INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

ANOTHER prophetic day has passed, and left its wrinkle on the brow of time. Advancing time bears upon its front many deep furrows, the records of appalling facts. The one offence by which our common sire lost his blest standing -the wreck of the old world-the apostacy of the Jewsthe consummation of man's malignity by the crucifixion of the Messiah-the destruction of the benign influence of the Christian system by the revelation of the Man of Sin-form so many instances of deep depravity, which, with solemn import, press upon our attention, and cast over our minds the shades of melancholy.

"But it is not all drear, and it is not all dark,

As the voice of the faithful will tell;"

for while by the first man's transgression we have been deprived of the bliss of Eden, we have, through the second Adam, the peace which passes understanding;-while the antediluvian world has been buried in water, and death was the effect, we have a new creation, and from a watery tomb have risen into newness of life;-while the Jews have apostatized, the children of the faith are counted for the seed although the Saviour has been nailed to the tree, yet his coronation in the heavens has taken place; and while the apostacy has reached its height, its consuming by the spirit of the Lord's mouth is rapidly progressing, and its utter destruction by the brightness of his coming is at hand.

The last year has changed the policy of Rome, and compelled the boasting successor of Peter to hasten the downfall of his power has caused the heart of State-Churchism

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to palpitate with fear, and paralyzed Methodism. To us it has brought no forebodings, but has stamped progress upon our character, and given another blow to Anti-Christ,

The year 1847 will be to memory dear, if only on account of its having introduced to us our devoted and deeply venerated Brother Campbell. The alacrity manifested by him in leaving his transatlantic home and the loved and cherished family of Bethany, never again with parental joy to gaze upon the face of his beloved Wickliffe, but to return to drop a tear upon the honored spot of earth which receives the remains of early piety tends inevitably to give him a larger share of our hearts. We weep with him who weeps, but at the same time we anticipate the re-union when the father and the son shall mingle with a ransomed band, who, under Divine power, date their reception of the truth to this longdesired visit. But, as one observes→

"He came--he labored. suffered, and is gone.

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Leaves warriors, statesmen, poets in the shade,

And binds his brow with wreaths that never fade."

We number among those who conclude, that great indeed would have been the good resulting from a protracted stay; but as this could not be, we have now to ask, what are the great items upon which we must now fix our attention? Could A. Campbell have remained, the brethren, fixing their minds upon him, would have viewed him as heaven's instrument to restore Original Christianity. As it is, we feel the work must be done by the less gifted brethren, or rather by the BIBLE in their hands and hearts instead of in his. Our sword, our strength, our wisdom, is the Bible; and knowing that it only requires a place in the head and heart of man to make him all he ought to be, we are constrained to congratulate our brethren upon their prospect of success, arising from the fact that society at this hour is ripening for gigantic changes, Men in every seet have growing conceptions of their proper standing; churches are putting aside an undue priestly influence, and restoring primitive ordinances, their members exhorting and instructing one another: these now gem the metropolis. The mass of the people are more accessible, and abundant openings now exist for the full employ of all the talent, time, money, zeal, and love that we can command.

Brethren, let us nerve ourselves to the conflict! God

and truth are on our side. In the morning sow the seed, in the evening withhold not the hand. Be you always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you shall reap if you faint not. We have a twofold work before us to extend the knowledge of the primitive order of the Church, and to cry, Behold the Lamb; and in the second place, mightily to strive to increase our unity and love. It is to aid in effecting these combined purposes that we propose to issue the second volume of the Bible Advocate. We shall

have much labor and anxiety to sustain it; and we will now only ask of every lover of his Bible, that he ardently and frequently pray for us-pray that our pages may present the truth as it is in Jesus, and that our circulation may be augmented to the sowing of the good seed of the word in the hearts of thousands.

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

On its pages is inscribed the most atonishing narrative ever read; the sublimest and simplest story ever told. But this is not all. It is designed to accomplish an object superlatively grand, transcending-in degrees inexpressible-the most magnificent scheme that created intelligence ever conceived. To convert a race of miserable, polluted, and dying mortals, into pure, happy, and glorious immortals; to convert the gates of death into the gates of immortality; to make the pathway to rottenness and corruption the high road to deathless vigor and incorruptible glory; to make the grave the vestibule, the ante-chamber, "to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ;" to make the dying groans of sin-worn nature a prelude to ecstacies unalloyed. Yes this is the benevolent design of the New Testament. Books, written with such a design, with a design to purify, elevate and glorify the debased and degraded children of men; to prepare, furnish, and adorn them for the society of principalities and powers, for the society of their God and King, in a world of perfect bliss, most assuredly come with a divine character to man. Their claims on the attention and examination of those to whom they are presented, most certainly are paramount to all others. And the bare hypothesis, to say nothing of the moral certainty, that they came from God, with such a design, is quite enough, methinks to woo our whole rational nature, to constrain all our moral powers, to test their

high pretensions to a character so philanthropic and divine. On such a theme, who would not wish to be eloquent! But how can we equal in style a subject which, when but faintly and in prospective viewed, exhausted the sublimest strains of heaven-taught prophets, and of poets fired by God's own inspiration-whose hallowed lips tasted not the fabled springs of Pagan muses, but the fountain of living waters, springing from eternal love! Yet even these failed to lisp its praise. Nay, the brightest seraph that burns in he venly light, fails in his best effort, and, in profound thought, press upon the marvellous theme. The compassion of the eternal God, the benevolence and philanthropy of the Father of the whole family in heaven and in earth towards us, the fallen children of his love, has transcended the loftiest grasp of the highest intelligence, and has made to falter the most expressive tongue in all the ranks of heavenly powers.

In all the rapturous flights of these morning stars of creation, in all the ecstatic acclamations of these elder sons of God, the theme has not been reached; and though they have tuned their harps a thousand times, and swelled their voices in full chorus, yet the theme is still unequalled, and, as it were untouched. Vain, then, would be the attempt, and fruitless every effort to express, in corresponding terms, a subject so divine. Indeed, we have no language, we have not been taught an alphabet adapted to such a theme.

"Come, then, expressive silence, muse its praise!"

A. C.

DWELLING IN GOD.

"He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John, iv. 16.

Dwelling in God conveys the idea that there must be an entering in, and therefore exhortations to abide and dwell in God are only applicable to those who have entered. What richness and glory are comprised in the idea "dwelling in God and in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Things on which we have bestowed no labor have not half the sweetness possessed by those for which we have toiled. Thus, according to the wise arrangements of our God, there must be personal labor to enhance the value of this rich possession.