CAMPBELLISM.

THE following passage, extracted from a periodical put forth by the Campbellites, may be taken as a sample of Campbellism :-" In the ordinance of believers' immersion, as in the day of judgment, the rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the Maker of them all. Faith having been produced in the hearts of the guilty by the word and Spirit of God, in this gracious institution they all receive pardon and peace in one and the same way here the rich man is laid low, the poor exalted, and are commanded to rejoice together in the God of salvation. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith [baptism]. It is not he who says he believes, nor he who thinks he believes, but he who does believe that is just before God. Separate the facts from the commands of the gospel, it loses its identity, and no man who does this can be saved-if Jesus be a true teacher."

The three points here to be attended to, are, 1st, that faith is a convertible term with baptism, as we see in that sentence" Nay, by the law of faith [baptism];" and, 2nd, that no man can be saved who is not baptised; 3rd, that pardon and peace are received in the act of immersion. It is scarcely credible that any persons should be so blinded by the spirit of system as to speak of faith as if it meant baptism, and should thus change the words of Scripture to suit their theory. Thus, however, the Campbellites read the Scriptures: "Where is

boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of baptism. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by baptism without the deeds of the law. Is He the God of the Jews only, is He not also of the Gentiles? yes, of the Gentiles also; seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by baptism, and the uncircumcision through baptism. Do we then make void the law through baptism? God forbid yea, we establish the law." ....." To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his baptism is counted for righteousness. Therefore being justified

by baptism we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by baptism into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

We know not whether the Campbellites would substitute baptism for faith in all the New Testament; how far their system would carry them we cannot aver; that they would read Heb. xi. 6, thus-"without baptism it is impossible to please Him"-there can be little doubt; but probably some other verses in that chapter would a little perplex them; as for instance: "By baptism Moses, when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter....By baptism the walls of Jericho fell down," &c.

There are not wanting, however, many more words to confute these errors: they that through grace have understood the things of the Spirit, and know experimentally the righteousness which is by faith, will not be led away by these extravagances. The Christian who has been taught of the Spirit, and has searched the word of God, and who holds not his creed according to the opinions of sect, or of human teachers, will come to a right decision on the subject of baptism-he will see that it is an ordinance for believers, and that it has connected with it, in the way of representation, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Head of the Church, and of all believers united to him by faith-that it sets forth the justification of those that believe, the washing away of the pollution of all sin, and expresses the inward cleansing of the Holy Ghost, that cleansing having first taken place by faith, which is the gift of the Holy Ghost. He will value the ordinance as being a testimony to the doctrines of grace, and will most probably think it a privilege to be himself baptised; but he will not make immersion a door into the sheepfold, through which every man must pass for salvation

knowing that the only door is Jesus Christ himself, accepted by faith as righteousness and redemption-for to those that are called He (not baptism) is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Campbellism is possibly destined to

visit with judgment many of the dissenting churches. In America it has committed ravages; and there seems to be in this country, in the places where its contagion would naturally work, a moral atmosphere prepared for its reception. The sad effects of an educated ministry, and of the elective and salaried monarchy, are visible in many of the Baptist churches. The people are not held together by the bonds of love in the Spirit, but by all the mixed motives too well known amongst the dissenters to be here particularly described. Campbellism apparently offers a remedy for some evils which the dissenters generally acknowledge do exist among themselves; it gives liberty of ministry, and so everts the one-man system; and as its principles, when understood, tend to any degree of liberty in the article of faithin other words, allow of any latitude in unbelief-provided only that baptism be retained as a sine quá non; and as, moreover, its characteristic feature is aggression and active assault, it, on the whole, carries with it many elements of power to influence the natural man, and will perhaps manifest its power with alarming effects, in the overthrow of not a few "dissenting interests." It will ruin that which yields to its attacks, and then it will itself fall into ruins. It is essentially a heresy ; by denying the operations of the Holy Spirit, and by its pernicious interpretation of faith. It is in fact a subtile form of infidelity. Usually beginning its operations with Scripture phrases, and the language consecrated to holy subjects, it deceives the unwary; but it gradually advances, by means of ridicule and a peculiar sort of American neology, till it has led its followers into a bold and undisguised scepticism.

THE SOCIETY SYSTEM.

P.

"The Friend of India," an able weekly paper, published at Serampore, contains the following observations on this subject:

"June 13, 1839. -It is frequently and truly said in England, that this is the age of Societies. They swarm in myriads; and nothing is attempted without them. ... Societies, however legitimate their object, are, after all, dangerous combinations. They introduce many of the evils of ordinary monopolies into the enterprizes of Christian benevolence. Soon

VOL. III.

obtaining a sort of prescriptive right to be considered the accredited organs of the Christian world, or of a particular portion of it, their principles and mode of action acquire a factitious authority. The errors that may be in them, are as powerfully sanctioned as their excellencies. It becomes next to impossible to correct their evils without endangering their usefulness. Nothing but what it pleases their managers to approve, has the opportunity of a fair trial; and individuals, however gifted, and zealous for the accomplishment of a society's grand object, must either consent to sanction its procedure, and merely throw in a little additional supply to its treasury, or do nothing at all. Respecting its object, no individual can be said to possess freedom either of opinion or of action: and in this way a vast deal of piety, wisdom, and zeal, are altogether lost to the general interests of religion.

'Moreover, it is inseparable from the nature of societies that they create a number of haughty oligarchies, with numerous well-paid officers, and an extensive system of patronage. In proportion as their business becomes methodized, the pious solicitude for the spiritual interests of mankind, in which they originated, is supplanted by the habits and maxims of ordinary trafficking. The great concern comes to be, to get money -honestly and religiously if possiblebut at any rate to get money. And the money, when it is got, often comes and goes not only without a blessing, but with a curse. The desire to do good is lost in the parade of seeming to do it: and in the Society-atmosphere, ostentatious vanity and vulgar arrogance live and prosper.

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July 4.—The history of our great Societies, brief as it is, affords numerous exemplifications of the folly of man's conceit, respecting the infinite importance of perpetuating his modes of doing good. Full of complacency in the system which his invention has originated, or his zeal made effective, and losing sight of its end in the admiration of its construction and symmetry, he is ever apt to think that every thing is secured for the future, when provision has been made for the perpetuation of a mere form and routine.

We find men constantly clamouring for prescription in favour of some scheme of their idolatry; and for pecuniary endowments to secure its unmodified and unrestricted application, as both

T

essential to the continuance of knowledge and religion in the world.

"It is the glory of our great societies, that they originated in a noble burst of Christian philanthropy, that could no longer be repressed and confined by the cerements of lifeless formality.... Their secretaries were of the giants of those days.

*

"To speak to such men of sinking into the salaried servants of great corporations, whose stately dignity was impaired by accepting of services for which they did not pay in cash, was to break their hearts. If they acquiesced in the principle, they could not endure its personal application. But on this principle all their successors have been appointed. Respectability of talent, and weight of character, forsooth, have been secured by an adequate bonus in the shape of a genteel stipend. . . . . . . . Such are the evil concomitants of the society system, that in choosing secretaries of the second generation, it has been found necessary to give the preference to the candidates of the least pretensions. Repeatedly have men of no mark-of mere useful, working ability-been elected in preference to others of loftier character, for the simple reason that umbrage was not to be given to one party, nor preponderance to another, by calling to offices of trust and power men whose endowments and reputation were such as to confer honour and influence upon the party to which they belonged. In this way a respectable mediocrity has become the most powerful recommendation in a candidate for a secretaryship: and thus it is that a perpetuated, and even an extended combination of means for the promotion of religion is not only susceptible of decay and failure, but carries a principle of quick decay within itself. The same

secular interferences which impair the mainsprings of the machine, affect in time the whole of its construction.

and corner of the land; and thereby they come to know every body, and all their affairs, to have information to give from all quarters, and to be considered the best advisers on all matters relating to the progress of the Gospel. They curiously blend or interchange the supple humiliation of applicants for charity, with the conscious importance of men who have, at least, as much to spend as they have had to beg: and it is a wonderfully elevating thing for people, otherwise in but a small way, to have a hand in dealing out, for whatever purpose, twenty, thirty, or fifty thousand pounds a year. Now the active members of the Committee of one Society are soon introduced into the Committees of many others. Were we to take fifty of the Committees of London, consisting of twenty-five members each, instead of finding they had enlisted twelve hundred and fifty individuals in the service of piety and benevolence, we should, probably, discover that the same men were so shuffled about, that not above half that number were required; and if we prosecuted the inquiry farther, it would be seen, that in each Committee there are not above five or six really working men, who are in fact the originators and executors of all that the societies design and accomplish. But these men of activity are, in proportion, still more mingled up than the Committee-men generally. Instead of two hundred and fifty, or even a hundred and twenty-five of them being found to bear the burden, it is more probable that not many more than fifty individuals will be doing all that the fifty Committees have to do. Thus a mere fraction of the Christians of the metropolis become, in a great measure, the directors of the pious efforts of the three kingdoms: and the same men being repeatedly placed together in multiplied combinations, they work themselves into a singular uniformity of conception, a methodised system of Society politics. Any intruding innovator on the received notions is very soon driven from the herd. Coughing down is a manoeuvre by no means peculiar to the House of Commons: at least its counterpart will be found in the region of the societies.

"A little consideration will shew, that this metropolitan oligarchy have means at their command, which make them truly formidable. Nearly every individual of them may be a Director or Com

mittee-man of a Bible Society, a Tract Society, a Foreign Missionary Society, a Home Missionary Society, a City Missionary Society, a General School Society, as the British and Foreign School, or National School Society, or Sunday School Union, a Church or Chapel-building Society, a College or an Academy, half a dozen Charity Schools for Orphans of various classes, as many Funds for poor Ministers, Minister's Widows, or Theological Students at the Scotch Universities, and to crown all, be at the same time a proprietor or manager of a denominational magazine. An individual who has a share in so complicated a system of patronage, of buying and selling, of charity dispensing, and of writing for the control of public intelligence and opinion, is in a situation dangerous to himself and others: and when the whole economy is worked by a confederated junto, upon common principles, and with a strong understanding of the necessity of maintaining unity through the whole, the result is as we have hinted, that an incubus of metropolitan assumption and narrow-mindedness represses the energy of the whole country. Wherever there are ministers desirous of changing their situation, or receiving a charitable addition to a narrow income, or introducing a pious young friend into the ministry, or a child into a public school, or a poor widow to a pension; wherever a congregation is in want of a minister, or of help in building a place of worship or a school; or in fact, wherever there is any thing of religious interest going forward, recourse to the metropolis is unavoidable; and the knowledge that it is, creates a subserviency to metropolitan influence which is pernicious to the last degree. The evil, indeed, has become so great, that it cannot be borne much longer; and hereafter we shall endeavour to shew how it begins to totter to its fall.

have become rather an obstacle to the progress of this cause, than an auxiliary to it, that we call for reform. The system is one of human contrivance, and is not only susceptible of improvement, but demands constant, vigilant, and faithful revision, to prevent its rapid deterioration. The Roman world was converted to Christianity, without the aid of Societies,—we mean, of great, unwieldy, metropolitan Societies; though not without the instrumentality of provincial associations acting independently of each other. It is possible, therefore, for Christianity to triumph over idolatry in the present age, without the cumbrous machinery of Exeter Hall. Perhaps we may differ in this opinion from the Advocate of Societies; though there are many points in which we are agreed. We separate the Cause from the Societies, which are intended to advance it, and think that the one may flourish, without the other; he identifies them. We both concur in thinking the Missionary spirit of the age an emanation from the Father of Light; but he seems to claim somewhat of a Divine character for the apparatus of Societies, which we cannot admit. He regards them in so sacred a light, that it is sacrilegious to touch them; and the man who exposes their deformities, becomes chargeable with the guilt of 'blackening the Societies, whom God has employed in his Providence, as the channel for communicating Divine truth to the nations.' We consider that the construction, the character, and the tendencies of Societies may be examined and exposed, without blackening a Divine instrument. He believes that good has been done through them so do we; but we go a step farther, and consider, that now they have lost the holy simplicity of their original character, and assumed a secular organization, much more good might be done without them... In consequence of this monopoly of all power and influence in London, a vast machinery has gradually been constructed, in the management of which the spirit of the Missionary cause is deteriorated, and runs every risk of becoming eventually extinct. The means absorb that attention, and attract to themselves those feelings of attachment which ought to belong exclusively to the end.

The sup

port of the Society becomes the primary object that of the Cause becomes one of secondary importance. We do not say that this is actually and universally

the case; but the London system is rapidly bringing matters to this pass. Inferior interests have already been largely mingled up with the great interest which called Societies into existence; and they are insidiously gaining the ascendancy, and thus rendering reform difficult. We said that the evils of which we complained, were inseparable from this system of great Societies; and any man may verify this assertion who will look into their mechanism. The affairs of these bodies are managed by an oligarchy, endowed with the dispensation of large sums, and the distribution of an extensive patronage. The few who form the interior cabinet of the large Societies, enjoy vast power. Through their affiliated Societies, they have acquired a paramount influence in the country; and by means of their salaried agents, they wield that influence at will. They monopolize the organs of public intelligence, so that nothing can reach the public ear, but with their permission; thus they enjoy a virtual irresponsibility. They have made a territorial division of the heathen world among themselves, with the view, doubtless, of preventing collision among their Missionaries; but the division serves all the purposes of consolidating and perpetuating their power, by making it their common interest to keep out interlopers. This vast machinery of power, influence, and patronage, is, moreover, invested with a sacred character, which enables those who direct it, to keep down opposition, on the plausible ground that to assail it can arise only from an impious desire to destroy the instrument appointed of God for the conversion of the heathen. Having grown to so large a size, and being in possession of incomes, which, however enormous, are always anticipated by their expenditure, they

are obliged to use the most strenuous efforts to maintain their pecuniary position; and these efforts are not always in scrupulous accordance with the sacredness of the object. With all these elements of despotism combined in one system, if there should not be a rapid deterioration of these bodies, and a glaring departure from their pristine simplicity of aim, it would be a miracle. We are anxious that the supporters of Societies at home,-and it is to them we address ourselves,- should look into these evils before they have aroused public indignation, and produced that reaction of public feeling which will prostrate all Societies in the dust. We desire, therefore, the religious and missionary independence of the Provinces; we wish to see a nucleus of religious and missionary zeal established in every division of the country. We wish the cause of Missions to be carried forward upon the permanent principles of Christian duty, instead of being maintained by the wavering feelings of religious excitement. Bnt we must not anticipate our future articles. Such being our object, we are not bound to take up the case individually of each Society, as the Advocate demands of us. We object to the present system, of which the baneful principles have more or less tainted all religious bodies. We call upon them, now that we are approaching the close of the first half century of modern Missions, to compare the comparative insignificance of the result with the greatness of the means which have been created for the work; to ascertain what obstacles to success are to be found in the vicious organization of the Societies themselves, and to remove them with an unsparing hand."

"THE ACCORDANCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH SCRIPTURE, and the Discordance of Independency and other Forms of Dissent from Scripture. A Sermon preached at St. Michael's, Liverpool, at the request of the Young Men's Church of England Association, by the Rev. Joseph Baylee, A. B. 1839." London; Whittaker and Co.

MR. BAYLEE states himself in this sermon to be a Calvinist, and on that account

alone opposed to the Oxford Tracts, which, in all matters relating to the Church, he thinks have done great service to the cause of truth. It is therefore to be presumed, that Mr. Baylee is a high churchman of the Evangelical school, and in order to show the sentiments of that section of the clergy, we here offer some extracts from his sermon to our readers.

"The word church, in its religious