THE heart of the Christian world is yearning after UNITY. Geneva and Scotland have again joined their hands. Three centuries ago John Calvin and John Knox were fellowlaborers in the great Reformation. The Scotch reformer found a refuge from papal persecution in that quiet city on the border of Lake Leman, where Calvin had reared the standard of truth. There he learned to admire that system of church polity which has found among the Highlands, a home no less congenial than at the foot of the Alps. And now the historian of the Reformation, having "the faith of Calvin, the cause of Calvin, the Lord and master of Calvin," goes from Geneva to Scotland to revive that ancient union, to greet the successors of Knox in an assembly of Christian freemen. D'Aubignè and Chalmers shake hands together on the free soil of Scotland, as Knox and Calvin did on the free soil of Geneva. "After three centuries, Geneva and Scotland again shake hands together, shake hands in the name of the Lamb, -shake hands in the name of his exclusive dominion, and of the independence of his church from every temporal power,-shake hands in the spirit of love, of humility and peace."+

In England, the subject of Christian union has received increasing attention for several years past. A volume of essays on this theme has just been published in London, partly as a feeler to try the public sentiment," in reference to some plan

Christian Unity. A sermon preached before the Foreign Evangelical Society, in the Bleecker Street Church, New York, May 4, 1845. By Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the First Church in New Haven, Conn. New Haven B. L. Hamlen, 1845.

+ Speech of Merle D'Aubignè before the Free Church of Scotland.

of coöperation among Evangelical Christians throughout the world. We hope to see these essays republished in this country. Ecclesiastical bodies in Great Britain and the United States have entered into correspondence with each other and have given their testimony to the desirableness of a more perfect union of all who "hold the head." The ablest divines of both countries have discussed the subject from the pulpit and through the press, in a manner becoming its magnitude and importance. Benevolent associations have been formed upon the basis of Christian union. Conventions have been held to digest plans of union. In a word, union is fast becoming the absorbing theme of Protestant Christendom.

This

The most important movement on this subject is the recent Liverpool Conference, at which some two hundred and fifty members of various religious denominations in England, Scotland and Ireland, met for prayer and consultation respecting their common duties and interests. is understood to be but the first of a series of meetings preparatory to a convention of the representatives of all Protestant evangelical denominations throughout the world, which it is proposed to hold in London some time during the present year. The idea of such a convention, we believe, was first suggested in the New Englander, eighteen months ago.

"Why might there not be, ere long, some general conference in which the various evangelical bodies of this country, and of Great Britain, and of the continent of Europe, should be in some way represented, and in which the great cause of reformed and spiritual Christianity throughout the world, should be made the subject of detailed and deliberate consideration, with prayer and praise? That would be an "ecumenical council," such as never yet assembled since the apostles parted from each other at Jerusalem, a council

not for legislation and division, but for union and communion, and for the exten

sion of the saving knowledge of Christ. Suppose such a convention, met at London, or Edinburgh, or Geneva; suppose that the facts respecting the state of evangelical and experimental piety, are reported from one country and another in succession, and brought under the deliberate consideration of the assembly there, and these after having been digested and discussed are carried back by the various representatives to all the regions and churches from which they came. Suppose the resources of the various evangelical churches throughout Christendom are reported, their institutions of education, their arrangements and opportunities for the diffusion of religious intelligence, their means of self-defense and self-extension, their methods of aggression on the world around them, and their plans and enterprises for the propagation of the gospel among the nations. Suppose all this knowledge summed up and discussed in connection with the inquiry, what more can we do, and how can we best sustain and help each other? Suppose that upon that assembly the spirit of God is poured out, as the spirit of grace and supplication, the spirit of love and faith and zeal. What would be the effect of all this upon the churches and upon the world? How easily may the reader nominate in his own thoughts a delegation from the Congregationalists, from each of the two great Pres. byterian bodies, from the Baptists, and from the Methodists, whose presence in such a convention, to report with one accord the facts respecting religion in America and the progress of living Christianity in connection with the voluntary principle, would electrify the Protestant world. We make this supposition, not as expecting to see it completely realized at present, but rather because the mere conception warms our hearts, and can not but warm the heart of every Christian read er."-New Englander, vol. 2, pp. 253, 254. This proposition was made prior to that of Dr. Merle D'Aubignè to the same effect in the Swiss Conference and before the Free Church in Scotland? Possibly the idea was first suggested to him through our columns. If not, the fact that the same great measures for promoting Christian union have been proposed independently by leading minds on both sides of the Atlantic, is additional evidence that the Spirit of God is conducting his children forward to this desired consumma. tion. The author of this noble

suggestion now appears before the Public with a more elaborate exposition of his views of Christian unity. These are contained in a sermon preached before the Foreign Evangelical Society at its last anniversary, which is published at their request. This is the most profound and eloquent discussion of the subject which we have yet seen. It was not fully appreciated at its first delivery in New York, nor even when repeated in Boston. In fact it could be appreciated nowhere, not even in an assembly of ministers, simply on being heard from the pulpit. It must be studied to be rightly understood. And not only so, it must be studied in a certain frame of mind. For it is so purely spiritual, it so completely separates the substance of Christianity from all its forms, that it needs a spiritual sense to apprehend it. Though not adapted for popular impression, though faulty as a sermon, yet as an essay it ranks with the lucid and classic productions of Whately; while in the spirituality, comprehensiveness and catholicity of its views it excels even the famous essays of that distinguished prelate on the " Kingdom of Christ."

But it is not our purpose to write a review of the discourse before us. We shall content ourselves with a reference to one or two points discussed in it, and such quotations as will but invite our readers to peruse the whole.

The general awakening among Evangelical Protestants, on the subject of Christian union, to which we have referred, is to be attributed mainly to two causes; viz. the extravagant pretensions and efforts recently put forth in various quarters, in behalf of a formal, lifeless Christianity, and the increasing facilities for the spread of vital Christianity; in other words, common dangers and common duties. Within a quarter of a century a new zeal has manifested itself in the

Romish church. Her tactics have been changed with the changes of her circumstances. No longer able to enforce her authority out of Italy by physical power-having no move left her on the political chessboard of Europe, she seeks to make education and liberty subservient to her advancement in this western world, while her missionaries crowd the ports of Oceanica and of the East. Protestants find her every where present and everywhere active; an antagonist to be encountered in every plan for their own preservation or the diffusion of their principles; always to be watched, if not always to be feared.

In the same period extraordinary developments have been made in communions, reputed orthodox, but not wholly purged from the leaven of Romanism. The church, the ministry, the sacraments, have been exalted in a manner derogatory to Christ and his work, and reproachful to his humble followers. The great doctrine of justification by faith has been assailed or undermined. A species of Pharisaism has arrayed itself against the simple Gospel. These things have aroused Evangelical Christians of all denominations to the defense of their common faith. The controversy with formalism, prelacy and Romanism, has given unusual prominence to the simple and fundamental principles of the Gospel. And Christians of various ecclesiastical connections have found themselves side by side, engaging with equal ardor in defense of the same essential truths. The presence of a common enemy has enabled them to realize to how great an extent they are agreed.

In the same period also, the demands of the world for the Gospel have been becoming more and more imperative. India and China are now open to Christian effort, and an undertaking so vast as the evangelization of hundreds of mil

lions of heathen, when entered into in the proper spirit, must absorb or overshadow all minor interests. Those who think and feel alike for the honor of their common Lord, who are fulfilling his great command in expectation of the same triumphs and rewards, have little time or inclination for controversy with each other, however ready they may be to oppose that which hinders the common cause.

Add to these considerations the genial influences of revivals of religion, and it is not difficult to understand the tendencies in our day toward Christian unity.

A thorough, heartfelt union among Christians is the great desideratum of our times. It would concentrate the moral power of Christendom, and demonstrate to the world the divine origin and effi cacy of the Gospel. Attempts to effect such a union have so often failed, because they have been directed not so much towards unity as towards uniformity. The aim has been to bring the various denomina. tions of Christians upon the same platform of faith, if not under the same ecclesiastical organization. We have never seen any such plan of union which did not resolve itself into this; that all existing denominations must renounce their peculiarities, excepting that with which the author of the scheme might chance to be connected. The Baptist, for example, argues, that since all other denominations acknowledge the validity of his mode of baptism, while he can not conscientiously acknowledge the validity of theirs, a union can be easily effected by one general immersion of all professed Christians, in which event he will co-operate with them even in distributing the word of God! The Episcopalian argues that since "the sects" all acknowledge his ordination to be valid, while he can not so acknowledge theirs, all that is wanting to the

Tract Society has succeeded better than any other of our great benevolent associations, in harmonizing the views and efforts of different denominations of Christians. But the Methodists have no connection with it; the Episcopalians but little; the Old School Presbyterians less probably than heretofore. These all, with the Baptists, have their separate "book concerns," or "boards of publication," which naturally engage their sympathies more than the united body. Similar boards are called for among Congregationalists and "Constitutional" Presbyterians, and yet another is demanded for the West. Moreover, the Tract Society, in its very endeavors to be liberal is in danger of becoming sectarian; and at the moment when it is undertaking to supply our country with an evangelical literature, (if not indeed with an itinerant ministry,) it is accused before the world of suppressing the facts of history and the voice of the illustrious dead, to accommodate itself to a bigoted secta rian or anti-sectarian prejudice.

The "plan of union" entered into by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the General Association of Connecticut, for promoting harmony among Presbyterians and Congregationalists at the west, has in the opinion of some furnished occasion for discord rather than union. The mixed ecclesiastical organization which it established, has produced a bad Presbyterianism and a worse Congregationalism, and after the experience of almost half a century may perhaps be rejected by both the original contracting parties as inexpedient and unsatisfactory. It is discarded extensively in the newer settlements, as less favorable to unity of feeling and action, than the independent existence of Presbyterian and Congregational churches, with the usual fraternal correspondence and intercourse. So much for at

tempts to produce unity among dif ferent denominations of Christians by articles of agreement. Like the convention for the joint occupancy of Oregon, such a union lasts only till one of the parties feels strong enough to give notice of its termination and seize the whole, and then-prepare for war. In every such plan, the less liberal sentiments will prevail over the more liberal. The spirit of the former is-triumph; of the latter-concession. Hence the latter has no alternative but to yield, or to withdraw; and there will be less friction in separate than in combined action.

We have no wish for uniformity. It is not essential to unity. Nay, it has often been its hindrance and its scourge., The attempt to enforce it has often led to the most cruel persecution. The author of the discourse before us makes the distinction between unity and uniformi. ty palpable by the following striking comparison of our national union with the temporary republic of France. "One and indivisible,' was the motto of a republic without liberty-a republic of atheism and massacre. E pluribus unum,' is the motto of that great expanding union which spreads its protection over our freedom. The commonwealth of Christ's own Israel is a commonwealth of freemen; and while it is so, it can not take to itself the bloody motto, One and indivis ible;' its unity must be none other than unity in diversity." (p. 28.)

We have already seen, that the author in his proposition for a convention which should represent the various evangelical bodies of this country and of Europe, does not specify the preparation of a creed or ritual as one of the objects of that convention. We presume that he would regard this as one of the least important objects which could come before so august a body. In fact he tells us, that one of the greatest hindrances to the advancement