those assertions were apocryphal. The Rev. Mr. Wood, Secretary to the Ayrshire Bible Society, reprobated the Parent Institution, "for their late determination not to exclude Socinians from holding office in the Society." "He deprecated the idea of a Society composed partly of Socinians." He lauded the Spanish Bible the Glasgow Society is about printing, because it would be a means of destroying the tyranny of Rome. Good easy man! it is not the mere possession of a Bible, Spanish or English, that will accomplish that, otherwise his speech had not been made. It breathes the spirit of Rome throughout, and wants but Rome's power to make it feared, instead of being as it is, pitied. The Rev. Mr. Willis of Glasgow, ridiculed "the employment of Socinian or Roman Catholic agents, who dared not explain to inquirers, or give their opinion about any Scripture question." This is new, Mr. Willis, but not true. You have mistaken the parties. Unitarians shrink not from discussion-they court it. They shroud not their doctrines in mystery, they are happy to "explain to inquirers." They are ever ready to "give their opinion on any Scripture question;" they disbelieve the Trinity, because it is not a "Scripture question." The individual, however, who could assert of the British and Foreign Bible Society, that "it was a great question whether that Society was going to work in the service of Satan or the service of God," is incompetent to judge of such matters. The alteration of the Rule was moved by the Rev. Mr. Forbes of the High Church, and seconded by a layman, and stands thus: "That this Society has already virtually recognised the necessity of religious qualifications in its office-bearers, yet, that their Rules may the more expressly protect them from the influence of such connections as those of which the New Bible Society in Westminster has so laudably shaken itself free, they do therefore resolve, that the Second Rule of the Society now run in these words-That the Society shall consist of all who are disposed to promote the object in view, who acknowledge the faith of the Reformed Churches; and that none who deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, shall be admissible to the management of, or hold any office connected with, this Society.""

What a jumble is here. How accurate the phraseology, profound the knowledge, christian the spirit, which it exhibits! What jealous fear lest the Unitarians should in

undate a Society, which "already virtually recognised the necessity of religious qualifications in its office-bearers!" How eloquent the encomium on "the New Bible Society in Westminster," which "has so laudably shaken itself free" of "such connections" as never belonged to it! This "Trinitarian Bible Society," as it has christened itself, which, though lauded at Glasgow on the 1st December, was not constituted in London till the 7th, in the true spirit of exclusion, ensured unanimity at its inauguration, by not suffering any person to speak who did not approve of its object. "Trinitarian Bible Society"!-the terms do not accord. Trinitarian Bible.

There is not, there never was, a

"The faith of the Reformed Churches"-"the belief in the doctrine of the holy Trinity"! Dr. Smyth of St. George's, is that your doing? You ought to know better. The doctrine of the Trinity, the peculiar faith of the Reformed Churches! That and its kindred sentiments are precisely the doctrines that were not reformed. Rank Popery, Sir. Calvin himself instructs you-" the Popish God, unknown to Jesus Christ and his Apostles."

"Faith of the Reformed Churches"! "We believe that there is but One God, that He is a Spirit, Creator of all things, God of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all, who ought to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, whom alone we serve, and to whom we give the glory." "We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son and Image of the Father. That in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead, by whom we have knowledge of the Father. That he is our Mediator and Advocate. And that there is no other name under heaven, given unto men, by which we can be saved; in whose name alone, we call upon the Father; and use no other prayers, than those which are contained in the Holy Scriptures, or such other as are conformable to them for substance." Such was, such is the faith of the Waldenses, the oldest, the purest of the Reformed Churches. It is the faith of Christian Unitarianism, not that of the Trinity, nor that of the Glasgow Bible Society.

Were not the Unitarian Churches of Poland and Transylvania, reformed Churches? They were contemporaneous with that of Geneva. They were Unitarian in their origin, they are Unitarian now, and so is Geneva likewise. There are Unitarian congregations in France, Holland,

Germany, America, India, Ireland, England, Scotland; are they not reformed churches?

Is that honoured title to be restricted to the Hierarchies of England and of Scotland? Why? Because they departed somewhat from Popish ceremonies and Popish discipline-but retained the most irrational and unscriptural of Popish doctrines? And are the members of those communions, in the vindictive and inquisitorial spirit of Popery, to denounce and exclude the disciples of the Saviour? and do they think to cloak their Popish doings, under the disguise of zeal for "the faith of the Reformed Churches"? They live in somewhat too late an age for that. The frowns of Presbytery or the anathemas of Episcopacy, have no terrors now, save for the worldling, the time-server, and those who believe only because their forefathers did so.

"Faith of the Reformed Churches"! "By the religion of Protestants, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, nor the Confession of Augusta, or Geneva, nor the Catechism of Heidelberg, nor the Articles of the Church of England, no nor the harmony of Protestant Confessions; but that wherein they all agree, and which they all subscribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of their faith and actions, that is, the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants. Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the plain irrefragable indubitable consequences of it, well may they hold it as a matter of opinion; but as matter of faith and religion, neither can they, with coherence to their own grounds, believe it themselves, nor require the belief of others, without most high and most schismatical presumption." Such was the faith of the Reformed Churches, these the grounds and justification of the Reformation, as stated by the admirable Chillingworth, in the controversy between Popery and Protestantism. Those churches which have imposed a human "Confession" on the people, or prescribed to them Thirty-nine Articles to believe, have renounced that faith, and abandoned those principles. The British and Foreign Bible Society solemnly recognised the Protestant, the Christian doctrine. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Bible Societies, and their worthy associates, the "Naval and Military,' and "Trinitarian"-strange names these in connection with that Bible, which teaches that God is One, and his

name One, and which commands of man, "Thou shalt not kill"!—these institutions, by framing a Test, and denouncing those as "infidels and blasphemers," who will not take it, violate Protestantism, become aliens to "the faith of the Reformed Churches," relapse into Popery, and are guilty of "most high and most schismatical presumption."

"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." And surely calumny, falsehood, exclusiveness, and anathema, are opposed to candour, truth, benevolence, and blessing. The Christian Unitarian, will not greatly grieve that he is shut out from communion with Societies which exhibit these antichristian dispositions, whilst the leaves of that Sacred Volume lie open before him, in which he learns beautiful and touching illustrations of those af fections which sanctify earth, and are the happiness of heaven. Let Popes, and Prelates, and Presbyters, prefer the former, if so it please them-he regrets their choice, both for their own sakes and that of the world, and willingly would he turn them from their error. Be his, at all events, the more excellent way, the way of Christ, the way to God. ARGUS.

THE CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

GLASGOW, DECEMBER 31, 1831.

ON Wednesday evening, the 16th November, the annual meeting of the subscribers and friends of the Fellowship Fund connected with the congregation assembling in the Unitarian Meeting-house, Greengate, Salford, Manchester, was held in the spacious schoolroom beneath that place of worship. One hundred persons, chiefly members of the congregation, sat down to tea,-the Rev. J. R. Beard, minister, in the chair. After tea, a hymn was sung, and the chairman opened the business of the evening by some appropriate observations in reference to the occasion which had assembled them together. The business of the Fellowship Fund was then transacted Mr. J. Armstrong resigned the office of Secretary, and Mr. E. W. Milnes was appointed to succeed him. The chairman next adverted to the pleasingly progressive state of the congregation, which, five years ago, did not consist of more than fifty adult hearers, and now more than trebled that number. He enumerated as institutions founded by the congregation, the Sunday School, the Library, the Fellowship Fund, the Clothing Society, the Poor's Fund, and the Sunday School Mission and Sick Fund; these he mentioned, not so much to show what had been done, as what might be done with but few labourers and circumscribed means. He then called on Mr. Harland, who gave a brief sketch of the state of the Sunday School during the

past year. In January last, it contained 131 scholars (boys and girls); its present number was 232; being an increase of 101,44 of whom had entered the School on the six Sundays preceding this meeting.

This increase (which was not gained by direct solicitation, or even indirect inducements, offered either to the parents or the children) was attributed to improvements in the system of teaching, and to the increased attachment and attention of the teachers to their important duties. It was intended to establish a Sunday School and Missionary Library, to be supported by a subscription from each reader, of a halfpenny per week, and to be appropriated to the sole use of the scholars and their parents. In conclusion, the speaker proposed the thanks of the meeting, and of every friend of education, to the Teachers in the Greengate Sunday School. Mr. Jerom, one of the teachers, in acknowledging the enthusiastic manner in which the meeting had conveyed their approval of the sentiment, and their thanks for the services of the teachers, took a just and exalted estimation of the importance of the office of a Sunday School Teacher, in the great work of Christianising mankind.

M. Eckersley, the originator of the School Mission, (based on the principle of the City Missions, the institution of which will one day place the name of Dr. Tuckerman of Boston, U. S. among those of the greatest benefactors of mankind,) next proceeded to describe the nature and objects of the Mission, which I subjoin, in the hope that an incitement may thereby be furnished to those connected with Sunday Schools, to co-operate in this great and good work. The whole machinery of this Mission, consists of a committee of five teachers in the Sunday School, to each of whom a district is allotted, in which he or she visits all the families sending children to the School. The objects proposed to be attained by these visits, are, to ascertain the true cause of the scholars' absence from school, and their general behaviour to their parents -to ascertain, as far as practicable, the circumstances and moral condition of the parents-to excite in the minds of parents and children a love of reading, and to supply that desire with the means of gratification, by the loan of the excellent publications of the Christian Tract Society, and of other books-to prevail on those who are found to mis-spend their Sabbaths at home or elsewhere, to attend that church or chapel, of whatever denomination, to which they may feel attached, or for which they may express a preference to soothe sickness, and to administer comfort to distress, by donations of medicines, money, or clothing (and the Congregation were invited to contribute cast-off garments, particularly children's shoes)-in short, to lead a neglected class of mankind to feel that there are some who care for them-and above all, that they have an Almighty Friend, whose love is over all his creatures, and who has promised eternal life to those who seek, in all things, to obey his will. The visitors, or missionaries, have generally been received by the parents with the most lively expressions of gratitude for the instruction given to their children, who (they sometimes add, with tears in their eyes) must have re