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Harvard College. The resignation of Mr. Everett, as President of our ancient university, has been received with lamentation. Perhaps no man not professedly orthodox, ever enjoyed more of the confidence of the orthodox community. His urbanity of manners, his accomplished scholarship, his serious and self-sacrificing spirit, together with the impartiality of his administration, have endeared his name to all the friends of the institution which he has so greatly adorned. Whatever may be alleged against the sectarianism of the college, we believe no man will attempt to inculpate Mr. Everett with this charge. We regret that ill health, aggravated by the severe labors of his office, should have made his resignation necessary; and we sincerely hope that so much wisdom and moral worth will not be lost to the community, but constrained to accept some less burdensome but no less important situation, in our public councils. Where can the corporation find a suitable successor? We fear that it will be difficult for them to obtain a man who will give general satisfaction. Among the names mentioned, as candidates for the vacancy, are Messrs. Choate, Sparks, and Giles, Drs. Walker and Wayland, and Prof. Felton. Let a man of an enlarged spirit, of whatever denomination, who, like Mr. Everett, would administer the affairs of the college for the public good, without regard to sect, be placed at the head of the institution; let the Hollis Professorship be filled according to the statutes of the founder; let the Unitarians support their own divinity school, disconnected from the college, as the orthodox and Baptists support theirs; and let there be a more liberal spirit manifested in filling the vacancies which may occur from time to time in the board of overseers; and the university would at once receive an impulse of prosperity, such as tens of thousands by way of endowments in its present condition, can never give it.

Ordination at Worcester.- The ordination of Rev. Mr. Bushnell, over the fourth orthodox Church in this thriving city, was attended by some diversity of sentiment. Exceptions were taken at his opinions on several important points of belief; and, after long examination, sixteen members of the Council voted in favor of his ordination, eleven voted against it, and three declined voting. It is impossible, with the slender information we possess as to the facts, to form a clear opinion upon the merits of the case. But as all the influences, local, occasional, and personal, which bear upon a Council in such cases, are in favor of proceeding to ordination; and as the candidate's warmest friends usually constitute a considerable portion of the body, it seems to argue a strong sense of duty and integrity of purpose, on the part of such members as refused to assist in putting him into the ministry. Such a stand for principle, made by men of kind and generous feelings, in circumstances of great delicacy and difficulty, is highly honorable to them, even if their scruples should prove to be unfounded. It is to be presumed that the majority had reasons which were satisfactory to them, for endorsing the soundness of Mr. Bushnell's views as to the Inspiration of the Bible, which is now become among us "the article of a standing, or a falling Church."

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THERE are two views as it regards the future destiny of the world, radically opposed to each other. One is some form of what is called the millennarian theory. The other is the view at present adopted by the greater part of the Christian world, and of which Edwards, Bellamy, and Hopkins, may be regarded as prominent advocates. We propose to compare these views, and to consider the interests involved in the discussion, and the present state of the argument between their respective advocates.

The fundamental peculiarity of the common view is, that it maintains the doctrine of the organic regeneration of human society, to be effected by the spiritual coming of Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

In order to understand this statement, we are to consider that there are two ways in which the Holy Spirit operates, in carrying forward the designs of God on earth. In the first place, he operates by individual regeneration, with the design of saving God's elect out of this evil world; whilst the organizations of society, though wrong, are left unaltered. Thus, for centuries after the coming of Christ, the great organizations of the iron empire of Rome remained unaltered by Christianity; and yet, meantime, God was regenerating and saving his elect through all the provinces of that vast empire. Still, however, Christianity,

The Literalist. Three volumes. Philadelphia. 1840. The Theological and Literary Review. By David N. Lord. New York.

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like a leaven, was pervading the world, and preparing finally to exert a regenerating power upon all the civil, and social organizations, not only of Rome, but of the human race. And as this leaven pervades the masses of human society, the Holy Spirit enters upon his second great work; and that is to reorganize human society, removing all corruptions and abuses, and bringing it into full accordance with the law of God.

This latter work of the Holy Spirit has been, for ages, but partially executed. Christianity has, indeed, penetrated like leaven, and has seemed, at times, to be on the point of overthrowing the empire of Satan. Such seemed to be the anticipations of Eusebius, when paganism fell before it, and Constantine extended his imperial patronage to the Church. But, by intermixtures of worldliness and error, more compact systems of antichristian tendency were soon formed, of portentous splendor, from the evil influences of which the world has not recovered to this day.

Since the Reformation, the true theory of political and ecclesiastical organization, has been studied with an interest increasing in extent and intensity. Moreover, many great experiments in religious and civil organization, especially our own, have thrown their light upon the excited minds of the nations. Nevertheless, Satan has resisted, inch by inch, the onward movements of God. He has ever endeavored to push freedom and reform to ruinous excesses; and then, by the consequent reaction, to throw the world back upon a fixed conservatism of evil.

Now the common theory of the church is, that all these efforts of Satan shall be rendered vain by intellectual and moral influences only. The moral power of the Holy Spirit, like fire, shall penetrate and dissolve all systems of error, and, from the chaos, call forth a regenerate system, sacred and sublime; a new moral creation, a new heavens and a new earth, destined to eclipse the first, which, glorious though they were, shall not be remembered nor come into mind.

This result, then, is to be effected by an invisible, powerful, and all-pervading agency of God on human society. This agency produces effects varying according to what it meets. If it meets organized opposition, it agitates, dissolves, and consumes like fire. If it meets hearts prepared to yield, it harmonizes and unites them around God. No rank is too high, no combination too powerful, to be effected by this influence. Kings and emperors

fall before it systems of religion, governments of all kinds, all social organizations and compacts, all that earth or hell can invent or frame together, and consolidate by time, or prejudice, or interest, or force, God can and will dissolve.

So far as reorganizing is concerned, God acts through individuals, manifesting himself to them with a fulness and clearness according to the work to be done. By producing deep conviction of sin, and self-loathing, he eradicates unholy ambition, and longings after human praise. He increases the power of holy emotions, of a pure, gentle, and spiritual kind; and gives increasing delight in God, and a desire to know and to do his will. He enlarges their views above all that is finite, temporary, and local; and causes them to see the real system as it is, and thus to arrive at such unity of views and action, that they can perfect the great work of ecclesiastical organization. Thus is the Church made one. Thus is it given to her to put on fine linen, clean and white. Thus is she prepared for the marriage-supper of the Lamb.

When the church is thus divorced from all unholy alliances, and made pure, united, and free, all other forms of false organization will soon be dissolved, and the organic regeneration of human society be complete. These results are to be effected without any interruption of those great intellectual and moral laws now in operation; and without any visible appearance of Christ. The moral forces now in existence are to receive vast accessions of power; but there is to be no interposition of God, new in kind.

We think that our original statement will now be fully understood; namely, that the fundamental peculiarity of the common view is, that the organic regeneration of human society is to be effected by a purely spiritual coming of Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

The fundamental peculiarity of the other system is, that it denies the organic regeneration of the world anterior to the personal coming of Jesus Christ. It agrees with the first view, in teaching that God, from age to age, regenerates individuals, and thus takes out an elect from among the false and sinful organizations of society. It differs from it, in denying that the moral means now in operation will ever avail to regenerate the corrupt organizations of human society, and introduce the Millennium. On the other hand, the power of Satan shall continue to be exerted through such organizations with even augmented energy;

and things shall wax worse and worse, till a great crisis comes, in which nothing can save the Church but the personal revelation of the Son of God, to defeat his enemies, and to establish his own kingdom on earth.

The great ends of the existing dispensation, on this view, are to manifest the character and rights of God as a ruler, and the depravity of man, so that the way may be prepared to appreciate the favors of God, under the visible reign of the Messiah; and also to take out of the world the elect of God, and to fit them for their reign on earth with Christ. Those of the elect who are dead, are to be raised at the coming of Christ, and this is the first resurrection. Those of the elect who are alive at his coming, are to be changed; and both united, are to reign with him over the world, during the Millennium. The rest of the dead, or the wicked, rise not till the last resurrection, at the close of this period.

During this millennial reign, therefore, the inhabitants of this world will be of two kinds, the children of the resurrection in their spiritual bodies, who neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God. These are to form a heavenly hierarchy under Christ, their head, and to reign with him as kings and priests over the nations of the earth. The other kind of inhabitants will be the nations of the earth, organized as at present, under separate governments, over which Christ and the risen saints will preside.

Among these, a peculiar preeminence will be assigned to the Jews, who, being converted, shall again possess the land of their fathers, and be a praise and a glory among the nations of the earth. As to the more minute details of this system, its advocates. differ among themselves.

But those who are most anxious not to degrade the spirituality of Christ and the saints, as the Honorable G. T. Noel, do not limit the abode of Christ and the saints to the surface of the earth. "The scene presented," says he, "to the eye of the servant of Elisha, may recur to the mind in illustration of this idea. He beheld, in the regions of the air, chariots and horses of fire." He suggests that they may dwell in the air when Satan and his hosts are expelled; and, as occasion may require, descend, visibly or invisibly, to promote the ends of their reign. The earth, moreover, is to be renovated and beautified in honor of the Messiah's reign and victory.

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