IN the month of November, 1840, a Convention of Friends of Universal Reform assembled in the Chardon Street Chapel, in Boston, in obedience to a call in the newspapers signed by a few individuals, inviting all persons to a public discussion of the institutions of the Sabbath, the Church, and the Ministry. The Convention organized itself by the choice of Edmund Quincy, as Moderator, spent three days in the consideration of the Sabbath, and adjourned to a day in March, of the following year, for the discussion of the second topic. In March, accordingly, a three-days' session was holden, in the same place, on the subject of the Church, and a third meeting fixed for the following November, which was accordingly holden, and the Convention, debated, for three days again, the remaining subject of the Priesthood. This Convention never printed any report of its deliberations, nor pretended to arrive at any Result, by the expression of its sense in formal resolutions, the professed object of those persons who felt the greatest interest in its meetings being simply the elucidation of truth through free discussion. The daily newspapers reported, at the time, brief sketches of the course of proceedings, and the remarks of the principal speakers. These meetings attracted a good deal of public attention, and were spoken of in different circles in every note of hope, of sympathy, of joy, of alarm, of abhorrence, and of merriment. The composition of the assem

bly was rich and various. The singularity and latitude of the summons drew together, from all parts of New England, and also from the Middle States, men of every shade of opinion, from the straitest orthodoxy to the wildest heresy, and many persons whose church was a church of one member only. A great variety of dialect and of costume was noticed; a great deal of confusion, eccentricity, and freak appeared, as well as of zeal and enthusiasm. If the assembly was disorderly, it was picturesque. Madmen, madwomen, men with beards, Dunkers, Muggletonians, Come-outers, Groaners, Agrarians, Seventh-day-Baptists, Quakers, Abolitionists, Calvinists, Unitarians, and Philosophers, all came successively to the top, and seized their moment, if not their hour, wherein to chide, or pray, or preach, or protest. The faces were a study. The most daring innovators, and the champions-until-death of the old cause, sat side by side. The still living merit of the oldest New England families, glowing yet, after several generations, encountered the founders of families, fresh merit, emerging, and expanding the brows to a new breadth, and lighting a clownish face with sacred fire. The assembly was characterized by the predominance of a certain plain, sylvan strength and earnestness, whilst many of the most intellectual and cultivated persons attended its councils. Dr. Channing, Edward Taylor, Bronson Alcott, Mr. Garrison, Mr. May, Theodore Parker, H. C. Wright, Dr. Osgood, William Adams, Edward Palmer, Jones Very, Maria W. Chapman, and many other persons of a mystical, or sectarian, or philanthropic renown, were present, and some of them participant. And there was no want of female speakers; Mrs. Little and Mrs. Lucy Sessions took a pleasing and memorable part in the debate, and that flea of Conventions, Mrs. Abigail Folsom, was but too ready with her interminable scroll. If there was not parliamentary order, there was life, and the assurance of that constitutional love for religion and religious liberty, which, in all periods, characterizes the inhabitants of this part of Ameri

ca.

There was a great deal of wearisome speaking in each of those three-days' sessions, but relieved by signal passages of pure eloquence, by much vigor of thought, and especially by the exhibition of character, and by the victories

of character. These men and women were in search of something better and more satisfying than a vote or a definition, and they found what they sought, or the pledge of it, in the attitude taken by individuals of their number, of resistance to the insane routine of parliamentary usage, in the lofty reliance on principles, and the prophetic dignity and transfiguration which accompanies, even amidst opposition and ridicule, a man whose mind is made up to obey the great inward Commander, and who does not anticipate his own action, but awaits confidently the new emergency for the new counsel. By no means the least value of this Convention, in our eye, was the scope it gave to the genius of Mr. Alcott, and not its least instructive lesson was the gradual but sure ascendency of his spirit, in spite of the incredulity and derision with which he is at first received, and in spite, we might add, of his own failures. Moreover, although no decision was had, and no action taken on all the great points mooted in the discussion, yet the Convention brought together many remarkable persons, face to face, and gave occasion to memorable interviews and conversations, in the hall, in the lobbies, or around the doors.

Before this body broke up in November last, a short adjournment was carried, for the purpose of appointing a Committee to summon a new Convention, to be styled' the Bible Convention,' for the discussion of the credibility and authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. A Committee was agreed upon, and, by their invitation, the new Association met in the Masonic Temple, in Boston, on the 29th of March, of the present year. This meeting was less numerously attended, and did not exhibit at its birth the same vigor as its predecessors. Many persons who had been conspicuous in the former meetings were either out of the country, or hindered from early attendance. Several who wished to be present at its deliberations deferred their journey until the second day, believing that, like the former Convention, it would sit three days. Possibly from the greater unpopularity of its object, out of doors, some faintness or coldness surprised the members. At all events, it was hurried to a conclusion on the first day, to the great disappointment of many. Mr. Brownson, Mr. Alcott, Mr. West, and among others a Mor

mon preacher took part in the conversation. But according to the general testimony of those present, as far as we can collect it, the best speech made on that occasion was that of Nathaniel H. Whiting, of South Marshfield. Mr. Whiting had already distinguished himself in the Chardon Street meetings. Himself a plain unlettered man, leaving for the day a mechanical employment to address his fellows, he possesses eminent gifts for success in assemblies so constituted. He has fluency, self-command, an easy, natural method, and very considerable power of statement. No one had more entirely the ear of this audience, for it is not to be forgotten that, though, as we have said, there were scholars and highly intellectual persons in this company, the bulk of the assemblage was made up of quite other materials, namely, of those whom religion and solitary thought have educated, and not books or society, young farmers and mechanics from the country, whose best training has been in the Anti-slavery, and Temperance, and Non-resistance Clubs. Mr. Whiting has been at the pains to draw up, at our request, a report of his speech on that occasion, on the subject of miracles and the authority of the Bible, which we gladly present to our readers, as a fair specimen of the spirit of the debates which we have described, and the best record we can preserve of an assembly in all respects noteworthy.

SUBSTANCE OF MR. WHITING'S REMARKS.

The advocates for what may be called technical Christianity rest their claim for the special and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, mainly upon certain external circumstances attending their promulgation among men; the principal of which are the material miracles which are recorded in them, but which, however, have no necessary or legitimate connexion with the facts they accompany.

Now it seems to me there is a radical defect in this sort of evidence, inasmuch as truths which pertain to the soul cannot be proved by any external testimony whatever; and can only be wrought out and demonstrated by the experience of the soul itself. I might, perhaps, write my own faith; but that scripture could not be taken as conclusive evidence of the truth of that faith, even though it might be accompanied by all the "signs and wonders" of which history bears record. So that, even if these miracles could be proved beyond the possibility of

doubt, this could never settle the question of the divine nature and the absolute truth of the sentiments with which they are associated, as this can only be done by the nature of the doctrines taught, and not by any extraneous or adventitious circumstances attending their utterance. But the pertinacity with which the supporters of Christianity cling to these miracles, and the prominence given to them in nearly all arguments to establish its exclusive claim, as a religion of divine origin and authority, upon the confidence and belief of mankind, and its singular and sole power to elevate and redeem the race, would seem to indicate that they are regarded as an essential part of the system; the literal truth of which can never be questioned, without sapping the very foundation of the whole Sacred Canon. I do not think, however, that this is the case; on the contrary, I apprehend that these supposed miracles do little else than mystify and obscure the real beauty of the great truths which the Bible does actually contain; and thus neutralize in a great degree the healing and saving influences which they would otherwise exert upon the destinies of men. And this because

they so bewilder the imagination, and bias the judgment, that they can never receive that full and free investigation into their nature and tendency, and that deep and searching analysis which their influence upon human welfare demands.

If miracles are indeed fundamental to, and a necessary part of, Christianity, as is contended by its advocates, then it is essential that these should not only be wrought in one age, but in all ages; not only by one of its advocates, but by all of them. Absolute truth, as the axiom, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is eternal, — needs no external support, and can receive none. It is intuitive to the soul, and meets a cordial response in every human breast. But a miracle, being a supposed suspension of the laws of the universe, for a specific and individual purpose, rests entirely upon external evidence; and must, therefore, require to be renewed, from day to day, and in the presence of all who are to be converted to the creed it is intended to confirm and enforce. If it is necessary for one man to see miracles performed in order to believe other truth, it is so for all surely. Of what avail is it to me that miracles were wrought eighteen hundred years ago, before men who have been long since dead? Or of what avail is it that they should be performed before others even now? It is necessary that I should see them as well as others. I require the same evidence of truth that they do. But what have we now to prove the truth of Christianity, supposing it to rest upon the external basis claimed by its advocates, but a meagre and very questionable record of miracles, said to have been wrought hundreds and thousands of years ago! Surely our credulity is greater