Christians all over the land, not so much by argument, or a recurrence to accredited books and documents, as by 'raking up,' (to borrow one of his own phrases) a variety of stories, traditional reports, and exparte statements,-arraying them before the public as sober history, as fact, and making these insulated and disconnected narratives matter of serious charge against a whole denomination. It is for intelligent and candid Unitarians to decide, whether they will sanction this new mode of controversy; or so much as tolerate it. They must be aware that their opponents have it in their power to resort to similar measures: Do they wish them to do so? Are they prepared for the result of such a course? And are they willing this community should be thrown into a ferment, like that of a boiling caldron, by such a contest?—We have been constrained to say things in the foregoing pages, which we were very unwilling to say, and which we never should have said, had we not been compelled to it by the false and injurious statements on which we were called to remark. If the controversy shall be continued in the manner in which it has commenced, we may find it necessary to recur to the subject again, though we certainly shall do so with extreme reluctance. We feel that we have more important work on our hands, than to engage frequently in the refutation of idle and slanderous stories, like those contained in these Letters,—and that our readers have more important work on their hands, than to follow us often in discussions of this nature.

In conclusion, we have only to ask pardon of our friends for having detained them so long on the subject of this tedious and disgustful publication. We ask pardon especially, of those respected correspondents who early expressed to us the opinion that the book was unworthy of public notice or animadversion. We knew it was unworthy, in itself, and this conviction has been impressed upon us through all the labor of the foregoing Review. But when we saw the attempts that were made to pass it off before the public, as accurate in reasoning, correct in statement, and altogether a work of great merit and importance; and when we considered that most people into whose hands it might fall, would read it cursorily, without sufficient attention to detect its errors, or discover its true character, and would receive from it impressions tending to prejudice them against all true religion, and thus injure them forever; we could not be silent. We felt constrained, we trust in a spirit of true Christian charity, to take up the subject; and we have endeavored to pursue it in the same spirit. The result of our labors is before the public, in whose candor and indulgence we cheerfully confide. The final issue is with HIM, who can cause the wrath of man to contribute to his praise,—and before whom Mr. Whitman and his reviewers must shortly appear.

NOTE.

We have run our eye over the second edition of Mr. Whitman's Letters, but not with sufficient attention to be able to speak particularly of the alterations. He says he has "expunged several sentences, corrected some inaccuracies, and cut out one whole statement to make room for one of a different character." The statement "cut out," is that relating to Rev. Mr. Truair, p. 44. As the preceding Review was chiefly written and printed when the second edition came into our hands, our remarks will be found to correspond throughout to the first edition. Mr. W. professes to be very anxious that his book may be correct, and tells of publishing "a third enlarged and corrected edition." In preparing this edition, he is welcome to all the assistance he can derive from our labors. predict, however, that the work of correction will be found immensely difficult. Like the ancient edifice, from which the name of the builder could not be effaced without destroying the fabric, when all the misrepresentations are taken from these Letters, we are confident there will be little remaining.

We

NOTICE.

UNAVOIDABLE hindrances have delayed for a few days the publication of this number. Those who are pleased with variety, with short articles, and with discussions of a practical nature, will be disappointed, probably, on receiving it. Others will think it of more value and interest than our numbers generally. Our future numbers will appear punctually, as usual.

CALCULATIONS respecting the future, based upon the past, assuming as data the growth of this nation in population and in all the sources of national wealth and power since the establishment of our independence, have been so often made, that they may be supposed by this time to be familiar to the religious community. A sublime estimate of this sort, contained in the last Annual Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, is now in extensive circulation before the public. God grant, that the most favorable suppositions may be more than realized. But there are awful contingencies-there is another and darker side of the picture. And while the former brings down to our vision all the incitements of hope, the latter should urge Us forward in the career of benevolent enterprise by all the motives of fear.

The supposition is indeed interesting, and flattering to our national pride and self-importance, that every twenty-five years will double our population. And it is reasonable, too, on one of the many contingencies which cluster in our prospect; because, such are the historical results of the past. By this rule, the United States, in seventy-five years, will embrace within their jurisdiction, 100,000,000 of souls; and in one hundred and fifty years, 800, 000,000-equal to the present population of the globe! Suppose that improvement in the useful and fine arts, in science, in general knowledge and the means of education, in religion and morals, shall keep pace with reasonable expectation, in the meantime-an expectation founded on the present spirit of improvement in all these respects—what a prospect! This is as far as we need godare go. This is an experiment long and large enough, under the operation of causes already developed, and now in a rapid train of developement, to determine, not only the fate of this nation, but for a long and unknown period, the fate of the world.

One thing is certain, that calculations, resulting from the history of the world, taking all contingencies into consideration, bar this prospect in the outset. It is only on the assumption, that we have arrived at a period in Divine providence, when the elements of human society have obtained such a combination and tendency, as to enforce results which have never before been known, that we can expect to realize more than a moiety of the cheering estimations of advancement, which, on the stage at religious anniversaries and from the religious press, have of late greeted our ears and animated our hopes. In other words; it is only in the confidence, that God is about to turn up to our vision that page of the calendar of his Providence on which are written the days of the Millennium, that we may reasonably indulge these pleasing anticipations. Dreams of this sort, we know, have been told, and told againeditions have been multiplied upon editions, versions on versions, and history has loaned its voluminous interpretations, until it were heresy to doubt. And in coincidence with these more enthusiastic hopes, grave philosophy, from the chair of Christian Theology, and from the pulpit, professes to have discerned in the elements of the moral world, and in their existing current, peculiar combinations, as allied to contemporaneous historical events, going to constitute" the signs of the times." These predictions, or presentiments, are certainly worthy of great respect, as they are a part of the history of divine Providence, and of the world.

When Christ came in the flesh, the world were in expectation of the event-or of some great event. A long train of previous, and a cloud of contemporaneous circumstances had created and ripened that expectation. And it was not disappointed in fact, though it was in the manner of our Lord's appearance. The world is now expecting a moral revolution;-and not without reason. The Philosopher, the Statesman, and the Christian, unitedly expect it. The elements of society have assumed a combination and declared tendency of a new character, of a high and momentous bearing, to which even common discernment cannot be altogether insensible.

The wise of this world look upon these aspects, "not knowing what shall come upon the earth." The Christian, of high hopes, grasping the promises of the God of Abraham, looks upon them with the eye of faith. He sees, or thinks he sees, "the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven;" and God himself making, "his tabernacle with men." May he not be disappointed!

James Douglas Esq. thinks that England is the fountain, from which the waters of the sanctuary are beginning to flow, and on every side to direct their purifying streams; and that she is the precursor in all the improvements peculiar to the times we live in. Let her go on, and prosper, and excel'—if it be "in love and

good works." But Mr. Douglas, although he has paid us some splendid compliments, has never been able to sympathize with the moral elements, nor to calculate the resources, of the land in which we live. Without partiality-here, I believe, is the great experiment. I could offer a long chapter of reasons. But time, and the purpose I have in view, forbid the attempt.

But notwithstanding the felicitous forms of our institutions, which make the foundation and structure of our society in its great constitutional parts; notwithstanding the apparent healthfulness of the gigantic accretions which have already attached themselves to these elementary substances; notwithstanding the fine accomplishments, with which our great and prosperous community is studded on every side; notwithstanding the most interesting and hopeful developements of the various forms of society under the operation of these institutions; and notwithstanding the combination of the moral elements growing out of such a state of things demonstrates a susceptibility of high endeavor, and of unexampled enterprise, so that it may be said with truth, that another so hopeful an experiment of human society has never yet been made;—yet, are there imperfections in our institutions, which need to be watched, and as soon as may be, remedied; there are monstrous parts, some inherited and some grown with our growth, to remove which, requires the skilful hand of political surgery; there are epidemics of grave and alarming aspect, which demand the administration of severe medicine; there are the seeds of numerous and hurtful diseases, lurking in the blood; there are, in short, many symptoms of no very remote decline, many and powerful tendencies to a dissolution of our fabric, and a blasting of our hopes. And with the ruin of these hopes, I would venture to predict in face even of Mr. Douglas, must come the ruin of the hopes of the world, at least for ages. In such an event, commotion must succeed commotion, and desolation follow upon desolation, till another long round of ages shall erect a similar fabric of free and generous institutions, and give birth to a wiser and more virtuous generation, that shall better appreciate their privileges, and be more alive to their responsibilities. To such an extent are the destinies of this nation connected with the destiny of the world; and the world and God will hold us responsible for the virtue and efficiency, with which we sustain the mighty trust.

To pursue an upright and honorable course, notwithstanding the defects of our institutions, so as to work off all the unseemly accretions and morbid affections from the body politic, public virtue is the only and the essential requisite. And that cannot exist independently of private virtue, possesed to such an extent, as to form the public character. And the only nurse of virtue, private and public, on a secure and permanent basis, is Christianity. Christianity alone embodies all the elements of virtue; and conse