fluence on the interests of humanity at large. The molten waves of the former prevent the cultivation of the soil only; the latter, by virtually opposing a religious system of national education, is dooming a large domain of immortal mind to worse than perpetual sterility, and transferring to it the curse originally pronounced on the ground, "thorns also and thistles shalt thou bring forth." And while the material element destroys only, at most, the life that now is, and overwhelms a town or a city, the more desolating element of ecclesiastical dissension, by impairing the piety and usefulness of the Church, is abandoning multitudes to a death beyond the grave. "Return, O Lord, how long?"

Meantime, while the existing evil not only justifies but demands every scriptural effort at amelioration, it is natural that many a reader should be desirous to know the spirit and scope of a volume on Christian Union, before he commits himself to its entire perusal. As far as that desire may relate to the following pages, the writer is perfectly ready to reply, that in adverting to the history and evils of

schism his object has been, not to criminate parties, but to inculcate mutual forbearance, to lay bare the disease with a simple view to its removal-that the union which he advocates, so far from requiring the subjugation or absorption of any one section of the faithful, guarantees the integrity and security of each by seeking the fellowship of all—and that, agreeable as that union must be in itself, and eminently advantageous as it would be to those who are immediately concerned, he pleads for it chiefly for the sake of that world whose myriads are daily perishing in their guilt, and whose conversion, according to the prayer of Christ, is conditionally suspended on the instrumentality of a united Church.

Were he to suppose that in the development of these views he has introduced nothing at which party feeling will take offence, he would evince an ignorance of the past and the present but little suited to the execution of his task. Indeed, when it is considered that this morbid feeling could hardly listen to the enforcement of Christian unity even in the language of Scripture itself, without pro

nouncing it, for the present, impracticable and unseasonable, the question is, whether such offence is not to be looked for and regarded as a sign of his impartiality and fidelity to his object. Be this as it may, he can truly aver to those of every community whom alone he desires to behold united-"the faithful in Christ Jesus"-that while, on the one hand, he has not knowingly omitted a single sentence merely for the sake of gratifying one party, he has not, on the other, introduced a word for the mere purpose of criminating any other party. So that if, in any instance, it should be his lot to reap division where his only aim has been to sow unity, he will regard it as an additional reason to appeal from earth to heaven, and, in the appropriate language of the Collect for Unity, say, "O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord: that,

2*

as there is but one body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

UNION,

&c.

INTRODUCTION.

THERE appears to be a growing conviction among Christians in the present day, that the Church of Christ, notwithstanding its increasing activity and enlargement, is laboring under many and serious evils. Indeed, the attention which these evils are attracting, constitutes one of the most hopeful signs of the times; especially, as it seems to be connected with a desire to ascertain and apply the appropriate remedies.

1. The result of the writer's observation and reading would lead him to infer, that the principal evils to be deplored are reducible to three