For this purpose, the proof Catechisms are well adapted; indeed, they are indispensable. But we cannot omit recommending to parents, to require their children to search their Bibles for the proofs; and not merely to commit them out of the Catechism. The searching of the proofs in the Bible, accustoms children to know the Scriptures; gives them a facility in referring to them in future life, which, without this early experience, they will not afterwards readily attain; and imprints deeply upon their memory the sacred truths, which they now learn to seek and contemplate at the fountain head.

But if it be a duty to teach the child, it is no less a duty to provide the parent with defence. The study of the Bible must afford his armour. One small work, however, we cannot refrain to mention and recommend, as peculiarly fitted for these times, and for this country, we mean "Jones on the Trinity." The work is cheap, small, and scriptural; and forms an admirable antidote to the infection of the errors by which we are surrounded.

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VI. The last duty we shall inculcate, is one suited to all times, but peculiarly required in our days, we mean the duty of FAMILY PRAYER. It is clear that our Saviour and his Apostles always speak of prayer as a duty essen. tial to the Christian character. Yet, when we contemplate the present state of the Churches, we find the spirit of grace and supplication so withdrawn, that many families, nay, congregations and districts, have nearly abandoned prayer. We may have a revival of the spirit of reading; we may have a revival of religious conversation; we may have a revival of religious activity, and liberality of contribution for religious purposes; but, without a revival of the spirit of prayer, we shall have no revival of true and undefiled religion.

• Of the various editions of this useful work which have issued from the press since its first publication, we beg leave to recommend Dove's late edition, London, price two shillings; not only because it is in a most cheap and portable form; but especially because there is appended to it an admirable essay on the Trinity, from the pen of one whom we feel proud to recognize as a brother, and who was long a distinguished member of the Synod of Ulster-the Rev. Charles Masterton, M. A. an account of whom will appear in a subsequent number.

SIR,

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RAMMOHUN ROY AND UNITARIANISM,

IN SWITZERLAND AND THE EAST.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN.

SOME time ago, reading Dr. Drummond's pamphlet on the Trinity, my attention was particularly arrested by his account of the rapid and extensive progress of Unitarian principles in Switzerland and in the East. In his own turgid and extravagant style he writes, "Abroad, Unitarianism is spreading like the light of heaven. The mountains and vallies of Switzerland are re-echoing her hallelujahs, while Malan and his fanatics are howling a funeral dirge over the lifeless carcass of Calvinism. The erudite Brahmin in the East has commenced her Hosannah." His essay is dedicated to the Brahmin, in conjunction with Channing, in the following language :"To Rammohun Roy, the learned Christian Brahmin, whose writings, distinguished as they are by mildness and strength, by a critical knowledge of the Oriental languages and of the Sacred Scriptures, ably defend, and convincingly demonstrate the great doctrine of the Bible, that God is One." These and other similar passages produced a curiosity to know something farther of Switzerland and the Brahmin, and I have been at some pains to inquire into the subject. The investigation has led me to a discovery, which, I confess, has not a little surprised me; and, with your permission, I will lay it before your readers. I do not publish it merely as a curiosity; though even so, it might not be uninteresting; but it appears to me, some practical purposes may be answered by it, consistent with the important design of your justly popular and useful periodical. First, it may help to let us into the secret of what principles are held by Dr.Drummond and his friends in this country. I have read his pamphlet with attention, and I could not discover what his sentiments are on many of the most important articles of the Christian faith. He has not even informed us what he believes respecting the person of Christ. But he has praised Rammohun Roy and the natives of Switzerland. We know what they be lieve; and, although I do not charge him with believing or disbelieving all that they do, yet surely it cannot be supposed he has any great antipathy to the opinions of

he men he has so unsparingly bepraised. Had such seen his feeling, it was his duty to have distinguished between those among them of whom he approved, and hose whose sentiments he disapproved. Second, let the people of Ulster judge of the principles of those Ministers who have been at pains to circulate Dr. Drummond's pamphlet. It has been their policy to conceal their sentiments; and while many of them would, perhaps, reject the annexed doctrines with indignation, yet are they called upon to account for circulating an essay which recommends and applauds them. Third, we may learn the tendency of Unitarian principles. Dr. Priestly once avowed himself a Calvinist; from Calvinism he fell into Arminianism; thence into Arianism; from that the descent was easy into Socinianism; and from professing to worship Christ as his God and Saviour, he reasoned and he wrote till he published his belief, that he was a peccable man. I am quite of the opinion that Arianism is the high way to Socinianism, and Socinianism to Deism. One of the Remonstrants in the Synod, who is supposed to have approached near the confines of Socinianism, declared lately to a friend of mine, that another of their number, who has taken a prominent place in the late separation, was still groping in the dark, while he himself had come to the light of truth. The people of Ulster will probably soon be as familiar with the doctrines of the English Unitarians, who affect to speak of Arianism with contempt, as they now are with Arianism. In the mean time, let them permit a friend to make a discovery to them of the sentiments of the eulogised inhabitants of Switzerland, and the Brahmin of the East. The following extract is from a speech delivered by Dr. Pye Smith, at a meeting of the Continental Society in London, a divine whose competency to describe the system of the Unitarians of Switzerland, it is presumed, no one acquainted with his character and writings will have the hardihood to question:

"This system, so falsely boasting of its rationality, may be briefly described as nominally accepting Christianity to be a true religion, while all its evidences, facts, doctrines, and requirements are twisted, tortured, and in every way artfully misinterpreted, so as to he brought down to the mere religion of nature. The parties in question will even say, that Christianity is a religion given by God, and they will not scruple to call it a revelation from heaven: but if you were to ask them in what way and by what means it would turn out that they admit Christianity to be a divine gift, manifestation, or disclosure, only in the sense in which every other thing that

is good and useful is so, and therefore may be said to be from God; so the invention of steam-engines, of gas-lights, or any of the convenient and beneficial arts of life, may very properly be said to be from heaven: they are all unquestionably gifts of God; parts of His plan of providential bounty. It is only, therefore, to convey this general idea, that the persons whom I allude to employ language, which, though true so far as it goes, is essentially defective in meaning, and in the intention absolutely fraudulent.

"These are the principles which are delivered from many of the Professors' chairs in the Protestant Universities of Germany, and which are thence transfused into numerous parochial pulpits!

"The general practice of the professors of theology in those universities is to take the Scriptures merely as venerable and interesting documents of antiquity, the curious records of tradition and opinion, and the mythic, moral, and political poetry of the ancient Hebrews. To the elucidation of the Scriptures, under this view, they bring immense stores of learning, but merely as a grammatical or historical comment; precisely as they would write a disquisition on the text of Herodotus or Homer. For example: they take the prophecies of the Old Testament, and, with a splendid apparatus of oriental learning, they investigate the terms, and settle what they deem to be the primary and sole signification: having done this, they blush not to tell us, that the writers of the New Testament, and even Jesus Christ himself, imagined that, in these writings, called prophecies, there were many descriptions and declarations which respected themselves and the religion which they were setting up in the world: but,' say these illuminators, Jesus and his apostles mistook, or they dexterously availed themselves of the prevailing opinions, in order to carry their own objects!' Page after page, these writers proceed in their ingenious speculations, perpetually assuming that Jesus first, and then Matthew, John, Paul, and their coadjutors, applied to themselves and their cause what never was meant to have such an application. Thus would they subvert the whole argument from prophecy, and represent the dictates of the Spirit of Christ as nothing more than the inspiration of genius and poetic enthusiasm.

"When we come lower down, to the times of the Lord Jesus and the setting up of His kingdom, we find the same system of conjecture, illegitimate inference, surmise, assumption, and, at the favourable opportunity, bold assertion; and all converging to the same point, of representing Christianity to be a wise and benevolent, but purely human contrivance for the promotion of virtue and good morals: while, on the admission of this system, the authors of the contrivance were atrociously violating the first principles of morals, in giving to the world a tissue of deliberate and persevering falsehoods!

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They represent Jesus as a very excellent man, far superior to the generality of his countrymen, in the benevolence of his disposition and the enlargedness of his mind. He saw the degrading superstition and bigoted ignorance into which his countrymen were sunk; and he conceived the grand idea of a general religion, which should be stripped of every thing local and temporary, and be adapted to the condition of mankind in all countries and periods of time. He found great obstacles to his endeavours for the introduction of this system of pure and simple morality: those hindrances arose, partly from the ignorance of the multitude, and partly from the pride and dominant interests of the higher orders: therefore, say these modern speculatists, he, with a wise and benevolent artifice, adapted his measures to conciliate prejudices and bend popular opinions to his own purposes. Finding in the books held sacred by his countrymen, passages

which were supposed to be prophecies of a great personage who was to rise and be their deliverer from bondage and evil, the thought struck him, that he might make a happy application of these descriptions to himself, and thus might bring to bear advantageously upon his cause the whole tide of popular and most favourite expectation. With admirable dexterity, but with great prudence and caution, he availed himself of this instrument; and gradually advanced to the avowal, that he was actually the Messiah so eagerly expected by his countrymen. He met with violent opposition to his scheme from the authorities and superior persons of Judea, who supposed their interests to be in danger from the elevation of the multitude, and entertained perhaps unnecessary apprehensions of the rigid jealousy of the Roman government. By their investigation Jesus was apprehended, brought to trial, condemned, and led forth to execution. He was, indeed, fastened to a cross: but he had secret friends in the great council which had condemned him, as Nicodemus, Joseph, and perhaps others: by their good management orders were perhaps given to the executioners to hurt him as little as possible: he was taken down in a swoon, laid in a sepulchral cave, and there the utmost care and skill of his friends were employed to cherish the still-existing spark of life: success ensued, and he was in due time restored to health. Now, however, he thought it unsafe to expose himself to public gaze: he therefore kept in concealment, and frequented only the society of his faithful friends; to whom he more amply expounded his system of doctrine and observances; and engaged them in a regular plan for extending it as far as possible among mankind. After a few weeks he walked up the Mount of Olives, attended by some of his followers; and, on the higher parts of that hill, a mist or cloud (no unusual occurrence) enabled him to withdraw gradually from his companions: he thus concealed himself in the fog, went down on the other side of the hill, and, for that time at least, was seen by them no more. He then lived in deep retirement; how long cannot be certainly known, but it is probable about twenty-seven years, occasionally, and for special purposes, he made visits to some of his trusty adherents. One of these occasions was very memorable: in the neighbourhood of Damascus he met Saul, a young man of uncommon talents, and who had commenced his career of public life as an ardent enemy and persecutor of those who adopted the new religion: Jesus had the astonishing address to persuade him to change sides, and become a follower and advocate of the new cause, which held forth an insisting field of exertion to a glowing mind, longing for publicity and fame."

"Such," says Dr. Smith, "are the opinions and hy potheses of many who occupy the parish pulpits in not a few towns and cities of Germany and Switzerland." I offer no comment upon them, but proceed to give some account of the far-famed and highly eulogised Brahmin of the East. The extracts are taken from the second number of The Monitor, a religious newspaper, published in

Dublin.

"The first is the testimony of a gentleman of unimpeachable veracity, recently returned from India, who had an interview with him a little more than a year ago, and has