tents erected for the purpose; it was a most joyful period. Each individual carried branches of the palm, &c. dancing round the altar, singing Hosanna, amid sounds of trumpets and songs of the Levites, who, seated on fifteen steps, were singing the fifteen songs or psalms of degrees written by David." Dublin. M. B.

(To be continued.)

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Unitarianism Exhibited in its Actual Condition; consisting of Essays by several Unitarian Ministers and others, illustrative of the Rise, Progress, and Principles of Christian Anti-Trinitarianism in different Parts of the World. Edited by the Rev. J. R. BEARD, D.D.

HAVING already expressed our opinion on the merits of this very interesting volume, we now turn to it, for the purpose of making one or two extracts, illustrative of the position occupied by Unitarianism in America. The first essay, written by the Rev. F. A. Farley, of Brooklyn, near New York, is entitled "Congregational Unitarianism in the United States of America." Mr. Farley states his conviction, that Unitarianism in that country "begins within the first half of the eighteenth century." He introduces an extract from a letter written by the venerable Ex-President Adams, bearing date at Quincy, Massachusetts, May 15, 1815, in which the writer says:-" Sixty-five years ago, my own minister, the Rev. Samuel Bryant, Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church, in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute, of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and, perhaps, equal to all, if not above all, the Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians."

Between the years 1815 and 1821, a controversy, conducted with distinguished ability on both sides, was maintained between the leading Unitarian and Trinitarian clergymen of Boston. This resulted in the rapid extension of liberal opinions throughout the States.

From the following extract our readers will be able to form an idea of the position which the Unitarian Denomination has continued to hold since that period:

"To go into any full and detailed account of the distinguished divines who have done honour to the Unitarian faith in the United States, would extend this essay too far. The names of Eliot, and Belknap, and Howard; of Freeman, the distinguished instrument for revolutionizing the First

Episcopal Church in New England; of Holley, far-famed for his splendid eloquence, once pastor of Hollis-street Church, Boston, and afterwards President of Transylvania University, Kentucky; of Kirkland, who left the ministry at Church Green, Boston, for the Presidency of Harvard University, of whose preaching one of the acutest and profoundest minds (Chief Justice Parsons) declared, that he put more thought into one sermon than other ministers did into five;' and speaking of whose presidency his biographer says, 'no man ever did so much for Harvard University;' of Thacher and Greenwood, his successors in the ministry; and to mention no others in Boston, of Channing, nomen præclarum,' whose fame is too wide-spread to need further notice here; these are all names cherished with reverence and delight to this day, in the city where they ministered, and in the churches which they served. Out of that city, the venerable Barnard, and Prince, of Salem, Abbott of Beverly, Porter of Roxbury, Ripley of Concord, Thayer of Lancaster, and Bancroft of Worcester, with Parker of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a model man and minister, these have left behind them most precious remembrances.

"To the bench and the bar, our faith has given some of the profoundest and most accomplished judges and lawyers, and the most eloquent advocates; the late Chief Justices Parsons and Parker, of Massachusetts, and Eddy of Rhodes Island-all remarkably learned and profound; Dane, of Salem, author of the Digest of American Law, in nine vols. large 8vo, and of a celebrated ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, north-west of the Ohio river, so ably drawn, that it was adopted by Congress unaltered in the slightest particular, and of which Mr. Webster said that it laid an interdict against personal servitude, in original compact, not only deeper than all local law, but deeper, also, than all local constitutions:'-Samuel Dexter, of Boston, whose fame at the bar was unrivalled; and William Prescott, whose fame was scarcely less, and whose long life extended to eighty-two years, was one of remarkable purity and active usefulness: these are specimens of noble men who adorned our religious communion. At this very moment, the legal profession has its full proportion of able men from our denomination:-Mr. Chief Justice Shaw, of the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts; Mr. Justice Story, and Mr. Justice Wayne, two of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Bench of the United States; and Mr. Chief Justice Cranch, of the United States Circuit Court for the district of Columbia, all are Unitarians. Mr. Webster, second to no man either at the bar or in the senate, and who has shown himself equal to the profoundest questions in diplomacy, and the highest duties in the national cabinet, is a communicant at Brattle-Square Church, in Boston. Other names have been as well known in public life as politicians and statesmen. The elder Adams,' who was the immediate successor of Washington in the Presidency of this Union; Christopher Gore, who, under Washington's administration, was appointed, in 1796, one of the commissioners under Jay's treaty to settle the claims of the United States upon the British Government; and at a later period was governor of Massachusetts; and the Hon. Richard Cranch, belong to this list; while the venerable ExPresident, John Quincy Adams, of Quincy, Massachusetts, and two American ministers plenipotentiary at this moment, Edward Everett, at the Court of Great Britain, and Henry Wheaton, at that of Prussia, are of the same faith.

"Of men of science, of literary men, scholars, authors, who have done honour to the country, the Unitarian body has furnished its full share. The name of Bowditch, the translator of La Place, a work of itself enough to make his fame immortal, and the author of the Practical Navigation; to whom the distinguished French astronomer, Lacroix, acknowledged himself

indebted, for communicating many errors in his works,' is as well known abroad as at home. In the department of history and biography, Belknap, Thacher, Bradford, President Quincy, Tudor, Sparks, Prescott, and Bancroft; of poetry, Bryant, Longfellow, Pierpoint, Sprague, Tuckerman, Lowell, and Mrs. Seba Smith; of mechanical philosophy, the late Dr. Prince, of Salem, Massachusetts; of polite learning and criticism, the editors and chief writers of the North American Review, and of the Christian Examiner, from the beginning, such as E. Everett, A. H. Everett, Sparks, Channing, J. G. Palfrey, O. Dewey, Walker, Greenwood, Lamson, H. Ware, jun. Sabin, Hillard, Bowen, W. B. O. Peabody; Hedge; in jurisprudence and politics, Fisher Ames, Nathan Dane, Judge Story, W. Phillips. A large list of female writers might be added, prefaced by the names of Miss Sedgwick, Mrs. Follen, Mrs. Lee, and Miss Fuller.

"The contributions of American Unitarians to theology, aside of the sermons of Buckminster, Thacher, Freeman, Colman, N. Parker, Channing, Dewey, J. E. Abbot, Palfrey, and others, are among the most valuable which the country has seen in controversial divinity, Dr. N. Worcester's Bible News; Dr. Ware's (sen.) Letters to Trinitarians; Professor Norton's Statement of Reasons; Mr. Sparks' Letters to Dr. Miller, on the Comparative Tendency of Unitarian and Calvinistic Views, and his Letters to Dr. Wyatt on the Episcopal Church; Upham's Letters on the Logos; B. Whitman's Letters to a Universalist; Mr. Burnap's Lectures on Unitarianism, and his Expository Lectures; Mr. A. P. Peabody's Lectures on Unitarianism in Biblical criticism and literature, Professor Norton's great work on the Genuineness of the Gospels; Professor Noyes' translations of the Hebrew prophets, the Psalms, and Job, with introductions and notes; Mr. Livermore's commentary on the Gospels and Acts; Professor Palfrey's Lectures on the Jewish Scripture and Antiquities; Mr. Furness's Jesus and his biographers. The entire series of the Christian Examiner is a standing monument, to say nothing of the subordinate religious journals of the denomination, of the ability, learning, and piety, of the Unitarian clergy of the United States."

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INTELLIGENCE.

BIRMINGHAM BROTHERLY SOCIETY.

THE annual meeting of this society was held on Sunday, January 3d, in the upper vestry of the New Meeting-house. Birmingham, to receive the reports of the several institutions in connexion with the society, and for the transaction of other business. The attendance was very numerous, and the proceedings appeared to create the warmest interest amongst the members. Mr. George Simmons, the president of the society, occupied the chair, and the following is an outline of the reports read to the meeting.

There are four schools belonging to the Unitarian Association, in Bir mingham, and the following is a