by diverted from our internal concerns, and we are prevented from making those attainments in a life of holiness which we might otherwise make. We need not fancy we are glorifying God, or doing good to the souls of others, by those public labors which make us neglect the spiritual care of our own souls: for we glorify God only as we have the temper of mind which was in Christ; and we do good to others only as the divine unction accompanies our labors; which unction we have in proportion as the Holy Spirit dwells in us. "I do earnestly desire and pray, that 'the ancient order of things may be restored;' but I do not think this can be done, until men shall be raised up who will lay 'the axe at the root of the tree:' and the root of the evil consists, not so much in the form or tendency of our creed, as in the unsanctified temper of our hearts. A worldly spirit blinds our minds, nor can we be aware of the difference between ourselves and primitive christians, until in simplicity we receive these words of Christ: 'If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' The whole design of the commands and duties enjoined in the gospel of Christ, is to counteract and destroy the propensities of our fallen nature and make us holy, and so prepare us for the heavenly state; and whatever does not have a bearing on this point, in relation to ourselves or others, appears to me unworthy of much discussion among christians. "I infer from your saying the books are your 'last and best gifts to the Burman Mission,' that you have adopted Mr. Campbell's sentiments about Missions and other benevolent operations of the present day, and with him suppose we are 'living like princes,' making ourselves rich on the charities of the people; but I am sure you would alter your opinion of us, if you were to come and board in either of our families a few weeks, and live just as we live. * What are your objections to Missions? Taking the New Testament for your guide, surely you cannot suppose that ministers ought not to go among the heathen; nor would you suppose that an European Missionary in India could support himself by personal labor, if you had any idea of the climate; (and by the way, if the work of a Missionary is to support himself, he might accomplish that end much better by staying at home;) nor could you suppose the heathen would support him, if you knew their principles. What then is to be done? Suppose all christians should make a stand and resolve that they would do nothing for Missions until every thing should be managed to their minds, when would the gospel be carried among the heathen? If you conscientiously think ministers ought to come as Missionaries to this place, without depending upon any society for support, what excuse have you for not coming yourself? especially as there are so few who would be willing to undertake it, and as you have had some impressions of duty on the point. "Our hearts are so extremely deceitful, so selfish, that we sometimes, unawares, substitute a self-denying theory for a self-denying life. I have frequently detected myself in such self-deceptions; and though I doubt not you acted conscientiously in withdrawing from the Missionary cause, on account of misapplication, as you suppose, of the funds, yet I do feel assured that you have adopted wrong principles on the subject. Suppose, for instance, you were placed in the circumstances of the poor widow whom our Lord commended, and were revolving in your mind whether you should cast your two mites into the treasury, would you, on the principles you have adopted, have done as the poor widow did? Would you not have said, "The funds of this treasury are collected in a bad way: many give for no other purpose than to be seen of men, and many of the appropriations go only to enrich the scribes and priests, who live like princes,' and, considering these circumstances, would you not have concluded, that to support such a fund would be to countenance sin, and have kept the two mites for the same reasons, and with the same conscientious feelings, that you have in not supporting Missions? Yet our Lord knowing for certainty that many gave from bad motives, and, not to mention other appropriations, that an appropriation would be made out of these funds to pay Judas for the worst of all purposes, commended the poor widow. My dear brother, VOL. III. 38+ weigh this matter, and do not let the real or supposed misperformance of duty in others, hinder you from obeying the injunction of Christ, by which you are bound either to go personally and carry the gospel to the heathen, or contribute to the support of others who will go. Though it should be true that others support religious and charitable institutions in a wrong way, that does in no wise excuse you or any other person from doing it in a right way." To the Editor of the American Baptist Magazine. WELLSBURG, Va. June 6th, 1832. SIR-I HAVE now lying before me the "Religious Herald," of May 25th, in which, under the head "RELIGIOUS.-Piety better than Controversy," and a few remarks credited to your periodical, I find a reply, such as it is, and what there is of it, to two letters, written by me in April and October, 1830, to "a Missionary on foreign shores." The letter was received, I presume, in a package with others, directed to the care of the Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Board, and by him prepared for, and communicated to the public, in the form we now have it. I regret not that it is published, but that it was not sent to me first. As I have not yet received it in the handwriting of my friend; as it of right beJongs to me, and I wish to see the thing itself and the whole of it, before I write to him again, this is to request that it may be forthwith forwarded to me to this place. If I might have the whole as cheap as I have a part of it in common print, expecting never more to see my friend's face in the flesh, and having no other keep-sake from him, I would rather pay postage for the paper on which he wrote, and on that paper to see the print of his pen. The letter I ask is the original autograph of J W -'s letter to F. W. E. REPLY TO THE "SENTIMENTS" OF THE MISSIONARY'S REPLY. Dear Brother Wade, LETTER III. WELLSBURG, Va. August 25, 1832. WHEN my letters of April and October, 1830, to you, were first written, they were not intended for the public eye, but for yours and your associates' alone: and much as my confidence was then shaken in the policy, management, and managers of the modern popular Missionary operations, I did not anticipate being placed by them in just the situation I now find myself in reference to you. I had calculated, if you ever replied to me, you would send a sealed letter, superscribed as I requested, to Sturbridge; and that it would have remained sealed till I received it. But whatever it might have been, as it came from you, and whatever your designs and instructions respecting it, you will see, when this comes to hand, if not be. fore, the use your friends have made of it-you will see, also, something of my situation. I have not yet received your letter, though I wrote for it early in June last. I am now obliged to reply to the "sentiments" it is said to contain, without knowing when I have your words, and when not-without knowing whether I have all, or only a part of what you addressed to me. You will see something of the light in which your conscientious friend, and others with him, are viewed-judged, by the scribe or priest, whom you would have him still, like the poor widow of old, cast in his mite to feed. That you should mistake the character, and miss in your comments, on the works I sent you, having had leisure when you wrote me, to examine only a few pieces in them, was not at all strange, nor different from what I would have expected; but who is this, that unqualifiedly pronounces-that presumes to say of those who proclaim the ancient gospel for obedience and salvation, and are laboring to restore the ancient order of things to the church of God, that their "chief object is not the increase of piety, nor the conversion of souls"!! One, we are sure, who knows not our hearts-one, who should, from our works, have pronounced differently. But, "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets, who were before you."-The MASTER. If I have your sentiments in the letter before me, (and I shall reply as though I have) you judged rightly in supposing that I would not expect you to approve or condemn the works sent you unread." No: for this reason I requested you to read them. It may not be requisite for you to read all of any work, to judge whether or not it is likely to be profitable to you; but for me, I found it necessary to read the Christian Baptist, all of it, more than once; and then, driven by it to the Bible, to read this as I never read it till then, and for considerable time, before I could be persuaded to renounce the gospel of John Calvin, modified by Andrew Fuller, cum multus aliis doctoribus, for the gospel of Paul and Peter-and the modern protestant order of things, for the ancient order of the New Testament. I could not be persuaded to renounce those and receive these, because I had not as yet learned the difference between them. I, too, earnestly desired and prayed 'that the ancient order of things might be restored,' without knowing what that order was. I did not then think this could, nor do I now think it can be done, without laying the axe at the root of the trees. In these things we agreed then, and we agree now. But what is the root of the evil? what the axe? and how must it be used to destroy it? You answer: "The root of the evil consists not so much in the form and tendency of our creed, as in the unsanctified temper of our hearts." Again: "When we get to heaven, where nothing in our characters will weigh at all, except our personal attainments in holiness, will it not seem to us exceedingly unprofitable to have been so busied during our life on earth in discussing matters of church order, whether this or that creed be adopted, or whether none at all; whether ministers ought to have a collegiate education or not; whether they ought to be supported or not, and such like things, that we had no leisure to subdue our own spirits, and seek after those degrees of personal piety to which eminent saints have attained." So much for the root! Truly, after reading these "sentiments" in the letter before me, I am wont to cry out for my friend, Thou seest men as trees walking! The creed, whether one thing or another, or none at all, is of no account, provided the heart be sanctified'!! And how wnuld you sanctify the heart? "In striving to subdue my depraved nature, and to promote a devout and holy temper of soul""If, &c.-I do sincerely belive the Holy Spirit would have enligtened my mind," &c. &c. Here is the axe, and the manner of using it!! How differently did Christ and his Apostles teach! The axe, with them, was the Word of JEHOVAH. Conversion and sanctification were from obedience to this word, through the belief of it. Their creed to them was every thing-or, without it, sanctification nothing. "Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is the truth." "Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints-one Lord, one faith, one immersion"—immersion for the remission of sins. Hence all who believed and obeyed the ancient gospel, were justified, sanctified, adopted, and saved; and the blood of Christ purified their consciences from dead works to serve the living God. After this, we meet not with one complaint from these sanctified ones, such as you make, of the awful, immense depravity of your unsubdued spirit. The root of the evil, I conceive, consists altogether "in the form and tendency of our creed." If our creed be the scriptures alone, in the form the Apostles and Prophets delivered them, its tendency will be to make us just such christians as were the Apostles themselves, and those who constituted the first churches of their planting. If it be something else, or these in some other form, the root of the evil remains. Without, therefore, laying the axe here-without conversion to and by the word of truth, all our strivings, and watchings, and longings after sanctification, are enthusiastic in the extreme. You will not infer from this that I undervalue a devout and holy temper of soul.-No: without this, there is nothing of christian characternor, that I think, or would speak lightly, of strivings, watchings, and fastings: but, every thing in its own order. I come now to the second part of your letter. You infer from my saying "the books I now send are my last and best gift to the Burman Mission," that I have adopted Mr. Campbell's sentiments about Missions, and other benevolent operations of the present day, and with him suppose, you are living like princes,' making yourselves rich on the charities of the people." How, my brother, could you make this inference? Read again its connexion-"I do not say the last that I shall ever give; but the last at present. I have ever loved you as a christian, &c. &c. but to the SYSTEM of things under which you act, and by which supported, I cannot any longer, conscientiously, contribute my mite." Such being the language, in which, I fully expressed my sentiments, immediately after the saying above quoted, how could you infer that I supposed 'you were living like princes, and making yourselves rich on the charities of the people'? That Mr. Campbell entertains such sentiments of all Missionaries, or of the Burman Missionaries in particular, I have no testimony, and consequently no faith. "What," you next ask, "are your objections to Missions?" You 'doubt not I acted conscientiously in withdrawing from the Missionary cause, on account of misapplication, as I supposed, of its funds.' 'Tis true, that thousands and tens of thousands go to support the agents, the secretaries, and other managers of this cause, and some of them in affluence, while Missionaries like you "live * * * * *” But I object not to this, more than to the sources, the ways and means of raising the funds; or to the Boards by which, when raised, they are disposed of. I object, and have. withdrawn from it, because I find no model of the institution-the motley combinations of saints and sinners, the Missionary Boards, the Presidents, Vice Presidents, &c. &c. in the New Testament. "What then is to be done?"" Heaven's institution for converting the world is the church of Jesus Christ. Let Zion, therefore, arise-let christians become wholly sanctified through the truth-let them embrace the ancient gospel, and the ancient order of things-let them act from the principles which these impart-let the Apostles again be placed on the thrones to which the Saviour exalted them-and let those who pretend to proclaim the gospel, first understand what the gospel is. These I would place among the first things, without which all our efforts are in vain. Though I have as high an opinion of your bible knowledge as of most Missionaries, and a better opinion of your goodness of heart, than you seem to have yourself; yet, I very much question whether you have not still to learn what be the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. With the views you possessed, when the letter before me was written, I am sure you would not preach as Peter did on the day of Pentecost; nor as Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch; nor as Paul to the jailor at Philippi. Nor would you immerse on the same confession, for the same purpose. Were a trembling Burman now to stand before you and say, "Sir, what shall I do to be saved?" Would not your answer be rather like this-"How long have you felt concerned about yourself? What first called up your attention to the subject of religion? Do you feel that you are the chief of sinnersthat your heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked? Do you believe this? You are, sir, totally morally depraved-you cannot think a good thought, nor perform a good action, till a work of grace is effected in you by the sovereign influence of the Holy Spirit. Do you believe this? The wind bloweth where it listethso is every one that is born of the Spirit-i. e. so it is with every one. Do you believe this? You must believe these things, and experience them too, or you cannot be saved." Now, should the Burman, having read Mr. Judson's translation of the New Testament, profess faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, 'No matter,' you would tell him: 'it is unprofitable whether this or that creed be adopted, or none |