CHRISTIAN PIONEER. No. 46. JUNE, 1830. Vol. IV. Congregational Society at Keene, New Hampshire, [THE REV. T. R. Sullivan, the Pastor of this Congregation and the Editor of "The Liberal Preacher," delivered the following Address, on laying the corner-stone of the new church, on the 4th July, 1829. The day was happily chosen for such an occasion, it being the anniversary of the independence of America. A large assembly was collected, and must, we think, have been much impressed by this plain and impressive exhortation.-Edit.] "My Christian Friends and Brethren,-The ceremony of laying the corner-stone of a Christian temple, is an act of devotion and faith. On the commencement of our work, we feel it to be a duty to invoke the blessing of Him, whose we are, and whom we serve; and to express our devout belief, that unless the Lord build the house, we labour in vain. Under a deep sense of our dependance upon Him for success and happiness in all our undertakings in his presence and under the broad firmament, which his presence fills, and his power upholds and acknowledging his providence in the liberal aid rendered by our respected and lamented friend, who saw this day, but whom we behold no more,- we have, in the name of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent,' placed this stone, and beneath it, we now proceed to deposit a plate with an inscription, which no eye shall again see, until the edifice we are about to raise shall be moved from its foundations, and which we trust will then testify to some generation of our children's children, that the God of their fathers is their God. On the Fourth Day of July, A. D. 1829, In the name of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, T. R. SULLIVAN, Pastor. One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. This Society was incorporated, A. D. 1825. "When, after many generations shall have passed away, our descendants shall remove the plate, which we have now deposited, from the ruins of the structure we are beginning to erect, they will feel that what we have now done is not unmeaning nor unimportant. To them, as to you, it will intimate, that we trust in God as the refuge of man in all ages; that we believe in Him who is 'the only true God,' the Father of all, who is above all,' the God of Abraham and Israel, of Moses and the Prophets, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we acknowledge as the only Mediator, and as he came from God, and God was with him, the true and efficient Saviour. It will show, that like them, as we doubt not, we have hoped in his sanctifying truth, his aiding spirit, and his saving mercy, through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will indicate, that in providing for our own highest good, we have not been unmindful of the influence which the exertions of the fathers to support the institutions of the Gospel, will have upon that of even their remote posterity. "The day appointed for this ceremony, reminds us how much our ancestors have done for us. It recalls to us those of our fathers who left home and country, and those of them who fought and bled, that they and their children might be free. And on this anniversary of that glorious -I had almost said religious act, which shook the long stability of arbitrary times, and ushered in the ages of liberty, it may not be inappropriate to express our gratitude, that the civil freedom which man could not wrest from us is an emblem of the religious liberty secured to us by God. That liberty we have thought it our privilege and duty to use. Any one may, indeed, record his opinions in scriptural or human language in a creed or confession-but no man, or body of men, has a shadow of pretence for the right of making it a test of Christian belief or standing, to subscribe to any creed but the Bible; nor have any class of Christians authority to require that the Bible shall convey to others but one meaning, and that the meaning attached to it by themselves. To follow the dictates of conscience in religious belief, for which we are accountable to God alone, neither claims human praise, nor should subject us to human censure. Unrestricted religious inquiry, and the unmolested enjoyment of our faith, are rights with which none may interfere. To be called by the name of the Master whose disciples we profess to be, and whose servants we wish to become, is an act of justice that we demand, a badge of equality which we will not surrender. "To our fellow Christians, with whose eyes we have not seen, we allow the same rights and the same claims. We do not think that their acceptance with God depends upon their minutely agreeing with us; nor do we esteem them less, or wish them worse, for differing from us. We do not regret that all cannot think alike; it is the law of our nature, and we adore the wisdom that established it, but we fear that it lieth in all of us to live more peaceably, and more charitably to differ than we do. In this spirit, we declare, that we do not place this stone as a rock of offence; and if it should be thought so, the history of our Lord teaches us, that to be rejected of men' is not a proof of error. We do not raise these walls as barriers of division; and if, in effect, they become so, it is not because they will not contain an altar where all will meet as brethren, and which none, we hope, will ever leave with feelings of enmity towards God or man. We do not claim to be the only true church; and if compelled to be distinct, it is because we are excluded from the table of our differing brethren, and not because our own cannot be approached by them. "But anticipations of more distant results, invite us to leave, indeed almost to forget, the existing dissensions which we have painfully noticed. We look forward. And to the eye of our faith, the passage of years is marked by the course which truth will run to glory and power, and by the influence which, with its light, it will spread to give rest to the churches, and a more scriptural theology and more Christian temper to the times. We look forward. And we foretell no disgrace to our opponents, and wish them no evils, by believing that they will yet understand that the spirit of exclusion is not the spirit of Christ. But we will not be thought to be 'boasting of things without our measure;' we know that the seed and increase are from God. We do not identify the progress of truth with the limits within which our opinions are, and shall be openly professed, nor estimate the real triumphs of the cross by the churches we erect, or the ranks that range themselves under the banners of love. We believe that Truth, we do not say Unitarianism, for we do not assume that the creed of any one of us is wholly free from error, Truth is gradually removing human foundations and silently replacing them with Divine materials. We believe that He will uproot error without endangering the great foundation of truth, the Bible. We believe that a universal revolution is going on, although we do not see, or wish to see it accomplished by a universal warfare. We think, indeed, that Unitarian Christianity is, in the main, the Christianity of the Bible; but we do not arrogate to ourselves the spirit that leads into all truth. We hope to learn more from that spirit, and we love truth, we trust, too well, not to be ready to acknowledge our fallibility, and willing to renounce any error of which we may be convinced. We are disposed, without anxiety, but not with indifference, with unmoveable trust, though not in indolent repose, to leave the issues of our sentiments to God, while to man we say, 'Refrain from us, and let us alone; if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.' And to the violent, the embittered, and the misled, we add, Consider well, what, and in what manner, you oppose, when you attack or revile the opinions of any who take the Bible for their rule, 'lest haply ye be found fighting against God.' are. But I have been drawn beyond the length which the occasion allows. I recur to the concern nearest our own and all bosoms. In the course of nature, all of us will soon pass away with the passing fashion of this world; but we can carry nothing out of it but the remembrance of what we have been, and the consciousness of what we The faith that will make a part of our characters, will be measured by other tests than the emblems of party or the watchwords of division, in the day, when, according alike to their light and their deeds, God will judge the secrets of men's hearts by Jesus Christ. Shall we not, then, hope and strive, by a teachable spirit and fruitful faith, to be able to look back through what yet remains to us of life, and far beyond, with associations of deep and happy interest to this spot? "What we do now, let us, in conclusion, be reminded, we do not for ourselves alone. We are doing for others what we would that others had oftener done for us. Before this stone shall be heaved from its resting-place, and the light of day shall again fall on this inscription, we hope that here many souls will have been turned to righteousness, and have departed to shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And when, at last, the work we now in God begin, and hope in God to finish, shall have been crumbled by the slow destruction of years, and other hands shall prepare to build anew on its ruins, the eyes that read this record shall fill, and the hearts that sought it shall turn affectionately to us, as they revert to this day, and thank us for placing here this monument to truth, and memorial of our interest in an unknown posterity-while they look with a higher reverence, and bow with gratitude more profound, as well as with a confidence that rests not on man or man's labours, to Him whose name is perpetual, and whose word endureth for ever.— Amen." www The Unitarian.-No. 6. THE doctrines of the creation of the material universe by the agency of Jesus Christ, and of his existence in a superangelic state, or nature, before his appearance on earth, are the subjects of this paper. These doctrines have been, and are still, held by many excellent and learned Christians in the great body of the Unitarians; for they contain nothing absolutely inconsistent with the simple unity and unrivalled supremacy of Jehovah. They who hold them are still the worshippers of One God in one person. But as I am desirous of supporting, in the papers under this title, the proper Unitarian doctrine of the simple humanity of Jesus Christ, I shall endeavour to show, that the above-mentioned doctrines have no foundation in the Scriptures. That Jehovah was the sole agent in the creation of the universe, is, I think, clearly and indisputably laid down in many sublime and emphatic passages of the Old Testament; as, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," Gen. i. 1. "The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land," Psal. xcv. 5. "Thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it: I am the LORD, |