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must be to confer immortality upon man. And was there ever an errand which called for the most exalted of all God's messengers, unless it be that errand which tenders eternal life to mortal man! Sucir was the message which the great master and model of christian preachers bore to an apostate world.

Well did an ancient Prophet say, "Let him that boasts, boast in the Lord." In the presence of the most gigantic and exalted genius, human or angelic, the christian need not blush when he avows his faith in the divine mission of Jesus the Nazarenc. No act in the life of man does so much honor to himself as that act by which he submits himself to Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. In receiving the Messiah as the only Redeemer of ruined man, the christian honors his own intellect as much as he can honor the messenger of salvation. He acts both the man and the true philosopher, who, regarding in the light of God's oracles, the seen and the unscen, the present and the future, sin and misery, life and death, time and eternity, like the wandering dove, flies into this ark of salvation.

He that cannot find reason to vindicate himself in the presence of every querist for his faith in God, his confidence in Jesus, his love to his person, his submission to his authority; can find no reason for any noble enterprize, for any manly exertion, for any self-denial, zeal, and perseverance in the attainment of any object worthy of human pursuit.

If sin, that leprosy of the soul, which has spread through and polluted the whole man, body, soul, and spirit; if its stings, its anguish. and its horrors are not rational incentives to abandon it; if the condescension and mercy, if the forbearance and love of God are not reasons to reconcile us to his character and government; if man's rank in the creation of God; if the attestations of angels, prophets, and apostles; if the gifts, and powers, and miracles of the Holy Spirit, are not sufficient arguments in its favor; if the sincerity, benevolence, and faithfulness of the numerous witnesses who sealed their testimony by their blood, are not reasonable and satisfactory proofs of its divine origin; if all the longings for immortality within us; if all the pantings after glory which agonize our hearts: I say, if all these will not justify a man to himself and to his fellow-man for giving himself up to Jesus Christ, we know of no motives, nor reasons, nor arguments which ought to control the actions of any rational being whatever.

But the inducements to the intelligent christian to proclaim this salvation to his fellow-men, are little, if at all, inferior to the arguments which incline the sinner to receive into his heart the Saviour of the world. The enlightened christian, happy in the hope of inmortality, has other reasons to impel him to devote his energies to the salvation of men than those which influence any of the sons of men in reference to any earthly undertaking. The spirit which actuates him is the spirit of benevolence, and his happiness arises from the communication, as well as from the reception of bliss. In promoting the felicity of others he promotes his own. Happiness is in this re

spect like knowledge-the more we impart to others, the more we possess ourselves.

We have said that the motives which govern the christian preacher, whether he fill the public or the private character of him who beseeches men to be reconciled to God, essentially differ from those which call forth the energies of men in the affairs of this world. What, let me ask, fires the patriot in his country's cause, the statesman who pleads her rights, and the soldier who would avenge her wrongs? What impels the merchant, whose canvass whitens every sea-the husbandman, who turns the stubborn glebe -and the sage philssopher, who pries through Nature's works, to scan her laws and to Jay open the elements of things? What so passionately moves the astronomer to scale the heavens, to trace the comet's eccentric flight, to speculate on the immensity of space, and to explore the twinklings of the most distant star? What, let me once more ask-what evokes the ingenuity of every artist who ministers to the real or imaginary wants of man, from him who provides for us food and raiment, up to him who makes "the dull cold marble speak," or to him who "wakes to ecstacy the living lyre"? Are not the impulses which call them into action and the motives which stimulate their efforts drawn from our relations to the globe on which we dwell? Do not all their achievements and glory pass away as the flower that drops its beauties into the earth? Is not the animal or present life of man the all-engrossing object; and will not these arts, their efforts, and their attainments vanish with the earth itself, or with the life of man upon it?

Not so the christian preacher, nor the motives which inspire his actions. Sublimer themes than nature knows allure his heart and prompt him to loftier enterprize. While the politician regards man rather as a subject of taxation; the merchant, as an article of trade; the naturalist, as a mere animal, governed by appetite and passion; while each profession regards him in reference to itself; the physician, as a patient; the lawyer as a client; the priest, as a tithable; the christian preacher regards him as God's prodigal son, the fallen child of his love; as yet capable of immortality under a remedial constitution, and his soul travails for his salvation. He remembers what he once was, and well he knows that the faith which has purified his heart and enabled him to overcome the world, and which fills his soulwith such aspirations after God and heaven, can transform another lion into a lamb, another raven to a dove. The enterprize which brought the Son of God from heaven to earth, fills his soul with admiration and begets in him an ardor which "no waters can quench, which no floods can drown." In the strength of Israel's God he rises; unfurls the banners of the cross, unsheathes the sword of the Spirit, blows the gospel trumpet, and proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord.

Ilis model he finds not in the phantastic regions of poetry, in the airy regions of romance. He mimics not the drowsy tinklings, the monotonous harangues of the lifeless moralist, nor the incoherent rhapsodies of the moon-struck enthusiast. He sets before him as a

model not Pindar nor Homer on Parnassus, not Demosthenes in the forum, nor Plato in his cell, nor Seneca in his rostrum, nor Newton in his observatory; but Paul in the synagogue, or Paul in the market plac

Alive to his master and his master's honor, he looks not with envious eyes upon the great masters of the fine arts. The fame of Phidias and Praxitiles in sculpture; of Appollodorus, Zeuxis, Angelo, or Raphael in painting; of Homer, Virgil, or Milton in poetry, provoke not a single wish for their inheritance. He sighs not for the garlands which a Demosthenes, a Cicero, or a Sheridan wore; nor for the laurels which an Alexander, a Cesar, a Hannibal, or a Napoleon won. Fading and faded are the chaplets of roses, the wreathes of Laurel, the palms of victory which decorated the victorious brows of Grecian, Roman, English, and American chiefs in the arts of war or in the arts of peace.

Their fame is not that for which he pants, nor their crowns those to which he aspires. Their deeds of renown, nor their rewards fill his head nor his heart. Jesus, the Captain of Salvation, leading many sons to glory, the many crowned King of kings is his master and his model. But knowing that unless a man possess the spirit of Christ, he never can conform to his example; and unless his soul is devoted to him, outward efforts avail not; he, like Mary, sits at his feet-as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel; and while he hearkens to his instructions his soul catches the ardor of his spirit, without which he would be little better than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal-without which no man can successfully proclaim salvation to men.

Let none suppose that it is injudicious to place before the human mind a model of such inimitable excellence. It is a proof of censummate wisdom, of the most perfect knowledge of human nature, to place high models before the imitative soul of man. The weaker imitations of a perfect model will excel the stronger imitations of an imperfect one. "It is" (as well observed by one of no ordinary mind) "the best prognostic of a youth to be found occupying himself with thoughts beyond his present power and above his present place. The young aspirant after military renown reads the campaigns of the greatest conquerors the world ever produced. The patriot has Hampden, and Russel, and Sydney ever in his eye. The poet consumes the silent hours of night over the works of masters in every tongue, though himself hath hardly turned a rhyme. And the artist fills his study with casts from the antique, and drains both health and meansto their very dregs in pilgrimages to the shrined pictures of the masters."Thus the christian preacher of high destiny studies Christ.

EDITOR.

RELIGIOUS NEWS-Extracts from Letters.

OHIO, Washington County.-JOHN READ has lately immersed 70 persons, James Mitchell also has immersed a number into the ancient faith. In Licking county, Ohio, brethren Corner and Millison, in a few weeks past, have immersed 26. Brother Read has also labored with success in other vicinities during some weeks past [Extract from a letter under date 17th November.]

SOUTH CAROLINA.-A letter from Barnwell District, under date of the 31st October, informs me that many of the teachers of the Baptist and Methodist denomination are, while occasionally censuring us, exhibiting in their public addresses the views promulged in this work, and sometimes in our very words and phrases; and so far they find themselves much more useful in converting men to God than formerly. They have, our correspondent says, derived through the pieces published against us by Messrs. Brantly and Clopton, much of their information respecting the cause we plead; yet in the distracted, mutilated, and garbled form in which our views appeared in those pieces, they have gathered something which has given a new direction to their course and energies. "Honesty," my good friends, "is the best policy."

This reminds me of some of our Western opponents who both write and speak against us; yet in their preaching and teachings proclaim the very views and sentiments which they pretend to oppose. Indeed, a certain editor, not long since, published a considerable extract from one of our publications, without giving us credit for it, and headed the piece "A Literary Gem." The same editor and preacher proclaims our views pretty generally from the pulpit and sometimes from the press; yet he fights against us.

KENTUCKY, Georgetown.-Letters from that vicinity, under date of the 13th November, inform us that the good cause still advances. Brother John Smith attended with brother J. T. Johnson at the Crossings. After a very powerful address from the former, four persons were immersed by the latter into the death of Christ. Chiefly through the labors of brother Johnson, a church now amounting to forty members, has grown up in a few months in that vicinity. We rejoice to hear that the utmost harmony and christian love prevail, not only amongst the disciples composing this congregation, but between them and the disciples meeting under the Christian name in connexion with brother Stone in Georgetown, notwithstanding the sparrings between us editors. These brethren are endeavoring every Lord's day to keep the ordinances as they were delivered to them by the Holy Apostles. Hence they commemorate the Lord's death as often as his resurrection. They are taught by the wisdom of the just not to separate the one death from the one resurrection; or, in other words, not to separate the things which God has joined together. He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. All the Doctors in christendom cannot give one good reason why the church should celebrate the resurrection of Christ on every first day of the week, fifty-two times in one year, and bis death twice or four times!

How the Lord's cause would prosper in this happy land, if all who speak to men on religion were governed by such a sentiment and feeling as the followiag. It is from a letter written to me from our very intelligent and pious brother Johnson:-"Indeed, brother Campbell, I care not what the world may say of me. I am for my Saviour's religion. To practise and teach it in its purity is my greatest earthly delight. I go forth not calculating the consequences to myself, fully persuaded that so certainly as Jess reigns King of kings and Lord of lords, his truth is mighty and will prevail." Should this sentiment kindle a similar ardor in any breast, I am aware this brother will pardon me for quoting from a private letter without his consent.

TENNESSEE.-Brother C. Welsh, under date of 5th November, 1831, informs me that the preaching of the old gospel in M'Minn county, by brother J. Mulkey and others, has been attended with much success. At one meeting, shortly before he wrote me, several persons were immersed according to the commandment; some at midnight, and some early the next morning. He says, "I never before witnessed such love, harmony, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, as amongst the disciples on that occasion. The good tidings of faith, repentance, and' remission of sins, yet appear to be the power of God to salvation."

[In answer to a query in this letter concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit, we would refer the writer to our essays both in the Christian, Baptist, vol. 2, and the 2d vol. of the Harbinger, on that subject. "The gift of the Holy

VOL. III.

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Spirit," if no special gift be alluded to, is the Holy Spirit itself, in such infiuences as are necessary to our separation or sanctification to God in body, soul, and spirit.]

Other letters from Tennessee inform us that the word of the Lord is spoken with good effect by the brethren in the Reformation. Since the meeting of a number of the proclaimers of reformation at Leiper's Fork, in Bedford county, a number have been immersed, and the prospects are very encouraging.

VERMONT.-Brother W. P. Reynolds, well reported of for good character and standing among the Baptists, but who has been much persecuted since he has espoused the cause of reformation, has set up two small churches, one in Manchester and one in Pawlet, within a few months past. The church in Manchester commenced June 2d, 1830, with six disciples; that in Pawlet on the 31st of July last, with eight disciples. The former had grown up to 28, and the latter to 29, at our last advices, under date of the 31st October. Since July last brother Reynolds has immersed into the ancient faith 32 persons. This indefatigable brother, while among the Baptists, had immersed in several years about 200 persons; for the last two or three years he has endured some evil treatment, but his influence increases with his trials. These brethren, we are happy to learn, are very zealous to keep all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord Jesus. May they realize the truth of this promise! "If a man love me he will observe my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and dwell with him"!

Here follows the copy of a le'ter from sister Reynolds to the Baptist Church in Manchester, and the Deacon's reply:

"To the Baptist Church in Manchester.

"Dear Brethren-When I sent a request to you last Fall for a letter, stating my standing in the church, being unable to attend myself, I knew not at that time that any one had aught against me; yet I was informed that after voting me a letter, the vote was immediately rescinded at the suggestion of one sister, who said it would be wrong to give me a letter and withhold one from my husband, if I thought as he did on the subject of communion. On that subject I am willing to say, that I find nothing in the Bible to prohibit immersed believers, who live godlily in the world, from uniting together in commemorating their Saviour. I have waited some months for some explanation, but have received none, nor has any member of the church ever intimated to me any difficulty with me on account of either my conduet or my views. I am unwilling to think that my brethren intentionally neglect even a feeble sister; but that you may be relieved from the trouble of conjecture, and have no embar rassment on your minds relative to my views, I will state them on some other particulars as plainly and as briefly as I can.

My brethren cannot think I could have been an indifferent observer of those things which have transpired during the past season. While I have listened to the arguments on one hand for reform, I have heard what has been said on the other hand for continuing the established customs of the Baptists, and have been led to examine for myself as faithfully as I could. My present convictions are as follows:

That all sectarian religion is anscriptural; and at variance with the christianity of the Bible. That the churches of Christ, in calling themselves by any other name, or assuming any other titles than those applied to them in the scriptures, are carnal, and doing those things which Paul in his first letter to the Corinthi ans, (3d chapter,) reproves and condemns. That the churches of Christ should be governed by the inspired writings, in the manner, form, and connexion in which they were delivered to the saints, exclusive of every other creed, rule, or confession whatever. That the bond of union among christians is faith in Jesus Christ, and the ground of fellowship obedience to his commands. That the faith of christians comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and is the belief of the testimony God has given of his Son. That there is no eastple, rule or commandment given in the Bible authorizing any one

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