thought and said that reformation was necessary!! What inconsistency or hypocrisy! "The arguments we used to justify the measures we adopted," says Mr. Religious Herald, "are employed by him myself] against his former associate"! This, I simply say is not fact. It is as false as "no two of his disciples thought or acted alike"-as false as "these continued schisms ought to lead Mr. C." &c. There are no 'continued schisms;' and if there were, it would no more lead us to doubt our foundation-the Bible alone-than all the parties in Protestant Christendo prove the infallibility of the Pope. "There must be," says Mr. Sands, if there be one grain of sense in his head-"there must certainly be some radical incurable defect in Protestantism; or rather in the Regular Baptist system. which produces such untoward results." "It would afford us sincere pleasure to see Mr. Sands mend his manners, repent of his many glaring sins against us; undo, as far as he can, the evils he has done the truth, and cease to be a perverter of the right ways of the Lord-a blind leader of the blind."

There is, however, one truth and a half in the above extracts; and I would not slander Satan himself. It is true that I have declared for myself, (which every freeman and Christian under heaven has a right to do,) and for myself only, that I have no fellowship with Dr. Thomas in his present course, nor with his views; and that I would not have the public understand that we are fellow-laborers in the same cause. This my relations to Christian community, my friends, and my opponents too, made both necessary and expedient. I am no Sadducee, nor mongrel Sadducee, and I wish the world to know that I am not. I believe in angels, spirits, and a resurrection of all the dead-the just and the unjust. That Dr. Thomas has departed from the faith in this matter I doubt not, any more than I doubt the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And this being my conviction, I can no more commune with him, if every thing else were right, than with the Pope.We are not of one faith; and no man, nor set of men under the broad heavens, can either cajole, hoax, or denounce me into acquiescence with such gross assumptions under the name of liberality or illiberality, liberty or no liberty of discussion. But I compel no nan nor church to exclude him. Yet if I did say to any church that it ought to excommunicate him for the reasons and evidences of apostacy and schismatism which he has given, Mr. Sands himself could not show that in this there was any resemblance to the case he has adduced. This, however, I have not said.

I said there was also a half truth in the extracts given It is not that a small body exclusively adhere to the Doctor, as the words of Mr. Sands would have us think. It may, however, yet be true; but we know of no person who thus adheres to Dr. Thomas-nor is it that some occupy a neutral position as a third party. This is also untrue, as far as has ever been reported here. But the half truth is. "They [Dr. T. and myself] are at open war;" but Dr. Thomas is opposing not only my individual views, but the cause of reformation and the people who advocate it, by giving one-sided representations of things, with holding whatever is favorable and publishing whatever is unfavorable to the cause, prejudicing the public car as far as he can under the guise of a sort of friendship for the cause, undermining and opposing much that the brethren every where believe, esteem, and delight in;-such as their psalmody, prayer in public assemblies along with the proclamation of the word-ascribing the great ingatherings and additions to the churches as the result of singing rather than of preaching, &c. &c.-creating doubts, pulling down every thing, withering all piety and true devotion, and building up nothing except his new theory of man. This much truth is in the allegation above quoted-and for even this much Mr. Sands is to be credited. The Doctor now calculates on building up a party by opposing me, as all his writings now indicate, and very probably this notice will serve asoil to his lamp for some two or three moons.

My essay on our Lord's refutation of Sadduceeism is withholden at this time, from the confirmed and oft repeated indications on the part of the Doctor, to build up an interest for himself on the merits of his continued opposition to me. I am sure he cannot write for my conviction on these subjects. The more he writes the less faith I have in him; and he has now almost forced the universal conviction that he and Lare never again to lakber in the same field.

Should Mr. Sands lay these remarks before his readers, on a subject in which he has implicated me, it will, I confess, be an act of justice of which I do not think him capable. A. C.

THE CHURCH OF PAINESVILLE AND DR. THOMAS.

THE Church of Painesville, supposing themselves to be the community whose duty I alleged it might be to consider whether the doctrines of Dr. Thomas, who now resides in their bounds, were not of the same genus with those of Hymeneus and Philetus, have decided that they are not identical! They have mistaken both the tribunal and the question. Dr. Thomas has never obtained a letter of recommendation from the church in Richmond, of which he was once an Elder, and it is confidently alleged that the Doctor lived too long at Richmond to obtain a letter from that church.

I have said they have also mistaken the question. The question was not whether the cases were identical, but whether they were of "the same genus" or kind. Dr. Thomas, they say, believes that all the dead who hear the gospel shall be raised; but Hymeneus and Philetus "denied that there was to be any resurrection hereafter." It is alleged that the Doctor's theory and that of Hymeneus and Philetus are different; and the conclusion, taught by the one is that some of the dead, and by the other that none of the dead shall be raised. They both then agree in the conclusion that there shall be no future resurrection of all the dead.

But the Painesville church say, "We do not therefore see how the two cases can be identified." We never could have raised a question to that effect, because that would be to make all the cases of discipline in the New Testament void of meaning to us; for we cannot now find any case identical with those written in that book, and therefore to have put such a question would be to say that we are only to exercise discipline on cases identical with those in the New Testament!

But the congregation at Painesville, or such of them as concurred in the aforesaid adjudication, never once thought of the main question of Sadduceeisin involved in the case of Hymeneus and Philetus. Those who spiritualized away the resurrection into some past renovation, such as the commencement of the Christian dispensation, did this because of Sadduceeism, or a denial of human spirits; for the truth is, as can be amply shown from Jewish, Christian, and philosophic antiquities, that the denial of a resurrec tion of the body has always been the effect of a denial of human spirits, as in the present case, or of a future life. But as they are not the tribunal referred to, and have not taken up the question referred, I have no reason nor disposition to descant upon their free wili offering in the case. A. C.

THE SENATORIAL GOVERNMENT.

"THE functions of the elders," it appears to our brother R. L., "must all be exercised in the face of the congregation. I have," continues he, "looked in vain through God's word to find any warrant,for private teaching and visiting as part of an elder's duty." Yet our brother admits that Paul taught from house to house; but thinks that this was because "he was divinely inspired and commissioned for the purpose." The reader will again read him on page 63.

We have always thought that much good may be effected by the visitations of the elders of a congregation; and our own observation and experience confirm our reasonings in favor of that practice-provided only, these visits are of a godly sort. There are, indeed, families under so good a domestic religious government as to be insusceptible

of much benefit from any oral instructions which might be tendered in this way. The number of such families is not, however, very great. Parents and children are often edified and refreshed by the godly communications of such aged and exemplary characters as Paul has commended to the episcopacy of the church.

There are also, it must be confessed, some elders whose conversation is not so generally heavenly and spiritual as to minister much grace to the hearers. They are themselves too much devoted to the things that are sensible and temporal to be eminently useful in this way. Their visits are rather injurious than beneficial to the families of their charge. Still I must differ from our correspondent in the conclusions to which he has been compelled. Paul certainly intended his narrative to the elders of Ephesus to be not merely instructive, but exemplary. He introduced his behaviour thus;-"You know how I have been conversant among you all the time, from the first day in which I entered Asia-not neglecting to teach you publicly and privately," (or from house to house.) Therefore take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit has constituted you overseers-feed the flock," &c. It would appear as if the Apostle intended that the senate of Ephesus should be induced by his narrative to follow his example as much in visiting and teaching from house to house, as in other respects.

We cannot attribute this conduct to inspiration, or a special charge given the Apostles. There is nothing in it of an extraordinary or supernatural character. It seems to be most natural and rational. They pursued this plan in all their ministrations. As early as Acts v. 42. we are told that "daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." The Master himself set them the example: he taught from house to house. And when he sent out the Seventy Evangelists to announce the coming reign, he gave them in charge cities, villages, and houses; instructions for the salutation of the families which they visited, both on their entrance and departure. It appears to me no system of instruction would be perfect as to means and opportunities, that excluded or neglected the social hearth and the family fire-side. We that daily labor in the word and teaching, know that much of the little good that we do, is done in social conversation and in private interviews; and that it is impossible in this our duty to feed the flock of Christ, and to watch over them as faithful shepherds, if we are entire strangers to their household governments and their means of family and social improvement and education. We admit that there are many families that do not need such aids; but there are many that do. And as in the times of plagues and pestilences, in order to have the more filthy dwellings cleansed, the rich and more splendid edifices ought to be examined, that the humble poor and the more wretched may not feel themselves degraded; so that much good may accrue to those who need it most, it is expedient that all be occasionally visited. So we reason, and so we would act on proper occasions; but if any brother thought it an intrusion on his premises, and we had reason to think he neither needed nor desired our visits, we should save our time and give a larger portion of it where it might be both more needed and more acceptable.

It would appear that our correspondent, aware that power is cumulative and dangerous to liberty civil and ecclesiastic; and alarmed at

the bold and almost peerless assumptions of haughty ecclesiasties and lordly pontiffs, is almost morbidly sensitive about the discharge of the necessary duties of the senate or eldership of a Christian congregation, lest they should become lords over God's heritage, rather than the humble servants of his people. It is evident from Peter's saying that the bishops should not be "lords over God's heritage," nor take the oversight of the flock "for the sake of filthy lucre," that both power and emolument were anciently attached to the office, so that the temptation to lordly power and filthy lucre was an accompaniment of it.

Now whenever we divest the office of this temptation we have got a new office unknown to Peter. Whenever a congregation says the elders shall have no chance of loving power or filthy lucre because of its having lopped off these appendages from their office, it has become wiser than Paul, more ingenious than Peter, and, I fear, more prudent than the Founder of the Christian Institution. So long as the whole diocess of a plurality of elders is but one single congregation, I do not think we should be so much alarmed at the power of their office as to manacle and fetter them by any bye-laws of our own invention: for in so doing there is even yet some danger of the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram-at least in the opinion of the Apostle Jude.

A. C.

P. S. A second communication from R. L. has been received, and shall be attended to in our next.

A. C.

QUERIES ANSWERED.

The following Queries were proposed in our last:

1. "WHETHER ha! we better, to save from the error of their way, treat as aliens, all unbaptized persons, or acknowledge them as worshippers of the true God, and as a kind of half-way Christians?"-M. W Jan 1828.

2. "Ought Christians to pray with any with whom they would not commune in all religious or Christian instititutions?"-Dr. J.

3. "What is a church to do when its Elders leave them on the Lord's day and go to other meetings among the sects?"-Mrs. T.

1

Answer to Query 1st.-We have no half-way Christians in fact, though we have many in practice. If turning away from a professor ignorant and prejudiced, or if telling him that we regarded him as no better than a heathen man or a publican, and would neither sing, nor pray, nor worship God in his presence, would propitiate his ears and give us access to his heart, and tend to his illumination, one might hazard it; but such a course only obtains for him that does it unqualified reprobation as a proud self-righteous Pharisee, and forever nullifies his efforts to gain a favorable audience-without which he can do nothing. Besides, we are to treat all men with respect, and give them full credit for all they possess, and without flattering them into a system of self-deception; like Paul, we should to the Jew become a Jew, and to the Greek become a Greek: yea, become afl things to all men, without conceding the truth, that we night gain men to Christ. There are many good men, of large intelligence, possessed of many Christian virtues, who are not immersed; and who, though not constitutional citizens of his kingdom, would lay down their lives for Christ. These ought to have credit for all they possess; and as Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos (who, though an eloqueut man and mighty in the scriptures, knew only the baptism of John,) and instructed him better; so ought we when such per sons come in our way. Now many excellent persons there are in our day standing to the kingdom of Jesus just as Apollos stood before he heard these gifted disciples teach the way of the Lord more perfectly.

Answer to Query 2d.—Christians may pray with all persons who wish to pray through the Mediator; and none else will ask them to pray. Prayer is not a Christian institution any more than singing psalms. They prayed and sang praises under all dispensations.But they did not observe any of the peculiar institutions of Christ's kingdom in the first or second ages of the world. Now as Christians, we can only commune with Christians in Christian institutions; but as religious men, we may perforin any act of religion with religious men that is common to all dispensations. Hence both Jesus and Paul prayed and gave thanks in the promiscuous companies which flocked around them without asking any questions for conscience sake. John iv. 22., Acts xxi. 6., 1 Tim. ii. 8., John xi. 41, 42., John xii. 27. 28.

We are indeed under obligations to pray "for all men," and to "pray every where," "with all prayer and supplication;" and as our Lord addressed his Father in the presence of the thousands whom he fed and to whom he preached, and prayed even for his enemies; surely so ought we do as his disciples and followers!

Answer to Query 3d.-Appoint new Elders. Whenever the shepherds abandon their flocks, it is high time they were put into other hands. I do not know how such persons ean watch for the souls of their flock, or give a good account of themselves when the King of kings comes.

The 4th Question, for want of room, and because of extensive bearings, is laid over.

News from the Churches.

A. C.

'CINCINNATI, February 28, 1833.

My dear Brother,

I HAVE been residing in this city with my family since November last, and have been constantly engaged in building up the cause of Christ in this place, and not without some encouraging success. Some fourteen or fifteen, notwithstanding the inclemency of the winter months, have obeyed the Lord; and some twenty or thirty have united with us from different congregations. Our prospects as a congregation are good, and in many respects improving; so that in the course of time she will exert a happy influence over these parts, as I think, on an extensive scale. It is our design to sound out the word of the Lord from the Sycamore congregation to all around us. This has been done already in part, and we wish that it may be effected on a much larger scale. Already a colony of disciples, before I came here, has been formed, over the river, two miles below the city, by the labors of some of the brethren. We have also made a stand up the river, on this side, at Fulton, in the suburbs of the city, and are making arrangements to call the people out on the first day in the neighborhood of brother Daniel Gano's, and also in the lower end of the city, just below the Roman Catholic establishment. I am also engaged in delivering a course of lectures in George street, in the upper room of a large engine house, which has been well attended, and from which some fruit has been reaped. We are desirous to consecrate all the available talent and influence of the congregation to the promotion of the common cause; and if the brethren will be actuated by a patient, zealous, and courageous spirit, they, under the blessing of God, will accomplish much for the Lord; and by constant exercise of their speaking gifts will not fail of making themselves useful and profitable laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.

JAMES CHALLEN.

ADAMSVILLE, Ten. February 7, 1838.

On the first Lord's day in January I immersed one; on Monday after the second Lord's day in the same month six others were immersed-making in all seven who have been