CONVENTION

FOR IMPROVING THE NEW

TESTAMENT.

MR. EDITOR: I will not undertake to say whether the following paper which I send you, contains an account of a convention which actually took place, or whether it is only an ingenious hoax, like the moon story, invented by some wicked wag. Certainly things quite as strange have been done in these days by our ultra reformers. If you think it will afford amusement or instruction to your readers, please publish it, and oblige your friend,

NE PLUS ULTRA.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

Ata Convention called for the purpose of improving the BibleDr. Neologus, Chairman-Peter Libertas and Miss Mary Vox, Secretaries.

THE Convention was not called to order, nor opened with prayer, in compliance with the scruples of some persons who believed it an infringement on human liberty to be obliged to keep order, and others who thought all prayer sinful which was not spontaneous.

CHAIRMAN. The object of this meeting, my friends, is probably known to all of you. We live in a remarkable era. The schoolmaster is abroad. The march of mind has been accelerated. Great reforms are in progress, which must ultimately succeed in emancipating the human intellect from the swaddling bands of its present infantile condition. But many obstacles are yet to be overcome; and among the rest, the perverted use made of many misunderstood passages of Scripture is not the least important. Thus, if a temperance man is attempting to prove that to drink wine is sinful under all possible circumstances, and to shew by carefully collected statistics that half the poverty, four fifths of the disease, six sevenths of the crimes, eight ninths of the insanity, and nine tenths of the bankruptcies of the country, are produced by drinking claret and madeira, he immediately has the miracle at Cana, or Paul's direction to Timothy to "drink a little wine for his stomach's sake," thrown in his way. Thus the wheels of the car of reform are heavily clogged. Such is the superstitious regard paid by the community to the letter of the Bible, in opposition to its spirit, that we find it very difficult to explain away many of these passages. This convention

has been called to see whether something cannot be done in this dilemma. Thus perhaps, a new translation might be published, which should either entirely omit such passages, or give them a new rendering, or add in a parenthesis an explanatory clause. Some captious persons would no doubt object to this proceeding, and perhaps quote against us the pas sage in Revelations xxii: 18: "If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of this book, God shall take away his part out of the book of life," &c. But then we might begin by leaving out this passage, (which indeed evidently only applies to the book of Revelations;) and we might answer the objectors by shewing that the apostles were mistaken in some things and ignorant of others; that Paul opposed Peter, and that by his own confession he said some things "of himself," and "not from the Lord." We must judge the particular texts by the analogy of faith. What contradicts our general view of the spirit and teachings of Christianity, cannot be true. If the apostles had enjoyed the benefit of our present advancement, they would no doubt have written many things differently. But, to bring the subject regularly before the convention, I would propose that each person should state what passages of the Bible he finds to conflict with the progress of reform, so that we may know the amount of the work to be done. We can then appoint a committee to report on the subject, and so bring the matter fairly before us. If it be your minds to adopt this course, please to manifest it.

The question being taken, it was resolved to adopt the above plan; and the members of the convention were requested to state the passages of Scripture which they found inconvenient.

TEMPERANCE LECTURER.-It is well known to this convention how much good was done in former years by the progress of what has been called the Temperance reform. We at that time occupied the low ground of the pledge, which only went against the use of distilled spirits. We were not tee-totallers. But, having nearly done away with the drinking of ardent spirits as a beverage, we found it necessary to take new ground, or we should soon have nothing left to do. We therefore determined to go against wine, cider, beer, and every thing of an intoxicating nature. But when we took this step, many of our old friends thought it a hard saying, and went back, and would walk no more with us. Others

said they would give up wine on the ground of expediency, and say with Paul, (Romans xiv: 21.,)"It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak," but they could not say that to drink wine was always a sin. They thought it right to use it at the Lord's supper; and they quoted the miracle at Cana, and Paul's recommendation to Timothy, and the command of the preacher to drink wine with a merry heart, and the advice in Proverbs to give wine to those who are heavy, and the thanksgiving in Psalms for God's giving the wine which makes glad the heart of man. But the principle of expediency is not strong enough for us. We must convince people that to drink wine is absolutely, invariably and inherently sinful. Now it is difficult to prove this from the Bible with those passages in our way. To be sure, we have endeavored to shew that wherever wine is favorably spoken of, it is unfermented wine, with no intoxicating principle in it. But it is somewhat difficult to shew. this, since unfortunately the same word is used in both cases. To be sure, we can quote the case of the Rehkabites, but that is hardly large enough to cover the ground. We can refer to John, the Baptist, who came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; but then, as the next verse speaks of Christ's eating and drinking, we fear it would rather make against us. We can refer to that passage in Proverbs, "Look not on the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup;" but then it might be argued that this only referred to port and claret, and the drinker would still adhere to sherry and champagne. So that what I wish is, that wherever wine is spoken of with favor, the word "unfermented," may be inserted before it.

ABOLITIONIST. Our case resembles that of Temperance in many respects. We can very easily shew that the system of slavery is opposed to the spirit of the gospel. But in order to take hold of the slaveholder's conscience, we wish to prove that it is always a sin to hold slaves. But here we are everlastingly met with the story about Paul and Onesimus, and "the servants obey their masters," and other passages, seeming to shew that Christ and his apostles did not class slave-holding with those sins which were to be immediately repented of and renounced. True, our friend Theodore Weld has attempted to prove, in his "Bible Argument," that Moses never sanctioned slavery, and that slavery never did exist among the Jews; that men were never bought, but only hired. There are, however, some few texts, which, to the commer

reader, seem to contradict this view. Thus Lev. xxv: 44, 45, 46, after stating that Hebrews shall not serve Hebrews, as bond-servants, but as hired servants, Moses goes on to say"But thy bond-men and bond-maids shall be of the heathen round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn with you, of them shall ye buy; and they shall be for your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession: they shall be your bond-men for ever." Now we should like to have in all such passages as this, the word "buy" changed to "hire," and with a few trifling alterations of this sort shall be very well contented.

MISS AMAZONIA RUTH FREESPEECH.-I must believe that Paul was too much of a gentleman to prevent women from speaking in public: but if you can find some way of correcting the translation in 1 Cor. xiv: 34, 35, and 1 Tim. ii: 11, 12, I should be pleased. I will read them from my Bible: "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak: and if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." "Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection; for I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." The first passage evidently refers only to married women; but I think both had better be corrected. Woman has her rights, and means to claim them.

NON-RESISTANT.-Nothing can be clearer than the Scriptures on which we rest. But Paul's appealing to Cæsar, and the words of Jesus concerning tribute, and the story about the fish with a piece of money in his mouth, seem to lean toward supporting human governments. That the disciples did not resign their commissions as Justices of the Peace, proves nothing; for there were no Justices in those days. But the other passages ought to be explained; for I cannot think that Jesus and his disciples would contribute to the support of such wicked governments.

DR. FARINACEOUS GELATINE.-I have no manner of doubt that the Bible forbids the use of animal food; and in the next edition of "The House I live in," I shall prove that the cause of Daniel's not being eaten by the lions was that he confined himself strictly to a vegetable diet. [See Daniel i: 12] We are also told expressly that those who pursued this mode of life were fairer and fatter in flesh than those who eat their portion of the king's meat. Before the fall, man was not per

mitted to eat any thing but fruit and herbs. [See Gen. i: 29 and ii: 16.] And I am convinced that the fall of man was not occasioned by Eve's eating fruit, but by her eating beefsteak. If the Hebrew text or the Septuagint would authorize such a rendering, I should be glad to know it.

PROFESSOR ORTHODOXICUS HERETICUS.-I have heard a great many very silly remarks here. It is not worth my while however to undertake the task of refuting them. I shall merely say that there are some texts in the Bible which sound so pantheistical, that I am convinced they are interpolations. It is incredible that Paul should really have expressed himself in this way in speaking of God: "In him we live, and move, and have our being,"-Acts xvii: 28. Is it possible that an apostle should make the extraordinary statement that we move in God?!? The other passage is in Romans xi: 36: "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. This verse has to my mind no meaning, or a pantheistical meaning. See Eph. iv: 6: "One God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." I have no doubt these were marginal comments, interpolated by some translator, notwithstanding the external evidence is in their favor.

MR. ANTI PAY PRIEST.-I am decidedly of opinion that the gospel ought not to be sold. "Freely ye have received, freely give." I have calculated that there is money enough paid to the clergy every year, to give to each man, woman and child in the United States, an annual leg of bacon. My pew tax last year was thirty dollars. It is very plain that the clergy must become mercenary, who are paid as much as they are in this country. I suppose their salaries must average three or four hundred dollars a year. There is however an unfortunate passage in 1 Cor. ix: 7-14, where Paul appears to agree that Christian teachers should be supported. Could not this be explained away?

SOCINIAN In John xx: 28, instead of "My Lord and my God!" I think Thomas must have said to Jesus, "My Lord and Master!"

TRINITARIAN.-In 1 Cor. viii: 6, instead of " to us there is but one God, the Father," I think it should read, "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

PALAIOLOGIST,I am sorry to see all sorts of New School doctrines coming into our church. They pretend to say that a person cannot be guilty of another man's sin, and quote Ezekiel, chap. xviii: "The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be. upon him." Some have even gone so far as to wrest the VOL. VIII.-51.