Rev. Mr. Osgood of Providence, were appointed a Committee of Business, through whose hands all resolutions should be presented to the Convention. The Committee soon reported five resolutions, embracing subjects proper for consideration and discussion, which we shall give in the order in which they were entertained by the Convention. The last of them was in these words :

66

Resolved, That

be a Committee to fix the time and

place of the next meeting of this Convention."

This received immediate attention, and the Committee was appointed, with a view to their making an early report. The blank was filled with the names of Rev. Dr. Dewey, and Messrs. Folsom of Haverhill, and Lothrop of Boston.

The first of the resolutions presented by the Business Committee was then taken up, and gave rise to an animated discussion, in which Rev. Messrs. Bellows of New York, Buckingham of Trenton N. Y., Briggs, Dewey, Hill, Folsom, Waterston of Boston, Lothrop, Putnam of Roxbury, Pierpont of Boston, Osgood, Harrington of Providence, and Mr. G. G. Channing of Boston took part. In the course of the morning it was Voted, that Rev. Messrs. Taylor, Thompson, and Cole, of the Christian denomination, who were present, be invited to take seats as members of the Convention. It was also Voted, that each session of the Convention be opened and closed with prayer. At half past 12 o'clock, after prayer by Rev. Mr. Brooks of Newport, the Convention adjourned, without having taken the question upon the resolution before them. Upon invitation of Rev. Mr. Nightingale the members generally proceeded to the house of his father, to partake of a rich display of fruit.

In the afternoon the Convention re-assembled in the Westminster church at 3 o'clock. Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Clarke of Uxbridge. The discussion of the morning was continued by Rev. Mr. Buckingham, Mr. James Arnold of New Bedford, Mr. Abiel Chandler of Boston, Rev. Messrs. Osgood, Thompson, Mr. Channing, Rev. Messrs. Stone of Sherburne, Pierpont, Bellows, Nightingale of Athol, and Hill. The resolution was then unanimously adopted in the following words:

"Resolved, That there is an imperious call upon our denomination, for a clear and earnest statement of their distinctive doctrines, and an urgent application of them to practical life."

The next resolution which the Convention voted to consider was in these words :

"Resolved, That whereas Divine Providence has removed from the world our beloved brothers, Greenwood and Ware and others, while we sympathise with the grief of their families and deplore our own loss,

we render thanks to Almighty God for the power of their lives and the worth of their memories."

After some remarks by Rev. Dr. Parkman, Messrs. Gannett of Boston, Osgood, and Hall, the resolution was passed by the members of the Convention all rising. The Convention then adjourned, after prayer by Rev. Mr. Hill.

On Wednesday evening religious services were attended in the Westminster church, which was filled. Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Gannett, and the sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Putnam, whose text was taken from 1 Corinthians xv. 58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." He began by saying that he had chosen his theme from a regard to the character of the occasion on which we had this evening met-the Lord's Supper, where all sound of sectarian difference should be avoided. He noticed the connexion of the passage, the force of the Apostle's previous reasoning, and the inference which Paul drew, as indicated in the word, therefore; and he thence deduced the truth, that there is an inseparable connexion between faith and practice. Religious principle is indispensable to morality; spiritual truth, spirituality of mind, is essential to right views of life. On such truth the Apostle founds his exhortation to constancy, which the preacher repeated in its application to the circumstances under which character is tried in our own times, and enforced by recurrence to the Apostle's doctrine concerning a future life. The certainty of that future state, its dependence for its character upon the present, and its possible nearness should induce us to maintain Christian fidelity and "abound" in goodness. At the close of the services in the pulpit the Lord's Supper was celebrated, nearly all those who were present during the former part of the evening remaining either to witness or to participate. The address was made and the prayer offered before the distribution of the bread by Rev. Mr. Lothrop, the address and prayer before the offering of the wine by Rev. Mr. Bellows. The service was concluded just before 10 o'clock.

On Thursday morning the Convention again met in the Chapel in which they had held the session of the previous morning. Some of the brethren had been obliged to return home, but the meeting retained its animated and earnest character. Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Angier of Milton. Rev. Mr. Thompson having left the city, Rev. Mr. Lothrop was chosen Scribe. The Convention took up the following resolution :

"Resolved, That there is pressing need of more united action in our churches, especially among our men."

The discussion upon which was maintained by Rev. Messrs. Hall, Osgood, Putnam, Bellows, Nightingale, Briggs, Folsom, Hill, Buckingham, Lothrop, Parkman, and Gannett. The resolution was then unanimously adopted.

One other resolution offered by the Committee on Wednesday morning remained to be considered. It was in these words:

"Resolved, That as the spirit of reverence is too little cherished in our land, devotion should have a more prominent place both in public worship and personal culture."

Which was made the subject of remarks from Rev. Messrs. Osgood and Briggs, Mr. Pray, Rev. Messrs. Thurston, Dewey, and Bellows; and was then unanimously adopted.

The Business Committee offered a resolution which had been prepared by Rev. Mr. Brooks of Newport, in these words :

"Resolved, That regarding the Christian Church as an organized communion of believers, we are called upon to make new efforts in behalf of its peculiar ordinances."

Remarks were make by Rev. Messrs. Brooks, Dewey, and Gannett, after which the resolution was passed unanimously.

The Committee appointed to select a place for the next meeting of the Convention not having been able to form a decision, obtained leave to report at some future time, through the proper channels.

Thanks were voted to the families of our Providence friends for the generous hospitality they had shown; to the pastors and churches for the excellent accommodations they had provided for our meetings,—to which Rev. Mr. Hall replied in the expression of thanks to those who had given their attendance at the Convention; and to the organists and choirs who had assisted in the evening services.

Prayer was then offered by Rev. Dr. Parkman, and the Convention was dissolved at a quarter before one o'clock.

We have room only to repeat the opinion of those who were present, that the Convention was in all respects satisfactory and delightful. Nothing occurred to disturb its harmony, and through the whole of the discussions ran a tone of earnest spiritual feeling, which we have never noticed to the same degree in any previous meeting of the kind. More than forty preachers were present, and the discussions were attended by a large number of ladies. We believe that these semi-annual Conventions must do good, and we wish the same spirit which was exhibited at Providence may preside over our May meetings in Boston.

***Several Notices and Articles of Intelligence, some of which are in type, we are obliged to omit for want of room.

WE meet you here to-night, Sir, as friends and brothers in the common cause of our holy faith. We have no official authority to impose commands upon you. Nor can we confer any such authority upon you to impose commands upon others. And yet what authority so high as that of the true ministers of Christ? To them are given the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Whatsoever they shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. But their authority stands not in the office which they hold; but in the truth which holds them. The minister of Christ is the child of truth; "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." And such a minister rests not upon his certificate of ordination; he does not go about to establish a succession of gifts coming through more than five thousand generations from the Apostle Peter to himself; his appeal is to the truth, and his speech and his life are "in demonstration of the spirit and with power." My brother, we pray that you may be such a minister; one of that God-ordained priesthood, who are daily bearing to the altars of philanthropy and piety truthful, benevolent and holy

* Delivered at the Ordination of Mr. Frederic Huidekoper, Oct. 13, 1843, by Rev. G. W. Hosmer.

Robert Hall and these, are of one

lives. Need I say where that priesthood may be found? No one sect can claim it; in the highest sense, it is a Catholic Priesthood. It embraces men of the most diverse creeds. Fenelon and Jeremy Taylor, George Fox and John Wesley, and Edwards and Channing and Tuckerman, all noble brotherhood,-God's elect! What so desirable as to be enrolled in such a fellowship? Not as a Catholic or a Protestant, not as a Baptist or Methodist, Trinitarian or Unitarian, but as a minister of truth.

My brother, we gladly believe that you come up to this house of prayer to-night, in earnest to devote your life to the ministry of reconciliation. According to the spirit with which you enter upon your work will be the fruit of your labors. I should waste time and words were I to specify the duties of your life. Be thoroughly earnest, and they will rise to your mind, each in its due season; and you will be moved as by instinct to the best ways and means of performing them. The earnest minister never labors in vain. The wise ones of this world may think he is spending his strength for naught, and faithless time-servers may cry out upon his imprudences; but the work to which he puts his hand will move onward.

By earnestness, I do not mean a superficial effervescence of spirit that bursts forth into hot haste, and violence, and noise: but an intensity of spiritual life, growing out of deep conviction of religious truth, a clear perception of its importance, and a full faith that not one tittle of it can fail to be realized. This earnestness is the child of wisdom, and it becomes the parent of power. It loosens every talent a minister possesses and forces him to break away from all his selfish hopes and fears, and pour the whole current of his energies into the execution of his work. The earnest pastor will never be trifling and worldly in his visits to his flock: and the earnest preacher will most surely find his way to the hearts of his hearers.

First then I charge you, to be an earnest minister of the Gospel. Nothing is so much wanted in our profession as earnestness. We want learning; we want a knowledge of human nature; we want polish of style, and the graces of eloquence; but we want true earnestness of soul more than all. There are ministers whose minds are ponderous bodies of divinity, and others who are accom