human constitution, and early affections, than has our author.

The testimony alleged by pious persons in their own. case, can cover no more than their own case. A man tells me he never had such affections as religion demands, before he was born again. They are new to him. So would they appear to him, on any supposition about his nature, provided he has been positively bad. Reformation always makes old things new. But the point to be proved is whether in every case, even that of the child as young as religion is possible at all, these affections would be a change also, a change from bad to good, not from mere innocence to actual character ? We believe that we have no evidence of this. It is a presumption only. The first character, we have reason to believe, is according to the first training, and earliest impressions. When these have been religious, we find that commonly so too. The first character is, however preceded by a state of mere innocence; of susceptibility and capacity for good or evil, but not of actual sinfulness or piety.

The next resort is to history. "Does the history of the world confirm the supposition, that man is religious by nature?" This depends on what Dr Beecher means by the phrase "religious by nature." If he intend that history shews man to possess a nature, the result of which is religion, we see not any deficiency in the proof. For amid all the crimes and woes it records, history shows nothing more clearly than that religion is the proper end of human nature; that the principles of the human constitution lead strongly to it; and that man is never satisfied with himself, while his reason and con

science retain their power, unless he is religious. What does the self-sacrificing heathen feel within his heart, to impel him to lay down life for his divinities? The working of the same principle, which prompts the pious Missionary of the cross to die for Christ. It is nature, human nature; erroneously operating, but still religiously. Had God revealed his love to the savage heart, as to the Christian, both had haply embraced one object, and beat in unison. But if our author design the phrase religious by nature," to signify that man is by mere constitutional inclination apart from all moral training and instruction, religious, we make bold to aver that nobody has ever pretended that he is. No more is he rational, till reason is by training developed and exercised.

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All Dr Beecher can infer from the crimes history records, is that the human constitution has in it such propensities as have led to these results. The reason why they resulted thus, is found, not in the propensities themselves, which are God's endowments, and may be innocently indulged in a measure; but in the various circumstances and influences under which they were unfolded and indulged, and in the guilty neglect of duty in him who thus perverted them, than to evil ends. But how do crimes prove that only crimes are the result of our constitution, that there is nothing in our constitution of which religion is the proper consequence?

Let the principle we oppose be allowed, and what must follow is plainly to be seen. God has given man a constitution, which contains nothing, no principle whatever, from which results religion. All we can do is to

use well the constitution we have.

If that be such as

that religion is no consequence of it, however used, we are blameless. Pharaoh gave no materials to make bricks with, and yet exacted the work. Shall we say that God also has bestowed a nature, out of which religion does not spring, and yet requires of us, on eternal penalties, to be religious? Does he withold the material, and demand the product?

[For the Unitarian Advocate.]

" IN THE WORLD YE SHALL HAVE TRIBULATION ;-BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER."

John xvi. 33.

THERE must be shade spots in the pilgrimage;
Our Father wills it so.-There lurks a thorn
Even in the rose-cup which we cull and wear
Next to our heart. What matters it?-The cloud,
The pang are transient ;—but the hope that springs
From their stern ministry,—the faith that looks
Up to its God, when these low skies are dim,
Outweigh all miseries which this fleeting world
In her worst wrath can teach.-The Saviour knew
Her whole of tribulation,-yet he bade

Be of good cheer,-since in the shielded breast
Was power to overcome.—

Wilt thou despair,

Thou born of God! because the shallow rills
Fed but by dew drops of terrestrial good,
Recede and vanish?-Sent awhile to share
Time's changes,—and on death's dark wing to rise
Above them all, why should a sway so brief
Appal the spirit?-Think how low thy brow,
Thy throbbing brow beneath the clods shall rest;
How soon forgotten 'mid its daily haunts
Thy form must be.-

Another hand shall pluck

Thy cherish'd flowrets,-and a race unknown
Reap the ripe fruits of all thy sleepless care,
And thank thee not.-Another at thy board
Thy place shall fill, and in thy fireside chair
A stranger sit, while thou no more shalt claim
Note or remembrance.-This shall neutralize
Thy bitterness of spirit, where thy props

Are stricken from beneath thee,-or the grave
Bids thee pursue a lonely pilgrimage
Hiding thy bosom's idols.

Ask of God

To arm thy heart, even as the strippling youth
Who with the simple weapons of the brook
The vaunting giant slew. Be thy step firm,
And thy demeanor like some angel guest,

Patient of earth, yet for Heaven's bliss prepar'd. H.

OBITUARY.

DIED in Boston, March 13th 1828, Mrs Rebecca Phillips, wife of Hon. Jonathan Phillips, and daughter of the late Samuel Salisbury, Esq.

She

The character we delight to remember, as that which was sustained by Mrs Phillips, was formed and nurtured by the discipline of the heart in holy retirement. was often shut up from the world by personal sufferings. But she was blessed without the world's aid, in that sphere which allowed most exercise to the private virtues.Serene, simple, unpretending, she required for her peace and joy, only her faith in God, and to see those over whom nature and duty gave her influence, rendered happy by her care. Her tastes were purely christian.

Wealth was in her hand, but she was too humble in heart to regard it as valuable for its own sake. Her bounty was ever passing through some hidden channel, to such as she knew to be poor, and believed to be deserving. She loved to do good, but she did not love to be seen to do it. Her manner of dispensing benefits was such as to lift up the spirit of the sufferer, and forbid all painful sense of obligation. It was God who gave, by

her hand.

A sensibility which was almost excessive, was in this lamented woman, so fortified by religious principle that she could comfort those for whose distress she bled. Her friends can never cease to recall her winning gentleness, her assiduous zeal to serve, her ten der and disinterested kindness in every relation she bore to them. And she has bequeathed to society an example of what Christianity could do in imparting to an affluent condition the grace of humility, and the virtue of usefulness; and in training a soul in purity and peace. for heaven, within reach of all which the world could offer to detain it beneath the skies. The name of Jesus was honored by her, with a fervor which betokened inward veneration. She was not ashamed to confess him in every way which her faith and his gospel demanded. But it seemed to be impossible for her to place her piety in a more conspicuous light than the simple acts of duty, themselves occasioned. Not to shine, nor to be called holy, but to please God, and be found of her Redeemer in peace, was the study of her life. There are undying memorials of her in many hearts below, and we humbly hope a far better and an eternal record in the heavens.