vidence hath blessed with wealth and affluence, should consider, that where much is given, much will be required; and all who move in a humbler sphere, may remember, that the free-will offering, however small, is a pledge of their good wishes for its success and prosperity.

J. M.

On Church Government.

SIR, Coventry, May 11, 1826. WITHOUT presuming to answer the inquiries on Church Government, contained in the Reformer of last month, (p. 161,) and to which the attention of Mr. Wright is more particularly invited, I may be permitted to remark, that they involve considerations of deep interest to the friends of Unitarian Christianity, and to hope they will receive that attention which their importance deserves. To the want of a judicious system of management, I attribute the paucity of numbers which has marked the congregation in this city for a long series of years, and which forms a striking contrast with the flourishing condition of other places, where the population is very much less, but the interest of the parties, individually and collectively, as it would seem, very much greater. It does not appear that to convey the concerns of a congregation over to the management of the minister and trustees, is to afford the happiest means of ensuring its increase and prosperity. Under this impression, a few persons at Coventry, without the light of experience to guide them as to its efficacy, a few years ago proposed the following plan; but they were subsequently opposed by the trustees, which prevented their carrying it into execution :

1. They proposed that every subscriber, to the amount of one guinea per annum, should form one of a committee; that such committee should meet in the vestry once in every two months, to superintend and regulate the concerns of the society.

2. That every person subscribing to the amount of five shillings per annum, should have a voice in the appointment of the minister.

There are doubtless many others besides the querists

waiting to see what propositions experience has enabled Mr. Wright and others to form on this subject. Among A UNITARIAN.

them is

Youth, a Poem. By a Young Lady, deceased.
GAY, happy state, when life begins to bloom,
Breathes forth its sweets, and opens all its flowers
When sanguine hope, in fancy's flexile loom,
Weaves the gay prospect of our future hours!
Sweet morn of life! untinctured with its pain,
Glowing with ardour, and with transport warm!
"Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,"
Sport in gay circles round thy smiling form.

On thee we gaze, with fascinated eyes,
Nor heed the moments as they glide away;
For thou art fair as fancy can devise,
Sprightly as health, and as contentment gay.

Oh! ye just enter'd on her tempting sphere,
Who join with beating hearts her jocund throng,
Hemm'd round with gilded snares, and soon to hear
Folly's gay call, and pleasure's siren song;

Unconscious yet of pleasure's latent sting,
Hope toys with grief, and transport smiles at care;
We bask beneath the genial warmth of spring,
Our minds serene, and all our prospects fair.

Fair as thou art, how transient is thy bloom!
Soon hope shall wanton in thy train no more;
Soon disappointment shed its sullen gloom,
Fade every sweet, and wither every flower.

Then first attentive to the voice of truth,
We learn how fast thy tempting charms decay;
And find, with late regret, that flatt'ring youth
Charms to deceive, and smiles but to betray.

Ah! could ye still be guiltless as ye seem,
As free from sorrow, as enstranged from care;
What wish would shorten your enchanting dream,
Or cloud your pleasures with the gloom of fear!

But longer travell'd in this changing state,
Experience shudders at the latent guile;
And pity, trembling for your future fate,
Sighs at your bliss, and weeps to see you smile!
Of op'ning sense few traces yet appear,
Yours is the careless smile, the vacant thought;
The sigh that breathes no real woe; the tear
Shed without sorrow, and when shed, forgot.
Of vanish'd scenes and sweet enjoyments past,
No fond remembrance wakes the pensive sigh;
No gloomy presages your joys o'ercast,
What unfelt pains the future may supply.

Life, of its treasures prodigal, imparts
To you the fairest hours it has to spare,
And in gay eddies circles round your hearts,
Frolic, as infant sports, and light as air.

Ah! little heed ye, triflers as ye are,

That life's gay morning borne on sportive wing,
Which breathes such vernal sweets, and blooms so fair,
Soon chill'd by winter, finds no second spring.

Then prize the present hour-for who can say,
Ye smiling sons of innocence and ease,
What dreary scenes may mark your future way,
Corrupt your virtue, or destroy your peace?

To you the mazy labyrinth of life,
Perhaps, a weary pilgrimage may prove ;
Strew'd with the thorns of hate, revenge, or strife,
Friendship betray'd, or disappointed love.

Perhaps adversity may mark your course,
Or guilt, more dreaded, your companion be;
prey in disappointment or remorse,
Children of sorrow, or of infamy.

A

Oh, melancholy prospect! happier they,
By pitying heaven, snatch'd early to the sky;
Just shewn on earth, the phantoms of a day,
Born in this moment-in the next to die!

A. B.

SIR,

Mahommedan Oration.

THE above is extracted from the Gleaner, a periodical magazine, published in London I believe. The Oration, according to that work, was delivered in a Mosque at Algiers, and taken down in writing in the place, by an English gentleman who visited that part some years ago. Should you think it fit for insertion in the Reformer, I should be extremely happy to see it there.

JOHN S. HYNDMAN.

God alone is Immortal! ́Abraham and Solomon have slept with their fathers; Cadigah the first born of faith, Ayesha the beloved, Omar the meek, Omri the benevolent, the companions of the apostle, and the sent of God himself, all died; but God most high, most holy, liveth for ever. Infinities are to him as the numerals of arithmetic to the sons of Adam: the earth shall vanish before the decrees of his eternal destiny, but he liveth and reigneth for ever.

God alone is Omniscient! Michael, whose wings are full of eyes, is blind before him. The dark night is unto him as the rays of the morning, for he noticeth the creeping of the small pismire in the dark night upon the black stone and apprehendeth the motion of an atom in the open air.

God alone is Omnipresent! He toucheth the immensity of space as a point; he moveth in the depth of the ocean, and mount Atlas is hidden by the sole of his foot; he breatheth fragrant odours to cheer the blessed in Paradise, and enliveneth the pallid flame of the profoundest hell.

God alone is Omnipotent! He thought, and worlds were created; he frowneth, and they dissolve into thin smoke; he smileth, and the torments of the damned are suspended. The thunderings of Hermon are the whisperings of his voice, the rustling of his attire causeth lightning and an earthquake, and with the shadow of his garment he, blotteth out the sun.

God alone is Merciful! When he forged his immutable decrees on the anvil of eternal justice, he tempered the miseries of the race of Ishmael in the fountains of pity. When he laid the foundations of the world, he cast a look of benevolence into the abysses of futurity, and the adaman tine pillars of eternal justice were softened by the beamings of his eyes. He dropped a tear upon the embryo miseries of unborn man, and that tear, falling through the im

measurable lapses of time, shall quench the glowing flames of the bottomless pit. He sent into the world to enlighten the darkness of the tribes, and hath prepared the pavilions of the houri for the repose of the faithful.

God alone is Just! He chains the latent cause to the distant effect, and binds them both immutably fast to the fitness of things. He decreed the unbelievers to wander in the whirlpool of error, and suited their souls to future torment. He promulgated the ineffable creed, and the germs of countless millions of believers, existing in his contemplation, expanded at the sound. His justice refresheth the faithful, while the damned spirits confess it in despair.

God is One! Abraham the faithful knew it; Moses declared it amidst the thunderings of Sinia; Jesus pronounced it, and the messenger of God, the sword of his vengeance, filled the world with that immutable truth. Surely there is one God, immortal, omniscient, omnipotent, most merciful, and just, and Mahomet is his apostle. Lift up your heads to the Eternal, and pronounce the ineffable, adorable creed, There is one God, and Mahomet is his prophet.

Remarks on a Tract, entitled, A short Daily Exercise, with Directions for Mass, Confession, and Communion, &c. Published for the Use of the Poor. By R. C., D. D.

In this publication, great emphasis is laid on the priestly office, as if such office did distinguish one Christian from another; though the New Testament expressly says of Christians in general, "Ye are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices ;" and again, "Ye are a royal priesthood, a holy nation;" nay, that they are all made kings and priests unto God. As to priestly power or authority, our blessed Lord has declared that there is an equality among all his disciples. Peter himself had no keys given to him, but those of first opening the doctrine of the resurrection both to Jews and Gentiles, and the confession which he made, "that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God," was the very rock on which God the Father would build his church, against which the gates of death should not prevail. Besides which, the apostles utterly disclaim dominion over the faith of any. But the primary end of priestly power in the Romish Church, is that of giving absolution to the confessor; whereas the New Testament every where