In our times, and among many of those to whom we give a high place in our esteem, there is a disposition to substitute this or that reform for the whole of Christianity. None can more deeply deplore this tendency than ourselves. We know it is fraught with spiritual death. We know its end is selfrighteousness and the inhumanity of infidelity. In our own sphere and in our own way we shall feel bound to oppose this error with all our might. We can give it no place, "no, not for an hour." Reforms, so far as we have anything to do with them, must grow out of our religion, not our religion out of them. We can never consent to hold phenomena in higher estimation than substance, body than life. We stand by the citadel.

On the other hand, where there are no phenomena, we doubt as to the existence of substance; where there is life, we insist there should be some signs of it; most of all are we convinced that where the mind of Christ is, there is a manifestation of it in a godly life. Christ is the divine 16yos, his very office being that of manifesting the Father; where he is, the Father is declared. To fulfill his office in this world, he has a body; in that body he goes "about doing good." We hold it important therefore to oppose to the extent of our power, the error opposed to that which we have already mentioned-indeed, to oppose it as the principal occasion of the other.

It is maintained in theory, and the theory is carried into practice, for instance, that, notwithstanding the direful evils, and no good, known to spring from intoxicating beverages, "the sons of God," who make up the body of Christ, may both employ them themselves, and traffic in them to the manifest destruction of the souls of thousands for whom Christ died. The same is true in respect to the great system of oppression in our own country. The system of American Slavery says to education and the gospel of Christ, "thus far." It abolishes the marriage institution, and introduces unblushingly instead thereof every species of licentiousness. It reduces man, made in the image of God, to a chattel; yet it is not only tolerated, but cherished in the so-called church. We insist it cannot be at this day in the body of which Christ is the head. If in

of his person." He, the divine born of the humnan, manifesting in our flesh what we ought to be, as the human born of the divine, gives unto as many of us as receive him, even to as many as believe on his name, power to become by a new birth "the sons of God." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;" he is renewed by a power not his own, “after the image of him that created him."

The re-formed soul is brought into such intimate relations to Christ, is so subjected to his will, that he, through the renewed man, continues to manifest himself to the world, so to say, in human flesh. Each renewed man, and no other, is a member of Christ's church; the church is the body of which Christ is the head (Col. 1: 1); and as we manifest ourselves in this world by means of our bodies, so does Christ manifest himself in this world by means of his body, the church. As Christ, who dwelleth in the bosom of the Father, is ever declaring the Father, so man in Christ by the new birth is ever declaring Christ. The "new creature" is not simply a soul, not even a renewed soul, without any body, but it is a renewed soul manifesting itself by necessity while in this life, in a body of Christ-like works. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Salvation is "not of works, lest any man should boast;" but "if a man have not works, can faith save him?" "Faith without works is dead." "Was not Abraham justified by works ?" "How faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect."

From history and from observation it is manifest there is a perpetual tendency to tear asunder this body and this soul. One insists that genuine religion is faith, prayer, devotedness. Another insists as strenuously that it consists in feeding the hungry, proclaiming temperance, pleading the cause of the oppressed. These parties enter into strife, contending valiantly, like knights, each affirming that the part seen by himself is the whole. The seamless garment is rent; the renewed soul is torn asunder from its body of Christ-like works, and the world, so far as either of these partial views practically obtain as the whole truth, is given over to the dominion of death.

In our times, and among many of those to whom we give a high place in our esteem, there is a disposition to substitute this or that reform for the whole of Christianity. None can more deeply deplore this tendency than ourselves. We know it is fraught with spiritual death. We know its end is selfrighteousness and the inhumanity of infidelity. In our own sphere and in our own way we shall feel bound to oppose this error with all our might. We can give it no place, "no, not for an hour." Reforms, so far as we have anything to do with them, must grow out of our religion, not our religion out of them. We can never consent to hold phenomena in higher estimation than substance, body than life. We stand by the citadel.

On the other hand, where there are no phenomena, we doubt as to the existence of substance; where there is life, we insist there should be some signs of it; most of all are we convinced that where the mind of Christ is, there is a manifestation of it in a godly life. Christ is the divine 6yos, his very office being that of manifesting the Father; where he is, the Father is declared. To fulfill his office in this world, he has a body; in that body he goes "about doing good." We hold it important therefore to oppose to the extent of our power, the error opposed to that which we have already mentioned—indeed, to oppose it as the principal occasion of the other.

It is maintained in theory, and the theory is carried into practice, for instance, that, notwithstanding the direful evils, and no good, known to spring from intoxicating beverages, "the sons of God," who make up the body of Christ, may both employ them themselves, and traffic in them to the manifest destruction of the souls of thousands for whom Christ died. The same is true in respect to the great system of oppression in our own country. The system of American Slavery says to education and the gospel of Christ, "thus far." It abolishes the marriage institution, and introduces unblushingly instead thereof every species of licentiousness. It reduces man, made in the image of God, to a chattel; yet it is not only tolerated, but cherished in the so-called church. We insist it cannot be at this day in the body of which Christ is the head. If in

Christ's body all these can find place, by what means is the father of lies to manifest himself? What works of his was Christ manifested to destroy?

In view of that class of facts, a few of which we have mentioned, it seems important, especially in our times, to insist much upon "the fruits." We take our stand in these matters upon that portion of the covenant which so generally prevails in the churches of our denomination :-"We covenant that we will not traffic in, nor use intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and that we will sustain the other benevolent enterprises of the day, as Missions, Sabbath-Schools, Moral Reform, Anti-Slavery, Education, and all others which, in the use of holy means, tend to the glory of God and the welfare of man." The word "holy "is employed to denote that which is lawful for a Christian to employ; and we do not mean to forget the course of action to which we are thus pledged, even though laboring in reforms.

At a great loss of numbers, and what the world calls influence, we as a denomination took the position in theory and practice, at an early day of the anti-slavery agitation in this country, that it is a grief to the spirit of Christ to admit those guilty of holding their fellow men as property, either to church fellowship or communion. We have suffered not a little in this behalf, if frowns and obloquy are worthy to be classed with the causes of suffering. We have sorely experienced that, in bearing our testimony against this giant crime of our land, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." But thanks be unto God, he has enabled us to stand and to prosper, and by his blessings still vouchsafed to us, we mean to stand and bear our testimony before both small and great, until Christ shall come in his body, the church, "to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free."

But while we have no hope in reforms not founded upon the gospel of Christ, and no hope of the progress of even such, only as prosecuted by means lawful for a Christian to employ,

and while we mean to look at all questions touching reforms from the Christian stand-point, let no one infer that we are therefore to forget that the responsibilities and duties of men belong to us; nay more, the responsibilities and duties of Christian citizens in a Republic where our voices tell equally with others for the welfare or the woe of our country. If we believe no proposed reform can ultimate in good, only as founded upon the gospel of Christ, we equally believe that no government can fully meet the ends of government, so as to abide forever, only as it is permeated and controlled by the principles of the same gospel. Christians have therefore something to do with "saving the Union," in a sense infinitely higher than those who follow that business as a source of gain, or as a stepping-stone to the objects of their ambition. Everlasting empire cometh not with observation. Though we would enkindle the flames of devotion until every child of God could say with St. Paul, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better;" nevertheless we would have him add with the holy apostle, "to abide in the flesh is more needful" for the church, and through the church for the world.

We pass to other considerations, but we would have the reader carry along with him the idea developed concerning the soul and body of the "new creature."

We hold that immersion is the scriptural mode of baptism, and that none are proper subjects of this ordinance, save those who are renewed by faith in Christ. The practice of pedobaptism is not only unscriptural, but it abolishes an ordinance of Christ. It is closely allied to the cardinal error of Romanism, the substitution of form for character. This we can but feel very deeply, as we are from time to time sent for in great haste by Protestant parents to baptize their dying children. Its tendencies are thus toward Rome. In the same category we place restricted communion. It has a tendency to build the kingdom of God upon an external ordinance. Both these practices seem to imply that there is some essential virtue in rituals themselves. We abjure both pedo-baptism and restricted communion. A soul renewed and manifested in a godly