pastor, Mr. N. Douglas, truly a loss to us, but great gain to him; he has exchanged earthly suffering for heavenly felicity. Particulars concerning this interesting event, you will find in the funeral discourse, published on the occasion, a copy of which you are requested to accept.

Theological truth is extending its influence amongst us, in this corner of the vineyard; we only seem to want a few zealous laborers, men of integrity and talent, and great good might be effected. We already hope, that the present intercourse now commencing with our American brethren, will be made. instrumental under the great Head of the church for the attainment of an object so desirable. Along with this, I have written also to Mr. E. Mitchell, Pastor, New-York, in which I have entered into some particulars which nearly concern us. I have requested the third volume of the Gospel Herald, when complete, the whole of the other seven Universalist periodical publications, from the commencement of each, if possible; the life of Mr. J. Murray, and Kelly's Union. Should this be found too troublesome to Mr. Mitchell, would you have the goodness to assist? The brethren here are upon the very tip-toe of expectation. The money will be remitted, or paid here according to order.

Hoping that you may perceive the house of Saul, which is death, tending to decay, and the house of David which is love, progressively acquiring strength, I remain, dear brother, tho at a great local distance, your coadjutor in proclaiming glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men.

Feb. 26, 1823.

WILLIAM WORRALL,
No. 102 Argyle-street, Glasgow.

CHARACTER OF MR. ELHANAN WINCHESTER.

I shall be pardoned the attempt of a very feeble delineation of the character which I have always ad

mired, loved, and venerated. Feeble indeed it must be, as the original was such as not often arrests the attention of mankind yet I shall be satisfied, if able to sketch an outline strictly comporting with truth, and descriptive of only the most predominant features of him "whose praise was in all our churches."

Mr. Winchester was born at Brookline, Mass. in the year 1750. It has been asserted that no peculiar traits of genius marked the first years of juvenile life. But as he approached manhood, when the mental powers began to expand, the native talents of a mind which was afterwards to astonish mankind, began to exhibit themselves. His powers of memory were soon observable. His natural seriousness and predisposition to the concerns of religion were perceived,and at a very early age, say about 19, he commenced preaching as an itinerant Baptist. His cotemporaries and associates regarded him as a young man of great promise, who would shortly become a "burning and shining light," in which they and their fellow christians should greatly "rejoice." Already he preached with a zeal, a pathos and animation rarely seen in others. His travels and labors soon extended from Vermont to South Carolina. In this enlarged space of country, hundreds, perhaps thousands were awakened to a serious view of the importance of religion, and to this day, many, who did not keep pace with him in his mental travel, nor partake of the enlargement of his views of "the great salvation," still acknowledge Mr. W. as the instrument of their "turning from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God."

While at the Southward, he received the first impression favorable to Universal Grace. Shortly, he sailed for England, where he tarried about 9 years, preaching and writing much. In London, he was well received-and in that city he delivered and published his lectures on the prophecies, with many other subordinate works, in illustration and support of the doctrine of the Restoration. On his return to America,

which was about the year 1793, he was received with a high degree of satisfaction by such as had imbibed his sentiments, and even by many who did not subscribe to them. He was heard with attention by most classes of Christians, and it was very rare that the meeting-houses of the several denominations were not opened to him, and crowded with attentive and admiring auditors.

The various orders of clergy in the United States associated with him, as with a man from whom they must have derived pleasure and profit. His extensive reading, his enlarged acquaintance with mankind, the fund of knowledge, stored in a memory bordering upon intuition, rendered his society interesting and instructive to all descriptions of men. But his urbanity, and the benevolence which glowed in his bosom, his simple unaffected manners rendered his conversation doubly interesting. Mr. W. had none of that imposing haughtiness, which lays humble inquiry under a painful restraint, nothing of that asperity of mind which often wounds the feelings of an opponent, and silences without convincing him. He respected the tender feelings of all christians, was charitable to their ignorance and absurdity, and treated with "meekness those who opposed themselves" to what he considered the truth of the gospel. His literary acquirements were by no means of a limited or superficial nature. With Latin, Greek and Hebrew he had an acquaintance, in which he was excelled by few; and he was able to preach intelligibly in the French language. The warmth of feeling with which he contemplated religion, the deep and solemn interest which he took in all its concerns, and his habit of piety, "which had "grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength," gave a pathos to his public discourses, which awakened and sustained the attention of the crowd who waited on his ministry; and tho some might think him an enthusiast, yet his was not the enthusiasm that distracts the mind, confounds the ideas, or disgusts the taste.

Under his impressive preaching, ridicule felt disarmed of half her weapons, and wit, which sometimes sports with sacred things, in his presence, tacitly confessed the object above her reach.

E. T.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM BR. M. NEEDHAM.

'DEAR BROTHER,-I send you a short extract from the Corresponding Letter of the Warren Association of Baptists, for 1821, which, if agreeable, you may insert in the Repository. After stating the encour agement of sending the gospel to the heathen, they -say; "Brethren, the word has gone forth-the world will submit to Christ. It is his by creation-his by the purchase of his blood-and it must be his by spiritual and holy subjugation. There is encouragement to action and to prayer.—

"Come then, and added to thy many crowns,

Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy."

Remark. These Baptists, in word, seem not far from the kingdom of heaven. May they one day be able to realize the fulness of their enlarged views. EDITOR.

HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY! PURGATORY!

In consequence of the different sentiments of Universal. ists, and the existing difficulties between our brethren in the vicinity of Boston, with which our readers are already, much to their grief, acquainted, Br. Turner published a discourse, expressing his general views of those religious tenets that relate to the subject. This discourse has called forth in the Magazine of Boston two opponents, one signed T. W. and the other Apollos. With the merits of the controversy, if such controversy exists, (for it does not yet appear that Br. Turner has taken any notice of his opponents,) we have nothing to do. We consider this as a matter which belongs to them, and not to us. But the heathen Mythology and Purgatory, which Apollos has introduced, - we have concluded to lay before our readers. "The author states," says Apollos, speaking of Br. Turner, "that the doctrine," meaning future punishment, "has been held by a large majority of those who believed in the final salvation of

all men, since the days of the Apostles.-This we acknowledge, and the same was held by the heathen priests and philosophers, long before the birth of Christ, which proves that it belongs to the heathen mythology, a doctrine which these men with the Roman Catholics embrace, calling it Purgatory."

We recollect reading of an old friend Quaker, who would neither shed the blood of man or beast. Being one day offended with his dog, he sent him forth into the street, saying, I will not hurt thee, but I will give thee a bad name. And so saying he cried out, mad dog! The consequence, as might easily be conjectured, was, the poor dog soon found too many enemies, to breathe. The reader can apply the moral. The opposers of universal salvation, have long thought the old Quaker policy a good one, and therefore thought they would give us a bad name. So they cried, the devil was a universal preacher; and no doubt they have kept ten souls in fear of us, by this bad name, where the subtle metaphysics of an Edwards has one. Now the doctrine of future punishment is to be put down, what is to be done? Give it a bad name. Cry heathen mythology and purgatory. Verily, Apollos, we do believe thee a bold fellow ["we BOLDLY contradict," he says in the course of his piece] to give "a large majority of those who believed in the final salvation of all men since the days of the apostles,”- -a large majority of the brethren of thy faith, a bad name. We hope thou wilt read, and think, and be ashamed; for tho the Quaker's poor dog fell a victim, because he had a bad name; yet the race of dogs is not extinct. They always might, and forever may, eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

ANECDOTE.

Charles II. hearing of a high character of a preacher in the country, attended one of his sermons. Expressing his dissatisfaction, one of his courtiers replied, that the preacher was applauded to the skies by his congregation. "Aye," observed the king, "I suppose his nonsense suits their nonsense.- -Westpolana.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Excommunications.-Mrs. Maria Townsend has lately been excommunicated in the city of New-York, for a disbelief of the endless misery of a portion of mankind.