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    ing . It gave him pleasure to hear them again ; he should have been glad , had time permitted , to have heard the whole . Its important facts would have been listened to with interest . They would have encouraged and strengthened our hearts . They would have shown that the friends of

    ^ nitarian ~ 0 hristianity ~ were ~ a-live—to their highest interests and duties . And it is indeed so . They have given , and are daily giving evidence that they are ready to go forth to the warfare in defence of truth ; a

    Christian warfare ; a warfare in favour of practical Christianity , of piety and godliness . And this is the great purpose of the Association . He would not lift a finger in this cause , if he thought it a merely sectarian institution . It is not sectarian . It

    has indeed its doctrinal tracts , but it has also its practical tracts , and books , which have been extensively circulated and eagerly sought and read . He would refer particularly to one book , of which this was strikingly true—the recent work ' On the formation of the Christian character ;' - —a work which had been acknowledged , even by those who differ from

    us in sentiment , to possess great merits , as holding a high rank among publications designed to promote practical Christianity . Another evidence that we are not influenced by sectarian feelings , is the late noble effort in favour of seamen , by Unitarian Christians . Ten thousand

    dollars were recently raised in a short time , to aid in the moral and religious improvement of seamen . And whom did they employ as their religious teacher ? A man of another denomination , differing from them in many points of his faith * . - He was

    not chosen for his singular gift of eloquence , but because he was a Christian ; a man of a truly enlarged and generous Christian spirit . —And we rejoice in the fact , as it shows the real practical tendency of the views which we hold . It is not for * Mv . Taylor , of the Methodist denomination .

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    the distinctions of party that we labour . It is the temper and character we chiefly desire to influence . Our great purpose is to lead men to the exercise of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ .

    It is not , then , for sectarian or -party- ' endsy-but— ultimfttelyj-for—ike — promotion of the great practical truths and duties of the gospel , that we labour , in our endeavours to disseminate the plain and simple principles of Unitarian Christianity .

    Mr . Kipley concluded his remarks by referring to the great efficacy of these truths in the improvement of the heart and life' , and to the power which , he had learned by experience , they possessed in the hour of sickness and death , among Christians of every variety of faith . It was the

    declaration of an eminent clergyman of the Church of England , of the Evangelical school , a short time before his death , that he was convinced that religion did riot consist "' in the nice distinctions of different sheets ,

    but in repentance and faith ; and , said Mr . Ripley , as far as he had had an opportunity of observing , this sentiment was very general in seasons of great trial : he had visited many on such occasions , members of churches far removed in doctrinal

    opinions from his own , but had always found , the undisputed truths of Christianity a sure support for the afflicted or the departing soul . For these reasons , among others , he felt an unshaken confidence that they were the wisdom of God . and the power of God unto salvation , and as such , he hoped they might find admission to every heart .

    -Mrr-Ripley--was--followed- by the Rev . Mr . Farley , of Providence . Mr . Farley rejoiced most devoutly that the time had at last arrived , when Unitarians could appear thus publicly , thus unitedly , in behalf of pure , practical Christian piety ; when their voices were raised , not merely in defence of what they believed to

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    tJKlTARIAtf CHEONICLE . 153

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1832, page 153, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1819/page/9/