amount of juvenile delinquency in this City, as well as contributed, by the instruction imparted to its inmates, towards their restoration as valuable members of society.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," is the assertion of Scripture; and past history establishes the validity of the assertion. "The signs of the times," whilst they exhibit Anglicanism and Evangelicalism in conflict, also show us the existence-in the same Church of England which has articles and creeds for preventing diversity of faith-of clergy and laity who demur to those articles, and deem its leading creed unchristian. With the idol" Uniformity," the human mind, fact, and Scripture, are equally at war. The following petition has recently been presented to the House of Lords by Achbishop Whateley :

"To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, the humble Petition of the Members of the United Church of England and Ireland, who hereunto subscribe their names and addresses,

"Sheweth,-That some deviations from the authorised forms and positive obligations of our Church, have been found so advisable as to be sanctioned by general practice, while the clergy are still bound to profess an adherence to the letter of our Prayer-Book and Articles.

"That Athanasius's Creed is not generally understood by the people; and is drawn up in a way which leads many to believe that the damnatory clauses are part of the Catholic Faith; while each of the damnatory clauses in itself is such as to require an explanation inconsistent with the words when taken in their plain sense and common force.

"That in various other parts of our Prayer-Book, especially in the Services for Baptism, for Ordination, and for Burial, some words and phrases are of doubtful signification, and otherwise liable to misconstruction; so that the alteration of them has become requisite or expedient, and will cut off occasion from them that seek occasion to cavil or quarrel against our Liturgy.

"That some of the Canons could not be acted upon, and others are confessedly inexpedient; while the Clergy

are commonly understood to be bound to the observance of them all.

"Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray, that your Lordships will consider what measure should be adopted to render the Letter of our Prayer-Book and the Subscription to our Articles and Liturgy consistent with the practice of our Clergy and the acknowledged meaning of our Church.

"And your Petitioners shall ever pray for the welfare and prosperity of your Lordships."

SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION.-The Sixth Annual Meeting of this Association took place at Radley's Hotel, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, London, on Wednesday, June 10; the Rev. D. Davison in the Chair. Upwards of eighty persons sat down to breakfast; being a larger number than had assembled on any previous occasion.

After an excellent address from the Chairman, the Secretary (Rev. E. Chapman) read the report,-which contained much interesting matter from the different schools in connexion with the Association, showing that, for the most part, they are in a flourishing conditionconducted with much zeal, spirit, and ability—and, as far as can be judged, likely to effect much good among those for whose benefit they have been instituted.

Eight schools have joined the Association since the last report; and one, hitherto in connection with the Society, has been lately discontinued. Reports have been received from twenty-three schools. For a condensed statement of their contents, the reader is referred to the forthcoming report of the Association; which may be had on application to Mr. J. Green, 121 Newgate-street, the Agent and Depositary of the Society.

Together with the necessary resolutions of business, the following resolution was moved by the Rev. J. C. Means, seconded by the Rev. B. Mardon, and supported by the Rev. Dr. Hutton and the unanimous feeling of those assembled:

"That this Meeting desires to express its deep and heartfelt respect for the memory of the late Drs. Carpenter and Tuckerman; men whose Christian piety and varied excellence entitle them to be held in enduring

remembrance, and whose kind and valued co-operation in the formation of this Society, calls for special notice on the present occasion."

The meeting was throughout very pleasant in its spirit, and broke up in evident satisfaction with the proceedings of the morning. There is good reason to hope that it will not be ineffectual in promoting the great and good work of Sunday-school instruction.

The

THE Annual Meeting of the Manchester Unitarian Village Missionary Society, was held in the School-room, Little Mosley-street, Manchester, on Monday evening, May 11, the Rev. J. G. Robberds in the chair. sixteenth annual report of the Society was read, and approved. From that report, we learn that the operations of this useful Society have been continued at Astley, Swinton, Croft, Padiham, and Rawtonstall, in Lancashire; and at Flagg, Sheldon, and Ashford, in Derbyshire. The Sunday-schools at all the stations appear to be well attended, and the prospect, in all save one, is promising. Other places besides those we have named, are desirous of Unitarian preaching, but the funds of the Society at present forbid the extension of its labours. From the same cause, the services of one of its missionaries have, during the past year, been obliged to be relinquished. The annual subscriptions to the Society, from Bolton, Bury, Chowbent, Cockey-Moor, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Stand, Swinton, and Wigan, amount only to ninety-nine pounds, of which Manchester contributes seventy-four. The good the Society has done, the still greater good it might accomplish, deserves and demands more extensive aid than this. Resolutions of thanks to Mr. Shenton and Mr. Ashworth, the missionaries; the ministers of the neighbourhood who have given occasional services; Messrs. Pollard and Robinson, "the spiritual fathers of the Padiham Congregation;" the Sunday-school Teachers,-were passed; as well as one of sympathy with the mourning family of the late Rev. Dr. Carpenter.

THE

CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

No. 168.

AUGUST, 1840.

Vol. XIV.

OBSERVATIONS SUGGESTED BY CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDANT ON THE CONVICTION AND EXECUTION OF THOMAS TEMPLETON.

"Let there be no rubrics of blood."-Lord Bacon.

"For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."-Christ.

THOMAS TEMPLETON, for the alleged murder of his wife, was tried and convicted at the last Circuit Court of Justiciary held in Glasgow, and was sentenced to be executed on Wednesday, 27th May. The Jury unanimously recommended the prisoner to mercy. Petitions, signed by the Magistrates of the City, and by upwards of eleven thousand of the citizens, were subsequently presented to the Queen, praying for a commutation of the sentence; but without avail. On the appointed day, the unhappy man was executed; and many thousands, principally women, crowded to witness the degrading spectacle.

Statements having appeared in some of the Glasgow newspapers, that the criminal had expressed a wish to see Mr. Harris, the Unitarian preacher," rumour soon magnified that wish into the assertion, that Templeton was a Unitarian, and a member of Mr. Harris's congregation. Then men and women shook their heads, and signified, that the crimes which had stained the man's life, and for which he was to suffer, were the natural results of the principles he had professed. Mr. Harris being in England at the time, these rumours passed uncontradicted to the public. In the accounts given of the execution, similar statements having been repeated, Mr. Harris immediately announced, that on Sunday, May 31, he would preach a sermon "On the danger and delusion of a death-bed repentance, with special reference to the case of Templeton." The Chapel was crowded to excess in every part; and hundreds were disappointed of ad

mission. The following Sundays, likewise (June 7, and June 14), at the urgent request of numbers, the sermon was re-delivered to over-crowded audiences.

Mr. Harris's text was in Acts xxiv. 25: "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee."

In discoursing from these words, Mr. Harris showed, that among the prevalent errors of the day, the doctrine of the sufficiency and efficacy of death-bed repentance conjoined with profession of faith in peculiar dogmas, was among the most pernicious and immoral,-leading to the neglect of present personal improvement, of perseverance in well-doing, of a life of moral goodness. This delusive and dangerous error, he pointed out as supported by that of asserted instantaneous conversion from sin to holiness -opposing, as it did, every known law of the human mind, as well as the nature and power of habit; inducing the sinner to defer repentance to a more "convenient season;" and, in connexion with the doctrine of the imputed merits of Christ, transforming, in the twinkling of an eye, the sinner into a saint; and exhibiting the gross moral anomaly, of human law condemning the criminal to die for his crimes against society, and of misnamed Religion stepping in, and sending him from the gallows to glory!

The falsehood and immorality of the current doctrines in these respects, was shown, in their opposition to the character of God as the moral Governor of the worldto the nature, constitution, and laws of the intellect and affections to the formation and influence of habit-and by their contradiction of the very objects for which Christ Jesus was manifested of the Father. The whole scope, teachings, facts, spirit, and tendency of Christianity, were proved to be utterly opposed to the demoralising notion of the efficacy and security of death-bed repentance. The conclusion of the Discourse was as follows:

My Christian Friends,-My thoughts have naturally been directed to the important practical subject on which I have now addressed you, by the melancholy exhibition which has, during the past week, disgraced our City. It