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DISCOURSE I.

THE POSITION OF UNITARIANISM DEFINED.

JESUS SAITH UNTO HER, WOMAN, BELIEVE ME, THE HOUR COMETH WHEN YE SHALL NEITHER IN THIS MOUNTAIN, NOR YET

AT JERUSALEM, WORSHIP THE FATHER. YE WORSHIP YE KNOW NOT WHAT. WE KNOW WHAT WE WORSHIP; FOR SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS. BUT THE HOUR COMETH, AND NOW IS, WHEN THE TRUE WORSHIPPERS SHALL WORSHIP THE FATHER IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH; FOR THE FATHER SEEKETH SUCH TO WORSHIP HIM. GOD IS A SPIRIT; AND THEY THAT

WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. John iv. 21 - 24.

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THESE are some of the sublimest words which were ever uttered on earth. It is in partial fulfilment of them that we, at the distance of more than eighteen centuries, "with half the convex globe between,' are assembled to worship God in the name of Christ in this beautiful temple built upon this distant shore, when the temple of Jerusalem, which then glittered afar in Oriental splendor, has long ago been razed to its foundations. I shall not attempt to describe the joy with which we again assemble in this sacred place. To many of you it has become endeared by the most tender and holy associations;

with the Sabbath's rest and the Sabbath's musings, with the soul's most consecrated hours of communion with God, with the divine teachings of Christ's blessed Gospel, with the moving symbols of his sorrows and his death, with the anthems of God's praise, with the hopes and anticipations of heaven, with the memory of kindred and companions, who, you trust, are now worshipping in that temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

I have thought to add interest to this first day of our restoration to our renovated house of prayer, by rehearsing the history of this church and religious society, by re-stating the principles upon which it was founded, the objects to which its energies are directed, the changes which have passed over the religious world since its establishment, and the prospects which the future presents of the dissemination of those great truths which it maintains as vital to Christianity and to man.

On the 12th of October, 1816, there appeared in one or more of the Baltimore newspapers the following advertisement : "Divine service will be performed by the Rev. Doctor Freeman of Boston tomorrow at the Hall belonging to Mr. Gibney in South Charles Street, to commence at 11 o'clock A. M. and at half past 3 P. M."

Accordingly, at the appointed hours, an audience assembled and services were held. On the next Sunday, public worship was again celebrated at the

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