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then we wait in patience, resolved upon as little fault-finding as human nature can be healthfully content with. Of one thing we may be sure, that the world will no more dispense with religious teachers than with fuel and water. And those religious teachers must be Christian teachers till a better religion than that of Jesus Christ is invented by man or revealed to him.

Meeting of the Association of the Alumni. - This annual meeting of those who have received a theological education at Cambridge took place in the College Chapel in the afternoon. The Rev. Prof. Noyes declined a reëlection as President. The officers chosen were, Rev. Francis Parkman, D. D., President; Rev. Ralph Sanger of Dover, Vice-President; Rev. J. F. W. Ware of Cambridgeport, Secretary; with a Standing Committee.

The Rev. Calvin Lincoln of Fitchburg having been already chosen as Preacher for next year, the Rev. Dr. Putnam was elected by ballot as Second Preacher.

The Annual Discourse was then delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gannett. His subject was Ministerial Devotedness, as the Condition of Obligation and of Success in the Christian Ministry. His chosen profession demands of the minister a concentrated, entire, constant, life-long, and single-hearted devotion. This claim should be met, it should be recognized in adherence to the profession through all trials, in the use of time, in the method of study, in preparation for the pulpit, in dress and manners and habits, and in every possible mode of influence. The preacher presented what were in his view the loftiest model, the most exacting duties, and the most serious obligations of a minister of Jesus Christ.

Installation and Ordination. -The REV. WILLIAM H. KINSLEY was installed as Minister of the First Congregational Society in MENDON, on June 10th. The Introductory Prayer was offered by Rev. Adin Ballou; Selections from Scripture, by Rev. Mr. Stacy; Sermon, by Rev. Dr. Gannett; Prayer of Installation, by Rev. Mr. Clarke of Uxbridge; Fellowship of the Churches, by Rev Mr. Fuller of Manchester; Address to the Society, by Rev. A. Hill of Worcester.

MR. FRANCIS LE BARON, formerly of Plymouth, was ordained as an Evangelist and Minister at Large, in WORCESTER, on July 3d; the Services, which were held in the Church of the Unity, were as follows: Introductory Prayer, by Rev. Warren Burton; Selections from Scripture, by Rev. George M. Bartol of Lancaster; Prayer of Ordination, by Rev. Dr. Kendall of Plymouth; Sermon, by Rev. John Weiss of New Bedford; Charge, by Rev. William B. Greene of Brookfield; Fellowship of the Churches, by Rev. E. E. Hale of Worcester; Concluding Prayer, by Rev. Alonzo Hill of Worcester.

Dedication. The new church edifice erected by the Second Liberal Congregational Society in LOWELL, under the pastoral care of Rev. MR. BARRY, was dedicated on July 10th. The Dedicatory Discourse was preached by Rev. Dr. Gannett.

John Adams's Life and Works, Vol. II.

Cumming's Hunter's Life in South Africa
Loomis's Progress of Astronomy.

Records of the Company of Massachusetts Bay

Santarem's Researches respecting Americus Vespucius

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Fowler on English Grammar

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Dr. Moore's Health, Disease,

and Remedy

494

Mrs. Browning's Poems

495

Hunt's Poetry of Science

495

Harris's Pre-Adamite Earth

495

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Woodworth's Stories about Birds

De Quincey's Biographical Essays

Robinson's New Testament Lexicon

The Saviour with Prophets and Apostles

Dexter's Translation of Rose's Chemical Tables.
Autobiography of Leigh Hunt

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Dr. Warren's Address at Cincinnati,- Dr. Holmes's
Astræa, Mr. Whitney's Address at Brighton Cem-
etery, Mr. Hill's Discourse at Hingham, Mr.
Robbins's Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Frothingham
and Mrs. Wolcott, Dr. Reynolds's Address at the
Eye and Ear Infirmary

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Literary Intelligence. - Professor Reed's Edition of
Gray's Poems. Works in Press. Professor De
Vericour and the Queen's College at Cork
Religious Intelligence. Ullmann and the Rhenish Ba-
varian Church, The Synod of Thurles, - The Mon-
ey Power in Religion, The Affairs of the Second
Church in Boston, - Autumnal Unitarian Convention
at Springfield,- Ordinations
Obituaries. Mrs. E. B. Ware, Mrs. Eliza S. M.
Rev. Elijah Dunbar

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THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

NOVEMBER, 1850.

ART. I.- MODERN SKEPTICISM.*

It is evident, from many signs, that Christianity is, in one way or another, the principal thing to which the thought of our age is directed. It cannot be passed by with an ignoring, indifferent mind. Some view of it, favorable or adverse, every man with the smallest pretensions to intellect, or the least concern about his character, must take. It is the ancient tower of strength which has held its treasure and covered its friends, while from many generations of enemies it has challenged the blows whose dint is but the proof of its impregnableness. The most important discussions of the present day relate to it. No discovery in science, no form of government, no metaphysical novelty, no social scheme, arrests such attention. It is the greatest organized, instituted, and

don

1. On the Religious Ideas. By WILLIAM JOHNSON Fox, M. P. LonCharles Fox, 67 Paternoster Row. 1849. 8vo. pp. 245.

2. Popular Christianity, its Transition State and Probable Development. By FREDERICK J. FOXTON, A. B., formerly of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Perpetual Curate of Stoke Prior, and Docklow, Herefordshire. London John Chapman, 142 Strand. 1849. 12mo. pp. 226.

3. Phases of Faith; or Passages from the History of my Creed. By FRANCIS WILLIAM NEWMAN, formerly Fellow of Baliol College, Oxford. London: John Chapman, 142 Strand. 1850. 12mo. pp. 234.

4. The Progress of the Intellect, as exemplified in the Religious Development of the Greeks and Hebrews. By ROBERT WILLIAM MACKAY. In two volumes. London: John Chapman, 142 Strand. 1850. 8vo. pp. 488, 520. VOL. XLIX. - 4TH S. VOL. XIV. NO. III. 28

enduring fact in the world. Like any great work of art or nature, the Pyramids or the everlasting hills, it asks to be in some sense accepted and accounted for. The ontologist and the historian, the transcendentalist and the antiquarian, the man of letters or of affairs, must all give an explanation of it and take a part towards it, or be set down as dull to the first of demands and without an answer to the greatest question. Our own day has been, perhaps even beyond all preceding periods, prolific of speculations and criticisms on this great phenomenon. It is a day at once of the strongest Christian faith and the boldest unbelief. It presents the mightiest and most beneficent applications of the Gospel, with the gathering up from all time of a variety of skeptical devices and theories, to which we cannot well imagine the ingenious infidelity of the human heart should ever add. But, after considering well these many trials, we cannot see that our religion shakes under any assault, or crumbles by any undermining. As in the testing by an immense strain of the toughest iron or stone, it turns the greatest violence into the measure which falls short of its own solidity. While many reason against it, and more are ready at every point with replies to every suggestion of doubt, it argues for itself, in a way which it is hard for any subtilty to meet, by going ever more deeply into the life of the human race. Like an unconquerable knight in the lists of old, it answers the thrust of axe and shaft and spear by still standing. It abides and works and moves on, at the head of all that is best on earth, with a blessed subduing of mankind to its own gifts of freedom and virtue and immortal joy. It operates through the Church, the oldest, widest, purest, and most potent of associations. It acts as a spirit, with the deepest of all energies, in the private soul. It utters a word, the most persuasive and heavenly ever heard by human ear. Knowledge and civil liberty, all manhood and all womanhood pay to it their debt in thanksgivings. England and Ethiopia stretch out, the one liberated, the other half unchained, but both grateful hands for it to God. A multitude we cannot number, of different ages and climes, rise on earth and descend from heaven, to be Christ's witnesses, saying, "He has made better men He has redeemed us from our errors and sins.

of us.

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