purpose for which it was intended, and also in the proper manner to answer that purpose. Therefore, that we may enjoy the provisions of the holy scriptures for the blissful purpose for which they were intended, we must carefully and constantly advert to their direct and obvious intention, that so we may receive the instructions they were designed to communicate for said purpose. Wherefore we should distinctly and duly consider their moral and religious documents, that by a distinct and intelligent apprehension of these, we might be duly furnished for a life of holiness. Now these, we presume, may be evidently reduced to the following topics, viz.-1st. The knowledge of God. 2d. Of man. 3d. Of sin. 4th. Of the Saviour. 5th. Of his salvation. 6th. Of the principle and means of enjoying it. · 7th. Of its blissful effects and consequences. That these are the grand comprehensive doctrinal topics, which the scriptures were specially designed to teach; and that in the knowledge, belief, and practical influence of these consists our present salvation, is evident both from the express contents of the Book, and also from the explicit intention of the salvation it exhibits; which is to turn men to God, and thus to fit them for heaven: see John xvii. 3, 17., with 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17., and Acts xxvi. 17, 18. "This is the life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.-Holy Father, sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.-All holy scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished for all good works.-The people, and the Gentiles to whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified, through faith that is in me."

The means with the end being thus distinctly before us, what remains but that we make the proper intentional use of them? Wherefore, as oft as we open the blessed Book, it should be with the precise and real intention of acquiring a more perfect knowledge of these allimportant topics; that so we might still be adding to our faith, and to the invigoration of those divine principles whence proceeds a life of holiness, and without the vigorous exercise of which it cannot be maintained. For surely our love of God, which is the radical principle of all holiness, cannot exceed our knowledge of his character; and this must consist in our knowledge of his works of creation, of legislation and government;-of redemption, reconciliation, salvation, and ultimate glorification of guilty, apostate, rebellious humans; and of the ultimate destiny of Satan and his guilty associates, whether angelic or human. For all these are the effects of his sovereign will, and so afford us a transcendant display of his glorious attributes-the essential properties of his nature, viz.-His knowledge, power, wisdom, goodness; justice, truth, holiness; love, mercy, and condescension;his self-existence, independence, eternity, immensity, and immutability. And while, in the mean time, we are thus happily engaged in learning and contemplating the divine character, we also learn our own; we become truly acquainted with our origin, our nature, condition and destiny;-with the heinous nature, ruinous effects, and terrible consequences of sin; and, of course, with our inexpressible need of the

Saviour, which the love of God has graciously provided; and with the suitable adaptation of his salvation to our actual condition; and with the principle and means of enjoying it for our present relief and deliverance; and, lastly, with its blissful and glorious effects and consequences -which go to fill the believing soul with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." But it is not only necessary that we devoutly and studiously read and search the scriptures for the express purpose of acquiring this saving knowledge, but also that we perseveringly abound in these exercises: because we have not only to learn those things once for all, as we do the common arts and sciences for secular purposes; but to live upon them-to feed and feast our souls with the daily and diligent consideration of them, that so we may enjoy the heaven upon earth divinely intended for our present happiness; and thus be prepared for the enjoyment of a blissful immortality.

Wherefore, to realize and secure this heavenly enjoyment, we should not only make it our solemn intention and constant practice to search the scriptures daily, to ascertain the amount of the instruction they afford, upon each of the aforesaid topics; but we should also exercise ourselves unto godliness in frequent meditation and religious conversation on those all-important subjects, as well as in the conscientious performance of all good works; that in so doing, we may familiarize and enjoy the salvation of God. "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord;-who meditates on his law day and night;all that he doth shall prosper." "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes: the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. More to be desired are they than gold; yea, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey dropping from the honeycomb;-in the keeping of them there is a great reward." "O how I love thy law! It is my study all the day. I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation." "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." "I found thy word, and I did eat it; it was the joy and rejoicing of my heart." "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." With those important items of the divine testimony, so expressly declarative of the peculiarly advantageous and highly blissful effects of making the proper use of the holy scriptures, we close this introductory essay upon the benign intention of our holy religion, with the pleasing hope that it may excite both the reader and the writer, to a more abundant use of the sacred oracles. THOMAS CAMPBELL.

CHRISTIANS AMONG THE SECTS.

In a former essay I have said that I make sincerity the ground of a man's acceptance with God: but I have also said, that I have my own definition of sincerity: not that I have myself made a definition of the word; but that I have adopted the true original meaning. The original word, elikrines, rendered in the common version of the New Testament, "sincerity," is from eile, "sun-shine,” and krino, “to judge or discern." Parkhurst thus defines the word: "Sincere, pure, unsullied, free from

spot or blemish, properly to such a degree as to bear examination in the full splendor of the solar rays." The sincere man is, then, willing to bring his head, his heart, his life to the examination of light. If he has errors, he wishes them corrected; if he has ignorance, he wishes it removed; if he has guilt, he wants it purged away; if he has darkness, he wishes it chased away by the light of truth divine. He is the man described by the Saviour: "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifested that they are wrought in God:" or he exclaims with the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting." This, and this alone, is sincerity. Latin authors give the same view of the word: deriving it from "sine cera," "without wax," originally applied to honey; of course, meaning "pure." How widely different this, from the absurd popular sentiment, that, "let a man's opinions and conduct be what they may, yet, provided he be convinced that they are right, he must be justified in the sight of the Lord." With this view the fierce bigot, the persecuting zealot, the devout Musselman, and the idolatrous Hindoo, are all justified in the sight of God: or, as the ever-memorable Wilberforce expresses himself, after speaking of the laborious subtleties" with which Bellarmine sought to justify the murder of certain heretics by Clement and Ravaillac, he says,

"For sincerity, in its popular sense, so shamefully is the term misapplied, can be made the criterion of guilt and innocence on no grounds which will not equally serve to justify the assassins who have been instanced. The conclusion cannot be eluded; no man was ever more fully persuaded of the innocence of any action, than these men were, that the horrid deed they were about to perpetrate was not lawful merely. but highly meritorious. Thus Clement and Ravaillac being unquestionably sincere, they were therefore indubiiably innocent. Nay, the absurdity of this principle might be shown to be even greater than what has yet been stated. It would not be going too far to assert, that whilst it scorns the defence of petty villains, of those who still retain the sense of good and evil, it holds forth, like some well frequented sanctuary a secure asylum to those more finished criminals, who, from long habits of wickedness, are lost alike to the perception as to the practice of virtue; and that it selects a seared conscience and a heart become callous to all moral distinctions as the special objects of its care. Nor is it only in profane history that instances like these are to he found, of persons committing the greatest crimes with a sincere conviction of the rectitude of their conduct. Scripture will afford us parallels: and it was surely to guard us against the very error which we have been now exposing, that our blessed Saviour forewarned his disciples: "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God service.'

A principle like this must then he abandoned, and the advocates for sincerity must be compelled to restore this abused term to its genuine signification, and to acknowledge that it must imply honesty of mind, and the faithful use of the means of knowledge and of improvement, the desire of being instructed, humble inquiry, impartial consideration, and unprejudiced judgment. It is to these we would earnestly call you; to these (ever to be accompanied with fervent prayers for the divine blessing) scripture every where holds forth the most animating promises: Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.' Such are the comfortable assurances, such the gracious encouragements to the truly sincere inquirer."

But if I have failed to establish the position-The man whose will and affections are bowed to the divine will, (however imperfectly he may understand that will,) is an acceptacle worshipper of God;" or, lest some doubt should remain in the mind of some reader, I will endeavor to make the matter still more apparent by inquiring, Who is the man whom the law of the Lord condemns? Human laws can only take hold of overt acts; but the law of the Lord enters the heart-it takes cognizance of motive-"it is a discerner of the thoughts." "He that looketh on a woman to cherish impure desire, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." And again—“He that hateth

บ

his brother is a murderer," though he should never grasp the instrument of death. The assassin who assailed Prometheus, the Thessalonian, was to all intents a murderer, although he saved the very life (by probing a deadly wound) he intended to destroy.

It is thus that the law of the Lord detects sin while it is yet a seminal principle. It proposes to purify the fountain, in order that the streams may be pure. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life," is an oracle of divine wisdom. And to this even the intelligent of the ancient Pagans agreed, as the following quotation from Juvenal fully shows:

"A Spartan once the Oracle besought

To solve a scruple which perplex'd his thought,
And plainly tell him if he might forswear

A purse of gold entrusted to his care.
Shuddering, the Pythian answer'd, 'Waverer, no;
Nor shalt thou for the doubt unpunish'd go!
With that he hasten'd to restore the trust;
But fear alone, not virtue, made him just:
Hence he soon proved the Oracle divine,
And all the answer worthy of the shrine;
For plagues pursued his race without delay,
And swept them from the earth like dust away.
By such dire sufferings did the wretch atone
The crime of meditated fraud alone!

For in the eye of Heaven a wicked deed

Devis'd, is done. How, then, if he proceed

To perfect his device, how will the offender speed?"

In the mean time, to fill up my present essay with quotations, I shall conclude with the words of a late English writer. In descanting upon the laws of our Saviour and King, he says,—

"These laws differ from all others, not only in the originality of their principles, and in the altitude to which these principles arise, and in the pervading extent to which they go; bnt in this, above all, that, not resting the offence in the degree, but in the spirit, they establish it not by evidence of fact, but by evidence of conscience anterior to fact. It is the state of passionateness in the soul, not the thousand passionate acts; it is in the state of vindictiveness in the soul, not the thousand vindictive acts; it is in the state of wantonness in the soul, not the thousand impure acts; it is in the state of insincerity in the soul, not the thousand breaches of covenant;-in these first conceptions of evil, which are, as it were, each the root of a wide-branching tree. the lawgiver of Christians finds, the criminality to exist. As if the mind were a soil into which, if these seeds be admited, they must necessarily grow and bear fruit and propagate their kind to an indefinite extent. Seeing, then, that into the secret place of the heart nothing penetrates but conscience and the eye of God, these two alone can arbitrate the matter. Evidence, therefore, on which all conviction in human institutions ought alone to proceed, is here clean out of the question. The crime is perpetrated long ere it proclaims itself to the perception of the nicest judge. The law is addressed to the spirit of man, from which nothing is hid of its own designs or transactions, of which designs and transactions not the thousandth part do see the light So that Christ's laws, though a thousand times less numerous, apply to a thousand times more cases than the laws of man"

CHRISTIANOS.

News from the Churches.

Felicity, Ohio, August 27, 1838.

Tas good cause we plead is advancing gloriously in some sections of this country. The church near Harmonsville, Brown county, has had numerous accessions lately: the pre

cise number I do not know. At one meeting, a few months past, 23 persons were added, mostly by immersion. Few meetings pass but more or less have been added; so that I think I am safe in stating that within one year or eighteen months there have been nearly one hundred additions, and prospects are still encouraging. O that we were better circumstanced in reference to Evangelists! I have long been of opinion that if we could get in New Testament order upon this subject, the cause of our common Lord would run and be glorified. JOHN T. POWEL.

Stanford, Ky., August 30, 1838.

I have been requested to communicate to you the recent success of the glorious gospel of our blessed Redeemer in this part of our guilty country; and I with cheerfulness comply, believing that through your periodical many of our beloved friends may be informed of the progress of truth and be made to rejoice and take fresh courage in the Christian warfare. The annual meeting of the congregations in this portion of this state was held in Lancaster, in Garrard county. On the 17th inst. the meeting commenced. Brothers J. T. Johnson, Thomas Smith, Curtis Smith, Callahan, and Begg attended. Brother Johnson labored zealously for the original method of receiving the glad tidings of salva tion, sometimes addressing the people three times in the same day. The other brethren assisted in exhortation and prayer. A very large number of persons attended, and seemed to hang with interesting attention near the stand from whence the truths of the gospel were proclaimed. Their efforts were not fruitless; for notwithstanding the strong secta. rian opposition, many persons being convinced of the truth, came boldly forward to make the good confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Saviour of sinners, and to renounce all governments but that of Heaven-belleving the sacred writings are fully adequate to all the purposes of present and eternal salvation. It was a glorious time. Christians came up froin every direction to worship in the congregation of the I ord, and sinners added to the rejoicing of the saints by joining in the army of King Jesus. On the Lord's day nearly 400 brethren surrounded the Lord's table and participated in the inemorial of our great Leader. It was a prelibation of the great assemblage of the saints, when the Lord shall gather his elect out of every kindred, tribe, and peopie under heaven, when they shall come from the East, from the West, from the North, and from the South, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. "There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. They hear not the voice of the oppressor; the small and the great are there, and the servant is free from bis master." Then shall the poor man cease from the burdens of his wearisome life; no more shall he hear the insolent calls of the master awaking him from needful slumber on his bed of A straw, nor be hurried away from his homely meal to undergo the repeated labors of the day. But with a golden harp he shall join the angelic band, and tune it to the praise of our glorious Redeemner through the ceaseless annals of eternity.

O glorious day! O blessed hope!
My soul rejoices at the thought,
When in that holy happy land

We'll take uo more the parting hand!

The meeting continued 7 days, and 28 were added to the army of the Lord. Brothers Johnson and T Smith then came to this place, where, in 3 days, 10 submitted to the requirements of Heaven and joined the people of God. Many persons attended here likewise The field is ripe for the harvest; and, O if we had laborers, how soon might pure and apostolic religion prevail, and blind devotion to the institutions of men be driven from the land! Party increase should not be the object, but the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Schisms and animosity, prejudice and bickering ought to be banished from this land of liberty; and every follower of the Lamb should take the laws of his Prophet, Priest, and King for his only guide. O may the day speedily conie, (and it is no doubt coming apace,) "when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters do the great deep"-"when every man in every face shall meet a brother and a friend!" L. M. COX.

Middleburg, Logan county, Ohio, August 31, 1838. We have just concluded a four days' meeting in this town. The result was, 20 were added by immersion. The laborers present besides myself, were, M.Manis, Vanvoorhis, and Hathaway. Our number now exceeds 100 in this congregation. For several weeks before the meeting there were regular accessions. It is at once pleasing and instructive to see how matters work. The Methodists have been doing all in their power to put down immersion; but the more they preach against it, the more the people disbelieve them. I immersed nine Methodists this week! Brother Ballinger, (to whom you will remember I addressed an epistle a few months ago through my periodical,) is now a member of this congregation, and is constantly rejoicing in the Lord. These, with us, are truly times of rejoicing! If any thing can be determined from appearances, then do the brethren here love one another.

A few weeks ago I attended the great meeting at Kenton, O., with brother William Dowling. The meeting terminated with six immersions. The congregation there numhers about 50. Prospects are good all around. May all the holy brethren continue to walk in the truth! A. CRIHFIELD.