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world, and in what consists their supposed deficiency? "Go into all the world," said the risen Saviour, "and preach the Gospel to every creature." Here we have the divinely appointed means for the conversion of the world. And again, “Jesus came and spake unto his Apostles, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things what soever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world, Amen." Here we have at once the divinely appointed means both for the conversion of the world, and the edification of the Church. Here are no "regions of imagination," but we feel the ground under our feet, and see and feel what we are doing in a palpable plain common sense system. Here we have means commensurate with the end, for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation; means appointed by him who had all power given him in heaven and upon earth, and appointed to continue to the end of the world: means to the use o which the divine blessing was pledged, and by the use of such means, through that blessing, many have already, in every age, been converted, and if any, by such means, so they are competent to convert all. That all have not been converted by them is most lamentably true; but to charge the failure to the insufficiency of the means is to exculpate man, and inculpate God. The Church, the Church, to whom the use of these means were committed have been recreant. and the blood of the world will be found in the skirts of the Church. The Church has neither made the Gospel known to all nations abroad, as they might have done, nor exem plified its renovating power in their own examples before unbelievers at home, as they ought to have done; but while they should have been the best helps to the spread of the Gospel, they have been the worst hinderance to its extension.

To expect, as many "modern Millenarians" do, that the conversion of the world is only to be expected by the visible presence and personal reign of Christ in the Old Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously, is to expect more from his personal appearance than from his spiritual presence; and in conclusion (for I mean not to resume a subject which has been litigated in the Church for more than a thousand years, and on which many of the wisest and best of Christians have held different opinions) I have only further to say, and I think soberly, and speak advisedly, when I give it as my humble, but most deliberate opinion, That the Church, the whole Church, have all at present easier access to their blessed and beloved Lord and King, now

sitting on the throne of his glory in the new Jerusalem above, the mother of us all, than they all could have to him were he literally to come, and personally to reign in the old capital of the Holy Land.

April 11th, 1853.

I am, Mr. Editor,

Your obedient servant,

A CONSTANT READER.

ON THE EXTENT OF CHRISTIAN SEPARATION.

[The following letter is upon a very important subject, and one which has caused often times no little perplexity to many friends of Primitive Christianity. Though evidently drawn up by the founder of the body, its disagreement with the opinions and practices of the modern Glasites is evident. Ed. C. A.] The Elders of the Church, Dundee, to the Elders of the Church in Edinburgh.

VERY DEAR BRETHREN,

Dundee, October, 1772.

Your scruple on communion in any sort of worship with the Antichristian world, moved us to consider if we had not carried our separation from them so far as that call required. But, after our inquiry and examination of the Scriptures, we remain persuaded that we could separate no farther than we have done, without going out of the world, without judging them that are without, and without forbidding any to call on the name of the Lord, because they follow not with us. Many attend our church worship who are not cl urch members, and several are moved and instructed thereby to profess the faith with us; they hear nothing in our prayers that imports to them-" Stand by, for we are holier than you" by our profession; and they see us joined together as a company of miserable sinners, to seek mercy through the propitiation; professing, as lost sinners, to believe to be saved only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! and such of them as incline to fellowship with us in this are received by us. There may sometimes come into our assembly a stranger, or even a self-righteous enemy to the truth we profess, and to us for its sake; but we pray, as commanded, even for such; and these prayers are sometimes heard, as the prayer of Stephen was for Saul.

As to family worship, wherewith none have anything to do but the members of the family, if there be unbelieving servants who

incline to attend it, and none can be forced, we say the same thing of them as of the attendants on Church worship. And as to occasional meetings of people to eat and drink what should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, the Apostle wills that men pray every where to the God who wil have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, as he himself did in the ship, Acts 27th ch., and as the Lord did at feeding the unbelieving multitude, John, 6th chap. We are not clear to deny one that preacheth Christ to be a minister of Christ, though he followeth not with us, but we ought rather to rejoice with Paul that Christ is preached.

Our due regard for you, brethren, will not suffer us to dissemble a suspicion and fear we have, that your scruple carries in it something of the air of "stand by," &c., and we have often had occasion to observe that the straining of points like these too far has served to destroy them altogether.

We are, very dear brethren,

Yours most affectionately,
JOHN GLAS.

(Signed)

WILL. MORRISON

WILL. LYON.

DAVID REID.

LETTER FROM JOHN GLAS TO JAMES

COMMUNION OF CHURCHES.

ALLEN, ON THE

That perverse disputes, abusing divine predestination and manifestly contradicting James, i. 13, 14, ought to be put away from among you, as swerving from the end of the commandment and turning aside unto vain babbling. And you may consider 1st Tim. vi. 20, 21, as spoken to yourself. In the heat of a philosophical dispute on that subject, raised by this fiery dart of Satan, some of your people may be driven toward free will in opposition to the scripture doctrine of grace, which you must affirm, constantly avoiding foolish questions and disputes. It seems the brethren of Newby either look not on them of Gayle as a sister Church, or have not yet thought of the communion of Churches in the New Testament, not only giving and receiving relief in outward necessities, but also in receiving members and officers of other Churches in the Lord. They have not observed Barnabas fetching Saul to Antioch to assemble with that Church till they had a full presbytery; nor the correspondence betwixt Jerusalem and Antioch. Judas, after tarrying there a space let

go in peace, and Silas choosing to abide there still, till he went with Paul to visit the Churches. And will not your disciples at Newby, whom you are bringing into order, when you visit them,' receive you as an elder? Or will they not allow him they have chosen, when he isits Gayle, to be received there as an elder? If your brethren ll not proceed on such communion and mutual help of churches, they cannot have the Lord's Supper and regular discipline, and so no full communion in any of these contiguous churches till they get a presbytery from amongst themselves, which, considering their scrupulosity in ordaining officers as in the case of Buski and Perkins, I cannot expect to see. I am, with best wishes,

V. D. B. Yours, &c.

J. G.

QUERY.

Jesus and his Apostles preached that the kingdom of heaven. is (was) at hand. But eighteen hundred years have elapsed, and the kingdom is not come. To account for this fact, a whole host of conflicting ideas have arisen on this question. Your thoughts upon the subject will greatly oblige,

Yours, &c.,

D. L.

Reviews.

A Lecture on the Historic Evidence of the Authorship and Transmission of the Books of the New Testament, Delivered before the PLYMOUTH Young Men's Christian Association, October 14th, 1853. By S. P. Treggelles, L L. D. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1852. p.p. 120.

This is a beautifully got up Volume upon a most important subject. The Christian Doctrine is based upon the writings which compose the New Testament. If the genuineness and authenticity of these writings be impugned and overthrown, the foundation of Christianity is removed, and at once it totters and falls.

I

That the writings of the New Testament have been, and are still assailed, under various guises, few of our readers we presume, are ignorant of. It is a matter of the highest moment, therefore, that every Christian should be well instructed upon a subject of this nature. Our Author justly observes," The historic evidence to the authorship of the New Testament books is a subject of common concern to all Christians. If attacks are made with a great show of learning and research, it is well for those who may meet with such popular attacks to be fore-armed,"

Every facility, therefore, given to the investigation of this subject by those whose means and opportunities are limited, ought to be hailed with delight. On this head the writer observes," It is not the lot of every one to examine and search for himself through the mass of Christian literature for the first four centuries; but there are few, indeed, who cannot apprehend the bearing of evidence when it is placed before them. The needful avocations of daily life will often render personal study and research impossible, the daily discharge of daily duty has to be fulfiled conscientiously; and it is to those who are thus engag ed in the laborious occupations of the desk, the warehouse, or the shop, that I wish especially to address this statement of of evidence." The truth and justice of these observations are self-evident, and will commend themselves to all who read them.

As the subject handled is of universal interest, the publication of the lecture was naturally to be looked for; nay, we think imperative. The writer tells us," My reasons for publishing this Lecture are identical with those which led me to deliver it; I wished to give a clear and sufficient answer to the inquiries, Why do you receive the New Testament books as genuine? and, How have these ancient writings come down to our days?

Dr. Treggelles has well acquitted himself of the task he undertook, and the inquires are clearly, honestly, and satisfactorily answered. This Lecture, together with the Appendix, of twentyfour pages of small type, contains such a mass of evidence, and information condensed within a narrow compass, that must be sought for elsewhere, in a number of expensive and bulky tomes. And not only so, but frequently so diffused and attenuated, as to be quite unsuitable for the class of persons for whom this Volume is principally intended.

Not only is the character of the New Testament as a collective Volume, fully examined and established, but the Epistles of Paul, the General Epistles, and all the books of the New Testament separately are also examined in detail. We could select many valuable passages from this Volume which would

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