to disturb his mind. That one, educated, as Mr. Kay had been, in Orthodox Christianity, found occasion of doubt in the study of the Epistles shows both his love of truth, and the simplicity of the Gospel, which even the confessed obscurities of those portions of the New Testament could not hide. In 1810, after a severe struggle with his old faith, he resigned the pulpit consecrated as the first scene of his ministerial duty. He was followed by about one third of his flock. A large hall was hired and fitted up for religious worship. As his means were diminished, and he had a wife and children to provide for, he took charge of a number of boys, thus adding to the care of the pulpit the daily labor of teaching. He continued thus to labor, preaching three times every Lord's day for, seven years, at the termination of which period, as his health was giving way, he resigned his pastoral charge and his class of boys, and removed with his wife and eight children to Heap Fold, with the resolution of giving up preaching altogether, and devoting himself to agricultural pursuits. But for this mode of life he was in no way fitted, nor could he cease to feel interested in the cause of Christian truth. After a residence of two years on the spot of his nativity, he accepted an invitation to take charge of a Unitarian congregation in Hindley, Lancashire. Here he was comfortably situated. To the time passed in this place he looked back as the brightest and pleasantest. Here he would probably have remained to the end of his life, had not the claims of his children pressed powerfully on his thoughts. The inspiring prospect disclosed to him across the Atlantic attracted his heart, and for the sake of free room and all the helps to growth and progress which this country offered for his sons, he resolved to transfer his home to America. His flock parted with him with great reluctance, and for more than a year after his departure kept their pulpit vacant, cherishing a confident hope that they should see his face again.

In company with seven other families, all forming one friendly circle, Mr. Kay, with his wife and nine children, arrived in this country in June, 1821, bringing with him property sufficient to insure to persons of simple tastes and habits a comfortable independence. After a few months spent in Philadelphia, leaving his family behind him, he went westward in search of a home for them. Deviating from his proposed course for the sake of paying the tribute of his respect at the grave of Priestley, he sought Northumberland where those honored ashes lie. There he was persuaded to remain, and the spot was soon invested to his mind with all the associations of home. The intermittent fever of that region, the only objection to the choice he had made, severely tried his by no means rugged constitution. He lived, notwithstanding, to a good old age. Yet the wasting attacks of the climate occasioned him seasons of debility, which loosened his hold on life, and combined with his faith and his hopes to fix his regards above and beyond the present. He was disabled also by his impaired health for a continuance of those zealous exertions in the cause of Liberal Christianity which his earlier years had witnessed. Still, as his strength would permit, he discharged the offices of a Christian pastor, and endeared himself to the little flock there gathered, and to the whole neighbourhood. At his far-off post he watched the progress of opinion in our denomination with deep interest, and sometimes with an alarm which he lived to believe, and was happy to confess, was groundless. He was glad to de

1848.]

Obituary.

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clare his conviction that the household of faith to which he belonged was growing in the spirit and fruits of Christian truth. His deportment in his family and towards all persons was marked by great benignity. He abounded in that wisdom which is, first and last, gentle. His continued ill-health kept the approaching hour of his departure always before him; and although his death was caused by a sudden and violent attack of disease, during a temporary absence from home, yet he was not taken by surprise. He fell asleep with the accents of a devout faith on his lips, and, we doubt not, with the trustful spirit of a disciple in his heart. No one who saw Mr. Kay in his later years, when time had silvered his few thin locks, will soon forget the benign beauty of his old age. His personal appearance was altogether winning and venerable. Of eleven children, eight survive to cherish, with their mother, the faithful sharer of all their father's cares, his blameless and honored memory.

F.

HON. ARTEMAS WARD, LL. D., died in Boston, October 7, 1847, aged 85 years.

Judge Ward was the son of General Ward, whose name is connected with the early period of the American Revolution. He was born at Shrewsbury, Mass., in 1762, and graduated at Harvard College in 1783. Having completed his professional studies, he opened an office at Weston, in 1786. In 1801, in consequence of the removal of his brother-in-law, the late Samuel Dexter, to Washington, he transferred his residence to Charlestown, whence, in 1809, he removed to Boston. In both places he had a very extensive practice, and his methodical habits and untiring industry enabled him to perform a vast amount of professional labor with apparent ease. He was also much in public life, as Representative, Counsellor, and Senator in the government of his native State, and from 1812 to 1817 Representative in Congress from the county of Suffolk. In 1819, he became Judge of the Boston Court of Common Pleas, and in 1820 Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Commonwealth, then recently organized. This office he resigned in 1839; and from a long course of professional and public duties, all successfully and honorably discharged, retired to pass the remainder of his days in the seclusion of private life. We cannot here speak as we would of his many excellent qualities of intellect and heart, which laid the foundation of his eminent usefulness and success in life, and secured for him an endeared and venerated memory. High above all stood a deep and unconquerable love of justice, a reverence for truth and right. This marked all his transactions of business; as a lawyer it raised him above all pettifogging and chicanery, which he held in special abhorrence; while as a judge it led him to be patient and faithful, and especially careful to dismiss no cause without an impartial and thorough hearing. No one ever took to the bench a deeper feeling of responsibleness, or left it with a purer name. The tribute which the tidings of his death called forth from the Suffolk bar bears testimony to the sense entertained of his courtesy and kindness, as well as of the higher qualities of integrity and love of right, by those best entitled to speak of his judicial merits. His strictness and elevation of principle, his unstained life, the simplicity of his habits, his Christian faith, his reverential piety, and filial trust in a wise and paternal Provi

dence, which sustained him under painful infirmities of body, and afforded peace and serenity in the closing scene, all combined to stamp on his character features of great dignity and worth.

L.

REV. DANIEL M. STEARNS died at Lincoln, Mass., October 19, 1847, aged 54 years.

Mr. Stearns was the youngest son of the late Rev. Charles Stearns, D. D., for many years the minister of the Congregational Society in Lincoln. He passed his youth at home, under the guidance and instruction of his father, whose limited pecuniary means prevented him from giving his son so early a collegiate education as he desired. Daniel devoted several years to labor on the farm, sometimes teaching school in the winter, until, prepared by his father, he was admitted to the Sophomore class in Brown University, and was graduated September 16, 1822. He then returned to Lincoln, and pursued his studies with reference to the ministry with his father, teaching school part of the time, and received approbation to preach from the Cambridge Association. In the summer of 1827, he went to Dennis, on Cape Cod, to preach as a candidate, and was ordained as pastor of the Congregational church and society in that place, May 14, 1828. He faithfully and acceptably discharged the duties of the ministry there, under many trials and discouragements, until March, 1839, when his pastoral relation was dissolved at his own request; though he continued to supply the pulpit several months afterwards. He preached for a few months in other places, but not with reference to a settlement, and soon returned with his family to "dwell among his own people," where he quietly and honorably passed the remainder of his life.

Mr. Stearns was chosen by his fellow-townsmen to represent them in the legislature of Massachusetts for the years 1841 and 1842; for they had confidence in his integrity and moral principle, as well as in his intelligence, as a politician. He was no idler, as is too often the case with those who leave professional pursuits, but devoted himself to agriculture, and labored daily in support of his family, often beyond his strength, not being favored with a strong and vigorous constitution. In 1842, the Unitarian Congregational society was formed in Lincoln, of which Mr. Stearns was an active and valued member, and was chosen one of the deacons of the church, the duties of which office he faithfully and meekly performed. He officiated several years as superintendent of the Sunday school, and took a lively interest in every thing connected with the welfare of the church and the spread of Liberal Christianity.

As a man, Mr. Stearns was remarkably amiable, prudent, and upright, and was highly esteemed by his neighbours and townsmen. As a Christian, he was sincere and devoted. His theological opinions were decidedly Unitarian. To every thing exclusive and bigoted, to Orthodox creeds and dogmas, he was always opposed. But he was charitable towards those who differed from him in sentiment, while firm in the maintenance of his own more liberal views of Christianity. The temper he displayed under trial, disappointment, and sickness proved the strength of his faith in God his Father, and the comfort of his hope as a disciple of Jesus Christ; in which faith and hope he calmly resigned his spirit into the hands of his Heavenly Father.

R.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

MARCH, 1848.

ART. I.-THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE
FUTURE.*

MR. CAREY'S volume we regard as a valuable contribution of facts and thoughts to the resources out of which, in due time, will be formed a true science of political economy and social order. He concerns himself mainly with the material interests of man, not, however, overlooking their connection with his moral well-being. One thing which we especially like in the work is its strong advocacy, by the application of stubborn facts, of the cause of peace, showing very conclusively that war is a mistake as well as a sin, bad as a matter of policy as well as a violation of the law of God. It is not our purpose to discuss the author's peculiar doctrines, or to decide upon the soundness of the views he takes of the vexed questions of free trade and commercial intercourse. The examination of these questions belongs to journals more exclusively devoted to secular affairs. We refer to the book because it is suggestive of thoughts in harmony with our present design, which is to glance at a few facts and arguments that show the need and may encourage the hope of social progress. In present tendencies we would find a warrant for the anticipation of a better condition of things yet to come. We open our subject by asking our readers to bring be

The Past, the Present, and the Future. By H. C. CAREY, Author of "Principles of Political Economy," etc., etc. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart. 1848. 8vo. pp. 474.

VOL. XLIV. - 4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. II.

15

fore their minds the picture of an estate in feudal times, — a picture of men and things as they then existed, drawn to the life, that shall speak to their senses, giving them a strictly true and living idea of the social system which once prevailed. There is the gloomy castle, with its massive towers, deep moat, heavy drawbridge, and ponderous gates; at the entrance the Herculean warder, on the battlements the steelclad sentinels, within the court-yard rough and rioting menat-arms. There is the oaken hall, where, after the chase or fight, the mad revel runs high and the wildest passions rage. From the tallest turret may be seen dark forests stretching away in the distance, poorly cultivated hills and valleys lying hard by, groups, under the very shadow of the fortress, of dark, cold, damp, mud-walled and thatch-roofed hovels. Let this domain be examined in clear daylight, disrobed of all rainbow-broidered clouds of romance, in all its rugged, comfortless, coarse, and naked reality, just as the stern fidelity of history must describe it, and not as the gorgeous imagination of the novelist paints it. This picture we would have thus seen, in order that the condition of society of which it was the material representative may be better understood. Within and around the feudal domain, speaking comparatively, was superstition and not religion, ignorance and not knowledge, slavery and not freedom, rudeness and not refinement, suffering and not comfort, wealth obtained by violence, poverty caused by direct oppression, man the foe or slave of his brother-man, despotic and lawless force, encumbered with its own iron panoply, ruling herds of human beings collared and driven like the brutes. The facts in the case, could we get at them, would fully bear out this description; because such wretchedness must have been, because history in part so tells the story, and because even now, under similar circumstances, a similar state of things exists. The landholding nobility and the squalid serfs of Russia are, in many respects, living examples of the relations which almost universally obtained, a few centuries since, between lords and peasants, warlike barons and their stolid followers.

Having imagined this picture of the past, let it be contrasted with another, familiar as our own homes, and easily painted, a New England village, with its lines of trees, leafy sentinels guarding each side of the broad street, rows of neat houses, with stores, mechanics' shops, and