FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

VOL. V.	B E T H A N Y, VA., SEPTEMBER, 1848.	NO. IX.

      My dear Clarinda--IN my last letter I informed you of my safe arrival at Moree, in the county of Tyrone. This is the residence--and a very delightful residence it is--of brother John Tener, the most prominent of our Irish brethren in the cause of reformation.

      Many years ago--in the days of the Christian Baptist--a number of copies of that work, and some others then published by me, had been ordered to Ireland. One of these, accidentally, as we sometimes say, fell into the hands of William Tener, a very talented and promising youth, then a resident of the city of London Derry. A small society of Independent or Haldanean brethren, had worshipped together for several years in the house of his father, Robert Tener, then residing near Dungannon. William, at that time engaged in trade at Derry, got so much inspired with zeal and love for the truth, that he immediately engaged in its advocacy. Enamored with the views developed in the Christian Baptist, he fearlessly and eloquently became their advocate on all occasions, and successfully too; for the whole society meeting in Tyrone through his instrumentality were induced to give them a favorable hearing, which terminated in their general conviction of their truthfulness and importance.

      This most promising youth was of a delicate constitution, and while on his passage to the United States fell a prey to the consumption. His brother Isaac, who was then his companion, had the melancholy pleasure of witnessing his triumphant death and of seeing his body committed to the mighty deep in hope of a blissful resurrection when the sea shall give up the dead that are in it.

      The cause of original Christianity has not much spread in that county, through the want of public advocates; not one, indeed, of commanding talents being engaged in its public advocacy. Brother Henshall as in Belfast, had, with much acceptance to the [514] community, filled a number of my appointments, reaching from that city to Newry. We had a favorable hearing in all places, and left a good impression. I spoke in Moree, Cookstown, and Dungannon, with much debility of body, growing out of my incarceration and great physical labors in Scotland. I had, indeed, for the time the appointments had been out, large and attentive audiences in these places. The Presbyterian churches--I mean the Presbyterian churches of Dungannon and Cookstown--were cordially opened to me, while that of the late Alexander Carson of Tubbermore was refused by his eldest son, then pastor in charge of a portion of his father's congregation. The Presbyterian minister in charge at Cookstown, Mr. Morell, not only freely gave me his house, but an unrestricted license to preach the word, as I understood it, "Not even withholding my views on the most unpopular tenet--the weekly communion--which, by the way, he believed himself to be the duty of every Christian congregation. He heard me, as I learned, with much pleasure, not on that subject, but upon Peter's confession of faith and the foundation of Christ's church; which, indeed, was not acquiesced in, but which elicited a letter to me from an intelligent Roman Catholic, a respectable citizen of Cookstown, assuring me of his conviction by that discourse of the errors of Popery, and his desire to become acquainted with our views of original Christianity.

      I learned that so orthodox was my young friend Carson, that he refused the meeting-house at Tubbermore on the ground that I was an "unconverted or unregenerate man," and, I think, refused to hear me preach on the same ground. His parents were but partially acquainted with my real views; for, strange to tell, his father took it into his head that I was a Unitarian--a mere German Neologist; and so represented me to his congregation. Mrs. Carson, a lady of pre-eminent talents and piety, as I am informed, declared to a friend of mine that there was no work in her library that, notwithstanding this allegation, she was more "fascinated with than the Christian Baptist, which, when she had opened, she could not lay down without reading an article or two."

      It was offered as an apology for young Mr. Carson, that, on demanding a salary from the church at Tubbermore, the congregation, being unwilling to accede to his conditions, he was intent on leaving them; and having a call to Perth in Scotland, from a church of orthodox Baptists, he was desirous of keeping his reputation pure from the imputation of any partiality for our views. Be this as it may, I only state the fact for the information of many brethren from Tubbermore, who have, on their arrival in this country, united [515] with our churches. I have since learned that Mr. Carson has left his father's flock much divided and distracted, and has gone to Perth to labor for the church of that town.

      Dr. Alexander Carson, it is alleged, spoiled his church at Tubbermore, as parents spoil a child, by being too kind to it. He never exacted a salary from it. His son, intending to reform it in this particular, made "his little finger heavier than his fathers thigh." Still the young man is, no doubt, right in the principle, however injudicious in the application of it, that the shepherd should live on the flock which he feeds.

      By the way, it does not appear to be known in Ireland or Scotland that the degree of L.L.D. was conferred on Alexander Carson by one of our colleges--that of Harrodsburg. It may be a hint to some of the colleges got up by the Disciples, that they be not too lavish of such honors on strangers. They sometimes give a power to injure, by a factitious influence, those who are not with us fully in the work of the Lord. I willingly, indeed, accorded to Alexander Carson the literary honor intended and indicated by the degree. His work on Baptism alone merited such a distinction; for, I doubt not, it has been conferred by other colleges on a hundred other men who deserved less than he.

      Though no where on my tour more unfit to labor than in Ireland, because of indisposition, I felt no where more desirous of setting before the community the great principles which distinguish us as a community. But for this work I was providentially hindered both by persecution and ill health. I felt grieved, especially for the sake of those few noble spirits who have so long and so patiently borne their testimony for the truth against strong and well organized hosts of opposition.

      Brother Tener assembled at his own spacious residence, in the midst of a rich variety of the beauties of Nature and of Art, a large company of his neighbors and friends, for conversation on certain great matters; with whom I spent a very interesting day, being specially fitted for it by the medical skill and laborious attentions and dispensation of all manner of restoratives by sister Tener, one of the most accomplished, most excellent, and amiable of ladies and one of the most exemplary Christians I have met with in any country. But I talked myself so fully out, that next morning I had scarcely physical strength left to walk into the garden without leaning on my staff.

      The day of parting came. A portion of that delightful society from Scotland and Belfast left in the morning at its early dawn.-- [516] In the course of the day, accompanied by young Mr. Tener and brother James M'Crum, a young gentleman of very handsome attainments as a scholar, a writer, and a poet. I bade a long farewell to the household of faith at Moree, and set out for the counties of Armagh and Down. That evening we safely arrived in Rich Hill, where a large assembly had, on a former occasion, convened to hear me; but from not seeing me then, and not having generally heard of my second appointment, I had but a small congregation; to whom I delivered a short address in the Presbyterian meeting-house, and went out to sojourn with one of my old pupils, Nathaniel Greer, Esq., now one of the most distinguished farmers of that part of the county: his lady also, being the daughter of Mr. Gillis, merchant, of Market Hill, with whom, when attending an academy in that town, I had boarded. I felt quite at home with these intimates of my youth. I found Mr. Greer's memory replete with a hundred anecdotes more than forty years old, in which he and myself had been concerned, and of some of which I could say, Magna pars fui.

      I had many a question to ask, and many a tale to hear, full of instruction in the affairs and revolutions of human life. The fortunes of the most distinguished families, beginning with that of Wm. Richardson, esq., lord of the manor, formerly member of Parliament, to whose family of three daughters I had been for some time tutor when 19 years old, passed in review before us. The details of the lives of a score of my other pupils, many of them already dead, passed in rapid review before us. With few exceptions, their lives and fortunes corresponded with their characters when at school. With much pleasure and information, we spent much of one day and two evenings in such conversations.

      Amongst my pupils had been the Rev. Mr. Robert Morrison, now minister of the large Presbyterian church at Market Hill, who heard me preach in Rich Hill on Thursday evening, 22d September, and with whom, by special request, I spent the evening of the 23d at his own pleasant mansion, erected on the ground on which his father's house stood when he was an elder of my father's congregation.

      I found my friend Mr. Morrison an intelligent and well read theologian in the doctrines and history of his own church, a very estimable and social gentlemen. Our conversations on religion were practical rather than polemical, and general rather than particular. He had made an appointment for me to speak to his own congregation; but my time would not permit, having engagements at Chester, England, which forbade any farther delay in Ireland. [517] Mr. Greer spent the whole of that day, the 23d, in carrying me in his carriage over the grounds around my Father's farm and residence, the old stone meeting-house, and the surrounding residences of the prominent members of his congregation. But more than forty years had carried them all away, except a few members of their families, who still reside on their patrimonial inheritances or in their immediate environs; of which class Mr. Greer himself was one, occupying the same house and farm on which his father died some 50 years ago. We had the sexton to open the old meeting-house, some 60 feet by 40; and with many a melancholy, though somewhat pleasing reminiscence, I surveyed the pews, saying to myself, 'Here sat such a one, and there sat such a one; but where sit they now?' The pulpit and the doors were new modified; all else was in statu quo as it was when I heard him in April, 1807, deliver his farewell sermon to a large and weeping concourse.

      On Saturday morning, the 24th, we set sail for Newry, via Market Hill. This town was the only one in the county of Armagh that had grown any since I last visited it. I stopped for a few minutes in quest of some old acquaintances. I had to introduce myself to the only two I found in it. We arrived in Newry at 2 o'clock, spent there some four hours, and hasted on to Warren Point, if possible to sail for Liverpool, distant some 150 miles. Having spent some two or three years of my boyhood in Newry, I desired much to spend a few days in it; but seeing that I had disappointed a large congregation assembled to hear me on my own appointment, one of the most intellectual and respectable that brother Henshall reported he had seen in the three kingdoms during his tour, I could not prevail upon myself to hazard other disappointments by delaying so long as to call on one of them, save two ladies who met me in the street, and simultaneously recognizing each other, though more than forty years had intervened since last we met. With these I enjoyed a tete-a-tete, a very agreeable interview of one hour; and having transacted a few items of business entrusted to me with other persons, we hasted to Carlingford Bay and Warren Point, where, the same evening, after a very pleasant ride and supper with brethren M'Crum and Tener, I got on board a splendid steamer, laid me down in a good berth, and awoke next morning in sight of Wales and Old England; where, at 10 o'clock, I safely landed, finding on the shore, awaiting my arrival, brethren Davies and Woodnorth. The church not meeting in Liverpool till afternoon because of some disappointment, we went to hear the celebrated Dr. Raffles, Congregationalist; whose church, both external and internal--the building and the [518] people--is one of the largest and the most splendidly worldly in appearance in the city--in all the elements of earthly grandeur and display. Yet Dr. Raffles is celebrated as one of the most talented, eloquent, and evangelical ministers in England, and has a congregation of some 1500 souls committed to his charge, as devout and attentive in appearance, as well as bearing all the indications of worldly consequence, wealth, and refinement, as any one which I saw in her Majesty's dominions, especially amongst Dissenters.

      I was much pleased with Dr. Raffles' discourse. His pulpit, in the centre of a circular house, or, at least so far from being under the galleries, as to make easily visible and audible the preacher--his venerable silk gown, and still more saintly band, with a fine full-orbed face, and hoary wig or locks, a clear, distinct, and deliberate elocution, and a very chaste, though strong and forcible action, gave great emphasis and authority to all that he said. His text was a very sublime one, though I could not see its appositeness either to the Doctor himself or to his audience. It was, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which I am crucified to the world, and the world to me." The sermon was, indeed, highly evangelical, well studied, and arranged handsomely, and gravely uttered and listened to with the most profound and devout attention by an auditory exhibiting much devotion and heart-felt interest in all that was said. Yet there was so much of the lusts of the eye and the pride of life, so much worldly grandeur and subserviency to the style and customs of this vain world in all that I saw, that no other text in the volume of inspiration could have struck me with more dissonance and revulsion than this one, to all that was visible and sensible in the pulpit and orator, in the habit and decoration of both the sacred desk itself and its worshipful incumbent.

      I was all the while forming excuses for the preacher and for his congregation;--such as I presumed would have been his justification to himself and to any one offering an objection,--especially as I understood he had delivered the same discourse some twenty years ago on the occasion of his having married a very opulent, and, if I mistake not, a very beautiful wife. On his first appearance after this auspicious event, such a text was most apposite to correct public opinion, and to justify himself for having perpetrated a deed so apparently at war with the doctrine and practice of the Apostle Paul. This incident goes far to justify my reasoning in excuse for Dr. Raffles. Did not David say, "See now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains"? The same incongruity, [519] no doubt, stirred up the spirit of Dr. Raffles. Of what use is wealth if we dare not bring any of it to beautify the Lord's house and our persons when we worship there? Why should men seek after wealth with such insatiable avidity, compass sea and land for proselyting gold and silver, if, when they have converted them to their own use, they must not, they dare not, convert any of them to adorn and beautify the vestments of the priest, the house of the Lord, or the solemnities of Zion? Would it not be most incongruous and undevout for the rich Christian merchants in Liverpool to live in houses at the expense of twenty or thirty thousand pounds sterling, filled with all the luxuries of the four quarters of the world and of the age, if they dare not consecrate a few thousand pounds to the Lord in the form of painted windows, mahogany pulpits, crimson cushions, silver chalices, &c. &c. &c? They would then exclaim, Why should we dwell in marble palaces, under vermillion ceilings, recline on downy couches, and feast at tables covered with massive plate! Why should we clothe ourselves in Egyptian linen, in French or English silks and satins? Why adorn ourselves with the gems of Margaretta or the gold of Golconda, if we must worship in plain attire and meet in plain and unadorned houses on the Sabbath to worship Him that created all these rich and beautiful things!!

      Do not our preachers call it "the house of the Lord," and do they not quote the temple that Solomon built, and the rich presents of princes and kings consecrated in gold and silver offerings to the house of the Lord for his service in the sanctuary! And why, say they, arraign the decent and comely attire of God's ministers and priests, seeing that Aaron wore a golden mitre on his head; that his shoulders and breast were adorned with the richest gems that ever adorned a monarch's crown; and that his vestments were pictured in heaven, and cut and adorned after a pattern and fashion shown by God himself to Moses in the mount? The poor and the humble may meet in sordid hovels or worship within tents and squalid hovels, but we will follow a brighter and more divine model, and give our gold and our silver, our scarlet and our fine twined linen to the Lord.

      Were we Jews, and not Christians, and did we believe in an age of shadows and adumbrations of spiritual and heavenly things, this logic might be heard with patience and considered with candor. We live in the kingdom of heaven age of the world, under a dispensation of the Spirit. It is not logic, but a false and deceitful rhetoric that allures to bewilder and fascinates to deceive--which [520] would nullify every precept of the gospel, and transform the Messiah's kingdom, which is not of this world, into a Jewish commonwealth--into a worldly sanctuary, alike unworthy of him that chose to be born in a stable, cradled in a manger, and to die upon a cross: and of God who is spirit, and not matter, and who can be worshipped acceptably only when worshipped with the heart, in spirit, and in truth.

      A Christian meeting-house ought to be plain and unadorned, save with simplicity and neatness. It ought to be amply spacious, well ventilated, illuminated, and heated, every way agreeable so far as convenience, health, and comfort are concerned. All beyond this is a reproach on the religion of Jesus Christ, a satire against its Founder rather than a eulogy upon his mission and character. If this be reason and truth, sanctioned by the Bible, equally obvious and certain it must be that all gowns, bands, and sacred vestments on the persons of men, officiating between God and man, or presuming to speak in his name, are just as much a relic of the dark ages, as much a figment of the Papacy as the salt, the oil, the spittle and the sign of the cross appended to infant affusion by the hierophants of Rome, the blind devotees of grimace and show.

      But I must leave this splendid meeting-house, its tasteful pulpit, its accomplished and eloquent orator, its large, attentive, and fashionable congregation, and hie away to an upper room, even in Liverpool, where some fifty or sixty disciples, men and women, have met to commemorate the sacrifice of the Son of God, to celebrate his resurrection, and to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. We had a pleasant afternoon with this select band; and after several exhortations, we broke up and returned to Mollington to repose a day or two before the general meeting at Chester--of which I shall give you some information in my next.

      As yet I have said little or nothing about the condition of society in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and but little on the peculiar appearance and state of these countries. These matters I reserve till the details of our personal labors and travels are ended; for which, I presume, another letter will suffice.

[The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, 5 (September 1848): 514-521.]