For

the broad lake rolled out its waters in a silvery expanse; as the fresh breeze came laden with salt vapor from the gulf; and the boat began to roll and plunge ovor the long waves; a feeling difficult to analyze came over me. I sat upon the guards and felt my mind expanded by the influence of the scene. more than a week I had been passing, night and day, along the interminable Mississippi. The same flat shores, the same naked forests, the same narrow strips of water, before, behind, and on either side of me. And now I felt on coming out on this broad sea of waters, as if a pressure had been taken off my mind, and free play given to its natural elasticity. I recollect noticing a like joyous feeling, which diffused itself among the passengers who were on the deck of the packet boat when it ran out of the narrow canal on to the broad bosom of the Susquehanna. The horses which drew the tow line, crossed the river on a bridge, and as the boat swept along below, the change from the confined ditch to the open river put new spirits into all. Some years ago, taking advantage of a college vacation, I rambled for a few days on foot through the defiles of the White Mountains. After killing a good many trout in the tributaries of the Saco and Amonoosack; after having tried in vain to make sketches which might convey a faint idea of the awful forms which towered around me--pine-clad, granite crowned, and gashed with slides and avalanches; I at last bade them farewell, and passed out through the jaws of the Notch into the open region. It was like emerging from prison. I recollect the feeling well. Surely freedom is natural to the human mind after all.

When morning dawned, we were in Lake Borgne, having passed in the night Pine Island, where the British bivouacked in the rain for two or three days, before landing to attack New Orleans. The water was more rough and green-we were entering the Gulf of Mexico. Along the shores the warm verdure of the pine woods, contrasting with the snowy whiteness of the shell-beach on which they stood, was grateful to the The sea was now heavier, the wind more fresh; one side of the sky was dark; on the other, the feathery-tangled clouds were hurrying along in ragged and tumultuous masses; while in the south-west one spot, ominously bright, indicated that we were on the squally Gulf of Mexico.

eye.

"Olli caeruleus super caput astitit imber."

I must, however rebuke my propensity for scene painting, or this article will swell beyond all natural magazine limits. Enough therefore that no storm caught us, and that by noon we had entered the bay of Mobile. We passed the cotton

ships which lie at anchor many miles below the city, as unfortunately, there is not depth of water for them at the town. The cotton bales are carried down to them in lighters by means of steam tow-boats. This is the only commercial objection to the position of Mobile, and the enterprise of the inhabitants easily overcomes this inconvenience.

It may be a weakness, but I will not conceal the fact, that a feeling of sadness generally comes over me as I approach a strange city, and I believe I should not get over it if I should travel through every nation the sun looks down upon in his daily course. Thousands of homes before you, but not one of them a home to you-life active and hopeful, and you a stranger in the midst of it. Especially if you have some weighty and arduous task to accomplish, faith will sometimes sink, and courage slacken, and you are brought to feel how weak you are in yourself, and how wholly dependent on the strengthening spirit of Almighty God. If I had known how much kindness I was to meet, how many true-hearted men I was to find in the busy city which lay before me, my heart would have been lighter as the boat rounded to along side one of the wharves.

Mobile is a very busy and growing city of about ten or twelve thousand inhabitants. It is situated on a sandy plain, which extends many miles from the river. The business part of the town, lying between the Main street and the river, is built chiefly of brick, the other part resembles a New-England village, with its tasteful wooden buildings, all painted white, with piazzas and porticos, and surrounded by china trees and magnolias. The effect in winter is very pretty, in summer it must be beautiful.

The chief aim of man in Mobile is to buy, sell, pack, press, speculate in and talk about COTTON. You meet two men engaged in conversation. As they pass you, if a sentence of their conversation comes to your ear, it will probably be "two and a half cents in Liverpool"-"three bales this morning"-or some equally significant phrase. In Cincinnati it would be "five hundred hogs"-on the Connecticut river, "twenty acres of broom corn"-in Washington, "deposite question"-public lands" or, "Mr. Clay's speech this morning." And indeed, if conversation must have its staple as well as commerce, I should think cotton as pretty an article to have always in your mouth, as hogs, broomsticks, or members of Congress.

The energy with which business is done in Mobile is wonderful. I had supposed Louisville a pretty active place, but we are quite an indolent people, compared with the Mobilians. I

speak here of the business part of the population. From early dawn till late in the night, they are buying, selling, writing and receiving letters, examining cotton, running to the bank, borrowing and lending money, &c. &c. &c. The steam presses are pulling and screaming before dawn and long after dark, and I am sorry to say that Sunday is often no day of rest to them.

I found this great devotion to business much in my way, at the beginning. It was difficult to draw the attention away from business to religious and church matters. But according to the beautiful system of compensations which runs through all God's works, I found that when the attention was fairly gained to the subject, the energy and ardor displayed in business was transferred to religion, and a great deal more was accomplished in a short time, than could have been done, in a more sluggish community.

There never had been any Unitarian preaching in the place I believe, before I went there, but there were many good and warm friends to the cause in the city. Our great difficulty was to find a place to preach in. The churches happened to be in a tumble-down condition; one was pulled down while I was there; and another ought to have been. The Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Baptist societies were engaged in preparing to put up new buildings. The first Lord's day I preached in the Federal court room, an excellent place, and it was well filled, morning and evening. But we were expelled from that building on the plea of positive orders from Washington not to let it be used for any purpose, except that for which it was designed. We then betook ourselves for two successive Lord's days to a room belonging to the Franklin society, not the best place to be sure, but better than none. But we were shortly after turned out of this asylum by a vote of the society, who seemed to apprehend evil to their stuffed alligators and cases of curiosities from our presence. Possessing our souls in patience, we then besought admission into the county court house, but the Baptist society who occupied it, assured us that they had preaching and other services throughout the livelong day. Diligent and earnest were the efforts to find some other rest for the sole of our foot-every engine house, ball room, store loft, school house was enquired after, but in vain. I proposed to my friends to dispute in the Market place, after the fashion of Paul at Athens, and would even have adventured myself into the theatre, like the same great model at Ephesus, but my friends suffered me not. They feared it would injure the cause, and excite prejudice against us, if we

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should hold our service in either place. I approved their feeling, but disagreed from their opinion. I held it my duty to preach in a church, if possible, but to preach at all events. seemed wrong to be stopped from delivering my message by such slight causes. The early christians were obliged to meet in deserts, and mountains, and caves, and holes in the earththe early Reformers in Germany and in Scotland, worshipped only under the canopy of heaven-Wesley and his friends. were shut out of all the English cathedrals and churches, and forced to go into the temple not made with hands. I thought that the gospel would be more likely to sanctify the theatre than to receive injury by being spoken there. We were not, however, obliged to try the experiment, for by the zealous exertions of some of our friends, the county court house was procured on Saturday afternoon, for a single Sabbath—the Baptists having no preacher in the place.

The result of our efforts was to excite a considerable interest in behalf of our views-to show us that there was material for making an excellent society-to form the nucleus of one-and to collect a subscription of four or five thousand dollars to build a church, which has since gone up to nine or ten thousand. In short, our success was such as to induce us to thank God and take courage. Public opposition there was none. However much secret uneasiness there might be among those who were unfriendly to us, they were wise enough to abstain from all open demonstrations. "Their strength was to sit still." Indeed, our cause was too strong, and moved from the first with too broad a front of character, to be put down by sneers or misrepresentation. We had with us a very large proportion of the known worth, virtue and knowledge of the city, men whom it would not do to call infidels and rationalists. One of the chief influences in our favor, was the universal respect with which the community regarded the gentleman who had occupied the Episcopal pulpit, but who relinquished his office on being convinced that the doctrine of the Trinity, contained in the liturgy, was not a doctrine of God's word. Every body in the place knew that what Mr. Pinney thought right, could not be very wrong.

At the request of some Presbyterian friends, I went one evening to hear Mr. Hamilton, the Presbyterian preacher, and was highly gratified. I know not that I ever listened to one of that denomination with greater pleasure. The discourse was full of thought, but also warm with earnest feeling. The turn of the gentleman's mind is strongly metaphysical, as, indeed, the shape of his head indicates. The subject, was the

unity of God, and he gave an excellent abstract of the a priori argument of Samuel Clarke, and the more popular and satisfactory argument of Paley, from the harmony of design apparent in creation. He pointed out very justly the weak places in both their arguments, and concluded, that revelation gave the only satisfactory evidence of this great truth. I could not agree altogether in this conclusion. because it appeared to me that there was yet another argument based on the nature of man, which he had neglected to notice, and because he seemed in his conclusion to contradict the apostle's declaration that "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." The word Godhead is equivalent to sovereignty, and implies unity, since there can be but one sovereign; and the adjective eternal, when applied to power and sovereignty, denotes infinite power, of course, such as belongs to but one being. I preferred therefore the apostle's authority to Mr. Hamilton's reasoning, however ingenious. He aimed a shaft at unitarianism at the close of his discourse, which, however, flew quite wide of the mark, owing to his ignorance of our mode of arguing. He took it for granted, that we reasoned out the unity of God and then forced scripture to conform to our ideas. I never heard an argument of the sort, from the lips of an unitarian in my life.

I passed four or five weeks very pleasantly in the midst of blooming roses, balmy airs and sunny skies, whilst snow, and ice, and northern blasts, were raging in Kentucky, and in Massachusetts, the mercury having retired into the bulb of the thermometer, was frozen up there. I shall not soon forget the delicious climate, and still less the generosity, intelligence and warm-hearted earnestness with which the people gladly received the word of truth, not being forgetful hearers, but doers of the same. God bless and prosper them. May they be built up a happy and rejoicing people by the word of his grace on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief corner stone.

Since I left them, I have received a letter from our brother Hosmer, of Northfield, Mass. who preached in Louisville for two or three months, with great acceptation, and then went on to Mobile, to lend his aid to that good work. He tells me "there is no diminution of interest among our friends. They are going forward promptly. The society is duly organized—its name is "The Congregational Church of Mobile." A building committee is appointed, with instructions to proceed in the work immediately. The building will be a Grecian structure,