Observer, April 1, '72. Ride on for the word of righteousness! Till you reach the gift of the morning star, Where there comes no flood or battle shock, G. GREENWELL. ON "GOING INTO MOURNING." Ir is cheering to know that in the present day there are Christians of various denominations, who see the uselessness, the hollowness, and the mischief of the general custom of " going into mourning" on the decease of relatives and friends; and who in accordance with their convictions, do not adopt the practice themselves, and greatly desire to see others released from the thraldom which it imposes. in We cannot doubt there are many sincere-hearted Christians, who have felt, and yet deeply feel, the bondage of this custom, and yet who have been trained so to look upon it as an inseparable attendant of death and bereavement, that it may never occur to them how desirable it is, how consistent for them, as followers of the Lord Jesus, to break their bonds, and to enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ makes all His children free. When our heavenly Father is pleased to call upon us to part with those near and dear to us, and to summon them to a fixed and eternal state of being, does He not design thereby to teach us deep and important lessons? Do these afflictions come at random? Surely not! They are permitted mercy and in love, to bring home to our hearts the uncertainty and frailty of our existence; to shew us the emptiness and unsatisfying nature of all earth's joys and possessions, and to quicken us to greater diligence, in seeking after a state of preparation, through the merits and mediation of Him who died for us, for an entrance into the kingdom of purity and bliss. Can we, then, doubt that these gracious designs are often hindered, if not altogether frustrated, by the time and attention of the bereaved being taken up at these solemn seasons for preparing their "mourning"; by having to summon their draper, their dress-maker, their milliner, &c. &c., and in having to hasten the many preparations, that all may be ready by the day of interment? And we believe it is a fact that most dress-makers will allow, that on no occasion is more scrupulous attention required to all being thoroughly fashionable, than in the making of "mourning." Much injury is also often inflicted on the health of the makers of "mourning dresses, from the long hours they are obliged to work, in order that the preparations may be completed in time; and the trial to the eye-sight is very great, from having to stitch on a black material hour after hour by artificial light. " And to what end is all this toil, this outlay, this bustle, this unseasonable distraction of thought and attention, when the mind should be occupied with serious reflections? when the greatest relief to the troubled and afflicted spirit would be, not in having the thoughts occupied with the trifles of dress and vanity, but in seeking communion with the Lord, and in striving after submission to His holy will. It is often pleaded that such dress is worn out of respect to the deceased; but can it benefit them? Observer, April 1, '72. Such dress is also often worn merely as a matter of compliment, when the wearer does not profess really to mourn, and therefore acts a lie! Oh! surely the true mourning of a bereaved and stricken heart for a beloved departed relative or friend, is of more value than all the funeral pageantry and dresses that money can purchase! And such a mourner is regarded with love and compassion by Him who wept at the grave of Lazarus. Such an one need not display any outward symbols of grief, but will be comforted by remembering that while man looketh on the outward appearance, the Lord looketh on the heart." To the poor also we believe this custon to be a very serious evil, and they are much to be felt for, in being taught, by the example of the wellinformed, that such a usage, involving such an unprofitable occupation of the thoughts, and so much expense, is necessary on the decease of their friends. On those who have perhaps nursed a relative through a long illness, and have great difficulty in getting them the comforts their afflicted state required, what an additional tax it must be, to feel compelled after their decease to obtain this useless " mourning"! Many of them, to procure it, are obliged to run into debt; and if they are upright and honest, this is an added burden to their poor minds, already pressed down with sorrow and bereavement. Oh! is it not time that professing Christians, and those who have had the advantages of education and mental culture, should by their influence and example, teach their poorer neighbours, that mourning consists not in the colour of the dress, but in the state of the heart,-that black dress worn for such a purpose is unworthy the Christian, often betokening that which is not felt, and is therefore in addition to the other evils of the custom, a departure from that strict truthfulness, which in deed as well as in word, ought ever to mark the Christian character. May we then who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus, to whatever denomination we may belong, or whatever our condition or station in life may be, strive yet more and more to live up to the precepts of our holy religion, and not conform to the foolish fashions and vanities, the senseless customs and usages of the world, in this and other respects; but seek to live increasingly near unto the spirit of Christ within us, whereby we" shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. REMARKS. "Words from the Work Table recently called attention to this question. The foregoing has been circulated in Birmingham, we know not by whom. It is high time that the Church took the matter in hand. Something more is needful than an appeal to individuals-the Church should, at least, protest against worldly conformity, so useless, so senseless, and so injurious. Do we mean that the Church should compel total abstinence from special funeral garments and trappings? No! But the Church should enter its protest and invite its members to agree to abstain and also to make known to their relations, friends and neighbours, as they have opportunity, that neither in colour nor style will they on any funeral occasion depart from their ordinary apparel. It is not possible to call upon one to take this stand when a dear one lies dead. It would be cruel to raise the question. But while wife or husband or children or friends, or all of them, are in health let us, individually, make known our intention, and let the Church enable us to say, that its approval rests upon our resolve. For more than a dozen years we have said this, and acted upon it : Observer, April 1, 72. indeed, the nearer and dearer the departed the less becoming it is that during the time intervening between death and interment we should spend money in clothing-new garments seem to us more fitting for seasons of joy, or, to say the least, for ordinary occasions. ED. "CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH.*" THE reader will find in another column an article clipped from the Cincinnati Commercial, of February 9, announcing that the "Central Christian Church" would be opened on the Sunday following. We lay this document before our readers entire, not to announce the opening meeting, as this must appear too late for that purpose, but that the disciples of the Lord abroad may see where some of us are getting to. This article contains a description of the new building to be occupied by the oldest and largest congregation we have in the city. The article appears in the Commercial editorially, but evidently the material was furnished by some member of the church, if not written out and out by a member. It may be regarded as appearing with the approbation of the church. The first time we ever preached in the city was about thirty years ago. The house then occupied by the congregation on Sixth Street, had been some kind of a shop; but the brethren had bought it, papered the walls and seated it. They had procured some cheap carpet for the aisles, and the plain little platform occupied by the speaker. As near as now recollected, the house would seat about three hundred people. Dr. R. S. Lawson told us on the way to the place of meeting, that we must not think of being in the city, or that we were to have anything but people to preach to, and to preach just as we did in the country. We tried to do as he said, and found the disciples there a plain and unpretending people, full of love and zeal for the cause. They wanted plain gospel preaching and stirring exhortations. They would linger in the aisles after the dismission, greet each other, and inquire after and hear of the welfare of all; tell of parties they knew, with whom they had conversed, almost persuaded, and whom they hoped to see turn to the Lord. In the afternoon, when they would "meet to break bread," they would attend to the reading of the Scriptures with wonderful delight, the apostles' teaching, the prayers, the fellowship, and at the close sing a hymn, and during the singing they would extend the hand to each other all through the house. There was a glow of love extending to every heart, a unanimity of sentiment, oneness of mind and singleness of heart which no pen can describe. Some years later, when the Episcopalians built a house in the city, at the expense of 100,000 dollars, we talked of it as an example of extravagance beyond all endurance. More than forty years ago, Alex. Campbell told the Baptists that they only lacked the means to be as showy, carnal and worldly as the Episcopalians. Little did he think then that those professing to be Christians, Disciples of Christ, and standing with bim pleading for the ancient order of things" and the "gospel restored would ever have opened the way for such a document as the one we reproduce in another column to be flourished before the world. This is the 'gospel restored "the ancient order of things "with a vengance! 66 *We give this leading article from the American Christian Review, as showing the state to which some of the churches of the reformation in America have reformed, and the opinion of others thereupon. ED. E.O. Observer, April 1, '72. This worldly and carnal display will send grief home to many hearts of the old saints. Many thousands now living will grieve. Many pretty things have been said by those determined to make the church a fashionable place of resort and entertainment. They would not introduce the organ if it would create the least disturbance! If it would wound the conscience of any member of the church, etc., etc. But the "Central Christian Church" have put it in, knowing that an overwhelming majority of their brethren cannot worship with it, and flourish it before our faces in the public prints in their description of their extravagant building, in 'which they have expended more money than has been given to the General Missionary Society during the last ten years from all sources. This is the kind of example these brethren are giving us to induce brethren to come up and harmonize with them in the work of evangelizing! This is the kind of millstone they would hang about our necks to sink and disgrace us and the good men who now rest with Jesus! We can carry no such dead weights, and in no such manner can we consent to appear to counte nance such folly, worldliness and carnality. Issuing a paper as we are now doing, and as we have been doing for so many years, we cannot let this worldly show, this carnal display, this appeal to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, pass without letting the brethren and all others abroad, where our columns are read and where we shall never see the people in this world, know how we look upon this temple and the description of it found in another column. For these we want to record here our view of it, and we want to leave our mind touching it for any who may think it worth while to refer to it when we shall be done with the struggle against the evils now threatening the very vitals of the Church of God. We do not expect the leaders of this enterprise to regard what we say, what the great and good men, by whose godly and devoted labours in the Lord we have been brought to God, have said, nor what the Bible says. They care not whether we ever put our foot inside the door of their imposing temple, or they would not have flourished their extravagances and their great organ defiantly before our faces. Nor do we know that anything we can say can have much influence in stopping the progress of the mighty torrent of worldliness now perverting and corrupting the pure and holy worship prescribed and authorized by our Lord Jesus Christ. Still there is a reason for our recording our mind on the subject. We have had appeals made to us every few weeks for the past twenty years to know if the Missionary Society could not send money to aid poor brethren in planting the gospel in remote sections of the country. Almost invariably we have been mortified to be compelled to give one answer, viz: that the Society has no money! What can we say now? that the Society has no money? Then the poor brethren abroad will inquire, Where did the brethren in one church in the city get 140,000 dollars to build their costly temple and put up an 8,000 dollar organ? Then, again, we solicit the brethren abroad, many of them in very moderate circumstances, to send up money to enable the Board in Cincinnati to send evangelists to preach the gospel in foreign lands. Will they send their money to a board in a community of such extravagance and pride to be expended in evangelizing? We know that the explanation will be made that only a few of the members of this church are members of the Board. That does not relieve the case. That few are the leading and really the responsible men in both the Board and the church. If these leading men in Cincinnati had been deliberately meditating how they could cut off every Observer, April 1, '72. sympathetic chord between themselves and the great mass of the preachers and brethren abroad, and trying to adopt the course best adapted to that end, we do not see how they could have been more successful. They have utterly disregarded the views of the great body of the brotherhood, and with the clear knowledge that an overwhelming majority was against them, they defiantly flourish this display before our faces! They have thus isolated themselves from the great body and set us at defiance. They have put us to the test, to come up and tacitly endorse their folly, extravagance and pride, with their corruption of the worship, or stay away. We can tell them plainly that we will never indorse them in their present worldly course. They will find many thousands more of the same mind. We would blush to talk of the "ancient order," the " gospel restored," returning to the "primitive order," the "Man of sorrows," who "had not where to lay his head "-and teaching, "Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind; "Love not the world nor the things of the world," in this temple of folly and pride. We invite the friends of the ancient gospel," of "the faith once delivered to the saints," to the following extract from the document in hand: "The fine effect of light, warmed and tinted as it passes through the stained windows, will strike every beholder the moment he enters the auditorium. It is the 'dim religious' tone so admirably adapted to a place of worship, and a worshipful feeling is imparted by the very character of the surroundings seen through the mellow harmonizing element." With this before you, what have you to say of Paul and Peter, James and John, who "determined to possess nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified," and never discovered the "" dim religious' tone." that "imparts a worshipful feeling?" What, too is to become of the thousands of poor saints that cannot have even a house in which to meet, to say nothing of the "dim religious' tone" to "impart a worshipful feeling?" True, there stands the statement that "the design was to make it free in every respect, unfettered in its doctrine by human traditions, and uncontrolled by the influence of money in the distribution of pews," etc. This sounds well; but will the poor think it any place for them, in this house of fashion and splendour, in this gorgeous temple of worldly display and show? Not a bit of it; they will not consider it the place for them, nor will the Lord, who requires the poor to have the gospel preached to them, go there. He is not attracted by imposing temples, worldly show, nor fine entertainments. This whole effort is not to imitate Jesus nor His first followers, but to imitate the world. It is more like the Cathedral, a short distance from it, than like the Lord Jesus the Head of the Church. This is the way to folly, pride and worldliness, and not the way to holiness, purity and eternal blessedness. Success in this will not be success in the cause of Christ. THE AUTHORITY OF THE APOSTLES. Ir is a characteristic of the professedly Christian opponents of the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, and increasingly is this the case in our own time, that they betray a strong disposition to depreciate the value, if not indeed to deny the authority, of the Apostolic writings. Some of |