Mr S. then spoke of social blessings, derived from the public institutions of religion. He regarded them as most efficacious in preventing the evils which arise from harsh and selfish passions, and in cherishing kind and generous affections. The former condition of the Congregational parishes in Massachusetts was adverted to by way of illustration. Almost every small town was a parish, and all its ecclesiastical concerns were transacted harmoniously in town meeting. All the members from the different extremities of this little community were weekly brought together for a common object; they interchanged friendly smiles and greetings; they became acquainted with each other's persons; they united their prayers and sympathies, and became intensely interested in each other's happiness. The boundary of a town was then a circle of affection, and to be a fellow-townsman was to be a friend-so numerous and strong were the social and religious ties which bound man to man in these communities.

And to preserve these social blessings, the bounds of Congregational parishes were, till lately, held sacred. A minister who should break over them, and preach within the limits of a brother clergyman, without his consent, would have been regarded as disorderly. But this beautiful harmony has been disturbed-chiefly by the influence of men from another State-men who did not understand, or did not regard the principles and feelings of our citizens. They have looked over the peaceful and happy parishes of Massachusetts, where the social virtues flourished and piety was a principle of holy living, and have declared them all missionary ground. Their emissaries have been sent to divide and conquer.

We are not called upon, said Mr S., to judge the mo

tives of these men, but we deplore and condemn their practice-we will not promote our cause by imitating their example. Where division already exists, and the religious harmony of a people is incurably broken, there we will gladly go with the truth and consolation of a purer theology. In large towns, where several sects can afford to worship apart from each other, we would encourage every effort to promote the establishment of christian worship on liberal and rational principles.

He then noticed the inevitable evils of breaking up harmonious parishes. Among these are the general prevalence of unkind, ungenerous and uncharitable feelings, and a bitter and denouncing spirit, unfriendly to the peaceful and benevolent spirit of our religion. A community is divided into two or more parties, hostile to each other, and disposed to thwart each other, even in plans for the public good. So much of a persecuting temper prevails, that men cannot enjoy their religious opinions, without being injured in their civil interests and relations. The charities of social life are destroyed, and the offices of mutual kindness are interrupted, friends become enemies, and the rancorous spirit of sectarianism carries. discord and bitterness even into the circles of domestic affection. Families, which have long lived in blessed union, and with one heart worshipped the same God at the same sacred altar, now moodily disperse to seek spiritual light and instruction in opposite directions. Our Saviour's mournful prophecy is fulfilled; "a man is set at variance against his father, the daughter against her mother, a man's foes are they of his own household." We deprecate the spirit, which produces this state of things. With the far-reaching vision of God's prophet, our Saviour declared, that "offences must come"-the unholy pas

sions of man will inevitably bring them; but we remember too that he solemnly denounced wo to that man, by whom the offence cometh."

The last evil which he should notice, Mr S. said, in breaking up parishes, was a pecuniary one. The resources of religious societies are crippled by division; and if we look forward to another generation, we shall find this a most alarming evil. A parish which has harmoniously united in the support of one minister is rent asunder, severely taxed to provide another house of worship, and still more severely to support an additional clergyman. This may be borne, and will be borne, while the excitement which caused the division remains. But it cannot always continue; in this generation or the next, at farthest, men will think soberly of the weight of an evil, which every year presses hardly upon their interest. They will feel that they, or their fathers for them, have paid too dearly for their will, by taking up a burden so oppressive. And they will relieve themselves by falling away, and throwing a still severer load on others, till it can be no longer sustained. The numerous ephemeral churches which have sprung up in the midst of excitement, must languish for a time without a ministry, and fall into premature decrepitude-the objects of pity or derision.

Coming generations will exhibit the deplorable ef fects of this system. The young will grow up without public worship, in habits of irreligion and vice. Those sacred institutions which we inherited from our fathers, which have preserved social order, and sound principles, and practical piety among us, will lose their hold on the public regard; and the light of heaven will rapidly disappear from our sanctuaries.

We will not then, said Mr S., endeavor to hasten the progress of christian truth by measures which we deplore as ruinous, and condemn as wrong. We would employ gentle and rational means to accomplish our holy object. We are confident of the sure, though silent, diffusion of our sentiments. We fearlessly trust our cause to the growing intelligence of the public mind-to the light of God's revelation-and to the aid of his powerful spirit.

HON. JONATHAN PHILLIPS of Boston, next addressed the meeting.

He observed, that laymen will unavoidably regard religion in a somewhat different aspect from their clerical brethren. To the latter, it is the almost exclusive means by which they develope and improve their intellectual faculties; it is their occupation; the greater or less influence, which it gives them over others, decides their relative ability, in the community or the age in which they live.

The minds of laymen, on the contrary, are expanded and strengthened by other sciences, than that of religion; their occupations are, apparently, less intimately connected with morals; and their rank in society arises either from the superior industry which has widened their knowledge and increased their good sense, or from their positive power from political elevation, or from other grosser modes of operating on society.

From clergymen we expect a more clear, accurate, and comprehensive view of the principles of religion as addressed to the reasoning faculty of man. In their characters we look for a more evident, impressive, and elevated exemplification of its moral influence; a love of God, supreme in its power, and bringing every thought

into subjection to the religion of Christ; a love of others, as strong and as sincere as their love of themselves, eradicating pride, excessive resentment, harshness of censure, and binding them in the bonds of a disinterested affection to every human being, however low or degraded, to promote his improvement and welfare; a divine ambition for excellence, engrossing the attention, quickening the faculties, exalting the imagination, sanctifying the affections, giving to the individual an heroic ability to trample under foot every obstacle to his religious advancement, and a capacity of exciting in others the strongest sympathy in his expression of the most admirable qualities, of which our nature is susceptible-yet unalloyed by the agitation of individual or party selfishness; while, losing himself in the endeavor to perfect himself, he beats down his party-spirit by a continually growing attachment to our common humanity. This is the moral standard, which Christianity presents for the attainment of every Christian; this excellence laymen expect to see labored for by every clergyman-while they forget its equal claims on themselves; so easy is it to censure others, and to forget our own faults.

Clergymen are liable to view with partiality those who are fond of abstract speculation, or whose opinions coincide with their own on controversial theology; laymen view every man as the child of a Father of infinite excellence, as a brother, as capable of indefinite improvement in knowledge, and of increasing power, enabling him to be more and more a being wisely efficient in promoting his own happiness and that of others. Clerical men love to dwell on the principles of religion as objects of contemplation to a mind trained, by long habit, to observe them; laymen demand that primary truths