New Publications. —James Munroe & Co. have issued the first and second volumes of "Conversations with Children on the Gospels; conducted and edited by A. Bronson Alcott: a singular work, of which we hope to give some account in our next number. Benjamin H. Greene has just published a truly valuable "Memoir of the Rev. Bernard Whitman. By Jason Whitman." 16mo. pp. 215. Perkins & Marvin have sent out an American edition of The New Testament, arranged in Historical and Chronological Order, with copious Notes, &c.; by the Rev. George Townsend. The whole revised, divided into paragraphs, &c.; by the Rev. T. W. Coit, D. D." Royal 8vo. pp. 455 and 472. Perkins & Marvin have also given a beautiful reprint of the second London edition of Dr. Bloomfield's" Greek Testament, with English Notes, critical, philological and exegetical." In two volumes, 8vo. It is one of the most elegant and accurate specimens of various and difficult typography which have appeared in this country, and reflects great credit on the enterprise of the publishers, on the University Press at Cambridge, from which it issues, and on the gentlemen who have the control of that establishment. Of the merits of the work itself we hope to speak hereafter.

We are glad to learn from an advertisement of James Munroe & Co. that the second and third volumes of Mr. Noyes's New Translation of the Hebrew Prophets is now in press. It is understood that the first volume of Professor Palfrey's Lectures on the Old Testament, is going to press immediately. Gould & Newman also advertise as in press, a translation of Olshausen on Acts, by D. Fosdick, Jr.; Wiseman's Twelve Lectures on the Connexion of Science with Revealed Religion; a reprint of Tyndale's New Testament, edition of 1526, with marginal readings; and the first American edition of Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe, with a Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper; and two Sermons on 1 John ii. 3, 4, and 1 Cor. xv. 57: also, A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, in two volumes, 8vo.

We have on hand several articles, among which is one on the Duties of Young Men in respect to the Dangers of the Country, being a review of the Rev. Mr. Muzzey's excellent little manual, The Young Man's Friend, and a Discourse on the character of the late Rev. Dr. Howard, of Springfield, which we regret not being able to find room for in this number. They will appear in our next.

EDITORIAL NOTICE.

IN the Introduction to the New Series of the "Christian Disciple," of which this Journal is a continuation under another title, the objects of the work are thus stated, in 1819. "It will aim to point out the methods and sources of a right interpretation of the Scriptures; to throw light on the obscurities of these ancient records; to state and maintain the leading principles of Christianity; to vindicate it from the misinterpretations of friends, and the cavils of enemies; to illustrate its power in the lives of eminent Christians; to give discriminating views of evangelical virtue, and of the doctrines most favorable to its growth; to weigh impartially the merits of theological works, and of other books, which have a bearing on morals and religion; and to furnish interesting information, particularly in regard to the religious condition of the world." In the Preface to the first number of "The Christian Examiner," in 1824, the editor says: "Our most satisfactory labors will be those in which we may cooperate with our fellow-Christians; and we are happy to think, that the truths in which they dissent from us, stand less in need than heretofore of direct vindication, and that we shall be more at liberty, in future, to trace their application to the concerns of life, the reformation of literature, the correction of moral sentiment, the progress of society, the universal discipline of human nature, and the accomplishment of the designs of the divine benevolence." Two years afterwards, on a change in the editorial department, the work, it is said, "will be conducted on the same principles, maintain the same doctrines, and its contents be supplied by the same writers as heretofore. It has advocated no doctrines, however, and been conducted on no principles which forbid making a change, whenever a change shall appear to be an improvement. Indeed, it owes its existence to the demands of an inquiring and improving age; and unless it keep up with, or in advance of the progress of the times, it will be left behind to perish; a consummation which, we trust, we have a higher motive than that of any worldly interest for striving to prevent." "Above all," says the editor in the same Address, may we never forget, that the same freedom we claim for ourselves, belongs of equal right to the whole family of man. We therefore will not be angry with our brethren who dissent from us, for it may be without a cause. Though the great outlines of our constitutions are in all men alike, yet in the filling up, in the lights and shades of men's minds, there are differences without number, which must produce a corresponding variety in judgments and opinions. When tempted to complain of others, therefore, because they cannot think as we think, hear as we hear, read as we read, we hope we shall stop and consider who

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hath made us to differ. They are God's servants, not ours; and to their own Master let them stand or fall. As we would resist all dogmatism, and imposition, and prescription ourselves, we shall be careful how we impose upon, dogmatize, or prescribe to others." Again; the association of gentlemen, under whose care and general supervision "The Christian Examiner and General Review was undertaken in 1829, observe: "It shall be the main object of the publication, in treating any book or subject which has a bearing on religion or morals, to present those considerations respecting it, which would suggest themselves to the mind of an enlightened Christian. The work shall be characterized by openness, fearlessness, and moderation in the expression of opinions on any topic of public interest, not flattering popular prejudices, nor accommodating itself to them."

The undersigned, who are again associated as editors of the Christian Examiner, avail themselves of the occasion afforded by the commencement of a new volume, and the passing of the work into the hands of other publishers, to state, with some explicitness, the principles on which they propose to conduct it. These principles are the same on which it has been conducted, as we have seen, from the beginning. It is the intention of the editors to give as large a portion of their pages as ever to literary criticism, to history and biography, and to topics of common and practical interest; to sustain and vindicate the reputation the work has acquired for candor, liberality, and independence; and to make it, in short, not the organ of a society or of a sect, but a work for liberal Christians, the contributors to which will neither be required to sink their individuality, nor be understood to implicate others. If, as in former years, new topics of difference and discussion find their way from time to time into the Examiner, it will not be owing to any change in the principles on which it is conducted, or to any change of writers, for the principal contributors are to be the same, in general, as heretofore; but to the progress of inquiry, or the altered circumstances of the church. In the early days of the Christian Disciple, the Trinitarian controversy was new in this country, and the various questions it involved were yet to be gone over, and supplied ample material for theological discussion, on which Unitarians were agreed among themselves. But this controversy is wellnigh worn out, and other questions have taken its place in the public interest, respecting which the leading members of our own denomination differ, or have not yet made up their minds. Now it is obvious that in regard to all such questions the Examiner must adopt one of three courses: be silent; allow one side only to speak; or allow both sides to speak. Silence would not only betray an unworthy timidity, and prove fatal to its

interest and circulation as a periodical work, but be in contradiction to the very idea of such a work, the peculiar province of which is to take up and discuss the topics of the day, the controversies by which the public is agitated at the time. If then the Examiner were to adopt the second alternative, ― taking up these controversies, but allowing one side only to speak, that side might perhaps be satisfied; but the Examiner would cease, of course, to be a work for the whole denomination, and become the exclusive organ of one section of it. A rival work would immediately be commenced by the excluded, that through it they might obtain the justice of a fair hearing before their brethren; and the consequences of this step would not only be injurious in many respects to the Examiner, but multiply, exasperate, and prolong the disputes in question, to the serious harm of the denomination and the public. It remains that we should allow both sides, as Unitarians, to be represented in this work. And it is believed that no evil whatever will result from such a course, so long as the work is conducted on the part of the editors with discretion and firmness; so long as no more than the usual space is allowed to controversy of any kind, and no controversy is admitted which has not made such progress as to demand public attention, and no one is permitted to engage in this, who is not competent and disposed to maintain his side of the argument with intelligence, as a believer in Christ, and in a Christian spirit; so long as it is understood, that, from the nature of the case, no one is responsible, in any degree, for the views presented in such an article, but the individual over whose signature it appears; and, finally, so long as mutual recriminations are abstained from scrupulously, the only object had in view by all the parties being to supply the reader with the materials for making up an independent judgment. On the contrary, it is hoped and confidently expected, that a temperate and judicious carrying out of this liberal plan, will have the effect to impart additional life and interest to the Examiner, qualify it the better to meet the exigencies of the times, and contribute materially and essentially, under the divine blessing, to extend its circulation and its usefulness.

F. W. P. GREENWOOD.

JAMES WALKER.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

No. LXXX.

THIRD SERIES-No. XI.

MAY, 1837.

ART. I. The Young Man's Friend. By A. B. Muzzey. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1836. 18mo. pp. 178.

It belongs to the system of education at the present day, to pay great attention to the training of youth in preparation for its participation in the action of society. There is great wisdom in this, because much of the energy and enterprise, on which the prosperity and advancement of the world depends, is found among the younger men. The spirit, the hope, the sanguine enthusiasm, the fearlessness of consequences which are essential to great undertakings, are to be found in those whose hearts have not yet been chilled by disappointment, and to whom experience has not read lessons of doubt and caution. Some great things can only be achieved by a sort of desperate struggle, which none will venture who have lived long enough to be aware of its desperateness. Some evils never will be removed if their removal depend on those who have become accustomed to them, for they then become less burdensome than the toil of removing them. The old are naturally conservative; they wish to keep things as they are; they have ceased to hope any thing better; innovations disturb them as unwise and ungraceful. The young fancy every thing might be better; they take counsel of their imaginations and their dreams; they think every thing to be possible, and are impatient to introduce changes which shall VOL. XXII. 3D S. VOL. IV. NO. II.

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