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    man leave his reason at the entrance lest it should damage some little curious article or other ; but a spacious and splendid amphitheatre , where he may walk at large , in " the spirit of power , and of love , and of a sound mind . " All omissions , however , must be forgiven and forgotten in the summary with which Dr . Channing winds up this part of his discourse :

    " I have endeavoured to shew the great purpose of the Christian doctrine respecting Gqcl , or in what its importance and glory consist . Had I time , I might shew that every other doctrine of our religion has the same end . I might particularly shew how wonderfully fitted are the character , examgle , life , death , resurrection , and all the offices of Christ , to cleanse the mind from moral evil , to quicken , soften , elevate , and transform it into the divine image ; and I might shew that these are the influences which true faith

    derives from him , and through which he works out our salvation . But I cannot enter on this fruitful subject . Let me only say , that I see every where in Christianity , this great design of liberating and raising the human mind , on which I have enlarged . I see in Christianity nothing narrowing or depressing , nothing of the littleness of the systems which human fear , and craft , and ambition , have engendered . I meet there no minute legislation , no

    descending to precise details , no arbitrary injunctions , no yoke of ceremonies , no outward religion . Every thing breathes freedom , liberality , enlargement . I meet there , not a formal , rigid creed , binding on the intellect , through all ages , the mechanical , passive repetition of the same words , the same ideas ; but I meet a few grand , all-comprehending truths , which are given to the soul , to be developed and applied by itself ; given to it , as seed to the sower , to be cherished and expanded , by its own thought , love , and obedience , injo more and more glorious fruits of wisdom and virtue . I see it every where inculcating an enlarged spirit of piety and philanthropy , leaving each of us to manifest this spirit according to the monitions of his individual conscience . I hear it every where calling the soul to freedom and power ^ by calling it jto guard against the senses , the passions , the appetites , through which it is chained , enfeebled , destroyed . I see it every where aiming to give the mind

    power over the outward world , to make it superior to events , to suffering , to material nature , to persecution , to death . I see it everywhere aiming to give the mind power over itself , to invest it with inward sovereignty , to call forth within us a mighty energy for our own elevation . I meet in Christianity only discoveries of a vast , liold , illimitable character ; fitted and designed to give energy and expansion to the soul , by its doctrine of a Universal Father , it sweeps away all the barriers of sect , party , rank , and nation , in which men have laboured to shut up their love ; makes us members of an unbounded family ; and establishes sympathies between man and the whole

    intelligent creation . In tjie character of Christ , it sets before us moral perfection , that greatest and most quickening miracle in human history , a purity which shews no stain or touch of the earth , an excellence unborrowed , uhconfined , bearing no impress of any age or any nation , the very image of the Universal Father ,- and it encourages us , by assurances of God ' s merciful aid , to propose this enlarged , unsullied virtue , as the model and happiness of our moral nature . By the cross of Christ , it sets forth the spirit of self-sacrifice with an energy never known before , and , in thus crucifying selfishness , frees the mind from its worst chain . By Christ's resurrection , it links this short

    life with eternity , discovers to us ill the fleeting present , the germ of an endless future , reveals to us the human mind ascending to other worlds , breathing a freer air , forming higher connexions , and summons us to fr force" of boly purpose becoming sucn a destination . To conclude , Christianity every where sets before us uod in the character of ihfimtety free , ricji , boundless Grace , in a clemency which is * not overcome b y evil , but overcomes evil with good f and a more animating and ennobling truth , who of us can conceive ? I have hardly glanced at what Christianity contains . But who does

    Untitled Article

    € hanmng s Design 0 / Christianity . 663

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 663, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/7/