like the rich man, wishing for me to come and put a drop of cold water on your tongue, (Luke xvi. 19, &c.); but I shall be happy, and you shall be tormented." B. You are now judging again; and be assured that you shall give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil, (2 Cor. v. 10.) P. That is more than you can tell. B.-The Spirit of Truth, which was given by inspiration of God, who sent his Spirit, and brought it with power to my heart, and, as it were, cut asunder the stony heart, will, I expect, plant a heart of flesh within me, (Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27), and all my relations. P.-Yes, one devil wishes to bring more along with him. Purgatory is the only way by which every one can go to heaven or hell. Are any of your relations dead? B.-Yes, my mother. P.-Well then, she is there. B. I am sorry for it, for I have lost my 16s. 10d. by it-(which amount I had given some time before to get my mother out of Purgatory). P. You have done one good thing in your life. B.-I had rather have laid it out in cakes or gingerbread, or lost it out of my pocket. P.-It is losing time to be talking to you, but I hope you may be brought back, and that I shall not have to be one of those who shall rise up in judgment against you. B.-I hope not, sir. Come with me to the Scriptures of Truth, and hope the Spirit of God will send them to your heart to do you good. P.-Begone, you cursed wretch!-(And with that he hastened out of the room). The poor blind youth was led on from one battle to another, and to him every battle was a victory. At last he was brought to the Archbishop, in the hope that his Grace, at any rate, would conquer the blind young heretic. The war began as follows: Archbishop.-Who was the first person who read the Bible for you? Bergan. Miss Gore: and many were the comforts I received from it. A.-I am a man who is reckoned to fear God with all my heart. B.-Those who were strangers to the covenant of promise held the same opinion, but it is not mine. A.-Even the great of the nation hold a high opinion of me. B.-Some of the great of the nation have no more religion than the sole of my shoe. A.-I suppose you mean Sir Francis Burdett. B. He is a Deist, A.-I hope he is a man who shall be saved. You think evil of him because he endeavoured to deliver the poor Catholics from under bondage. B. It is not my intention to talk on such subjects, but I came here for instruction. A.-Well, my dear boy, I will read the 5th chap. of John for you. B.-I will thank your Lordship; it is what none of the priests in your diocese have done for me, excepting twelve verses. Archbishop.-When man is born into the world he is in original sin; but after baptism he is renewed by the Spirit of God. Bergan. Do you believe that every person sprinkled with water receives the Spirit of God? A.-I not only think it, but am sure of it. B. Is every person who is baptized free from sin? A. You foolish blockhead, don't you know they relapse again, and the first sin they are known to commit is pulling their mothers' hair? B.-How are people to get rid of their sins? A.-Don't you know the Bible, which I am happy to bring forward on such an occasion, desires us to do penance, or we shall all likewise perish? (Luke xiii. 5.) B. It desires us to repent, by which is evidently meant a change of heart, (Ps. li. 10; Acts v. 31.) A.-What do you think of the beautiful doctrine called Indulgence? B. It is one way of getting money. B.-By selling a certain number of good works. A. You are wrong. At this stage of the business, the poor boy plucked out of his pocket a tract on Indulgences, and gave it to the Archbishop. A sad blunder this. The proud prelate indignantly tore it to pieces, and told John to bring him no more such things. John burst into tears, as the tract was not his own. After some further disputation, the Archbishop waxed wroth, and exclaimed: Archbishop.-Get away out of my sight, for I have spent an unprofitable hour with you. Bergan. It is well if your Grace do not spend many unprofitable hours. The Archbishop could stand it no longer, and accordingly he rang the bell. "When," says John, "the servant appeared, he bade me begone out of his sight;" and he was accordingly led forth by the servant, nothing loth to be freed from his ghostly tormentor. For several days he enjoyed peace; but then he was sent for by a person named Ford, and, on going, he found a priest waiting to assail him. After some conversation, * No word for penance in the Irish language. So Popery was not "the old religion" of the people. John quoted the words of Christ, "Come unto me all ye that labour," &c. The priestly comment is as follows: Priest.-Begone, you villain! you want to bring me to hell along with yourself. He then turned to the owner of the house, and said it was not safe to allow me into it; and he replied, he would not do so any more. Bergan. I did not come without being asked. P.-If you will not believe in all which the Holy Mother Church teaches, you shall go to hell. He departed from me, striking me on the shoulder, saying, "Your soul is lost." I left the house, and got home. We might cite much more of the same stamp, but we must forbear. We are filled with disgust and indignation when we think of seven or eight millions of men, our fellow-citizens, who are under this species of instruction, and that the British people are, by their infatuated Government, cruelly and wickedly compelled to pay the sum of £30,000 to qualify a body of men for acting the part which we have seen these deceivers of the nation performing. sinks while it reflects on such impiety; and when it is remembered that through The heart out all the Colonies of Great Britain, these very men, for doing this very work, are salaried by the English Government,-it fires the brain, and excites an amount of grief and indignation which we have no language to express. How long will it be till the Protestant portion of the British people think of these things, and act as becomes them? How long will it be till they rise as one man, and resolve whether it shall be the work of one year, or a dozen, or a score, or of a generation or generations; that they will never cease till they have put an utter and lasting end to this Governmental crime-this imperial abomination? The fact that it can be endured, is in itself a mournful proof that the religion of the land is at a low ebb, and that the honour of Christ has but a feeble hold on the souls even of the faithful. May God in his mercy waken the Protestants to a sense of their danger and their duty before their sin become the source of their own and their nation's overthrow! The book may be had of Groombridge and Sons. Essays, Extracts, and Correspondence. BAPTISM. Is it right to admit Candidates to the Lord's Supper, and to Church Membership, before they have been baptized? SIR,-The reason why this question is proposed, is, because a very respectable Independent Church has recently admitted a candidate, a father of several children, who have never, himself nor any of his children, been baptized. But, though he has not been baptized with water, we trust he has been baptized with something better-even with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But, because of this, he thinks the outward and visible sign is unnecessary, or, at least, a matter of indifference, for believers in a Christian land; and if necessary, only for the heathen. And it seems that the deacons took a similar view, and therefore admitted this good man into full communion without his being baptized, and his household; but, I believe, without the knowledge of their pastor. But, is this scriptural? The Baptists would say to a man, Nay; and so, we believe, would almost every Pædobaptist say the same. There are indeed a few, and among these there are some of our otherwise excellent ministers, who are of the same mind; and therefore they treat the ordinance as a matter of indifference. But the few who thus act may become many; and the ordinance of the Lord, by-and-by, will be entirely cast aside as some other Christian friends have done-unless the breach be repaired, and the outward walls and fences of our Zion be defended. But what is the cause of this breach, of this indifference, and laxity of order and discipline? There are many causes; but two especially may be noticed: and the first is, because the nature, the advantages, and obligations of the ordinance cannot be rightly understood; and the second is, because of the extreme and exclusive views of Papists and Puseyites, which have caused an extreme in the opposite direction. But this ought not to be; for if some make too much of the ordinance, we ought not to make too little of it. If baptism is designed, as all other or dinances of the Lord are, to promote our spiritual and eternal good, and is still binding upon us, we rob our souls of its benefits, and act disorderly if we get into the Church in any other way; and thereby expose ourselves to the censure of Him who has said, "He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." But is baptism the door by which we are to enter into the sheepfold, the visible Church on earth? We believe it is, because it points to Christ as the only way by which we can truly and savingly enter in and be fed with the green pastures of his love. That baptism is the door by which candidates are to be admitted into the visible Church-that it is initiatory-and that all who profess to be truly penitent should be baptised, and their children, before they are admitted to the Lord's Supper, and to full communion, is so evident from the account we have of the first Christian baptism on the day of Pentecost, that we wonder that any of our brethren should have any doubt about it; for, on this memorable occasion, the three thousand were not added to the Church before they were baptized. See Acts ii. 41. But it is further evident that baptism was designed to be initiatory, because by it we are said to be baptized into Christ; and if in him by this outward and visible sign, we must necessarily and visibly be in him as members of his Church, and not before. It is true we may be in him by faith, but not by baptism, unless we submit to the ordinance; and not to do this, if wilfully, would be to reject the counsel of God against ourselves, as did the Pharisees and lawyers, not being baptized. (Luke vii. 30.) But there is another proof that baptism is initiatory and obligatory before believers and their children can be recognized as members of the visible Church. It is this: none of God's ancient people, the Jews, could be admitted to any of the external privileges of the covenant, and of the visible Church, without the outward and visible sign of circumcision. To neglect this ordinance was considered by God as a breach of his covenant: such were to be cut off, and excluded from all its external privileges, and from all its spiritual and eternal blessings, if they continued impenitent; for God only promised to be a God of grace to Abraham and to his infant seed, in connection with a due observance and improvement of this ordinance. (See Gen. xvii. 7-14, compared with Rom. ii. 25-29.) Therefore, as none could be admitted, under the old covenant, as members of God's ancient Church, without the outward and visible sign of circumcision, so it is reasonable to infer that none can be admitted as members of the Gospel Church without the outward and visible sign of baptism. And this appears to be fully corroborated by the first Christian baptism on the day of Pentecost, already referred to in Acts ii. 38-41, when the three thousand were not added to the Church before they were baptized into Christ. Hence, had they made light of the ordinance, would they not have rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and have excluded themselves from church-membership, and, fearful to say, from the promise of pardon and the saving gift of the Holy Ghost, if they continued wilfully disobedient and impenitent? Reader, look at the text, and can any one draw from it any other conclusion? Therefore let us fear, lest, a promise being left us, any of us should seem to come short of it. (Heb. iv. 1.) "Blessed are they which do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life (not a right of title, but a right of evidence), and may enter in through the gates into the city," (Rev. xxii. 14.) V. D. M. **We thank our correspondent for thus fixing attention on the subject; we are, nevertheless, not without surprise at the existence of notions so wild, and so at variance with what we consider the just interpretation of the Word of God. If the matter be as our correspondent represents it, the deacons in question took upon them a great deal too much, and acted a part deserving of severe reprehension. Indeed, we can hardly doubt that he is mistaken on this point, on which he does not speak with absolute confidence. On the subject of which he treats, our minds are as fully settled as upon any subject within the whole domain of Revelation. There may be some dispute both as to the subject and the mode of Baptism; but as to the thing itself, in our view, among men thoroughly candid, well-instructed, and free from prejudice, there can be none. As we read the New Testament, Baptism was, in every case, as to adults, administered previous to fellowship. It was, in every instance, a matter of course,-a necessary and uniform accompaniment of penitence and faith, and, indeed, the public profession of them. In this matter we have ever viewed Mr. Kinghorne as entirely correct, and Mr. Hall as entirely wrong. Never, perhaps, was there such an expenditure of argument the most seductive, and eloquence the most overwhelming, in defence of a point so utterly untenable. The spirit of Hall is noble and generous, but we have ever thought that he illustrated these attributes at the expense of inspiration. We should have thanked Mr. Hall for his generosity and his catholicity, in offering to admit us, as "unbaptized," to the table of the Lord; but we should, at the same time, have declined to be admitted on such terms, considering it an indignity, if not an insult, rather than Christian forbearance, or ecclesiastical courtesy. We should have, in toto, disputed his broad principle, that "nothing is to be considered a condition of fellowship below that is not equally a condition of fellowship above." We should promptly have entered our protest against discussing the subject on this celestial altitude, and, descending to the earth, have hastened to institute an inquiry as to how the Apostles proceeded. We should have asked admission to the table over which Mr. Hall presided, not as unbaptized men, but as men who, in their own consciences, were fully and properly baptized. We should have further suggested to the great Writer, that the question was not whether Baptism was necessary to fellowship, but what was Baptism? We admit Baptists to the table with which we are concerned as "overbaptized," leaving that point, however, to their own judgment and consciences; and we ask them to admit us, if they deem it proper and necessary, as "under-baptized," but still as, in our view, BAPTIZED, requesting them to leave it to our judgments and our consciences. We have, therefore, no sympathy with the common notion of free communion. We hold by Christian communion,-communion among Christians each and all of whom hold themselves baptized. We can conceive of no consistent fellowship without this.-EDITOR: CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. AT the last meeting of the American Board of Foreign Missions, a good deal of interesting discussion took place on the subject of Funds, when the secretary, Dr. Pomroy, in an essay, discussed the question whether the Christian community is able to raise the sum of 500,000 dollars a year for the cause of Foreign Missions. This subject he argued with superior ability, as follows: Reckoning the Presbyterian, Reformed Dutch and Congregational denominations, there are, according to a careful estimate recently made, not less than 3,149 churches ostensibly co-operating with the board, embodying an aggregate of 335,000 members. The number of churches and communicants, the sums annually contributed in the several districts, and the average Average to each church, 78.37 dollars. General average to each member, 74 cents. These facts and estimates were furnished by the district secretaries in their respective fields, In several instances, as regards the number of churches and of members, they were obliged to make estimates according to their best judgment. The annual contributions mentioned, they consider a fair average. No allowance is here made for those, on the one hand, who contribute nothing, which is not less than one-third of the whole number, whether of churches or of members, nor on the other for the contributions of Sabbath-schools, or of those members of our congregations, not church-members, who are accustomed to give cheerfully, and in not a few instances generously to this cause. These two classes of items may perhaps balance each other. All the statements are sufficiently exact for our present purpose. Behold, then, the result:3,149 churches, with 335,000 members, giving annually to the great enterprise of foreign missions, 246,800 dollars; being an average to each church of 78.37 dollars, and to each member of 74 cents! Three hundred and thirty-five thousand members of the body of Christ, bought with blood, in covenant with God, having a hope full of immortality, and the glories of an eternal heaven before them, giving for the conversion of the heathen world, on an average, 75 cents a year! They have food, and raiment, and shelter. Not a few of them are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, Their houses are full of all good things. They go to the sanctuary. They dedicate their little ones to God. And when the sweet message of his love and mercy distils upon them as the dew, they say-"How good! how kind!" They have pity on the "poor heathen in his blindness." They pray God to send forth labourers to gather in the great harvest of the perishing nations. They long to see the day of millennial glory. And then, in the greatness of their compassion, and their deep gratitude, they open their hearts and hands, and lay on God's altar 74 cents a year!-2 mills a day! Is this the measure of their ability? No man in his senses will pretend any such thing. One half cent a day from each of these 335,000 members would pour into the treasury more than 600,000 dollars a year. Besides, it should be remembered, as already stated, that there is a large number of generous-hearted men in our congregations, not members of the Church, who give regularly and cheerfully to this cause. Nor is it to be forgotten, that about 8,000 dollars are annually contributed by people in foreign countries; that more than 5,000 dollars a year are known to be given by children; and how much more we do not know. It is idle to waste words on this point. The ability of these churches to raise 500,000 dollars a year for the cause of foreign missions, without trenching at all upon their contributions to other objects, is beyond all question. Such was the statement of the Secretary. The Committee next proceed to show how the matter is to be done. Let us hear them: The Committee, therefore, will proceed to show, in the next place, how this may be done. 1. Let the children and youth in all our Sabbath-schools, be enlisted. This can be done. It is right and greatly important that it should be done. At the lowest calculation, there cannot be less than 500,000 children in the three denominations that sustain the Board, old enough to be connected with Sabbath-schools. An average of one cent a month from each of them, would amount to 60,000 dollars a year. The impulse thus given would increase in power, and the second year they would advance to 80,000 dollars or 100,000 dollars. If pastors, and superintendents, and teachers, would interest themselves in this matter, give a copy of the "Youth's Dayspring" to every pupil, and encourage contributions for this object, as is already done in many schools, the results would surprise every one. The penny contributions of children to some of the English Missionary Societies, constitute a very large item in the sum total of their receipts. 2. Let those churches and individual members of churches, who never, or very rarely indeed, give anything for this cause, come forward, like Christian men and Christian women, and do their part, and the receipts of the Board will very soon be doubled. In regard to some of the members here referred to, covetousness is the grand obstacle. They love their money, but they do not love the Saviour, nor the souls of men. There is little hope of their doing anything for this cause till they are converted. By far the largest part, however, probably do nothing, because they have so little information on this subject; they read nothing, no one calls upon them to contribute, they hear little or nothing respecting it, their sympathies are not enlisted, their consciences are not aroused, and the result is just what might be expected; they give nothing. But let the darkness and wretchedness of the heathen be spread out before them; give them a glimpse of the awful doom that awaits all idolaters; let them read and ponder the Journal of Missions, or the Missionary Herald, and if they are Christians they will feel that they must do something; only let measures be adopted by pastors, churches, church sessions, conferences, associations, presbyteries, classes, and consociations, to bring the subject of Foreign Missions before every churchmember, and every member of the congregations within their limits, at least once a year, and with God's blessing, the treasury of the Board will be very soon filled to overflowing. All this, however, will require labour; but it is labour which can and ought to be performed, and the responsibility in the premises lies somewhere. 3. Let the friends of the cause in all our congregations, who are accustomed to give more or less, at once increase their contributions, and be ready, if need be, to double them. The Committee are aware that some contributors, in all probability, cannot and ought not to double their donations: but nineteen out of twenty, perhaps forty-nine out of fifty, can do it, without embarrassment and with almost no selfdenial. It would be better for them to do so, better for their families, better for the churches, and better for a benighted, perishing world. If the Gospel must be published through the earth, and many who call themselves Christians will not aid in this work, then they who are willing to do their full share must do the more; and the greater will be their reward in the kingdom of heaven. If the exigencies of the cause require it, they can surely submit to a little self-denial for the sake of Him "who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor." 4. There are individuals in the church, to whom God has intrusted wealth, who could, if needed, easily increase the revenue of the Board to 500,000 dollars a year. They are to be found in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and other cities and towns in different parts of the country. They could give 25,000 dollars a year without embarrassment to their business, and without the loss of a single luxury which they now enjoy. Such an act would be a vast blessing to themselves and their families, and would greatly encourage the friends of God and man all over the world. It would bring glory to the great King, and enhance the bliss of heaven. Christ has given to all his friends, the poor not less than the rich, the right and the privilege of being co-workers with him; and God forbid that the wealthier portion of the flock should ever deprive the poorer of this birthright. But when it comes to pass, that the funds of our benevolent institutions are exhausted, and the cause of Christ has need, and the calls of God, in his providence, are urgent; then, surely, is the time for Christian men and women, to whom God has given much, to inquire whether they are not bound to devise liberal things-to give of their abundance. The property in their hands may be regarded as a kind of reserve fund for the cause of Christ to fall back upon in time of need. And if such a time ever existed, in the history of the Gospel among benighted nations, it is certainly now. Wide and effectual doors are open and opening on every hand. The cries of the perishing from every section of the globe, are waxing louder and louder. Help must come from some quarter. Men and means must be procured. It becomes those who are "rich in this world's goods," to whom also God has given that which the riches of the universe cannot buy, to consider well what he would have them do, in such a day as this. There never was a time, probably, since the world began, when rich men had it in their power to do so much to bless and save a lost world; and for this reason, there never was a time when wealth seemed so valuable and so desirable to one who has a heart to do good. Let, then, the children and youth in all our Sabbath-schools be enlisted in this good cause; let the churches and individual members who |