gave an instance in the representation - now generally given of the doctrine of atonement, so different from that which appears in the older formularies of faith. He paid a just tribute to the zeal and activity of the other denominations of Dissenters; and called upon Unitarians for increased efforts to promote amongst the members of their own body the practical influence of their principles, as the most effectual method of recommending them to others. The next day's services were conducted by the Rev. R. Wallace, of Chesterfield, and the Rev. Dr. Carpenter; whose presence at this Meeting was an unexpected gratification, and who very kindly consented to preach the sermon on this day. The object of his discourse was to shew that Unitarian views are most honourable to the Divine character; in refutation of an opinion recently advanced by Dr. J. P. Smith, in his work on the Person of Christ, that they proceed from low and unworthy conceptions of the Divine character. Dr. Carpenter observed, that on this point at least he had always thought Unitarianism unassailable, and he still thought it in valnerable. With great spirit, but with perfect candour, he drew a contrast between the views of the Divine character as deducible from Unitarian and Trinitarian principles. He shewed that honourable and exalted views of the Divine character were naturally cherished by the principles of Unitarianism. It might even be inferred à priori, that they who refused without the fullest evidence to admit any claims to a participation of divine honours would be eminently solicitous to cultivate enlarged and becoming sentiments of that great Being, for whose sole honour and incommunicable glory they shewed themselves so much concerned. On the contrary, those systems which present several different objects of religious contemplation and divine worship, must have a tendency to lower and limit our conceptions of the Divine character. He proceeded to shew, by a variety of references to published and well-authenticated statements, that in point of fact such were the opposite tendencies of the two systems. The whole formed a most impressive discourse; and was heard with obvious interest and attention.

Manchester College, York.

ON Tuesday the 26th June, and the two following days, was held the Annual Examination of the Students of this College, in the presence of Joseph Strutt, Esq., President; Daniel Gaskell and Abraham Crompton, Esqs., Vice Presidents; Messrs. Andrews, Bell, G. Crompton, Darnton, R. Greg, R. Kay, R. Philips, Jun., Assistant Secretary: Offley Shore, E. Strutt, and G. W. Wood, Treasurer; and the Rev. R. Astley, Lant Carpenter, LL.D., B. Carpenter, N. T. Heinekin, Higginson, Jo. Hutton, T. Johnstone, N. Jones, J. Kentish, J. G. Robberds, James Taylor, J. J. Tayler, H. Turner, R. Wallace, J. Yates, and W. Turner, Visitor. Tuesday afternoon the Junior Hebrew and Latin Classes, and Senior Mathe matics were examined, and Orations delivered by Mr. Benyon, on the Education of the Lower Classes; by Mr. Payne, on the Influence of Civilization on Freedom and Happiness; and by Mr. J. Chatfeild, on the Degree of Forbearance which should be shewn towards the Memories of the Dead.-Wednesday, the Junior Greek, the second Mathematics, the Senior and second Hebrew, the Natural Philosophy, History and Belles Lettres Classes were examined, and Orations were delivered by Mr. R. Martineau, on the question of the Perpetual Progression of Man towards Perfection; by Mr. Oliver Heywood, on the Effects of Commerce on the Moral and Political State of Mankind; by Mr. Evans, on the Nature and Objects of Punishment as an Instrument of Moral Discipline; by Mr. J. H. Ryland, on the Degree in which Universal Philanthropy may be assumed as a Rule of Action by a finite Being; and by Mr. Shawcross on Religious Establishments: and Sermons by Mr. S. Heinekin, on Matt. xi. 28; and by Mr. Smith, on 2 Cor. iv. 17.-Thursday, the Students in the fourth and fifth years underwent a long and satisfactory examiuation in the principles of Biblical Criticism, applied particularly to the New Testament, and the rest of the classes were examined, in the elements of the Mathematics, in Ethics, the Evidences, and the higher Roman and Greek Classics; and an Oration was delivered, by Mr. E. Kell on the Natural Arguments for a future State, and Sermons, by Mr. Owen, on Matt. v. 48; by Mr. Cheetham, on Acts xxiv. 14; by Mr. Wilson, on 1 Cor. and by Mr. Wawne on James ii. 14. The Examination having been concluded, the Visitor, by the authority of the President, distributed the prizes as follow: viz. the first, for Diligence, Regularity and Proficiency, to Mr. John Beard, of Portsmouth, a divinity student in the first year; the

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Second, to Mr. John Howard Ryland, of Birmingham, a divinity student in the second year; and the third, to Mr. Richard Martineau, of London, a lay student in the second year; the first Mathematical Prize to Mr. Ryland, and the second to Mr. John Hugh Worthington, of Leicester, a divinity student in the first year; the Prize for greatest improvement in Elocution during the Session to Mr. Edmund Kell, M.A. of the University of Glasgow, a divinity student in the fourth year; and that for the best delivery during the present Examination to Mr. G. B. Wawne. Mr. Philips' Prize for Classical Proficiency was awarded to Mr. Ryland. After which the business of the three days was closed with the following Address:

"The occasion on which we are now met becomes the more interesting, on account of the considerable number of students in the College, who are this year to leave it with a view to the exercise of the Christian Ministry; a circumstance which naturally suggests the propriety of rendering this short Address the means of conveying to your minds, my young friends, an impressive idea of the importance of the office which you are undertaking, and the necessity, if you mean to be faithful in the discharge of it, of continuing to devote the main part of your time to the studies and duties connected with it; and, if you should find it necessary to your further comfortable provision, to have recourse to any supplementary means of subsistence, or expedient, in order to your more effectual respectability and usefulness, to assist in the promotion or management of schemes of public advantage, of considering these as only subordinate to your great object, and directing them so as to render them subservient to it, in the advancement of the mental and moral character of the places where you may reside. With the allowance of these extensions it will become your duty to meditate on' the objects connected with your profession as Ministers of Christ, and to give your selves wholly to them, that your profiting may appear unto all.' I trust that you will none of you be tempted to conclude, from the expression too commonly used respecting students on their quitting a place of academical education, that you have finished your studies.' If you have duly attended to and profited by the excellent instructions you have here received, you will be sufficiently aware that they are only begun; and that your whole lives must be devoted, without being sufficient, to their completion. You have here had presented to you a sketch only, happily indeed conceived and skilfully traced, and you have been directed to

the choice and judicious application of the materials proper for fitting up the complete figure of the perfect man in Chirst Jesus; but it will remain for yourselves, in humble dependence on the Divine assistance and blessing, for which it will become you earnestly to pray, to bring out fully the several organs and lineaments, in all their beauty of proportion and colouring. The field has been set before you in which you are to sow the good seed; but it will require all your study and attention to apply with judgment the principles of cultivation to the various qualities of the soil; and, while you rejoice, as we hope you will have reason, in the abundant produce you will perceive growing up, almost without your care, from the good ground, to root out the thorns of worldly-mindedness, to temper the hasty, unproductive heat of the shallow, stony ground, and to put to flight the tempters that hover round to pick up the seed from those by the way. side, before it is cherished and allowed to strike root. You see, therefore, that you still have much to learn, much that will require the careful application of your best abilities: and if it should please Divine Providence to lengthen your days, you must expect, like the ancient sage, to grow old learning many things.' "With respect to the state of mind with which it will become you to enter upon your office, and the sort of reading and study which will, for a time at least, demand your whole attention, I doubt not you will avail yourselves of the instructions of your excellent Theological Tutor, of whose disposition and ability to afford you on this important subject the most judicious advice, you have already so pleasing a specimen in his address to a class of your predecessors (1811) annexed to his Sermon on the Objects of pursuit proper for Young Persons who have received a liberal Education.' (A discourse which I earnestly wish may engage the close attention and study of our young lay-friends who are leaving us; they will find it an excellent directory of their future conduct in the scenes of active life.) And I trust I may, without danger of disappointing either you or the public, encourage the expectation of your enjoying the further pleasure and advantage of receiving from the press the services which delighted a nunierous assembly on a late occasion. After this I hope it will not be considered as quite presumption to refer you to a Letter to a Young

Dissenting Minister in the VIth Volume of the Monthly Repository,* for a number of practical minutiae which you will find useful. I shall only detain you, and the rest of this respectable audience, with a few miscellaneous remarks. I particularly wish to enlarge a little upon a remark which I dropped at the close of my last year's Address, on the subject of extempore-speaking. I am aware that it is a talent which, in the present state of society, there are strong temptations to abuse, and I admire the delicacy of those who, from this motive, do not wish their names to be connected with the prize for the encouragement of this gift. Far am I from wishing that this Institution should send out noisy spouters, either in the pulpit or in any other place; but there are many occasions which will occur in the exercise of a Christian minister's profession, particularly in the discharge of his private duties-in catechising, and familiarly conversing with the young-in visiting the sick-in varying the addresses proper for baptism, in whatever way that rite be administered-at the burial of the dead and even on some occasions of advice, remonstrance, or consultationon which the faculty of delivering, on the spur of the occasion, good sense in appropriate language, is of the utmost consequence to their edifying and acceptable discharge. For my own part, I often feel, with regret and shame, the consequences my having neglected in early life the exercise of this gift; and I am conscious that several mortifying failures in the course of it have arisen from this neglect. And I the more readily make this confession, that you, my young friends, may be deterred by it from deferring, till too late, the cultivation of a talent which, the earlier it is acquired, will render professional duties (other things being not neglected for it) more acceptable and useful. The question whether free prayer should be exclusively used in public worship, or whether forms, in some of their modifications, may not be allowable, has been stated with great ability and candour in your Tutor's excellent Address already referred to; in practice it will often be determined by the habits and feelings of individual churches. But the cultivation of the gift itself, as one of high importance and utility, has of late been strongly recommended, and the objections to it ably answered, in a Discourse of Dr. J. P. Smith's, which appears to me well worthy of attention. But in what ever manner public prayer is performed, it ought certainly to be regarded as the

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most important object of our public assemblies. It is to be feared that it is not generally regarded in this light, but both that ministers and people too frequently assign to it a rank inferior to preaching. Thus very intelligent and religious persons are apt to say, 'We went to hear Mr. such a one,' not, We went to join in the public worship of God at such a place.' Thus it too often comes to be the object to resort to our assemblies rather for entertainment, or at most for information, than to have the devout affections of the heart brought into more frequent exercise, the reverence and love of God more firmly fixed as an habitual sentiment, and obedience to His will, as the most direct and unquestionable rule of conduct to every one who is favoured with the revelation of His will, insensibly settled into a more and more established practical principle, in proportion as we become accustomed to regard ourselves as always in his presence, and always at liberty to present ourselves before him, in public and in private; in the devout retirement of the closet; or in company with our families, our friends, or the still more extended community of our fellow-christians or fellow-men. you, my young friends, be careful to encourage and justify such reasonable and scriptural views of the leading purpose of our public assemblies, by the devout solemnity of your offices of worship: let them not be too long, so as to fatigue, but serious and impressive, that they may interest and affect; let them be also varied, I will not say in proportion to the vastness of the subject, for that were impossible, but so as to suggest from time to time distinct views of the leading relations between God and man, and as much as possible such views at each particular time as are peculiarly suited to the occasion; let them, moreover, be pronounced with a countenance and tone of simple, unaffected, impressive devotion, which may give the words that come from the heart the best chance of reaching the hearts of others; and let no one have the power of alleging the poor excuse for slighting his public duties to his Creator and Father, that your services are uninteresting, and carelessly performed. But though public worship is certainly the essential, yet public instruction is no doubt a very important, object of our assembling together in the house of God. And with regard to the composition of your addresses to your hearersith this important view, though you will doubtless think it your duty to enforce the evidence and explain the truths of the gospel, with that entire liberty of thought and discussion with which you have been encouraged to pursue your study of them

in this place, yet I hope you will not suffer merely speculative disquisitions, or matters of doubtful disputation, to engage much of your time, and your hearers' attention; but that you will chiefly enlarge on those great truths and duties which are essential to their character and hopes as Christians. And though you should not neglect to place the subjects on which you treat in the clearest and most impressive point of view, by calling in the aid of every consideration and motive within your reach, yet I trust you will never neglect to preach the truths of the gospel, as you find them in the New Testament, without partiality or respect of persons, or to enforce the duties of the gospel by the motives which are peculiar to it in short, to teach them all things, whatsoever He hath commanded you.' Always search diligently for the truth as it is in Jesus, whose servants you are to be; keeping back from your people nothing which you really find to be such. Seek to please them, indeed; but seek it by making them wiser and better; this, indeed, will make them most heartily and permanently pleased with you.

"And here let me remind you, that though you should not neglect to render your compositions worthy of the attention and approbation of your most intelligent and best-informed hearers, yet as your Master preached to the poor, and usually conversed with them, so the instruction and benefit of the poor should ever be a leading object of your attention. In pursuance of this object, consider carefully, concerning every thing which you deliver, whether they will be likely to understand it, and how they will probably be affected by it. You will have no need for this purpose to degrade your style to any thing vulgar or mean; plainness and perspicuity are the best ornaments of language; and if you attend to this maxim, you will seldom find the most illiterate at any loss to understand you. Study, both in your public addresses and your private conversation, the particular circumstances, relations and wants of the several classes of your hearers, but especially of your poorer hearers, that you may be always ready to suggest to them some hint of admonition, advice, caution or comfort, according as each may be useful to them. In this way, probably, you will become more useful than in your more public ministrations; in this way, particularly, you will best secure their affection; and be assured, you will always be respected by the rich in proportion as you are beloved by the poor.

"Be particularly attentive, also, to the service of the young. You will find their minds more open and ready to receive

impressions than those of your older hearers: their native principles and sensibilities of good and evil are not yet corrupted and worn by an evil commerce with the maxims and examples of the world; in them you have fresh ground to cultivate, and may reasonably hope to sow the good seed of Christian truth aud duty with better success. The young are to be the support and future ornaments of the church of Christ-a strong call upon you to endeavour, as much as is in your power, to make them ornaments and supports. The young are likely to be your companions through life: how much, then, does your future comfort in life depend upon them! Of course how much does even prudence require you to exert your best endeavours to render them wise and good! But you will have a higher motive than this-the approba tion of your Master; to whom with what delight will you present them, if happily successful, as seals of your ministry, as your joy and crown of rejoicing in the great day of account! And I trust that you will ever cautiously guard against that gross and shameful inconsistency, of appearing one sort of person on the first day of the week, and a very different one during the other six. You will presently know how soon men forget doctrines, but how long they remember facts. Let your preaching on the Lord's-day be a doctrine according to godliness, and your conduct through the week a practical application of it. Your people will then be impressed with reverence for the prin ciples which you teach, when you thus appear so deeply to reverence them yourselves. No man will then despise your youth, but you will become examples to the believers in word, in conversation, spirit, in faith, in purity. You will, persuade myself, be induced to maintain this constant attention to adorn the doctrine of God, your Saviour by Jesus Christ, with purity of heart and life; but there is one which, though not the weightiest, is not to be despised, which I should have urged, did I not understand that it was enforced at the Christmas Examination, by my excellent colleague Mr. Hutton, with singular beauty and force, viz. that your good may not be evil spoken of,' but that the charge which has of late been brought against Unitarian Ministers may be repelled in the most effectual manner by the purity and excellence of their lives; whereas others speak against you as evildoers, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.'

that

*By Dr. Pye Smith in his treatise on the Messiah.