with enlightened public spirit as those mentioned in Maroncelli's Appendix, from the 214th to the 218th page, originating with some of the most influential men of Lombardy. These designs may have failed; they may have been crushed; they may fail and be crushed again and again; but it does not seem to us that the vital principle of liberty is likely to be annihilated among the countrymen of Porro, Confalonieri, Visconti, and Silvio Pellico; and we repeat, as we close these volumes, there is yet hope for suffering Italy.

L**

ART. V.-1. A Sermon preached at the Ordination of Charles F. Barnard, and Frederick T. Gray, as Ministers at Large in Boston, by JOSEPH TUCKERMAN; with The Charge, by WILLIAM E. CHANNING. Boston. 1834. 2. A Discourse delivered before the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches in Boston, on their First Anniversary, April 9, 1835. By WILLIAM E. CHANNING. Boston. 1835. 3. The Necessity for a Christian Ministry in special Adaptation to the Poor; Two Sermons preached in RenshawStreet Chapel, Liverpool. With a Prospectus and Plan of the Objects of the proposed Ministry. By JOHN H. THOM. Liverpool. 1836.

4. A Sermon preached in the Second Unitarian Church in Mercer Street, on the Moral Importance of Cities, and the Moral Means for their Reformation, particularly in a Ministry for the Poor in Cities. By the Rev. ORVILLE DEWEY. New York. 1836.

OUR purpose is not to review these publications, but to make some remarks on their subject; a subject, one of the best proofs of whose importance is found in the existence of writings relating to it, so marked with dignity and power. We would give as true a portrait as we can of the actual ministry at large in this city. We hope not to draw the perfect image, but plainly to sketch the main features; a few coarse lines sometimes present the face with juster shape and expression, than the most polished engraving. Our points are the foundation of this

ministry, its true purpose and idea, its form, its action, its danger, its hope.

First, its foundation. This, in the large sense, we believe to be in the everlasting truth and law of God. We believe it the divine will that the vast chain of being should nowhere be rent, that link everywhere should join to link, and that, in the attractive circulations of love, the countless orders of the universe should glide smoothly on in eternal progression. The chronicle of many a world that shines on high would doubtless give better illustrations of this principle than can be furnished by our poor earth.

Again, and more specially, this ministry to the poor has its foundation in Christ. Ancient wisdom, or ancient religion, gave no proper basis for it. It is cheering indeed, that, in ages of darkness, the "caves of philosophy were made to sparkle" to the sons of wealth and genius. Socrates and Plato were brilliant stars, and attracted from the few a gaze of admiration. But the whole world wanted a sun, and cried for life as well as light. With the Saviour, it was not "great souls" alone that were destined for immortality, but all souls, or rather all souls to him were great. His faith and hope were in universal humanity. And who needs now be told that his whole life was but one expression of this faith and hope? the gospel preached unto them.” It was proof of his divine sonship, and comes in after the enumeration of those works, "which no man could do unless God were with him," like the fitting close of some sublime anthem.

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The poor have indeed a satisfying

Lastly, the ministry at large is based in the character of our civilization, and the necessities of present society. Not yet are we, according to the Saviour's prayer, "all one." Much of heathendom lies in the very midst of Christianity, not circulating freely so as to be likely to receive virtue from whatever leaven is in the whole lump, but existing a solid mass by itself, and visited but seldom and uncertainly by a single beam of light. What stronger reason could exist for the establishment and vigorous support of such an institution as the ministry at large? We are aware no moral position is so impregnable as to be safely shielded from the assaults of doubters and disbelievers. We know some persons have a set style of speaking on this subject. Society, they say, is a divine institution, controlled by divine Providence. The high and low, the happy and miserable, forms of degradation as well as shapes of glory, we

shall always have among us. Do not waste your sensibilities or your efforts on what is unchangeable.

But, with such a moral chaos in our midst, can anybody believe there is no divine spirit to breathe over it with an awakening power, and bring forth from it a new creation into the light of day? From what part of the world's history comes the belief that Providence is inclined to cripple human power, and crush the human will? Or what is really the true character of such faith as that described? Is it Antinomianism, or Fatalism, or Pantheism, or Atheism? How shall we best name that spirit of cold infidelity, which holds back from all new effort, throws dampness and death on every fresh form of life, curses noble designs with failure, because it does not believe they will succeed, and is never satisfied when good has been done, till it put its curious fingers into the print of the nails, and thrust its hand into the side. We confess, doubt is sometimes truer and more honorable than belief. The advocates of new measures are sometimes the most cruel of all the intolerant, and we need some steady bulwarks against their passionate zeal. Great service do they render society, who frown away selfishness and impertinence from its seats of power. But the doubters we

speak of, are of a different order. There are those, whose skepticism, in such cases, is but another name for their unwillingness to be disturbed in their quiet luxuries, whose care for public good is swallowed up in their fear lest the public good should not harmonize with their exclusive pleasure, and some railroad happen to pass directly through their private garden! We think, however, this kind of infidelity is disappearing, and the earnest belief spreading, that a foundation is laid for such institutions as the ministry at large in the character of our civilization, and the wants of present society. It might seem proper, in this connection, to give a statistical account of the origin and progress of the actual institution in Boston. But the attempt would be more curious than useful. The germs of moral as well as physical growth, though they wrap worlds in their compass, are hard to be detected in their atom forms. In mentioning the name of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, we give all the information needed on this point.

These remarks bring us naturally to speak of the purpose and idea of the ministry at large. Its purpose is to cleanse and freshen the stagnant places in society, and lift men, made in God's image, from the depths of pollution, that, unbound from VOL. XXI. 3D S. VOL. III. NO. III.

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perishing things, they may join the company of the immortals. Its idea is to convey the blessings of Christianity to those who are actually, by whatever means, without the pale of Christianity; not to preach to, or visit, those who have found, or are able to find, provision for their spiritual wants in any other way. It is missionary in its purpose as truly, as if it were established in one of the savage islands of the Pacific. If it trench on ground before occupied, or appropriate the fruits of other men's labors, it is not only unjust to institutions already existing, but mars the purity of its own idea, and of course makes its own operation weak and inconsistent.

The

Again, the idea of this ministry is to act on that large and well-defined class in the community, of which we speak, with the instrument of Christian truth. It is not to give alms, or medicines. It is not to circulate books of science, or increase mere knowledge. The hurt is too deep for such cures. great disease that afflicts poverty is, indeed, a moral one. Yet we think this fact has sometimes been too strongly expressed, as in some late publications we have seen. We speak not from vague feeling or from the testimony of others, but testify what we do know, when we say there are instances among the poor of even a sublime purity and power of soul. There are those, the history of whose souls would be more precious than the biography of Cæsar or Napoleon. Still these are exceptions. The general conclusion certainly falls the other way. Indeed, if this were not so, we should be hardly able to explain the existence of wide-spread want. God is rich enough to feed and clothe and shelter all his children. He sends suffering only when it is a needful Mentor. The ministry to the poor would, then, strangely err, if it should cherish a morbid sensibility to bodily distresses, and raise a continual sad lament about these things in the ear of the community. Its great endeavour should be to understand and carry out the moral purposes of poverty,to read with a spiritual interpretation, to the poor man, the volume God puts into his hands in the actual condition of his life. Thus only can it do real good, thus only effectually relieve the sorrows it beholds, or communicate an abiding joy. Could it equalize the wealth of the city among its whole population, or plant an eleemosynary institution in every street to-morrow, the purpose would not be answered; could it diffuse through the whole mass the wisest philosophy of the schools, it would still find itself at fault. But when the spiritual faculties

of the poor are developed, and they come to understand the spiritual meaning of their condition, and their glorious hopes, it is really wonderful to observe what a happiness is theirs. The moral conditions of our well-being observed, it is wonderful to mark how common, how cheap, how universally diffused are all the other elements of happiness. A good heart, under whatever external covering, and however scant be the board, is clad in richest drapery, and feasts on the luxuries of the world. Let the soul be attuned to the harmonies of the universe, and those harmonies will reach it in a hovel. The Æolian harp sounds as well in the cottage window as in the palace balcony. Aristides was poor, but preeminently happy, because he was the Just. And we know an aged helpless woman, whom charity upholds every moment in its arms, who is far happier than some that roll in wealth. Let there be real culture of spirit, and it matters little what be a man's condition. The remainder of life may be woven, as it were, in the style of drab. Our constitution does not admit beyond a certain measure of outward joy. If all the fountains in creation were opened to a man's lips, he could not exceed this measure. any

In

usual combination of outward circumstances, this measure can be reached.

We pass naturally from the idea of the ministry at large to its embodiment or form. If, in so short a time, it has taken any very decided form, the fact is proof of its intrinsic vigor. A few years since the whole ministry was included in kind visiting from house to house. Afterwards an audience was collected in the northern part of the city in an "upper room," who listened to the preached word with a wondering delight almost like that with which the first converts heard the voices

of the Apostles. Next, by the aid of liberal citizens, a chapel was built in Friend Street, which has lately, with many tears and struggling emotions, been exchanged for a large and beautiful edifice of brick, erected in Pitts Street. An audience was likewise assembled in an apartment in the southern part of the city. Afterwards an edifice was built in Warren Street, and has been occupied for some time. Thus two Christian temples, consecrated to the free spiritual education of the poor, stand on Boston ground, noble monuments of the generous and religious spirit of the Boston community. In each of these chapels a church of Christ has been constituted.

holy ordinances of our faith, baptism and the Lord's supper,