than which none on earth can be found more intent on the prosecution of outward interests, the secular aspect was for this length of time overborne by the moral, the religious, the Christian. Religion has not fallen into decay, when it can collect such numbers around its altars of piety and philanthropy. Christianity is not a dead letter nor a barren institution, when it can announce the anniversary meetings of more associations of men and women anxious to labour in its behalf than the day will bestow hours for their assembling, except by compelling a choice between different invitations urged at the same moment. Every one of these Societies is a product of the Gospel, and bears witness to the prevalence of some one or other of its real or presumed principles. And therefore all of them declare, as with a voice of unimpeachable affirmation, that Christianity is the accepted faith of the people.

And more than this; for next we observe, that one of the most striking characteristics of the late anniversary week was the practical turn which was given to the meetings. So far as came under our notice, or the information which we have received extends, the discussions were eminently practical in their purpose, having for their object to disentangle from all embarrassment the principles or to set forth in a clear light the methods on which depend the propagation of Christian truth and the success of Christian effort. There was not much brilliant speaking less perhaps than usual. But this is not to be regretted. There was no ambitious oratory, no attempt to produce a transient impression on an audience, less appeal than usual to the feelings, and of course less of evanescent excitement. But there was more of earnest and solid discussion, more comparison of judgments, more examination of the grounds of action, and more inquiry after the best paths for Christian zeal to pursue. It was therefore a period of instruction rather than of emotion; and this appears to us to be a great improvement in the character of our anniversary meetings.

It promises more permanent results. It shows that Christians are thinking more about the materials out of which their works of benevolence shall be constructed, than about the superficial claims which they may urge to attention.

Yet more noticeable was the place which was given to questions of social reform. Several of the Societies, whose members responded to the annual invi

tation which assembled them as co-workers for Christ and humanity, entertained expressly and exclusively questions of this kind. There was the "Peace Socity," devoted to the extirpation of that false sentiment, which countenances war and reads the Gospel through a Heathen translation. There was the "League of Universal Brotherhood," designed to promote the spread of those feelings which knit man to man in amicable relations, and the overthrow of those practices which fill the earth with violence and injustice. There was the Prison Discipline Society," which aims at a mitigation and final removal of the terrible evils which mark the execution of penal laws, converting the penitentiary from a blessing into a curse both to the inmate and the community, and making punishment an education in sin. There was the "Prisoner's Friend Society," which stretches out a kind hand to the convict when his term of punishment is ended, and helps him to stand up among his fellow-men in the consciousness of repentant self-respect. There was the "Anti Slavery Society," fierce in its invective and extravagant in its hope, but with eye fastened on the wickedness of an institution which denies to man his natural rights, and with hand lifted to Heaven in protestation against its continuance. There was the meeting of the "Associationists," who advocate changes in the present order of society on moral and spiritual even more than on economical grounds. And other Societies might be named which seek to relieve humanity of some of its burthens, besides Missionary and Tract Associations, and the different agencies whose sole object is the spread of religious truth.— These Societies are of recent growth, and they indicate (for they reflect) that feature of the age, which entitles it to be called an age of philanthropic action.— On no previous anniversary week, perhaps, was there so little of theological, or certainly of polemical discussion, and never, probably, was there so free and strong an expression of interest in the removal of those disadvantages under which the world is struggling towards the era of its emancipation from prescriptive evils.

The "free expression." Was not another distinction of the late week, which deserves to be noticed, the disposition to allow the utmost freedom in the expression of opinion? What a variety of views was presented! From what

opposite principles did men start! At what opposite conclusions did they arrive! How many were the objections which solicited their attention! What license was given to the tongue which chose to wander from strict propriety into the domain of general rebuke or personal remark! Passing over the indulgence in which one of these Societies allows itself, and by which we believe it has retarded the cause it advocates, we may safely challenge the world to exhibit another place in which difference of opinion may be so fully expressed or so openly avowed. We know that an opposite judgment has been passed upon Boston, that it has been pronounced to lie under the restraint of a public sentiment which seals the lips against the utterance of any other views than such as itself adopts; but we cannot admit the justice of the remark. On the contrary, if there is a place in the world where speech is unshackled, it is here. Men say what they please on every subject, religious, political, literary, or social, that may arise. Look at the various organizations which exist for one purpose or another. Look at the sects which spring up on the spot, or find nourishment in a soil which seems to be equally adapted for the staunchest orthodoxy and the utmost extreme of liberal.. ity, the most cautious conservatism and the wildest ultraism. This variety of opinion and freedom of expression found large opportunity of display in our anni. versary meetings. And we are glad of it. Let truth speak with its many tongues, and not always use one dialect. Let error mingle its discordant cries; they will but serve to draw attention to what is better and more divine. Let speech be as untrammelled by conventional sympathies as the providence of God, which amidst its countless manifestations preserves its own, often unseen and unacknowledged, consistency; provided only that it does not transgress the rules of reverence and courtesy which every one would wish to observe, who understands the two great commandments of duty.

Notwithstanding the wide scope of remark that was allowed, the meetings of the present year, with one exception, were remarkable for the candor which pervaded the discussions. We never

knew so little of a sectarian character to intrude itself. The speakers showed themselves to be decided advocates of one or another class of opinions; they did not compromise their denominational

preferences; but at the same time they abstained from censure of other bodies engaged in the same great cause of Christian benevolence. We believe this is true of other portions of the Christian brotherhood, and it is undeniably true of our own. That wholesale, indiscriminate depreciation of others' belief, which has sometimes formed a principal element in the celebration of our anniversaries, was unheard. So far as we may judge from expressions which reached our ears, they who differ from us on the theological questions which have divided the Congregational body entertain a more courteous, if not more cordial feeling towards us than in former years. There are those among them, doubtless, who would be glad to restore the asperity of judgment, and the virulence even of religious controversy, which distinguished some of the earlier periods in the history of American Unitarianism. But these belligerent spirits do not represent the prevalent sentiment of the churches to which they belong. The opposite tendencies of exclusiveness and liberality which are now manifesting themselves in virtual, though not avowed antagonism within those churches, give promise of a happier day than has yet shone upon the interests of religion in New England; for there can be little doubt that the former of these tendencies may be taken as an indication of alarm at the hold which the latter of them has secured upon both ministers and people, and that it will be overborne by the force of its rival, as this shall accumulate strength in the quietness and justice of its own growth. We want no Convention of believers from all parts of the earth or of the land to decide on the terms of Christian union, no Evangelical Alliance whose first step shall be to define the doctrinal conditions of fraternity but only that confidence in each other's sincerity of purpose and love of truth, of which the late season afforded at least some pleasing intimations.

that

The conclusion, therefore, which it seems to us may be drawn from an observation of these anniversaries is, Christianity is gaining a firmer hold on the practical concerns of life and is sending a more direct influence into society. And is not this a most delightful conclusion? What better or happier could be drawn from any succession of religious meetings? It is pleasant to see the Christian sensibilities of people awakened; it is profitable to feel our own hearts

stirred with sacred emotions; but it is a yet more agreeable result to bring away from a week's experience, that the religion of the New Testament, the religion of life and of Heaven, the religion of the cross and the ascension, is connecting itself more efficiently with the affairs of the world and the actual state of things, pervading society as an element of power, and not merely overshadowing it as a mystic or emblematic influence. In the transactions of the days under review we think we have evidence of a growing conviction in men's minds that religion must be God's vicegerent on the earth, to rule over all departments of human action, and not barely his high priest, to stand in the sanctuary of his presence and offer the sacrifices of praise or penitence. Too long, too long has the latter idea prevailed, and the functions of sovereignty and of sanctity which were united in the heads of some of the old religions, as if typical of the double office which should be filled by religion itself in the course of the ages, have been severed from each other, religion being permitted to superintend man's intercourse with his Maker, while other principles reigned over his outward relations. Thank God! the days of that error, as we trust, are numbered. The look of public distrust has been cast upon it, and it has cowered even before that glance. Let the fearless servants of religion now speak out in its behalf, and their voices shall bear it with acclamation to its throne of power. Let the streets and the approaches of the holy city, the Jerusalem whose limits are coextensive with the boundaries of Christendom, again send up the shout, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," and that second " Hosanna" of the people shall prepare the way, not for the crucifixion, but for the dominion of "the Lord of glory."

We have said that the anniversaries of this year seem to us to have been distinguished by the evidence they gave of an increasing desire to connect Christianity with the actual wants and ways of men. As an illustration of this remark we may refer to the series of meetings which were held in the Federal-street church. First came a service instituted by the "Book and Pamphlet Society," when the right of Christianity to control the literature of the times was presented in a discourse, itself an example of what will be seen when the claim it was intended to enforce shall be allowed. The

right of Christianity to control the literature of the time, and of all future times, was not that a noble theme; and does it not show a perception of the place which Christianity ought to hold in the world, when the preacher maintains that the various expression of thought, and the various influences which are brought to bear on the formation of thought, through books should be determined by Christian faith, guiding the pen of the historian, the political economist, the writer of fiction, the poet, and the essayist, as well as of the clergyman; that men of letters, in a word, should consecrate the productions of their genius or their industry by the baptism of immersion into the spirit of Christ?

Next we were invited to celebrate the anniversary of the "Boston Port Society, an association whose object it is to befriend a class of men that for genera. tions have been neglected as if they were the offscouring of the earth, too bad to be reclaimed, and too despicable to be cared for even in regard to their physical comfort. What a change have a few years wrought in the feelings of the community towards this numerous class, the carriers of the world, on whom depend the intercourse of nations and the spread, not only of traffic, but of civilization, refinement and Christianity. Within our recollection no one looked after them on the shore or in the ship, except to mark them as victims or to use them as slaves. Now they are treated like fellowbeings and fellow-heirs of God's grace when in port, and bear with them holy and saving recollections across the ocean. What has caused this change? What is to render it yet more extensive and effectual? The spirit of Jesus in the hearts of his disciples, Christianity, — the religion of the Scriptures, which declare that "God is no respecter of persons."

Then came the public meeting of the "American Unitarian Association;" an institution whose special design, as declared in its constitution, is to "diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity, to correct the false notions which men have conceived respecting God's blessed truth, and to give that truth uncorrupted by a gross admixture of error, a closer connexion with the minds and hearts of men.

This

is pre-eminently a Christian object, avowedly and exclusively such; and whatever of a sectarian air it may seem to have is but a necessary consequence of

the circumstances which compel believers in the gospel of Christ to work together according to their theological affinities, if they would proceed without confusion and defeat. Among the methods which this Association adopts for eflecting its purposes are the distribution of tracts and the employment of missionaries, two of the great agencies of modern philanthropy, and each of them an indication of the thought which is now uppermost in the heart of every sound philanthropist, the connexion of religious faith with human life.

We were next gathered within the same walls on the invitation of the "Sunday School Society," an organization of our own times, unknown in its present form to past ages, and intended to bring Christianity into connexion with the sensibilities of childhood and the maturing habits of youth. What course could be taken more sure to render the religion of the Bible the paramount influence in society, than the instruction of all the children of the land in the facts and their education in the principles of that religion? Here is an instrument which, if properly used, may in less than a century regenerate the whole people, supplanting the noxious opinions and vicious habits of former times by the establishment in a receptive and fertile soil of correct views and virtuous practices. We are far from thinking that the Sunday School is now made a source of unmingled good; but when its defects shall be remedied, there is no limit which can be put to its efficiency as a means of moral and spiritual advancement.

Last in order came the public commemoration of the Saviour in the rite which he himself commended to his apostles' use the rite which in every instance of its celebration involves on the part of the communicant a recognition of his authority as teacher and Lord. How impres sive was that scene, when the floor of the house could not contain without inconvenience the multitude who were anxious to testify their faith in Christ and enjoy the influences that flow from the contemplation of his cross. Apart from the purely sacred associations of the hour, the spectacle of that multitude enough to inspire courage and hope. It said in almost articulate speech that here were hundreds of men and women, — young and old, rich and poor, brethren and ministers, from the city and from the country, who were not ashamed of Christ, who gloried in his name, and hoped to live through his death. Here

was

was an epistle written in the living presence of the assembly, which any one might read and no one could misunderstand. And here they appeared, not as usual, alas! a small body on an appointed day, when the contrast between the retiring crowd and the remaining few is an argument against the supposition of a strong interest in Christianity among the people, but filling every seat and pressing towards the altar of their faithIt was a touching and an animating sight, and whoever looked upon it must have felt that Christianity was not a forgotten nor a despised thing in this city.

Now in view of these facts and these conclusions may we not "comfort" one another "concerning our faith"? We mean the broad Christian faith, rather the points which distinguish us as a denomination. And yet if we were speaking only from an interest in the tenets which we peculiarly value, we should find ground of encouragement in what was said and done during the anniversary week; especially in that character of practical (not theoretical) philanthropy which was given to the expression of the religious sentiment. For we believe it may become the office of those who embrace these tenets, if they will be faithful to their principles and their opportunities to lead on the Christian philanthropy of the age. They may place themselves in the van of every true movement for reform, combining, as they do, in their principles, the elements of conservatism and progress, and enjoying more than any other denomination the respect and confidence of those who are not yet committed to the interests of Christianity as religious inen. Would that they felt their advantage, and their responsibleness. It becomes them. we might almost say, even more than other Christians to take a hearty and efficient interest in the agencies by which our religion may be established in its rightful sway over all the affairs of the world, all the institutions, opinions and habits of society.

If they fall behind the age, they fall below their duty. If they will take their proper place, the world will honor their intelligence and applaud their zeal. -The Monthly Religious Magazine.

GERMANY.-RONGE AND HIS CHURCH.

An important general assembly of representatives from the churches formed under the auspices of Ronge, was held at Berlin in May last. We subjoin a

statement of such matters connected with this council as we think likely to

interest our readers. The council consisted of 67 members, who represented 151 communities or churches. In the assembly held two years since at Leipsic, the members represented thirteen communities. Many of the churches now in existence are found in the most important towns and cities in Germany. Before the meeting, the consistory addressed a circular to all the churches, in order to invite them to make known their views and the propositions which they intended to bring before the assembly at Berlin. The answers were printed, and then sent to each of the communities, in order that the topics might receive full consideration before they came under the attention of the council. In general, great unanimity prevailed. The propositions adopted were voted by large majorities. The discussions were amicable, and displayed an intimate acquaintance with the principles of religious liberty, a jealous regard to their rights as Christians, and an earnest desire for the furtherance of the spirit and practice of "pure and undefiled religion." The council terminated its sittings on the 29th of May, having come to the following resolutions:-I. The council declares its agreement solely on matters of a fundamental kind. 2. Its decisions are to be considered solely as proposals and advice. 3. As there has been made a proposition to establish a complete ecclesiastical constitution and a regular order for business, the council has named a commission which will make a report on the subject to the next general assembly. 4. Clergymen do not enjoy any privileges beyond others in virtue of their having been appointed deputies. 5. The churches which have openly declared their adherence to the principles and articles of the German-Catho lic Church, may be present and vote in its assemblies. 6. A deputy cannot represent more than three churches. 7. The question respecting the admission of free Evangelical Protestant Churches is answered by the fifth article. 8. There shall be an administrative committee for the German-Catholic Church, both to manage its affairs and collect statistical facts, and this committee shall be the consistory of the place where the next general assembly shall meet the next council shall be held in 1850, at Frankfort on the Orla. 9. The establishment of a general literary organ does not appear desirable. 10. The fundamental principle of doctrine in the German-Catholic Church is the free profession of the

doctrine of Christ considered in its harmony with reason. 11. The council decides that it will not subject the articles of belief to a revision, 12. The name of Catholic Christian Church', is that which best expresses the essential character of our association. 13. a commission is charged to revise the Liturgy and to select a collection of Hymns; as to the establishment of a general catechism, the council holds that it would be rather injurious than useful.

In his discourse at the second sitting of the council, the pastor Brauner, of Berlin, declared that the aim of the Catholic Christian Church was to deliver men from servitude, and to render them happy by means of virtue. "Luther," said he, "and the Reformation effected much for this purpose; but the liberty which they gave with one hand, they took back with the other: they made the Bible an immoveable foundation, and did not know that it belonged to tradition. Thus the disciples did not understand the Saviour. His doctrine is a doctrine of liberty, truth and love. What are the ideas and the new truths which are now to reform the world and found the new church? Every thing is comprised in a single expression, namely, to erect the universal Church of human kind.' An institution of the kind must be raised on a quite different basis from those on which Christian churches have hitherto been founded." The council with great decision disavowed all distinction as of order between ecclesiastics and laymen. The fear of seeing the ancient hierarchy in any shape regain its power was so great, that the question was debated whether ministers should be admitted as representatives in the council. It was at last resolved by a very large majority, that all distinction between laymen and clergymen in the council should be abolished, and that not more than one-third of its members should be ministers. Ronge himself voted for the entire exclusion of clergymen. On the subject of admitting Protestant Churches into membership, the deputy Schell declared, with great approbation on the part of the assembly, "The faithful German-Catholic is he who, under the influence of love, faith and liberty of conscience, joins our communion and adopts our organization and our principles. Those principles are universal tolerance, the quest of truth, and a determination to manifest faith by works."

The question whether an official journal should be established, was warmly