and your neighbours have continued their carelessness and sin, and gone on in the way to hell. Some of them have died apparently without religion, and gone to eternal woe. 0.-I have reason to believe that is true.

C.-Sir, are you half awake to the tremendous consequences of your negligence? Here are many of your neighbours sinning against God, and destroying their immortal souls, rushing on to perdition, and you, you are the man to lead in warning and exhorting them to flee from the wrath to come and seek salvation. But by your negligence you have been giving the lie to your professed belief about their guilt and danger; and encouraging other Christians to do the same. Sir, your course is wicked; dishonouring God, and ruinous to souls.

0. I know it is not right. I wish I were a better man. But my mind is so dark and dull that I am not fit to speak to my neighbours on the subject.

C.-Well, what are you going to do? Are you going to remain so, and thus lull your neighbours in their death-sleep, and let them fall into the pit before your eyes? 0.-I must not do that. But how shall I become fit to speak to them effectually? It is no use to talk to them when I am so dull myself.

C.-I will tell you. Go to work for their salvation. Do not wait, and wait, to get ready; but go to work. Pray God to save them. Go and talk with other Christians, and pray with them. Appoint a meeting for the neighbours. Look at them as they are adding sin to sin, dishonour

ing God, and rushing to everlasting woe, and remember that you, you are to lead in efforts to arouse and save them.

0.-Well, I will think about it. C.-Dear Sir, take care. Thinking about it will not save their souls, nor clear your garments from blood guilt. You have thought about it, without earnest work, too long. You must go into the work, in order to become prepared for the work. That is what you must do: and now, as you would not dishonour your sacred office; as you would not lull your fellow-Christians in their guilty slumbers; as you would not let your unconverted neighbours perish and sink among the lost for ever; and as you would not grieve the Saviour that bled for you, go to work. Go to your neighbours; go praying, confessing, pleading; go, persuade Christians to arise and call on God to save the perishing, and to plead with them to repent and live. Go, warn, exhort, entreat, kindly, earnestly urge sinners to turn and live. You

must not say me nay. They perish-they rush towards the pit. They hasten to the everlasting fire. Go, pray them to turn and live. Your profession bids you do it; your office bids you do it; your Saviour bids you do it; the doom they hasten to bids you do it. Servant of Christ, leader of a part of His people, be not recreant to your highest trust. Go, work for the Lord, to save the souls that perish.

I. T.

his

A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. THE Bible records many instances of the Divine interposition to deliver prophets and apostles from impending danger. We cannot believe that such instances were confined to God's ancient people; they are continued at the present day, if our eyes are clear-sighted to discern them. Dr. Kane, in his fascinating volumes, acknowledges, very devoutly, faith in a special Providence, and the late General Havelock recognized many interpositions in his own personal experience. We give a single illustration, taken from his biography by Mr. Headley. He was at Cabool, as aid to the ill-fated Gen. Elphinstone, when the regiment of which he was adjutant was sent to Jellalabad, under Col. Sale. Havelock was greatly dissatisfied with the military and civil administration of Gen. Elphinstone, and hesitated whether he should remain at Cabool, or join his regiment at Jellalabad. His biographer shall tell the rest :

"Uncertain what course to adopt, he took up his Bible, that lay on the table, and opened it, casually, at the

39th chapter of Jeremiah, verses 16-19, and read, with profound emotions, what seemed to him, at the time, the language of God, directed to him.

"Go and speak to Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good, and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord; and thou shalt not be given into the hands of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee; because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.'

"By the time Havelock had finished reading these verses, his decision was taken; he resolved to leave the doomed city, and obtaining permission to join Sale, hastened at once to the camp."

A few months later, Cabool was evacuated by the English troops, and of the large and noble army that garrisoned it, but a single fugitive escaped to Jellalabad.

REV. SIR,-In a recent controversy you directed attention to a small work, entitled แ "Tracts on the Church," by the Rev. W. Jones, M.A., which, you led the reader to suppose, would supply an answer to certain arguments, sufficiently satisfactory and conclusive. I am

open to conviction, and therefore procured the book and read it attentively, and I must confess with much sorrow, for I soon discovered that Baptismal Regeneration and the Efficacy of Sacraments, when administered by men who claim apostolical succession, constituted the

foundation on which Mr. Jones was about to build his whole theory; which, of all the errors that have afflicted our sin-stricken world, have been most instrumental in deluding perishing sinners, by inducing them to believe a lie, and to depend, for salvation, on mere signs, which were intended only to proclaim and illustrate vital truths in the religion of Jesus. Baptism, to whomsoever it may be administered, is the initiatory ordinance of Christianity, and sets forth the absolute necessity of that spiritual purification which the Holy Spirit alone can effect; of whose Divine operations our Lord said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

The Lord's Supper is a commemorative ordinance, which Christ instituted, that His disciples might do that, in obedience to His command, which, on each occasion of celebration, would remind them of His sufferings and death-the one sacrifice, which was offered up once for all, by which He procured for them the privileges of His redeemed church here, and eternal happiness hereafter. It was also intended to promote unity of spirit and brotherly love among those, who only have a right to partake; whom He has called by His grace into the fellowship of the Gospel; who are justified

by faith in His one atonement, sanctified by the operation of the Holy Spirit on the soul, by the instrumentality of Divine truth; and who are constrained by love to their best friend to produce the

fruits of righteousness; and thus, by a holy life, they testify to the truth of their Master's words, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." To such individuals, the texts which Mr. Jones quotes apply with great force, and when they are interpreted with reference to them, have meaning, and can be understood clearly; but when they are employed, indiscriminately, to describe "Members of the church by spiritual birth in baptism," they lose all significance, and, in reality, are made to affirm what, in such persons, does not take place, I mean, in consequence of the performance of that rite. Your author himself admits, that such passages of holy writ as those to which he so pointedly refers, imply and express a great change of some sort, for he says, "When we are admitted into the Christian covenant, we renounce this world as a wicked world, and become members of the church which is called holy." I allow, Rev. Sir, with you, (for I presume that the sentiments of the ingenious and clever author are yours, or you would not have recommended us to read the work,) the total depravity of man, his natural proneness to evil, and his enmity to God and holiness, till he becomes a real member of the true church. The portions of God's word which are adduced, illustrate, strikingly and affectingly, the fact that "he is dead in trespasses and sins," and has no more desire for salvation and holiness than the corpse has to perform the functions

of natural life. "He is without Christ; an alien from the commonwealth of Israel; a stranger from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."

But God has a church in the world, and, that a fallen son of Adam may have a place in it, he must be turned from sin to holiness, and become a possessor of spiritual qualifications, which alone can fit him to be a member of that holy body. So great is the requisite change, that it is represented by the figurative language, "Being born again of the Spirit;" "Quickened together with Christ;" "Passing from death unto life;" "Becoming a new creature in Christ, old things passing away, all things becoming new." It is a great moral and spiritual change which takes place, and the all-important question is, how is it effected? Mr. Jones replies, "As the world is under condemnation, the church is under grace and pardon of sin; its baptism washes away original sin, and gives a new birth to purity and righteousness; its other sacrament of the Lord's Supper maintains that spiritual life which is begun at baptism, as meat and drink support the life we receive at our natural birth." His real meaning is, that the great change is wrought at baptism, and maintained by the Lord's Supper; that is, when administered by authorised teachers; but let me tell you, Rev. Sir, that matter of fact is against the assertion. The spiritual renovation of which the Scriptures speak does not appear in the lives and conduct of multitudes who have been thus

baptized, and have thus partaken of the Lord's Supper; in fact, they are evidently none the better, morally and spiritually, for the administration of the one, or participation in the other. They are not quickened and brought into a state of spiritual life, notwithstanding they have gone through the process which, Mr. Jones tells us, makes them Christians. They give, alas, abundant proof that they still belong to this wicked world, and that if "there shall in no wise enter into heaven anything that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie;" if they were to die in their present state, they could not be admitted. I have known infidels, Sabbathbreakers, swearers, and persons who were every day breaking almost every commandment in the decalogue, who were baptized by clergymen as thoroughly apostolical as Dr. Wilberforce himself, or any of his clergy. No wonder that your author, after having depicted the characteristic marks of Christ's sheep, should apparently be almost startled by the manifest difference between his theory and reality, and therefore should tell us "such ought to be the members of the holy church of Christ; this is the character intended for them, though many fall short of it, and some totally depart from it; but the visible church-membership of men does not depend upon their manners and opinions, nor indeed upon anything they can do for themselves, because it is the gift of God by His ministers, so that a man in a holy church may be an unholy man," &c. It is no mystery at all, that men

should not maintain a character which they never bore, and which, in their natural state, they are incapable of bearing.

When I read 1 Cor. vi. 9-11; 2 Cor. vi. 14, &c.; 1 Peter i. 1-5, 18-25, common sense tells me that all the water in Jordan, yea, in the universe, though it might be applied by an inspired apostle, could not effect what must transpire in me before "I am begotten again, through the abundant mercy of God, unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

The New Testament (and that can understand, but Mr. Jones I cannot) teaches me that the great change requisite to membership in the church of Christ is produced by Divine power, irrespective of man; that the priest, as he unscripturally designates himself, is as powerless to effect it as a new-born babe; that he can neither forgive sin, nor by anything which he can administer, ensure salvation. "I have planted," said the apostle, "Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." We have an illustration, in the case of Paul himself. He was regenerated, changed, converted, which terms I understand to mean the same, and he became obedient to Christ, as he was pursuing his errand of death on the road to Damascus. Who can

deny the transformation which then took place? He who was a persecutor of Christ became His obedient servant. "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" exclaimed the prostrate penitent. Here, then, we have Paul before us, a converted man; therefore, a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Had an apostle baptized him, and thus made him what he now was, or had he received the Lord's Supper, and thus was saved? Certainly not. The great transaction of mercy, which he himself attributed to Sovereign Grace, took place before he had either received baptism or the Lord's Supper; and it would be the height of presumption to assert, that if he had died before participation in these ordinances, he would not have gone to heaven. The penitent thief on the cross could not have been thus regenerated and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; and yet, when he confessed his sing to Christ, and prayed to share in His mediation, the Saviour said, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

I may be told that they are means of grace, which I do not deny, and as such I would use them. But when it is affirmed that their observance, in any circumstances, will save my soul, or place it in a salvable state, I object to the statement, and avow my solemn conviction, that such a doctrine is a lie against God's truth; and of such vast importance do I deem the topic, that, while I have a hand to write, or a tongue to speak, I will not fail to denounce the soul-destroying error.