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the gospel. The collection which was made for the widows and orphans of deceased ministers amounted to $406 00. The members of the Convention partook of a dinner, provided at the expense of the Congregational Churches in Boston. The Sermon has been printed.

Meeting of the Liberal Clergy.-Agreeably to arrangements previously made, a large number of the ministers of the Commonwealth who are denominated liberal, met together on the evening preceding Election, at the vestry of the church in Federal Street. The Rev. James Flint, of Bridgewater, led the devotions of the evening, and the Rev. W. E. Channing delivered an address on the objects of the meeting. We expect to be able to lay this address before our readers in the next number of the Disciple. The meeting was adjourned to the next evening, when much interesting and profitable conversation was had on the state and prospects of religion. A similar meeting was appointed for the next year to be holden at the same place on the morning of election day, at eight o'clock.

The following articles state the objects and rules of the meeting.

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At a Meeting of Ministers from different parts of the Commonwealth, May 31, 1820, the following rules were adopted :1. There shall be an annual meeting in election week for mutual improvement in pastoral duty, and for the promotion of Christian truth and holiness.

2. At each annual meeting a moderator and scribe shall be chosen by nomination.

3. One of the brethren shall offer a prayer, and another deliver an address suited to the objects of the meeting; it being understood, that these services shall be short, so as to leave time for the other exercises.

4. Each brother shall be requested to report the state and prospects of religion in his vicinity, and to suggest any measures for promoting truth and practical piety, which the circumstances of the times may seem to require, or which his own experience or observation may have led him to approve.

5. Any brother shall be authorized to propose for discussion any plan for advancing ministerial usefulness, for uniting our efforts in the common cause, and in general for spreading the knowledge and spirit of Christianity.

6. At each meeting a committee of three shall be appointed to select the persons who shall officiate at the next meeting, to assign the subject for the address, to use such means as they

shall deem expedient for ensuring a general attendance, and to report such measures as shall appear to them fitted to increase the usefulness of the meeting.

The Moderator and Scribe shall, ex officio, be members of this Committee.

The annual meeting of various Religious Societies was holden during Election week, which we have not room to notice particularly.

St. Paul's Church, lately erected in this town, was on Friday, consecrated to the service and worship of GoD, according to the forms prescribed by the canons of the Episcopal Church. The religious services were performed by the Rev. Bishop GRISWOLD, and the Rev. Dr. GARDINER, and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. JARVIS, Pastor elect of the Society.

We have just received a copy of "Letters on the ministry, ritual, and doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church, addressed to the Rev. Wm. E. Wyatt, D.D. Associate Minister of St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore, and Professor of Theology in the University of Maryland, in reply to a sermon exhibiting some of the principal doctrines of the protestant episcopal church in the United States,-by Jared Sparks, A.M. minister of the first independent church of Baltimore." The first letter is employed in combating the assumption (which it appears is still maintained in Baltimore) of the divine or apostolic institution of episcopal orders,-the second is on the church ritual, the third on the asserted authority of the church in controversies of faith,-the fourth on the Calvinistic import of the articles, and the fifth and sixth on the doctrine of the trinity. We are much gratified to announce such a work from such a hand. Mr. Sparks is in a situation to see Episcopacy, countenanced and emboldened by the yet more extravagant pretensions of the Romish Church, appearing in its least modest form; and for this, among other reasons, we look forward with much interest to the perusal of a volume which shall contain the observations of a scholar on a mistaken portion of ecclesiastical history, and the views which one, who can estimate the worth of religious liberty, has taken of a system, whose yoke our fathers of New England crossed the ocean, and planted a desert to shake off. A notice of it may be expected in our next number.

We perceive by a notice in the Allgemeines Repertorium (General Repertory No. 18, Leipsick, 1819, that the History of the Jews by Miss H. Adams been translated into German from the London edition. After some account of the work, the author, of the notice observes, that the translator has undertaken a useful labour, as there is no similar work in German proper for general use. He at the same time praises this valuable history for its simple, inartificial and unprejudiced style of narration.

The late Thomas Cary, Esq. of Newburyport, has bequeathed to t Theological Institution at Cambridge, a large property, supposed to amou. to len or fifteen thousand dollars.

Moses Brown, Esq. late of Beverly, has made a bequest to the same Institution of two thousand dollars.

CHRISTIAN TRACTS Published by WELLS & LILLY.

No. 1. William's Return, or Good News for Cottagers: by Mary Hughes. Price single, 17 cents, per dozen 1 doll. 62 cts., per hundred 10

dolls.

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Part 3.

No 4.

Village Dialogues.

Part 4.

Village Dialogues. Parts 1 and 2. 12 1-2 cents single.—1 doll.
dozen -8 dolls. per 100.
Village Dialogues.
12 1-2 cents do, do do.
12 1-2 cents

do. do. do.

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No 7.

A Week in a Cottage. 12 1-2 cents

do.

do. do.

No. 8.

The History of dward Allen, the patient man. Price 17 cts. single.-1 doll. 62 per dozen.—10 dolls. per 100.

No. 9. The Widow. Price 12 1-2 cents.

No. 10. The History of Eleanor Williams. Price 20 cents.-1 doll. 80 per dozen -12 dolls. 50 per 100.

They have collected 25 copies of the following valuable Tracts; which may be had together in neat boards, at the very low price of two dollars fifty cents.

I. View of the Constitution and Associate Statutes of the Theological Seminary in Andover; from the Monthly Anthology of Nov. 1808.

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2. The Unity of God," a Sermon. By Rev. S. Thacher.

3. Channing's Letter to Thacher.

4.

5.

Remarks on Dr. Worcester's Letter.

Remarks on Worcester's Second Letter.

6. Review of the Improved Version, and of Griesbach's New Testament from the Eclectic Review.

1. Dr. Ware's Sermon before the Convention, 1818.

3.

Price's Five Sermons on the Christian Doctrine.

9. Theological Tracts, No. 1. containing Zollikoffer's Seven Sermons on the Reformation.

10. Theological Tracts, No. 2. Bell on the Lord's Supper, complete, with the Appendix and all the Notes.

11. Theological Tracts, No. 3. Bishop Hure on the Difficulties and Discouragements which attend the Study of the Scriptures.

12 Foster's, James, Essay on Fundamentals, with a particular Regard to the Doctrine of the Trinity.

13. An Inquiry into the Right to Change the ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTIFOTION of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, &c &c.

14. Review of Professor Stuart's Letters to Mr. Channing; from the Christian Disciple.

15. Statement of Reasons for not believing the Doctrines of TrinitaAans, &c. occasioned by Professor Stuart's Letters; from the Christian Disciple.

TO CORRESPONDENTS AND READERS.

We presume that the motto prefixed to Jonn's paper was intended as a hint to ourselves, and not for the edification of the public.

An Essay on the Communion caine too late for insertion in the present Dumber.

Several other favours have been received, to which we shall pay more articular attention hereafter.

THE

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE.

NEW SERIES-No. 10.

For July and August, 1820.

HERDER, AND HIS LETTERS RELATING TO THE STUDY OF

DIVINITY.

HERDER, though one of the most celebrated writers of the last part of the last century in Germany, has been very little known abroad. The chief cause of this probably is, that all his writings are composed in his own tongue; and the language and literature of the Germans have not till lately been much attended to by foreigners. It is a singular fact, that while scarcely a work of note, either in letters or the sciences, appears in English, without soon issuing in translation from the German press; our own language has been put in possession of little in return, except a few strange plays and extravagant fictions. The prejudices, which those loose writings had a great part in creating, are however wearing away fast; and men are beginning to believe that there is not a science in the whole circle, which does not owe great obligations to German genius and research. Another reason why Herder's name is no better known among us, is found in the character of his writings. Many of them are on abstract subjects; and many relate to the national literature, which he did more than any one else perhaps to redeem from the French criticism; and many are poetical, and cannot therefore well be translated. He was distinguished as a philosopher, a poet, and an interpreter of the scriptures; by the originality of his conceptions, the vigour of his judgment, the charms of his style, and especially by a quick sensibility to whatever is elevated, beautiful, and tender. In point of religious sentiment, he belonged to the school which is called orthodox. The "Ode to the Hebrew Prophets," of which we attempted a translation in a late New Series-vol. II.

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number, and which we gave as Eichhorn's, was in fact, as we have since been informed, written by Herder; and was merely prefixed, by that professor, as a sort of motto, to his last celebrated work.

In 1780, he published "Letters relating to the Study of Divinity," which soon came to a second edition, and were much read. We subjoin a translation of the first of these; intending, though without meaning to pledge ourselves, to translate the rest of the series of twelve; which are all that treat particularly of the Old Testament.

LETTER I.

That in reading the Bible we must regard it as human; as a book of human composition and language

Ir must be evident to you, my young friend, that the best way to study theology, is to study the Bible; and the best way of reading this divine book is to regard it as human. I use this word in its widest extent and strictest meaning.

The Bible must be read thus, because it is a book written by men for the use of men. The language is human; the means by which it has been written and preserved are human; human, in short, are the faculties by which it is to be comprehended; the helps, by which it is to be illustrated 1; and all the ends and uses, to which it is to be applied. You may safely believe, that the more you read the word of God in this manner, the nearer you will approach to the object of its Designer, who made man in his own image, and who, in all the works and benefits whereby he reveals himself as God, adapts himself to human conceptions.

Do not think this a common place remark. The consequences of the principle now stated, if rightly understood and carried out in their whole extent, are important. In the first place, many a superstition is shut out by it, as if the Bible, in every trifling particular of its writing materials, parchment or paper, style or pen, even to every stroke or character, which the transcribers of it have drawn, were superbuman and unearthly; as if, of course,-singularly and without parallel, it has been exposed neither to fraud nor mistake; and is to be worshipped, not examined or tested. A bad principle indeed; which would only make those, who cherish such fond ideas of inspiration, idle and stupid; first tying a bandage over their eyes, and then asking if they see no light. Does a man, who transcribes the Bible, become immediately

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