It was resolved that the next annual meeting be held at Bridgend, and that the Rev. Owen Evans, of Cefn, be the preacher.

On the previous evening, the Rev. John James, of Gellionnen, delivered a lucid and a very impressive discourse from Eph. iv. 32.

There was service also on the Thursday evening, at which the Rev. D. Griffiths, of Landilo, and the Rev. D. Lloyd, of Carmarthen, preached. The audience, on each occasion, was numerous and attentive.

On the evening of the following day (Christmas-day) the Revs. D. Lloyd and J. E. Jones preached at Newbridge, in the vale of Taff, where there had been no Unitarian preaching since the late Rev. R. Wright visited the place, on his missionary tour through South Wales.

THE UNITARIAN CONGREGATION, MON

TREAL.

We request the attention of our readers to the following letter, which we hope may not fail to excite sympathy among our friends in these lands, on behalf of our brethren in Canada. The Unitarians of this province are already well acquainted with the circumstances under which the Montreal Society was formed, and the difficulties, chiefly arising from its isolated position, with which it has had to contend. The Society is still in debt to the amount of £500, even although they have subscribed very liberally themselves, and have received a large sum from the friends in the United States.

DEBT OF THE MONTREAL UNITARIAN CONGREGATION,

To the Editor of the Inquirer. SIR,-In your paper of the 29th August, you have copied from the "Montreal Bible Christian" the acknowledgment, by the treasurer of our society, of receipt of donations from

Great Britain and Ireland of £50 sterling. This sum has been contributed by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, the Birmingham Old Meeting Fellowship Fund, and a few Christian friends in Belfast and vicinity, in response to our appeal to "The Unitarians of Great Britain and Ireland," signed by Benjamin Holmes, John Young, and myself, issued nearly a year ago.

You have expressed a hope that these donations might be followed by many others: accept the grateful thanks of the Montreal Congregation for your friendly suggestion; and permit me, through your columns, to call the attention of our brethren in our fatherland to the present very urgent necessity for immediate assistance. A little over £500 is required to relieve us in full from congregational debt, not one-tenth part of which has yet been realized. Of this requisite sum, £250 must be paid 'n the month of December next. To meet this payment, £200, in addition to the £50 already received, will be required. We do fondly hope that, out of the 350 Unitarian Congregations in the United Kingdom, there will be found those who will not suffer an infant society, in a distant British colony, to be exposed to serious embarrassments for so small a sum. Forty earnest and generous individuals, contributing or collecting five pounds each, would meet the pending emergency; and we confidently trust that our pressing necessities will awaken the sympathies of our friends, and relieve us from our present embarrassments. We do not ask aid as a people who have not done their own part at home: some of us have contributed £100 each towards building our chapel, some £50 each. Ought not a people making such sacrifices for TRUTH to be liberally assisted? In our printed circular of last year, it was recommended to remit through certain banking-houses; this mode of transmission has been found inconvenient; future remittances are requested to be addressed to the Rev. Henry Montgomery, LL.D. Dunmurry, Lisburn, Ireland, who has offered his friendly assistance to transmit all sums so addressed to the treasurer of our society in Montreal.-Yours, &c.

BENJAMIN WORKMAN.

Montreal, Oct. 13, 1816.

THE AMERICAN PEACE ADDRESS.

We have great pleasure in laying before our readers the following reply, from about two hundred Unitarian ministers of the United States, to the address on the subject of peace, which was transmitted, not long since, to our brethren in America, by the Unitarian ministers of Great Britain and Ireland. It is highly gratifying to mark the noble Christian spirit which speaks in this document. The friends of peace and truth have reason to rejoice in the rapid extension of their principles. Yet a little while, and we trust that governments will be taught to feel what an awful responsibility rests with them in this matter. We are glad to perceive that our brethren in the United States speak out honestly in condemnation of the conduct of their own government, in reference to the Mexican war.

From the undersigned, Ministers of the Gospel of God the Father, in the United States, to their Brethren of the same Faith in Great Britain and Ireland.

DEAR BRETHREN, We received your letter, called forth by the prospect of war between our two countries, with feelings similar to those which prompted you to send it across the ocean; and though the apprehensions under which it was written are now dispelled, we cannot but reciprocate your expression of fraternal regard. You addressed us in words of anxious import, but we may reply in the language of congratulation. You have already rejoiced with us in the termination of the doubtful relations in which our respective governments stood to one another, and especially in the settlement of those difficulties on a basis of mutual concession and equal justice. Wisdom has prevailed over false notions of honour and national interest, and an example has been given which cannot but have some effect on the diplomacy of future times. We concur with you in the sentiments you have expressed respecting the character of war. Unchristian and inhuman, the child of barbarism and the occasion of all evil, it should

be regarded with abhorrence by every one who loves his race, and with mingled sadness and disgustby every disciple of Jesus Christ. That it has so long held Christendom in the bondage of its cruel fascination, is perhaps the most remarkable proof which history furnishes of the slow triumph of the religion of the New Testament over prescriptive opinions and practices. We think we see indications of a sounder judgment taking possession of the minds of men. A higher civilization than the world has yet known is giving promise of its approach, when freedom, righteousness, and peace, shall be cherished as the true elements and only securities of national prosperity. Statesmen are catching glimpses of the truth, that the relations of governments as well as of individuals should be determined by the principles which the gospel unfolds; and the faithful reiteration of this truth by Christian ministers in public and in private must, in time, give it a place among the deep convictions of society. Let Christianity be recognised as the ultimate authority in all human affairs, and war will be numbered among impossible crimes. We rejoice, therefore, not only at the result of the negotiations which have twice within the last four years changed the prospects of a rupture between England and America into the establishment of a firmer peace, but also in the numerous proofs that such a termination of the differences between the two governments was demanded by the voice of the people,-a voice which came from their hearts, and to which their rulers lent a not reluctant ear.

Our satisfaction in contemplating the present attitude of our country towards other nations is indeed lessened by the position which our government has chosen to assume towards the republic of Mexico. We deplore the course which has been taken, and in which evil counsels induce those who have the control of our public affairs to persevere. We can assure you that a very large part of the people of the United States regard this war as unjust and inexcusable. We have nothing to say in extenuation. We bow our heads in shame, and pray God to infuse into the minds of our rulers that "wisdom which is from above, pure, peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits."

In the Divine Providence evil is continually overruled for good. Out of the troubles which threatened to implant permanent causes of ill-will between the United States and the land to which we can never forget that ancestral associations and intellectual obligations should bind us, out of those circumstances which filled your hearts and ours with anxiety, has arisen one of the pleasantest offices of international courtesy. The addresses which have passed between the two countries, laden with expressions of brotherly

feeling and invoking a common effort for the maintenance of peace, are in themselves means of cementing amicable relations. We thank you for the cordiality of your letter. We are glad to multiply ties which may unite us in one brotherhood of faith and love. May the God of peace be with you, to prosper and keep you. May the religion of peace overshadow your native land, and ours. May the spirit of our Divine Master, that meek and lowly One, whose name we bear, fill our hearts and give us peace for evermore.

ANTICHRIST (OPPOSED TO CHRIST) Any power or influence which sub verts the aims of Christ. Such is the meaning of the term according to its etymology. Its specific scriptual application may be learned from the instances in which it is applied. Its use is confined to two Epistles of John. In the first (ii. 18), it is declared, that, even then, there were many antichrists prevalent; and their existence is given as a proof of the near approach of the expected second appear ance of Christ. The train of thought which the writer pursues, leads us to the conclusion that these antichrists were the love of the world, and the things that were in the world; which, as comprising low sensual affections, as well as idolatrous practices, was, in agreement with the general doctrine of Scripture, incompatible with the love of the Father, and the service of his Son. Accordingly, the apostle, in the twenty-second verse, expressly declares antichrist to be the denial of the Father and the Son; in other words, the practical renunciation of Christianity. This is confirmed by the third verse of the fourth chapter, where antichrist is defined to be every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; in which reference seems to be made specially to that theorising spirit, which, arising at an early period, asserted that Jesus was a man in appearance only, and gave occasion eventually to some forms of the religious philosophy which bore the name of Gnosticism,-so early did "the rudiments of this world" begin to corrupt the pure doctrine of heaven. The same influence is reproved in the

seventh verse of John's second letter; where those that deny that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh are designated "deceivers and anti-christs." They are said to be numerous, as were the originators and patrons of the Gnostic philosophy.

The very term Gnosticism exhibits the origin of these errors. It signifies knowing; and its followers were persons whose aim and boast it was to know everything in a deeper sense than revelation had disclosed, or ordinary Christians could attain to. The Gnostics were idolaters of the intellect. They strove to fathom the deep things of God. They were not content to receive God's truth as made known by his Son, unless they could bring it into accordance with their preconceptions, and make it answer to their philosophical processes and theorems. Facts were unacceptable till they were conformed to theory: the gospel must bend to the world. Even Gothe has disallowed this spirit :"How? when? and where? The Gods give no reply;

:

Keep to because and never ask the why." BAAL.-By those among the Israelites who were given to idolatry, offerings were made to Baal on the roofs of houses (Jer. xxxii. 29), and on high places (Jer. xix. 5), probably because his worship was illegal, so as to render privacy desirable. But the powerful could disregard the law; accordingly, Ahab, king of Israel, influenced by his Sidonian wife, openly served Baal, and, having built in his honour a temple in Samaria, raised in it an altar, and made a grove; doing "more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to

anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (1 Kings xvi. 31, seq.). The ten tribes, after their separation, were more inclined to idolatry (1 Kings xii. 28) than Judah; but the latter also gave public homage to the idol, for Manasseh "reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them; and he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times (practised astrology; comp. Lev. xix. 26), and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards; he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger" (2 Kings xxi. 3, 6). This idolatry was found in the times of the Judges (ii. 11, 13), where we find groves connected with the worship of Baal (Judg. iii. 7; vi. 25). His priests were very numerous; in the days of Elijah they amounted to four hundred and fifty (1 Kings xviii. 22.) Indeed, they appear to have consisted of a graduated hierarchy, designated, in 2 Kings x. 19, "prophets, servants, and priests." We have already seen that children were offered in sacrifice to Baal; the testimony of Jeremiah (xix. 5) puts this otherwise almost incredible atrocity beyond a doubt :-"They have built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burntofferings unto Baal." Incense was burnt to him (Jer. vii. 9). In order to procure his favour on special occasions, the priests danced madly round the altar; and, if the desired sign was withheld, they cried aloud, and cut themselves till the blood gushed out. The whole chapter whence we derive these facts (1 Kings xviii.) is very impressive, and deserves attentive perusal. Strange that the Hebrews should have been so sottishly corrupt, as to have preferred Baal and his prophets to Jehovah and Elijah, and thus have rendered the trial there narrated necessary. Yet even Solomon, in his old age, burnt incense and offered sacrifices to Phoenician idols, seduced by his foreign wives (1 Kings xi. 5, 8). Idolatry was not only disloyalty to God, it was also connected with vicious, degrading, and voluptuous practices. Priapism is met with in one form of Baal-worship, namely, Baalpeor a divinity which was honoured by the sacrifice to him of the chastity of young maidens (Numb. xxv. 1-5; xxxi. 16. Josh. xxii. 17). Besides

Baal-peor of the Moabites, other mo difications of this idolatry are found, as Baal-berith, covenant Baal, as the Greeks had a Zeus, who presided over oaths, and the Romans a Deus, who punished infractions of fidelity: the Shechemites worshipped Baal-berith in a temple set apart for his honour (Judg. viii. 33; ix. 4, 46). From Jer. xii. 16, it appears that it was usual to swear by Baal, whence may have arisen the epithet of berith, equivalent to covenant-preserving. Another form was that of Baal-zebub (2 Kings i. 2, 3, 16), a Philistine god at Ekron, of whom Ahaziah sent to inquire whe ther he should recover from his illness. The name signifies fly-god. The insect world affords in Palestine, as in all countries, several species, which are exceedingly annoying and injurious to man; whence Baal received an addition to his name, to denote his protecting powers against gnats, locusts, &c. Pausanias relates that the Greeks at Elis offered annual sacrifices to Zeus, the fly-repeller.

As it was customary with the Hebrews to form names in part out of some elements of the name for God-thus, Isaiah, Elijah, Elishah; and with the Greeks in the same way-thus, Theophilus, Timothy; and as this custom still prevails among the Germans

thus, Gottlieb, Gottfried (in English Godfrey, hence Jeffrey), so the worshippers of Baal made that word to enter into combination with others to form proper names: accordingly, we have Ethbaal, a king of the Sidonians (1 Kings xvi. 31); Baalath, a city in Dan (Josh. xix. 44); and Hannibal and Hasdrubal.

THE MOSAIC POLITY AND FOREIGNERS. -At first sight, the Mosaic polity seems to have a harsh bearing on foreign nations, inasmuch as the Israelites were a peculiar people, possessed of high and exclusive religious privileges, and were barred from social intercourse with men of other nations. Regard, however, must be had to the universally prevailing idolatry, against the seductions of which nothing but the most rigid exclusion could guard the children of faithful Abraham; and to the great aim and end of the system, in the eventual spread of a menotheism, which, under the administration of a Father, through the instrumentality of his Son, should