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1850.]

Religious Intelligence.

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The Conference was attended throughout the day by almost every one of the brethren, and the interest of the occasion in the afternoon drew in a few of the other sex, for the first time within our memory.

Sunday School Society. The twenty-second anniversary of the Sunday School Society was observed on Wednesday evening, May 29, at the church in Federal Street. The President of the Society, the Hon. Stephen C. Phillips, occupied the chair, and the Rev. Dr. Allen of Northborough opened the meeting with prayer. The singing, exclusively by a choir composed of children from our Sunday Schools, not only secured the presence of the objects of this Christian institution, but also gave to them an important part in the exercises. A great deal of effort and labor had been employed through the year by the Corresponding Secretary, Rev. Charles Brooks, by means of a circular addressed to each of our pastors and superintendents, to obtain elaborate statistics of our schools, with answers to a series of questions, all of a searching character and of much pertinence in regard to the operation, the instruction, and the prospects of these nurseries of our churches. The results and answers, contributed by the great majority of those to whom the circulars were sent, are embodied in the Report. While they will make that Report a very valuable document to those who shall see it in type, they were so extended and voluminous as necessarily to preclude the reading of any thing more than the merest abstract of it. This was so fragmentary as to afford but little of clear information. Gideon F.

Thayer, Esq., read a brief report, which gave an account of the visits made by each of the agents of the Society to several Sunday Schools. Remarks were made by Manlius S. Clarke, Esq., a superintendent, and by Rev. Messrs. John H. Heywood of Louisville, Ky., William Mountford of England, and John H. Morison of Milton.

Convention of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts. - The Convention assembled as usual, at five o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 29, in the Supreme Court-room, and the Rev. Professor Park of Andover, the preacher fort his year, acted as moderator, and opened the Convention with prayer. The usual business - the election of Scribe, Treasurer, and Auditor, with the hearing of their reports, the filling of vacancies in committees, and the appointment of new committees having been transacted, the Scribe read a letter from the Rev. Dr. Frothingham, the first preacher in course for the next year, announcing that, as he had relinquished his pastoral office in the First Church, he had ceased to be a member of the Convention, and was, therefore, not qualified to officiate. A motion had been put in the docket by Rev. Barzillai Frost of Concord, proposing that all Congregational ministers in the State who had been ordained and settled for ten years, had sustained an unblemished character, and had not laid aside their profession, should be members of the Convention. The motion passed. By this rule, Dr. Frothingham remains still a member, and of course stands as preacher for next year. The Rev. Mr. Woodbridge of Hadley was chosen second preacher for next year.

The Convention Sermon was preached on Thursday morning, May 30, in the Brattle Street Church, by Rev. Professor Park. The church was most densely crowded, every seat and aisle and corner being occupied, while hundreds who had reached the doors were obliged to go away

disappointed. The preacher selected two texts, from which he proceeded to analyze and exhibit the material relations between the Theology of the Intellect and the Theology of the Feelings. These he maintained were entirely distinct, and might even seem discordant, but were both equally necessary to complete, interpret, and reconcile each the other, and to act together on mind, heart, and life. The sermon was a specimen of the very highest order of pulpit exercises. One of the most striking testimonies which could be given of the high demands and influence of our Congregational system, and of the high standard which it has set for itself and led the people to expect, is offered by these occasional sermons, which the more eminent of the preachers are called to present. Any thing like meagreness or mediocrity on such an occasion would be alike mortifying to the preacher and to his hearers.

Massachusetts Evangelical Missionary Society. This Society aims to foster and keep alive, by moderate assistance from its funds, some few congregations of our communion in this Commonwealth that may need such aid. When it is considered that enterprise and business lead so many young persons to leave our country towns and seek the cities, it is not strange that our smaller parishes should occasionally require a little pecuniary help. The Hon. Richard Sullivan, who has presided over the Society for many years, having declined a reëlection, a vote of grateful thanks and respect was passed and addressed to him, and the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot was chosen President; Rev. Dr. Lowell, VicePresident; Rev. Chandler Robbins, Secretary; and Nathaniel Thayer, Esq., Treasurer.

Devotional Exercises. Meetings for conference and prayer were held, on four of the days of Anniversary Week, at an early morning hour, in different churches. The attendance upon each was very large, and the interest of the exercises well sustained. The closing services of the week were held on Thursday evening, May 30, in the Federal Street Church. Rev. Wm. Stearns of Hingham preached a discourse from Ephesians vi. 13, and the Rev. Frederic A. Farley of Booklyn, N. Y., administered the Lord's Supper.

Ordinations. Mr. DANIEL W. STEVENS, late of the Divinity School at Cambridge, was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in MANSFIELD, on Wednesday, May 22. Introductory Prayer and Sermon by Rev. Dr. Putnam of Roxbury; Selections from the Scriptures and Fellowship of the Churches by Rev. Mr. Bridge of East Lexington; Prayer of Ordination by Rev. Professor Francis of Harvard University; Charge by Rev. Mr. Robinson of Medfield; Address to the Society by Rev. Mr. Kinsley of Mendon; Concluding Prayer by Rev. Mr. Merrick of Walpole.

Mr. BARBER, a graduate of the Theological School at Meadville, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Rowe, on Wednesday, June 12. Introductory Prayer and Selections from the Scriptures by Rev. C. Nightingale of Chicopee; Sermon by Rev. F. D. Huntington of Boston; Prayer of Ordination by Rev. J. Field of Charlemont; Charge by Rev. C. Lincoln of Fitchburg; Fellowship of the Churches by Rev. G. F. Clark of Warwick; Address to the Society by Rev. Geo. F. Simmons of Springfield.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

SEPTEMBER, 1850.

ART. I.THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, AND THE DUTY OF THE UNITARIAN CLERGY IN RELATION TO IT.

[An Address, read before the Ministerial Conference in Boston, May 29, 1850. By GEORGE W. BURNAP, D. D.]

THE arrangement which has been made to secure at least one address to this conference each year, on some theological subject, has my entire approbation. It seems to me to be demanded by our position, both as seekers and defenders of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is due to ourselves, not only as ministers of the Gospel, but as intellectual and studious men, already pledged by our or dination vows and our individual convictions, to devote our best powers to the promotion of theological science, the true knowledge of God, of Christ, of our duty, and our destiny. It is demanded of us by the position we occupy before the world. We have presumed to dissent from some of the leading dogmas of the great body of the Christian world, to demolish, so to speak, the theological edifice which ages have been building up. Its scattered materials lie all about us. The world has a right to demand of us that we do not stop here. They have a right to ask of us that we reconstruct those materials; and, moreover, that we raise up a more perfect and beautiful structure than that which we pull down. VOL. XLIX. 4TH S. VOL. XIV. NO. II.

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