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    Our principles and our sentiments then are in harmony with the spirit of the age . The triumph of the dayjs our triumph . The Rattle that is won was fought well and nobly , not to say mainly , by distinguished men of our body . At least we have done our share in bringing society into its

    actual position . First , therefore , let us exult , let us ' thank God , and take courage . ' If we are in unison with the spirit of the day , the spirit of the day is not against us . It cannot come to us , as it will do to many around us , with the penetrating keenness of the March winds , nor in the destructive rage of an autumnal storm ; but

    rather with the nurturing breath of advanced spring , and the genial glow of mature summer . In the genius of the age Chere maybe change , nay overthrow 7 , to doctrines which mystify and enslave , if they do not confound the reason , and to institutions which have exclusion for their motto , and the merest and narrowest selfism for

    their spirit ; which stand in direct contrast and open hostility to prevailing intelligence , and strive , with a perseverance that would honour a "better cause , not only to stay but to roll back the chariot wheels of a rapidly advancing generation .. But it cannot be . Their hostility can destroy no one but themselves . For

    this very end it may be permitted of Providence to display itself , and in their destruction , and in their present decays—for these doctrines are in * the sere and yellow leaf , ' and these institutions are crippled and tottering ; in their actual decrepitude and approaching dissolution , I say , there is room for the substitution of truth

    ami love ; $ here is encouragement for us to labour , there is assurance to us of success . The land is opening before us , and though the Philis * tine may possess it from sea to sea , his doom is sealed , and the hosts of the Lord are about to enter in and

    find rest and peacp ^ Recent events also have given no email improvement to our social po-

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    50 tJNITARUtt CttRONl € L £ .

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    sition . The day is not remote when but here and there a voice was heard in behalf of the truth of God and the rights of man , and the few who had strength of mind to emerge from prevailing darkness , and courage of heart to declare that they saw the light which others denied or

    denounceoTj These few were proscribed , maligned , driven from city to city , or expelled their mother country as things whose noxious presence she could not endure . But the iniquity of law has come to an end ; the war-whoop of bigotry is silenced ; churchism is no longer

    supported by the incendiarism of mobs ; the voice of reason and philosophy none can now quell by in * carceration , and that very exile which was a liltle since inflicted as a penalty is now sought for as a boon ; for this country in expatriating some of her best children , has enriched others

    and done something to pauperize herself * - Ali-these things " -are not against but for us . The winds that bore away from his home and his country that high-minded Christian who was in reality , and is almost now in public opinion distinguished as much for moral excellence as for

    success and skill in philosophy , and I will add for soundness in the faith , — the winds that bore Priestley away from England , bore on their wings to America , the seeds of intelligence , liberty * and gospel truth ; and well and widely did they scatter those seeds , and rich and large is the harvest to which the shoots of

    those seeds are speedily maturing . Is it nothing in our favour , that throughout that widely-extended and promising land thepure gospel . should rise and shine , here in full radiance , there in scattered lights , but every

    where with a rapidly expanding and a most lovely and benign power ? Is this nothing in our favour ? Does it give us no encouragement ? Does it afford no promise of similar triumphs on this continent , when its spirit and our spirit shall be assimilated to that

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1833, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2607/page/18/