I was greatly annoyed on my way through France by the absurd ceremony of obtaining, showing, and carrying passports. The French ought not to be visited by Americans until they learn their better manners. England is the only country in Europe through which an American or foreigner can travel where he pleases without carrying in his pocket a certificate or license, to be demanded and shown at every point where the curiosity or insolence of some petty officer, armed with a little brief authority, may demand it. The United States have already risen one hundred per cent. in my esteem above any country I have seen since I left them. May they never sell for a mess of pottage their birthrights!! Your affectionate Father, COMMUNINGS IN THE SANCTUARY-No. II. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."-Psalm exxii. 1. It is indeed in the assembly of the saints that gladness and rejoicing should fill the heart. It is here that we are, in an especial manner, permitted to draw near to Him who is the source of every pure and blissful emotion. In his presence there can be no sorrow, for there all tears are wiped away, and there are "pleasures for evermore." In the contemplation of his glory, which also he permits us to enjoy in the ever-opening mysteries of redeeming love-in the radiance of that divine illumination which penetrates the moral and intellectual powers, and reveals the past, the present, and the future, what unfailing sources of happiness are found! And how delightful the reflection that this happiness can never end! That Infinity itself is our treasury of joy, in which are stored "the unsearchable riches of Christ"-that new discoveries await us, which fancy's bright imaginings but dimly sketch, and that these shall give place to hopes more radiant, and a fruition still more glorious! It is thus that the unknown may for ever continue to gratify our love of knowledge, and the untold mysteries of the universe augment that blissful experience which serves but to enlarge the capacity for enjoyment. How strangely attractive indeed, to us, are the mysteries by which we are encompassed! How wisely arranged is our progress, that new scenes continually open to our view, and lead us onward to a better future! How appropriate here the reflections of Chateaubriand - that "all the beauty, sweetness, and grandeur of life reside in its mysteries; and that no condition can be more deplorable than that of a man who can learn no more? What delight continually fills the heart of youth which knows as yet so little! What satiety depresses the feelings of age to which life's changes have been all revealed! How fortunate for the latter, when the secrets of life are ending, those of eternity commence! "The feelings of love and modesty of friendship and gratitude, are involved in obscurity; yet how strongly do they move the human heart! The angelic virtue of charity loves to withdraw itself from all regards, as though to conceal its celestial origin. The pleasures of thought also are in those sciences which always leave something to be discovered, and fix our regards upon a perspective which is never to terminate. "If, in the bustling city, we survey a modern monument, whose origin or purpose is unknown, it excites no attention; but if we meet upon a desert shore a broken column or mutilated statue, worn by the lapse of ages, its pedestal covered with unknown characters, how interesting a subject of meditation it presents to the mind! Every thing is concealed, every thing is hidden in the universe. Man himself is the greatest mystery of the whole. Whence comes the spark which we call existence, and in what obscurity is it to be extinguished? Our birth and death are placed by the Eternal, like two veiled phan- | toms, at the two extremities of our career. The one produces the inconceivable gift of life-mysterious amidst its light; the other quenches that brilliant spark in the obscurity of its own impenetrable darkness." the solemnity of public worship, to exclude at least the glaring brilliancy of day from the house of prayer: for, however well suited may be the dazling beams of day to the town-hall or the market, where men transact the business of this world; the painful glare transmitted by uncurtained windows, revealing the naked walls, the rude, benches, the rough table, and the clumsy rostrum usually met with in our houses of worship, seem ill to comport with the circumstances of the place and the solemnities of reli pense with the " - long-drawn_aisle and fretted vault," the clustered pillars, the gorgeous tapestry, the carving and the gilding which merely gratify a love of worldly splendour, surely a decent respect for the service of the house of God, should induce a careful attention to every means calculated to favour devotional feeling, and sanctify those rites whose mysterious import claims the undivided attention of the soul ! It is not surprising that men should have availed themselves of the influence of mystery upon the human mind, to impose upon it the chains of superstition. An affected sanctity-gion. Though we may indeed disa claim of angelic visions, or of miraculous power to heal, secure at once the wonder and submission of the throng. The strange accents of the unknown language of the massthe awful mystery of transubstantiation-the solemn ceremonies of a worship imperfectly comprehended, and rendered still more imposing by symbolic images, and mysterious scrolls dimly perceived in the empurpled light of stained and Gothic windows, or through the smoke of fra- How often may we justly impute grant incense these all are calcu- to the absence of such aids, that want lated to take hold of the imagination of reverence which is so conspicuous! and enchain the soul. How often are those wandering Surely, however, it is not incon- | thoughts, those restless glances, those gruous with the real mysteries of re-distracted feelings, which are so realigion, to throw around them those dily marked, occasioned by those unpleasing shades and grateful harmo- propitious arrangements by which the nies which so well display their na- things and thoughts of the world are ture and extend their power. The continually pressed upon the attenancient tabernacle was shrouded in tion! In vain would Heaven assist curtains; and while the gorgeous our faith by the sacred symbols of temple shone in all the elegance of divine love, and allure the heart to architecture, it had its deep recesses, dwell upon spiritual joys, when the its secret chambers, and its veiled glare and bustle of every day life are mysterious sanctuary. Even the pre- permitted to intrude themselves into sence of the Deity was indicated by the house of the worshipping assembly. the cloud that filled these sacred abodes. For He who conceals himself in " light that no man can approach," "makes darkness also his secret place-his pavilion round about him dark waters and thick clouds of the skies." And it is but a just conformity to the fitness of things, and an efficient aid to devotional feeling and It is here that every thing should promote that solemn stillness and that reverential awe, which prepare the heart for communion with God, and a better appreciation of the deep. mysteries of his grace. It is in the contemplation of these that the soul reaches forward into an unseen eternity, and anticipates the day, when, freed from the trammels of mortality, it shall be free to explore those wonders now so imperfectly perceived and understood. It is in making new discoveries in the depths of divine wisdom, and in gaining clearer insight into his unsearchable judgments, that the Christian realises the blissful privileges he enjoys. Here, then, may the boldest fancy tempt its most adventurous flight, and the mind expand its noblest powers, and the pious heart experience its purest and holiest emotions. There are no boundaries to the ocean of divine love! There are no limits to the riches of divine wisdom! There are no fears that man shall ever find an end, or weep that he can know, and wonder, and enjoy no more. "Praise thou the Lord, O my soul !" Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints." Praise God in his sanctuary-praise him in the firmament of his power-praise him for his mighty acts-praise him according to his excellent greatness. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord! R. R. 66 against Scotch Baptist theology of the Liverpool school! I am at a loss to know how 1 Cor. xiv. 31 has been misapplied in the pamphlet. The passage was quoted to prove there were no clerical distinctions in the primitive churches. Does your correspondent say that there were? And are we to infer that the gift or privilege of speaking in the church was confined to ordained men, in the shape of prophets? The apostle evidently forbids none to prophecy or speak who possessed the gift, except women. With regard to Jeremiah x. 23, what bearing can the reference to holy angels and obedient believers following Christ have on the passage? Certainly not this, that man having the divine will discovered to him, will obey; for if this capability exists in man, he can direct his own steps in opposition to the language of the prophet; whereas holy angels, on the one hand, delight in God agreeably with their nature; and believers, on the other hand, are the subjects of a new or divine nature, and upheld and supported by God. Want of strength REPLY TO J. D.'s STRICTURES. to do good must imply, at least, a No. II. MR. EDITOR-Your correspondent, the writer of the Strictures on the Baptist Pamphlet, after pointing out a sufficient quantity of " errors," proceeds in his subsequent communications to notice "misapplications" and "perversions" of scripture. As these remarks bear more particularly on the scriptural proofs adduced in support of the doctrines advocated in the pamphlet, I trust you will excuse my occupying a few more of your pages by a reply thereto, which I will make as brief as possible. I cannot but however notice the somewhat altered tone of his last communications, so plentifully interlarded as they are with the designations "Sir" and "Gentlemen," mingled, it is true, with occasional bursts of indignation deprivation of holiness, and this is the idea given in Rom. v. 6, " When we were yet without strength," &c. That Psalm cxix. 117, refers to this sinfulness in man, is plain from the Psalmist connecting with strength from God, respect for his precepts. With regard to the question, "Is the writer quite sure that this is not the language of Christ?" I would only ask him in reply-Is he quite sure that it is? As well might we say this of the 5th, 6th, and 126th verses. If the quotation, "When did the subject overcome his king," &c. had been made in its connection, we should not have been gravely reminded of the historical fact that the Americans and Haytians achieved their independence. Rom. vi. 17, as I have shown in my last, teaches, however, a somewhat different doc trine to that of man emancipating himself from the thraldom of sin, seeing their freedom is ascribed to God, and their obedience to the heavenly mould of doctrine into which they were delivered. This, we are told, is Baptism. As the apostle, however, does not mention the sign, but the reality—namely, the doctrine itself it appears evident that he meant his words to be understood in their obvious sense. 66 Again, 1 Cor. iv. 7, we are told, was addressed to one man." It would have "enlightened darkness" if your correspondent had stated who this individual was. As the apostle is silent on the subject, his language must be understood as referring to any man who should boast of any difference between himself and another, either in gifts or grace, as if he had not received all from God. Applying this to the case of the Bereans, the same language is strictly applicable. Who made the difference between them and the Thessalonian unbelievers? They were more noble, and why? Not, it is replied, because they had any special exercise of divine power." Why should their case, however, be different to that of Lydia's, "whose heart the Lord opened" before she believed? 66 Perversions 6, 7, 8, and 9, may be disposed of in a few words. The first arises from an error in quoting the passage similar to the one discoverable in J. D.'s correction of it. From the words however quoted, the reader might easily see the reference was to Eph. 1st chapter. This, we This, we are told, down to the 12th verse, relates to the Apostles of Christ; but it would be difficult to show that there was any reference to Apostles throughout the chapter, except the Apostle's allusion to himself in 1 and 15 verses. The writers of the pamphlet are charged with attempting to pass off a part of the chain of salvation for the whole, having omitted the foreknow ledge of God in their quotation from Rom. viii. 30. This, most assuredly, was not an intentional omission, and the link, when supplied, only makes the argument still stronger; for the Divine Being sees the end from the beginning, and therefore whatever he foreknows must be in accordance with his purpose: and this the Apostle declares. "Foreknowledge," however, J. D. converts into " a knowledge," and with the help of this alteration, and the idea of glorification by a divine gift of tongues, he jumps at once to the conclusion that the passage refers to the "faithful ones "who were looking for the Messiah's coming. The fact, however, that it was addressed to those who were " in Christ Jesus," believers at Rome, for their consolation, is sufficient to set aside this idea. 66 In reference to John 15, 16, there cannot be a doubt that it was originally addressed to the Apostles of our Lord. Christ, however, does not say he had chosen them to be apostles, but to "bring forth fruit ;" and the truth addressed to them was the same as that of which the Thessalonian brethren were reminded. That human agency is recognized in the recovery of Christ's sheep, was never denied by the writers of the pamphlet. It will, however, I apprehend, be admitted, that there is a very important distinction between admitting the instrumentality of the word in conversion, and affirming that the word itself, without divine power superadded, is sufficient to convert the sinner. Does your correspondent advocate the latter? As it is tolerably clear he does, then the doctrine which the writers of the pamphlet have exposed, is something more than an "effigy." At all events, if such, it is made ready to hand by A. Campbell and the advocates of his system. True, the characteristics of Christ's sheep are that they hear his voice; but this does not prove that their hearing his voice constitutes them sheep, John x. 27-29; for if, as in the context, our Lord declares to the Jews that they believed not because they were not of his sheep then it cannot be that those who were his sheep believed in order to become so; for if not his sheep before believing, they never would believe, since that was the very reason assigned by Christ why the Jews did not believe. which he speaks having long since arrived, the hardening process must have been removed: instead of this the Jews continue to this day an impenitent people; whereas, according to the Apostle's language, when the fulness of the Gentiles had come in the blindness should be removed, and all Israel saved. the things of the Spirit of God. Are not all without God natural men? And if in the case of the Jews and Greeks the gospel was folly and a stumbling-block, is it not plain that a spiritual change is necessary to understand spiritual things? I now come to perversions 10 and 11, and misapplication 12. In refeYour correspondent's remarks on rence to the 1st, on 1 Cor. ii. 14, we John vi. 37, do not lack ingenuity, are told the allusion is entirely to the and would, if true, have proved indeed Apostles of our Lord, as being superthat he had discovered a secret of naturally made acquainted with diwhich the writers of the pamphlet vine mysteries. The Apostle, howwere very ignorant. There are, however, shows that the same Spirit ever, very serious objections to the equally instructed all believers, since view which he gives of this and simi- | the natural man could not understand lar passages. Ist-Because, according to his own showing, the welcomers of Jesus had diligently and faithfully searched, heard, and learned of the Father. Their coming to Christ, then, it is plain, was the result of their own diligence, not because it was given to them of the Father. Their election, therefore, on this ground, was not of the Father, but of themselves. They were prepared to recognize Christ as the Messiah, and were accordingly elected. "The election," therefore, must have obtained the blessing, not on account of being elected agreeably with Romans xi. 7, but because of their diligence and faithfulness: what, therefore, election or non-election could have to do with the matter, appears difficult to say, since the equity of the divine character alone, according to his own supposition, would have dictated this procedure. 2nd-If from the Old Testament Scriptures, these "welcomers of Jesus were prepared to recognize him as the Messiah, they must have been previously acquainted with Christ, and consequently could not fail to receive him when he appeared as in the case of Simeon. 3rd. -The facts of the case are completely in opposition to your correspondent's theory, the "golden opportunity" of Matthew 16-17, is disposed of much in the same fashion. However it is easy to detect such mystifications of truth from the fact that multitudes saw Christ's miracles, heard his discourses, and yet remained in ignorance. Superior discernment, therefore, must be admitted as belonging to Peter, on J. D.'s supposition; and yet the Saviour affirms that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him. It is impossible to reconcile the above statements. Our Lord's language, however, is in perfect accordance with his declaration, that to them "it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God." In reference to John vi. 44, that it relates simply to Jews drawn to Christ by the Father, it is only necessary to observe, that the drawing of men to Christ is entirely of God. The Father, J. D. says, drew Jews to Christnow the Son draws all to him. What does this teach obviously, but that when men believe they are drawn of God. M |