tions of domestic and social life, may be stigmatized as a heretic, and may be held up to popular odium as the father of blasphemies, but he will find a place in the respect and affection of all those who have minds to appreciate intelligence, and hearts to esteem goodness; nor will he be found altogether wanting when weighed in the balance of eternal justice and eternal truth." — p. 85. Mr. Tagart does not, however, attempt to gloss over the inconsistency of which Socinus was guilty in the countenance he gave to the persecution of Francis David. This was the one stain on his character which we must deplore. His labors were honorable to him, and great were the sacrifices which he made and the sufferings which he endured. We have room only for one other passage from this lecture. "Every man in every church who has been distinguished and prominent for uniting with his belief in revealed religion, reasonableness, liberality, and the spirit of a sound mind, for argument without calumny, for faith without bigotry, - who has made the goodness of God, the resurrection of Christ, the hope of immortality, the solemn obligations of virtue, the chief part of his creed, has been suspected and stigmatized as a follower of Socinus. No other reformer has had so great a compliment paid to his memory. It may well balance a world of censure and reproach. Chillingworth, the immortal defender of Protestantism, was strongly reproached with being a Socinian. Tillotson, the soundest and best archbishop of the English Church, was called a Socinian. The great Christian philosopher, John Locke, was denounced as a Socinian. The learned and liberal Arminians of Holland, who, in the succeeding century, nourished among them the descendants of Socinus, and to whom we are indebted for the published collection of his works, were, of course, included under this ban. The industrious Lardner, the clear-headed Paley, confessedly the most eminent modern defenders of revealed religion, have but followed in Socinus's steps. And what is the reflection, what the inference of the candid mind in considering all this? It is to beware of taking up hasty and prejudiced antipathies against parties and persons without reason, without inquiry. It is to see whether a good thing cannot come out of Nazareth before we consign it to hatred and contempt. It is to look round in every quarter for evidences of the goodness and mercy of God, and of the innocence and virtue of man. It is to rejoice in every proof which we discover that human nature is not so corrupt, that earth is not so black, heaven not so hopeless and exclusive, nor hell so all-devouring, as in our darkness and selfishness and prejudice we had been disposed to imagine and believe."— pp. 90, 91. Cranmer presents an example of one whose inconsistencies cause him to be very differently regarded, not only by different writers, but at different periods, as the sympathies of the public mind run in this or that direction. Mr. Tagart's view of his character is sufficiently unfavorable. A single remark is all that we need quote. "Cranmer," says he, "may justly be considered the founder of the English Church; his character and history are a sort of type of what that Church is-a singular mixture of characteristics, of qualities that are worthy of respect with others, of which even the sober admirer will say at least, with Tillotson, 'we could wish we were well rid of them.'" For his delineation of the character and labors of Knox, Mr. Tagart acknowledges himself indebted chiefly to M'Crie's Life of the Scottish Reformer. We must confine ourselves to the quotation of a single paragraph, which presents a favorable specimen of the author's power of discrimination, and with which we must take leave of a very pleasant book. "If it be true, that the empire of superstition under Popery was darkest and dreariest in Scotland, our northern and sister kingdom, in no country have the traces of its influence been more completely swept away. No country in Europe is now more rigidly and entirely Protestant. And this is mainly owing, unquestionably, to that one man, whose name and character will form the subject of this hour's meditation, the ardent and solemn Knox the fitting and the needful agent of a rough and arduous work in a rough and stormy clime, and amongst a people rude and difficult to mould. Knox bore a striking resemblance to Luther in personal intrepidity and in popular eloquence. He approached nearest to Calvin in his religious sentiments, in the severity of his manners, and in a certain impressive air of melancholy which pervaded his character. And he resembled Zwingle in his ardent attachment to the principles of civil liberty, and in combining his exertions for the reformation of the Church with uniform endeavors to improve the political condition of the people. Yet he is not to be placed on a level with this illustrious triumvirate. A peculiar splendor surrounds the great German Reformer, partly arising from the intrinsic heroism of his character, and partly reflected from the interesting position in which his long and doubtful struggle with the court of Rome placed him in the eyes of Europe. He thus not only ranks first in the race, but is removed at a distance from all who followed in the same glorious career. The Genevan Reformer surpassed Knox in the extent of his theological learning, and the solidity and clearness of his argument. And the Reformer of Switzerland, though inferior to him in powers of declamation and in daring, excelled him in self-command, in prudence, and in that mild, persuasive eloquence, the offspring of a pure and patient goodness, which steals into the heart, persuades without irritating, and governs without commanding. But although he attained not to the eminence of these, I know not, among all the eminent men who appeared at this period, any one who is better entitled than Knox to rank with them, whether we consider the talent he possessed, or the many services which he performed.” —pp. 123, 124. E. S. G. ART. III. SONNETS. JOHN POUNDS. John Pounds was a poor cobbler, in Portsmouth, England. He was accustomed to collect about him children, enticing them by such simple gifts as his means afforded, and having gained their confidence, he would teach them all that his own humble attainments made practicable. Hundreds of poor boys and girls were made better and happier by his benevolent instructions. CHRIST in the desert blessed and brake the bread, And spread it for the thousands, who, that night, His heart all glowing with its earnest love, Thy gentle smile paled passion's blighting fire, USE OF LIFE. To lie outstretched within some grassy nook, Of the dear girl, who lies with dainty cheek Pressed on thy shoulder, while her soft lips speak Thoughts that flow free and pure as mountain brook, This is no part for man!-Lo! darkening guilt Obscures thy brother's soul-light: lusts defile Shrine for his worship. Man is low and vile. W. A. D. ART. IV.-ALLEGED DEFECTS OF UNITARIAN PREACHING: [Delivered as an Address before the Berry Street Ministerial Conference, Boston, May 29, 1844. By Rev. CHARLES ROBINSON. A portion of the introductory remarks is omitted.] IN using the term alleged, in this connexion, it is not intended to intimate that the defects which we are about to consider are mere allegations, the groundless charges of ignorance and prejudice. Urged against us, as they have long been, by friends, as well as by foes, and reiterated in every tone of regret, ridicule, reproach and sarcasm, it would imply a want of humility and candor, not to acknowledge that they may have some slight foundation, at least, in truth. It will be my object at this time to show how far this is the case. Nor will it be deemed, I trust, wholly unsuitable to the occasion of our present meeting, if we employ the few minutes, which are usually assigned to this exercise, in considering whether the defects alluded to in our subject do really exist, and to what extent; and also to inquire, what remedies, if any, can be applied. We were never, perhaps, in a more favorable situation for instituting inquiries of this kind, than we are at present. VOL. XXXVII. 4TH S. VOL. II. NO. II. 16 We are not now obliged, as we once were, to stand wholly upon the defensive. We have ascertained our position. We have vindicated to ourselves a right to exist; have gained for ourselves a place among our sister denominations. We have become a well-established, prosperous, growing sect, and that too without becoming very deeply infected with the spirit of sectarism. Our views are spreading themselves as fast as the community are prepared to receive them. The great principles for which we have contended, freedom of thought, the rights of the individual conscience, the liberty of prophesying, are, notwithstanding some recent appearances to the contrary, steadily progressive are gaining a stronger and stronger hold upon the general mind, and are destined, we believe, essentially to modify the opinions and feelings of the whole Christian world. What we have now to do, is not to settle principles, but to apply them; to endeavor, first of all, to enter into the spirit, the full significance of the sublime, soul-renewing, soul-gladdening truths to which we have attained; to translate them into our own experience and illustrate them in our lives, and then to urge them home upon the hearts and consciences of others, with earnestness, sincerity, fervor and power. And herein it is, that we are thought to be most deficient. Unitarian preaching is said to be cold and lifeless, wanting in interest and efficacy, wanting in power over the affections, wanting in those solemn and fervid appeals, which touch the heart, awaken the conscience, rouse all the religious sensibilities of our nature. This is an old complaint; yet it comes up from so many different quarters, and is so often repeated, that we cannot refuse to give it a hearing. Admitting then, that it is not wholly groundless, that there is room for improvement here, and need of it, I still maintain, that whatever may have been the case in former times, the charge of coldness and lifelessness is not one to which the Unitarian preaching of the present day is peculiarly liable. I believe that much of the ablest and most effective preaching in the world is now to be heard in many of our Unitarian pulpits. Indeed, it is a subject of frequent remark, that Unitarian preaching is everywhere becoming more serious, more evangelical and spiritual, in the right sense of the words, more animated |