us,

restorers of the long-lost truth of ages. In many a mist had they to grope, and through many a wilderness to wander-many a mountain to level, and valley to exalt; and entangled were they in crooked ways, which had to be made straight, and rough places which, with toil and tears, they were to render plain, before they could prepare the way of the Gospel, and behold the glory of God, which it was promised should be revealed to all flesh. They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them; and we are entered into their labors, and our reward is with for our work is before us. If their mission was to inquire and prove, ours is to know and practise. If theirs was to clear away the corruptions of the Gospel, ours is to appreciate its simplicity and beauty—if theirs was to demolish error, ours is to build up truth-if their mission was for destruction, ours is for renovation. They rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, that we may behold the glory of the resurrection. Pure religion is no longer to be taught negatively, but positively. It is time to turn away from the contemplation of that which we renounce, to that which we believe; and to exhibit our principles to the world, not merely as the antithesis of superstition, but as the vehicle of religious truth and moral power; not as a caput mortuum, remaining after all other theological notions have been evaporated, but as a purified and vital essence which tends to penetrate and pervade all things. It is not, therefore, to provoke a conflict with the advocates of the trinitarian mystery that we proclaim, God is one; but to win his creatures' hearts and minds to admira

tion of the sublimity of his nature, the harmony of his works, and the universality of his providence. It is not merely to refute the legendary incarnation and - Godhead of Christ, that we point to the beautiful, touching and inspiring proofs of his perfect humanity, perfect in every sense, recorded by his biographers; but that we may lead man, as a brother, to trust, love and follow him, coming unto him with meek and lowly hearts, and when weary and heavy laden, taking his yoke which is easy, and his burden which is light, and finding rest for their souls. It is not merely to explode so monstrous a legal fiction of barbarian justice as the theory of substitution and satisfaction, that we affirm God's unpurchased and abounding mercy to the penitent, and preach holiness as the condition and commencement of salvation; but that we may lead men from resting in faith or forms to renewal in the moral image of God, the cultivation of all Christian graces, and the formation of a character so pure, exalted and beneficent, that it seems to bear Heaven's seal, and be itself the pledge of immortality and happiness. It is not to confute such dogmas as those of election and reprobation that we declare the great scriptural social doctrine of the universal brotherhood of mankind; but to establish the true morality, public and private, in head, heart and life; to make charity, justice and philanthropy, a natural affection; and level the barriers which have isolated hearts, and overshadowed intellects; and in elevating, unite and blend the whole race into one family. Nor is it merely as a protest against the wild and fearful denunciation of eternal torments, that we assert the corrective na

ture of divine punishment, and the final universal restoration; but that our souls may enter into this grand conception of the divine plan, that with the exile of Patmos, we may have a glimpse of this glorious and gladdening vision, may feel the sublimity of the love which it implies in God, and inspires in us, and walk as children of the light, which though it shine from afar, yet lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and rejoice therein with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

It is in furtherance of such purposes, that by the zeal, liberality and perseverence of this congregation, this chapel has been founded and supported, and is now again opened for worship and instruction. We believe that in this, we are aiming at no sectarian object, are cherishing no sectarian feelings, are consulting no sectarian interests. It is a religious and social mission which devolves upon us, as disciples of Christ, and is included within the comprehensive scope. and characterized by the benignant spirit of the description of his own mission in the text. And how divine a mission that was in its nature, as well as in its origin! How broad and grand and beautiful! His words are as the breathings of a spirit of love, brooding over the chaos of human ignorance, bondage and wretchedness. He seems to survey the world with a sympathy that feels a pang for every pang, and with that yet keener anguish which weeps for the degradation of those who are sunk so low as not to feel that they are degraded. He turns not away from the agonizing scene; he neither stifles his emotions, nor hardens his heart; but the power of agony be

comes the impulse of beneficence; his sense of it is a vocation to be a deliverer and a saviour; and in the strength of it he devotes himself a sacrifice for the world. Signs from without confirm the sign within; the thunder of heaven responds to the deep voice in his own bosom; and thus God sent his Son, that the world might pass from darkness unto light, and from moral death to life everlasting.

And not only are we called to a public, social, and Christian work, in the assertion of those great moral principles which constitute the worth and glory of our religion, in the application of them to the present condition of mankind, and to existing opinions, manners and institutions; not only are we called to sustain them by the spirit of our devotional practices, and by the tendency of the instructions which are delivered, and the observances which are performed within these walls from time to time; but there is also on each individual, the most obscure and most dependent, an obligation and a mission; a work which God hath given him to do, towards the just conception and the efficient discharge of which, these services should tend to furnish a guidance. For every one does some peculiarity of constitution, training, circumstance, ability, and opportunity, indicate an individual sphere of action and a personal mission of benefi

cence.

Infinitely varied are they, for so are we. There are those on whom it is imperative that they should be much in struggle, and in conflict, the restrainers of bad men, and the exposers of bad principles, doomed, or rather consecrated, to a state of antagonism,

their vocation for the promotion of good being best discharged by the acute detection of the fraud, and unflinching hostility to the force, which induce general suffering for a supposed particular advantage. There are others whose mission, tending to the same point, is pursued by an opposite path, whose condition is not one of antagonism, but of sympathy, who are with the poor to gladden them, with the brokenhearted to heal them, with the captives to liberate them, on the same principle as the others have to confront the oppression that impoverishes, chains and crushes. And if even amongst the fiends of hell (as the poet painted hell) there were those, who 'apart sat on a hill retired, and reasoned high of Providence,' much more may there be good men, who 'through the loop-holes of retreat peep at the busy world,' and watch more truly than the actors, the progress of the scene, and perceive the elements of harmony even in the season of confusion, and behold a God making all things work together for good, and from the purity and elevation of their own mental atmosphere, send forth into the troubled world, like the dove from the ark of the patriarch, messengers of serenity and hope and promise. And there are those who have a gentler and more bounded ministry, seemingly more limited at least, though in reality with an expansiveness which may bear it beyond many that are deemed the most extensive, and that are the most conspicuous.' She who carefully and tenderly constructed the little boat of bulrushes in which the infant Moses floated safely on the Nile, unknowingly but holily contributed her portion towards the splendid triumph of Isra