tin Paschaud as
well. As to himself he had obtained leave with two young ministers to
commence preaching in a hired room. At the same time, as they had not
been legally ejected from the Church, they can baptize, marry, perform
funeral services--in short, do everything but preach. In conclusion, the
speaker said how rejoiced he was to find in England an attempt made to
establish such a Society. It was the want of the time, and long he
trusted might they continue to uphold the banner of peace and love.

It is clear, outside the meeting at Freemasons' Hall the idea is
entertained that this was simply a Unitarian movement. Evidently such is
the feeling of leading Unitarians themselves. One of them, the Rev. Mr.
Ierson, who preaches in a beautiful and costly chapel in Islington, to a
congregation that does not half fill the place, evidently so regards it.
After the annual meeting, from the text, "Blessed are the peacemakers,"
he preached a sermon on behalf of the new organization. He was delighted
with what had been done. In the devotional service he had witnessed more
life than he had ever seen in a Unitarian service before, and he was
thankful for it. At the same time Mr. Ierson expressed his regret that
the movement did not aim to accomplish something more, and also regretted
that it did not succeed in enrolling beneath its banner men of
sufficiently diverse sentiments. This was not difficult to account for,
continued the reverend gentleman. The Independent Churches, meaning by
that term Baptists and Congregationalists, have great fear of each other.
The ministers are afraid of the people, who look well after them. In
many places, if a man shakes hands with a Unitarian he is straightway
denounced as a Unitarian himself. Nor was this altogether wrong. The
real fact was that it would be found, directly any one approximated in
civility to the Unitarians, he had either given up the doctrine of
eternal damnation or some of the other dogmas of his body, and was not
completely, and in the old-fashioned sense of the term, orthodox.
Meanwhile the duty of the Unitarians was very obvious. They had to be
more than ever charitable and deferential to all Christians, whatever
their denomination. It was something to get men to respect each other,
to believe each other to be honest, however they differed in faith and
dogma. In his own opinion the Free Christian Union would have had a
better chance had it been originated by