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that," he who rejects the atonement of Christ secures his own ruin"? The language of scripture is, "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Does he bear in mind the declaration of the Apostle, that charity is the most exalted virtue, that ́ it is even superior to faith? And while denying the Christian name to his brethren, does he remember the words of our Saviour, "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you"? In drawing the attention of your readers to the above extracts, my object is not so much to expose the groundless calumnies they contain, for the sting which the detracter meant to inflict will recoil with redoubled force on his own bosom; but I would rather urge it as a stimulus to the friends of truth to redouble their exertions in maintaining the superiority of their faith over such gloomy and illiberal tenets as these. Unitarianism is built upon too strong a foundation to be shaken by such mean and unworthy artifices. The "deluded Socinian" may perhaps for a little while be dispirited by opposition, obloquy, and misrepresentation, but he will not suffer his disappointed feelings to get the better of an ardent desire to promote the best interests of mankind. He remembers with joy and gratitude the animating promise," that Jehovah shall be one, and his name one," and hails the coming of that glorious period when the prophetic declarations of the Most High shall be fulfilled. Sincerely hoping that our friends will no longer mutter about these glorious and important truths, but boldly proclaim them to the world, I remain, &c.

Christian Superstition rebuked by Indians.

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J. M.

(From Humboldt's Travels in South America, Vol. V. p. 273.). "THE Indians of the forest, when they visit occasionally the missions, conceive with difficulty the idea of a temple or an image. These good people,' said the missionary, like only processions in the open air. When I last cele brated the patron-festival of my village, that of San Antonio, the Indians of Inirida were present at mass. Your God, said they to me, keeps himself shut up in a house, as if he were old and infirm; ours is in the forest, in the fields, and on the mountains of Sipapu, whence the rains come.'

Books for Children: a Letter to the Secretary of Unitarian Association.

SIR,

Dover, July 27, 1826. By inserting the following letter in the Christian Reformer, you will much oblige the

TEACHERS OF THE UNITARIAN BAPTIST SUNDAY-
SCHOOLS IN DOVER AND CANTERBURY.

To the Secretary of the British and Foreign Unitarian
Association.

SIR,

At the anniversary of the Dover and Canterbury Sundayschool Union, it was resolved, that a letter should be addressed to the Secretary of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, submitting to him the propriety of turning his attention to the adoption of some efficient plan for providing our Sunday-schools with suitable books, particularly something of a periodical nature.

Agreeably to this resolution, I have undertaken to address you on the subject.

Several communications have, at different times, appeared in the pages of the Reformer, complaining of the want of books suitable to the children of our schools; but nothing effective has yet been accomplished. This is certainly to be lamented, because whilst the children of the schools of other denominations are plentifully supplied with books, inculcating their peculiar sentiments, whilst there are many arduous and successful attempts to spread the cause of Unitarianism in other ways, the children of our schools are, with such books, left unprovided; and if they obtain periodical works of a religious nature at all, must imbibe sentiments which, to say the least, we consider are not in the highest degree honou able to God or beneficial to man.

In the nineteenth century, Sir, in an age like this too, the evil calls aloud for remedy; and whether a corrupt or a pure Christianity shall influence thousands of the next generation, must, it should seem, depend on the attention which is paid to this subject.

With your talents, Sir, or with your zeal and influence, we conceive that a little exertion would put in motion those springs which would diffuse the most invaluable blessings to the rising generation; being the means of their receiving, in its purest state, the rich inheritance of the gospel of the grace of God.

From the frequent calls of this nature, there appears no doubt, but that the Unitarian public would readily engage to purchase such works, or to enter into any reasonable plan that might be proposed to attain the object. I am, &c. G. W. COOKE, › Secretary to the Union.

[The plan of a cheap Periodical for Schools is under consideration any hints with regard to it before the End of the Year, will be esteemed a favour. ED.]

Letter of Mr. Roscoe's to the Promoters of the Liverpool Anti-Slavery Meeting.

[NOTHING can shew more plainly the triumph of right feelings on the subject of Negro-Slavery, than the issuing of a petition for its ultimate abolition from Liverpool, agreed upon at a public, numerous, and most respectable meeting, and signed by a great number of hands. The proceedings at this meeting, where Mr. James Cropper was. in the Chair, were very interesting; and not the least interesting part of them was the reading of the following letter from Mr. Roscoe, the venerable writer, philanthropist and Christian Reformer, which we have great pleasure in transplanting to our pages.]

To Messrs William Rathbone, Adam Hodgson, and John Cropper.

GENTLEMEN,

Lodge-lane, April 24, 1826. I greatly regret that the present state of my health prevents my attending the public meeting intended to be held this day, for considering the expediency of petitioning Parliament for the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies; but although I am deprived of the opportunity of taking a part in its deliberations, I cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure I feel that such meeting has at length taken place, and my sincere wishes that it may forward the great cause which, for more than half a century, has been an object the nearest to my heart.

That the present meeting has been prematurely or hastily called, can scarcely be asserted. On the contrary, it must have been thought extraordinary in other parts of the kingdom, that this great and flourishing town has not sooner expressed its public sentiments on this subject; and it may perhaps have been supposed, that some leaver of aucient

abuses still remains amongst us; but I trust the proceedings of this day will shew that such suspicions are groundless; and that the town of Liverpool is not less awake to the voice of justice, and the claims of humanity, than any other portion of the British empire.

́It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any person who breathes the air of freedom, partakes of the bounties of Providence, and of all the pleasures of domestic and social life, can suppose himself entitled to these blessings, or reconcile it to his feelings to enjoy them, whilst he is conscious that so many of his fellow-beings, sensible like himself to every emotion of pleasure and pain, are languishing in the most abject slavery, subject to the tyranny and caprice of those who have no other object in view than to reduce them to the condition of beasts of labour, and whose posterity are, by a cruel anticipation, devoted to the same wretched condition as themselves. This, one would think, was a cause which would awaken the most insensible, and rouse the most indolent, even if he had no share in bringing on the evil himself. But what, then, shall we say when we reflect, that we are ourselves the authors of this, most enormous abuse; that we, the people of these realms, have given rise to it; that we have supported it for centu-. ries; and that we still continue to maintain it in its full extent and iniquity? Still more extraordinary is it that our crime is gratuitous, that we manifest our folly no less than our injustice, that we actually tax ourselves in order to entail misery on others, and support, by an annual contribution to a large amount, a system of slavery, which the same amount would, if applied to promote the ends of jus tice and mercy, tend in a great degree to remove. the manifestation of this great and incontrovertible truth we are chiefly indebted to one of our distinguished townsmen, who has placed it in so clear a point of view, that it is from henceforth impossible that any person who entertains a sense of right and wrong, can feel himself at rest until the guilt of participating in such an enormous crime be effectually removed. It is to no purpose that we pretend to condemn our fellow-subjects, the colonial planters and proprietors, upon whom, through a variety of causes, the distribution of our cruelties, the infliction of our punishments, has devolved. It is we who have delivered over to them the objects of their oppression; it is we who guarantee them in the exercise of it; it is we who supply them

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with the means of it; and the moment we withdraw those supplies the evil must cease. But although the removal of this acknowledged evil be our evident and indispensable duty, it is not the whole of our duty; we must not remedy one act of injustice by the perpetration of another. After having given rise to, and supported for so long a time, a system of slavery, and encouraged our fellow-subjects to devote their labours and embark their property under an assurance of its continuance, we must not suddenly turn round upon them, and consider them as the persons who are to remedy the evil at their own risk and their own expense; much less can we, with any degree of justice, place ourselves in opposition to them, as if they alone were guilty and we were free from offence, or persist in upbraiding them with the exercise of those severities, privations and restraints, which are indispensable to a state of slavery, We must not only insist upon a termination of the evil, but must enable them to accomplish it; and, having so long taxed ourselves for the support of slavery, we must, if it should appear to be necessary, tax ourselves for its extinction, and bear, in common with the colonists, any losses consequent on a change of system. Thus, and thus alone, (may we hope to remove from amongst us all causes of dissension and complaint, and to unite every British subject in one great effort for the removal of an evil, of the guilt of which we are at length become sensible, and the consciousness of which we cannot, without violating every principle of reason and justice, any longer support.

I shall only beg leave, on this occasion, further to remark, that upwards of forty years have now elapsed since effectual measures began to be adopted for terminating the trade for slaves to the coast of Africa. I well remember the difficulties with which the subject was then surrounded, and the slender hopes that were entertained that so great an object could ever be accomplished. I remember also, the fears and apprehensions which then existed, that the trade and commerce of the country in general, and of this town in particular, would be greatly injured by the adoption of such a measure. Nearly twenty years have now elapsed since the slave-trade was abolished; and these apprehensions have not only vanished, but the commerce of Liverpool has increased in an unexampled degree. By all just and generous minds the abolition of the slave-trade

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