literally observed in selecting such persons only as possess these qualifications to the discharge of the duties of this office, it would be much better with the christian cominunities; and that the evils which are suppposed to flow from the want of bishops of some sort, are much more imaginary than real.

To the Editor of the Christian Baptist.

Dear Sir,

THE next impious practice, which as well on account of its general adoption amongst people who profess religion, as its pernicious tendency, claims attention, is that of resorting in pursuit of religious information, to other means of instruction, than those with which God has himself furnished us in his own word. To evince the folly and impiety of this evil device, I offer the following remarks:

1. God has declared expressly, that the writings which he has himself furnished us, and just as he has furnished them, unaltered by the tongue or pen of man, unmixed, undiluted with a single human conception, do contain all the information, which our salvation needs. His Holy Spirit tells us positively, that the holy scriptures are, as worded by him, sufficient to make us wise to salvation; that his word implanted in our minds, can save them; nay, that even the hearing of his word, can save both ourselves and our families; and that by belief of the scriptures the deliverance of lost sinners is rendered absolutely sure. It is then certain, that in order to insure the salvation of our souls, we stand in no need of any other information than that which the sacred pages, untouched by man, afford.

2. Sacred writ contains all the correct and certain information on the subject of religion, which the world ever enjoyed or will obtain. Nay more, its words selected and consecrated by the Spirit have not only been the only vehicles of his mind to man, but in all ages, have also been the only guardians and preservers of what they did convey. No sooner did remote antiquity abandon the phraseology of the Spirit, and employ words of their own devising, to express their religious notions, than with their new terms they introduced new and erroneous conceptions of God and divine things, and sunk into idolatry every where. And by the same cause a similar effect has been produced oftener than once in after times. No sooner dd the Jewish clergy cease after the captivity, to employ in their religious instructions and services, the words used in their sacred books, and invented terms, fitter as they no doubt thought, to express their religious conceptions, than with their new religious language, they brought into vogue doctrines, rules, institutions and practices, unknown and unsanctioned by the word of God. And by a like departure in their religious instructions and servi ces from the words employed by the Holy Spirit in the New Tes tament have christian teachers introduced into the world a multiplicity of notions, institutions, rules and practices wholly unauthorized by sacred writ. So invariably true is it, that if we would

with absolute certainty secure the sense or ideas of a writer or speaker, we must retain his words.

3. But if the only certain means of securing the ideas or sense of an author be to retain his language, it follows, that if we would certainly secure to our m nds the ideas which the Spirit of God has communicated to us in sacred writ, we must resort to the very words which he has employed in sacred writ to convey them. For there, and then, alone can we infallibly find them. When men attempt to express the Spirit's ideas by words of their own selecting, we have no certainty that their attempts have been successful.On the contrary we are certain that complete success never attended the enterprize. Into every performance of the kind, error more or less has never failed, to insinuate itself; and certainly this danger, from which no human language is free, ought of itself to be sufficient to deter us from resorting in a matter of such infinite importance as the eternal happiness of our souls to these sources of religious information, from which we are as liable to inhale ruinous error as saving truth. And here let me add as a general truth, that there exists no other method of guarding any message from misrepresentation, but that of selecting and prescribing the very words, which the person charged with its publication, is to employ for that purpose.

4. God's information, as conveyed in his own words, unaltered by man, is alone safe, alone certain, alone entirely exempt from error. As just hinted, the notions, opinions, harangues and compositions of men, not excepting their religious notions, opinions, harangues and compositions of every name, are all fraught with error, mistake, misconception, and misrepresentation. In God's declarations alone are unmixed truth and infallible certainty to be found. What inducement, then, can any rational being have, what reason or apology can he devise for his conduct, when he abandons even for a single moment the sure unerring information of his God, and devotes his time and attention to hearing, reading, studying, searching, and consulting sources of information which he knows to be replete with danger, from which he is certain he is liable to imbibe error, suck in falsehood, and deceive, mislead, and ruin his soul eternally?

5. When we prefer human to divine means of information, of which vile preference we are incontestably guilty, when we lay down our Bibles and take up the written compositions or listen to the religious harangues of men, we grossly insult our Divine Teacher-we tell him flatly, that he is not as capable to teach, inform, and instruct us as our uninspired fellow-creatures, and therefore we abandon his offered means of instruction and resort to theirs. For surely no reason can be assigned for closing our Bibles and giving our eyes, our ears, our time, and attention to the means of information offered by fellow-mortals, but that we expect during the same time to receive more information, and greater benefit, from the latter than we do from the former? And is not God insulted, grossly insulted, by such an expectation?

6. Again, when we resort to human means of instruction, we in effect make the Spirit of God a liar. As already observed, God has declared the information which he has provided for us, sufficient, without alteration, for the salvation of our souls. Do we not, then, when we abandon that information more or less, and resort to that which our fellow-creatures offer, tell our Divine Teacher that we have no confidence in the declarations which he has pub. lished concerning the sufficiency of his message to save our souls, at least before it has been altered, modified, and largely mixed with what is human? We in reality deny its sufficiency.

7. God has not only commanded us to resort to any other means of acquiring religious information, than that which he has provided for us in his word; but he has peremptorily forbidden us to resort to any other teacher than himself, which is manifestly equivalent to forbidding us to seek religious instruction from any other source than the Bible.

8. In innumerable passages of his word God commands his creatures to read, search, meditate, remember, and converse about the contents of his message; and to these commands the pious have yielded prompt obedience in all ages. Like David, they have day and night read, studied, and meditated the information sent them by their God; but no where are we told that they ever applied for religious instruction either to uninspired men or uninspired books. There is no such precedence on the divine record. Indeed, till the fatal Jewish Apostacy, which occurred not long after the Captivity, there is strong ground to believe that no uninspired man ever dared to set himself up as a religious teacher, in the modern sense of that term. It was then, for the first time, that uninspired men arrogated to themselves the titles, honors, functions, and homage due to an inspired instructer, and the lamentable result of this impious innovation is well known.

Let me now ask, if God's information, believed, but not altered, be, in his judgment, sufficient so to enlighten our understandings, purify our affections, elevate our desires, and rectify our conduct, as to render us fit to become members of his family and subjects of his kingdom, why resort to other or additional means? Can we expect to derive ampler or clearer information from human discourses and human writings, than we can obtain from the unadulterated instructions of the Divine Spirit? Can we imagine that a small fragment, a few words, torn from their connexion with the rest of God's message, and wrought up into, or diffused through, such a huge mass of human notions and buman words, as require an hour to utter them, and which so dilute and obscure the fragment, that not a trace of it can be discerned, can by such violent separation, and such immense dilution, be rendered more fit to convey the Spirit's meaning, inform the human mind, or impress the human heart, than it was when it occupied its original place in God's book, and its primitive concentration? Truly, we cannot believe it. If either the principal objects, concerning which sacred writ professes to give information, be the existence and attributes of God, the dignity, office, and character of the Redeemer, the character and Vol. VII.

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office of the Spirit, the nature, character, condition, prospects, and duty of man, and the means provided by God for man's extrication from his present ruined state and elevation to a state of moral perfection and complete happiness: I say, if these be the great objects concerning which the Bible treats, can any rational being be so senseless as to suppose that he can, by any ingenuity of his, render God's information concerning these things, fitter to answer its purpose than he has made it? Is it not mere waste of time, then, is it not worse, is it not contempt of God, to resort to tracts, (silly stories.) to pamphlets, sermons, lectures, commentaries, expositions, to the neglect of God's own information on these infinitely important subjects? Depraved, indeed, must that taste be which prefers the muddy, filthy stream, to the clear, unpolluted fountain!

It was my intention to mention at least a few of the many sad evils which have been produced by the impious innovation now the subject of censure; but one must suffice at this time. It is the tendency of this innovation to bring God's information into disrepute, and alienate the affections of men from it, and so keep them ignorant of it. This is the natural effect of the imposition practised on an ignorant and credulous world by an artful and interested clergy. By them mankind have been long taught to believe that God's information, at least before it is acted on by their metamorphosing powers, before it is completely new-modelled, before it is perfectly saturated with their ingenuous notions, before its arrangement and connexion formed by the Divine Spirit, have been thoroughly subverted, and its plain phraseology also the choice of its all-wise author the Spirit, has been compelled to give place to their gaudy, pompous diction, is fit for no human purpose, can convey no instruction that can be depended on; in short, is entirely unfit to save a human soul. They must breathe the breath of life ere it can be chewed, swallowed, digested, or a particle of nourishment obtained from it. Is it any wonder that creatures, justly alarmed about their perishing souls, should, under such persuasion, pay little respect to God's word, expect little benefit from it, and flatter, caress, and fairly idolize a set of men, from whose ingenuity and eloquence they are taught to expect the deliverance of their endangered souls?

With respect,

A. STAITH, M. D. not D. D.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

To the Editor of the Christian Baptist.

Brother Campbell,

VIRGINIA, July 20, 1829.

DEAR SIR-THE divided state of the worshippers of God has been a source of much unhappiness to me for many years. I do cordially believe it is owing to the presumption of the teachers making their opinions a bond of union. And every attempt to perpetuate this state of things is at war with the spirit of the gospel.

In every sect there is a set of opinions, which is the lifeblood of the sect, and made paramount to the word of God. A dissent from these opinions invariably produces a breach of fellowship in that sect; of course there cannot be any improvement or correction of any error without the consent of the leading teachers. This is not to be expected while they have full sway over the consciences of their disciples; for they have the power of stopping the mouth of every dissenter in their congregations. One popular teacher often sways the sceptre over thousands. My opposition to this state of things brought me into collision with some of my brethren. When I read brother Melancthon's recommendation to an ecclesiastical body, I felt mortified, believing, as I now do, it will only tend to perpetuate the spirit of sectarianism, which every lover of truth ought to banish from the earth. This is my apology for my letter to you in your May number.

I see in your last number "Paulinus again." I wish to say a few things, and I am done with this subject, without new matter should be introduced.

The Baptist, in this section of country, I am satisfied is nearer the Christian church than any other denomination I know of here. If they would exercise more liberality, pay a greater attention to the character and conduct of the New Testament christians, and the manner of their instruction, it would soon place them, in my estimation, upon the ancient order of things. It is truly pleasing to me to find of late a growing spirit of liberality flowing from the press, and I do hope ere long to hear it from the pulpit. There is great room for reformation here. Brother Melancthon promised in his next essay to go there. We shall watch him closely.

and I

I do not love the spirit of the capital I, and the little hope brother Paulinus does not. "Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." "I am less than the least of all saints."-Paul.

Again, his letter contains not that simplicity for which he is noted. This may be owing to a conviction of the difficulty of supporting his recommendation from revelation-pari passu, modus operandi, fortiori, ergo. Many of your readers do not know what these words mean. Were it not for a Latin dictionary, he would have been a barbarian unto me. "Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken, for ye speak into the air?" "Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh a barbarian unto me." "In the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”—Paul.

What the magnet is to the needle on the compass, this world is to the spirit of a man. Speaking of me, "From such a one I must appeal to those of more candor," says brother Paulinus. When the ancient order of things was attended to, we hear nothing of appealing to brethren's opinions. This brings to mind a stratagem of two travellers, who were without money, to procure them a drink of alcohol. They caught a frog just before they reached an inn, which they agreed to call a mouse. One was to go on before