Street Church, had been excommunicated, some time before, on account of his heresy, - for he, after all, was the first of the Unitarian heretics, but he was treated gently, on account of a certain saintliness about him, because of which "no man durst lay hands on him." Parker was no saint, but an earnest and upright Puritan, with a willingness to fight the good fight,- a kind of theological John Brown.

The verdict of Unitarianism on the tendencies which itself had legitimated, soon began to be rendered in facts which were much louder than words. Dr. Channing, even, during his life had seen some indications of what he called "a Unitarian orthodoxy," bent only on "keeping the ground it had gained;" and thus soon after his death did this orthodoxy come with lock and bolt to close up the glorious portals he had flung open. In November, 1844, Rev. Mr. Sargent, then minister of Suffolk-Street Church, was unsophisticated enough to exchange pulpits with Theodore Parker! The Fraternity of Churches made a formal protest; the city was set on fire, theologically; Sargent lost his Church. Soon after, the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, not having the fear of the Churches before his eyes, and the affliction of his brother Sargent not having been sanctified to his good, made the rash proposition to the said Parker that they also should exchange pulpits, as they had been in the habit of doing before this Boston trouble. Immediately Mr. Clarke's Church was divided into halves, and the seceders built the Bedford-Street Church. Thenceforth we have in this Jerusalem of the Unitarians two distinct classes: the old lock-andbolt set, and the open-communion set. Parker stood alone under the Unitarian tent, so far as theological goodly number stood by him who had not new dogmatic Baal. These would have it that Parker, though an egregious heretic, was a faithful and an honest man, and should be allowed to think his thought and say his say. There is reason to think that Parker did so.

opinion went; but a bowed the knee to the

Then the wheel of Nemesis was swift on those who disowned the old Unitarian principle, and closed their pulpits against the Heresiarch. The life of their Churches had oozed out. The Hanover-Street Church, which excommunicated Emerson, has passed under the hammer to the Methodists. The Suffolk-Street Church, which drove away Mr. Sargent for exchanging with Parker, has passed, in the same way, to the Baptists. The I. - 23

Bedford-Street Church (Church of the Savior), which was built out of spite to James Freeman Clarke, was obliged to disband and merge its remnants with the Old Second Church. The Indiana-Street Church, once under the ministry of Mr. Fox, who has since avoided any settlement, became so reduced that they had to unite with James Freeman Clarke's Church of the Disciples. King's Chapel, the very cradle of Unitarianism, the Faneuil Hall of religious liberty, consecrated by the nobility of James Freeman, can not now settle a minister because of its recreancy to that progressive spirit which bore the Unitarian movement. The Thirteenth Church, foremost in its denunciations of the more liberal tendency, has lost its minister, (Mr. Coolidge,) by his conversion to Episcopacy. Boston presents, to-day, a series of stranded Unitarian Churches, high and dry, awaiting the tide which will never reach them. They have galvanized, for a pastime, the bodies of dead questions the Trinity, Eternal Punishment, and the like, talk of them as if they were talking to live men of live things. Their darling ministers, Huntington and Sears, have become disgusted, and have fled, one to the Episcopal, the other to the Swedenborgian Church, for dear life.

and

-All this owing, rhetorically speaking, to a "Suspense of Faith; in sober fact, it is the result of the growth of a Great Principle beyond the limitations which sought to confine it. The acorn grew in the small jar quietly enough at first; but the cry came for a larger jar, nay, that the sapling should be transplanted from any conceivable jar out into the field, which is the world, where under the free light and winds of Heaven it might rise to the possible stature of the germ that was in it. But Boston Unitarianism would persist in retaining the oak in its jar; and the jar lies in fragments about its roots.

But what did Conservative Nemesis preserve? She established in Boston a Central Broad Church, into which the life of all the rest passed; a Church whose average congregation is nearly as numerous as all the rest put together. She has brought the stones which the builders rejected to the head of the corner. Emerson has become the intellectual teacher of their teachers. The Unitarian Association, when at length it lay all becalmed, must needs call on the once ignored J. F. Clarke to bring the currents of his genial and catholic spirit to its sails: there he is passing from the Secretary's Chair to minister to Theodore Parker's people! What has

Nemesis done for the Independent Pulpit in America, inaugurated by Parker? It is but fifteen years, and on the platform where he stood alone twenty-five ministers stand. Where is a stronger or healthier babe for its years than the Free-thought of the Unitarian Church? 66 Joseph is a fruitful branch." These independent ministers are nearly all settled over large and worthy congregations. But what is more, the posture of this freer element has necessarily placed it in a leading relation to the powerful institutions which represent the Spirit of the Age. It edits the Atlantic Monthly; it animates the literary club; it is a central figure on the arenas of Reform; it wields the Lyceum in every city of the Union. It was asked formerly, in England, "Who reads an American book?" The many European editions and translations of the works of Emerson, Parker, Margaret Fuller, and Curtis, have given the only sufficient reply. Transcendentalism in New England was the first Catholic Power of American Intellect.

The Unitarian movement in New England was essentially a negative movement. It was an Intellectual Revival in the Church whereby the dogmas of Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement, and the Future Life were shown to be out of relation with the culture and Science which had been reached. It was a protest against something; not much, if at all, a protest for anything. The leaders of the movement did indeed inculcate a high and pure morality; but the orthodox had always inculcated a morality just as high: indeed, it is evident that Morality is a constant thing in the world, like the atmosphere by which men live, and is stated in almost the same words in the Codes of Moses, Menu, and Christ. The Unitarians, therefore, could add but little, though they may have stated it more clearly and applied it more practically.

It is plain, therefore, that the value of the movement was the incorporation into a Christian Body of the negations which had been maintained outside of any such organization by Paul, of Samosata, Arius, Pelagius, Socinus, Servetus, and others. But the progress of every pilgrim must be from the land of the Eternal Nay to that of the Eternal Yea. Manna from Heaven will indeed fall down to those who are necessarily in the wilderness; but the manna will not keep for all time, in whatsoever jars secured; it must be left for the permanent support the land flowing with milk and honey. The free portion of the Church, therefore, is that which is leading

it on to the Positive and Affirmative. Every denial implied an authority which could deny; every judgment implied a standard somewhere uplifted. For a long time, the special denial or judgment was discussed; it was not recognized that these were but signs of a new principle which had come into action, or changes wrought by another authority claiming superiority to text and tradition. That Affirmation now reveals itself, as, after the American Revolution, it came out that the war was not against a tax on tea, but for entire Independence. And what is this Affirmation? Simply, the entire sufficiency of the Human Spirit to attain the highest truth, and, by a fulfilment of spiritual laws, enjoy the highest communion. Thus the reigns of reptilian ceremonies, of Saurian Sabbaths and miracles, pass away before the reign of the Spiritual Man. This explains why the Christian freethinkers can not be floored by a text, nor put down by logic; they are interested only in Man. You shall miss them at the Theological Conclave, and find them at the Anti-Slavery Society; they leave a Greek accent falling the wrong way, to lift up a falling man.' Indeed, when one hears the phrase "right and left," it suggests the line of the German poet: "Keep near the left there beats the heart."

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A word to this " 'left wing" ere we close this article. Very much has Nemesis,- the Law of Conservatism, done for us. The growth of the free ministry and its audience has surpassed the growth of its parent in the same length of time. It is in the closest union with the great human thoughts and tendencies which constitute the vitality of the age: it has access to the fountains of inspiration and eloquence; for none can be eloquent for slavery, for fetters,-only for the large and free. Nevertheless, we must not forget that we stand amidst thirty millions of men with only one free voice to the million. The warning comes to us, Enlarge the place of thy tent." For this, we must have more communion and coöperation. Individuality is never to be lost, even to a hairsbreadth; but there is a sphere as well as an atom. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the tents of Jacob." He was with each in his own tent, but when hearts and hands were knit, then came victory. "Spread out the thunder," exclaims Schiller's Fiesco, "into its single tones, and it becomes a lullaby for children; pour it forth together in one peal, and the royal sound shall move the heavens." We must bear witness to one another; we must

not allow any free brother to be so isolated and unheeded that those who hear him shall say of a truth dear to us all, "It is but one man's view; he is very odd and eccentric."

We must take greater care of our young men. Those who are familiar with theological Schools know to what painful ordeals the young Parkerites," as they are termed, are subjected. We do not mean to charge professors with having a spirit of persecution— we believe that they have this more rarely than is supposed; but, whilst their more orthodox fellows are called out, from Sunday to Sunday, to fill the vacant pulpits, during their senior term, and welcomed to large congregations when graduated, they are kept in the background, their talents have no play, and when they come, at length, to stand before a congregation, it is without that selfpossession and tact which the others have gained by experience. They come forth from the School to linger about the Associationrooms, with no means of getting face to face with the thousands of hearts which are yearning for just such free and earnest words as these youths could give them. If the new heretic reaches a settlement, it is over hot ploughshares of opposition; since there are so many ministers nowadays who know so much better what this or that Church needs than the Church itself knows. And some, wearied out with this tedious process, are sorely tempted either to deny the holy Lord within them, and go to warm themselves by the fire with the Servants of the High Priest, or to satisfy the stirring life within them by rushing off on swerving orbits. Of how many noble and eloquent teachers have Politics, Speculation, and Office-seeking robbed us? Can we not help give these aspirants welcome, incentive, work?

Much less complex is the duty of the Christian freethinkers toward the Truth which is organizing itself in them, as into hands, feet, and tongues. We have but to work steadily, by the light of God's lamp within us. We have but to pull steadily at the cord which is placed in our hand: the world is at its other end. In Charles Reade's last story, "A Good Fight," it is related that a tower, to the window of which not even many ladders joined toyouth was to be taken, if possible, out of an exceeding high gether could reach. What was to be done? Why, this simple thing an old huntsman shoots an arrow up through the window; instead of a ferrule, the arrow has a long skein of silk bound around its end. The hero is told, by a pencilling attached, to tie