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INTELLIGENCE.

Methodist Unitarians.-In the last number of the Christian Pioneer, published at Glasgow, Scotland, we find an account of a recent convention of Unitarian Methodists, from different parts of Lancashire, Eng. Very satisfactory and encouraging representations are given of the past progress and future prospects of their community. Some of their congregations, however, have been subjected to many trials and difficulties; but the truly christian temper with which they have met them, as well as their resolute and persevering attachment to the simple principles of Unitarian Christianity, is worthy of all praise, and furnishes another evidence of the power and tendency of these principles, to purify and exalt the charac

ter.

The following case is from the account recorded in the Pi

oneer.

'The congregation at Padiham was represented by Mr John Robinson, and Mr James Pollard, two zealous preachers of Unitarian Christianity, who have labored with that people in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, through much persecution and many hardships for twenty-three years. The members of the congregation, with scarcely a single exception, have to maintain one continued struggle against the severest poverty; but having known the religion of Jesus Christ, not only in its simplicity but its power, they have found a happiness which no riches could purchase-of which no outward distress could deprive them.'

The account of the venerable John Ingham, preacher at Rawtonstall, is equally interesting. He had prevailed with a friend to attend the convention and speak for him, as the infirmities of age beyond fourscore prevented his personal attend

ance.

'The old man sent his Christian wishes to the meeting, with which he was present in spirit, and assured all that he enjoyed the greatest comfort in the simple truths of the Gospel; he had not been able to give up his orthodox views till he was more than 70 years of age; the delight he experiences in the change is almost inexpressible; he compared it to the change of residence from a cold, bleak hut, surrounded only with rush

es and ling, upon a mountain, to a delightful dwelling in a sunny valley, surrounded with the most beautiful flowers.Who asserts [says the Pioneer] that Unitarian Christianity is not a religion for the poor and the afflicted? This old man bending to the grave, is animated with religious joy and religious zeal-joy in the satisfactory and consoling views which the Unitarian doctrine unfolds to him of God his Father, and of Christ his Saviour-zeal that the pure light which has blessed his heart, may go on spreading from east to west, from pole to pole, when he is slumbering in the dust.'

Unitarian Installation.-December 21. Rev Edmund Q.. Sewall, formerly Editor of the Unitarian Advocate, was installed as Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in Scituate. Introductory Prayer and Reading of the Scriptures by Mr Sewall, of Danvers; Sermon by Mr Gannett, of Boston, from 2 Tim. iv. 2. Preach the word,' on the true purpose and character of preaching; Installing Prayer by Mr Brooks, of Hingham; Charge by Mr Allen, of Pembroke; Right Hand of Fellowship by Mr Deane, of Scituate; Address to the people by Mr Flint, of Cohasset; Concluding Prayer by Mr Goodwin, of Concord.

Dedication.-The new house of worship recently erected by the First Congregational Society in Plymouth was dedicated December 14. Prayers and reading of the Scriptures, by Mr Goodwin of Sandwich, Mr Brooks of Hingham, and Mr Cole of Kingston; Sermon by Dr Kendall, Pastor of the Society.

In the afternoon of the same day, the pews were offered at auction. The whole number of pews is 124, of which 21 were reserved, leaving 103 for sale, all of which were sold at an advance above the appraisal, of nearly $1,800. The amount of sales, was sufficient to defray the expense of building the new house, to pay the pew-holders in the old house, and leave a surplus of about $2,500.

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THE question is often asked-is heaven a social state? The question of course implies a doubt; and, I believe it will be found that the popular feeling, in most Protestant countries, has been against the supposition of a personal acquaintance and social union in the future state. At least it has been so among the Puri

tans.

And in mentioning the Protestant and the Puritan, as distinguished for holding these views, I believe that I have pointed out the cause of them. Puritanism like Stoicism, has, in a measure, overlooked the original tendencies and essential wants of human nature. I will not say that it has proposed to make man too exalted a being, but it has proposed to make his most exalted affections in a sort his only affections. Thus the duty, worth, and happiness of man have been summed

up

in the love of God. The social affections have been looked upon as doubtful virtues. Heaven of course has been represented as consisting chiefly in a lofty and rapturous devotion. The idea that heavenly beings renew and cherish even the purest friendships of this world, that they hold the most interesting communication of their thoughts and feelings with each other, would be an offence to the strictness and spirituality of Puritanism. If I might venture on an expression so apparently uncharitable, I should say, it would be too delightful a view of religion and of heaven, for the popular mind to bear. But Protestantism, let me add, must come in for its share in accounting for these anti-social views of heaven. The devotion of the Papist peopled heaven with beings too like himself, with sympathizing friends, with saints and intercessors, with creatures of a too earthly and impassioned tenderness; and solicitous, over-solicitous as the Protestant church has been to escape from every remnant of Popish faith, we have not stopped with correcting, but we have altogether cast away all these ideas of the future world. We have felt as if a sympathy would tarnish the bright spirits of heaven. We have placed them in a sphere of sublime and unapproachable beatitude. We have regarded death, which leads to their communion-we have regarded death as a great gulf,' fixed between us and the departed, across which not a thought or a wish dares to adventure.

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It is not a matter of indifference that ideas like these should go abroad uncontradicted, and prevail. They rob heaven of much, very much of its proper attraction. There are many around us who feel, and who,

if they should express their real feelings would say, that they take little or no interest in heaven, but as a place of escape from misery. There are multitudes, to whom heaven is scarcely anything more than an abstract and sublime fiction. It has no more ties with reality and life than a vision or a dream. It is a world that scarcely draws any man, till he is on the point of being driven away from this. And thus it must be. Man cannot leave all his friendships, all his ties of fellowship and affection, companions and kindred, the lovely and the beloved-he cannot leave them, without something correspondent, some similar object on which to fix his heart, in the world to which he is going. Let us, then, not by any means forgetting the more sublime contemplation of heaven, let us endeavor to present a more attractive view of it.

The circumstances of a future state of happiness, it becomes us not to conjecture. But the nature of that happiness is a different subject. It will be no rashness to say that it must be a human happiness. It must be a felicity employing all the powers of the human soul, involving the perfection of human virtue, and at the same time, consonant with the revelation which God hath given us of it. And on these points proceeds our argument for the social state of heaven.

1. The first position is, that our nature is social. If we cease to be social beings when we die, we shall cease to be human beings. If our nature were deprived of reason, of thought, it would not be more changed, than if it were deprived of its social powers. The loss of these would be the annihilation of what we are, as much as if we were transformed into the most senseless

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