worship? Are his good qualities social merely, or are they divine? If the social virtues which render a man interesting to his friends, should exceed those of an angel, and yet, he had no regard to his Maker in the exercise of them, he would fall on the side of the evil. I need not refer to the young ruler whose amiable qualities called forth the admiration of our Saviour, but who, upon being brought to the test, was found to be a worshipper of gold rather than of God, nor to the numerous other passages and incidents of scripture by which the view we present is attested. For, every careful reader of the Bible will be able to supply from recollection evidence sufficient, that it rests a mans claims to a classification with the good, not upon the number or extent of his social virtues, (though these are by no means omitted from the account,) but upon the state of his heart in relation to God, his redemption, and his law. It is the nature of his goodness, and not the degree of it which may appear to our view, that must determine the class to which he belongs.

Some men have so many and powerful native propensions to evil to encounter, or such a formidable array of old habits in sin to withstand, that, unless we enter the sanctuary of their hearts and observe their secret compunction and confession before God, we should judge that the evil of their character altogether overbalancés the good; while others have so much constitutional amiableness and their feelings and conduct so perfectly attuned to the sympathies of society, that without any exercise of divine love or relish for holiness, their goodness might be thought greatly to preponderate over their imperfections. In the end, however, we find from observation that those who are good on the principles of scripture, turn out to be so in our view, and those who are evil by its rules, notwithstanding their social virtues, stand confessed in their true characters before all the world. The selfishness and im

piety of the latter are disrobed of their seeming loveliness, time and temptation wear off the tinsel of their character, and the latent evil stands out with a prominence that cannot escape detection; while the secret repentance of the former, and their continual effort to conquer themselves to Christ, are crowned with ultimate success, and in their declining years or under peculiar trials, the pure though long concealed gold of their character appears unto praise and honor and glory.

Now, the persons for whom these pages are more especially intended are those, whatever their external characteristics or associations, who have derived from the gospel this radical love of goodness. Numerous as may be the diversities among them, or distant as they may be from apostles and martyrs or those who like them occupy the heights of christian attainment, they are all alike in this essential particular, that they love holiness and hate sin. They are all laboring with different degrees of advantage and success to conform their lives to their idea of the divine requirements, and to be holy even as he who hath called them is holy. There is within them all a strong current of desire towards heavenly things-a tenderness of conscience-a dread of sinning-an affectionate concern for the salvation of men- -a benevolent sympathy with whatever relates to the happiness of the world at large a kindred tie binding them to good men and angels-and a habit of esteeming Jesus as all in all to their souls. They are all begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and regard the imagery in which the scriptures invest a coming life with a faith which gives it substance, or the same power of controling the feelings and purposes of life with the things already seen. They are all created in Christ unto good works which God before ordained and appointed that they should walk in them. Hence, the radical principle of their difference from

the rest of the world is produced in a manner analogous to the light, beauty and order of the material universe. By the same spirit who garnished the heavens in the creation, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, who brooded upon the face of the waters and rendered them prolific with life, by the same spirit are we quickened from a state of death in sin and raised to life in Christ Jesus our Lord. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

We have been thus circuitous and particular in describing those to whom our subject directly relates, in order to escape, if possible, the misapprehensions to which our language might be subject from the sectarian notions or nomenclatures, which have imparted to these persons their habits of religious thought and expression. And even the names of converted persons, saints, penetants, regenerated, and the like, whether from the Bible or not, (scriptural phrases are as often used in a cant and sectarian sense as any others,) we shall endeavor to avoid, lest we expose ourselves to the necessity of minuter explanations, and lest a portion of the class whom we have in view, should attach to our terms meanings by which they should feel themselves excluded from the number addressed. We desire, if possible, to pass through all sectarian drapery whether of notions or names, and come directly to every man's experience and consciousness, that things may not be lost sight of by appending to them unfortunate terms.

Allow us to address those who answer to the description we have given, or who feel honestly to desire a character which would bear this description, as holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Though we are at present divided from each other and dispersed among all the extant forms of christianity, though we are doing much to counteract each oth

er's influence, are bringing by our dissevered state, great scandal upon the worthy name by which we are called, and, except we throw offthe drapery which our religion may have assumed from accidental causes, we do not and cannot recognize each other as brethren, yet, if we could be induced for once to lay aside all these circumstantial appendages, and compare the reality of religion as it has been grafted upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we should find to our mutual surprise, that we have all the same basis of christian character, the same religious features, and are members of one family. That we have not the same reason to expect a residence in heaven with those upon whose experience and consciousness these elementary principles have not been grafted, even though they wear the same external drapery with ourselves, that we have to expect such a residence with those, who, without our drapery have the internal perception and feeling of the power of religion, we shall all doubtless concede. The external badges of christianity, which Simon Magus wore in common with Peter, could do nothing to save him from the doom of those who are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.

We entreat you, therefore, brethren,-allow the principles which are at the basis of our common character as christians to operate as a bond of sympathy between us, while we go into a candid, dispassionate, and so far as the habits of our education will admit, an unprejudiced examination of the position we at present occupy in relation to each other, the causes of this state of things, the relations which our own peace, the honor of our Master, and the success of our cause require us to sustain among ourselves, and the measures which promise to secure the establishment of such relations. Of one thing be assured, we shall no farther infringe upon the specific forms of christianity to which any of us may have become at

tached, than we can avoid, in pursuing up and making clear the results of our investigation. And where such infringements do exist, if they are not perfectly impartial, bearing upon one as much as another, it will not be because the writer does not most conscientiously believe that we have all contributed our due share to the present unhappy state of the christian world, and that we shall never be united till we feel and confess this fact with repentance and humilliation.

The present arrogant pretension in every party and sect, that its creed and organization are the very ideal of perfection, the exact model after which the millenial church is to be formed, that all parties must rally around them, besides being the bitter root from which much of our trouble springs, precludes every incipient effort at an adjustment between us, and betrays a narrowness of view and feeling which is equalled only by the utter groundlessness of the assumption. If we were to dip deeper into recorded christianity, we should find that some of its holiest bearings upon life and conduct, have failed as yet to impress themselves on the most perfect sectarian organization in existence. Meager, opaque, and distant from the image of her Lord will the millenial church prove to be, after all the hopes entertained of her perfection, if any system now in the field is to constitute the exact measure of her moral advancement. But, brethren, whatever may be your thoughts on this point, we entreat you to keep in view the common ties that bind the redeemed together, and to remember that these pages have no party but truth, and no interests to subserve except your spiritual improvement, the glory of God, and the salvation of the world.