THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

Number XII.----Volume IV.

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A. CAMPBELL, EDITOR.

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Bethany, Va. December, 1833.

      THE guests having sat down to supper, and while they were partaking off the good things which brother and sister Fowler had provided, father Goodal having asked leave to postpone the conversation on Christian education till after supper, said that he had a wish to have a little table-talk on the subject of eating and drinking, as intimately connected with the subject before them.

      Mrs. Fowler. I am desirous to hear my dear father introduce that subject; for I anticipate it will be an apology for the simplicity of the repast which I have provided on the present occasion.

      Mr. Williamson. Mrs. Fowler needs no apology for the want of any thing which nature, reason, or religion requires, if I may be allowed to form a correct opinion on the subject. We Americans are excessive in the indulgence of our appetites, and are a nation of gormandizers, rather than of philosophers, doctors, or christians. Our varieties of climate and soil afford us a great variety of the necessaries and comforts of life, and we think it is allowable to make a free use of what kind Heaven has with such profusion bestowed upon us; but I cannot but think we go too far into the business of indulgence.

      Father Goodal. The present company and the present entertainment, according to an old tradition, must be regarded as excepted out of the jurisdiction of our present remarks; and, indeed, I had no direct reference to my daughter's table when I proposed the subject--though I presume she may in some respects fall under the moral, if not the letter of our remarks on one branch of the subject.

      Mrs. Reed. "The necessaries and comforts of life" is a phrase which I have frequently wished to have explained according to the Dictionary and the New Testament. [577]

      Father Goodal. The necessaries of life are simple food and raiment; but as for the comforts, I think I will have to call upon brother Reed himself for a definition.

      Mr. Reed. I find the words "decency" and "comforts of life" so vague, that I know of no way of defining the word decency, but by a circumlocution: "Decency" means something better than any of our neighbors; and "comforts of life" mean not merely the demands of natural appetite, but the cravings of every artificial taste--in a word, every thing which indulgence and the most pampered appetite may require.

      Mr. Williamson. I presume Mr. Reed defines these words accurately, according to the acceptation of some, but I think there is something called "decency" and "the comforts of life," which, in our current style, means something less than superiority to our neighbors, and all the luxuries of life. To be decent is to be neighbor-like; and the comforts of life are the things which make us comfortable.

      Mr. Reed. This "neighbor-like" is a very undefinable like. It supposes all our neighbors to be alike. But are all our neighbors alike? Are there only two of them alike? And seeing not two of them are alike, do we not want a model for this imitation we call decency? and do we not rather choose to be equal or a little superior to that neighbor that is most unlike the others is his ascension to full conformity to the world? If, for example, we have many poor, and one or two rich neighbors, is not decency to be like the rich rather than the poor? And how much does this want of my first definition of decency?

      Mr. Williamson. I confess it looks a good deal like it. But are we not rather anticipating or forestalling father Goodal?

      Father Goodal. You are doing very well. You are fast approaching the subject to which I would invite the attention of all. This conformity to our neighbors in "decency" and the "comforts of life," is the bane of the age. It must subject us to their fates, as respects our animal bodies and our earthly fortunes. If we pamper our mortal bodies with all the same comforts or luxuries--if we eat the same food, wear the same apparel, recline upon the same couches, and practise the same indulgences, shall we complain that our bodies are subject to the same maladies, tortured with the same pains, and destroyed by the same diseases which oppress and carry off our neighbors? We must be neighbor-like in pains, and groans, and maladies, if neighbor-like in all the decencies and comforts of life. Or shall we expect that the laws of nature will be changed to protect Christian bodies from the plagues of other bodies, if, indeed, they are filled with the same elements of disease and premature dissolution? No, indeed: if in our stomachs we voluntarily introduce the products of the four quarters of the globe at one and the same meal--if we throw together the fruits of the five zones into this narrow apartment, we must not complain that the laws of nature produce the same convulsions, agonies, and conflicts in our clay tenements, which exhibit themselves in the persons of other sinners. [578]

      Mr. Reed. One would conclude, father Goodal, that you think that if Christians would not conform to the world in these matters of indulgence, they should not be conformed to the words in all the afflictions, diseases, and premature deaths which we daily hear and see are so alarmingly on the increase. Are we authorized to regard this as your deliberate judgment on this subject?

      Father Goodal. My judgment, in one sentence, is this:--That if we obey Jesus Christ in all things, we shall all live to a good old age.

      Mr. Williamson. I dearly love life; and if father Goodal will convince me of this, I will set out in good earnest to know what Jesus Christ would have us to do.

      Father Goodal. You will, as a matter of course, perceive that I do not expect any miracle in this case--that I require a hale body to begin with. Some Christians, before their conversion to the Lord, have broken their constitutions by inordinate indulgence--intemperance, or excessive labors of some sort. Some vital organ may be impaired, some functional derangement in the machinery of life, may have taken place before the subject has come under the good discipline, the healthy regimen of Jesus Christ; but give me a hale convert, sound in his animal organization, and let him submit to the government of Jesus Christ, and all the laws of nature will most necessarily bring him gently down to the grave in a good old age.

      Mr. Reed. Really, father Goodal, this will be a new and strong argument in favor of bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they may live long and see good days in the world.

      Father Goodal. Yes; and, brother Reed, this is one reason why children, having prudent and discreet parents, and obeying them, "live long in the earth;" or, rather, this is one reason why the first commandment, with promise, is that enforcing children "to obey their parents in the Lord."

      Mr. Reed. You do not, then, expect any miraculous interposition in behalf of those who obey Jesus Christ. You only ask for a proper subject to begin with; and you argue that such is the agreement between the laws of nature and the laws of Christ, that he who obeys the latter must necessarily live to a good old age.

      Mr. Williamson. No exception, father Goodal, for accidents?

      Father Goodal. I am speaking in reference to the established constitution of things. I do not say that fire will not burn, nor water drown, nor that a sword will not kill a Christian as easily as any other man. But how far God may be pleased to guard those who obey him from all these things called accidents, belongs to the chapter of special providences. But here we speak about the regular operation of the laws of nature, and in regard to that remarkable accordance between the commandments of Jesus and the commandments of nature. We only now argue that every one who in all things obeys the Lord Jesus, will live to a good old age.

      Mrs. Reed. Yes, father Goodal; but who obeys the Lord Jesus in all things! You may safely entrench yourself within this [579] impregnable fortress, that he who dies prematurely, disobeys Jesus Christ; and so an exception to your rule can never be found!

      Father Goodal. My good sister Reed will not find me taking advantage of this impregnable fortress; for my views of this matter are founded on attention to the connexion that there is between a general conformity to the institutions and laws of Jesus Christ, and the means of health and life; and not to an unerring and infallible obedience to every commandment as a condition of good health and long life.

      To explain myself. Temperance in eating, drinking, sleeping, working; temperance in the exercises of the intellectual powers; and especially temperance in the passions, affections, and desires of the soul, are essential to that healthful and vigorous exercise of all our organs and all the functions of our various members, so conducive to the enjoyment and prolongation of life.

      Mr. Reed. Father Goodal, I presume you mean just as much as Paul meant when he commanded Christians to be "temperate in all things."

      Father Goodal. That much at least. Let me just observe, brother Reed, that I wish you on some suitable occasion to give us a scriptural definition of the words temperance, moderation, sobriety, meekness, and a few others of this class which I shall yet name. At present we understand this word temperance well enough to understand each other, and you all apprehend my meaning.

      Temperance is almost as essential to health and life as light is to seeing, or sound to hearing. But the government of the passions, as much as the government of the appetites, is essential to health and life. Anger, envy, malice, jealousy, fear--indeed, the strong or the long continued exercise of any one passion, is injurious to health. Some have died in a fit of anger; others by a fright; many have pined away under the influence of envy, jealousy, and the anxieties of life.

      Mother Goodal. Anxieties! Yes, I have known many in the course of my life suffer as much by anxiety, as by all the afflictions which God sent their way. Their own anxious solicitude for the things which they could not procure, help, or avoid, has worn them down to shadows, and brought several of my acquaintances prematurely to the grave.

      Father Goodal. Therefore, I have always commended your favorite maxim to all the youth of the neighborhood.

      Mr. Williamson. What is that, Mother Goodal? I would thank you to let me hear it.

      Mrs. Goodal. It is only a new version of Paul's commandment, "Be anxious for nothing." I have said there are two things concerning which we ought not to be anxious. These are the things we can help, and the things we cannot help. My rule of life has, therefore, been,--Concerning those things I could help, I did not grieve, but went and helped them; and concerning those which I could not help, I never grieved, because I could not help them. In this course I have escaped a thousand anxieties and griefs which have prayed upon the enjoyments of others. [580]

      Mr. Reed. And Mother Goodal's countenance and good health are the best sermon on that text which could be preached to the present audience, and to all this neighborhood.

      Father Goodal. But while we survey the whole field of drawbacks on health and the enjoyment of life, let us not forget the table. On the table I often see fevers, rheumatisms, dysenteries, gouts, epilepsies, palsies, apoplexies, dyspepsies, and consumptions served up in style. These enemies of ours are often lying lurking under the covers of our dishes, and, with all the blandishments of the spicy islands, and sweet enchantments of the confectionary, are asking admission into our bodies. We are lured by such delicious rhetoric, and unthinkingly admit these enemies of our peace into our bosoms. Then we cry out 'We are sick,' and send for the Doctor, who comes with all the nauseating riches of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, and pours them into our diseased systems. Thus we begin to pay the penalties of transgression, and to complain of the approaches of some chronic disease.

      Mr. Reed. All this is very evident; but self-denial is a painful thing--and who can resist the enemy, when, with all the excitements of appetite, the arguments of modern cookery, and the persuasions of the host or hostess at each end of the table, he makes an attempt upon our constitutions?

      Father Goodal. How can the Christian deny himself in other matters? It is, and it must be, the daily and constant employment of the disciple. Discipline, or the constant practice of the precepts of Christ, makes obedience in all things easy. I remember when I set out in the service of my Lord, some things appeared more difficult than others; but my youthful ardor and zeal in his cause inspirited me to make a stronger effort in reference to those more difficult acts of obedience; and in a short time they became more easy than those other duties, which, because of their apparent ease, I approached with less decision. My experience justifies me in saying that the habit of self-denial will become stronger than the temptation to any sinful indulgence; and to begin is much more difficult than to proceed in this salutary course.

      Mrs. Reed. I am again reminded of a favorite sentiment of my own dear mother. Oft did she inculcate upon me that self-denial was the first requisite to good health, to true politeness, and to Christian character.

      Mrs. Fowler. Then ought it to be the first lesson impressed on the infant mind. Then ought we by precept and example to enforce it upon the attention of all under our tuition and care.

      Mr. Williamson. But I wish to hear something more upon this guide to good health and long life. I am already satisfied on the subject of self-denial; and I am almost persuaded to carry out my resolutions into practice: but I ask, How comes it to pass, if good health and long life are in any respect necessarily connected with Christian character, it is not ever presented as an inducement to the obedience of Christ by any of the inspired writers or preachers? [581]

      Mr. Reed. But are you sure that this is the fact? Is it not written, "Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, as well as that to come." Is it not written that 'he who would live long and see good or happy days, must refrain his lips from evil and his tongue from guile;--let him do good, and seek peace, and pursue it'? Is it not written, 'Children, obey your parents, that you may live long on the earth'? True, indeed, the Apostles have higher arguments than these to induce men to obey Jesus Christ, and they are more frequently urged; but yet those promises of temporal good are used as motives to obedience.

      Mr. Williamson. I had forgotten these sayings: for, indeed, they were never impressed on my mind as pertaining to such matters. So much are we under the control of our teachers, that our thoughts and impressions appear to be wholly dependent upon their guidance.

      Father Goodal. A moralist, a mere moralist, once said, "Consider your body only as the servant of your soul, and only so nourish it as that it may become a faithful and obedient servant to it." This is good advice, come from what quarter it may; and should we regard the subject in this light, we would neither pamper nor indulge these mortal bodies, so as to inflame our passions, or to debilitate the powers by which our spirits are to exert their influence upon society. The healthy exercise of all our corporeal powers is necessary to the free and healthy exercise of our mental powers--either to our own enjoyment, or to our usefulness to others.

      Mr. Reed. And this is all expressed in the sana mens in sana corpore of the Romans--"A sound mind is found only in a sound body."

      Father Goodal. In a restricted latitude this is true; but I have found a sound mind sometimes in an infirm body--and a very weak mind in a very strong body. But the healthy exercise of the body is in all cases essential to the healthy exercise of the mind; and this is all that is necessary to my purpose.

      Mrs. Fowler. You are al I so much absorbed in the subject of temperance, that you have eaten a very light supper, and Mr. Williamson almost nothing at all.

      Father Goodal. As I have engrossed so much of the conversation at table, permit me to add, that I think the subject of temperance of cardinal importance in the full extent of that word. The simplicity of my food, and the moderation of my meals--the regularity of the intervals between them--my early retirement to bed, and my early rising--have, I think, added at least ten years to my life--and at least twenty years to my enjoyment of life. These are, however, only the temporal advantages which I have enjoyed. I have found much leisure for meditation, for reading, for conversation; and the sum which some of my neighbors has paid in the way of Doctor bills, has filled the shelves of my library with many interesting volumes. Habit, moreover, has made the simplicity and regularity of my life most agreeable; so that for many years past, leave religion wholly out of view, I would not exchange my lot in life, as far as animal and [582] rational enjoyment are concerned, with the most luxurious Lord in his Majesty's dominions. But the government of the passions is no less advantageous than the government of the appetites, as respects health, morality, and religion. "The meek shall inherit the earth." This character I take to be expressive of one who governs all his passions, affections, appetites, by the principles of religion. But I shall leave this to brother Reed to decide; and only observe, that I never knew a gluttonous man, a winebibber, a man of ungovernable passions and appetites, reach, what we are accustomed to call, a good old age. The longest, and certainly the happiest lives I have known, were those who brought all their passions, appetites, and affections under the control of the Spirit of God, and carefully and conscientiously kept the commandments of the Saviour.

      Mr. Reed. With David, then, we may say, "In old age, when others fade, they shall still bring forth fruit; they shall be fat and flourishing."

EDITOR.

AMELIA COUNTY, Va. November 3, 1833.

      AFTER Father Campbell and brother Hall set out for North Carolina, we continued in the city of Richmond and vicinity for a few days. On Thursday evening, the 31st October, we addressed a large congregation on "the original gospel," identifying the distinguishing attributes of that message which Jesus Christ delivered to his Apostles for the conversion of the world. We read the last chapter of Luke's testimony and the first chapter of the Acts of Apostles. After the discourse one gentleman confessed the Lord.

      On Saturday and the Lord's day following we spoke to the brethren at Long Run, county of Henrico, twelve miles from the city. This church has been too long under the pastoral care of Mr. Eli Ball, of New England. This Mr. Ball has figured in Richmond as Editor of the Herald--as Professor of the learned languages in the new Theological School, now under the presidency of Mr. Ryland--as a farmer--as pastor of several churches--and especially as the tooth and nails of the opposition to reformation in Eastern Virginia. His brethren have, however, dispensed with him as Editor, and as Professor in the Theological School; and he has tried to dispense with his farm, that he may give himself more devoutly to his pastoral and opposition duties. But, unfortunately for his success in these, the better half of the church at Deep Run is on the side of reformation; and he has so outraged the public, that his removal from these regions will soon become a desideratum even to himself and his best friends.

      Previously to my visit to Deep Run, at a Saturday meeting of the church, he adopted the most high-handed measures against reform of which Virginia has yet to boast. Under his auspices a committee was got up to wait upon those who read--yes, read the Harbinger-- [583] to lay before them the danger and iniquity of reading that "pernicious and infidel publication," (I quote his words,) and to remonstrate against such a wicked practice, as preliminary to other proceedings of the church in the case!!! Nothing was said against reading plays, romances, novels--Paine, Hume, Volney, Robert Owen, or Voltaire; but "the pernicious and infidel Harbinger" must not be read on pain of the condemnation of the Rev. Eli Ball of New England and of that church over which he is pastor.

      Mr. Ball also commanded, exhorted, and supplicated the church not to hear me preach--no, not to let their ears come within the sound of my voice. He finished the climax on this subject by assuring the church that it would hurt his feelings if they would go to hear me; and if all his other arguments should fail to convince them that it would be a sin to hear me, he alleged that this alone was a reason not to be slighted. Some of the brethren remonstrated; but in vain. He would not relent. He could not abandon the ground he had taken.

      Without the knowledge of these circumstances, I appeared on Saturday, the 2d inst. and lectured on 1 John iv.--"Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits." If the spirit of Mr. Eli Ball was tried by the remarks offered in said chapter, without my understanding of these facts, I must attribute it to causes which I could not control. We had, after allowance for the rain on the Lord's day, a respectable audience at this meeting house, although the faithful servants of Mr. Ball obeyed orders, and staid at home.

      The absence of Mr. Ball's party was fortunate for the cause of reformation in this place; because they cannot now misrepresent my discourses, not having heard them--because they have publicly confessed to all the citizens around them, that they are the servants of men--because they own and acknowledge that they will not hear both sides--and because they explicitly avow that they are unable to resist the arguments we have to offer, and must therefore keep out of their reach.

      Indeed, the course pursued by Mr. Hinton, of the First Baptist Church of Richmond; Mr. Taylor, of the Second; and Mr. Ball, of Deep Run, (though that of the last is more superlatively absurd and ridiculous,) is a singular advantage to the cause of reform. Not one of these gentlemen attended one of our meetings. They are constantly preaching against us. The public now knows how to appreciate their labors. They will not hear; yet they dare condemn! Their candor, honesty, and regard for truth, are now confessed to the public. Poor men! their cause is desperate. They dare not hear, lest their people should hear and be converted; and to secure the allegiance of the few who are now under their control, they must sacrifice their standing with the public as honest and impartial men--and, consequently, lose all power of doing them good.

      Hence Mr. Ball may as well preach in the grave-yard, outside of the walls of Deep Run meeting-house, as to the citizens of that, or any other vicinity, where his behavior is known. He may comfort the hearts of ten or a dozen, who already love, honor, and obey him; [584] but he has no more influence over that portion of the church who read and judge for themselves, nor upon the public who are acquainted with his conduct--than I have upon the decisions of the Emperor of China.

      From brother Du Val's, of Deep Run, accompanied with brother and sister Webber, we proceeded on Lord's day evening to brother Webber's, where we addressed a small congregation; and on Monday, accompanied by them, I arrived at brother Pascoe L. Townes, of Amelia. Eight miles from his residence we have a three days' meeting, at a church called Paineville, commencing to-day.

      Opposition in Virginia is fast defeating itself. No religious sectaries, without the sword, ever adopted measures more proscriptive, and more at variance with the spirit of the age, than do the Regular Baptists. The effect, in all cases, is as it always has been--the people see what manner of spirit inspires them, and lose all confidence in their ministrations. Thus, a four days' opposition meeting, held by Mr. Ball and Mr. Jones, at Deep Run, during our meeting in Richmond, passed off without a single convert. Indeed, it is questionable, with the evidence before me, whether these two last mentioned gentlemen have made ten converts in two years.

      Even the good natured and talented Andrew Broaddus has lost much of his converting power in the neighborhoods of his opposition. He preaches for months without a single baptism. The great revivalist, Elder John Kerr, has exiled himself from Richmond, in pursuit of money to sustain himself and the Theological School; and, indeed, the loss of his power with the people in that city has rendered his new calling necessary. The brethren have only to proceed in the even tenor of their way, and their triumph is certain.

      November 6th, returned from brother Jeter's, Paineville, to brother Townes'. We held our meeting in the 'Free Church,' as it is called. Our readers should be informed, that on several occasions we have been indebted to their Majesties George II. and George III. kings of England, for houses in which to hold forth the word of salvation. These colonial buildings, after the Revolution, were seized by the state, and declared the property of the commonwealth. They were built for the Church of England, but are now occupied, as the case may be, by the citizens who most need them; and when unoccupied by one party they are open to another. In this building we had a very respectable and patient hearing for three days. They were addressed on the 3d by myself on Hebrews x. 11, 12. on the parts of this connexion, which treat of the principle of enjoyment of all the blessings of the present salvation. On the 4th I continued my address on "the peculiar promises made to us Gentiles, which, if we believed, as did Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, &c. believed the promises made to them, and act in accordance with these promises, as did those examples, we should be constituted the children of Abraham and heirs of all the promises in Christ." I was followed by brother Webber, who addressed the audience from 1 Peter v. on "the relative duties of seniors and juniors in the kingdom of Messiah," and on "the superior importance of causing light to shine from works more than [585] from words." He exhorted the disciples, one and all, to regard themselves as laborers in God's vineyard, and as called to sustain the Christian cause by their individual and social efforts. I added a word of exhortation. Three confessed the Lord; and two, before immersed, came forward and were received by the congregation. On the 5th I addressed the audience again, on "the history of the origin of Christianity, and of God's government over the Jews for more than three thousand years;" touched on various topics which the scepticism of this age and country required me to notice; concluded with another exhortation, when another confessed the Lord. After the immersion of these confessors of the Lord, which the congregation observed with great solemnity and decorum, we dismissed an assembly which for three days listened with much attention, but with little apparent fruit. May the good seed scattered in Amelia at this time, appear in the harvest laden with increase!

      Brother Townes for some years has been the only public advocate of reformation in this county. He has done much, considering the powerful opposition. Nothing has sustained the cause of reformation in Eastern Virginia but the sterling integrity and untarnished reputation of all its public advocates. True, indeed, there is, in proportion to the number of public advocates, and to the aggregate of the disciples, as much information and talent on the side of reform, as there is opposed to it; but so violent have been the denunciations, and so untiring the opposition, and so numerous the revivals got up on the side of orthodoxy, that nothing could have given to the cause of reform its present stamina and healthful aspect, but the unassailable reputation of its public advocates, and the general good character and standing of its professors.

      Such, however, at present is the disturbed state of society--so violent the opposition--and so unsettled the public mind in this county, and some other parts of the state, that the gospel, however clearly propounded, cannot make much visible effect. The amount of argument and evidence which would, in the absence of these circumstances, bring tens into the kingdom, will here only give units. This is, however, the seed time, and it is a cold, dry seed time; moreover, the cutworms are busy under the ground; but,by the patience and perseverance of the husbandmen, a good crop may yet be gathered.

EDITOR.

Brother Townes', November 8th, 1833.

Dear Brother,

      I WAS in conversation, some little time ago, with a friend, on the subject of educating preachers at our schools of divinity; and this inquiry arose: What is the reason that so few, out of the large number of young men educated for the ministry, seem ever to attain even an ordinary degree of eminence; while many others, deemed less brilliant, and therefore not taken into these places of improvement, [586] far outstrip their former associates? The answer to this inquiry made by me at the time, and concurred in by my worthy friend, seemed so reasonable, that I have now determined to send it to you for publication, should you deem it worthy of a place in your paper.

      If a plant, that grows tall and straight in the open field, where it derives light and heat from the sun, nutriment from the soil, and moisture from the dews and rains, all necessary to its proper growth and development,--be transplanted into a narrow box and placed in a darkened., room, into which the light and heat, congenial to its nature, are admitted, alternately, only through a small window on each side of the room, and from which moisture is excluded, except in disproportionate quantities and at irregular periods; that plant will become.pale and sickly, and instead of growing tall and straight and becoming a flourishing vegetable, as it would do if left in the field, it will, by bending itself first towards one window and then towards the other, in search of light, become a pale, sickly, and crooked dwarf. So; if A young man of strong natural intellect and promising genius, who, were he permitted to range the field of truth, untrammelled by the contradictory dogmas of partyism, would become a talented, forcible, and even brilliant advocate of the truth of revelation; I say, if such a young man is taken from the field where the word of truth is methodically and beautifully strewed by Christ and his Apostles, and transplanted into the narrow box of sectarianism, and placed in one of our theological seminaries, darkened by all their accustomed mysteries and obscurities, into which a ray of light occasionally breaks, sometimes from one quarter and sometimes from another; instead of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he is bewildered by the inconsistencies of the system, which he is taught to believe contains the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Thus trammelled by a creed of contradictory doctrines, the truth of which he is afraid to question, because "anathema" is stamped upon every thing not in the creed; the young man begins his studies by discarding the conclusions of his own reason whenever they contradict his creed. Hence he is often compelled to spiritualize and explain away the plain meaning of much scripture, in order to make it fit the mysterious speculations of his favorite system. He never goes beyond the limits of his creed in quest of truth, willing to believe it, whatever it be, and anxious to receive it, wherever found: but keeps his eye steadily--aye, cautiously fixed on the tenets of the system he has adopted. And since those tenets contradict each other, he is ever halting between two opinions--ever in doubt--ever guessing, and ever groping his way in the dark. Hence the brightness of his genius is obscured, the strength of his intellect greatly weakened, his powers of reasoning confused and bewildered, and he comes from school a very uninteresting man, and disappoints all the fond hopes and flattering expectations of his friends and relatives.

IREDELL. [587]

      I WAS baptized on the 14th of December, 1824, on a relation of my experience as a Christian. Of my conversion there was no doubt entertained by our preacher and the church in B------, nor, indeed, by myself. I attended preaching once every month, and sometimes read a chapter in my family, and sung a hymn; but I had no gift for prayer. Our preacher generally explained a whole verse in one sermon; though I have known him sometimes explain only half a verse in one day's preaching. During nine years I had explained tome one hundred and eight texts--equal to two chapters in Matthew.

      About two years ago I became a warm anti-reformer; and one year since, when brother A------ preached in our neighborhood, I would not go to hear him. I was a delegate to the Dover Association in 1831, and was consulting with some of my brethren on the best ways and means of putting down the reformers. Meantime I had a conversation with a very pious sister, who I thought was quite orthodox; and in the course of her remarks she asked me for a reason of the hope which I entertained. I related my conversion. "But," said she, what do you hope for?" "My salvation," said I. "Salvation from what?" she again asked. I hesitated; but finally said, "From sin." "And," said she, "is the hope of salvation from sin, the hope which you now entertain?" I felt myself confounded: for it occurred to me that I professed to have had the remission of my sins before I made application to the church; and I could not distinctly say what I hoped for else. I took myself out of the difficulty by saying, 'I hoped for the salvation of my soul; and,' said I 'is not this the object of your hope, sister F------?' "No," replied she--"I hope for something which I have not yet received. I have received the salvation of my soul; and for what a person has, how can he hope?"

      I was afraid to commit myself by any assertion; for I felt my ignorance of the Scriptures in the presence of this sister, who, I knew, did little else than read her Bible and go to meeting; but determined on changing the subject. "Indeed," said I, "the Reformers have ridiculed this thing, called Christian experience, so much, that I have not heard much talk about it amongst us for some time; and it is now more than a year since I told my experience." "Well," said she, "I have never heard a reformer ridicule, or speak improperly, upon Christian experience. I wish our brethren would understand them on this subject. I am sorry that they so generally condemn without a hearing. Do you recollect what Peter has said on the subject of the present and the future salvation?" I was struck dumb. I knew nothing about Peter's views in particular; and could not even tell to what part of the Testament she referred. After thinking a while, I recollected of reading that Peter or Paul had said somewhere, that "we hope to be saved by the grace of God;" but being uncertain which of the two had so spoken, to get out of this difficulty, I said, "Don't you, sister, lean a little more towards the Reformers than you did some time ago?" "I always leaned to my Bible," she rejoined, "since I became a professor; [588] and have always been for reformation since I professed repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ; but have not been classed with the reformers, nor have I taken any part against them. I associate with all the brethren and sisters in the neighborhood, and would advise you to read the Acts of the Apostles several times before you decide finally upon the merits of the Reformation.

      I determined to do so. Mortified I was, indeed, to find myself talking about that which I did not understand. I have now examined the matter with considerable care, and am amply repaid for all my labor.

      I have conversed with all the members of intelligence in our church, and have found not one of them much more intelligent than myself. There is but one of them attends upon family worship with any sort of regularity. The New Testament is seldom read, except on Sundays; and a few verses only are explained in the course of a year. Our preacher preaches miraculous conversions, and quotes Young and Milton twice for once Paul or Peter is honored with a place in his discourses. He is very fond of harmonious sentences, and is smitten with the love of poetry. It throws such an air of fiction around his whole subject, that his prose appears as visionary as his verse; and, therefore, the admirers of Sir Walter Scott are better pleased with him than any other preacher in our country.

      But, sir, I have become a Reformer; and now I can pray with my wife and children, and I begin to delight in reading the oracles of God. I can give some better reason of my hope than formerly. My hope has for its object the future salvation; and the reason of it is, that he is faithful who has promised. But I need not weary you with a recitation so familiar.

      If you think that these hints will be useful to any of your readers, you may publish them. But that I offend not my brethren, call me simply,

THOMAS.

      ANY one who wishes to see how the mother church gets along in her legislative councils, need only peruse the following notice of the preparations made and the purposes avowed. The mincings and apings of the daughter sects appear to good advantage in contrast with the mother. The spirit of our Baptist councils may be similar, while the body and the costume of the body differ in some attributes. We must, however, compliment this Catholic council with the characters of consistency and candor. They profess to legislate, and they honestly avow it. Our friends, the Regular Baptists and others, disavow such pretensions, but practise it with relentless severity.

EDITOR.

From the Baltimore Gazette.

      This Assembly is now in session in this city. It was opened formally yesterday in the Cathedral. The most Rev. Dr. Whitefield, of course, presided, as [589] Archbishop of Baltimore, and celebrated the Mass of the Holy Ghost on the occasion. The other Bishops present were the Right Rev. Dr. David, from Bardstown--the Right Rev. Dr. England, Charleston--Right Rev. Dr. Rosati, of St. Louis--Right Rev. Dr. Fenwick, of Boston--Right Rev. Dr. Dubois, of New York--Right Rev. Dr. Kenrick, from Philadelphia--Right Rev. Dr. Rese, of Detroit, and the Right Rev. Dr. Purcell, of Cincinnati. The only Bishops entitled to seats, who were not present, are the Right Rev. Dr. Portier, of Mobile, (who arrived this day,) and the venerable Dr. Flaget, of Bardstown, the Senior Suffragan, whose delicate state of health did not permit his travelling hither. A large body of Priests, selected by the prelates as advising Theologians, filled the Chancel. The appearance of the Sanctuary was exceedingly striking: The Bishops wore capes and mitres, and were seated at each side of the altar. The Priests, in their sacred vestments, occupied the front before the platform. After Mass, the Bishop of Charleston delivered a discourse on the nature of church government, the object and utility of councils, and the peculiar benefits likely to arise from their celebration in this country.

      The Prelates hold their legislative sessions daily, every morning at 9 o'clock. The consultations of the Prelates and Theologians take place in the afternoon at 4 o'clock.

      We shall give more ample details of this Assembly, which is the highest local ecclesiastical tribunal of so large a body of our fellow-citizens. [!!!!]

      AS a standard-bearer in the camp of Israel, I think it my duty to give you a few hints on the tactics of war. Somehow or other several of your silver shrines, which you call "Minutes," have found their way into my part of the realm. I would advise the great craftsmen of the day to quit the trade of shrine-making and creed-making, and to take down their great coats before they are ruined by them. You take a great deal of pains to immortalize your idols by casting 250 or 300 shrines a-year to your great goddess Diana, which you call "Associations." The New Testament knows nothing of these things, only in prophetic vision of the corruptions that would privately creep into the church of Jesus Christ. We have no use for such idols in our part of the realm. The time is coming, and God is coming with his sword, in his brightness, when many records now called divine, will be committed to the flames, and authors lose their mighty names. My colors are the all-sufficiency and alone-sufficiency of the New Testament for the faith and practice of the disciples of Jesus Christ, as also for doctrine and discipline.

REUBEN SHORTT.

RICHMOND, Va. October 16th, 1833.

Beloved,

      THE Lord's mercies have been over us and ours; so say your letters, and so testifies my grateful heart. I have been absent from Richmond about sixty days, and am now just returned. The [590] tour was laborious in the extreme, through a dozen or fourteen counties between this and the bay coast. I visited many churches, villages, cities, and destitute neighborhoods, preached sixty or seventy times; and about as many confessed the Lord as there were discourses delivered. Angels and men rejoiced. I think there were eighteen confessions after one sermon. This was reviving to a cause for which its friends were trembling, and over which its foes were exulting. The public (to the number of scores of thousands) have seen, and heard, and thought; and they have awarded to the reformation all it claims, as far as their judgment is concerned; and, as you see, many of them have surrendered their persons. The city of Norfolk opened its ears, and heart also, for the reception of the truth, as far as it could be imparted in two or three days. I lodged at the hotel, and preached in the court-house to all who could get in; and such interest took the constituents of one of the religious bodies there, in the matter, that a large majority of them voted out and voted down a series of resolutions submitted and pleaded by their Pastor; thereby exhibiting one of the first instances of ancient Baptist liberty of conscience in Virginia. The true cause of liberty is the cause of God and the people.

      I attended the session of this largest of Baptist high courts in the world, having pre-occupied the ground for several days. It was in the ancient, city of Williamsburgh, of classic memory to Americans. The naked walls of the old Capitol, at one end of Main street, and the old College edifice at the other, reminded me of Henry, Lee, and Randolph, among the orators; and Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, among the Presidents, who there received and repeated their lessons of literature, liberty, and independence--studies too hard for tyrants, and too abstruse for slaves.

      The introductory discourse was delivered by Luther Rice, in the Episcopalian place of worship, one of the largest of the old colonial churches. Mark xiv. 41. and context, furnished the speaker ground for warfare, offensive and defensive, against the Unitarians, Universalists, and a nameless party, whose only sin was an undefined and undefinable error. If I am correctly informed, this was Mr. Rice's long promised, but first attempt at the extinction of the reformation. Nothing new, as you may suppose, in the form of reasoning; and the strongest argument I heard was a little advice to the keepers of the faith, concerning the treatment of this error, this non-descript, undefined, and unmet. "Don't be fastidiously delicate," said the orator; and 'the advice is gratuitous,' thought one of the hearers, at least. From such a spirited introduction some already augured a fiery consummation.

      The Association was opened by your old friend, Broaddus--a man, I should suppose, of simple and unaffected modesty, an attribute that not unfrequently accompanies genius. However, his situation was rather unhappy, as Moderator of a vast ecclesiastical body, which, [591] like all other huge machinery, has no sympathetic feeling, no bowels of mercy. It requires a steady hand to rein the lion routed from his lair; but how terrific the king of the forest when unrestrained, but rather excited by the keepers! Mr. Broaddus was a constituent of the body, and all his unquestionable amiability to the contrary notwithstanding, he partook of its tender mercies--its iron sympathies. Indeed, a caucus convened before the morning service, had determined the fate, it is thought, of the pleaders for the Scriptures; and how could the brother in question, or any other benevolent disciple (of whom several came up to the house of contention disposed to rescind the decrees) exposed to the fiery forces that fashioned and projected the fulminations of the preceding session; I say, how could he and a few others stem the tide or quench the ragings of the burning furnace? Mr. B. is not fitted for controlling or correcting unruly bodies, and in this instance the Moderator had to be executive of the will of the caucus. Never did I so fully apprehend, or deprecate the miseries of perverted Baptist Associations. Not a civil or ecclesiastic body exists that more loudly disclaims or more tyrannically exercises the supreme power. The preacher, minister, or ambassador system has so far usurped the government of the church and Association, that personal consideration, alias the judgment of the flesh, determines the point in every case of litigation; and in such bodies there is no want of business. In some other sects the higher courts, synods, assemblies, conferences, &c. afford some prospect of justice in the end by a change of tribunal and the place of trial. But among our quondam associates a man for teaching the words of Jesus Christ, the burden of salvation, is condemned and punished without the liberty of speech or right of appeal, by a body of which he may, or may not be a member, and which, by its constitution and its avowal annually renewed, disclaims all, any, and every kind of authority over individuals or churches, further than the decorum of the session requires. Here liberty and right exist only in name; and, as the long shadow that dies at noon, disappears at the moment of anxious search.

      DOVER TENDER MERCIES and brotherly kindness gleamed in singular corruscations from the dawn of the session. The first item of business was the reading, by request, of the decree of last year, denouncing Peter Ainslie, John Du Val, and others, with the churches who should have the hardihood to give them a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, or receive the message of heaven from their lips. And why this untimely resurrection of resolutions? Not, forsooth, that any immorality was chargeable upon the parties in question, for this the Moderator disclaimed; but an untimely judgment required the immortality of documents that would otherwise have lived only in the records of a degenerate age. Talleyrand or Fouche would have been amused at the scene that followed. Several speakers opined that the action of said resolutions cut off some churches that they understood remonstrated in their letters against the unconstitutional act. But as the letters lay unopened at this time upon the table in an undisguishable mass, it was difficult to determine which of them [592] should be consigned to the flames, and which of their owners should be decapitated. Various suggestions and resolutions were offered, and in the multitude of counsel the desired safety might have been effected, but for the unhappy candor of one of the party, who, I presume, was not in attendance at the caucus. The said querist simply asked, whether the Association could attend to business before the letters were read, as they contained the elements of which the body was to be organized. Moderator and moderated were much perplexed; and the by-standers were amused at the perplexity caused by so rational a suggestion. The chair was disconcerted, and the movers and the moved dismayed; and it appeared to me that the last conception and determination of the former were perfectly obliterated by the next suggestion of the latter. The dilemma of the chair was inconceivable; for as the whole structure of the proceedings accorded with the pattern shown at the Raleigh tavern in the morning conclave, the keeper of order unconsciously commended and sustained every measure, and when they conflicted, unmanly threw himself between the lines. Exposed thus to opposing fires and embarrassed by every manoeuvre, nothing but great tenacity of purpose, and some of that excitement which is necessary to the perpetuation of outrage, carried the point. The speakers of the occasion decided, with the assistance of the chair, that, as they had the old Moderator and Clerk present, the Association could pass resolutions. Just at this juncture, a lawyer, suspected of heresy, moved that all doubtful letters be laid on the table, until the others were read; but then forthwith have a hearing and their separate destinies be decided. This resolution was at first well approved; but the Moderator in stating it, discovered a difficulty. He could not see how the body not now organized, could by a motion control its proceedings subsequent to organization; and he curtailed the resolution accordingly, in which form it was carried. Although this turn abandoned the ground last assumed, and nullified the resolution itself, it was considered a happy measure, as it furnished a parliamentary excuse for the outrage aimed at, during all the previous twistings and windings. One man, whose voice has been heard in the council halls of his country, said, Let all the letters be read: but the justice and the forms of justice of political institutions were too stale for Dover, in meeting an error that invited scrutiny of impartiality.

      From this time the parties involved in the unrighteous condemnation showed little anxiety for their fate; for as they were silent as death before the tribunal, so now with pleasing equanimity they awaited the associational decapitation or the rinquisitorial special committee torture. Nor were they long looking for the blessedness of Messiah's promises to the persecuted; for about a half a score of churches were excluded or turned over to the kind forbearance of visiting committees, those harbingers of associational peace.

      I had an appointment to preach that evening, at candlelighting, in the court-house. At an early hour the house was filled and surrounded, and before the usual time I commenced an exposition and history [593] of the reformation now plead by thousands, in connexion with notices of several passages of holy writ. After two or three hours I adjourned till the morning this school of Christ, for the exposition of the scriptures; and by special request made by the audience, at every meeting continued it twice-a-day as long as the session lasted, speaking about five hours per diem. In no instance could all the ladies get comfortably seated, or all the gentlemen get into the house--such was the anxiety created. I am told that I am much censured by the advocates of measures in the Association, for complying with the request of citizens and strangers at Williamsburg. But I felt myself imperiously called upon by the public to perform a duty I owed to the reformation, to my friends, to the disinterested, and to the opponents of Dover Association. I was actuated by feelings and anticipations differing largely from those expressed by two gentlemen in the Association, who acknowledged that they were afraid of the reformation, and that it took effect wherever it had a hearing.

      A few churches have commenced keeping all the ordinances; but there is great want of system as yet. The new organizations bid fair to outstrip the old and reforming institutions in this work of heavenly emulation. One new church was formed at one of my appointments, and another during two visits, more than doubled its number. Shortly it may be truly said, I hope, that "Christ is made" to the disciples here, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption"--that they are "complete in him." They are fast learning the wisdom of Christ; and must consequently, ere long, enjoy the completeness of his treasures of favor, in all his redeeming graces, commands, ordinances, relations, and promises. Let all the disciples of the Lord rejoice in "the hope of his calling, in the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power in relation to us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all government and power, and might and lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come."

	Yours truly,
D. S. BURNET.

Respected Brother,

      I NOW proceed to close my reply to your animadversions upon my letter to brother W. Z. Thompson, concerning some prominent points in N. W's treatise on the atonement, which I consider of vital importance in the divine economy of salvation; amongst which is the scripture presentation of Jesus Christ as our Mercy Seat; to my definition of which you object; supposing that I translate hilasterion--sacrifice, because I use the English term--propitiatory, as an [594] adjective, adding the word--sacrifice, and alternating these with--mercy seat, meaning Christ as "sacrificed for us," through which we find God propitious. Nevertheless you go on to add to the same effect, that "Paul represents Christ as the true mercy seat, from which God dispenses his favors to men--only to men who believe. From which mercy seat he dispenses pardon or remission of sins to the obedient believer; and from which mercy seat God declares to mankind that he can be just in justifying the ungodly. All this is well. But when you tell us, that "Paul represents Christ as the true mercy seat," why do you not with him tell us how he becomes so? Possibly you meant to do this, when you limit the dispensation of divine favors,--"only to them that believe." You do not say, however, what they must believe. You close your exposition of Paul's meaning by observing, that "from this mercy seat God declares to mankind, that he can be just in justifying the ungodly;" but you have not, with Paul, told us how. Now had you attended a little, more closely to the Apostle's statement of this all-important matter, and availed yourself of his premises, Exod. xxv. 22. Lev. xvi. 2. Num. vii. 89. for explaining the antitype by the type, you would have perceived, that our mercy seat is also dedicated with blood, and that there is no approaching it to advantage but through blood. In short, that Christ is constituted our mercy seat only "through faith in his blood." Consequently, that without this faith, there is no mercy seat for any. Why have not the virtuous, penitent, believing Jews, and Mahommedans, a mercy seat by which they may draw near to God with acceptance and assurance? Surely it is not for want of faith towards God; but for want of the right faith,--the Christian faith; that is, faith in the blood of Christ, "which cleanseth us from all sins," having taken them out of the way; for, "he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" so that now they stand no longer in the way of a just God's showing mercy to an unjust, ungodly sinner; because that he can now show mercy to such upon the just consideration that Christ suffered for their sins--"the just for the unjust."--Having, therefore, made peace by the blood of his cross, by which he has redeemed, justified, and reconciled us to God, he is now become to them that believe in it, (like the mercy seat under the law,) the medium of the enjoyment of the divine favor; but to none else.--Proceeding thus, you would have also perceived how, from this mercy seat, "God declares to mankind" (yes, and to the angels too) not only "that he can be just," but that he really is so, "in justifying the ungodly,"--Because, as aforesaid, he does it through the redemption which is by Christ Jesus; which redemption is his precious blood for, 'not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ are we redeemed to God.' 1 Pet. i. 18-21. Rev. v. 9, 10. Col. i. 21, 22.--Whom he has set forth a propitiatory through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his own justice in passing by the sins which were before committed through the forbearance of God; in order that he may he just, when justifying him who is of the faith of Jesus. The blood of Jesus, then, is the justifying consideration, which justifies God, because it was shed for the sinner's [595] justification, being both appointed and admitted by God himself as sufficient for this purpose. See Heb. x. 4-10. It also justifies the sinner, who, admitting this, believes in it for his justification; so that, in the judgment of God, of angels, and of men, the sinner is justly acquitted; that is, justified, being acquitted upon a just consideration: namely, because the just desert or wages of his sin, viz. sorrows, sufferings, and death, to the full amount of its demerit, has been inflicted upon, and endured by, his surety, the Redeemer.

      In this New Testament exposition of the divine economy, we are now, at length, furnished with a satisfactory solution of that otherwise insoluble paradox, Exod. xxxiv. 7--"forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty;" or, more strictly and properly, "that will not at all acquit." Now the word guilty being a supplement, instead of which, if we supply the word unjustly, we have the solution of this paradox, Rom. iii. 24-26.--"Justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is by Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy seat, through faith in his blood, to declare his justice, that he might be just, when justifying him who believes in Jesus." Hence it becomes evident, how that God, in acquitting or justifying the ungodly sinner, does not acquit unjustly; that is, does not clear the guilty but upon a just consideration. But if, instead of admitting the above, we retain the old supplement 'guilty,' we render the pardon or acquittal of such absolutely impossible; for if God will by no means, or not at all acquit the guilty, who then can be saved, for "all the world is become guilty before God"? Now in this scriptural view of the justifying effects of the sacrifice of Christ, we find a just and obvious answer to your apparently perplexing, or rather perplexed inquiries on the bottom of page 228, concerning the nature and objects of its efficacy; for in this we see it has something more than merely a moral or suasive influence upon the sinner to lead him to repentance, call it by what name you please, having all the influences above described both upon God and man. In short, we see it justifies and glorifies both, according to the tenor and terms of the divine plan, as exhibited in the gospel institution.

      In the last place you object to my reasonings founded upon the expressions and conduct of Jesus Christ, both in the garden and upon his trial before Pilate, which I used to prove that he considered the Father was the sole author of all his sufferings, first and last; as do likewise his Apostles afterwards. See Acts ii. 23. iii. 18. and xiii. 27. with Rom. viii. 32. &c. The Jews and Romans being but the executioners. Acts iv. 27, 28. You only attempt, however, to obviate my reasonings upon this branch of the subject, by rescuing from my "wrong exposition" a single text, leaving me in quiet possession of the full amount of proof contained in all the rest, as above. The text you select for this purpose is John xix. 10, 11. concerning which, you say, you have very different views from mine, which you submit for consideration as follows:--"Pilate said he had power to crucify him--Jesus denied that lie had this power from Cesar, or from his laws: for he had committed no crime punishable with such a death. According [596] to the statutes of Cesar he was innocent. This power to crucify him, Jesus grants Pilate had; but he received it from above--What! from the Father above? No.--We have just seen this to be impossible. It was from another court this authority was given.--Not from Cesar's court,--not from the court of heaven; but from the highest court ever before established upon earth,--a court above all others, being divinely appointed. I mean the court composed of the High Priest and Elders of Israel. They, or their High Priest, delivered him to Pilate with authority to crucify him. He has, therefore, greater sin than Pilate."--Thus you explain. And to this I object in return; "Has not my dear brother given a wrong exposition of this text?' Where does the phrase "from above" signify any thing in the sacred style but heaven? Thus in the same Evangelist, chap, iii. 30. "He who comes from above, is above all." Again, viii. 23. "You are from beneath; I am from above." Rom. x. 6. "To bring Christ down from above." James i. 17. "Every perfect gift is from above," &c. &c. I would ask again, When or where is the term above, or from above, used to signify the Court of the High Priest and Elders? Again I ask, Could this court give authority to Pilate to do, what had no authority, either divine or human, to do itself? Was it not for want of authority to inflict capital punishment, that it applied to Pilate to crucify the Saviour? Again, Does not Jesus distinguish between the power possessed by Pilate, and the person that delivered him into his hands? The former he said was from above; but not so of the latter. To the latter he attributes his actual delivery into the power of Pilate; to the former--the power wherewith Pilate himself was invested as a civil governor, which the Apostle assures us was from God. Rom. xiii. 2. Wherefore, while I agree with you that it was the High Priest our Lord meant, I also agree both with Him and Paul, that neither the High Priest nor Pilate could have had the authority, which, in this instance, they so greatly abused, had it not been given them from above.

      And now, dear brother, I have done with my reply to your remarks on my letter; and can truly say with you, "It was not my purpose to attempt a reply to all you have written. A few prominent points only of your strictures have I noticed. There are a few gospel facts, which I consider as axioms; I have, therefore, doubted the truth of every doctrine, that stands in opposition to these."

      1. That God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.

      2. That he gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father.

      3. That he has redeemed us to God by his blood, that being justified by it, we might be saved from wrath through him.

      4. That without the shedding of his blood there is no remission.

      5. That by faith in his blood we enjoy, through baptism, the remission of all past sins, and ever afterwards, by the same faith, through confession and prayer, the remission of all such sins as are incidental to true believers. [597]

      6. That this faith has a reconciling and constraining influence upon our hearts; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; consequently, that we, who live by virtue of his death, should not henceforth live to ourselves, but to him who died for us, and rose again:--Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification;--by whose stripes we are healed.

      7. That God having so loved us as not to spare his own Son, but to deliver him up to the most bitter sorrows, sufferings, and death for us all; he will, therefore, most assuredly, with him also freely give us all things. We therefore bless God, and take courage.

      And now, respected brother, farewell. May the good Lord lead and keep us both in the truth! I little thought when I wrote to gratify friend Thompson, that it should prove an occasion for what has taken place between us; but I humbly hope it is all for good; and do, therefore, cordially submit it to the divine disposal, and to the serious consideration of an inquiring public.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

Edenton, N. C. Nov. 5, 1833.

      FROM Amelia, in company with brother and sister Webber, we returned to Goochland. On our return we spent one evening at brother Renns, of Powhattan. There, from a previous appointment, we found a congregation assembled, which we addressed from the close of the Testimony of Luke. The burthen of our address was, the proper method of reading and examining the holy oracles--the importance of the most special acquaintance with the character of the author of the Christian faith.--and the salutary results of an implicit submission to his authority and instructions in every thing.

      The day following, being the 9th of November, and very rainy, only a small Congregation assembled at Webster's. The audience was addressed from the letter to the Colossians, demonstrating that all errors in religion arose from inadequate conceptions of the peerless personal majesty and official dignity of the Head of the Christian Institution. On the Lord's day a very large assemblage was addressed on the gospel--on the personal and immediate remission of sins--and the promise of the Holy Spirit. The day being very favorable, many heard with great attention; but only one lady came forward to confess the Lord.

      Having spent the preceding evening at Dr. Card's, from the meeting at Webster's we repaired to Dr. Pleasants, where we had the pleasure of addressing a very attentive audience on "the conversion of Cornelius, and his family and friends." It is expected both these gentlemen have, ere now, submitted to the authority of him who alone can bestow immortality on mortal man, and done honor to themselves by honoring the Son of God.

      On Monday, the 11th, we were conducted to Richmond by our devoted brother Woodson; and on the following evening addressed the church and a large assembly of the citizens of Richmond, on "the Christian hope, and the duties of the disciples in the work of converting the world." Our theme was 1 Pet. chap. iii. The principal points in this discourse were--

      1st. That as Christian wives might, in the judgment of Peter, without the word, win over to the faith their Pagan and infidel husbands; so all Christians might, by their good behaviour, win over to the obedience of faith their [598] unbelieving connexions, companions, and associates, by the excellency of their characters, without any debate on the word or any controversy upon the articles of their belief.

      2d. That the Christian hope is not the hope of remission of sins, nor the promise of the Holy Spirit, both of which are in the present life possessed and enjoyed; but that it is the resurrection of the just to eternal life, and the heavenly inheritance, which are objects of desire and expectation yet future.

      3d. That this hope is a rational hope, and that every intelligent Christian can show good reasons why he entertains this hope; but these reasons are not his own experience of the fruits of the present salvation, which, however, he fully enjoys; but the promises and testimony of God, sustained by the various evidences presented in the written word.

      4th. That it is the duty of every Christian to prepare himself to furnish reasons for every man who may ask him for the grounds of his hope.

      5th. The antitype of the salvation of Noah through the deluge in the ark; or immersion as preached by Peter and explained in this epistle, finished the address.

      During our excursion into the country brother Burnet had made some other additions to the church in Richmond, both by immersion and from the Regular Baptists, and the aspect of things in Richmond is at present very promising.

      Elder John Kerr arrived in the city during our excursion into the country, and promised the people a revival if both the First and Second Churches would unite to pray for it. Mr. Kerr's skill in managing the passions, and his power over the nerves, is fully adequate to produce a revival amongst a population of the calibre of the large majority of his hearers. The old church reports nearly a thousand African members, most of whom cannot read a chapter in the New Testament; while not more than one African belongs to the Sycamore Church. In such a population Mr. Kerr's theory and practice are admirably adapted to produce a revival. The only thing to be apprehended is, that the intelligence of society may detect the policy of these manoeuvres, of which there is at present some ground of suspicion. The exhortation tendered in a recent Religious Herald to these churches, by the managers of the public ear, shows how sensible they are that every thing necessary to their success depends upon their having an exclusive right to address it. Hence the Christians under the management of Elders Hinton and Taylor are admonished to beware of hearing those who speak differently from them. The practice of hearing "the new doctrines of the day" is, say they, often dangerous, and always demonstrative of an unsettled state of mind, from the appearance of which it becomes all who would continue under their tuition, to guard themselves, Indeed, the efforts made to prevent the members of these two churches from hearing the brethren of the reformation, argue most convincingly how little confidence they have in their own ability as teachers, or in the system which they teach. Experience seems to have taught them one lesson of some importance to their standing, and this is, that if their admirers are permitted to hear both sides, their influence is at an end. Therefore, their pastoral caution is, Hear only us, and then you are safe!

      On Wednesday morning, as the day dawned, we were conducted by our brother Myers, whose Christian hospitality we had so long enjoyed, to the steam-boat Patrick Henry. As we passed along the streets of Richmond a shower of meteors, called "shooting stars," seemed to irradiate the city. It literally rained meteors for some hours before day, and about six o'clock in the morning the scene was beautiful and sublime beyond description.

      We had a very pleasant voyage down the James River, to Jamestown, where the first settlement was made in America, in the year 1607. There stand the remains of the first edifice raised for Christian worship in Virginia, if not in the United States. Here we were met by brethren Whitaker, Tabb, and R. C. Garret, Esq. through whose kindness we were conveyed to Williamsburg, eight miles distant, the ancient Metropolis of Virginia. In this city, where stand the walls of the old Capitol, which once resounded with the eloquence [599] of the far-famed Patrick Henry--where stands the College of William and Mary, in which three American Presidents were educated--Messrs. J. Randolph, Tazwell, and others of distinguished name--the ancient seat of the colonial nobility--we arrived at 4 o'clock, a distance of 120 miles from Richmond, in about nine hours. In the old monarchical Episcopal church, the most splendid and ancient of all the colonial churches in this commonwealth, we held forth to a large congregation the distinguishing characters of the word of the Lord, which began in Jerusalem. We were heard with attention; but as to the fruits, time must develope. We must notice with respect the liberality of the vestry of this church in accommodating the public with the use of it on this occasion. Especially is this liberality worthy of admiration on account of the proscriptive policy of the Baptists and other sectaries in this state, who imagine that in shutting the public out of their houses, they prove themselves to be given to Christian hospitality, and that they demonstrate the benevolence, honesty, and courtesy which the Saviour enjoins. But on another account was this liberality commendable: It is reported that the venerable Bishop Mead, of true Episcopalian dignity, did, not long since, inform his diocese that "the reformers in Ohio are accustomed to authorize females to preach and baptize," and did set forth various other grievous errors taught and practised by our brethren afar off, to some of the credulous members of the Episcopal church, in the city of Williamsburgh. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the house was opened for the accommodation of the citizens. So great liberality I have not found amongst the Baptists in Eastern Virginia.

      After being refreshed at our sisters McGill's and Garrett's, the next morning, accompanied and helped on our journey, by our zealous and indefatigable brother Whitaker and others, we proceeded to Yorktown, some ten miles distant. In this town, of classic memory, on the environs of which Lord Cornwallis surrendered his sword into the hands of the American officers, which terminated the seven years' war for American independence--we addressed the full of the court-house of its citizens, on the resurrection of Jesus, and the end for which John wrote his memoirs of the Messiah. Brother Elliott immersed two females in the York river after the discourse, one of whom had consented to put on Christ before our arrival.

      After dining with our amiable and zealous brother Nelson, who still inhabits the venerable mansion reared by his great-great-grandfather, the walls of which still bear the marks of the bombs of Cornwallis' army, and which was the residence of his grandfather at the time he signed the declaration of independence--we proceeded to brother Shields', on the way to Hampton, where on the next day we arrived about noon, distant from Yorktown about twenty-four miles. In this town we spoke in the Reformed Methodists' meetinghouse, to a small congregation, on the official relations of the Son of God--and the necessity of beginning reformation at the beginning, or the right place. We dined with Dr. Banks, and at 4 o'clock embarked in the packet for Norfolk. We had a rough passage across Hampton Rhodes; but were gratified with a full view of fortress Monroe and the Rip Raps. After three hours' sailing we arrived in the city of Norfolk, and put up at the "Norfolk House," where we continued during our stay in the city.

      The reformation principles have been but recently introduced into this city, and the opposition is very decided on the part of Elder Howell. Our brother, Dr. Hall, who returned to us here from North Carolina, had proclaimed the word with general acceptance to the Baptist church in this place for some weeks during the summer. Brother Burnet also delivered several discourses in the court-house. But on our arrival the Pastor of this church took so decided a stand, that he endeavored even to prevent us the use of the court-house on the Lord's day. This management compelled us to go over to Portsmouth on that day. We therefore spoke but twice in the court-house in Norfolk--on Saturday and Sunday evenings. On Saturday evening, Paul's account of the Apostacy, 2 Thess. 2 Timothy, and 1 John 4. afforded us a fruitful theme. On the Lord's day Paul's cloud of witnesses, and the faith [600] which saves the soul, furnished us with matter for two long discourses. We were attentively heard by large congregations, and left the friends of reformation in that city disabused of many unfair representations and incorrect views of the cause which we plead.

      Our friend Howell, like many other Baptist preachers, abuses us, and yet preaches many of our views, as they are called. This morning I read his three sermons, published the present year, on the subject and action of baptism. The author has drawn heavily upon our debate with M'Calla, and never once given us credit for a single idea; and yet if one would extract from this pamphlet (of 80 pages) his plagiarisms from said debate, the balance would scarcely nauseate the stomach of a very dyspeptic Paidobaptist. He has not even always marked his quotations, a species of dishonesty unworthy of a Baptist preacher. The work, however, is well received as an able and convincing performance, and I have no reason to complain that I am immersed in Howell. I would as lief speak in the person of Howell as in the person of any other citizen of Norfolk!

      It is, if we may believe many very credible witnesses, quite a common matter in various parts of the country, for a preacher, after reading his text, to introduce himself by putting his hearers on their guard against new doctrine, novelties, Neologisms, C------isms, &c. &c. then to fill up the measure of his discourse with views, illustrations of scripture, and sentiments, extracted from the writings of these "new doctrines" and "novelties," which he has just repudiated. Thus our views, when taken off our shelves, and carried into their shops, and new-labelled, are sold for sound doctrine, at a very high price. And this is all honest, and honorable, and fair dealing in the balances of the orthodox sanctuary. Upon the whole, we must say with Paul, "Whether in pretence or in sincerity" some of the distinguishing truths of this reformation are taught, "we must rejoice, and will rejoice"--though--we would much rather see them taught by persons of more honesty and independence.

      While in Norfolk we were very happy in the company of a goodly number of our brethren from a distance, who took up their lodgings with is at the "Norfolk House." But on Monday we had to part with most of them, even our brother Whitaker, accompanied only by brother and sister Todd, and brother Ball, who took their passage with us on board the Columbus, for Baltimore, 200 miles distant. This boat, of some 450 tons burthen, very strongly built, had quite enough to do in going up the Chesapeake to brave the wind and the sea. This bay is about 30 miles wide till we reach the mouth of the Potomac river. About midnight, when the wind arose to its greatest strength, and we had got opposite to the wide mouth of this imperial river, the struggle was so hard that for one hour sometimes the strong head wind and high sea silenced our machinery and triumphed over all our efforts to advance; but after yielding the point several times, we finally overcome the opposition and weathered out the violence of the storm. When day dawned upon us we could see Maryland upon our right and left; and now, at 9 o'clock, the cupola of the Capitol of Maryland, in the good city of Annapolis, rises to our view. And here we shall lay down our pen for the present.

      The Lord be praised for all his mercies to us, and to all the children of men!

EDITOR.

November 21, 1833.

      "Moreover, when you fast, look not dismal as the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces, that men may observe that they fast. Indeed I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not appear to men, but to your Father; and your [601] Father, to whom, though he is unseen himself, nothing is secret, will recompense you." Matth. ch. vi.

      THE first question, which our lesson suggests for consideration is, What is meant by fasting? What is the literal, obvious signification of the word--that which indicates the subject matter, and without which the duty (if fasting be a duty) is not attended to at all?

      If now we were writing for laymen, we might refer for an answer to this question to the intelligent clergy--to all standard English dictionaries: but we write not for them: we write for the disciples of Christ, whose prayer continually is, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' We might refer to the intelligent clergy and the dictionary; but this reference would be most unsafe on many words for them--on faith, repentance, baptism, for instance--on all that have been subjects of controversy. But we refer, Christians, directly to the Law and the Testimony--to the text and context of several passages in the Living Oracles, where the word fasting occurs.

      1 Samuel ch. xii. it is written, "And David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them." After this--"They set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this, that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was yet alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst arise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept."

      Now, what can be more manifest than that David's fasting here spoken of, was his not eating bread? It was not his 'going in,' (wherever that might be)--It was not his lying all night upon the earth--It was not his weeping: for all these are spoken of as adjuncts, and distinguished from it.

      Again: Esther iv, ch. "Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me"--How? We are informed in the very next words;--"neither eat nor drink, three days, night nor day I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him." Can any reader of this testimony--any Christian reader--persuade himself or herself to believe, that the fasting of Mordecai and the Jews with him, and of Esther and her maidens, here spoken of, consisted in any thing else, than in abstaining from food and drink?--Or, whatever else they did or refrained from doing, that it did not, and could not, properly bear the name of fasting, if they had eat and drunk during this time as much as was usual for them at other times?. . . . We presume not. What need, then, have we of further testimony? Is not the question answered, and the point established, that "to fast" means "to abstain from food;" and "fasting," "the abstaining from food." Most certainly, this was the literal obvious signification of the word in the passages we have considered from the [602] Old Testament in the days of David and of Esther: and that it meant the same in New Testament times, one more passage from the Testimony of Matthew iv. ch. willfully establish. "And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Then the tempter accosting him, said, If thou be God's Son, command that these stones become loaves. Jesus answering, said, It is written, Man lives not by bread only, but by every thing which God is pleased to appoint." Jesus fasted in abstaining from food.

      "If fasting be a duty," we have said. A word or two now, under this head. In the passage last quoted, we are informed that Jesus fasted--that he connected fasting with prayer. If, now, Jesus' praying be an example for his followers; why not his fasting also? But more direct and explicit to this point--Matth. xviii. A demoniac is brought to the disciples: but they could not cure him. Why not? Jesus answers: "This kind is not dispossessed unless by prayer and fasting; plainly implying, that had they fasted as well as prayed, which was equally a duty to be done, they might have been able to cure this kind of demoniacs also. Again: ix. ch. "Then John's disciples addressing him, said, We and the Pharisees often fast; why do your disciples never fast? Jesus answered, Can the bridemen mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then will they fast." Mark (ii. 18, 19.) and Luke (v. 33-35.) record the same question and answer--"They will fast." In other words, it shall be their duty to fast, and they will perform it. To the same effect, the Saviour's instructions, first quoted in the conclusion of our last essay, and placed at the head of this--the lesson, which we are considering: "Moreover, when you fast," &c. Why thus introduce this subject? Why the directions which follow; "Look not dismal as the hypocrites when you fast," if fasting be not a duty? If you know these things, happy are you "if you do them."

ADELPHOS.

      IT appears wholly impossible to reconcile the behaviour of a very large proportion of the professing world to the faith which they have confessed. They say that Jesus is the only Prophet of the Christian people, and they will not hear him; that he is the only High Priest, and they will not accept his sacrifice as the reconciliation; that he is the only Lawgiver and King of Saints, and they will not obey him. They say that there is nothing more uncertain than the tenure of the present life, and nothing more certain than death, and yet they live as though nothing was more uncertain than death, and more certain than life. They say that this is not our home; and they are always seeking to make a home of it. They say that the present world, with the fashion of it, soon passes away, and that the future world is eternal and unfading; yet they cling to the present as though it were eternal, and act as though the future was last fading and soon to pass [603] away. They say that the gospel salvation is worth more than the universe, and yet they will not part with their love of the things of time and sense for the full enjoyment of the assurance of eternal life. In one sentence, it is more difficult to reconcile the professed faith and the genuine works of the majority of nominal Christians, than the most apparently incongruous tenets of Calvinists and Arminians--of Unitarians and Trinitarians--or the contradictory dogmas of the ultra Catholics and the ultra Protestants.

      The detection of this mystery has cost us some thinking and some observation. But John explains the whole secret in one sentence--"This is the victory which overcomes the world; even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 'Not one, responds Reason,' Not one,' exclaims Observation; 'Not one,' exclaim all the Apostles of the Lamb. But "Every one that is begotten by God overcomes the world," affirms the aged, amiable, venerable, infallible Apostle John. Yes, every one--every one conquers by faith; and every one without it is conquered by the world. Faith or sense, faith or flesh governs all. Faith ascends to the skies--flesh descends to the grave. Faith refines, purifies, ennobles, exalts, emboldens, conquers. By faith we triumph--without it we are captives to this world. It is the only triumphant principle.

      "Sir," said a gentleman the other day, "I do not know why I could not stand up in the congregation to confess my faith." "Perhaps," said the preacher, you had none to confess." "I think," he rejoined, "I believed all you said." " "Why, then, did it not interest your heart?" "I cannot tell," he replied. "Well," said the proclaimer, "what do you think about such a matter?" "Of that, sir, I am not so certain." "Do you think," continued he, "a Mediator is absolutely necessary?" Then was the mystery explained.

      And another--"I heard you with the deepest attention and with full conviction, and could not tell why I could not rise." "I can guess," said the speaker--"You did not believe the testimony." "Believe the testimony! Why, sir, I never doubted it in my life." "How do you understand the resurrection of Jesus, or of what significancy is it in the Christian religion?" said the preacher. "Really, sir, I have not so fully understood this subject; but will gladly hear you explain, sir, if you please!"

      The preacher takes for granted entirely too much. "Many a lawyer," said our brother W. Reid, of Kentucky, now a Judge of the Circuit Court--"many a lawyer has lost his cause by supposing his jury knew more than they did." Our preachers lose many hearers by assuming or conceding that they believe that Jesus is the Messiah; or that they understand this capital position, when, in truth, they do not.

      We have on the present tour awaked into active life, in some instances, the dormant or latent scepticism of our hearers, quite to their own astonishment, as well as that of their fellow-citizens. Numbers have said, with apparent astonishment, "Well, I thought I always [604] believed that the testimony of Jesus and the Apostles was worthy of credit!"

      The popular addresses of the Doctors of this age are wisely calculated to cherish this latent scepticism. No draft is made upon the faith of the audience, and therefore they know not how faithless they are. Their taste for oratory is pampered--their itching ears are gratified--their patience is severely taxed--their powers of abstraction are sufficiently tested--imagination itself is exercised--every power, faculty, and capacity is tried--faith alone is permitted to sleep. But in the proclamation of the ancient gospel the preacher of reformation first addresses the understanding with the arguments and motives to obedience; hence the faith of his audience is tried. Every hearer is called to the exercise of faith in the testimony and promises of God, or to the obedience of faith. If the hearer does not obey the truth, his only rational defence is, that he does not believe the divine testimony. Therefore, very many are convicted of scepticism, and for the credit and honor of their understandings, they call for evidence that God has spoken to men, or that Jesus is worthy to be believed.

      The experiment now so generally and so fully made, enables us to form a correct estimate of the value of the present preaching and teaching of Christianity, and of the religious education of this generation--from all which we are compelled to conclude, that the number of sceptics, or unbelievers, with the form of godliness, greatly exceeds the aggregate of those who sincerely believe the word of the Apostles. We are confirmed in this mode of reasoning by the decision of the Holy Spirit, who assures its that "if a person say he knows God, and keeps not his commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

EDITOR.

Baltimore, November 28, 1833.

      "DIED, on Tuesday last, in the monastery of the Carmelite Sisters of Baltimore, Ann Teresa Mathews, in the 81st year of her age. She was born in Charles county, Maryland, in the year 1753, of very respectable parents; and from her tender infancy, she manifested a desire of consecrating herself to God in some religious community. At the end of the revolutionary war she went to Europe, and there became a member of the Holy Order of Teresa, which is esteemed one of the most perfect. She returned to America in 1790, and was one of the foundresses of the first religious house in these United States, which foundation has lately been transferred, by the Most Reverend Archbishop, to the city of Baltimore. She was a model of perfection, and a strict observer of the rules and constitutions; and of the virtues she practised during her many years of religious profession, those of poverty and obedience were the most remarkable in her, to the great edification of all the members of the holy community to which she was united. May the many virtues which she practised, during her long pilgrimage in this vale of tears, plead her cause before the Omnipotent Judge of mankind; and may she find mercy in the merits of her Divine Saviour, and be numbered among the elect of God in the mansions of eternal bliss!"

Baltimore paper.

      WAS there ever a more luminous exposition of the infatuation of the religious orders of the Papal establishment--of the inanity, inutility, [605] and folly of the whole Catholic religion, than the above annunciation from the heads of departments? In the above we have a full delineation of as perfect an experiment as can be expected in an age, and an authentic report of its success. Here is one of the most perfect ladies of the most perfect order, of the most religious sisterhood, of the "Holy Apostolic Mother Church," who, at the close of a very long life, most religiously devoted to all the works of Catholic faith and charity, so that she was, in the estimation of the Most Reverend Archbishop and all the Priesthood, "a model of perfection, and a strict observer of all the rules and constitutions" of Roman Catholic virtues, dying without mercy, and out of the pale of the elect! So certain are the evidences of this, that the surviving saints and ministers of her communion are now praying that "she may FIND mercy," and "be numbered among the elect of God"!!!

      Had this devout lady, some sixty years ago, "consecrated" herself at the Hymenean altar, and given her hand to some help meet, and performed to him faithfully and fully all relative duties, according to the constitution and laws of the Christian church, and thus honored the natural and religious institutions of heaven, how usefully, happily, and honorably might she have lived and died, and left behind her not only a report of her virtues, but living and efficient models of her influence, and active representatives of her virtues and good examples! There is no excellence in female character more useful, more honorable, more acceptable to God, than that which adorns the wife and the mother!

EDITOR.

Baltimore, November 25, 1833.

PITTSBURG, 28th October, 1833.

Dear brother Campbell,

      WISHING you joy, and peace, and much prosperity, as a son of God our common Father, and a servant of Christ our common Lord; I hasten to inform you (if you do not already know) that I have now the pleasure of recognizing you as holding in reality the endearing relation implied in the phrase by which I addressed you above--viz. a dear brother. It will be to you, and, I hope, to all the disciples of Jesus, pleasing intelligence to he informed of my accession to the Christian church--of my renouncing the commandments of men, and submitting to the ordinances of God in their real simplicity--of my bringing my neck from under the galling yoke of spiritual tyrants, who are lording over the consciences of many of the human family, and taking upon me the easy yoke of Jesus--and of my acknowledgment of the perversion of the ordinance of baptism by the Paidobaptists and sprinklers, and my obeying the command, "Reform, and be each of you immersed in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to the remission of sins." (Acts ii. 38.) [606]

      For myself I can say, that in this course of conduct, in this submission to the ordinances of my dear Master, my Saviour Prince Jesus, I have found peace--a peace which I sought for in vain from the miserable comforters in the splendid but very unchristian Presbyterian establishment, with which I was previously connected; but from which I felt it my duty to withdraw. Yes, I found that I must in duty withdraw, because they required of me an acknowledgment of a human creed--a creed, which, indeed, they pretend to be founded upon, and agreeable to the Bible; but which I found in reality to be (in part at least) contrary to the very spirit and letter of the Bible;--because this is a day in which there should be no winking at corruption, no tampering with sin, no hiding the candle of the Lord under a bushel; but all which I found I was expected to do (in some particulars at least) if I should remain amongst them;--because, although it is enjoined on Christians by apostolical authority, that "every one, according as he has received a gift, minister it to the others, as good stewards of the manifold favor of God." (1 Peter iv. 10.) Yet, possessing, as I trust, the gift of speaking, they would not permit me to occupy their pulpit for the improvement of this gift to the edification of the others--unless, forsooth, I professed submission to the Presbytery, (yea, in things unwarranted by Christ,) and should obtain authority from them, as if they were paramount to our blessed Lord, who is head of his church and the only lawgiver for her members;--because I could not feel myself guiltless, or hope for justification before God my Judge, if, by my continuance with the Presbyterian sect, I should be emboldened (as I felt I must be) by the conduct of those called ministers of religion and pastors of the church, in misleading the people, either from inexcusable ignorance or wilful blindness; and lastly, I felt it to be my duty to withdraw from the corrupt establishment, called the Presbyterian Church, that I might be free to join the ranks of the Reformation, with an ardent spirit in the freedom which Christ promises his faithful followers, and in the full scope of a feeling of universal philanthropy and Christian charity. Accordingly, though to the blasting of prospects once cherished--the displeasing of friends still esteemed--the unbinding of ties once held sacred--the risk of the scorn of many, and the persecution of others, I chose to obey God rather than man. I have left the Seminary and have cast myself upon God's condescending care, ready to go where he calls, and to serve him in newness of spirit with my body and my spirit, which are his. At a future opportunity I shall go into detail respecting my change; suffice it to say, the Presbytery of Ohio had resolved, without daring to state a reason for it, that my connexion with them should be dissolved; from which decision I appealed; but before carrying up the appeal to the Synod of Pittsburg, my conscience was resting--I had all the convictions of which you, under divine grace was the occasion, revived and strengthened by the instructions and appeals of a brother from Ohio, and was forced, for conscience' sake, and for the truth's sake, to submit; and happy, (I found,) thrice happy are they who the Saviour obey. I was inducted at Pittsburg.

	I am, dear brother, yours sincerely,
WM. BEGG. [607]

      Father Goodal. THE future is the offspring of the present and of the past. The coming race of men are now in training. In the cradles and in the nurseries of this generation are the teachers, philosophers, statesmen, lawgivers, orators, magistrates, and kings of another generation. This, with me, is the irresistible argument evincive of the weighty obligations--of the immense responsibilities of those holding in their hands the destinies of future times.

      Mr. Reed. Then, Father Goodal, you regard the parents of this generation as holding in their hands the destinies of the next.

      Father Goodal. Certainly I do. For, brother Reed, if all the parents of this age were to discharge their duties only as faithfully as some of the present company have done, I ask you to tell what sort of a race would succeed the present; and how much more happiness would bless the next generation than has blessed the present or the past.

      Mr. Reed. I feel better than I can express the vast difference. Wars would cease, and the fierce feuds and rivalries which now embitter life, would no more oppress the world. Peace and good will among men would be the order of the day; and how many and how great blessings would spring from peace, universal peace, and good will among men, the tongue of a Demosthenes and the imagination of a Milton, much more mine, would fail to describe.

      Mrs. Fowler. It has always appeared to me good and valid logic to judge of the merits of any action, or of the utility and excellency of any principle or system of operations, by the effects which would result from it, if it were to be co-extensive with the whole family of man--if it were to be carried out in all its bearings upon the destinies of our fellow-men.

      Mr. Reed. I am not aware of any exception which could betaken against this mode of reasoning upon relative duties. General utility is assumed by some moralists as the very standard of virtue. And certain I am, that there is not one precept of the gospel, which, if literally and constantly obeyed, would not be found in all its consequences most useful and beneficial to all within its reach.

      Mrs. Reed. But in all these remarks you only increase our anxiety to receive some new light, or some fresh instructions how we may more faithfully and more successfully discharge those relative duties which we owe to our families. For although we have not the whole destiny of our race in our hands, we have that part of it which is connected with our immediate descendants and those connected with them. I would, therefore, ask Father Goodal to give us the result of his experience and reflections upon the proper mode of training children.

      Father Goodal. Does sister Reed require my views and observations on the whole subject of the training of youth, as respects the [608] physical, intellectual, and moral culture of children, or only what regards their moral or religious education?

      Mrs. Reed. A few remarks on every branch, but especially on the meaning of training up our children in the nurture and discipline of the Lord--if you please, Father Goodal.

      Father Goodal. I have attended to the last more than to the former, and can speak more advisedly on the Christian discipline than on the physical and intellectual culture--unless, indeed, you regard these as branches of Christian education.

      Mr. Reed. It is only as branches of the Christian education on which I would wish, at this time, to hear you.

      Father Goodal. It requires three things to make a man--a body, a soul, and a spirit. And to make a good and useful man, we must begin with the infant body, soul, and spirit. The usefulness of the man depends upon the physical endowments: for if a man were as wise as Solomon, as zealous as Paul, as eloquent as Apollos, if he have not corporeal energy, his wisdom, zeal, and eloquence are all lost to the world. Therefore, the intelligent Christian mother will attend to the body as well as to the mind of the infant man.

      The deterioration of the bodies of this generation has painfully impressed itself upon me for the last thirty years of my life. The degeneracy of the body is only surpassed by the growing delinquency of public morals, and the more glaring apostacy of Protestants from the religious standing of our first reformers. The young men and women, my contemporaries, when I became a man, were quite another race of men and women compared with the present. The consumption, which is now the most common destroyer of our race--to which nearly four-fifths of the deaths of young men and women are now assigned, was scarcely known in all the county of Down. At the age of 18 I heard of a young female dying of "the decay," as it was then called, and I had to ask both my mother and father, and, finally, old Doctor Gray, before I could get a full definition of "the decay."

      The various complaints of the stomach, liver, and lungs, of which we hear so much every day, (to say nothing of the many new sorts of fevers which have appeared among us in latter years,) fully prove that men are sinning against the laws of nature in a way and manner unknown to our forefathers; and while the fathers and mothers are so fast degenerating, we cannot but look for a still more degenerated offspring.

      Mr. Reed. Let me interrupt Father Goodal by asking him if he has satisfied himself of the true causes of this general falling off in the natural vigor and energy of constitution, which is so much noticed and so generally talked of by the aged yet living amongst us?

      Father Goodal. I have observed that it has kept pace with the use of stimulating food, ardent spirits, and narcotics. By 'stimulating food' I mean flesh meats of all sorts, spices, confectionaries, tea and coffee.

      Mr. Williamson. Why, Father Goodal, would you proscribe flesh [609] meat. I have thought that the most strengthening and invigorating of all food. We Americans could not live without it.

      Father Goodal. Yes, you are celebrated in this country, as well as our neighbors in England, for your love of good beef. But, my dear sir, with all due regard to your manners and customs, I must attribute much of the degeneracy of which I speak to the too free use of animal food in connexion with other things. It is owing to the very good qualities of which you speak, that it is so injurious to the health and vigor of our youth and the sedentary part of the community.

      Mr. Williamson. I cannot understand how animal food can be so injurious when I have so much experience and observation in proof of its invigorating influence upon the human system. Why, sir, look at our American soldiers, seamen, laborers, and citizens in general, who eat animal food three times every day; where can you find a more athletic and enterprizing race of men?

      Father Goodal. They are a very substantial race of men; and I doubt not that their living so much on animal food contributes much to their endurance of fatigue and to their great physical strength. But, sir, you have the hard-working and laborious classes in view, and I am speaking of children whose bodies are not yet formed. My observation assures me that the stimulating power of animal food, especially of the grosser sorts, which imparts so much strength to the laborious man of middle life, is the very cause why it is so injurious to children and sedentary persons of both sexes, but especially to females. How do you account, Mr. Williamson, for the premature decay of the teeth and of the beauty of your American females, as our travellers describe your people to us?

      Mr. Williamson. To the influence of our climate, and to the too free use of fruit. The acids destroy the teeth, and our more ardent sun causes the roses on our female cheeks soon to shed their leaves.

      Father Goodal. So we are told. But since our children have been fed like men and women--on animal food, on tea, coffee, and sweet meats, their teeth and their bloom fade and decay almost as soon in our climate as in yours. I, therefore, ascribe it rather to the mode of living than to climate; for in the same climate I see all the differences of which we speak consequent upon modes of living. Here the children eat fruit in abundance, and live on a vegetable and milk diet, and when arrived at manhood their teeth are like ivory, and the lily and the rose vie for precedency in their cheeks. There they are stimulated with beef steaks and fed on ham--drink tea and coffee, and at 20 half their teeth are decayed and the roses are withered.

      Mr. Reed. But, Father Goodal, how do you trace the increase of consumption to this stimulating course?

      Father Goodal. The drinking of tea and coffee, and the eating of high seasoned food, flesh meat, &c. over-stimulates the body, and, like the drinking of warm punch or ardent spirits, opens the system to cold. Hence the frequent colds of which we hear so much, sapping the foundation of good health, and predisposing to all those breast and liver complaints which have so rapidly peopled our grave-yards [610] within the last twenty or thirty years. I feel myself, brother Reed, emboldened to say, that the early and frequent use of stimulating food--of tea, coffee, ardent spirits, and tobacco, even when there has not been a very glaring excess, has shortened the lives of the majority at least an average of ten years, besides the numerous deaths by consumption and other diseases growing out of this epicurean mode of living.

      If we were commanded to train up our children in the art and mystery of gluttony, we could not choose a more rational course than our popular fashions prescribe. They are pampered according to the cravings of an artificial appetite, until they have lost all relish for the simple aliments of nature. Their little bodies are seasoned, and spiced, and stimulated, till they are filled with the seeds of disease, and made so inflammable that a little exertion or fatigue throws them into a burning fever; or they are so much exotics in their own climate that they are incapable of enduring with impunity its various changes from wet to dry, from heat to cold.

      Mr. Williamson. How can they be regarded as exotics in their own climate? A note on this, Father Goodal, if you please.

      Father Goodal. The bodies of all creatures, according to the regular operations of nature, are composed of the elements around them. But we will not suffer the bodies of our children to be composed of the elements around them. The products of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America are on our tables, and often crowded together into the narrow dimensions of an infant's stomach; and thus we build up their bodies with the materials of all climates and soils. Therefore, they may, I think, be regarded as exotics in their native climate, and more fit for the green-house than for the field.

      Mr. Williamson. I must assent to this; for in my own city of New York the bodies of the citizens did not seem lo be made of the same materials. The natives differed as much from one another as they differed from Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Italians; and, as far as my recollections now assist me, the difference was occasioned chiefly, if not wholly and exclusively, by their modes of life.

      Father Goodal. If by 'modes of life' you mean food, raiment, and employment, you have got the whole matter. But I would not ascribe to food alone, to raiment alone, to exercise alone, or to the want of it alone, all those differences of which I speak. The combination of these all go to the making the bodies of our children. But, really, I feel myself gliding into the Doctor's department, or rather into the affairs of the nursery, and will make my escape into the intellectual and moral training of our youth.

      Mrs. Reed. I am thankful, indeed, to Father Goodal for his remarks and observations on this part of the subject; for I feel a very strong assurance that unless the bodies of the young are nurtured and formed according to the reason and nature of things, their minds and their passions will be more difficult to bring under the control of reason and religion; and, moreover, their usefulness and value to society must depend upon their physical as well as their moral perfection. [611]

      Father Goodal. Yes, their passions, their appetites, their whole animal propensities are necessarily dependent on the elements of which their bodies are composed. Hence, perhaps, was prohibited the use of blood, when the use of flesh was conceded. Observation, however has convinced me that blood-eating and much flesh-eating tend to blunt the tender feelings of our nature, and to familiarize men with acts of cruelty. This may explain, in part, why the shedding of human blood was guarded against by a new law and penalty when God permitted the use of flesh.

      Mr. Reed. Would not this go to prohibit the use of flesh altogether?

      Father Goodal. Very much indeed; especially in the infancy of man. But I do not feel authorized to proscribe any article of food which God has granted to man. I would only say, that in reason and moderation every thing ought to be used.

      Mrs. Reed. I would then infer that Father Goodal would have us to nourish the bodies of our children with milk and vegetable diet, rather than with roast beef and plumb pudding.

      Father Goodal. You may add an egg now and then, sister Reed, and, perhaps, once-a-week, a taste of chicken too; but your own experience teaches you that extremes are to be avoided; and, of the two, that is to be chosen which is the least to be feared.

      Mrs. Reed. I confess that I am convinced of the unreasonableness of making children exotics, as you call them; and that while their bodies are in progress to manhood, they ought to be assimilated as much as possible to the elements around them. As a general rule I know of none more safe or more in accordance with all that I know of human nature.

      Father Goodal. To guard against colds and consumptions, I will add, that nothing is better, in my judgment and in my experience, than abstinence from high-seasoned and stimulating food; especially before any unusual exposure to fatigue or change of weather. I never took a bad cold when hungry, or while living chiefly upon vegetable diet. But twice in my youthful days I caught a very serious cold by going out at night after a feast, in which flesh meat in various forms, and in highly seasoned dishes, made a conspicuous figure.

      A sea Captain, of forty years experience, in all seas and climates, once told me, that he avoided colds all his life by taking care of his stomach, and by eating and drinking according to the climate. In the torrid zone he eat highly seasoned food, and very warm; and in the high northern latitudes he always took cold suppers, and avoided wines, spirits, and heating drinks of all sorts.

      Mr. Williamson. Paul allowed "a little wine for the stomach's sake;" and might we not take a little too for our stomach's sake?

      Father Goodal. Very little for your credit's sake, Mr. Williamson, and still less for your stomach's sake, unless when you visit Ephesus, and are reduced to that inability of which Timothy complained to his physician Paul.

      Mr. Reed. I am persuaded that all stimulants are injurious to children, and that all stimulating food ought to be reserved for the decline of life. [612]

      Father Goodal. And if you would not make life decline too fast, you must not put more oil into the lamp than the wick can readily consume; for if you increase the oil you only consume the wick in less time. 'Tis true you make a brighter flame; but when the wick is done the oil will give no light.

      Mr. Reed. Temperance in all things is your specific, Father Goodal.

      Father Goodal. Yes; Peter says, "Add to your knowledge temperance."

      Mr. Williamson. I am just now informed that Miss Maria Goodal was brought up according to the rules which have been laid down, and I confess that an experiment, an example of this sort, is worth a thousand lectures. I am convinced--I will say with the poet--

New York, December 4, 1833.

      DR. BARKER, of this city, has just handed me the following address from the Pope to the Clergy and Laity under his care. It shows how the Pontiff's heart palpitates in anticipation of the future. The prognostics of an incurable consumption are daily multiplying in his pontifical person. The nations hate the scarlet Madame; they will consume her flesh, and burn her dead body with coals of fire. Infidels are the fittest persons for this bloody work, and the Lord will most probably assign to them their own choice. When Amalek was to be destroyed, Saul was in readiness; and now the proper instruments are in waiting for the signal to take the sword. But a more fearful doom awaits the devoted city of Babylon the Great. The plagues of the Lord allotted to her are weightier far than those which fell upon the Pagan cities of the old world. Come they must--come they will--and that, too, more speedily than many suppose; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

Ed. M. H.

      The following Allocution of the Pope, fulminated against Don Pedro, is worthy of the darkest day of the dark ages. We give it precisely as we find it in Galignani's Messenger of the 22d October, with the introductory comment of that journal.

      The Courier de la Meuse, a Catholic journal, contains the text of the Pope's allocution in the last Consistory of the Cardinals, of which the Augsburg Gazette has already spoken. Although rather long, we give this document as a curious act in the times in which we live:--

      "Venerable Brethren--It is extremely painful and afflicting to us to have to communicate to you things full of sadness; but the grief that overwhelms us is so great that we cannot help imparting it to you, who are called upon to share the burthen of our administration, and by opening our heart to you to seek [613] some relief. The subject of our complaint is known, the public journals have even communicated it to the world, and all well disposed persons must have felt a sentiment of horror and indignation. You already comprehend, venerable brethren, that we are about to speak of the acts of the government established at Lisbon towards the end of the month of July, in this year, the object of which was the overthrow of all that is most sacred in the church, as well as the very serious evils with which religion is visited in that kingdom, cited, until now, as a model of devotion and of fidelity to the Catholic faith, to the Holy See, and to the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors; a kingdom which, as is meet, has always felt it an honor to obey its sovereigns, distinguished by the title of Most Faithful Kings.

      We confess that we could not first believe what report and public rumor related upon enterprizes so audacious; but the unexpected return to Italy of him who represented us in the said kingdom as Apostolical Nuncio, and, the most positive testimony of many persons, soon convinced us that what had been previously announced to us was but too true. It is then as certain as it is greatly to be deplored, that the abovementioned government has unjustly driven away him who represented our person and the Holy See, commanding him to quit the kingdom without the least delay. But after so gross an insult offered to the Holy See and to us, the audacity of these perverse men has been carried still farther against the Catholic Church, against ecclesiastical property, against the inviolable right of the Holy See. Considering that all these measures have been exercised, almost at the accession of a new power, and in consequence of a conspiracy prepared beforehand, our mind is filled with horror, and we cannot refrain from tears. All the public prisons have been opened, and, after having let those who were detained there go forth, they have thrown into them, in their place, some of those of whom it is written, Touch not my Anointed. Laymen have rashly arrogated to themselves at power over sacred things; they have proclaimed a general reform of the secular clergy, and of religious orders of both sexes. Thus the privilege of ecclesiastical faith has been destroyed by law. Here nuns, there whole communities of monks have been driven from their monasteries, the novices of all the establishments have received orders to quit them, and it is enjoined that no fresh ones are to be received. All ecclesiastical patronage is to be abolished; and the government has reserved to itself alone the right of presentation to benefices and to ecclesiastical offices. A law also forbids any one to be admitted into holy orders. The diocesan ordinaries, and monks, or nuns, who do not obey the article of the new reform, which subjects convents to the jurisdiction of the said ordinaries, as well as all the ecclesiastics of the secular and regular clergy, whom their attachment to the preceding government had caused to he removed from the place of their benefices, monasteries, or hospitals, are to be publicly declared rebels and traitors, and subjected to legal punishments. It is even decreed that every convent, where they may be received, shall be suppressed, and that judicial proceedings shall be instituted against the prelates who may have received them into their churches, as being accomplices in the same crime. Is it necessary to say more?

      To these acts, so odious, and so contrary to the Catholic profession, others are added. All the bishoprics conferred by us, according to the nomination of the government then in power, have been declared vacant, and it has been ordained that all those who have obtained any benefice, or any ecclesiastical office, in this way, are absolutely to renounce, making use of any such title; they are declared deprived of all right to its charges, and if they do not obey they will be declared rebels and traitors, and treated as such. Again, to fill up the measure of insult against the church, and the authority of the Holy See, they have abolished the august tribunal of the Apostolical Nunciature, and subjected to a lay tribunal those causes on which it has hitherto pronounced. All these measures, by which, as you clearly perceive, the most sacred laws of the church have been contemned, and its divine power trodden under foot, at the same time that the rights which belong to it alone have been [614] usurped, and the order and constitution upon which God himself bath founded it, abolished, have done an injury to the Catholic religion which it is scarcely possible to express. Nevertheless, that which principally afflicts us is, that those acts and measures have evidently for their aim to break every bond of union with that venerable chair of the blessed Peter, which Jesus Christ has made the centre of unity, and thus the society of communion being once broken, to wound the church by the most pernicious schism. In fact, how can there be unity in the body, when the members are not united to the head, and do not obey it? And how can this union and obedience be comprehended in a country where, without mentioning other things, they drive from their sees the bishops legitimately instituted by him to whom it appertains to assign pastors to all the vacant churches, because the divine right grants to him alone the primacy of jurisdiction, and the plenitude of power. But we ought not to omit to say, that these culpable acts have afflicted us so much the more, as we ought little to have expected that such conduct would have been pursued towards us, after the course we took in the political troubles of Portugal; for we have taken the utmost care, as you know, to avoid whatever might excite hatred against ourselves and against the Holy See, or give rise even to the shadow of suspicion.

      On the one hand, the duties of our universal Apostolate, and the keeping of the flock which has been confided to us by the Prince of Pastors, forced us to exercise, for the spiritual welfare of religion, and according to the principal charge of our Pontificate, the sacred rights with which we are invested; and as this right and our office came to us from God, nothing could make an encroachment thereon, neither the difference of times, nor the vicissitudes of politics. Woe be to us, if misled by any motive derived from the prudence of the age, we had abandoned the cause of the church, of religion, and the salvation of souls! But, on the other hand, in the situation of Portugal, amidst those vigorous struggles for the sovereign power, we believed that we ought' to do nothing that might injure the rights of any one. Thus, we took care to publish a constitution, beginning with these words, Solicitudo Ecclesiarum; in which, grounding ourselves upon the authority and conduct of our predecessors--marching in the traces of the ancient Sovereign Pontiff's--following also the example of him who recently preceded us, we declared, in terms express, and calculated to exclude all strange interpretation, that our intention was neither to add any thing to, nor to retrench any thing from, the rights of any one whatever; but only to do the work of Jesus Christ, as we ought at all times to do it, according to our apostolical charge.

      To this end, as we could not endure, without the deepest mortification, the acts which we have mentioned, and as we justly regard them as unworthy outrages offered to us and the Apostolic See, we have hastened to inform by writing, according to custom, the Ambassadors and Ministers of foreign powers, residing near us, of the expulsion of our Nuncio from Lisbon, in order that they may make it known to their sovereigns, and that thus the truth of the facts distorted by the public papers may be fully established. But we have deferred until this day to speak to you of all these things, in order to do it solemnly in this assembly. For this reason, venerable brethren, we expressly proclaim that we absolutely reprobate all the decrees issued by the aforesaid government of Lisbon to the great detriment of the church, of its holy ministers of the ecclesiastical law, and Holy See prerogatives; we, therefore, declare them to be null and of no effect, and expressing our most serious complaints against the audacious measures we have referred to, we declare that in exercising the duties of our office and with God's help we will oppose ourselves as a wall for the house of Israel, and show ourselves in the combat at the day of the Lord, as the interests of religion and the gravity of circumstances may require. For the rest we place this cause, which is that of God himself, in the hands of the Lord. Supported by the powerful aid of him who best loves to manifest his wisdom and his power by drawing good out of evil, rather than by not permitting any evil at all, we firmly trust that he 'will bring back to a better way of thinking [615] those whose actions cause the church to groan under the weight of such heavy evils, and that we shall thus avoid the necessity so painful to our paternal heart, of having recourse to those spiritual arms with which God has invested our apostolic ministry. Deign, O God! Father of light and mercy, to realize our hopes. And you, my venerable brethren, come with us in full confidence to the throne of grace, in order to obtain that mercy and find that grace in the favorable succor of the Lord, which we have prayed and continued to pray for without ceasing."

STREETESBOROUGH, O. November 16, 1833.

      I ARRIVED here yesterday, from New York, having been absent 69 days, and found all well.

      The reformation has gained considerably within the past year in that state. A number have come into the truth, who were driven from sectarianism by the extravagancies into which the revival-makers have run. These, however, had some hints from the brethren of the reformation. Others have run into scepticism. The brethren there, as indeed more or less every where, want courage, combination, and experience, to make them formidable. Some want zeal--some are afraid to push forward, fearing they may do wrong, or lest they may not be seconded by the brethren, inasmuch as they have to hazard all, no man promising them very much,--and some are afraid of 'preaching' on account of abuses that have so much injured the Christian cause. They are, however, improving.

      We found churches doing well in Victory, Ira, and Throopsville, Cayuga county; and Butler, Wayne county. I thanked God and took courage when I saw the love, zeal, and growing intelligence in these places, and as is usual in each places, a ripening harvest and some additions.

      We had a very delightful meeting near Batavia, Gennessee county, much like those in the Western Reserve, on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of this month--present speakers, Scranton, Yearnshaw, Thomas, Spoor, Wiers, Moss, Green, Howard, and myself. Three obeyed the Lord, and many more almost persuaded to be Christians. But the parting--with tears I recollect, while I write, the zeal, the ardent affection, the energy and effect with which we exhorted each other to love and bear with each other, to be long suffering and kind, while holding forth "the truth" to enlighten, warm, and quicken the world.

      Last Lord's day I spoke two miles from Dunkirk, Chautauqua county--a good prospect; and in this, as in many other places, the people are anxious to bear the words of eternal life.

      I find men do not in a few days grow from infancy to manhood. I think I see in all the brethren (and no doubt they see in me) some remains of our prejudices of former opinions, and a little readiness to indulge in speculations, rather than undeviatingly call upon the world to reform and obey. I find also nothing is so powerfully calculated to correct the world about faith, as to display the evidences of the gospel; and this, by the by, was the Apostles' method of preaching, which is as necessary for sectarians as sceptics.

WILLIAM HAYDEN.

      Brother Hayden writes, that at far as he and some more of his brethren knew, there is some mistake made in the representations which relate to brother Howard, (M. H. page 472, No. 9.) We shall make some farther inquiry on the subject, and communicate the result. [616]

From the Evangelist.

      THE following Circular is from the Christian Casket, and written by Elder O'Kane. It will doubtless be read with great pleasure by our brethren, as a document which demonstrates with what power and glory the ancient gospel acts in many places into which it finds its way:--

      Very dear Brethren--The subject to which I am instructed to call your attention in this historical address, is the success which has attended the preaching of the ancient gospel, during the last year, in the district of country where I have labored as an Evangelist. This cannot fail to be pleasing to every saint. Although I am the only person who has acted as an Evangelist in said district, yet there are several able and successful proclaimers of the ancient gospel within the limits of my labors, whose skill in handling the word of God, far, very far, surpasses my own.

      I commenced travelling as an Evangelist about the middle of last November. Since that time I have witnessed the good confession of upwards of three hundred, who are now, so far as they have come under my notice since their obedience to the gospel, walking in the truth. Many of this number were formerly respectable members of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches.

      Those who have proclaimed the gospel have introduced a number into the kingdom of Jesus, which would probably swell the whole number to about six hundred in the district of country where I have labored as an Evangelist. The most signal success has been confined to the following places, viz.--

      At Columbia, on the west fork of White Water, six miles below Connersville. In this place upwards of forty have been immersed for remission of their sins.

      In Connersville a church has been organized, whose number is now about thirty. Several have been immersed in this place.

      Danville. At this place a, number have been immersed for remission.

      Hannah's Creek. At this place there is a brilliant prospect of future success. Our congregations are large, respectable, attentive, and feeling. Many of them hearing, believed, and were immersed. The church has not yet broken all the fetters of the old regular system; but is progressing rapidly in the knowledge of the gospel.

      Oxford, Ohio. There is a small church about two miles from this place, which has increased somewhat during the summer. I have immersed six in this town for remission.

      Little Flat Rock, Rush county. Here the victory is gained on the side of Reformation. The old regulars are on the decline; yet their opposition to the truth is very bitter. But the congregation of disciples has increased largely notwithstanding; and there is at this time a swelling prospect of success to the ancient gospel. A large number has been immersed during the last year, in the bounds of this congregation, and a much larger number added to the church. The brethren meet every Lord's day to commemorate the dying love of our glorious Redeemer.

      Greensburg. Here the ancient gospel was first proclaimed by J. P. Thompson and myself, about one year ago. Since that time a church has been organized, consisting of about thirty-three members. Many of them were immersed for the remission of their sins.

      Ben Davis' Creek. Here the proclamation of the ancient gospel has been attended with success. Since last Spring a number have been immersed for remission. The old Regulars evince the strongest opposition to the truth in this place. But the victory is gained on the side of Reformation, blessed be the name of the Lord!

      Indianapolis. In this place, since last Spring, nineteen have been immersed for remission of their sins. A church has been constituted, which consists of about forty members. Several of the most respectable citizens about this place are members of the church. Our congregations have been very large and attentive. The citizens of the town who profess no religion, evince more of the meek temper of the gospel towards the brethren, than many who are members of the popular sects. There is a fixed determination in the bosom of [617] the many influential among the sects, to oppose what Paul would call the simple gospel of Christ, and I fear that this opposition proceeds more from interest than any thing else. But from the general and solemn attention which the citizens of this place have given to the proclamation of the ancient gospel, we may safely conclude that a large number of them will, ere long, yield submission to the authority of King Messiah. May the good Lord prostrate every opposing effort, and bring the people to a speedy reformation!

      AS the Patrick Henry, in which I now descend the James River, moves onwards and downwards towards the world of waters; so down the stream of time, and onward to the boundless ocean of eternity, we move along. The variegated landscapes along the banks of this placid stream, picture to the reflecting mind the ever-shifting scenery of human life. Here the eye is occasionally feasted with the delicate beauties, with the fine touches of the hand of Nature; there Nature and Art combine their powers to minister delight. But again, Nature presents herself in the most capricious attitudes--wild, rude, and fantastic: anon, she assumes a dull and uninteresting uniformity. As if tired with this, she suddenly attempts every thing at once; and as the sinuosity of the stream on which we sail, turns our face to every point of the compass, so she exhibits herself--pleased with nothing long.

      Our fellow-passengers are variously employed. Some are full of admiration, and are attentive to all that passes on the voyage. Others seem to observe nothing; while here on my right, two are fast asleep Another party are engaged in debate on the affairs of state. Some are reading the news of the day, while a few are trying their skill at a game of chance. Two or three seem not to know what to do with themselves, and are only concerned to know how soon they will get to port. One gentleman, just at my left, has opened a New Testament, which he carries in his pocket, and is now reading with apparent attention the sayings of the Apostles. Another, a short distance from him, is intensely absorbed in mercantile calculations. Meanwhile the boat carries us from fifteen to twenty miles an hour; and although she jars exceedingly, I have concluded to place myself at table, and sketch a few reflections for the close of the present volume.

      On taking a retrospect of my own life, I discover that since I appeared on the stage of action--since I was, according to law, of mature age and reason, I have been devoted to religion. For twenty-three years I have been pleading the cause of the Bible. It won the admiration of my heart years before I ventured to speak a word in its praise. My first public speech was a eulogy on the many excellencies of the Volume of Life. As my taste for reading increased, my thirst for other religious books abated. Soon I learned that while other authors speak about religion, and address themselves sometimes to the passions, sometimes to the prejudices, sometimes to the intellect of men--the Bible always speaks religion to the heart, by addressing the whole man. [618]

      But in attempting to distinguish what true religion was, by taking lessons only from the Counsellors of Heaven, I soon found that we had many counterfeits in current circulation, and set myself to ascertain the infallible characteristics of that which is celestial and divine. As my mind acquired confidence in these, I proceeded to suggest them to the consideration of my contemporaries. But not till about sixteen years ago, did I presume to commit any thing to the press; and then, perhaps, I was rather premature. However, such was the certainty of my conclusions, that eleven years ago, I decided to make an effort in the form of a monthly periodical, to rouse the slumbering virgins to listen to the Master's voice. We succeeded in waking but a few, who seemed desirous to know what the Bridegroom had spoken. So happy were we in gaining a correct view of the actual state of things, that we were able, in the first numbers of the Christian Baptist, to sketch the whole outlines of the course, which, with untiring steadfastness, we have since pursued. Though almost alone at first, we soon found some bold and dauntless coadjutors, who greatly encouraged our efforts, strengthened our hands, and aided our endeavors. As we progressed our vision was greatly strengthened; and objects, which at first appeared rather dim in the murky atmosphere of smoky Babylon, soon brightened in our view, and stood in bold relief in the increasing effulgence of gospel light.

      We found in the ruins of the many-tongued city, a Chart which guided us safely to Jerusalem; and in the Holy City we found the ancient and venerable institution of Jesus Christ, in all its original simplicity and beauty. Many who had long waited in prayerful expectation for a better and a brighter day, now saw the morning star arise, and joined the standard of the restoration. We strengthened each other's hands, and began to rebuild the ruined places. Soon as our neighbors saw the trowel in our hands, they began to mock our feeble efforts, and disdainfully said, "If but a fox ascend the repaired breaches, the wall will fall down again." They insulted our efforts, and soon began to throw stones at us. We had to arm ourselves with the sword of the Spirit; and while with one hand we laid up the stones, with the other we grasped the two-edged sword.

      In this way the work was much impeded; and while our enemies prevented our efforts, they would occasionally deride our slow progress. But the Lord was with us and increased the numbers of helpers in the good work, and now it goes on more prosperously. On the map of Christendom we saw not one green spot when first we blew the trumpet of restoration. Many individuals here and there trusted in God, and prayed for times of refreshing. Many mourned for the waste places; many remonstrated with their contemporaries for departing from the orders of the King, and some extolled the laws and institutions of the great Lawgiver; but their opponents had drawn them into the labyrinths and ambuscades of their own speculations; and one community, with the original gospel and the original institutions no where reared its head over the desolations of Zion. But the Lord be praised, many of these children of oppression joined hands, and by a united and vigorous effort raised the tabernacle of Israel. [619]

      To lay aside the figurative and to come to the literal: The good work of reformation still advances with rapid strides. Much has been done in some places; but more is yet needed to be done in all places. Many myriads have been congregated under the banners of restoration, and many more are annually enlisting under the standard of the Cross. But the oldest soldiers are not yet perfect masters of the heavenly tactics of the holy war, and the young recruits have almost every thing to learn. Our brethren will not consent, and we have not our own consent, that we lessen the labors of the press. We much desire a breathing time, and a short respite from the toils of this long campaign; but we dare not lay down the weapons by which we have so long, and, I trust, in some good degree, successfully waged war against the rulers of the darkness of this world--against the errors and delusions which have desolated the vineyard of the Lord.

      We know we have many very able brethren, who now greatly and valiantly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints; and other presses besides our own are battering down the ramparts of the man of gin. But we must not dismount our cannon nor unbuckle our panoply, till we see less need for our, assistance in the army of the faith.

      This reformation has been hitherto successful by the press, and by the tongues of those who stand before the people; but its chief and main support is the behaviour of those in the ranks. Nothing can be a substitute for this; for both the pen of the writer and the tongue of the orator can be better dispensed with, than the religious and exemplary lives of its private and public advocates.

      The press, however, has been the first and principal means of the circulation and spread of the truth; and the exertions now making to prevent the reading of this periodical, show how potent it is imagined to be by our opponents. Never was more systematic and untiring efforts used in these Republics, to prevent the reading of any book, than are now in requisition against this humble Harbinger of better times. Our opponents say, (and they are good judges in this case,) that this work cannot be read by any person without catching the spirit of reform. And, indeed, we may confirm their fears by assuring them that we scarcely know of a single case in which this work has been attentively read by any inquisitive mind, in.which it has failed to effect a moral revolution. The truth is very plain; and when divested of the entanglements of religious sophists, it strikes the mind with an impetus which shows from what quarter it comes.

      But the friends of reformation, we hardly think, are quite as active in extending the influence of our labors, as our opponents are in opposing the circulation of this periodical. They say twice, "Don't read the Harbinger," for once our friends dare say, "Read and judge for yourselves." Such appears to be the fact in the regions through which we have recently passed, and are still passing. And from what we have now learned from an actual survey of this state of Virginia, we are fully sustained in saying, that in the exact ratio of the reading of this paper, is the progress of reform in this commonwealth. [620]

      Our object being to disabuse the public mind of human dogmas, and to call the attention of men to the Living Oracles, when this is done, we have no more to do; for the Bible must guide the understanding and authorize the sentiments and practices of all the disciples of the great Teacher. But to get the people to do this, some means must be used to fix their attention and to allure their minds to the reading of the divine communications. From all that is before us, we must say, and we feel in duty bound to say it, that if the readers of the Harbinger were doubled, the progress of reformation, if not doubled, would, in the vicinities where read, and amongst the reading community, be very much increased.

      No false modesty or morbid delicacy should, we think, prevent the avowal of a conviction of so much importance to the friends of reform. I will add, that it is not supposed that the essays from the pen of the Editor is the sole means of this usefulness. The contributions of our numerous correspondents, and the notices of many of our brethren, are, in our opinion, as efficient instruments in forwarding the good work as any thing we now say on those matters which are already so fully expressed. Nor is any thing above said intended to detract in the least from the indispensable necessity and great utility of the constant labors of the proclaimers of the word, without which all other means would, in the work of reformation, be comparatively unavailing.

      As an apology for the egotistic character of this article, we shall hear a few words from the Genius of Temperance:--"Every one who ventures to differ from the multitude, or stem the popular current, is accused of egotism. To venture an opinion alone, is thought to be an intolerable arrogation of exclusive wisdom. Fulton was ridiculed as an egotist, with how much justice no one need now inquire.--Success wipes off the odium. But no man ever contended for a valuable improvement, or a necessary reform, without being branded as an egotist."

      We can succeed only by getting the people to think for themselves; our enemies succeed by persuading the people to let them think for them. All we aim at in these concluding remarks, is, to excite our brethren to take into their most mature consideration, whether any thing more can be done than is now doing to forward the cause of reform, and to remind them that as one of those means, we think a more enlarged circulation of this work would contribute to the furtherance of reformation.

      For their exertions in this work, and their continued support of all the means now in use, the Lord has amply rewarded them by the success which he has vouchsafed to their endeavors. Let us, then, be still more enterprizing, industrious, and persevering, and let every new triumph over bigotry, intolerance, and superstition, stimulate us to increased effort in the great work of regenerating the world. And to him who has made the seed sown multiply and increase, be all the honor and praise!

EDITOR.

James River, November 16, 1833.

      As we had only a small space for the progress of reform, we thought it well, in addition to brother Hayden's letter, to give another, extracted from the Evangelist, and somewhat curtailed; both which will serve as an epitome of the state of things in the reformation, which we learn from the numerous documents received, but necessarily withheld on account of the pressure of interesting and valuable matter.

Publisher.

      Page 586, in the letter dated at brother Townes', for 'November 6,' read November 8th. [624]

[The Millennial Harbinger, 4 (December, 1833): 577-624.]