CHRISTIAN CONSOLATIONS.

An Offering of Sympathy, to parents bereaved of their children, and to others under affliction. Boston, 1830. pp. 224.

The community has reason to be thankful to the editor of this valuable work. It well supplies a want that has been long and deeply felt amongst us. Affliction, in one form and degree or another, is the lot of all; and for consolation under it, recourse may often be had with great advantage to books. Yet how rarely do treatises, written expressly for this purpose, contain nothing that is exceptionable in spirit, language, or doctrine, while yet they are deficient neither in variety of topics, nor in fulness of illustration, Not a few of those we have seen, like many living comforters, give more pain than solace, through want of that respectful regard for the afflicted, which belongs to intelligent and affectionate sympathy. In some of them, also, as it is truly remarked in the Introduction to the volume before us, we find a coarse. ness of language, in others, a quaintness of expression which are offensive; and not seldom are points of doubtful disputation officiously obtruded as essential to an acceptable faith, or to the right use of adversity; while the most simple and sustaining views of God's paternal providence, of his merciful designs, and some of the choicest consolations, which spring from the religion of Christ, are strangely overlooked.' The 'Offering of Sympathy,' we are happy in being able to say, is free from faults of this kind, and possesses, at

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the same time, most of the excellences that seem to us reasonably to be expected, if not to be desired, in works of this character. It comprises nearly forty pieces, from about half as many writers of repute, on the various topics of consolation, composed in a simple, chaste, touching style, and breathing from almost every page, a spirit at once tenderly alive to, yet reverent of sorrow; serious, but at the same time cheerful; religious without cant; thoroughly Christian, and of course devoid of sectarianism. We hoped to have space for several extracts, that so we might both enrich our pages, and afford our readers some adequate idea of the various characteristics of the work. But we are obliged to content ourselves with a single brief paragraph, which we copy from an arti➡ cle by Rev Mr Parkman, the editor, on Resignation to the Divine will.

"The cup which my father hath given me-shall I not drink it?" Can you refuse it, child of God, from your father, your wisest, kindest, and most faithful friend? From Him, the giver of all life and hope, who breathed you from his spirit, gave you an existence in his world, and a soul to reflect his image, and to share his immortality? Can you refuse it from Him, who rocked the cradle of your infancy; lent you parents and kind friends to sustain you, when you had no power to sustain yourself; who has spread for you each day, his liberal table; upheld you every moment by his parental arm; from whose exhaustless bounty, you have every thing you enjoy, and every thing you hope? Who, in your prosperity, kindles for you the smile of congratulation, causing others to rejoice with you, and gladdens you by the solace of sympathy; who has never forgotten you amidst all your forgetfulness of Him? Will you refuse it, child of affliction, from Him, who has not only made all nature contribute to your good, but has opened to the eye of your faith a brighter world than nature can promise, for the light aud salvation of your soul? From Him who has enriched you with

all spiritual blessings, through Christ Jesus; provided for you in his gospel a supply of all spiritual want, a remedy for all ills, a solace for all grief, and hopes, that are full of immortality. Will you refuse it from Him, your God and Father, who has sent his own son to bless you; and to teach you that all his government and all his law, in every part and dispensation, alike in its gifts and inflictions, is a law of love.'

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF UNITARIANISM IN FOREIGN

COUNTRIES.

ENGLAND. The friends of liberty and pure Christianity in England are laboring with earnestness, and as it appears from late accounts, with success. Our number for September contained some notice of the extra meeting of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association held at Manchester, on the 16th and 17th of June last. At the previous Anniversary meeting holden in London, June 2d, severai animated speeches were delivered, which, with the Report of the Committee that was read, convey much pleasing intelligence. A writer also in the Christian Pioneer for September, thus expresses himself :

'How short is it since Unitarianism had scarcely a footing in Britain! mall, indeed, were her incipient efforts, but she steadily struggled with fashion, with prejudice, with wealth, with interest, with power, with oppression, and with legal tyranny. Numbers flocked to her standard, who did afford to keep a conscience, and who dared to confess Jesus before men; chapels were built here, and meetings opened there; associations were formed, missionaries went forth, tracts were circulated, knowledge increased, and Christianity was assimilated to its original simplicity and purity.

Yes, Sir, for a long time Unitarians were contemned, and scoffed, and ridiculed by the self-styled Orthodox; but now we command repect, now we are dreaded, and now orthodox missionaries are trav

ersing Scotland, soliciting public collections to stem the progress of Unitarianism, by rearing new chapels and supplying them with Calvinistic preachers! Early this month, the Rev Alex. Fairly of Whitehaven, Cumberland, preached here for this purpose; and he communicated the cheering intelligence, that in the north-west districts of England, there are 206 Unitarian Chapels; that they are attended by the most opulent and most influential portion of the community; and that their increase is truly alarming.' He lamented, that amongst the many chapels which had belonged to the Presbyterians, he did know one but his own in which the Gospel, [i. e. Calvinism] was preached, and even his had formerly been occupied by an Arian preacher; and, oh! if the venerable Matthew Henry was to rise from the dead, how would he be shocked to find his own pulpit occupied by an Unitarian !'

But, Sir, it is not the accession of numbers and wealth to Unftarianism, which constitutes her glory. It is her benign and salutary influence, which is the brightest gem in her diadem. This influence has mellowed down the asperities of orthodoxy-has purged away the offensive grossness of former ages-has softened the virulence of sectarain antipathies, and meliorated the baneful influence of party spirit. Yes, Sir, darkness has fled before the light of her countenance. Intolerance has relaxed his iron grasp, before her beningnant spirit. At her forcible appeals, bigotry is abashed-at her consistency, prejudice melts away—at her charitable views, persecution lays aside his unhallowed scourge.

The moral influence of Unitarianism, directly and indirectly, exerts itself over the Pulpit, the Press, and the Legislature, and by the purity, justice, and benevolence of her principles, she will, with the blessing of God, ultimately achieve the regeneration of the human race.'

IRELAND. Accounts from Ireland are also of a gratifying character. Our readers are familiar, we presume, with the dissensions, which for some time have rent the Synod of Ulster in the north part of the island. The violent and exclusive measures of the Synod, as might have been expected, have produced a strong reaction in favor of liberal sentiments. There, as here, the friends of such sentiments have been de

nounced, and their views misrepresented. But there, as here, denunciation and misrepresentation are beginning to lose their effect.

The measures alluded to have caused a secession from the Synod. The seceders met at Belfast on the twenty fifth of May, and the meeting continued three days. Two sermons were preached on the occasion; that on the first day by the Rev H. Montgomery, and that on the second day by the Rev J. Mitchell.' The views and motives of the seceders may be learned, in part, from the following observations of the Rev William Porter, moderator of the meeting, on taking the chair.

'Most of us, my Christian brethren and friends, have long been in the habit of witnessing the convention of Synods and Presbyteries. Such assemblages are things of frequent occurrence, and are seldom calculated to excite great intenseness of interést. The present meeting, however, is one of no ordinary character. It is marked by circumstances of a peculiar nature, and which can hardly fail to make the breast heave with emotions not easily suppressed. Cold must be the blood which is not warmed-dull and phlegmatic must be the spirit which is not animated, by contemplating the situation in which we stand, and the object which we have in view. We have come together on a most interesting occasion. We have come together to lay the foundation stone of a temple, dedicated to RELIGIOUS LIBERTY-a temple under whose ample dome every individual, who chooses to enter, will be allowed to worship, in his own way, the one God and Father of all. We have come together, not merely to profess, but to prove, that we are asserters of the sacred right of private judgment, and advocates, uncompromising advocates, of the all sufficiency of the Bible, as a rule of faith and duty. After years of patient endurance, we have succeeded in throwing off a yoke which was by no means easy—a burden which was far from being light. We have emancipated ourselves and our congregations from a state of spiritual thraldom, and established our claim to those invaluable immunities where with Christ intended to make men free. The privilege of free and fearless inquiry is the ground work of