acter, testing them by its attributes, we make as near an approach as a finite mind can make to that system of simple, pure, immutable truth, as it is viewed by the divine mind. One practical suggestion, and I have done. I have represented the knowledge of God as lying at the basis, and constituting the sum and substance of all truth. I remarked at the outset that we might perhaps find the route to truth shorter and easier than is commonly supposed. The best and surest route is prayer. Communion, intimate converse with any being is certainly the best means of gaining his acquaintance. Prayer, communion with God, must needs be the best means of gaining the knowledge of him, and through him, of all truth. Had Christians wrangled less and prayed more, there would have been much more both of truth and of union in the church than there now is. And the reason undoubtedly why, in scriptural inquiry, the wisdom of the wise has been so often destroyed, and the understanding of the prudent brought to nought, is that they have not been men of prayer, while humble, unlettered Christians, simply because they have been prayerful, have had brighter, clearer, more accurate, more adequate views than have crowned the labors of the critic, or the subtlety of the expounder of dark sayings. Reader, would you learn the truth as it is in Jesus? Be instant in prayer, fervent in spirit; and in you shall be fulfilled the Saviour's parting promise, "The spirit of truth shall guide you into all truth. He shall show you things to come. He shall receive of mine, and show it unto you. He shall teach you all things." Sylvester Hudd. A YOUNG MAN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS CONVERSION FROM CALVINISM. A STATEMENT OF FACTS. PRINTED FOR THE American Unitarian Association. BOSTON: JAMES MUNROE & Co. 134 WASHINGTON STREET. MARCH, 1838. Price 5 Cents. CONVERSION FROM CALVINISM. LETTER I. Dear W-n,You desire of me some account of myself of what I am, what I think, what I feel. My childhood was reared under the influences of Calvinism. At the Sabbath School I was taught the Assembly's Catechism. I cannot forget those days. I well recollect the benevolent countenances of my Teachers, and the solemnity with which they told their young pupils that we were sinners, and must be born again or we could not go to Heaven. I recollect, too, the mingled look of still unsatisfied curiosity, and unanalyzed, yet real disappointment, which came over the more thoughtful of my class, whose minds were just beginning to unfold themselves to the intense impressions of religious things. The child does sometimes ask, What am I, what am I going to be? Who is God, and how can I love Him, and be happy? If he be misdirected in these young inquiries, these buddings of a desire for spiritual knowledge, although he himself may not be conscious of the wrong, |