• Preface to the Following Letters by Alexander Campbell, pp. 141-142.
• Letter I. To Mrs. Jane Campbell. June 9, 1828, pp. 143-146.
• Letter II. To Mrs. Jane Campbell. April, 1830, pp. 147-150.
• Letter III. To Mrs. Jane Campbell. August 20, 1830, pp. 150-152.
• Letter IV. To Dorothea Bryant. February 17, 1834, pp. 152-156.
• Letter V. To Mrs. Jane Campbell. March 7, 1834, pp. 156-160.
• Letter VI. To Mrs. Jane Campbell. April 9, 1834, pp. 160-164.
• Letter VII. To A. S. Hayden. June 3, 1840, pp. 164-166.
• Letter VIII. To Dorothea Bryant. July 6, 1847, pp. 166-167.
• Letter IX. To Alexander Campbell. August 1, 1832, pp. 167-171.
• Letter X. To Alexander Campbell. December 24, 1831, pp. 172-175.
• Letter XI. To Brother and Sister Bakewell. May 29, 1846, pp. 175-178.
• Letter XII. To Margaret Campbell. April 23, 1843, pp. 178-182.
• Letter XIII. To the Editor of the Gospel Advocate. July 18, 1828, pp. 182-190.
• Album Note to Mrs. Julia Bakewell. August 18, 1845, pp. 190-193.

      WE present to the inquisitive reader a few letters of Father Campbell's correspondence, from which the considerate and reflecting reader may form a more satisfactory appreciation of his character, and the general bent and tendencies of his mind and affections, than from any mere statements or elaborate portraits which we could present.

      These letters were the spontaneous effusions of his heart, and are demonstrative of the manner of spirit which he possessed, and the interest which he felt, and which he took, in their edification and happiness.

      We learn more of what the Gospel is in its influence, or in its effects upon those who had cordially embraced it, from the letters of the apostles to the individuals and to the Churches or communities which they addressed, and which constitute so large a portion of what we call the Christian Scriptures, than we could from all the theories or doctrines of modern or ancient Christendom, called orthodox or heterodox. There is no book in the libraries of earth so suggestive, so authoritative, and so [141] satisfactory to a spiritual appetite and taste, as the Heaven-inspired effusions of the holy apostles and evangelists of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are more effectual and influential in forming character--in civilizing, elevating, and aggrandizing humanity, than all the libraries of earth--than all the instrumentalities furnished by all the sages, from Plato, Socrates, and Zeno, down to the most refined and sublimated sages and philosophers now canonized by the living world. How truthfully, and pertinently, and happily expressed is the encomium, "All Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and duly furnished for every good word and work."

      The character of every man must stand or fall according to his appreciation, his practical appreciation, of these Heaven-inspired documents. The following letters are not merely declarative of the character of the subject of this memoir, but will, we doubt not, be more or less influential in directing the thoughts and volitions of every candid and inquisitive reader. With this intent we publish them, believing, moreover, that they will place the writer of them in a, proper and truthful attitude before the reader. [142]

      Conjugal affection is the root and reason of all human affection. The maternal, the paternal, and the fraternal affections are but offshoots from conjugal affection. The following letters, while they report many interesting facts and events in sundry fields of the evangelical labors of Elder Campbell, do also place his character--domestic and public--in its true port and bearing.

      We, in this case, violate a law of etiquette in certain circles, by placing the maternal before the paternal. But we think, honestly think, and candidly express it, that the whole destiny of the world is more, much more, in the hands of the mothers than in the hands of the fathers of this present living, plodding, acting generation.

      But we do not wish to appear in the attitude of presenting mere proofs of paternal or conjugal affection, but of a faithful and laborious minister of the grand Hero of man's spiritual and eternal redemption, to which office and work he had consecrated a long and laborious life.

      A Christian minister's life is, if it be as it should be, a high and a holy calling, paramount to any calling in the whole area of humanity.

BAZETTA, OHIO, June 9th, 1828.

MRS. JANE CAMPBELL:

      My Beloved Wife--Nothing could reconcile me to this long and indefinite absence from you and our beloved children and grandchildren, but the work in which I am engaged.

      I can truly say it is the work of the Lord; from the matter [143] of it, the manner of it, the success of it, and from the outrageous opposition everywhere manifested against it; and also from the Divine countenance and support which I experience in the performance of the duties in which I am daily engaged, both in public and in private: not only as it respects liberty of speech, confidence in God, courage to meet and encounter all manner of opposition, but also as it respects bodily health under long and loud speaking, and prolonged conversations to very late hours; also going into the water to baptize when highly heated and much exhausted with long speaking. For instance, yesterday evening, after speaking about three hours to a very large assembly met in a large open barn, I went out immediately into the water at a little distance, and spoke and baptized a man and his wife. Thence, about an hour afterward, went to an evening meeting; read, and sang, and talked, and prayed till ten o'clock; sat up an hour afterward, took supper and went to bed. Slept about seven hours; got up this morning quite refreshed and vigorous, and walked back a mile and a half to my present lodging, where I am now writing this letter to you.

      I am to preach this evening, and baptize at least two, who gave themselves up for baptism at our evening meeting last night; and from what I have heard to-day, there will be some more baptized with them. I have here baptized six already; three of them boys from eleven to thirteen years old.

      I am to preach sixteen miles north of this to-morrow at four o'clock, P. M., where I hope to baptize several others. I thence return east to Hubbard, where I intend to preach next Lord's day. Thence east to Sharon, where Brethren Scott and Bentley are to meet me at a yearly meeting of ministers, all, as I understand, in the opposition. Our intention is to bring them over, if we can; but if not, to oppose them openly.

      Thus you have a brief specimen of my travels. I feel much stronger to speak, and to bear any kind of fatigue, than [144] when I left home; and if there were ten more to aid the four or five of us who are at present engaged in this good work, with all the zeal and ability they could possess, they would not be sufficient to meet the demands of the public, or to occupy the ground that lies open before us. The harvest truly appears by far too great for the laborers; and the success, I must say, appears fully adequate to the labors, all things considered.

      I never witnessed such a stir, such an inquiry, such a yielding to the eviction of truth. The young persons I baptized yesterday were so affected they could scarcely support themselves--all sobbing and in tears; and there would have been many more had not the demon of opposition interposed.

      A Brother Woodsworth, minister of the Church, who preached in the forenoon, got up and publicly opposed what I had been endeavoring to inculcate, when several others were on the point of offering themselves for baptism; which had the unhappy tendency to confuse and intimidate them for the present.

      He made a mournful outcry that be was grievously hurt with my discourse, without being able to specify a single error; but merely that I had not preached some other things along with what I had preached; and, therefore, endeavored to make the people believe that I did not hold them.

      There being, no time for controversy, (nor, indeed, anything to controvert,) I dismissed the people and repaired to the water. The result was, that upon coming out, he was told that the Church could no longer receive his labors. So he took horse and started off, and I saw him no more.

      There are of this Church a good number of the old members, who, with thirty who have been baptized by us reformers, wish me to constitute them into a new Church, upon Gospel principles, before I leave this place; which I shall probably do. Thus you see, my dear, how the work goes on in the midst of all opposition. The opposers are manifestly killing [145] themselves, as poor Woodsworth has done. I am just told that there were two other ministers of the Bible Christian sect present at my discourses yesterday and the day before; one of whom, from what I hear, I expect to baptize to-morrow or next day.

      Now, beloved, what shall we say to these things? I long to be with you for our mutual comfort; but can I, from any private consideration, withdraw from a work for which the Lord has been preparing me for more than twenty years and for which, I presume, I was brought to this country: and you and our family graciously preserved in my absence; and for which I believe they are preserved to this day. Far be it from us to prove so ungrateful! I am persuaded you could not desire it; and yet I know you can not feel happy at the thought of my almost continual absence; nor, indeed, can I. In the mean time, however, let us cheerfully submit to the privation. We have a very kind and gracious heavenly Father, and a most merciful and gracious Redeemer, who sympathizes with his beloved people, and who has all power in heaven and earth in his hand; whose gracious approbation of "Well done, good and faithful servants" will more than compensate for all the difficulties and privations we may or can endure for his sake and his Gospel.

      May he continue to support and strengthen us by his good word and Spirit; and to him be all the glory and praise. Amen!

      Farewell, beloved; remember me most affectionately to all our dear children and grandchildren.

      Your ever affectionate husband,

THOMAS CAMPBELL. [146]

      This is an event in the drama of the universe to which all Christian eyes should look with concentrated attention and interest. It is a topic which I never heard discussed in a Roman or Protestant pulpit in Europe or America, antedating anno Domini 1820. Nor was it then a decided question, but a question sub judice. It was, however, formally put on my file in 1823; and even then suffered to lie for some time without a full appreciation of its intrinsic value and importance. The following letter indicates that at its date it had made considerable progress.

MAYSVILLE, Saturday, April --, 1830.

MRS. JANE CAMPBELL:

      Beloved Wife--After two weeks' absence I have just returned to this place, during which time I have been busily engaged, night and day, preaching and teaching, so that I could scarcely find time to write a letter on business to son Alexander. I have been cordially and kindly received in all places, and well provided for, both with horses and company, so that I have not been left even to travel alone. My health also has continued to improve; so that I both look and feel much better than when I left home. Blessed be God for all his kindness. I hope, beloved, that you are enjoying like precious blessings with our dear children; my only felt privation at present is my absence from you and them. But this can not be obviated while I continue to be actively engaged in the work of reformation. [147]

      Just as I had finished the above sentence I was called away to preach. After occupying two hours in public, and having dined, I return to inform you of the kind, interesting attention with which I am everywhere received, and the expressed anxiety of the people to obtain appointments for their respective neighborhoods. So that I am kept going night and day the most of my time.

      But what of all this? If God be not glorified, and man edified, there is no cause for rejoicing. Therefore, my beloved, join with me in your morning and evening supplications, praying that my labors may be blessed to the conversion of sinners, and to the edification of saints; and that the ancient Gospel may have free course, and be glorified in the prostration of all error and sectarianism.

      Beloved spouse and sister in Christ, it has pleased our Divine Savior to call me by his grace, to the knowledge of his precious Gospel, and to public usefulness by the preaching of it; which necessarily deprives me of the pleasure of your company, and you of mine. But he is infinitely glorious; and we are infinitely indebted to him, for whose sake we should cheerfully submit to this privation, hoping for the heavenly reward.

      I preached last night, after supper, to a full and respectable assembly; and now, after a refreshing night's sleep, have breakfasted. I hope to finish this without further interruption, as I wish you, beloved, to understand precisely the reformation for which we are contending. It is neither less nor more than the faith and law of Christ once delivered to the saints, which the primitive Christians believed and obeyed, and by which they were perfected; and which we have distinctly and clearly recorded in the New Testament. Take, for instance, Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, which was the first under the reign of Christ, which the three thousand believed and obeyed; by the belief and obedience of which they sat down with the hundred and twenty, justified [148] and sanctified in the kingdom of God, filled with peace, joy, and love, as we see in Acts, chapter ii. Here, then, we have the faith once delivered to the saints, namely: what the apostle preached concerning Christ and him crucified, with the belief and obedience of it by the three thousand, and the happiness, the joy, and consolation that followed. Here, then, we have the ancient Gospel exhibited in its purity and power; and not in this chapter only, but in several others where Christ is preached and remission of sins through the obedience of faith.--(See Acts iii, x, xiii, and xxii.) Here, then, we have, beyond all doubt, the true primitive faith once delivered to the saints, with its effects, by the belief and obedience of which all were declared saved.

      In the next place, after the belief and obedience of the Gospel, comes the law of Christ even all that the apostles enjoined in the name of Christ upon the believers to observe and do.

      Thus the whole instructions delivered by the apostles to the baptized believers, whether in the Acts or in the Epistles, taken together, constitute the law of Christ.

      Now, as the belief and obedience of the Gospel perfects the conscience, releasing it from guilt, and purifies the heart by love, so the law of Christ obeyed perfects the character, for it prohibits every possible evil, and strictly and forcibly enjoins the practice of all possible good. Hence we have no occasion for anything taught since the apostles' day to perfect our character or condition; for justified by faith, (through baptism,) "we have peace with God." "We have his love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit," and rejoice in hope of his glory.

      Thus you see, my dear, we are complete in Christ, through the provision he has made for our instruction by his apostles. Independent of all teachers and teachings since their day, and walking in love, we are comforted and edified.

      To help forward with this good work, my dear, is what [149] reconciles me to an absence from you, to which, upon no worldly account, I would at this time submit. Wherefore I hope and trust that God will dispose of us both to his glory and our mutual comfort. I remain, beloved wife, with love to all ours,

      Your affectionate husband till death,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

      We have in this letter allusions to the conflicts attending the cause of reformation in Kentucky and in some parts of Ohio. The bitterness of the true partisans of human creeds and platforms is very transparently exhibited in the allusions found in this epistle. Party spirit among religious sectaries is here exhibited in bold relief.

BROTHER GEORGE ARCHER'S, August 20th, 1830.

MRS. JANE CAMPBELL:

      Beloved Wife--SInce my last to you I have written to sons Alexander and Archibald, letting them know something of the state of things respecting the reformation in Kentucky. I left that State but yesterday, and arrived here in Ohio last night; and am to return thither again to-morrow two weeks, to attend the Brecken Association, to meet at Washington, Mason county; whence, after that meeting is over, I intend going down to Cincinnati, whence, after spending two weeks there, I hope to set out for home, so as to be with you, at the farthest, about the, first of October; which, if spared to see it, will complete six months' absence, which, with the six [150] months the year before last spent on the Western Reserve, and the two and a half years' separation till you arrived in this country, makes the seventh of the whole time since we became one in law. And now, my dear, what shall I say to you but forgive me this wrong? as I confidently hope that these trials will all work together for our good, as also for the good of others, through the Divine blessing, and that when we shortly meet, it will be under the happy influence of the blessed Gospel of Christ, to rejoice, together in our glorious Savior, whose love knows no bounds but that of infinite goodness, with whom, through his mercy, we shall shortly be, and with whom we hope to spend a blissful eternity, to part no more. May our gracious Lord God and Savior prepare us for that happy destiny! Amen.

      I have had the pleasure of hearing of your good health by every communication, verbal or written, that I have received.

      Brother Ephraim Smith, who was with you in the beginning of the last month, tells me be never saw you look so well. I have abundant reason to bless God for the same privilege. I have not enjoyed so even and so confirmed a state of health these many years. Notwithstanding the heat, and drouth, and dust, and my almost daily speaking, from two to three hours at a time, I have not had so much as a headache since I left home. Blessed be God for his kindness to us and our spreading family. I hope, my beloved partner, partaker of my burdens and privations, that the, great goodness of God to us and ours, will fill our hearts with gratitude and gladness, and excite us to redoubled diligence to repair, impossible, the loss sustained by former unfruitfulness. May the good Lord dispose us thereunto! The field of labor is extensive. The harvest is great and heavy. The laborers comparatively few.

      I can give you no adequate idea of the weight and heat of the work in Kentucky. The outrageous and malevolent opposition is ripening the harvest for the reformers. A [151] Campbell, Campbellism, Campbellites, and heretics, are the chorus, the overword, the tocsin of alarm, in the mouths of the opponents, in almost every sentence, from the one end of Kentucky to the other; yea, in the opposition and in the papers from Georgia to Maine. You can not conceive what a terrible dust our humble name has kicked up. If it were not coupled with the pure cause of God--the ancient Gospel of the Savior, and the sacred order of things established by his holy apostles, I should tremble for the consequences! But, alas! the enemies have blasphemed the blessed Gospel, by pasting our sinful names upon it, to bring it into disrepute. Farewell, my beloved. May the Lord preserve you.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

      This letter presents the ecclesiastical condition of things in North Carolina, in the commencement of A. D. 1834. We had the pleasure of forming a personal acquaintance with Brother General William Clark, of Jackson, Miss., May, 1850, from whom we learned something of the present condition of things ecclesiastic, both in North Carolina and Mississippi. There is in both states a great lack of evangelists; and, from all my premises, that field of labor would pay a fair per cent. per annum, to efficient laborers, well instructed in the Christian oracles.

GREENVILLE, N. C., Feb. 17th, 1834. DOROTHEA BRYANT:

      My Beloved Daughter--I at length address you a few lines from North Carolina, in which State I have sojourned [152] one hundred days, preaching, occasionally, as I had opportunity, to small audiences, till I arrived here on last Friday. In the mean time, and ever since I left home, I have been highly favored with good health, and, blessed be God, with much spiritual comfort. I think and hope I have learned some deep practical lessons, since I have been so far separated from my own dear family, and all my intimate friends and brethren.

      Yes, thanks be to God; like John, I have had my Patmos recesses, by which I am exempted from the attachments of a known world. I have been thrown back upon myself, having no conscious friend to look to, in whose ears or bosom I might repose my cares, but that ever-present, ever-conscious Guardian, Protector, Friend, of whom it is written: "Cast all your cares on Him, for He careth for you." Sweet necessity! that shuts us out, and shuts us up, to Him alone. I walk out alone and solitary to the fields and groves, to indulge meditation, and commune in holy aspirations, in looks, sighs, and tears, with my everywhere and ever-present Father--the great I AM--to whom I freely speak as it occurs, upon any subject of these vast and mighty concerns, saying: Thou art knowledge, power, wisdom, goodness, justice, truth, holiness, love, mercy, and condescension. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for thou hast created all things; and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Thus conceiving and speaking of his glorious character, and enraptured with it, I feel happily constrained to exclaim: Glory, honor, and eternal praises to thy great name, through Jesus. Amen, and amen.

      Thus conversing with my heavenly Father, about any part or portion of his mighty works of creation, legislation, or reconciliation, according to the above arrangement of the triple class of attributes, especially appertaining to and manifested in creation, providence, and redemption, I feel consoled, refreshed, and delighted, and only at a loss for the [153] presence of some kindred mind to whom I could communicate and with whom I could reciprocate my feelings; and being deprived of this privilege, I return again to my chamber or the fireside whence I set out.

      Thus you have, in brief, the history of my course since my arrival in this State; except that I have occasionally been reading and writing in defense of the reformation as opportunity offered.

      I am at present stopping in the family of a worthy brother, as I understand, General William Clark; who is from home at present. He is a preacher of the ancient Gospel. There are also two others, Messrs. Congleton and Dunn, with whom I expect to co-operate, in the great cause of primitive Christianity, on the return of Brother Clark, who is expected shortly.

      My dear daughter, when we compare the state and exercise of our minds with what we read of those of the saints recorded in the holy Scriptures, we must be deeply impressed with the sad disparity of exercise and feeling about the great things of God, the effects of sin, and the enjoyment of salvation. There is a vacuum, a deficiency of thought and expression, about these surpassingly great and transcendently interesting subjects; so that our minds are not habitually taken up with these things, or duly exercised about them; being habitually engrossed and carried away with other things--the things of time and sense, the carnal things of a present world--so that we have neither disposition nor leisure for anything else. This, I say, is the state and condition of the great majority of professed Christians everywhere, and I have experienced my full share of this lamentable state.

      Beloved daughter, do, I beseech you, make the practice of Christianity your proper business; the practice of which is both mental and corporeal. First, mental, for the mind is the proper subject of religion; but then the body comes in for its part, for, "Out of the abundance of the heart the [154] mouth speaketh." And not only so, we ought to exercise ourselves for the purpose of religious self-enjoyment, but also for the improvement of those around us, for their happiness and enjoyment also. It ought, therefore, to be the daily family business to educate our minds and form our taste for religious enjoyments. We should habituate ourselves to a realizing consciousness of the Divine presence, that so we might be able to say, with David: "I set the Lord always before my face." And this we should do by familiarizing thoughts and expressions; by so thinking and speaking of the Divine presence as would associate God with our minds, yea, if possible, with all our thoughts, as we are wont to associate the person with his shadow, so that when we see the latter, we realize the presence of the former before we can see him. Let us, then, do so with the Divine presence, of which everything we see is the shadow, and but the shadow; for the being--the substance--is God. Were we thus to associate God in our minds with everything we see, thus to habituate ourselves to a realizing sense of the Divine presence, and accustom ourselves to converse about God as or according to the various and manifold manifestations he presents to us, both in his word and works, and talk of these things with profound reverence in our families, and to our children, according to Deut. vi: 1-6, how very different would be the character and condition of ourselves and our families. Alas! for our sad deficiencies! Let us, then, endeavor, the time it is, to associate God with our minds as the permanently efficient cause of our existence, by whose influential energy we live, are moved, and enjoy our being every moment.

      Let us realize him in all his relations, in the whole of his revealed character; in creation, in legislation, and in government; in our redemption and reconciliation, our resurrection and ultimate glorification. Without these associations, we may lead a carnal, professing life; but we can neither live [155] nor die happily in the possession of that enjoyment with the means of which God has graciously provided us; for, always remember, that all enjoyment consists in employment, so that when we cease to mind or practice anything, we cease to enjoy it.

      I think ere long to hear from all my dear children. May the Lord bless them. I wish, my dear Dora, you would be as efficient as possible, not only in thus cultivating the minds of your own children, but also in exciting your sisters and your nieces to the due performance of this all-important duty. Duty did I say? Nay, privilege of the highest order--heaven upon earth.

      Farewell, beloved daughter. Comfort your dear mother. May the Lord bless your family. Yours,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

      This and the following letter were written in North Carolina, in a season of much depression, of which he often spoke as his Patmos:

March 7th, 1834.

MRS. JANE CAMPBELL:

      Dearly Beloved, Wife--I would address you with gratitude and thanksgiving to our heavenly Father, our gracious Creator, who gave us to each other, and under whose benign and gracious auspices we have so long co-existed, the highly-favored subjects of great and manifold favors.

      I have great reason to bless God for good general health, and the enjoyment of the personal and social comforts of life among kind, benevolent people. Surely, "The lot has fallen to us in pleasant, places. The Lord has given us a [156] goodly heritage. "He has called us to labor for the promotion of pure heaven-born Christianity, and has graciously blessed us with the enjoyment of the fruit of our labors; the society of those who professedly receive, love, and esteem it; so that we are constantly in the center and society of Christian friends, of kind and sympathizing brethren; you, my dear, among your kind, affectionate, believing children, and I among brethren and sisters, of a nearer and dearer affinity than flesh and blood. How great our privileges! Blessed be the Lord God! And there are greater still before us, where you and I and they shall meet to part no more; and even now separate in body, not in mind.

"Present we still in spirit are,     And intimately nigh: While on the wings of faith and prayer     We to our Savior fly. "Our life is hid with Christ in God,     Our life shall soon appear, And spread his glory all abroad     On all his brethren here. "Our bodies, then, like his shall shine;     Immortal we shall rise: And in his image all divine,     As one receive the prize. "Then sin and sorrow in our heart     Shall us no more annoy; And not one thought that we shall part,     Shall interrupt our joy. "There, free from all distracting pains,     Our spirits ne'er shall tire; But in seraphic, heavenly strains,     Redeeming love admire. "O! the transporting scenes of bliss     Our souls shall then enjoy; For if we be where Jesus is,     There's nothing can annoy." [157]

      This, my beloved, is the true state of the case, both with respect to present privilege and future prospect. Therefore, let us bless God and take courage. A few more months, I humbly hope, will bring us again together in health, that we may once more console ourselves with the rehearsals of the Divine goodness, and rejoice together with our dear children. I may almost say that I commenced my labors in this State about the beginning of February, three months after my arrival. This may appear strange; but so it has happened through uncontrollable circumstances. I have been very much engaged since my arrival in this part of the State, and have the prospect of being so during my continuance here; but how long this may be, will depend upon my prospect of utility.

      Religion here appears to be at a very low ebb, both with regard to its exhibition and effects. We anticipate a meeting of the few friends of reform--I mean the preachers--on the last Lord's day of this month, and the two preceding days, not far from this place, for the purpose of concert concerning our future proceedings; after which, if spared, I shall shortly write you our conclusions. In the mean time, my dear, let us indulge hope in the Divine goodness, and pray continually for one another, and for the success of the blessed cause in which we are engaged. I mean both you and I, for without your consent I had not been here; wherefore, you are share and share alike with we in the fruit and reward of my labors, as the Lord may please to accept and prosper. Therefore, my beloved, whatever we do or attempt in the service of the Lord, let us do it heartily as to the Lord and for the best interests of our fellow-men, for the Lord loveth a cheerful giver. In the mean time, indulge the blissful sentiments contained in the little song I have transcribed for your enjoyment. Christianity, in its blissful and comprehensive effects, terminates in faith and love; that is, in the belief and love of the Divine character as manifested in [158] Christ by the Gospel; and in the exercise that proceeds from this state of mind, and terminates upon the whole human family, according to the various conditions and relations in which they appear, and under which we view them in the present world. This exercise of faith and love fills the soul with delight--delight, I mean, in God, and universal benevolence toward man. But in order to the enjoyment of it, we must possess it; we must exercise it; and in order to this, we must study the Gospel character of God as manifested in and by the Savior, who is the image of the invisible Divinity, so that he who has seen and apprehended his character has seen the Father. This, then, will necessarily lead us to a very close attention to the authentic records of his person, his sayings, his doings, and sufferings; with which we are Divinely furnished for this very purpose; without which we could know nothing at all about him; and without the diligent study and perusal of which, we must remain comparatively ignorant of him; and not only so, but besides all this, studious diligence, that we may retain and enjoy the impressions of the Divine character thus received; we must meditate much upon it, and by the pious exercises of singing and prayer, and religious conversations about these things, endeavor to keep them in mind, that we may enjoy them.

      The blissful truth of the Gospel character of God, thus duly apprehended and realized, is calculated to produce and maintain that holy love and benevolence which gratefully and pleasingly attach us both to God and man, and, of course, tend to purify the heart from all unrighteousness.

      My dearly beloved, let us labor to abound in these by an abundant use of the means as above specified, and our labor will not be in vain. We shall surely enjoy the blessing, the unspeakable blessing of righteousness, peace, and joy, by the Holy Spirit, which is a heaven upon earth, and, as to this life, the blessed end of our high calling. This, then, my dear, is the end to which I wish both you and myself to attain, and [159] for the enjoyment of which we are graciously furnished with the holy Scriptures; that, if spared to meet again, we may rejoice together with a joy unspeakable and full of glory--realizing the blissful sentiments of the above song, which I hope, through grace, we shall yet sing together.

      Farewell, my dearly beloved wife and sister. With much love to all our beloved children and to all theirs. In the blessed hope of the Gospel,

                  Your ever affectionate husband,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

PANTEGO, April 9th, 1834.

MRS. JANE CAMPBELL:

      My Dear Wife--I am sorry to learn, through Son Ewing, that you had not received my last when he wrote. It was dated March 11th, Hookerton. I expect my next to you will be from Richmond, if spared, about the first of May. How long I shall continue my labors there, before I leave for home, I can not now say. It will be just as the Lord pleases; for, as Christians, whether we live, we live to the Lord, or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether, therefore, we live or die, we are the Lord's; for to this end he both died and is risen, and lives again, that he might be Lord of the dead and living. Amen. So let it be! You and I, my dear, have no objection to this. We cheerfully hail him as our Lord and as Lord of all. We gratefully salute him as such. This entire complacency and submission, however, does not prevent our ardent desire for each other's society and presence, but only reconciles us to the privation for the present--hoping that our gracious Lord [160] will make it a blessing to many, and will yet bless us together more abundantly. I never had my mind so much disciplined, in any given period of my life, as since I came to this place. It has been to me a kind of exile, as was Patmos to the beloved apostle. It seems to me as though I have been among a kind of people different from any with whom I have been formerly acquainted. My circumstances have also been very peculiar. I am now about to leave the State, without having found a strong attachment but to a very few. I was most hospitably entertained by some friends in Edenton. I spent near three months in the family of Elder Thomas Whaff.

      Feeling refreshed with the rest of the past night, and the renewed mercies of the morning, I resume the pleasing task of writing to you. Though so far distant, (say nine hundred miles,) yet you have been the ideal companion of my morning walk. Yea, morning, noon, and night, you are present to me, or rather I am with you. In the frequented spots in which we were used to walk and talk together in P. Hill, in Bethany, etc., etc., I am looking at you, and communing with you of precious things to come.

      But, alas I I can not so easily make myself present to you; if I could do this, our distance would be no interruption of our sentimental intercourse. This, however, can not now be. But, blessed be God, there is a coming day when, either to our ideal or to our real presence, there will be no interruption. There will be no night, no separation there. And even now it is our high privilege to realize that blissful state, and to anticipate its enjoyments. Indeed, can we not even now, from beholding the face of the heavens and the earth, realize the Omnipresent--the great I Am!--the Source of being and of blessedness, from whom all things proceed, who has created all things, and for whose pleasure they are and were created? More especially, can we not, from the word of life, realize the Savior--the great I Am personified-God manifest in the it [161] flesh--Immanuel, God with us? Can we not, I say, realize the Lord Jesus at the right hand of Power, exalted far above all heavens?

      It is true, we can form no just idea of his present glorious appearance upon the throne of his glory, nor should we attempt it; but we can realize the existence of his person, clothed with all the glorious and endearing attributes of character in which he is represented in the sacred oracles. This we can and ought to do, continually, from day to day. And here, my beloved, we have the desirable and blissful advantage which we can not enjoy with respect to each other, as described above; for whenever we realize or rather idealize him in any attitude, or in any circumstances in which he is represented to us on the sacred page, he is immediately conscious of it, and assures us that he is so., Consequently, we can carry on a certain intercourse with him at any time, or at any distance, and under all circumstances in which we may be placed, with the blissful assurance, not only that he is perfectly and immediately conscious of all that passes in our minds in relation to him, but also that he graciously hearkens to our desires, and will most assuredly grant them in as far as it is consistent with unerring wisdom and infinite goodness to do so.

      Here, my dear, let us pause and drop a tear over our guilty ignorance and unbelief, by means of which we have been deprived of so great a privilege, or, at least, greatly interrupted in the enjoyment of it; and for the future let us avail ourselves of it, to all intents and purposes, as far as possible. And here, with respect to the close of our present distance, let us avail ourselves of this blissful privilege. Christ, by reason of his Divinity, is always and equally present with us both. He, therefore, knows both when and how we think and feel for each other, and we have the blissful assurance that, employing his gracious mediation, telling him what we wish, and how we feel for each other, he will [162] bring it to pass; and this, in the mean time, will console us.

      I sometimes think with myself, when I idealize us sitting, standing, or walking together, what good would it do either of us, were it even the case. Have we not often enjoyed each other's presence without any sensible advantage to either of us? This I must grant, and it might be so again. Nevertheless, the relation we sustain to each other is most intimate and interesting. I bless God for it. It is the balm of life; but for you, my dear, and our loving and beloved children and grandchildren, the world would be a dreary blank to me. You and they attach me to the world. So much for worldly attachment. Yet, after all, were it not for Jesus Christ, blessed be his name, existence itself would be intolerable to me.

      When I think of the infinite greatness of the great God, of the utter incomprehensibility of his being and attributes, as manifested in his works, I feel lost and terrified at the display of such greatness. But, as manifested in Jesus, he is made nigh, accommodated to our nature and condition. God with us, the great I AM, pure, abstract intelligence, power, wisdom, goodness, justice, truth, and holiness; infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; who is anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere; now personified in humanity--Jesus of Nazareth, Immanuel. Glory to his name! He now presents himself in love, mercy, and condescension, approachable. Wherefore, let us draw near to him, and through him to the Father, who is in him, with true hearts, in full assurance of faith.

      I wish you, my dear, to inculcate on all our children, as you have opportunity, that the great business of time is to prepare for eternity, by abounding in the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience or perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ; that they may be enabled to teach their children according to Deut., 5th and 11th chapters: for, alas! [163] this important duty is greatly neglected in our day, by the great majority of professed Christians, of all denominations, in our highly-favored country.

      Farewell, beloved wife. May the good Lord bless and keep us, and grant us a happy meeting ere long.

      I remain, most sincerely and affectionately, your husband till death,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

Wednesday, June 3, 1840.

A. S. HAYDEN:

      Respected Brother--Son Alexander, yesterday morning, setting out for Charlottesville, in the eastern part of this State, put your letter of the 8th ult. into my hand to answer, telling me, in the mean time, that he could not give you a judicious answer as to what you ought to do in the proposed case, not being sufficiently acquainted with the circumstances. Upon reading and considering your letter, I think with you that, for the reasons assigned, you ought to leave Solon. Your avowed intention, in relation to Cleveland, is good, should it please the Lord to enable you to accomplish it. All that can be judiciously done in such a case, after looking to the Lord and relying upon his guidance, and taking the advice of intelligent brethren, is to ascertain the minds of the people immediately concerned, after preaching and visiting among them for a few weeks, by telling them your intention, with their approbation; that you feel disposed to make a common cause with them, for promoting the blissful intentions of our holy religion among them, and through their co-operative assistance, among the community all around, by teaching publicly, and from house to house; by the mutual [164] concurrence of their prayers and endeavors to find opportunities for so doing. These things being duly attended to, and they appearing heartily willing and desirous to co-operate thus for the aforesaid blissful purposes, I should feel authorized to locate with them for one year at least, so as to make a fair trial of what might be done. Having preached, visited, and conversed freely with the leading characters, heads of families, for two or three weeks, till I and they got so far acquainted as duly to understand each other and the state of the public mind in the surrounding vicinities, I would propose a private or special consultative meeting for the above purpose; I would there suggest my intentions, and, if approved, would request the appointment of a special committee, consisting of three or four of the leading characters, heads of families, to assist me in procuring as cheap and convenient a situation for my family as possible, and for any other necessary assistance, as the case might require. I would also, at the same time, endeavor to impress deeply upon their minds, that, as the proposed object of our co-operation was purely divine, therefore our entire dependence must be upon the Divine assistance for success; for "it is God that gives the increase." That, therefore, for this purpose we must pray to him night and day; for without him we can do nothing.

      Having thus located my family, I would devote my time to reading, to meditation, to prayer, and to the ministry of the word, both publicly and privately, from house to house, insisting upon closet and family religion. Also, in creating small social meetings for prayer and conference, and, also, evening meetings at convenient distances, for public teaching, etc. Thus, I would try, through the Divine blessing, to spiritualize the minds of the people, by practically and constantly calling their attention to spiritual things. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." [165]

      You will pardon my freedom, dear brother, for thus pretending to dictate. I only take the liberty of thus advising, being convinced of the indispensable use, of the means, in order to the enjoyment of the end; that it is only "he that soweth bountifully that shall reap bountifully;" and that all enjoyment lies in employment.

      My kindest love to Father Bently and family; to your brother William and family; also, to your beloved consort.

      I remain, my much respected brother, your fellow-servant in the Gospel,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

BETHANY, July 6th, A. D. 1847.

MRS. DOROTHEA C. BRYANT, Marion, O.:

      Dearly Beloved Daughter--I received your very kind and affectionate letter last Saturday evening, for which I return you my grateful thanks. My health, blessed be God, is uniformly good; but my hearing is a little dull, and my sight is much more so. I can scarcely see to walk along our common roads, or distinguish faces; it has been growing sensibly more dim every week since I saw you; so that I scarcely attempt to write. You will clearly perceive my ocular deficiency by this letter. I am very much gratified with the contents of your kind letter, naturally, morally, and religiously considered. I most ardently desire your prosperity in all these respects, and that of all your highly-favored family. My sight at present is so dim, that I must quit writing. I would be much gratified to write you a long, sentimental letter; but in looking over my old religious manuscripts, I have selected a few of them for publication in the Millennial Harbinger, two of which are already published in the last [166] two numbers. I have also selected one for the next. Now these are all of radical practical importance, such as I would desire to write to your family. Yea, indeed, to all my children and friends. I hope, therefore, your family will receive and study them as if they were written peculiarly to you.

      I shall take the liberty, also, of directing your attention to a few hymns in our common hymn book,^{1} which I humbly think, claim our peculiar practical attention, as so many Gospel feasts.

      Farewell. May the Lord bless you, and make you and your family mutual blessings, helps, and comforts to each other. Amen. Amen.

      I remain, beloved daughter, your grateful and affectionate father till death,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

SPOTTSYLVANIA, August 1, 1832.

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL:

      My Dear Son--I arrived here at my good friend Dr. John Anderson's yesterday evening, in good health, accompanied [167] by my good friend Brother James Dabney, from Richmond, who proposes to accompany me as far as Dr. Straith's. I propose leaving this for Fredericksburg on Wednesday, the 5th inst. I intend occupying the intermediate days in preaching, at the request of the brethren in this vicinity. I do not intend making any delay in Fredericksburg, except for a night, but shall prosecute my journey through Warrenton toward Winchester, thence to Dr. Straith's. From the heat of the season, the hilliness of the road, and the baggage I have to carry, I do not expect to travel fast, but still hope, if spared, to reach home about the first of September.

      There is some degree of excitement in the towns about the cholera, but not more than might reasonably be expected at the apprehended approach of such a dreadful calamity. We humbly hope the Lord will overrule it, and save his people that fear his name. The ninety-first Psalm is the Christian's refuge and hiding-place from all such evils as are sent for the punishment of an ungodly world.

      The opposition here are doing all they can, but the cause of reform is daily gathering strength--is in the ascendant. If the public advocates from the pulpit and the press would only keep their temper, use soft words and hard arguments, it would progress still more; "for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." May we not expose evils without exposing the persons that practice them, further than to endeavor affectionately to convince them that they are wrong? No man can will his own unhappiness; but the man who abets or practices error is promoting, and, indeed, securing his own unhappiness. He is, therefore, an object of pity, and the more perverse, the more pitiable. "Moreover, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and so they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who [168] are taken captive by him at his will." Surely such are in a pitiable condition; and such is the benevolence of our holy religion toward them. Let us, then, practice and recommend it to all the brethren; and let us give them good measure of this Divine benevolence, pressed down, and running over; for our holy religion abounds with this blissful production--its native product. I most cordially wish never to see or hear one ironic hint, one retaliative retort, by any friend or advocate of the reformation. Let these weapons remain the exclusive property of the disputers of this world. When a soldier of the faith assumes them he loses caste. They sit awkwardly upon him, as Saul's armor did of old upon the champion of Israel; till laid aside he can not conquer. Speaking the truth in love is the Christian motto. "In hoc vince." Amor omnia vincit. Though suaviter in modo et fortiter in re has been my favorite aphorism from my youth, yet I have to regret I have not always obeyed this charming dictate of sound wisdom, but for the future I intend to double my diligence in this respect, yea, to quadruple it, that, upon every occasion, I may thus both defend myself, and overcome evil with good. Let us, then, pity our poor clerical brethren that oppose the reformation, for they know not what they do. They may mean well, but they act badly, both for themselves, the Church, and the world.

      I was present, last Lord's day, at a full exhibition of the Episcopalian religion, in the court-house at Bowling Green, which I had not witnessed before for upward of forty years. It was very solemnly performed by a polite, grave-looking young man, who was devoutly accompanied by a number of decent, attentive worshipers, who performed their part with apparent solemnity. The whole was a perfect consistency, all of a piece. The prayers, the hymns, the preaching, though containing many great and excellent things, yet, from the beginning to the end of the service, addressed the congregation as sinners, taught them to confess themselves poor, [169] guilty, miserable sinners, "who had done the things which they ought not to have done, and had left undone the things which they ought to have done;" that there was no health in them.

      The sermon that followed, and the hymns sung before and after it, were completely adapted to this wretched, guilty state, and so left them with some instructions and exhortations upon the subject of repentance, which, upon the whole of the premises, appeared very necessary; but, alas! after the best use they could make of the subject for their reformation, the next meeting would throw them back upon the old ground, and find them just where they started, viz.: "poor, guilty, miserable sinners," having done no better than formerly; that is, still doing "the things that they ought not to have done, and having left undone the things that they ought to have done, consequently having no health in them." Would not ten or twenty years of such fruitless labor depress the spirits and sink the courage of a Hercules? But so it is; and these poor people are never to see themselves better. But what, then, should we do for them? ridicule or satirize them for this? Far be it. They are serious; they mean well; and though thus depressed, and robbed of the more blissful enjoyments of the Christian religion, yet we have good reason to believe that many of them love the Savior, and are beloved of him, and would lay down their lives for his sake. But, again, can a sincere, humble believer feel otherwise than sorrowful to see a portion of his highly favored fellow-creatures thus, through ignorance and error, deprived of the blissful enjoyments of Gospel liberty, wherewith Christ makes his people free? Surely not. And can he hope to help them by any other means than the manifestation of kindness--than by presenting the truth to their consideration with love and pity? At least, if this will not do, nothing will.

      I think long, my dear son, to be home, not only for the [170] sake of my family enjoyments, but, in a peculiar measure, for the sake of a final revision of your intended impression of the New Testament. Were this satisfactorily accomplished I should be comparatively at ease about other achievements. It was with great reluctance I left home on that account. If the Lord be graciously pleased to spare my unworthy life to see this thing happily accomplished, I shall greatly rejoice in his goodness, through his special grace. May the Lord bless and prosper his precious word, that it may be life, light, and joy to a guilty, erring world!

      Present my kindest love to my beloved consort and all our dear children, as you may have opportunity. I have the pleasure to inform you that, at every place I have been, the reformation is gaining ground. Several young men are enlisted lately who, in a short time, will, I hope, make able advocates.

      I have nothing further, at this time, to communicate. Hoping that the Lord will graciously hear and accept our supplications for each other, and for the good cause in which we are engaged, and that we shall shortly meet in health and peace under his gracious protection,

      I remain, my dear son, your affectionate father and fellow-servant in the Gospel,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.      

      P. S. I had the pleasure of spending last Lord's day evening with our good friend and brother Thomas M. Henley, who, having heard of my intended arrival at the Bowling Green, came on to see me, and bid me farewell. He and family are all in good health. My love to Robert. Farewell.

T. C.       [171]

LOYDS, VA., Saturday, December 24th, 1831.

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL:

      My Dear Son--I arrived here (Brother Henley's) last night, accompanied by Son Robert Henley, who came on to meet me at the Bowling Green last Tuesday, where I preached said day and the two following. Our meetings here, and at Spottsylvania court-house last week, where I preached six days, have been small, on account of the severity of the weather. There are several excellent disciples in both these places, and also in Fredericksburg, who have deeply drunk into the spirit of the reformation, in all which places it must, I think and hope, ultimately succeed. Brother George Adams, a young man of good talents and classical education, also of considerable share of mental independence, is pastor elect of the Church in Fredericksburg. He is drinking fast into the reformation, and, I have no doubt, will come out an able and a decided advocate in due time. Brother A. Anderson, also a young man of classical education, who wrote you of his expulsion, is most zealous and decided for the reformation. I had the pleasure of his company eight days. He heard me deliver eight or nine discourses, and as many evening conversations, with decided and interesting attention, and deep satisfaction. No man could express more humble, self-denying devotion to the cause than he, nor exhibit a more plastic docility.

      Brother Henley's family are all well. I have received your letter of the 6th inst., which affords me great satisfaction in hearing of the Lord's goodness to the various branches [172] of my family. My affectionate salutations to each and every one of them, and fervent prayers for their salvation and sanctified utility in the midst of this present evil world. I feel much gratified to learn that my beloved children are mindful of me in their prayers; this is a privilege of which no distance can deprive us while we continue in this life. We can meet together in the great circle of worshipers before the throne, and realize each other's presence and interests in the great assembly, and there indulge our mutual sympathies and requests for each other's happiness and successful utility in the great cause of truth and holiness in our respective provinces, in which the Lord has placed us, and I can assure my beloved children that I never felt more sensibly the indispensable necessity of supernal and supernatural aid, in order to my doing anything to purpose in the great cause of a reformation purely Scriptural and Divine, than I do at present. The attempt appears truly arduous, and utterly impossible and impracticable upon any other consideration. When I consider the greatness and importance of the proposed object, the character and circumstances of the people, their ignorance, prejudices, and the artful and interested opposition universally exerted to prevent the progress and reception of the truth, I feel with Paul, in his attempt to evangelize the Corinthians, my littleness and entire incompetency for such a work, and sensibly approach it, under a deep and just sense of my weakness, "with fear and much trembling."

      I have also experienced unusual checks in this journey by the falling of my horse, mentioned in my letter from Fredericksburg, and a species of felon in the first joint of the middle finger of my left hand, which has rendered it nearly useless for about three weeks, as well as considerably painful at intervals, which still continues in some degree, so that I am not yet able to dress and undress without help, nor to use my fork at table, though it is sensibly better. These [173] discouragements, together with the coldness of the weather, which latter I should not regard if my hand were well, being sufficiently prepared for the rigors of winter, were it not unfavorable for public meetings among a delicate people, whose way of living disqualifies them for enduring the unusual rigors of the season. Nevertheless, I bless the Lord that my personal afflictions, with the other discouragements alluded to, have not prevailed so to disconcert and enfeeble my mind, as to render me unfit for action. They have rather been made subservient to my advantage, by leading me, with Paul, to a deep and realizing sense of my own nothingness and insufficiency, and, of course, to look to, and lean upon, the all-sufficiency which is of God, and which, through his grace, is made forthcoming to all, and which never fails to any that put their trust in him according to his word; so that I can say, to the praise of his grace, that I never felt more moral courage, more placid serenity, more self-command, more presence of mind, or more liberty of speech, either in public or private, than I have done since I approached the field of action in this delicate, fastidious, pampered, and self-indulgent State. I trust that the Lord, in his great mercy, will carry me through, enabling me to maintain a course of faithfulness, of prudence, and consistency. In the mean time I earnestly entreat the prayerful sympathies of you all who know my circumstances. I shall pay a punctilious regard to all your written requests and documents. I have not yet had time to make any prospective arrangements. I expect to preach to-morrow in Newtown, six miles west of this. I am happy to learn that you are proceeding in the arduous and all-important undertaking of a new and improved exhibition of the sacred text. I feel infinitely more concerned for your intended publication of the New Testament than for anything you have ever attempted to publish. I beg and beseech you to look to the Lord continually for the guidance and superintending aid of his Holy Spirit; also to guard most rigidly [174] against all philosophical, theoretical, and theological leanings. Let the translation be purely classical upon the established principles of philological, idiomatical, and grammatic criticism. Further, that you will not only duly attend to the corrections that I have already put into your hand in the small manuscript that I left with you, as well as what yet remains to be presented as soon as I have finished my review of your last edition, but also that you will grant me the indulgence of revising with you all the improvements you may have made out and collected, before you put them down in the improved and corrected copy to be stereotyped, before it be delivered for that purpose to the engraver.

                        Farewell,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

BETHANY, May 29, 1846.

BELOVED BROTHER AND SISTER BAKEWELL:

      I take the opportunity of writing you a short epistle by your neighbor, Brother Major's sons, who have spent some days here; and, of course, can tell you the general news of the neighborhood. They seem to be sober, intelligent young men. I am happy to learn from them that you are so comfortably situated as to climate, soil, and society; that you enjoy good health, and the inestimable blessing of Christian society. Indeed, without this, Eden itself would not be desirable. To converse with Heaven through the Bible and [175] the throne of grace, and to converse with our fellow-creatures about those blissful privileges, and so to unite in praising God for them, is a foretaste of heaven upon earth, and the blissful means of preparation for the eternal enjoyment of it hereafter. Therefore, we are divinely directed, "if we be risen with Christ," that is, if we be really Christians, "to set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."--Col. iii: 1, 2. And again, "Lot your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ;" "for our conversation is in heaven; whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself."--Phil. i: 27, and iii: 20, 21. Now, certainly, such a choice and course of conduct as is here described is infinitely preferable to the setting of our affections on the things that are upon the earth; for they must all shortly perish. And if they were to endure eternally they bear no more proportion to the heavenly state than a drop of water does to the ocean, or the splendor of a glow-worm does to that of the sun. Compare the appearance of our Lord to John in the isle of Patmos, (Rev. i: 13-16,) with all the artificial splendor of the grandest monarch that ever appeared upon earth, and the latter is evidently eclipsed, and so disappears. And yet, after all, the external splendor is but a mere symbol of the internal, intellectual, and spiritual glory of the glorified person. And are we not Divinely informed that such shall be the glorious condition of all the saints? Matt. xiii: 43: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And what shall be the condition of all the rest? See the verses preceding, from thirty-seventh to forty-third, which give an awful description of the eternal condition of all the rest. Can we possibly realize the truth of those Divine declarations, and yet neglect [176] the due use of the means divinely appointed for the enjoyment of this great salvation? (see Heb. ii: 3, 4;) especially the proper use of the Bible and the throne of grace? (See Deut. xi: 18, 19; Phil. iv: 6, 7; and 1 Thess. v: 17, 18.) Now, if we make this constant use of the Bible and the throne of grace, it will furnish our leisure hours with the happiest employment out of heaven; it will keep us at heaven's gate, so that we will be constantly hearing from God, and he from us; and thus our blissful fellowship will be continually with our heavenly Father, and with his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. (See 1 John i: 1-4.) Not as though we were thus to work our way to heaven by a sort of religious journey-work; for eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, (Rom. vi: 23,) and is merited by the blood of Christ. (See 1 Pet. i: 18-21.) So that the means divinely appointed to prepare us for heaven are means of enjoyment, not of procurement. (See Matt. xxii: 2-14.) The persons invited to the marriage supper had to contribute nothing to provide the royal feast, but only to come to the enjoyment of it; but they had not time, they were so taken up with home affairs. And this, alas! seems to be the case with the great majority to this day. They have not time to attend to the things that belong to their eternal peace, in the day of their merciful visitation, (Luke xix: 42,) for they neither know nor like them.

      I need not attempt, to inform you of the lingering disease and happy departure of our beloved Mrs. L. Pendleton; you will doubtless have heard the particulars long before you receive this. Suffice it to say that she lived the life, and so died the death of the righteous. Beloved friends, "one thing is needful," and only blessed are they that make the happy choice. I humbly hope, my beloved friends, that when the time of our departure comes, we, through the grace of God, will be found among the happy number of those who have been graciously disposed so to do; for all who are thus made [177] willing are made welcome. See Psalm cx: 3, with Rev. xxii: 17. May the good Lord graciously dispose and enable us so to do. My beloved friends,

                  I remain, yours very affectionately,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

      The following letter, written to my daughter Margaret Campbell, while she was a pupil in Brother Elder P. S. Fall's female seminary, Frankfort, Kentucky, is so suggestive to young ladies that we cannot withhold it from their careful perusal:

BETHANY, April 23, A. D. 1843.

MARGARET CAMPBELL:

      Dearly Beloved Granddaughter--I am pleased to learn, from the arrival of your letter of the 1st inst., that you were well, and had received mine; and especially that you were disposed, from just considerations, to comply with the wishes of your friends, both here and there, to continue your studies without interruption till the approaching vacation. I most sincerely congratulate you upon this laudable instance of self-denying obedience, both to the dictates of your friends and of our own understanding. "You wish to become a well-informed woman," and the course you are now taking is the direct path to that most desirable attainment. I call it most desirable, for the knowledge of good, that is, of God, is the very sum and substance of all perfection and happiness. Now, the means of this blissful knowledge--physical, moral, and religious--that is, books and edifying conversation, are [178] the objects of your present attention, your present inestimable privilege. What reason for gratitude and praise to God! and for earnest prayer, that he would direct and dispose your heart aright, that you might make the proper use of those blissful means with which you are so amply furnished!

      Beloved daughter, you will perceive from the superscription that I have antedated this letter. My reason for so doing is your closing remark in the letter here referred to, namely, that the 23d of April, if spared to see it, would commence your fifteenth year. I took the hint, hoping that this would come to hand on or about said day, and that it would find you well and able to read it, that I might gratify both myself and you, by wishing you a happy new year, and many happy returns of your natal day. Born into time, born for eternity, what an all-important day to you! Like that ever-memorable day to our father Adam, that introduced him into existence, and gave him to behold the light of heaven; a day which he could never forget. But he was introduced in complete maturity, both as to soul and body, and so duly prepared for the enjoyment of everything that God had graciously prepared for him. But not so with his children. They require some twenty years, at least, to bring them to this maturity, and possibly not one in a thousand of the most privileged of them attain to this perfection at that period. I mean that self-knowledge, that knowledge of God and his works, without which there can be no intellectual enjoyment; the very thing for which Adam was specially created, the very thing that distinguished him from the brute creation, and that qualified him to be their proprietor. See how well he knew them; for, as soon as he saw them, he could give to each its proper name, that is, a name expressive of its distinguishing property, and that without one single mistake; for "whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." And, more astonishing still, if possible, when he awoke out of that dead sleep, and saw his partner standing beside him, [179] he knew who and what she was, as if he had been wide awake the whole time of the operation, and, therefore, immediately recognized her, at first sight, by her special name. Nor is all this more strange than that, four thousand years afterward, on the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty persons should, in a moment, become so intelligent as to speak fluently fifteen or sixteen languages which they had never learned, many of which, we presume, they had never heard.

      Upon the whole, from those wonderful provisions of the Divine goodness conferred upon our first parents, and upon the primitive disciples, it is self-evident that knowledge is the very fund and foundation of all intellectual rational enjoyment and utility, which constitutes the very high and blissful end of our creation, and without which we must live and die as brutes; than so, better for us had we never been born. And now, beloved daughter, is your favorable opportunity for obtaining this blissful accomplishment. Wherefore it is my earnest desire and prayer that you may make the proper use of it for this happy purpose. Now, in order to this, I would humbly advise you to make the word and works of God the chosen subjects of your constant study and attention, night and day. "For this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent to seek and to save us that were lost." I do not mean that you should think of or attend to nothing else. I only mean that they should be the chosen subjects of your supreme attention and delightful study, by which alone you can obtain the knowledge of the only true God and of his beloved Son, whom to know and love is life eternal. Now, as we can know nothing of God but by his word and works, we ought, therefore, to make a constant use of them, night and day, for this blissful purpose. We can not see and hear God personally, as did our first parents, in the garden of delights, but we can see him in and by his works, and hear him by his word. Yet, in order to this, we must connect the thought of God with both; we [180] must accustom ourselves to see and hear God in everything that he thus says and does; and as God is always actually present with us in his word and by his works, we will thus be enabled actually to realize it.

      What a heavenly privilege this would be, to be thus always conscious of the Divine presence! How would it influence our conduct, both personally and socially, alone and in company! What giggling, jesting, levity, nonsense, etc., etc., etc., would be forever thus excluded from moral society! What an enormous waste of time would be prevented, and sanctified to more useful purposes! What forgetfulness of God, and what irrespective irreverence for the Divine omnipresence would also thus be happily prevented!

      Moreover, as all our real permanent happiness does and must consist in the enjoyment of God, and as all this enjoyment depends upon our knowledge of and our attention to him; (for we can enjoy nothing of which we are ignorant or forgetful and, lastly, as all this knowledge and attention depends upon a devout and diligent contemplation of the Divine works, their magnitude, their multitude, their variety, and vastness, in connection with a habitual, serious, and practical meditation upon the Divine word; adverting, in every portion of it, to the progressive and various developments of any of the seven all-important and comprehensive topics which it is the peculiar and special intention of the good book to teach; in the knowledge, belief, and practical influence of which consists our present salvation; namely: 1. The knowledge of God; 2. Of man; 3. Of sin; 4. Of the Savior; 5. Of his salvation; 6. Of the principle and means of enjoying it; 7. Of its blissful effects and consequences. Now, whatever portion we read is designed to teach us something of one or more of those all-important subjects. We should, therefore, be careful to take out of it what God has put into it for our instruction, that we may become wise to salvation, thoroughly furnished for all good works. Thus, beloved daughter, you [181] will be enabled to accomplish your virtuous "desire, to become a well-informed woman," if the Lord shall prolong your days; and, if not, he will accept of the will for the deed.

      It is to promote and secure your virtuous intention that I write you this long and comprehensive letter, that it may serve you as a practical index to the proper and profitable use of the appropriate means with which you are happily furnished for the accomplishment of your virtuous purpose. I humbly hope, dear daughter, you will receive and use it as such. I think I may, without flattery, give you credit both for a good memory and an obedient mind.

      May the good Lord dispose and enable you to make the due and proper use of all your privileges, is the earnest prayer of

                  Your affectionate grandfather,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

BAZETTA, July 18th, 1828.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE:

      Sir--In perusing your columns, vol. iv, page 300, October 13th, 1826, I see "A Friendly Letter" addressed "To the upright in heart of all denominations," in which you justly observe that "there are certain considerations which are above all sectarian opinions," viz.: "the means necessary to promote good order, unanimity, kindness, and morality, among our fellow-men." I understand you to mean men professing Christianity. You further add what, alas! is lamentably true, "that a deplorable destitution of these things is too apparent to be denied by anybody; that by means of endless jargon and strife the professing world is become a bedlam; that enmity, or a manifest desire to injure one [182] another, seems to prevail very extensively. Also cruelty, or a desire to destroy the happiness of each other by malicious reports and backhanded innuendoes; and other immoralities equally forbidden by the laws of God and the principles of moral right." That such a monstrous, heathenish state of things as you here complain of must exist us long as sectarian divisions exist, can not be denied by any one who admits the truth of the apostolic maxims, 1 Cor. iii: 3, 4; Jas. iii: 16. For surely division necessarily begets contention, and contention strife, etc., etc. Wherefore, being, as I humbly hope, with yourself, one of the upright hearted who most earnestly wishes the termination of our present distracting and destructive evils, I do, therefore, most heartily concur with you, that "the means necessary to promote good order, unanimity, kindness, and morality among our fellow-men are considerations (I would say, infinitely) above all sectarian opinions;" to which, by thus addressing you, I most seriously wish to call your attention; and, by your kind permission, the serious attention of all your readers. In your friendly communication you observe that "eighteen hundred years have nearly elapsed since Christians have been engaged in trying to convert and reform the world; and what has been done? But very little." I would rather feel disposed to say, very much; yet I am constrained to say with you, very little, considering the present state of things as the neat result of the whole of that time. But it is certain that the first three hundred years did more for the conversion of the world than did the fifteen hundred that succeeded, and that both with respect to territory and numbers, Christianity was more prevalent at the end of the sixth century than it now is, in the beginning of the nineteenth. For in proportion as corruptions, and their necessary consequents, divisions, increased, Christianity, both in its value and in the extent of its widely spreading influence, decreased; so evidently pertinent to this subject is your application of the maxim [183] "United we stand, divided we fall." But be these as they may, I feel again constrained to agree with you, "that confusion and dismay appear to prevail to such an alarming degree that the enemies of our holy religion audaciously pretend that our moral condition is but little better than that of the heathen." Nevertheless, I am very far from agreeing with them that it really is so. I also further agree with you, that "from this it appears evident that something more efficacious should be done" than any of the sects have hitherto attempted; and, "that after having gone on so many years in one course, it would be prudent, and, under all the circumstances, best, to adopt all entirely new method. This you profess to have done in the following proposition: "Let each denomination of Christians consider all others as brethren." I suppose you must mean that they should esteem and treat each other as such, though you instance but in two particulars, namely: giving to each other a polite and friendly reception into their respective pulpits and periodicals. Now, it would appear that the demand in the above proposition is by far too great; yea, so great as to amount to a moral impossibility, considering the views and feelings of the parties respectively. It seems paramount to a demand, that the parties would acknowledge, at least tacitly, that their respective differences were not worth differing about, and, therefore, that they would make no more ado about them; but that henceforth they would esteem and treat each other as brethren. Again, on the other hand, your application of the principle appears by far too limited, and, of course, would go but a short way to palliate our differences. Indeed, if our party views and feelings were not by some means previously modified, these seemingly good-natured condescensions might unhappily terminate in renewed manifestations of our developed hostilities. But, without insisting further, upon the moral impossibility of the adoption of the above proposition as a means to promote good order, etc.; upon its insufficiency [184] to produce unanimity, morality, etc. or upon its obvious tendency rather to increase and expose than to conceal our hateful sectarian evils, (as there appears little danger of its being adopted,) permit me to suggest a plan of procedure, as sufficiently new, as I suppose, and as old as the New Testament, and which I humbly presume can be liable to no just objection, for some of the sectarians have adopted it. My proposition is:

      Let all that bear the name of Christian, who are disgusted and aggrieved with the present corruptions and divisions existing among us, return to the original standard of Christianity, which is the New Testament, believe and obey the Gospel, as it is there recorded by the pens and from the lips of the holy apostles, and obey the law of Christ, by them enjoined upon the believers; receiving the Old Testament its of equal authority with the New, and making the divinely prescribed use of it; and let this suffice; that is, let all that professedly and practically do so, esteem and treat each other as brethren. Would not this be infinitely preferable to all sectarian opinions, those unhappy results of human excogitation? For the illustration of the above proposition, let the following remarks be duly considered:

      1. That there was a time when all Christians composed but one sect.

      2. That every one who believed the Gospel which the apostles preached, and was baptized upon a confession of this belief, was esteemed a Christian, and none else.

      3. That all who believed and were baptized had the promise of the remission of their sins, and of the gift of the Holy Spirit connected with their baptism, or were baptized for the remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, (see Acts ii: 38, and xxii: 16, with 1 Pet. iii: 21,) and were thenceforth considered as justified and sanctified. (1 Cor. vi: 11.)

      4. That specimens of the Gospel preached by the apostles, [185] the belief of which entitled to baptism, are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles; (see Acts ii, iii, x, and xiii;) so that we can be at no loss about the ancient apostolic Gospel, the belief and obedience of which had the promise of salvation.

      5. That the apostles, when commissioned to evangelize the nations, and to baptize the believers, were also instructed to teach them to observe all things that Christ had commanded for that purpose; (see Matt. xxviii: 20;) which all things we have distinctly taught in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Epistles.

      6. That, therefore, believing the Gospel that the apostles preached, and obeying the injunctions which they delivered, completed the Christian character. Let, therefore, this faith and obedience be deemed sufficient, as it was at the beginning, and there is an end to all sectarian controversy.

      The three thousand that, on the day of Pentecost, believed and obeyed the Gospel preached by the apostle Peter, recorded Acts ii, being baptized for the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, took their seat with the hundred and twenty in the Messiah's kingdom, justified and sanctified, bringing forth most amply and conspicuously the fruits of righteousness, as appears from the narrative of their proceedings. The next day, or very shortly after, the public attention being excited by the healing of the cripple, (Acts iii,) Peter preached another Gospel sermon, the belief and obedience of which added five thousand more to their number, equally pious and benevolent, as appears in the sequel.

      Here, then, we have the divinely appointed and effectual "means necessary to promote good order, unanimity, kindness, and morality among our fellow-men," the consideration of which is infinitely superior to "all sectarian opinions," whether of "Universalists or limitarians." Nay, I will venture to add, that none of the sectarian notions, nor all of them put together that have been broached since the apostles' days, have ever produced such effects as the above, and as were [186] everywhere produced, by the belief and obedience of the apostolic Gospel. Indeed, how could they? for to the reception of none of them are the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit divinely promised, as to the belief and obedience of the Gospel preached by the apostles.

      Again, all that was further necessary for the believers to observe, that they might continue in the enjoyment of those blissful privileges, glorify God, comfort and edify each other, and be profitable to mankind by shining as lights in the world, being afterward taught and enjoined upon them by the apostles, according to the commission, Matt. xxviii: 20, and contained in their writings to the Churches. If we would be perfect, as they were required to be, let us, to the belief and obedience of the same Gospel, add the practice of all the things enjoined upon them, and we shall be equally perfect, independent of everything that has been introduced since their day, either as to matter of faith or practice.

      Thus earnestly contending for, and holding fast the faith and obedience once delivered to the saints, we shall be happily conformed to the will of God, enjoy his gracious favor and approbation, have the goodly assurance that be will graciously receive our departing spirits at death, and ultimately confer upon us a glorious resurrection and a blissful immortality; for such were the blissful privileges of the primitive Christians, as is abundantly evident from the New Testament. These things the belief of no "sectarian opinions" can confer upon us. Indeed, the apostle-taught Christian enjoys them independent of all the later opinions and inventions of men. And, we might add, who can be happy that does not enjoy them all?

      Look back upon the several items of privilege above specified, as obviously pertaining to the believing and obedient apostle-taught Christian, and you must say, that the happiness of the person, either here or hereafter, must necessarily be deficient that does not possess them all. Now, as no scheme [187] of religion, the apostolic excepted, does or can make certain and adequate provision for the enjoyment of the above privileges, why not hold it fast as we find it expressly and explicitly stated and defined on the sacred page? Why not have recourse to this only and adequate cure for all our evils, both natural and artificial? I mean both those that result from our corrupt, guilty estate, and such as we have artificially produced by our unauthorized, perverse reasoning.

      The grand desideratum, therefore, for the cure of all our intervening evils is, that we return to and hold fast that genuine, original exhibition of Christianity contained in the apostolic writings. In order to this, it would appear necessary, in the first place, that, in preaching and teaching, we not only adopt the apostles' method and use their arguments, but, also, that we adopt and use their terms and phrases upon all the high subjects of Divine revelation for they spoke not in the words which man's wisdom taught, but which the Holy Spirit taught them, explaining spiritual things in spiritual words. (1 Cor. ii: 13.) Hence the apostle, to Timothy, lays great stress upon the terms in which that evangelist should communicate the doctrine which he had learned of him, charging him to hold fast the form of sound words in which he had taught him; sound speech, that could not be condemned; wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

      Now, certainly, nothing can be more reasonable, nothing more safe for us, than to speak of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, and of all spiritual things, even of all the high matters of pure revelation, in the very terms in which these things are revealed to us. For, as we can know nothing of such things but by pure revelation, so we can know nothing truly of them but in so far as they are revealed, and by means of the very terms in which it has pleased the Divine wisdom to reveal them. While, therefore, we speak of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in Scripture terms, ascribing all that [188] worship, and inculcating all that obedience to them, conjointly and distinctly, which the Scriptures inculcate and ascribe, we exhibit ourselves as the taught of God, as the disciples of Christ, and can give no just offense to our Christian brethren. In like manner, when we speak of the invisible world, and of the future state, in the language of holy Scripture, we abide under the Divine teaching, and can give no just offense. But when we begin to theorize and speculate upon all, or any of those subjects, a thing which none of the apostles or prophets ever did, we then set up for ourselves, offend our brethren, and run the risk of becoming heretics, that is, sect-makers.

      Upon the whole, one thing is certain, that if such things had never been attempted, but had men contented themselves with the phraseology of the holy apostles and prophets upon all religious subjects, our corrupt, prostrating sectarianism had never existed. Another thing is equally certain, that, under the primitive, apostolic style of Christianity, exhibited in the New Testament, under which the primitive Christians lived, believed, and were taught, they enjoyed and manifested as high attainments in all moral and religious excellence as did any since their day, the present highly-refined age not excepted; many of whom have banished the devil, and hell, and the separate existence of human souls, the existence of demons, the wrath of God, and a judgment to come quite out of their religious tenets.

      And, lastly, upon this topic, I venture to affirm, without any reasonable fear of rational contradiction, that until Christians return to the original standard of Christianity, and receive and obey the Gospel and law of Christ in the old-fashioned style and terms of the apostles, and thus become their immediate pupils, as the first Christians were, that things will never be better among us than they are at present.

      In the second place, it would appear necessary that, in order to reclaim and retain original ground, we must relinquish the textuary and spiritualizing methods of preaching, [189] and the affectation of attempting to explain everything we read in the holy Scripture; as if the apostles and prophets, or rather the Holy Spirit that spoke by them, did not know how to speak a sentence, nay, scarcely a single word, that any mortal could understand without the help of an inspired or learned interpreter to explain them.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

      The following sentiments, written for the pages of an album, are highly interesting and truly original for an album. They will, no doubt, be appreciated by every Christian reader:

BETHANY, August 18th, 1846.

MRS. JULIA BAKEWELL:

      Beloved Sister in Christ--Understanding that it is your husband's intention to remove his family a considerable distance from the vicinity of Bethany, after which it is not likely I shall ever have the privilege of seeing you again in this world, I therefore avail myself of the present opportunity you have afforded me of writing in your album, to record for your consideration a few leading, important truths of our holy religion; the realizing belief and devout practical meditation of which are essential to the actual enjoyment, of them. The first of these which I shall mention is the dreadful, helpless, ruined condition in which sin has placed the whole human family. Second, the love of God to us in this awful condition, to effect our deliverance from it. Third, the means divinely appointed for our actual enjoyment of this blissful deliverance.

      Now, as to the first of these three topics: we are divinely informed, it has corrupted and destroyed the whole human [190] family; that all flesh have corrupted their way; that there is none righteous, no, not one; that the whole world naturally lies in wickedness, under the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others.

      For the fleshly mind is enmity against God, and is, therefore, not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be; so that they who are under its influence can not please God, but are enemies in their minds by wicked works--haters of God--hateful and hating one another so that the first-born man murdered the second. Alas! alas! into what a hateful and ruinous condition has sin brought us?

      Topic second.--But, blessed be God, he so loved us in this perishing condition, that he gave his only begotten Son to suffer the punishment due to our sins; that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life. Herein is love! most astonishing love! that when we were in this most unlovely, even hateful condition, God so loved us as to send his only begotten, infinitely beloved Son into our guilty world, thus to seek and to save us who were lost; to be the propitiation for our sins, that we might live through him. But even all this would not have sufficed, would not have reached our depraved, perishing condition, dead in sins, alienated from the life of God through our native ignorance and enmity. No! we must be regenerated, must be quickened, created anew, made alive in Christ. Now, it is the Spirit that regenerates, that quickens, that gives spiritual life, that makes the new creature; and if any one be in Christ, he must be such. Now, all this is the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit, for it is he that enlightens, convinces, and converts us by the Gospel. For he is the Spirit of faith, without whom no man can sincerely confess Christ is his Lord it is indeed through [191] his special influence, by the word of truth, that we are convinced and converted, justified and sanctified. He is the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, the Spirit of holiness; so that all Christian virtues and good works are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, as the fruits of his Divine influence. Wherefore, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now seeing that God so loved us, dead in sins, as to give his only begotten and well-beloved Son to die for our sins, that we might be justified by his blood, and his Holy Spirit to quicken, enlighten, convince, and convert us, that we might be actually justified and sanctified through faith and obedience; what, then, should prevent our blissful assurance of pardon and acceptance when we call upon God for this most desirable purpose? Will he refuse sin-pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace to the believing applicants whom he so loved dead in sins, as above described? Surely no; for if he so loved us as above noted, in our most loathsome and offensive condition, will he, or can he withhold the good he has so most graciously promised and provided for our deliverance from that wretched state, when we come as suppliants to his throne of grace to obtain it? Unbelief itself could hardly admit such a conclusion. For if be so loved us, dead in sins, as to give his only begotten Son to die for our sins, how will he not with him also freely give us all things that pertain to life and godliness? Wherefore, having such an insuperable, transporting evidence of the love of God to poor, guilty, polluted, perishing humanity, let us always approach the throne of mercy, through our great High Priest, in full assurance of faith, that we may obtain mercy to help us in every time of need.

      Topic third.--The means divinely appointed for the blissful purpose of our actual enjoyment of the great salvation which the love of God has most graciously provided for us, at the expense of the awful humiliation, sufferings, and death of his only begotten and infinitely beloved Son, are the belief [192] and obedience of the Gospel and law of Christ. Consequently, the first thing incumbent upon us, after baptism, is the daily and diligent perusal of, and meditation upon, the word of God, with prayers for this all-important purpose; for by the former we are made wise to salvation, and by the latter, that is, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit of promise, we are enabled to reduce it to practice; without whose assistance we can do nothing that is holy, just, and good; for He is the Spirit of holiness. Wherefore, it is only as many as are led by the Spirit of God that are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Therefore our heavenly Father gives his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Having, then, free access to the word and Spirit of God, the former to teach us everything that we ought to believe and do, the latter to apprehend, realize, and practice it, what more do we want for our present and eternal enjoyment of the great salvation, but the divinely prescribed use of the Bible, and the throne of grace?

      These things being evidently so, let us exercise ourselves unto godliness night and day, in the divine use of the word of God, and prayers for the blissful purpose of understanding, practicing, and enjoying its Divine contents.

      Wishing you and your beloved consort all happiness here and hereafter, I remain, beloved sister in Christ, your sincere friend and humble servant in the Gospel,

THOMAS CAMPBELL. [193]

      ^{1} See Part First, page 30, Psalms 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 31. Hymns, Part First, page 45. Hymns 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 21, 22. Part Second, page 9. Hymns 1, 2, 3, 4, 24, 26, 27, 80, 96, 119, 128, 145, 193. Spiritual Songs, Part First, page 84: The Bible, Songs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I shall add no more. The contents of this part of the book, from page 84 above quoted, to the end of page 136, are all upon Christian duties and privileges, and, therefore, claim our constant and unwearied attention. These, with many others, afford us opportunity of conversing with our heavenly Father and our Divine Redeemer, on the same all-important subjects. May the good Lord graciously enable us so to do. [167]

[METC 141-193]

      Letter IX and Letter X, both written to Alexander Campbell, also have been transcribed from copies of the autographed letters held in the Archive and Special Collections (Campbell Collection; Private Library of Alexander Campbell) at Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia.