approaching. Heb. x. 25. or daily while it is called to-day, lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sing iii. 13, again it was neces sary that the Saviour should bestow gifts upon His Church for its edification, &c. Cor. xii. 7, 28; xiv. 3, 4, 5, 12, 26, 31; also, Eph. iv. 11, and hence "he gave some Apostles, and some prophets, and some Evangelists, and some pastors and teachers," what for? "for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying and building up of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Observe again, that knowledge is necessary, but knowledge is not obedience—that it is necessary we should attend to all the institutions and means provided by the wisdom of God, that we may live and grow up into Christ our living head in all things; yet the means, or our strict observance of the means is not the end-is not the life, the perfection. The means are necessary to the end, food is necessary to sustain our life, and it is necessary that we eat it; but neither the food or the eating is the life. These remarks are designed to uproot any confidence arising from the mere attendance to the means, and to show the necessity for self-examination, as to whether we have spiritual life-whether we are growing, becoming perfect. This is evidently the design of Him who provided the means, and if His design is not realized in us, it is a failure so far as we are concerned. Oh! let us not deceive ourselves, but work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, and be ready to give a reason, not an imagination, a thought, a feeling; but a reason for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear. We sum up our arguments thus:1st. We know nothing of the way of salvation, of the religion of God, the means for our justification and sanctification, or the ground of hope for the future, but what God has been pleased to reveal to us in His word. 2nd. That in order to our receiving pardon, justification, and everlasting life, it was necessary that Christ should fulfil the law, and die for our sins, that we should believe on Him, repent, and walk in newness of life. 3rd. But salvation is not finished when we are pardoned, justified, sanctification or separation from the world, and conformity to the will of God, or our growth from childhood to manhood—our restoration to the divine image, and perfection of character

must follow, or we shall be lost; the end for which the Saviour died is not answered in us, for He gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeal. ous of good works; and the grace of God teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil world; looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus ii. 12 to 14; 1 Peter ii. 24. Who, His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to (free from, Rom. vi. 22,) sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed; and the same Apostle says, that God has given us all things necessary for life and godliness. 2 Peter i. 3, hence he exhorts his brethren to give all diligence (in the use of the means) to add to their faith virtue (courage), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity (love); for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither slothful nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Our Lord Jesus Christ (here is growth); but he that lacketh these things is blind (ignorant of the nature of his calling), and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure, (which is not sure without), for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God hath given His Son, that by believing and abiding in Him, we might have life. We have also the Apostles, doctrine (teaching and instruction in all matters necessary): the fellowship (the contribution for the poor, by which we are to grow in and manifest the divine nature, love); the breaking of bread (to keep Christ and his great love continually in our memory); and the prayers (access to a throne of grace, communion with God, from whom we draw life, health, and strength); the gifts of the church— to instruct, to exhort, to warn, to council; the discipline-to cleanse, purge and cut off, if necessary for the health and well being of the body; and the glorious hope of an inheritance incorruptible, un

defiled, and fadeth not away, which hope is a helmet to protect and save us. Eph vi. 17; Col. v. 8, an anchor to keep us stedfast and immoveable, Heb. vi. 19, and which enables us to purify ourselves as Christ is pure. 1 John iii. 3, giveth us the victory over the world, &c. Hence, Paul, Rom. viii. 24, says, we are saved by hope, preserved in the midst of all the dangers that surround us. We now conclude by exhorting those who have not the hope God has given, to be satisfied with nothing less; and those who have this hope, "to gird up the loins of their mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto them at the revelation (appearing) of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter i. 18, and "to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them with meekness and fear," 1 Pet. iii. 15.

THEIR PROPERTY, BUT THEY MUST

NOT HAVE IT.

W. G.

The brethren whose names are attached to the following paper, after ceasing to meet with the church assembling in West End Chapel, Hammersmith, sent by the request of one or more of the deacons, a letter explaining their reasons for leaving. They were informed that the said letter would not be presented to the church, which led them to request that it might be returned, (intending to print it,) when they were told that being the property of the church it would not be given back. Very curious.

ED.

ΤΟ THE GENERAL BAPTIST CHURCH MEETING IN

WEST END CHAPEL, HAMMERSMITH.

Dear Brethren and Sisters,There is a letter addressed to you in the hands of your Minister briefly explaining the reasons which induced us to absent ourselves from the services of your church, and meet for worship elsewhere. We consider that letter ought to have been read to you as we requested, especially as no deputation had waited upon us to hear a statement of our views and lay before you the cause of our abscence.

A rule of the church says, members cannot withdraw from communion, but are to be visited, the reasons for their abscence reported, and then cut off for non-attendance. Those steps not having been taken in our case, we are by

the rules still members with you. We now wish to lay before you more fully than in the letter referred to, the reasons that have induced us to occupy our present position, having engaged another place in which to meet and worship our Heavenly Father, and his Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. We trust you will throughout this letter, give us as much credit for purity of motive, and sincere desire to do the will of Jesus our Prophet, Priest, and King, as our past conduct among you will justify, and like the noble Bereans search the Scriptures to see whether our course is sanctioned or condemned therein.

We believe the New Testament contains all the laws that were to regulate Christian churches to the end of time, under all circumstances, hence human laws and regulations respecting them are unscriptural, and often produce evils as great, or greater than those they were intended to remedy, and the word of God, instead of being the standard to regulate is put in the back ground-against which we protest.

The practices of the first Christians which we plead for, and which we meet to imitate, are briefly, but fully contained in Acts ii, 42, "They continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers," and in Acts xx, 7, we read, "When the disciples. were come together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow," also 1 Cor. xi, 20, "When ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper," &c. We quote these passages to prove that when the first Christians came together, the primary purpose was to remember the Lord's death and resurrection, whatever they left undone, this was attended to, and doubtless as a means of growing in grace they found it superior to every other, the last passage being incidental is the strongest kind of evidence, and plainly points out their main object in coming together, "when ye come together into one place," &c. You, dear brethren, make sermon hearing the leading object for coming together, and while you may and do delight to pray to, and praise God on such occasions, your services, from long custom, would be dull indeed to you without the sermon, with its divisions, points, and figures. You only remember the Lord's broken body, in

his appointed way once a month, instead of every first day, thus altering the order established by the Apostles, the only legislators in Christ's kingdom, losing thereby a great pri vilege, and neglecting an obvious duty.

2. You put a stumbling block in the way of believers, in requiring them to give their Christian experience before they are baptized, and delay their immersion to an indefi nite period after they have confessed the Lord, and keep them from the privileges of his people to the hindrance of their growth in grace, and entirely contrary to the practices recorded in God's word; from its teachings we learn, that faith in Jesus as the Christ and repentance for past sins, are the only requisites for admission into the kingdom of Christ on earth, and greatly mistaken have they been who put difficulties where Jesus and his Apostles have made the way easy.

If your manner of introducing members had always preserved you from imposition at the commencement, or had their subsequent walk been comparatively blameless, it would not have justified your departure from the original order of admission because it was human, not divine. But alas! the past three years experience has fully proved that where the divinely appointed means of growing in grace are neglected and man's devices substituted, all your extra care in admissions will not secure, even in families the most favoured, outward consistency of character, much less real progress in the divine life.

3. You altogether exclude mutual public exhortation— that primitive institution for Christian advancement so clearly set forth in 1 Cor. xiv, 31, "For ye may all speak one by one, that all may learn, that all may be comforted," also Rom. xii, 8, he that exhorteth on exhortation. Some are competent to teach as well as to exhort, others to love and good works, and some may never be disposed to engage in either, and simply lead or join in public prayers and praises. All had permission to speak in primitive times, the only limit being that it must be done to edification, and their numbers, piety, devotedness, and love proved the suitability of the divine order of proceeding, and its great superiority over modern inovations.