FORMS OF NOTICE.

We, the undersigned, request you to call a meeting of the members of the fellowship fund to be held the text Lord's day (the instant) immediately after afternoon's service, to take into consideration the propriety of voting a sum of money to [assist our Unitarian brethren at Thorne in Building their Chapel] (signed) AB. CD. EF. GH. IJ. dated To Mr. Secretary

to the Fellowship Fund. Notice from the secretary, to be read by the minister or clerk.

The members of the Fellowship Fund are requested to meet in the vestry this afternoon immediately after service.

By a plan of this kind, Mr. Editor, union and co-operation in individual societies would be promoted; a state of things in every point of view desirable, and preliminary to any good to be expected from a general association of the Unitarian body. The progress of Unitarianism, and the efforts made for its advancement, would be detailed in these societies, and carried home to and again discussed at the firesides of the members. Thus accurate information would be circulated, and an increased interest in and attachment to the cause excited, not only amongst the members of the same congregation, but between the scattered societies of the Unitarian body. The calls upon Unitarian liberality, for the erection of new chapels and other important objects, have of late happily been frequent. But if continued, which I trust will be the case, they cannot be so promptly met, and so effectually answered as they ought to be. The willing giver will from prudential motives be obliged however reluctantly to withhold his aid. We must therefore look out for other and multiplied sources of supply, and call in the many in aid of the few. Before you is a plan for that purpose, which whilst it organizes a fresh set of contributors, and falls so easily upon all as not to be felt by any, does not interfere with por supersede the exercise of liberality on the part of the affluent members of the Unitarian body. I will only add of this project, that I shall be truly glad to see it superseded by a better.

There is indeed one objection, which

these plans for raising additional sums of money in any congregation, do in fact detract from the stipend of the stated minister; or where that stipend is low and insufficient, tend to keep it so. I allow this objection in all its force as applied to many of the topics of sermons on particular occasions and to subsequent congregational colleetions; but I deny the assumption upon which this objection proceeds, as applied to the project detailed above. It will be found (except in cases of endowment) that a small salary bears a direct proportion to the smallness of a congregation. If this be so, all plans that tend to increase the numbers of a religious society, tend to the increase of the minister's salary; and this tendency must be granted to all means likely to convey information, excite additional interest, and promote personal attachment and intercourse and congregational union and co-operation.

By some an objection may be felt to the term fellowship fund. I care little about the name, and have not any objection to its being termed an auxiliary fund, a cominon fund, or any other name, provided the end be kept in view. It certainly is always desirable to call things by their right names, and I do not propose the project or the designation as at all corresponding with the xovwvia, the "fellowship" of the primitive Christian church, nor as at all wishing to interfere with that apostolical institution wherein it is observed. Such a Christian contribution, were it uni versal, would be more efficient; and most earnestly would I wish to see it supersede the proposal before you, which is simply a project to organize a new and permanent set of contributors, and which must stand or fall on the ground of expediency alone. One word as to the productiveness of such a plan, and I have done. So far as I know, we have not any data to form any tolerably correct estimate of the Unitarian population of the United Kingdom; but if for the sake of illustration, we suppose a plan to be adopted which would associate one hundred thousand contributors throughout the empire, at one penny a week each, it would produce nearly twenty-two thousand pounds per annum, (21,6067. 13ş. 4d.); when probably at

mankind) it must be determined by the knowledge of the actual feelings of men in general, during the whole of their mortal existence, as far as these can by any means be ascertained. Should it appear that good preponderates over evil, and happiness outweighs the miseries of life, a strong presumptive argument is hereby furnished for perfect ultimate felicity, when the scheme of the divine government respecting man is completed. Should the reverse however be established, and it be clearly shewn that evil prevails more than good, pain and distress more than ease and comfort; even in this case so many proofs present themselves of the benevolence of God in the constitution of nature, and the salutary tendencies of evils themselves, that we should be justified in inferring the necessity of thein to such an extent, in this introductory scene, but not in concluding that therefore evil will eventually triumph over good. As to the estimate of which I am treating, let the comparison be fairly made on an enlarged view of the aggregate of mankind, and the evidence, I think, appears in favour of the comforts of life exceeding its infelicities. On this extensive scale should the inquiry be conducted, and not confined to the peculiarly sad condition of certain individual sufferers, or to such times as the present, when more than usual distress prevails. Neither is it necessary, in order to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of our heavenly Father, or to prove the prevalence of happiness over misery, to assert that the pleasing sensations of every human being, whether he remains on the stage of life for a longer or shorter period, exceed his painful feelings. That in some particular cases the latter should exceed the former seems unavoidable, unless the Deity deviated from those general laws which he has established, and according to which he sees it best

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multiply much faster, than their means of subsistence." He is however mistaken in supposing that no writers on this subject have attempted to answer this argument. The fact is. admitted by Dr. Paley, in his "Natural Theology," and the observations which he makes on this part of the constitution of things I shall transcribe, as tending at least to abate the force of the objection. "The order of generation proceeds by something like a geometrical progression. The increase of provision under circumstances even the most advantageous, can only assume the form of an arithmetic series. Whence it follows that the population will always overtake the provision, will pass beyond the line of plenty and will continue to increase, till checked by the difficulty of procuring subsistence."-Paley's Nat. Theol. p. 548.

"In what concerns the human species, it may be a part of the scheme of Providence, that the earth should be inhabited by a shifting or perhaps a circulating population. In this economy, it is possible there may be the following advantages; when old countries

are become exceedingly corrupt, simpler modes of life, purer morals and better institutions may rise. up in new ones, whilst fresh soils reward the cultivator with more plentiful returns. Thus the different portions of the globe come into use in succession as the residence of man." -P. 520.

When a country possesses a greater population than the means of affording it provisions, distress must be the result to a portion of its inhabitants, The evils however arising from such a state of things will not, generally speaking, rush on them suddenly, but approach by gradual steps. As the difficulties increase of procuring a livelihood, many of the lower classes of society, especially mechanics and husbandmen, are induced to remove to countries less thickly inhabited, and which promise to reward their exer tions with a more comfortable subsistence. Hereby the barren desert becomes a fruitful field, and the wilderness, before the haunt of beasts of prey, in due time is changed into a safe and commodious habitation for man; "joy and gladness," in the words of the prophet, are found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice

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of melody." Countless millions of human beings are hereby brought into existence, Y. N. thinks to be miserable, but more justly I trust it may be said, to partake of the bounties of Providence here, and to be trained up, by a course of moral discipline begun in time and completed in eternity, to glorify God and enjoy him for ever." This law of the divine government, then, by which population increases in a greater proportion than the means of subsistence, producing no doubt many partial evils, effects most extensive and general good. On a large scale comprehending the whole of this habitable globe, it is a law which evinces both the wisdom and goodness of the common Parent of mankind, by being favourable to the production of a greater sum of human happiness. Yet to Y. N. "it appears with so dreadful an aspect, that he says the statement of it is horrible."

Considering the misery which he supposes to be our lot after arriving at a certain age, he must surely view the following statement of his, as a great blessing to the children who thus meet with an early grave, however much it may be regretted by their parents. "It is calculated that not less than one fourth part of the human species perish, before they become moral agents, before four years of age." Granting this, there is good reason to conclude, that their sum of enjoyment exceeds their painful sensations, during their short scene of mortal existence; the balance there. fore in respect of happiness is in their favour. That some of them (not "many" comparatively)" perish by diseases brought on by want," may be admitted as a melancholy fact, without its disproving the position just stated.

I now proceed with Y. N. to consider the condition of those who arrive at the period of youth and manhood. In his view, both the single and the married must necessarily be miserable: the former because they are single and have no help meet for them;" the latter, because the parties are often ill-sorted, or have great anxieties respecting their children, or their connexion is embittered by disease or dissolved by death. Alas! for poor mortals, let them do as they will, their condition must be sad indeed.

Be it known however to my readers, that the present writer is a lachelor on the wrong side, as it is usually termed, of fifty, yet (let every one speak for himself) he could tell Y. N. that he has not experienced that overwhelming misery, which is the unavoidable lot it seems, of all those who are doomed to pass singly through life's varied scenes. As to the generality of those who are in the same pitiable situation with myself, I do not perceive such very gloomy and desponding countenances, as indicate their being weary of existence. With respect to married persons also, as far as my observation reaches, their cup of life has mingled ingredients of bitter and sweet, with so great a proportion of the latter however, as to make it upon the whole tolerably palatable.* Another objection to the present constitution of things, is the appointment of the separation of the parties, if happily coupled, by the unsparing hand of death. "Disease and death come," says Y. N. “and the survivor is doomed to wear out a wretched life in aggravated solitude.” Instances of this kind are no doubt to be met with, which cannot but excite the sympathy of every one who has a heart to feel. As Y. N. looks around him and draws his inferences from

This on the other hand is balanced by the union of parties so ill-sorted, that as Dr. Watts says, in his celebrated lines on "Few Happy Matches," "As well may heav'nly consorts spring, From two besides the bass." The great majority of old lutes with ne'er a string, Or none marriages are, I believe neither the one nor the other; neither characterized by any great degree of felicity or of misery; but in which, as might be expected from

an institution of the benevolent Parent of

mankind, happiness preponderates: