teacher, and was enriched for many years by the notes taken in his class-room, I am still more thankful for the lessons of his life,—of his patience, gentleness, diligence, fidelity, of the queenly place which duty as duty ever held in his regard,- for an example of Christian excellence, illustrious because modest and unobtrusive, intensely impressive because of the utter absence of profession, show, and parade. During the early years of his residence here, he delivered a series of ethical sermons, which were regarded, I think, by all who heard them, as transcending all other similar productions in their minute and discriminating analysis, in their comprehensive grasp, and in the union of philosophical precision and accuracy with motives, sanctions, and appeals, based on divine revelation and on the life and character of our Saviour.

After a few years, he ceased to preach. He had no intention of permanently leaving the pulpit; but for good reasons he found it necessary or desirable to assume an editorial charge, and to prepare certain courses of lectures for the Lowell Institute, and his too sensitive conscience would not suffer him to bring into the sanctuary the fruits of what he deemed his less mature years, while his other engagements precluded the preparation of new sermons. At this period, he was drawn into political life, and served in various positions of high trust and large responsibility under the state and the national government, with his wonted integrity of aim and purpose, and with strenuous and efficient industry. In counsel, debate, and influence, he held in Congress a foremost place in the thin ranks of the opponents of the slave-power, and of the series of measures which could have no other issue than the ultimate awakening of the long torpid and recreant conscience of the free States, and the fearful struggle of slavery in its death-throes.

Meanwhile, he had been brought face to face with slavery in a form that made a direct appeal to his ever-wakeful conscience. He became one of the heirs to an estate in Louisiana, of which a large family of slaves formed an essential part. He went to New Orleans to receive his heritage. I was there at the time, and became acquainted with por

tions of the story which in his modesty he took no pains to publish. Every possible inducement was offered to him to take his inheritance in other property and to leave the slaves to their fate. When this lure had been urged upon him in vain, legal impediments were thrown in his way; and the affair became a subject of popular excitement, which would have seemed ominous of peril, and have been a signal for yielding, to a man of less resolute determination. But his duty was clear, and he held his ground. His portion of the human property was at length awarded to him. He brought his company of freed men and women to the North, established them at his own charge, and maintained his guardianship over them till they were capable of self-support, expending in their behalf more than all the residue of the property that accrued to him with them. This seemed to him not the noble act of philanthropy which it was, but the simple duty which Providence would have imposed on any Christian man in like circumstances, and less than which would have been wrong and sin.

His later years have been devoted in great part to the preparation of his History of New England, and into this he has carried the same minute and ever-present conscientiousness that marked his entire career. Commencing the work at an age when almost any other man would have sought repose from severe toil, he has made research into first-hand authorities wherever it was practicable, has visited historical sites and taken careful note of whatever data they could furnish, has repeatedly crossed the Atlantic to copy and consult papers in the archives of the British government, and has verified, so far as was in his power, every detail that he has put on record. The result is a work which will gain constantly increasing reputation with added years, will hold its permanent place as incapable of being replaced, and will never cease to be of standard and final authority for the entire period which it covers.

But, though he will be known in the time to come mainly by his History, these volumes represent but a small portion of his literary industry. In the early part of his ministry, he published an edition of the New Testament, in which the

text of our English version was altered in conformity with Griesbach's Greek text,- a work of great value for the time, and superseded only because Griesbach's text has been superseded and antiquated by the labors of Tischendorf and other recent critics. He published also a voluminous series of lectures on the Old Testament and several series of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, which, as monuments of patient research, sound learning, and able criticism, have an enduring merit; were, when they first appeared, warmly welcomed and consulted as of prime authority; and, if they are less frequently referred to in later years, it is only because, in the fields of Biblical criticism and Christian evidence, the ground of discussion and criticism has been changed, new controversies have arisen, and the questions that were rife thirty or forty years ago—even when still unsettled are no longer agitated.

His power of labor outlasted his fourth score, of years. Of late, while his mind has retained its vigor unimpaired, eye and hand have failed, growing infirmity has crippled his active powers, and it has remained for him to verify those words of the blind poet, as they have never been more fully verified,

"They also serve who only stand and wait."

He has waited, feeble and helpless, in body worn and weary, yet the inner man renewed from day to day, with calm and cheerful submission, with unfailing trust in the Divine Providence, with unfaltering faith in his Saviour, and with a hope which seemed almost sight of the open heaven and the unsuffering life of the redeemed. He asked that the hymn,

"There is a land of pure delight,"

might form a part of his funeral service; and his life for many months has been consciously on the confines of that land, its forecast glory shining in upon his soul, the dawn of the eternal day lighting up the shadow of death as it quietly crept and slowly closed over his earthly vision. Faith and patience had their perfect work. The silver cord was gently loosed, and so God gave his beloved sleep. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."

EDITORS' NOTE-BOOK.

THE REVIVAL OF UNITARIANISM.

The increased denominational activity, generosity, and enthusiasm among the Unitarians have been so evident within two or three years that they have attracted in many cases the public attention and remark.

We believe that the movement in this direction is the natural culmination of many influences whose issues could not be hastened, but which are to have a vastly greater momentum in the near future. It has been a surprise and a sad disappointment to many of our oldest clergy, who recall the early promise of Unitarianism, that it did not sweep over the country, and especially the Western country, like a prairie conflagration. In imagination and hope, they beheld these views fall like lightning from heaven; but it is well such hopes were to be delayed. A noble and permanent faith is not thus rapidly diffused. The tribes which were baptized into Christianity by thousands in the first centuries understood little of its spiritual power or obligation. Moreover, there has been for a long time a latent feeling that, somehow or other, Unitarianism would spread itself, or, at least, if such true and helpful views of religion were only set before the eyes of the American people, they would be readily embraced; and even this has been done with moderate effort, but a great deal more is required to make any religious movement of wide or enduring effect. And in remembrance of the bitter strife of sectarianism, of the unscrupulous means everywhere employed to make converts, of the proselyting spirit which overlooked the sacredness and worth of individual judgment, and substituted the form or the confession for the essential of religion, of the power of great associations so frequently misdirected, there was a natural hesitation to adopt anything of a denominational spirit, to abandon all efforts at proselyting, and to ignore every semblance of association or organization. Of late there has been a very marked tendency to return to those methods which ages have proved effectual, which can be employed for noble as well as for ignoble purposes, and whose justification is entirely according to the ends they are set to accomplish. Denominationalism may exist without a narrow or ugly spirit; proselytism may be carried on purely out of earnest love for the truth; and, without organ

ization, the highest views of religion are left to the tender mercies of persons of the most unbalanced, unpractical, fickle, and destructive ways, or of the most ordinary spiritual attainments.

Out of this feeling that the most reasonable views of religion would introduce themselves and take a firm root, it began to be assumed that, after all, it was not number or popularity, but the weight, the quality, the culture, which gave a sect its place. The large proportion of persons prominent in literature, in business, in public and social life in the little body called Unitarians, was everywhere noticed, and brought its attendant self-complacency. One wants always the approval of the best, and prefers the wise judgment of one to the unmeaning and variable applause of a thousand; but in religion, especially, it is easy to carry this too far, and to forget that its highest principles are plain enough to the wayfarer. These men, so eminent in various walks of life, were Unitarians simply because, when, as young men, they came to the business centres from all our New England towns, they attached themselves to these churches which gave promise of the greatest life, enthusiasm, a missionary and a progressive spirit, as well as a high standard of learning, character, and devotion in the pulpit; and, in all those, no churches surpassed the Unitarian fifty years ago. It is of little avail to prate about the quality of one's constituents if, all the time, they grow fewer and fewer, and one church is sold for debt, and another and another live at a poor, dying rate, however fine their appointments for worship, and another and another, in utter despair, disorganization, helplessness, and lifelessness, seek for a temporary renewal of life by the name of some sensational preacher, instead of people and minister together being built up by enthusiastic devotion to great denominational principles. Persons who are or are to be leaders are quite as apt as those of less consequence to go to a church of life, believing that, in religion, this counts for one of the essentials; and who can tell, in a country of such rapidly changing fortunes, where all the old reckonings upon aristocratic ideas deceive us, whence the leaders of the next generation shall come? That barefoot errand boy in your little town, rugged, bright, ambitious, far-seeing, and with a faculty for taking on culture from the cultivated, will next year be a clerk in one of our publishing-houses, will soon be a partner, will soon be the welcome guest and host of literary persons; or he will be a leading professional man or a great merchant, and every avenue to influ