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    copy tying before us is of-the Fourth Liverpool Edition , 1824 : and the discourse was also reprinted at Newcastle in 1820 . How much it struck

    the public mind in America , when it first appeared , is evident from the extract given by Mrs . Cappe from a letter of her American Correspondent , Dr . H ., in a communication inserted in the Mon . Repos . for $ 820 , p . 14 ; to this we refer our readers for some

    interesting information respecting the rise of the Unitarian Church at Baltimore , a town which stands next to New , York in commercial importance . The letter must have been written about four months after the delivery of the Sermon ; and Dr . H , then says ,

    " It has passed through two large editions in Baltimore , ( eight hundred copies of the first , it has been said , were take ~ n up on the day of its publication ;) and two editions hare been printed in Boston . It is eagerly read ; and the impression which it has made ,

    and is making , is very great . " Indeed a Correspondent , writing from Charleston at the close of the same year , ( see Mon . Repos . 1319 , p . 12 S , ) says , that " Mr . Cha ; nning ' 8 Ordination Sermon at Baltimore went through tight editions in four months . Not less than 15 , 000

    copies were sold in that period ; and it is yet in high demand . " The striking and extensive effect ^ which have since followed , we have already stated in our first article under this head ( p . 104 ); but these various facts clearly prove , that the public mind in the United States had been

    gradually getting into a state of preparation for the adoption and manifestation of Unitarian sentiments . It often happens that doubts and perplexities are long felt , almost without the individual ' s notice of the state of his mind : or he may have been conscious of darkness , and believed it

    impenetrable ; and the light of truth may have burst forth , all at once , with such convincing and almost overpowering radiance / that the honest heart could not but receive it almost instantaneous ly . Such cases occurred at the time of the Reformation ; and they have occurred in the present day , and in our own country . In the United States , the freedom from the imposing influence of a wealthy and powerful establishment , long and

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    closely connected with the state , —air advantage which we fran . hardly appreciate till we observe how that influence operates to check a disposition to inquire as well as to interfere with its predisposing causes , - ^ and the

    steady and judicious efforts of intelligent men to weaken the force of opinions which they deemed erroneous , together with the unsuitaWeriess of these opinions to the liberal spirit of the gospel and the increasing enli g htenment of the times , had contributed in no slight degree'to cultivate

    the soil . -When Dr . Charining's Sermon , at Baltimore , was published , numbers saw that they believed - no more than he taught ; and a still greater number who , perhaps , bad thought hut little on the distinguishing tenets of religious parties , or at least never received with conviction

    the doctrines of Orthodoxy , saw that this was a form of Christianity which approved itself to the heart and the understanding , and adopted it as a remedy for their doubts , or as a solid ground for their attachment to

    Christian faith . Many more were doubtless set to think on the subject by the representations of the discourse ; but the progress of those who have to work their way for themselves is less rapid and striking , though usually most effective and permanent .

    There is not a mqre interesting intellectual process , than what often takes place in the last case ; when he in whose heart the genuine holy love of Christian truth has taken up its abode , is seen examining with

    caution , leaving his heart always open to evidence , yet never rejecting an opinion , and receiving an opposing doctrine , till he has fairly considered their respective evidence , labouring under

    dimculties , yet not discouraged by them , but patiently surmounting them ; till at last he discerns , with satisfied judgment , the leadings of Christian truth , and then , wilh manly fortitude , and the determination of Christian principle , avows and acts upon bis convictions , and docs what in him lies

    to lead others to embrace them . Of Dr . Clianning ' s Baltimore Sermon , a short notice was given in our volume for 18 i *> , p . ( J 35 . It is distinguished for Its calm , comprehensive statement of the leading points to

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    Occasional Notices of American Publications . 365

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 365, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/39/