ITEMS OF NEWS.

Old Mills, February 16th, 1843.

HAVING to transmit to you the second quarterly contribution from the congregation of the Lord here, I do it with the greatest of pleasure; though small on account of our poverty, yet we are willing to do a little, and also ready before-hand, that there is no gathering when the time comes. The children of God ought to remember, that co-operation, as much as the intercommunion of Christians, is a part of our Christian institution; we must strive together in our prayers, for one another, and for the salvation of men. To pray for one another, as individuals, or communities, implies that we shall assist one another, otherwise our prayers and thanksgivings for each other are mere hypocrisy. He that would pray for the progress of the gospel at home and abroad, having it in his power to contribute a single farthing to that end, and yet withholds it, shows how little value he sets upon his own prayers, and how much upon his cash.

I received a letter from brother Reid last week; he says his health is improving a little, but the damp weather is much against him. O that our heavenly Father, who has all along manifested to us his kindness, will restore him, ere long, to his former strength and vigour, and so enable him to give expression to that zeal which still glows in his heart, and heaves his bosom with benevolent desires of being useful amongst mankind, by exhorting and comforting his brethren in the Lord, and proclaiming heaven's message of love and mercy to sinners still unsaved. A. HUTCHINSON.

Louth, February 15th, 1843.

I AM happy to inform you, that in the course of the past week, the gospel was introduced into Binbrook, a village about ten miles distant from Louth; and though much opposition prevailed, yet three individuals confessed the good confession, were baptized into Jesus for the remission of sins, and on the first day of the week, met together to attend to the institutes of the Lord's house, being assured that "where two or three are gathered together in his name, there is he in the midst of them." In Louth also, four have been added to our number, by baptism, since I last wrote you. I believe it is true, brother, what you stated in your note, that "if we are faithful to the Lord, he will be faithful to us;" he will never allow his servants to labour in vain.

""

W. JACKSON.

Dundee, 1843.

THE cry is loud from every quarter, "come and help us,"" but come now." In Fyfeshire there is every prospect of a great work being done, had we only the power to undertake it: and in many other places there is not the most distant fear of similar results, could we put in operation the same means the Saviour ordained, circumstances demand, and the first Christians uniformly used; viz. preaching the gospel: but while we continue to drag on with one, two, or three men to a nation, our progress, in my humble estimation, must be small; or just in proportion to the number of good hands employed, so will be the amount of work performed. Is it otherwise in the world, in any department? Never. Was it ever otherwise? Never. And the man who imagines souls can be converted without suitable means,

is ignorant alike of himself, the world, and the plans of his Creator. Let those who believe in conversion by means of some abstract influence, sit still and wait; but let us who have read, and rely on the word of God, be up and doing, if we would see the kingdom enlarged, or with joy meet our King when he comes in his glory.

G. C. REID.

Kilmarnock, January 31st, 1843.

ENCLOSED you have a post office order for the amount contributed by the brethren here, in behalf of those beloved brethren who have made themselves poor for the gospel's sake; and are desirous to spend and be spent in making known to their perishing fellow-men" salvation through the name of Jesus."

I am happy to inform you that our present number is sixty-two, and that we live in peace. We move slowly, but I trust we shall soon see multitudes flocking to the standard of the Redeemer, preparing for his second and glorious appearing. T. MORTON.

Auchtermuchty, February 2nd, 1843.

I HAVE nothing of material interest to communicate respecting the congregation: we are in peace and comfort, and now and then a stray individual is added to our number, from that class where we least expected it, while those from whom we were looking for additions, have, in a great measure, disappointed us. We have lost one of our number by death since I saw you; he departed full of hope. Since the meeting in Edinburgh we have added sixteen to our number, fifteen by immersion, and one restored. G. DRON.

Leigh, near Manchester.

Ir is sometime since we wrote to you, because we had nothing favourable to say to you. We have had some few trials to meet with: ignorance, wickedness, prejudice, against the truth; error, superstition, and bigotry greatly prevail: the people are determined they will not listen to the truth, much less will they obey it. However, it is cause of rejoicing. that on the 7th instant, three females were baptized into Christ for the remission of sins; may they be preserved blameless and harmless till the day of the Lord's coming! W. TURNER.

ANOTHER EVANGELIST.

WE are happy to announce, that our much esteemed brother William Thompson from Edinburgh, has acceeded to a request made to him, to do the work of an Evangelist, on the principles agreed to at the Edinburgh meeting; and has commenced a tour through England, starting at Hull, where he is now labouring. This brother has done much in the good cause of the Redeemer in the neighbourhood where he has been residing, and we earnestly pray the Lord may bless the labour of love in which he is now engaged.

If all the churches would unite their efforts, and co-operate in this work, we confidently believe a third and fourth Evangelist might soon be brought in the field.

CONTRIBUTIONS to the Evangelist' Fund have been received during the last month, from Nottingham, Hull, Sanquhar, Old Mills near Dumfries, Kilmarnock, and Auchtermuchty.

THE current reformation, if conspicuous now or hereafter for any thing, must be so because of the conspicuity it gives the Bible and its ordinances as the indispensable moral means of spiritual life and health. I would prefer to concentrate the peculiarities of our arguments with this generation into one grand characteristic, and with this as its differential attribute, let it go abroad through the land and down to posterity. That distinguishing characteristic is, a

RESTORATION OF THE ORDINANCES OF THE NEW INSTITUTION TO THEIR PLACE AND POWER. Not a restoration of the word and the ordinances, as though distinct from each other; but simply a restoration of the ordinances; inasmuch as the Bible is one of these ordinances itself. True, they are all written in it, and read from it; still the reading and examination of the Bible is an ordinance of God.

In defining a law or ordinance of Nature, our masters of physical science say, "It is the mode in which the powers of nature act." In religion I only amend its verbiage, while I retain its spirit. We say, a law or ordinance of religion is THE MODE IN WHICH THE GRACE OF GOD ACTS UPON HUMAN NATURE. The ordinances of Christianity are, therefore, the powers of the gospel of the grace of God. Every law of nature is a specific demonstration of divine power in reference to some effect no other way attainable. So every ordinance of the gospel is a specific demonstration of divine grace or spiritual power in reference to some effect no other way attainable.

To illustrate and prove this clearly, would be an essential benefit to our brethren and the world. I shall therefore occasionally devote a few pages to this great subject.

VOL. VII.

D

I have said that all the power of God in nature is displayed only in the way of ordinance; and I will add, that there are no two ordinances of nature exactly similar, or that produce exactly the same effects. Hence we deduce an all-important corollary, viz:-No one ordinance of God in nature can ever be substituted by another. This, when established in nature, shall be shown to be equally true in religion.

In the writings of Jeremiah, 31st chapter, the sun, moon, and stars, are called ordinances of God; and therefore all the distinct agencies of nature may be so denominated. Of these ordinances I shall select a few as a specimen of them all, and in demonstration of the universality of the fact alleged. These shall be the sun, moon, stars, atmosphere, earth, water, electricity. Now, in vegetable and animal nature no single organized being can exist without the influence of all of these, and no one of these can be substituted by another. I do not, by any means, affirm that those seven ordinances above enumerated are all the natural ordinances, or the only ordinances essential to either animal or vegetable existence. There may be seven times seven more for aught that philosophy has yet revealed on this subject. But I choose these seven as a specimen of the indispensible and peculiar influence which each of them exerts over organized and animated nature; and because that, to the most common and most uneducated mind amongst us, their influence is incontrovertibly evident; so much so, at least, that no learned or recondite arguments are demanded in proof of their peculiar influence and necessity in the providential economy of the Great Father of all.

That solar heat and solar light are essential to animated nature, no one doubts. That the moon and the planets exert an influence peculiar to themselves on those sublimated and ethereal regions, if not so evident to all minds as the solar influence, is, nevertheless, made evident from the atmospheric changes dependent upon their well-marked effects in their conjunctions and oppositions at the various points of their orbits, as so clearly and so fully demonstrated in the oft-predicted changes in the weather by those who have read the lessons which all the planets teach. To which the Bible, too, lends its confirmation in affirming their creation as designed for seasons and for signs. That the ethereal regions above our atmosphere affects it, and that these regions may be sublimely wrought and exquisitely adapted as a laboratory in which are fabricated, or modified, the loftier agents, light,

electricity, and the vital principle, will, we presume, become more evident, if not from actual discoveries, from the frequent and well ascertained analogies and inferences fairly deducible from all the atmospheric phenomena. That not only the atmospheric air, composed of its peculiar elements mechanically combined, but the vapour, the caloric, the light and the electricity always existing in it, and by man and other animals inhaled and enjoyed, are essential to our life and health, needs no other argument than the experience and the observation of every one who has ever acquired the art of thinking, or even of rationally feeling the various influences operating upon them by day and night, heat and cold, drought and moisture, in their various combinations and variations. That both earth and water are indispensable to human, to all animal and vegetable existence, certainly requires not one word of proof or commendation to any one. Well, then, may we not appeal to universal observation and experience in proof of the proposition that all the ordinances of nature are essential, and that no one of them can be substituted for another?

If the doctrine of no substitution be at all essential to any one, a very little reflection on what passes before him may remove all doubts from his mental horizon. Let him grow Indian corn without earth, water, heat, light, or atmosphere; or with all the ordinances I have enumerated, one only excepted, and then I grant that he may for a moment question the truth of a proposition to some minds a little startling on its first pronunciation. Let him subject any plant to all the ordinances of nature, light only excepted, and I do not say that the plant will not live and grow for a time; but I do say it will never be verdant or fruitful without it. What is demonstrably true of one of these ordinances, is unquestionably true and evident of them all; inasmuch as nature works not by particular, but by universal laws.

It would be a more curious than profitable speculation to attempt to explain either the why or the how of all this natural machinery. We have to do with the fact, and not with the theory of that fact. It is God's will, and it is his wisdom too; and, therefore, it is essentially and benevolently so, as all Nature cries aloud through all her works.

May we not then ask why should it be otherwise in any other universe, or systems of creations, than as it is in this outer court in which we receive our existence from the hand of God? There is evidently but one mind, one intelligence,