Ordination at Walpole. On the 15th of November, Mr J. P. B. Storer was ordained as pastor of the Congregational Church and Society in Walpole, from the care of which the age and infirmities of Rev. Mr Morey have obliged him to retire. Rev. Mr. Dewey, of New-Bedford, offered an Introductory Prayer, and read portions of the Scriptures. A Sermon was delivered by Dr Nichols, of Portland, from 1 Cor. i. 1, 2; And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God; for I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.' We did not hear this sermon, which is universally said to have been an admirable one, and must therefore refer our readers to the Christian Register, for November 18th, in which will be found an abstract of it, which we regret we have not room to copy. The Ordaining Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr Harris, of Dorchester; the Charge given by Rev. Dr Lowell; the Right Hand of Fellowship, by Rev. Mr Huntoon, of Canton; and the Concluding Prayer by Rev. Mr White of Dedham. The orthodox, however, not willing to leave the work of this part of the vineyard to Unitarians alone, organised in the town a church of their own, we believe, at about the time of this ordination.

Church in Higginson Square, Salem. This building, erected on the very spot on which the first Congregational church in America was accustomed to assemble for the worship of God, was, on Thursday November 18th, dedicated to its purposes, The Introductory Prayer and Selections from the Scriptures were by Rev. Mr Brazer, of Salem. The Dedicatory Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr Prince, the senior, the Sermon delivered by Rev. Mr Upham, the junior pastor of the Society; and the Concluding Prayer offered by Rev. Dr Flint, of Salem. The text of the Sermon was, Ezra, v, 11. We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house which was builded many years ago. The house was dedicated, said Mr Upham, to the one God of heaven and of earth, the God of Abraham and of Israel, the God and Father of of our Lord d Jesus Christ; to the ends for which the christian revelation was given; to the memory and principles of our forefathers; and to the advancement of the reformation. Each of these topics, especially each of the two last, was enlarged upon, and offered the preacher frequent opportunities, of which be ably availed himself, to illustrate his subject from the history of the early days of NewEngland and of the reformation, the main principles of which were stated; principles to which we shall fail to be true, if

We

rest in the results to which the reformers came, instead of making the principles, which led them to those results, our guides to a still further reformation.

Massachusetts Peace Society. The anniversary meeting of this Society was held, as heretofore, on Christmas evening, After the usual reports were read in the Vestry, the Society listened in the Old South Church to an able address 'from the Hon. T. Fuller, of Cambridge, in which the objects of the association were stated and vindicated from the charge of being visionary

or romantic.

South's Sermons. We are pleased to see Proposals issued at Cambridge, for publishing A Selection from the Discourses of Robert South, D. D.' We think a volume judiciously selected from the eleven which his discourses compose, would be one of the most valuable in our language. A large portion of them are embittered with unworthy political animosities, which in sermons are particularly revolting. But the purely ethical and practical parts of South's works are of the very highest order of excel

lence.

Sunday Evening Lectures. For the months of January, February, and March, two or more of the Unitarian Churches of Boston, are to be open on Sunday evenings for the purpose of giving a course of religious lectures. The services will be by Unitarian clergymen of Boston and its vicinity, and we trust they will be the means of much good.

Obituary.

To perpetuate the meritorious actions of public men, is not only a tribute due to their memory, but an act of justice to that public which they have faithfully served. Their actions, too, are usually of that imposing character which affords to the biographer an increased motive to record them. Yet when we reflect how few, in comparison, can ever have an opportunity to imitate their virtues, whilst from those which have been exhibited in private life, all may in some degree profit, we shall perhaps find a sufficient inducement to preserve a memorial of such as have exerted an influence, though less seen, not less happy, or less extensive in its effects; especially when that influence is the consequence of principles, immutable in their nature, and universal in their application.

THOMAS ARNOLD, Esquire, who died at his country residence, near Providence, on the 8th of November last, in the 75th year of his age, was in our estimation an instance worthy of such notice. Possessing by nature, a powerful and discriminating mind, he avowed in early life his conviction of the truth of those fundamental principles, the freedom of the will, the

rights of conscience and of civil and religious liberty. These were not with him subjects of mere speculation, or to be acted upon only when national or individual convenience may permit, but inviolable principles by which the actions of men should at all times be influenced.

With acquirements equal to those of most men, Mr Arnold was among the last to use them for display; and, at the commencement, as throughout his life, he manifested an almost fastidious disregard to all factitious honors. At the time for taking the first degree at the college of his native state, with several of the best scholars of his class, whilst he fulfilled every pecuniary obligation to the institution, he refused the usual Diploma, alleging as a reason, that he preferred to rest his reputation on his mental acquirements, and failing in this, he would never produce a written certificate of a good education.

He indulged his predilection for the study of the law, and successfully commenced practice a short time previous to the Revolution. But when the excitement of that period introduced a test oath, to be administered to all practitioners at the bar, he abandoned the profession, because he could not conscientiously take it. In perfect accordance with the just principles which never ceased to influence him, the oppressed Africans ever found in Mr Arnold, a faithful and able advocate; and whilst their rights and the abolition of the slave trade depended rather on the justice of the cause, than its popularity, he was for many years actively engaged in it, often laboring alone, or with but a few sincere coadjutors. But when the public feeling and the laws became such as to leave little for individuals to perfom, he was satisfied to leave to others the honor of appearing as its public supporters.

Mild and conciliatory in his feelings and manners, he was ever firm in the performance of his duty; and when engaged in what he believed a just cause, no threats or difficulties could intimidate him. A striking illustration of this occurred at the period of public excitement already alluded to, when Mr Arnold became the advocate of a few obscure farmers, in the settlement of whose accounts with a servant of the French government, the members of the General Assembly were attempting to interfere. He maintained the supremacy of the laws and the trial by jury; and, though threatened with imprisonment, dared to remind the sovereign body of the state, that they were usurping a power which did not belong to them, and refused to obey its mandates. But having firmly withstood this impassioned excitement, and addressed his remonstrances to the calm reflection and good sense of that body, he had the satisfaction to find himself referred to the proper tribunal, and to gain his cause.

influ

Public stations to which the discrimination and respect of his fellow citizens would have called him, he invariably declined, though never disposed to undervalue their good opinion. For more than thirty years he was a merchant. But the same rules of conduct always governed him, Hewithstood, as far as he was able, every practice, which, though sanctioned by custom, was inconsistent with equity and justice; and with a few conscientious and honorable individuals, whilst yet they retained some ence in the religious society of which they were members, strenuously advocated and succeeded in obtaining a positive rule forbidding all, when under pecuniary embarrassment, to favor any of their creditors to the prejudice of others. For himself, when pressed by losses and few men ever had more to encounter-instead of entering into more extended and doubtful adventures, in the hope of retrieving them, to the imminent hazard of the rights of those to whom he was indebted, a course too often pursuedMr Arnold preferred to rely upon his own prudence and honorable exer

tions, and had the happiness to retain a decent competency, on which to retire with a quiet conscience, as he became advanced in life.

In charities, few men were more liberal. He rarely refused a demand on his time, his talents, or his purse, when required to assist the widow and orphan, or the helpless and uninformed. But of acts like these, it seems like sacrilege to speak, since he conscientiously observed the command, Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand, doeth.'

The same principles of action, the same jealous care over the rights of the human mind, made him also the firm and judicious defender of religious liberty.

When he united himself to the denomination of Friends, he remained free from superstition, and was incapable of the exclusiveness of sectarian feehngs. For a loug course of years, as far as a mind like his could be permitted to influence their councils, he was continually exerting that inAuence in the sphere of his action. Before the society became agitated by the present struggle for religious freedom, his patient spirit, his knowledge of human nature, and the remarkable adaptation of his efforts to the ignorance and prejudices of other minds, enabled him, in some degree, to stand firm against superstitious encroachment, and he was chiefly instrumental in obtaining what few amendments were made in their written laws.

His gentle influence had always for its object the advancement of the great principles of truth and justice, the liberation and expansion of the human intellect. And though little was effected by it at the time, it has outlived the hour in which it was put forth, and Mr Arnold may justly be called one of the Reformers of the age, Unfettered by creeds, and well qualified to disentangle and simplify doctrines, he was an advocate of Unitarian Christianity, and of the all-sufficiency of a conscientious walk in the presence of God.

As the right of private judgment in the society of Friends became more and more infringed, and oppression was variously shaped to bind the spirit which was struggling for the privileges given by God to man, he occasionally stood forth in calm and emphatic remonstrance. In discussions which betrayed a narrow-minded, sectarian policy, the shrewdness of his well timed observations was remarkable, and his keen but tempered wit made its way to the very seat of tyranny;-a tyranny more the effect of ignorance and superstition than of guilt. But it was not often in his latter days, that he took any part in the contest. He rather stood, as a pillar of religious freedom, in silent dignity, in calm forbearance, and in a prophetic conviction that these things must be so until conscience is set free and truth established.'

Yet amidst t..is retirement, he was not an indifferent spectator of the changes which were taking place around him. Impressed with the conviction that no veil is so impenetrable as that woven by Bigotry and Superstition, and no chains more insidiously imposed, and more difficult to sever, than those with which they propose to bind the conscience, he was not without apprehensions, that, even in our happy country, from a supine confidence in our free institutions, the artful or ignorant upholders of the supremacy of human creeds and dogmas, might find themselves enabled so to lord it over the consciences of their brethren, as to introduce some modification of a union of church and state; a union which the experience of other nations has shown to be fatal to the genuine spirit of christianity in the one, and, to say the least, nearly as injurious to that of liberty in the other. Mr Arnold considered that we are safe from such designs, only whilst the en

lightened among us, with christian temper expose, and with christian firmness, resist them.

In his private and social character he was peculiarly interesting. The strength and cultivation of his mind and his ready sympathy with the feelings of others, made him the useful and familiar companion of young people, whilst his quick perception of the various forms of human infirmity, enabled him to point a moral while contributing to the general amusement. Without the formality of professed instruction, or even the appearance of advising, he exerted a most beneficial influence over their minds, and they own its power as they drop the tear of affection on his grave.

Mr Arnold was a most affectionate husband, an unchanging friend. So Variously intellectual was his conversation, so quickly could his mind seize the several parts of a subject and form a mature judgment, so dear was his society, that as a companion he had scarcely his equal. In the endearing character of a father, we are well aware he cannot be portrayed. His peculiar adaptation of himself to his children, the interest he took in all their pursuits and in leading them to the developement of their own minds, their own feelings of love and of reverence, uniting and producing the most delightful intimacy and filial confidence, these, and more, are deeply felt in the hearts of his children, but can never be described.

Notwithstanding the subject of this memoir was such as he is here delineated, his cup of life was not without its infusions of bitterness. That which once bore the name of friendship and affection has too often, by the strange processes of evil, been converted into hostility and injustice. But however these things may have borne down his mortal frame, his spirit reposed in itself-and, with a peace and serenity beyond the power of interruption, has returned to its Divine Original.

New Publications.

The Character of Julius Cæsar; a Debate. By James Sheridan Knowles, Glasgow. Boston, Wait, Greene, & Co. 12mo. pp. 52.

Poems; by Bernard Barton. Boston, Munroe & Francis. 18mo, pp.

324.

Letters on the Gospels. By Miss Hannah Adams. Second Edition. Cambridge, 18mo. pp. 160.

Harriet and her Cousin; or Prejudice overcome. First American from the Fourth Edinburgh Edition. Salem, Whipple & Lawrence. 1827.24mo. PP. .160.

Two Discourses on the Nature of Sin, delivered before the Students of Yale College, July 30, 1826. By the Rev. Eleazer T. Fitch. New Haven, Treadway & Adams. 8vo, pp. 46.

The League of the Alps, The Siege of Valencia, The Vespers of Palermo, and other Poems. By Mrs Hemans. Boston, Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1 Vol. 8vo.

A Selection from the English Prose Works of John Milton; with a Preface. By Francis Jenks. Boston, Bowles & Dearborn. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 360 and 356.

The History of New England, from 1630 to 1649. By John Winthrop Esq. From his Original MSS. With Notes, by James Savage. Vol. ii. Boston, Thomas B. Wait, & Son. 8vo. pp. 429.

New England's Memorial, by Nathaniel Morton, Secretary to the Court,