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stitution, and more scriptural apprehensions of the import of the good confession witnessed before Pontius Pilate, than we are accustomed to find in other sects under the influence of a more paralysing system. Indeed, "I have not found so great faith: no, not in Israel." A. CAMPBELL.

ON CATECHISMS.

MR. EDITOR-There is no peculiarity of the present age which a reflecting Christian will contemplate with greater pleasure than that distinguishing confidence in the Holy Scriptures which it generally reveals. Our Bible Society has almost realised the miracle of Pentecost; and a National Bible Class Society has been formed, the principal object of which is, I believe, to induce every Christian shepherd to lead the younger portion of his charge (spem gregis) into these green pastures of salvation. I cannot help thinking, however, that we are in danger of being betrayed into a departure from this characteristic principle of the times in which we live by the numberless little catechetical pamphlets, of all sorts and sizes, and suited to every age, that are constantly issuing from the press. It seems to me that I have met with a half dozen of them amongst the publications of a single society. Now I confess that I look upon all these anomalous little productions with suspicion. I am afraid that they will make our children content to receive their religion at secondhand. Why should we lead them from the fountain of living waters to broken cisterns hewn out by mortal hands? Why should we exchange the broad canal of revelation, with its copious streams and its unpolluted channel, for any of the little conduit pipes, which men have manufactured (defiled as they too often are with the feculence of human infirmity, and contracted to the dimensions of human prejudice) when our object is to convey to the hundreds and thousands of " babes in Christ," that the Church carries in her arms, "the sincere milk of the word?” Why should a Christian pastor present a bucketfull to his thirsty flock at the very time that, in imitation of the Chief Shepherd, he is, or ought to be, conducting them along the verdant margin of a bottomless and boundless sea, by whose "still waters" they may be securely refreshed?

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Ah! Sir, I am afraid of this rising disposition to make the word of man supersede the word of God. It looks too much like an attempt to substitute the priest for the Divinity. It is too near akin to that singular delusion (an honest one I believe in my heart) which would prohibit the Scriptures from going out in their mission of mercy unless the Prayer-Book can go along with them to explain their meaning, and prevent them from leading the people into error.

Religious formularies should, I think, be principally intended, not for instruction, but defence; not to inculcate opinions, but to exclude them; not to convey truth, but to keep out error; not to enlighten the ignorance of children, but to restrain the licentious learning of philosophers. This is their peculiar province; when carried beyond this, there is a danger of making them take the place of that which is the best because the appointed vehicle of religious knowledge. The sacred volume, while it contains nourishment for the intellect of an angel, has food for the understanding of a child. He who made the infant mind, who "knows what is in man," and who with such inimitable condescension takes these little ones in his arms to bless them, has given to his "babes," as their peculiar portion, that sweet maternal aliment with which the bosom of the Church has been copiously supplied. Oh! let us never wrong them so far as to let them quench their thirst, not with this pure and holy beverage, but with the dirty waters that are constantly oozing from the puddles of human prejudice.

I am persuaded, Sir, that scriptural truth is never so likely to produce its appropriate influence upon the hearts and consciences, as when it is expressed in the simple, appropriate, and inspired language of the Scriptures. Upon this subject suffer me to quote the words of an eloquent divine" What can be the cause that in hearing the Gospel it is the Scriptures quoted which produces the whole scriptural effect? What can be the cause that when a sinner comes into deep troubles of conscience, it is no matter what his minister may say to him, unless he produces texts of Scripture? What is the reason that old saints betake themselves to nothing but reading the Scriptures? What can be the reason that at a death-bed a minister of the

Gospel depends on nothing else than texts of Scripture? Go through the whole spiritual concerns of the human race, and put appropriate questions on each particular occurrence, and then tell me what can be the reason that we can produce no spiritual effect-no effect which we judge connected with salvation-by any other instrument than the Bible."

We look to ages past, and call them dark ages, when ministers of the Gospel were projecting and manufacturing a hundred thousand laws, and forms, and ceremonies, for the promotion of Christian piety among men. All the while these ministers themselves never thought of the Bible; or if they thought of it, they said it is too difficult for the common people to understand; or is not sufficient to direct and regulate the present age; or whatever they said, they must have thought that the cause of truth and piety requires some human aid and regulation not provided for in the Bible; and so they went to work to supply the desideratum. They made bad work of it undoubtedly; we all see that: and we cry, Why did not these ministers study the Bible themselves; and why did they not diffuse it among the people? O! the reason is obvious; they actually thought that if the Bible were let loose in the world, it would turn the world upside down, and banish all rational piety. They have actually told us as much; and that we might more readily believe them, they have taken the trouble to have the matter decided in presbyteries, synods, and councils, in all the infallible dignity which human impotence can confer upon human folly.

After all the pious pains of the ministry to keep the Bible from doing mischief in the church of God, it at last got out into the world, and began its tremendous operations. The people were soon as wise as their priests. They were surrounded by the glorious light of Heaven; and all the surly brood of errors, corruptions, and encroachments, that loved darkness rather than light, fled away for ever. Mr. Editor, let us beware how we take one retrogressive step towards this former state of vassalage and ignorance. And, Sir, the boast which some of us are so fond of flourishing in the face of our Roman Catholic opposers, that "the Bible and Bible only, is the religion of Protestants,'

will never be appropriate until all our human Bibles shall be thrown into the fire, or, at least, dislodged from that place in our churches and our schools, which can only be safely occupied by the simple, unadulterated oracles of God.

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. ALEX. CAMPBELL.

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[From the Christian Baptist.]

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It is no doubt known to some of you that a pamphlet, titled, "Letters to Alexander Campbell, by a Regular Baptist," has been published at Pittsburgh a few days ago. It will, doubtless, be expected that I should pay some attention to this work. The spirit and style of this "Regular Baptist" forbids my addressing one word to him. I will, therefore, without prepossessing my readers by expressing any opinion of the motives and object of this letter-writer, proceed to review his performance. This Regular Baptist" informs me that my character is of two kinds-extrinsic and intrinsic. My" intrinsic character" is that which he investigates and on which he pronounces judg ment. In coming at my intrinsic character, or the character of my heart, he has, he says, adopted, as a standard of judgment," principles admitted by "the Christian and the philosopher." These principles, he adds, " direct to a general investigation of life, the whole area of action." But he regrets that the whole area of my action is unknown to him, everything previous to my arrival in these United States being with him "something of conjecture." But although my "intrinsic character" is the subject of investigation, and the principles of the Christian and the philosopher require that the "whole area of action" should be examined, yet the ingenious author views" the area of my action" only since I joined the Baptists-and, in fact, while he professes to do this much, he only fixes his eyes upon me since the year 1820. And of all the area of my action from which my intrinsic character is to be ascertained, only four years come in review, and of these four years only my 66 two debates and the Christian Baptist" are particularly noticed. To what a span is the whole area of my action reduced! and from how few documents does he undertake to prove that I am unregenerated. Let not the reader be startled at the word unregenerated, for this is the point of investigation, and the whole area of this Regular Baptist's letters is filled with mighty and convincing proofs, as he alleges, that I am an unregenerated man. But the

strangest point of all remains to be noticed, and that is, that of all the actions of my life, and of all the words I have spoken or written, not one is adduced as proof of his favourite position, but only his conjectures, with a reference to the debates on Baptism and the Christian Baptist. Of all that I have written not one word is cited. These letters then are, if anything can be so named, " a new thing under the sun." For I am tried and condemned upon mere conjecture, and worse than all, these conjectures are predicated either upon the most evident falsehoods, or upon a false view of facts. So much by way of introduction to my review.

A few remarks upon the writer of those letters are also necessary to their easy comprehension. They are anonymous, and necessarily to be ranked under the very common and general head of anonymous abuse. As such I was not bound to notice them; for who knows not that the ebullitions of anonymous foes carry their own condemnation in their preface? But, believing that medicine may be deduced even from the carcase of a serpent that has poisoned itself, I am induced to notice them under the conviction that good may result therefrom. The writer of these letters is the Reverend Mr. GREATRAKE, from the city of Baltimore, or somewhere thereabouts. He is now located in the city of Pittsburgh, and calls himself a " Regular Baptist." It is true that he either promised or prophesied in the conclusion of his address to the Baptist Churches in the West, that while on earth he would " be known to them only by the name of a Regular Baptist." In his last letter to me he was kind enough to appear willing to give me his real name on presenting to the publisher a "fair reason" for demanding it. But when I called on the publisher he presented me with written conditions which the "Regular Baptist" had given him, which precluded him from giving up his name except upon such conditions as the civil law would oblige him to give it up, or to suffer prosecution. This gentleman is at present hired by a party who were excluded from a regular Baptist Church, at least by a Church which, at the time of their exclusion, was recognised as such. He seems to glory in the name of " a Regular Baptist," yet with what propriety I cannot see, as he is ordained over a party that cannot be called regular Baptists. It is a truth that the last Redstone Association recommended the calling of a committee to endeavour to promote a re-union of those excommunicated ones; or, as they express it, "to compromise their difficulties ;" and that a committee was called by the excluded party, which, leaving undone what was the only thing recommended by the association to be done, they proceeded to do that which they were not commanded to do, and did, with

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