been more fatal to the souls of multitudes than the stage; and not only because of its false doctrines and paralogy, but because of its positive impiety and immorality.

Protestants will concur with me in opinion as to the mummery, mockery, and trickery of the old "Mother Church," while, as dutiful daughters, they have only more fashionably appareled themselves in the same garb and trumpery, cut and trimmed after a less offensive model. Hypocrisy, insincerity, irreverence, licentiousness, antinomianism, and even profanity, often show themselves through all the dress and trimmings of the sanctimoniousness in which even modern orthodoxy occasionally decorates herself

The profanity of the religious press is sanctioned and often encouraged by the licentiousness of the pulpit. By the profanity of the religious press, I do not mean that gross and vulgar thing sometimes designated profanity. But I hold it to be profane to give us a grave lecture on the "new birth" in one column of a religious newspaper, as I have just now seen, and on the next to give us a treatise on "eggs and poultry." This is to place regeneration and eggs on common ground; and this necessarily desecrates the one or consecrates the other.

I never liked to see professors talking politics or economics till the moment of dinner, and in an instant of time, almost in the same breath, invoke the Most High in thanksgiving for the repast provided; while as yet the echo of the name of some traduced or extolled political demagogue was ringing in the ears of the company. This is too much like introducing balls with prayers, or singing psalms in a play-house between the comedy and the farce. Cattle shows have, within my knowledge, been preceded with a visit to the sanctuary and a long prayer, while the Durham cows were bellowing for their calves, and the brood mares neighing for their colts hard by the synagogue. This differs not much from the piety that feasts on Scott and Bulwer till the bell rings for family worship, which closes the romance and opens the psalter at the striking of the clock. All this, with me, is real profanity, though more polished and fashionable than than which we hear in the streets, or see in the haunts of licentiousness and crime.

Custom has consecrated a great deal of impiety and immorality both in the pulpit and the religious press; and society is polluted and vitiated in the very sanctuary of religion by her professed friends and advocates. In elevating the standard of morality among Christians I find it impossible to gain ground unless the public taste is enlightened and improved on the present character and standing both of the pulpit and the religious press-to which it has become necessary that we should occasionally devote an essay or two.

A. C.

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION-NO. II.

Or the four schools essential to the proper training and development of man, the FAMILY SCHOOL is first in order, as it is first in importance. Man is formed and moulded in the domestic circle more than in all the ether circles in the world. We all acknowledge this, and therefore it needs no proof. But how shall he be best trained in this school? He has to learn things and persons, and the differences and relations between them. But his own relations to persons and things are a most prominent and indispensable item. His natural relations first-his moral relations next. These, as well as the art of reading, should be learnt at home. The judicious mother will seldom commit this honor to others; she will always, if in her power, have this delightful task performed under her own inspection, if not by her own lips. Aware that precept is little, and example every thing with a child, she will rely infinitely more upon how she speaks, what she speaks, and what she does in the presence of her child, than upon what she may command it to do.

1st. She will teach it early rising, personal cleanliness, self-government, filial reverence and affection, brotherly kindness and love. Until it can read the Bible for itself, she will imbue its mind with the truths and sentiments and inspirations of that book, by teaching it in the most simple style, its stupendous facts, its holy precepts, and its rich and precious promises.

2d. She will also, on every suitable occasion, teach it its own frame and the physical laws of its being; the conditions of life, of health and physical happiness; and as far as its age can apprehend these, she will diligently seek to make it acquainted with itself.

3d. The use of itself in the creation-the use of its body and of its mind in the sphere of its being will also constitute a continual lesson in the early communications of discreet and well educated parents. Industry, energy, activity, economy, will be taught as carefully as the alphabet, both theoretically and practically. The employment of the hand, as well as that of the mind, is a most essential department of education, and should form a necessary part of the training of the son of a king as well as of the son of his humblest subject.

Every one that has a hand is as much obliged to use it as his mind; nay, indeed, he cannot manage the one without the other. The mind is essential to the proper use of the hand, and the exercise of the hand is indispensable to the full development of the mind. Every sane parent will eschew the doctrine that industry is a disgrace; and that his son's hands were not made to handle the quill, the chisel, the axe, the spade, or the plough. To train a child to consume the labors of others, without equivalent services rendered to them, is the shortest and surest way to teach it dishonesty and great immorality at one lesson. No human being can be trained morally and religiously who is not trained to habitual industry. The art of reading is not more essential to a scholar, than the art of industry is to a good citizen or a good Christian.

The family school, guided and managed by wise and affectionate parents, will not neglect any one of the items of education just now

mentioned, any more than it will neglect to feed and clothe its infant members. But it will be said, few parents, from their defective educa. tion, are qualified to discharge judiciously and faithfully these duties. It must, indeed, be conceded that those parents who have not them. selves been well educated, can seldom ably discharge those duties to their own households. Hence the necessity of immediate reformation in family education, lest the difficulties that now prevent the adoption of a rational and moral system should be continued and prolonged to the great detriment of the best interests of the human race. *

The time has come when a thorough reformation in education must be generally adopted-and especially in this school now under consideration. One item of that reformation, for which we will always contend, is, that religious and moral culture must be first, last, midst, and without end, in every school in which man is moulded for the high ends of his destiny. Every fact, incident, event-every systemsidereal, solar, lunar, mundane-every ocean, sea, lake, river, fountain-every mountain, hill, valley, plain-every organized creaturetree, shrub, flower-bird, beast, fish, insect, and atom of the universe, must be noticed, developed, taught in reference to God and Christ and immortality.

We 'care not what Deists, Sceptics, Atheists, Sectarians inay say: the Bible facts, narratives, precepts, promises, revelations, must be the standing text in every intelligent, moral, polite, and well-bred family on earth, from the royal palace down to the shepherd's tent. Religion, morality, politeness-or, in one word, happiness, individual and social, must be the standing order of the day-of every day, in every model family, from the highest to the lowest in the land, before the Christian dispensation shall have attained its millennial glory in this world.

Nature and history, or creation and providence, may-nay, must be studied; but they must be studied in relation to the God of nature, of providence, and of redemption. They must be an essential part of the course in any school, and in every school which we wish to institute or patronize; and, chief of all, in the infant or family school. The order of such a well regulated family or school is yet almost universally to be learned, so far as my knowledge extends. In such a family religion will be the business of the day-not a form, or ceremony, or duty to be performed after supper, before going to bed, when all are drowsy or asleep; nor before breakfast, when all are preparing for the business of the day. In the morning one hour's reading the scripture by the whole family, in turn, with questions and explanations adapted to the understanding and improvement of all, will be of more value than months of such devotions as are usually called family worship, performed according to the prevailing customs of this age. But an hour in the morning and another in the evening so spent, would be too little for the biblical portion of the education of a family of ordinary size. Experience and the testimony of others who have tried it, amply support this conclusion.

But say many, 'We have not time so to instruct our children and to improve our own knowledge and piety." Astonishing! For what, then,

In the development of the system of education which we are about to recommend and desire to institute, this difficulty will be more minutely discussed.

was time given! You have nothing so deserving of time as this matter. To hear one say he has not time to save himself and family from ignorance, guilt, and bondage, by a due attention upon the appointed means, reminds one of the lady who had not time to pull her child out of the fire till she had finished the ornaments she was preparing for its person. It is most absurd! This is the first of all claims upon time, and indeed the only portions of redeemed time, which will be always remembered with inexpressible joy, are those hours devoted to the religious and moral culture of ourselves, our children, and domestics. Without this school no system will ever meet the expectations of the world, the predictions of the Prophets, or qualify human beings for the high destiny, spiritual and eternal, which awaits them who walk in the paths of wisdom and virtue. A. C.

FISHER THE REVIVALIST.

MANY of our readers have doubtless heard of Mr. Fisher, the celebrated Baptist revivalist, who has even surpassed his master, Mr. Maffit, some Baptists being judges, in his declamatory eloquence and power of fascination. They will also remember that in September last I was asked by a brother Robinson, of Madison, Indiana, whether this Mr. Fisher had not been excluded from one of our churches for unchristian conduct; Mr. Fisher having, from the "sacred desk," in that town, denied that he ever was connected with any of our churches, "by letter, baptism, experience, or any other way." In the face of this public denial, when called upon, I feel it my duty to sustain the veracity of brother Robinson, and to declare the fact that the said Fisher "was once reckoned a brother among the disciples, and was a member of a church near Middletown, Pa., from which he was excluded for disorderly and unchristian behaviour." For this testimony I am spoken of in the following terms, by John L. Waller, the Editor of the "Baptist Banner," Ky., Dec. 27, 1838:

"MR. CAMPBELL NAILED TO THE WALL-We have several times alluded to Mr. Camp. bell's base slander upon the character of brother Fisher in the 9th number of the 2d volume of the Millennial Harhinger. We now insert his remarks that our readers may see with what reckless composure he can make most hellislineals of good men's names The safety of community demands that such a man should be avoided as a pestilence. His breath is a moral simoom. His tongue 'outvenoms all the worms of Nile.'"

I can make no comment on this "fruit of the spirit" of this organ of the Baptist denomination. It speaks for itself. It very appositely illustrates at least a portion of our present essay on the morality of Christians and of the religious press. One would imagine that a person of much conscientiousness who would dare thus publicly to deny a matter so easily tested, would, from self-respect, if he hates us more than he hates Satan, have strong evidence that we had spoken unadvisedly on the subject. But it appears that he had not one word of counter testimony whatever, except Mr. Fisher himself; and yet, without any other evidence than that of the accused, expresses himself in the above unenviable style!! He has not backed his assertion by a single witness; and even in the attempt to justify Fisher, or rather to

extenuate and prevaricate for him, he shows that he knew he had been one of us at the very time he so presumptuously denied my declaration, and seeks to quibble about the organization of the particular church in which he was at the time a member. Here is his proof:

"If our information be correct, at the time alluded to by Mr. Campbell, his followers had no church in Middletown. Two of his daughters, two of his brothers-in-law, and some two or three students, whose membership was at Bethany and other reformed churches, used occasionally to meet and break the loaf:' but unless it is in accordance with the beauties of the reformation for persons to be members of two churches at once, there was no church of Mr. Campbell's order in or near Middletown'at that time. Such is our information on the subject. So all that Mr. Campbell says on that subject is untrue,"

His proof is all founded upon "IF his information be correct."

What a conscience!! Such a bull of defamation resting upon one IF-upon the hypothetically true information of the accused and excommunicated Fisher himself!!

But it is in this case, as our traducers ought long since to have learned, a disastrous affair to them to put us to the proof of our morality in any matter which concerns their reputation. Out of Mr. Fisher's own mouth we shall convict him. He wrote as follows to the PostMaster at Middletown, Pa. about the time the Baptist Banner was undertaking his defence. This epistle clearly exhibits in what an agony he was to get out of the falsehood he proclaimed from the "sacred desk" in Indiana, and how reckless he was as to the means:

Mr. P. M.:

GREENSBURG, KY, December 4, 1838.

Dear Sir-You will confer a favor on me by letting me know where Mr. James Sloan lives at this time. Please let me know whether the Campbellites have a church at Pleasant Hill, or not. Let me know what has become of black Israel, and whether he belongs to the Campbellites as yet, and what is his character. Please let me know what has become of John Agnew, W. Lindsey, Robert Sloane, and Mr. Neale, who were at Pleasant Hill Seminary, at the time I was, in the fall of 1830. I shall visit Middletown in the spring, no providential hindrance. Write, if you please, forthwith.

Your friend,

T. J. FISHER. P.S. I wish you to ascertain if the Campbellites ever had a regularly constituted church at Pleasant Hill Seminary, and by whom it was constituted, and in what year.

T. J. FISHER.

Is it not evident from the letter, and from the editorial of the Banner, December 27, 1838, that there was an understanding between Messrs. Fisher and Waller as to the means by which the denial was to be sustained, by disputing the organization of the church that excluded him. The course machinated between these conspirators is as evident as that detailed between Ananias and Sapphira. They both tell the same story; but the sequel will show with what plausibility. Observe, courteous reader, Mr. Fisher does not ask any thing about his own membership, character, nor excommunication; but about some of his fellow-students and fellow-members of the church!! Why did he not ask for Dr. Pinkerton, on whose motion his case was taken up and himself excluded. Perhaps it was because he knew he was at this time in Kentucky!!! Well, I have called upon him for his recollections of the affair, because then a member of that church, and almost ever since absent from it. He testifies as follows:

Brother Campbell,

In reply to your interrogatories, I answer-Early in January, 1831, I became acquainted with Mr. Fisher. He was introduced to me as a Christian brother, in fellowship with the congregation meeting for worship at that time about a mile from West VOL. III.-N. S.

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