faith and practice, the right of private judgment, and the rejection of all human creeds and articles. When we peruse the valued writings of these gifted men, when we dwell on the records of their piety, philanthropy, and benevolence, or reflect on their singular self-sacrifice, and their devotion to the cause of true and uncorrupted Christianity, we acknowledge our gratitude to those who employed the art of the painter to continue, as it were, their presence among us; and, persuaded that our successors and posterity will regard you with similar feelings and emotions, we are desirous to preserve your likeness for their gratification.

"In doing this, we testify our respect for one who has obtained his influence by no subjugation of our understandings through the agency of terror, that overwhelming weapon of coarse intellects and unfeeling hearts; who, in seeking to break the chains that have been fastened on men's minds, has been careful to avoid the imposition of others in their stead; who has been solicitous to enlighten our understandings and warm our hearts by gospel views of all the subjects which most deeply concern and interest mankind; and, whilst struggling for the diffusion of momentous truths, and naturally anxious that his own views should be fairly weighed and considered, has ever impressed on us and advocated the duty and necessity of free investigation, and the unqualified rights of conscience. Cold, indeed, would be the heart, and dull the understanding, that could fail to be warmed and enlightened by your admirable discourses on the Attributes of God, the Might, the Majesty, and the Infinite Benignity of the Universal Father, -on the true Dignity and Glory of his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,-on the Operation and Agency of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God,-on our Duty to our Fellow-men and to ourselves,-our Duties, Responsibilities, Immortal Destiny, and Hopes.

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We, in like manner, testify our admiration of your sincerity and devotion in the cause of man's mental, moral, and spiritual advancement, and of your supreme and invincible love of truth, under the influence of which you frankly, directly, and fearlessly, and with simplicity and godly sincerity,

spoke, with power and efficiency, the truths of the gospel; and, along with your high-minded brethren in the ministry, were ready to peril, and, if need were, to lose all earthly possessions, rather than keep back what you believed to be the counsel of God. And, with pride and pleasure, we acknowledge that we are attached to you, because you have, by precept and example, inculcated a charity as extensive as humanity, a love as boundless as creation, a piety characterized by wisdom no less than by warmth, and have ever been the true helper of our joys, by unceasing endeavours to bind us to God, and to strengthen the ties that unite us to our families and to mankind."

To which Dr. DRUMMOND made the following

REPLY.

"My esteemed and beloved Friends, I accept, with pride and gratitude, these expressive testimonials of your kindness. To be united, as a minister of the gospel, with a society holding such principles as those to which your address gives utterance, and to which you are well known to be devotedly attached, I deem one of the greatest blessings to be participated in this state of trial. With you I enjoy, and have for many years enjoyed, that perfect freedom of mind which is the birthright of Christians, and which delights to expatiate in the wide field of religious inquiry, untrammelled by creeds and articles of human device, which, to the freeborn in spirit, are more galling than shackles of brass or fetters of iron.

"To myself, considered individually, this picture, as you remark, can be of little value; but, as a testimonial of your approbation of the religious tenets of which I am the humble advocate, and in connection with those who are endeared to me by the most tender and endearing relations, it is of the highest. My children, whose excellent mother is leading them in a path in which I hope they will continue to progress as long as they live, will learn to prize it as a memorial of your kindness, when he whom it represents shall be seen no more. It may serve them as a memento to

keep the instruction of their father, and forsake not the law of their mother.'

"In speaking of the pastors of

Strand-street and Eustace-street congregations in bygone times, you only do justice to their memory. Few denominations, as you truly observe, can refer to a succession of pastors more highly gifted, or more richly endowed with the Christian virtues; and assuredly, in the opinion of every wise and good man, virtue is, in every society, a more honourable distinction than number.

"It has often been a subject of reproach to our religious society, that our numbers are so few when compared with those of other religious societies. Such reproach comes with a bad grace from those who are themselves but a very little flock, when compared with the multitudes who are still unconverted, with Jews, Mahomedans, Heathens, and the thousands and tens of thousands in Christendom whom they brand as the non-elect, and whom they exclude from what they term the Covenanted mercies of God.' We have never understood that Truth despises the few, and courts alliance only with the many. We learn, from the highest authority, that strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;' and that wide is the gate and broad the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat.' We, therefore, prefer the narrow way, which we believe to be the way of righteousness and peace, though frequented by only a few, to the broad highway leading to the crowded halls, where declamation roars and bigotry sits enthroned, muttering her spells and issuing her denunciations. If we cannot boast of our numbers, we can, at least, congratulate ourselves on having had among us such men as are ornaments to the Christian name, men of high intellectual powers, profound erudition, literary taste, critical judgment, above all, men of unimpeached and unimpeachable honesty, candour, integrity, men mighty in the Scriptures, and marked by the seal of heaven, as worthy to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation. Comparisons are said to be odious; but when we are taunted with the paucity of our number, we may boldly affirm that we know of no society that can refer to a succession of pastors more highly gifted than those to whom your address calls our attention. Nay, we

have yet to be informed, what names of the various religious societies in this island, whose bond of union is the Westminster Confession, can be produced from their presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies united, worthy of being compared with those which you have enumerated. They form a glorious constellation in our firmament of Christian theology; and, beside them, the host of those who dare us to the comparison may hide their diminished heads.' And whence is the difference? Do we affirm that the pastors of our congregations were, by the original constitution of their minds, more richly gifted than others, more industrious students, more diligent in the discharge of their ministerial duties? Far from it: we make no such assertions. We freely admit, that, in the synods and assemblies, to which allusion has been made, there must have been many men of great attainments and respectable scholarship, but they were slaves-slaves to their confession of faith-slaves to the unhallowed dogmas of Calvin; the brand of Calvin was on their souls, it had seared their conscience as with a red-hot iron. The faculties of their minds were crippled and distorted by their creeds, and by the very frame of their religious institution they were precluded from the free exercise of thought. They dared not expatiate beyond a prescribed limit. A sorcerer's circle was drawn around them, and over it they were forbidden to plant a foot, lest they should be ignominiously driven back as heretics and unbelievers. They were ordered to vilify the nature which it should be our endeavour to honour and exalt. They could not, or dared not, carry out any great principle of Evangelical truth, tending to the melioration of society or the happiness of man. Happiness! No; the religion of Calvin is a religion of terror and hard-heartedness, a gloomy and barbarous superstition, blasphemous concerning the great Author of Good, libellous concerning the nature and the brotherhood of men.

"Differing as we must in religious opinion from several of our predecessors, who gave up their livings rather than remain in a church which fettered the conscience, we revere the principle on which they acted; their names deserve to be held in honoured

remembrance for their assertion of Christian freedom-the all-sufficiency of scripture as the rule of faith and practice the right of private judgment in the interpretation of the Divine articles. These are the principles which will regenerate the world; but while the Gospel is contemplated through the compositions of fallible men, as the sun through noxious fogs and exhalations, its light is obscured, its energies enfeebled, its beauty and simplicity deformed and lost.

"While the pastors of our congregations are brought to our grateful remembrance, their lay worthies should not be overlooked or forgotten; of these we can boast of many who, to borrow the language of your address, were distinguished by the aristocracy of mind; who adorned the liberal professions by their virtues and talents; who sacrificed place and emolument to the dictates of conscience, and achieved the triumph of religious principle over the temptations of the world. Of these, the name of one is still fresh and verdant on our minds -that of Dr. Whitley Stokes; and with his will one day be associated the names of some of our contemporaries, who are ornaments to society, an honour to their profession, benefactors of their species, steady and consistent friends of religious freedom, and able advocates of the rights of conscience. It is due to the lay members of such Christian societies as ours to state, that from them their pastors are great gainers by the interchange of thought and the communication of knowledge. If, in subjects immediately connected with our professional studies, we can sometimes impart a ray of light, how amply are we repaid by the knowledge which we receive on every subject of science and the arts, in which we ask information from our lay brethren! And even in religion, and the right interpretation of Scripture, how often might the priesthood be instructed by the laity! Few of the most distinguished divines are worthy of being compared as theologians with Milton, Newton, and Locke.

"I hold it to be the duty of a Christian minister to keep pace, if he possibly can, with the growing intelligence of his age and country. Nay, it

should be his ambition to precede, and, instead of having to be dragged

forward as a laggard from the rear, he should be seen voluntarily leading in the van. But no slave can be a proper leader of free men. If the blind lead the blind, both must fall into the ditch.' He that would instruct others should have been well instructed himself; and I impute it to the want of proper instruction, to sheer ignorance, and to the vain presumption that the utmost limit, the ne plus ultra of religious knowledge, has been already reached, that so many errors prevail, and that the pure and holy light of gospel truth is deserted for the dungeon gloom of superstitions that long since should have ceased to exist.

"It is melancholy to reflect how little the principles of genuine Protestantism have been understood or regarded, and how little progress in religious knowledge has been made by the great body of mankind since the time of Luther's reformation. The object of most of the new societies into which the Christian world was then divided was not to advance but to retard and limit the progress of inquiry. Having burst the chains of papal tyranny, they were impatient to forge and to rivet other chains, not less galling, on the minds of those who were boasting of their emancipation from slavery. Vain boast! The Pope of Geneva was not less intolerant than the Pope of Rome, nor the yoke of Presbyterian Synods and General Assemblies less oppressive than the yoke of General Councils; nor the fires which burned Servetus less cruel and tormenting than those which consumed Huss and Jerome of Prague. What have the General Assembly of Ulster done to promote the cause of genuine Christianity? Ask the Court of Chancery; and it will tell us, that when they failed to dislodge us Unitarians from the high and holy position which we had assumed as servants of of the One only living and true God, by the legitimate weapon of controversy, they hoped to prevail against us by the revival of certain intolerant laws, which, in the lapse of years, their very intolerance had rendered obsolete; and, had it not been for the wisdom and justice of the British Legislature, in passing the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, we should have been robbed of our houses of worship, of all our congregational properties, of the

very funds which our benevolent predecessors had provided, and to which some of our living contemporaries largely contributed, to be a provision for the fatherless children and widows of your pastors. Such are the fruits of their Christianity, such the lessons they inculcate on their priest-ridden, down-trodden, miserably-deluded, and mystified congregations; and so certain were they of the success of their nefarious projects, they had actually begun to quarrel about the division of the pillage. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.' But, thanks to our Almighty Protector! in the hour of their anticipated triumph, they were signally defeated, and we still continue to worship in the houses built by our pious ancestors, and raise the voice of praise and thanksgiving to our great Deliverer, who hath rescued us from the fangs of the destroyer, who brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.' "Attached as I am to the great principles of civil and religious liberty, it has ever been my desire to create and promote the same attachment in my Christian brethren, to the extent of my humble ability, and to me it is highly gratifying to meet a response to my advocacy of those principles in your kind, affectionate, and only too partial address. A minister of the Gospel can receive no higher reward upon earth than the approbation of his religious sentiments by those whom it is his wish and duty to instruct, provided always that such approval is gained by no unworthy act, by no flattery of prejudice, by no fashioning of doctrines to the varying hour, but simply by inculcating, with godly sincerity, what he believes to be the allimportant doctrines of revelation. If there be aught that can or should excite supreme aversion and invincible disgust in the bosom of a Christian, surely it is sycophancy with hypocrisy in the guise of religion.

"We have been accused of having too little warmth in our religion, though occasionally some declare we have too much. It may be admitted, however, that if we sometimes exhibited a little more Christian zeal, it would tend to the advancement of our righteous cause. But warmth and

zeal depend very much upon physical constitution, and I am far from supposing that warm and affectionate piety is to be found only with the fire and storm of a heated imagination. Rapturous exclamations, affected grimace, and disgustingly familiar repetitions of sacred names, that should be uttered only with hallowed respect and veneration, are not the proper outward signs of the inward and spiritual grace. Where there is an ostentatious exhibition of piety, there can be but little of the reality. Shallow streams run with the most noisy murmur. Empty bodies yield the greatest sound. And some one has said, 'that the contortions of the Sybil may often be seen without the inspiratíon.' The service of God is a reasonable service.' It should be-based upon reason and understanding, not on passions and emotions: the affections are a most valuable part of the constitution, and should be cherished; for, without them and their kindly play, life would be insipid; but unless they are under the control and guidance of reason and understanding, they lead to dangerous errors both in doctrine and practice. Devotion may be excited into fanaticism, zeal kindled into persecution. Our great guide and example was no enthusiast, no devotee, no vilifyer of human nature. He reasoned with the intellect, he appealed to man's natural sense of right and wrong, he spake to the feelings and affections, but he did not stir up the passions to anarchy and insurrection, to dethrone that reason which is man's distinguishing attribute. He was fervent in piety, but not fanatical, nor fond of vain repetitions, zealous for the glory of his and our Heavenly Father, but a reprover of the disciples who wished to call down fire from Heaven to consume his enemies.

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Here let me pause, for I seem to have forgotten that I am replying to your address, and not delivering a sermon. In conclusion, then, my esteemed and beloved friends and brethren, permit me again to say that I warmly reciprocate all your expressions of kind and affectionate regard, I prize the picture which you generously bestow as a proof of your friendship to myself, for the gratification it gives to those who are united to me by the most tender ties, and for all the pleasing associations with which it is con

nected: let me add, that my gratitude is enhanced by the consideration that my claims, if any, to such a testimonial of your regard, are so disproportioned to your estimation of my deserts; but, as I have said, you confer this honour upon me as an advocate of those religious principles on which it is our greatest earthly happiness to rest, and in support of which we shall best fulfil the great end and design of our Creation."

After Dr. Drummond had delivered his reply, Surgeon Antisell, the secretary, said he was requested by the committee to present the Rev. G. A. Armstrong, as colleague of Dr. D. with a framed lithograph of the portrait, on receiving which, he remarked, that no portrait was necessary to remind him of Dr. Drummond, as his image was indelibly stamped on his

mind.

In the evening there was a Soirée at the Northumberland Buildings, which was very numerously attended; and at which several enlightened and benevolent sentiments were impressively brought forward by-Mitchell, Esq. John Armstrong, Esq. R. Dowden, Esq. Wm. Antisell, Esq. James Haughton, Esq. the chairman D. Hutton, Esq. and other speakers. These were received by the assemblage with marked approbation, and the evening was spent in most delightful harmony.

DR. BEARD'S DICTIONARY OF THE

BIBLE.

It gives us much pleasure to direct the attention of our readers to Dr. Beard's Dictionary of the Bible, which we have no doubt will be truly useful as a book of reference. Dr. Beard has

already distinguished himself as an author and able vindicator of the truths of Christianity, and merits the encouragement of the Christian community. The friends who have, on the cover, recommended his Dictionary to the non-subscribing Presbyterians of Ireland, being personally acquainted with him, have, of course, confidence in his ability to execute the

task which he has marked out for

himself. They cannot be accountable for what he may advance on any subject; but his past services certainly work to the inquirer after information. warrant them in recommending his

ED. I. U. M.

We understand that the Rev. Robert E. B. Maclellan has signified his intention of resigning the pastoral charge of the Unitarian Congregation at Bridport, on 1st September next.

DIED-On the 8th day of February, 1846, MR. JOHN JOHNSTON, of Thornhill, near Dunmurry, in the 64th year of his age. Through life he was distinguished by benevolence, integrity, and public spirit, as a member of society; and, in his more private relations, he was eminently gentle, amiable, and kind. For more than thirty

years, he was a respected Elder of the Presbyterian Congregation of Dunmurry, and in that capacity he attended several meetings of Synod, about the period of the Remonstrant Separation, being one in whom his fellow-worshippers reposed entire confidence, as the uncompromising friend of gospel truth and Christian liberty.