"born of water and the Spirit" (John iii. 5),-to justification by the blood of Christ, "as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death" (Rom. vi. 3);-to sanctification, as Eph. v. 26; 1 Cor. vi. 11;—to "the answer of a good conscience towards God," (1 Peter iii. 21); -to the miraculous influences of the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 5): (here it may be observed, that those who are now baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost, need not expect his miraculous influences :)—to suffering in the cause of Christ (Matt. xx. 23); to suffering martyrdom in the hope of a RESURRECTION to eternal life (1 Cor. xv. 29). Your inquirer says, "Ours is, I conceive, too much believer's baptism;" by which, I apprehend, he means that missionaries require converts to believe too much before they are willing to administer baptism to them. This may be an error; and I am persuaded many missionaries greatly err in this respect. In the days of the Apostles, though many, no doubt, were real converts when they first became disciples by baptism; and others had even received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, yet many others, I apprehend, or perhaps I might say the disciples in general, scarcely understood the "first principles of the doctrines of Christ" at that time. Thus it is said (Acts viii. 13), that Simon believed and was baptized: yet, if he had been asked a few simple questions on what are called "the fundamental doctrines of Christianity," it does not appear to me probable that he could have answered them (see also John viii. 31). In the multitudes that came to be baptized, we do not find any intimation of delay, or trial, or examination, except what is equivalent to "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to John's baptism (Matt. iii. 7, &c.) I apprehend John would not have refused it, had they been willing to be baptized, and to follow his counsel; for we find (Luke vii. 29, 30) "the publicans justified God, being baptized," whilst the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized: the latter evidently refused to be baptized, rather than that John refused to baptize them until they had brought forth fruit meet for repentance. We find also that Christ's apostles, and his first real converts, when they first became disciples, were very ill-informed on those subjects to which baptism refers. They did not believe in the death of Christ until he was actually crucified. When Christ spake of his sufferings, &c., Peter said, "Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee" (Matt. xvi. 21, 22): others said, "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Luke xxiv. 21), evidently thinking themselves deceived. If therefore the converts referred to in your inquirer's letter, be given to understand that when they are baptized they are considered to be really and truly Christians, or almost established in the Christian faith, I conceive that worthy minister of Jesus Christ is proceeding upon a wrong system; and the converts are not taught to consider themselves as entering by the solemn sacrament of baptism into the school of Christ to learn Christianity, obey, &c.; but as he intimates, the natives imagine that when they are baptized they are at the end of their lesson. In my view of the subject, it would be as unreasonable to require that a convert from the heathen should "be rooted and built up in Christ, and established in the faith" of Christianity when he first becomes a disciple or scholar, as it would be to require a child to know his business before he has served his apprenticeship; and if such qualifications be required in candidates for baptism, then I do not see the use of baptism at all, as in that case the Lord's supper would answer every purpose. Whilst there is a certain qualification requisite for baptism, in converts from the Jews or heathens, yet I conceive baptism itself has reference principally to future duties, obligations, engagements, promises, blessings, &c. In regard to the qualifications requisite for baptism in Jews or Heathens, it is obvious that they must see the weakness or insufficiency of their own systems for salvation, and also, in some measure, the superiority or truth of Christianity, or they would never become proselytes to the latter. Our blessed Lord's commission was, Go ye, therefore, and teach (disciple) all nations," &c. (Matt. xxviii. 19); and then (ver. 20) they were to teach them to " observe all things," &c.: therefore, in order to become a disciple of Christ by baptism, it was necessary to believe that "Jesus is the Son of God" (Acts viii. 37). They that gladly received his word were baptized." (Acts ii. 41, &c.) Your inquirer, I think, is right when he says, "the church has been, and ever will be, under one unvarying covenant of promise; and the same parties are admissible under every dispensation of this covenant." Thus in regard to the covenant made with Abraham, he first believed, and then "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised" (Rom. iv. 11). So that it appears to me that faith was then as necessary in all adult proselytes to the true religion as it was in the days of the Apostles. If it be asked again, What did Abraham or other proselytes believe? Surely not every thing to which circumcision referred, nor every thing to which circumcision bound them they were to circumcise their hearts and lips and they became "debtors to do the whole law." Isaac, the great type of our blessed Lord, was not bound upon the wood to be sacrificed, nor the further promises to Abraham made, till about twenty-six years after Abraham was circumcised; so that he had much to learn at the time of his circumcision. I may remark here, that when Abraham believed, all his household, or all the males under his authority, entered into the covenant by circumcision; and there is an exact parallel in the Apostles' baptizing households when the head of a family became a believer; only now "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 28). I scarcely know what plan missionaries adopt in receiving converts into the covenant by baptism out of a slave population; because children, whom God has placed under the authority of their parents, and made them responsible for their education in the true religion, are liable any day to be torn from them, and placed in situations where the parents can have no control or influence over them, and where they cannot have religious instruction: so that the parents enter into solemn engagements which they have scarcely any hope of fulfilling! (Oh the wickedness and cruelty of the system of slavery, which outrages so grievously both the laws of God and nature!) Yet I think even in these circumstances the children of proselytes ought to be baptized. The system which I have endeavoured to point out is simply this: first, by preaching or religious instruction, convince them of the truth of Christianity; and when they are willing to enter into the church, or assembly of worshipping Christians, and become disciples by baptism, then receive them and explain to them that they then engage "to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities," &c.; and lastly, that before they can be admitted to the Lord's table, they must be able, in some measure, to "discern the Lord's body," and "walk worthy of the Lord," &c. The Apostles themselves were first called, and became disciples of Christ; they then travelled with him, received his instructions, witnessed his miracles, and beheld his glory, before he instituted that supper which was to be an emblem of his sufferings and death. The minister that baptizes them, or who is placed over them in the Lord, and the church into which they are received, are also laid under obligations to instruct, watch over, and admonish them; and then follows the gracious promise, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people" (Heb. viii. 10). E. F. QUESTIONS PROPOSED FOR CONSIDERATION. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. MOST sincerely do I hope that you will persevere in your exertions to establish clerical meetings for discussion and mutual edification. Much good would arise from such an interchange of opinion, if conducted on truly Christian principles; but my present object in writing to you is to request that your correspondents would favour us with their thoughts on some of the interesting questions lately transferred to your pages from the records of a clerical society. Your lay readers could benefit only indirectly by such meetings, but the Christian world in general might be edified or comforted by appropriate remarks on such points as the following ten, which I have selected from the first two hundred questions. "What is the proper idea of growth in grace; and what are the best evidences, both to ourselves and others, that we really grow in grace? "How shall we best distinguish that reception of the truth which may be, and sometimes is, in them that perish, from that which God vouchsafes only to those who shall be saved? "In what sense is the obedience of Christ imputed to believers ? "Upon what evidence may a man judge himself to be in a justified state? "What are the usual causes and signs of decline in the spiritual life? "How may a person know when he is led by the Holy Spirit? "What are, and what are not, distinguishing and essential characters of the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit on the soul? "What are the most trying times in a believer's experience? "What doctrines of Christianity are or are not essential to salvation? "How far is retirement from the world a Christian duty?" : I should indeed be glad to read something in your columns on each of these interesting points. I feel sometimes like your correspondent Q. (p. 664 of your last volume) longing for " encouragement, consolation, and, above all, guidance." There is very little Christian fellowship in society it is seldom that a Christian can find a friend who can enter into his religious feelings, or to whom he can unburden his conscience; and I can well understand the solitary feeling described by Q. that it would be an inexpressible delight to hold a correspondence with some invisible and unknown Christian, to whom we might apply for assistance in our difficulties, and to whom we might, without fear, unbosom ourselves upon subjects alike interesting to all, but which are, by common consent, excluded from even the society of friends and relations. And yet-and let that be our solace -there is one to whom we can unburden them; and with the knowledge that he understands all our perplexities, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; having been tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. To the above questions let me add, What are the best means of proceeding with an infidel? I remain, Your unlearned and ignorant friend, A. Z. PRESIDENT ALLEN ON RELIGIOUS REVIVALS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I HAVE observed, in various English publications, remarks for and against what are called "revivals," as they have been witnessed in many parts of the United State's during the last few years, as well as in earlier periods of New-England annals. I doubt, however, whether the friends of religion in Great Britain fully understand the character of these remarkable eras of religious history, which, though accompanied, through the snares of the enemy of souls, by some things not to be commended, have in the main, and in the end, as President Edwards himself states, conduced much to the extension of true piety and the salvation of the souls of men. It might not be uninteresting to the readers of the Christian Observer to peruse the following brief statement respecting the late New-England revivals, as recently detailed by President Allen of Bowdoin college, in a lecture before the (American) University of Cambridge; and his statements are the more to be depended upon as he knew that his audience was probably composed almost wholly of men who regard these displays of Divine power as wild fanaticism. The following is an extract from his lecture: "The great Head of the Church has blessed the New-England ministry. The truth has been attended with power. Sometimes the heavenly influence has been silent and gradual, bringing forward the Christian virtues, as the fruits of the earth, by the arrangements of Nature, are slowly but surely matured. At other times there has been a sudden transformation of character, a general and delightful revival of the excellencies which ennoble man. So as I have seen on the barren, sandy plain of my residence, when the whole vegetation was yellow and withered away, a sudden summer shower coming down from heaven, has, as it were in a moment, converted the seared, blasted field into greenness and joy. "The communication of the Divine Spirit produces, as I believe, the first holy emotions in the alienated heart of man. If Christians, in the metaphorical language of Scripture, are born of God; if he creates them anew in Jesus Christ, unto good works; then, it is evident, there must be a moment when holiness begins, however long the previous period of instruction, and however long the subsequent period of improvement. There is no more difficulty in admitting that a hundred may be renovated within a few weeks, than that one may be renewed in a day. Indeed, when the Gospel was first preached, by one discourse of Peter were three thousand converted; and converted, as I suppose, by the same power which converted the individual persecutor on his way to Damascus, and which opened the heart of the woman of Thyatira to receive the truth. "With men of candour and well balanced judgment, the false pretences to inspiration or to the guidance of the Divine Spirit, the wild visions and the atrocious excesses of fanaticism, the dreams of madmen, whether in former times or at the present day, will no more produce the persuasion that there is no spiritual influence on the mind, than the boisterous, patriotic profession and ravenous seizure of public offices by hungry demagogues will convince them, that there is no such thing as the love of country seated in any human heart. "I have known wild visionaries and fanatics; but they did not spring up under the religious excitements which have fallen under my notice. In fact, there is a high intelligence and faithfulness of teaching and warning in our New-England pastors at the present day, which in a great degree cuts up fanaticism by the roots. It grows, however, in neglected fields, wherever the pure truth of the Gospel is not sown; it grows, too, in solitude, produced by selfish, unguided musings; it grows sometimes in the halls of science; but it springs up most commonly among men who withdraw themselves from the regular methods of religious instruction, and in whom two qualities preponderate-gross ignorance, and the desire of exercising their imagined gifts, or playing the part of a bishop or elder. Most heartily, therefore, will I join in decrying fanaticism; but I must be careful where I lay the charge of this wild delusion, lest I be found casting reproach upon the Spirit of God, and defaming the beauty and glory of the Christian character. "I was once myself a New-England pastor; and in this Commonwealth, in one of its most enlightened and beautiful villages, I toiled for years with the ordinary gradual blessing on my ministry. But after Providence had removed me, and substituted a more faithful teacher in my place, I happened to return and to spend a Sabbath in the former field of my labours. And what was the spectacle, do you think, which on that Sabbath I beheld? It was the spectacle—and a sublimer, a more joyous one I never saw—of more than eighty persons, new converts to the faith of the Gospel, standing up together, and taking upon themselves the covenant of a congregational church, and then singing a song of praise for redeeming love! These were not fanatics; they were intelligent and considerate. These were new converts; and in the transformation of their character I saw proofs of power, higher than any other power of the earth; sordid worldliness and covetousness changed into a generous charity and heavenly temper; imbittered, rancorous hostility, into brotherly love; profligacy into temperance and purity; contempt of prayer and of all religion, into the fervour of devotion and a glorying in the cross of Christ. Without doubt, as among church members of less rapid growth, some may have been selfdeceived. But I trust I shall never be disposed to point the finger of scorn at a scene which, as Christ has taught us, sends a thrill of joy and rapture through the hosts of cherubim and seraphim in heaven. "I could refer you to ten thousand such converts within a few years past in New-England. And why should it be thought incredible that God should renovate and sanctify the heart of man? Our whole existence, as well as every object in nature, is a mystery and wonder. It is, I believe, a general opinion among the ablest philosophers, that in every change in the natural world, there is an exertion of Almighty Power; for matter is inert in itself, motionless, dead; and the laws of nature have no efficiency to produce change. All that we mean by the laws of nature are certain associations of events, or a certain order in their occurrence. There is still wanted a power to effect the change, to produce the event; and that power is found only in the Almighty. We talk, indeed, of the powers of matter, but whoever supposed that a ball or a world could set itself in motion, or continue its own motion: or that particles of matter can arrange themselves into the form of a beautiful chrystal, or into the various organs and parts of a plant or a tree? Is it dead matter which fashions itself into the ten thousands of vessels and fibres of our own body? If, then, God is operating throughout all nature; if his hand puts in motion every thing that moves; if every leaf and every blade of grass grows up under his agency; is it a thing incredible that his should be the work of giving a pious direction to the heart of sinful man? Why should the soul be exempt from his kind and merciful agency, any more than the body?" Such sentiments from such a man ought to carry great weight. I might add many other testimonies; but this may, perhaps, suffice to shew some British Christians that there is more of the power of God in these things than they have been willing to allow. N. REFLECTIONS ON OUR LORD'S CONDUCT TOWARDS To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE discourse of our blessed Lord with the Samaritan woman, in the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel, contains illustrations of Christian doctrine, |
