everlasting age, or of the age or dispensation to come; referring to the Christian Dispensation, which is to endure through all time, and of which Christ is represented as "the author and finisher," "the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Heb. xii. 2; Rev. xxii. 13.

Some passages have been supposed to ascribe divine attributes and works to Christ. The language I believe to be figurative. Paul says of himself, "I can do all things." Phil. iv. 3. John says to Christians in general, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things." 1. John ii. 20. These are examples of universal propositions, which are not to be understood in the full extent of their signification. The works of creation ascribed to Christ were works not of the natural but of the moral creation. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” things have become new." 2. Cor. v. 17.

In him "all

Divine worship is thought to have been paid to Christ. The original word, however, means merely homage, respect, or obeisance, as in 1. Chron. xxix. 20. "All the congregation bowed down their heads, and worshipped the Lord and the King."

4. To the fourth class of passages may be referred those, which have been mistranslated and misunderstood. Phil. ii. 5-8. The common translation says that Christ "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Probably the true sense of the original may be more fully expressed thus; "Let the same dispositions (of humility and benevolence) be in you, which were in Jesus Christ; who, being the image of God, did not think his likeness to God a thing to be eagerly retained, but lowered himself, and took the ap. pearance of a servant, and became like men; and, being in the common condition of a man, he humbled himself, and submitted to death, even the death of the cross." (PROF. NORTON.) John X. 30. "I and my Father are one." This means one in counsel or intention, i. e. have the same mind. This appears from John xvii. 20-22.

To most of the above passages Trinitarians, of course, would give a different explanation. How then shall common Christians decide between them? This is the rule: "Of two interpretations of a passage, which seems to be doubtful, that one should be adopted as the true interpretation, which best agrees with the current langage and uniform tenor of the Scriptures."

AN

ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF

REV. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, D. D.

OCTOBER 7, 1842.

BY REV. EZRA S. GANNETT.

PRINTED FOR THE

American Unitarian Association.

BOSTON:

JAMES MUNROE & Co. 134 WASHINGTON STREET. FEBRUARY, 1843.

Price 4 Cents.

NOTE.

THE Committee of the American Unitarian Association having expressed a wish to include this Address, originally published by request of the Federal Street Congregational Society, among their Tracts, it is now reprinted, with one or two slight alterations, and with the introduction of a single paragraph from a sermon preached by the author on the Sunday after the delivery of the Address, in which the beautiful and Christian character of Dr. Channing's death is noticed more fully than it had been previously. It seemed as if, in the more permanent form which the discourse now assumes, this example of the serenity and piety, of which our faith may be the support in the last hours of life, should be placed prominently before the reader, although it involved the necessity of some repetition.

1. R. BUTTS, PRINTER,

2 School Street.

ADDRESS.

"WHOSOEVER liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Such were the words of Jesus, when talking with one whose heart was well-nigh broken by recent and heavy affliction. She had addressed him in terms of reproach, for his absence from the death-bed of his friend. He spoke to her of the life before which death is powerless, and of the faith which composes the mind under bereavement. His discourse was with her, but his language assumed that form of expression which gave it a prophetic meaning for all future ages. And now,

unseen, but present in the influences of his Gospel within this house, as he was present, though unseen, in the same influences within the apartment where the spirit unbound its fellowship with that lifeless frame, -I hear him say, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Beneath such a voice I feel the emotions of grief which convulse the bosom subside into the calmness of a faith, which pierces the visible changes of death and seizes on the reality of an immortal life.

Our friend was one in whom the declaration of the Saviour found its fulfilment. And great as is our sorrow at his departure from us, the indulgence of this sorrow is not the way to express the influence which he had acquired over our hearts. I dare not fix your thoughts upon the magnitude of our loss; for this would betray a forgetfulness of the lessons which he labored to communicate, and so far would dishonor his sacred memory. Our sense of loss, besides, is too deep for words, I could utter it but in broken expressions; you could respond but in choking sighs. To those who filled the circle of his domestic love, may the consolations which God giveth them who seek the shelter of his grace be abundantly granted. To those who, beyond that circle, yet enjoyed the intimacy which bound his to kindred minds, who travelled with him the paths of high thought and holy sentiment and generous endeavor, the recollection of past privilege will carry an antidote to its own infliction of pain. But not on them alone, nor on the members of the Christian society into whose house of prayer his form, that has so often seemed here to borrow from the inward nature a portion of its spiritual energy, has now been brought insensible, yet beautiful, as if the tranquillity of holy thought still moulded that brow; nor on this congregation, from all the departments of social life though it have been gathered; but upon this whole community, upon our land through its vast extent, upon the world, and upon future generations, has this loss fallen. Wherever the wants of humanity are felt, or its interests need or shall hereafter need to be expounded by the clear understanding, or advocated by the eloquent tongue, wherever freedom might seek to bestow its blessings, or