Observer, April 1, '76. name; the same muddling of things that differ, in a way so peculiar that it may be doubtful whether another man on your island would do anything like it; the same spirit of catch and evasion, and the same evidence of its ungentlemanly and unchristian origin. But in addition to this, and the published reasons of Douglas men for putting to your account the dishonour of writing those letters, and the underhanded denial of their authorship, I have further reason. In one of them the writer quotes from a certain number of my little serial the Old Paths, intimating that that number had been put into his hands. That number has been traced to your possession, having thus come to you. We then take it as settled that from your heart and head emanated the "Manx Churchman" letters; and, that being the case, you may be right in intimating that it was an impropriety in me to notice anything you wrote to Mr. Green. Of course, in assigning to you the substantial authorship of those letters, I do not mean that the copy sent to the printer was in your hand, nor that there were not verbal alterations made by some churchwarden, or ex-churchwarden, or other satellite, taking the designation of Manx Churchman, so as to enable him to affirm that he is not vicar, clergyman, etc., thus palming the deception upon the public. I have already made you acquainted with the ground on which I notice you at all-i.e., that you are a servant of the State, belonging to that department of the civil service known as the Established Church, another and higher State functionary being responsible for you. I deal, then, not with the man, but with the State Agent, and my intention is not to allow unworthy conduct to impel me to refuse such attention to any one of the nation's officials as I may deem useful to the people and to the church. In my last I offered you equal space in the E. 0. for relevant reply. You have not pleased to avail yourself thereof; but you address a letter to Mr. Green, intended for me. That is your method of indicating contempt for our littleness. Very well, that leaves me at liberty to deal with your writing in any way I please. But the pretended contempt is but hypocrisy. If it were real, you would let us pass unnoticed; but you get behind a mask to do us battle, pretending we are not worthy attention. You grant that my last letter makes our position much less odious than you thought it, that position being that the kingdom in John iii. 5 is not the final kingdom of glory. Then you intimated that "rather rashly you took for granted" that our position was otherwise, on the ground that Mr. Pitman had said something different. But, as you in the same writing represent Mr. Green as saying what he has written to inform you he never said, I cannot receive your testimony. You had, however, not to do with Mr. Pitman, but with me; and I explained to you, when you wrote as "Manx Churchman,” that the present kingdom, and not the future, is there intended. You are, therefore, without excuse. Then you say that King and Co. are "under the mistaken notion that to baptize means to immerse, which it never does in Scripture, and never does properly at all." Now, sir, do you know a little volume called "The Book of Common Prayer?" That book contains the law by which priests in your church shall govern themselves in the administration of baptism. It gives no permission to sprinkle water in any case. If it be certified that the child is weak, "it shall suffice to pour water upon it." But otherwise the priest "SHALL dip it in the water discreetly and warily." Still you deny that dipping or immersing is properly baptism. Then why do you remain in a church which requires you ordinarily to declare, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that to be baptism which you deny to be properly baptism at all? You not only do the thing, but you take in vain the name of God by declaring that you do it by His authority. That is, unless you reply that you never dip or immerse the child, but under all circumstances pour water. In that case the sin differs, but is scarcely less. You profess to give your unfeigned assent and consent to the standards of your church, you are hired to carry out its ordinances as the State directs, and you set at naught its laws, which you are specially called to honour and protect. Why? Because the hireling cares for the fleece more than for the truth. Depend upon it, sir, that this common inconsistency of State Church priests, is the fruitful source of the infidelity of the land; and a fearful account they will have to give when they stand before the judgment seat of Christ. E're that time comes, may the grace of God change your heart and conduct. There are two or three items still to notice, which time and space compel me to leave over for a few days. Yours with best wishes, DAVID KING. REVIVALISM. MR. HENRY VARLEY.-Dear Sir,-I was induced by your kind invitation to attend your revival service in the Mechanics' Hall last evening. Your sermon seemed to me to be divided into three parts-The truth, less than the truth, and more than the truth. You certainly stated much of the truth in very forcible language and apt illustrations. I was pleased to hear you speak so forcibly against mere feelings, and on behalf of the real knowledge of adoption and salvation. Your anti-parsonic dress, manner, and style of preaching is a great march in advance of preachers generally, and commended your laudable efforts to my warmest thanks: so much for the truth. I must now express great regret at hearing you preach less than the truth. You said, "as soon as the sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ he enters the Kingdom of Jesus and becomes a child of God." If you will turn to John iii. 5, you will find the Great Teacher preaching otherwise, and declaring the whole truth. You said, "the jailor was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he should be saved;" but if you turn to Acts xvi. 30 to 34, there the Apostle preached the whole truth and informed the inquirer that he had something more to do than simply believe. You rightly said it was not believing that saved, but what was believed, I would like to add, neither is it partly believing that will save, but a full and willing acceptance of the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Your statement respecting Jonah not being in the belly of the fish for sometime after his ejection from the ship was not made very clear by your comment on the weeds being wrapped about his head, etc. I quite fail to find any trace of lapse of time, but think the Book of Jonah teaches that the mariners cast him overboard, the fish swallowed him, and there he remained three days and three nights. Your allusion to believer's baptism was very well timed and truthful; you observed it was a burial into the death of Jesus Christ, and believere were buried and risen with Him. This, sir, is the truth. (See Rom. vi.) But now hear yourself utter more than the truth. You said, "but mind you do not misunderstand me, remember baptism is ONLY a figure." The Holy Spirit does not so teach. (See 1 Peter iii. 21.) To say ONLY is to advance more than the inspired Apostle. We are there told that baptism now saves us-but not ALONE, nor only. We are said to be saved by faith, but not alone or only, James ii. 20 and following; nor are sinners saved by anything only, not even ONLY by the blood of the Lamb. Nor would it do for us to say that He is only a sacrifice. Faith is only believing, and baptism only a figure, the word only is more than the truth. You stated, "that steam was not an invention, nor a discovery." If not a discovery who uncovered it, or did it uncover itself? In your finishing appeal you said, "I am labouring for Jesus not for denominationalism, I care not where the fruit of my labour goes-to the Church of England, or to the Methodists, or to Baptists, or anywhere else; I am here for no party purpose, but for the honour and service of the Lord Jesus Christ." I think, sir, this is a little more than the truth, I hope we may be permitted to compare this appeal to a flourish of trumpets. Let me ask you, for a penitent inquiring sinner, whether he shall go and support a Church of England whose doctrines are (many of them) dead against your own, and the truth, for instance: Infant Sprinkling, Sponsorship, Confirmation, Priestly Absolution, and a Bishop Consecrated Priesthood? As a seeker after the truth would you advise me to go to the Church of England? Perhaps not. I think Mr. Varley would care more for my soul and advise me not, but to try and find some holier fellowship. Would you advise me to go to the Methodists? If so, where is the consistency of your pleading for New Testament teaching? Do not they hold many traditions untaught in the sacred page-as Infant Sprinkling, Class Meetings, Ministerial Supremacy, Conference, Law Making, etc., etc. Would you advise me to go to the Unitarians? They profess to be a very reasonable religious people; or should I go to the Christadelphians, who profess to be the only Christian people on the earth? Do you not care where the convicted inquiring sinner goes as the fruit of your labour? Surely, sir, this is more than the truth and needs recalling, correcting, and not repeating. Well, did you compare certain people's heads to lumber rooms, saying, "it took us preachers much of our time to clear away this lumber before there is much room for the truth." I agree with you, but think, in this instance, you were guilty of adding lumber to the present stock by preaching less than the truth, and more than the truth. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is, and should be the conscientious creed of every faithful follower of the Lamb. Wishing you health and peace, yours in the Kingdom of Jesus the Christ. Nottingham. R. MUMBY. Observer, April 1, '76. CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. (Palestine Contingent.-From Letter, No. 3.) CAIRO to Jerusalem! Let it not in this instance be for the reason, "that a prophet cannot perish out of Jerusalem." Poor Jerusalem! It is often easier to get an evil reputation than to win golden opinions; but who shall tell what thou hast paid for a sad and sinful notoriety? What story shall vie with thine for painfully absorbing interest, and where shall we find contrasts so striking as are presented by thy history? Nineveh, Babylon, and Rome stand out as historic giants-gigantic in their life and in their death; but none is like unto thee! A city superlative alike in privilege and in calamity, in glowing expectation, and in blighted hopes! City of Samuel, David, and Solomon, and of Caiaphas, Pilate, and Judas! City of Mount Moriah and Calvary; of the Holy of Holies and Golgotha! The home of the Shekinah, and the scene of the murder of God's Beloved! What notes of sublime melody have reverberated through thy courts, and echoed from thy walls! What tones of mercy and tenderness have arisen, with the incense of thy worship! What billows of rage and hate have rolled along thy streets, to be answered by wrathful thunders, mingled with the laughter of demons! "Love Oh! blind Jerusalem. Waiting through long centuries, longing and languishing for the voice of thy Lover-for the presence of thy true King-for the liberty, the privilege, and the glory of the Messianic reign! Yet, when HE came-the brightness of the Father's glory-the Prince of Peace, the Son of David; Jerusalem said "He hath a devil," and to her children's song of "Hosanna!" she howled the chorus of infuriated madness-"Away with Him! crucify, crucify Him!" And yet! and yet! that no thought can reach," wept over Jerusalem! saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes.' "How long, O Lord! how long?" Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.' "Until they shall say, 'Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" The veil shall be taken away. The wanderer shall return and find rest; the alien have a place in the commonwealth. The night has been long and dark; but the dawn approacheth! The gloom has been resonant with weeping; but the morning shall break with song! "For, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."" "O! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and His ways past finding out!" 6 Therefore, let not sadness prevail, as you view the present desolation; nor suffer despondency to sigh, "Alas!" as you wander over Moriah, Olivet, and Observer, April 1, '76. Calvary; but let faith be strong and hope exultant, in the might of Him, who once led His chosen out of Egypt, and can, in the ripe time, gather the dispersed among the nations, and lead them to glorify His name, in the acknowledgment of His Son Jesus Christ. Nor forget, that Pentecost, of the "beginning at Jerusalem;" when the first and noblest triumph of the Gospel was achieved, and the Kingdom of Heaven opened to the sons of men. And now, "Excelsior"-onward and onward-from grace to glory-from the city of humiliation, to "Jerusalem the Golden," whose light streams from the throne of God and the Lamb. Glory! Hallelujah! Intelligence of Churches, etc. THE PALESTINE PILGRIMS.-Our Eastern travellers are making rapid and cheering progress; they are thoroughly enjoying themselves, and their unanimous testimony is that the various places of interest already visited far exceed their expectations and outrival their powers of description. The sail across the Channel from Folkestone to Boulogne was smooth, but cold. They reached Paris about five o'clock, and after visiting the various places of interest in that fashionable city they left on Thursday evening, Feb. 10, travelling all night, and the next day they passed through the Alps. Here the scenery was grand; the mountain peaks, capped with snow, rising above the clouds and glistening in the sun. After riding in the train for twenty-two hours they reached Turin late on Friday evening, and the next day they started for beautiful Florence. This city was reached at a quarter to seven, and time was spent in visiting its picture galleries, paintings and sculpture, for which the city is famous. Here the first Lord's day was spent, and, con equently, they gathered around the table of the Lord to "remember Him." On Monday they started for Rome, and in the evening they sighted the dome of St. Peter's away in the distance; at this, three hearty cheers were given. Two days were spent in the Eternal City, visiting St. Peter's, St. Paul's, the Catacombs, Forum, Palace of the Caesars, and all other places of interest. Wednesday, they starte l for Naples. Reaching there, they took a trip to the buried City of Pompeii, and trod the very streets that were trodden by the Romans 1800 years ago. On Friday, the 18th February, they embarked in the steamship Egitto for Alexandria. The weather was beautifully calm, and scarcely any waves; nevertheless some of the party were a little affected in the way that is common to sailors of a certain kind. They reached Alexandria in safety on Wednesday morning, Feb. 23, and from thence proceeded to Cairo. Here, then, we leave them for the present busily engaged in visiting that very interesting country, and we thank our heavenly Father for His goodness and mercy to them thus far, and pray that He may still continue to watch over them and keep them in perfect peace. The second Lord's day was spent on the Mediterranean. Here, too, the Lord's death was celebrated. B. ELLIS. WALSHVILLE, ILL-A few days since an aged lady, seventy years old, attended the meeting on Lord's day; although having lived so long without any profession of rel gion, during the discourse she wept like a child. Returning to her home, four or five miles distant, she sent word for us to come out to her house the following Tuesday, and preach again, as she was too feeble to attend church. This we gladly did, a number of the brethren from Walshville accompanying us. When we arrived at this place we found she had called together her "kinsmen, and near friends" to hear of Jesus, so that the house was filled. The circumstances suggested the incident at the household of Cornelius in Cesarea, which we read and commented on. The aged mother sat in her accustomed chair by the broad fire place, and listened with deep interest to the discourse. At the close, when we gave invitation for those who desired to confess the Saviour of sinners, to do so, she rose and came forward with tottering step, and in answer to the usual question, responded with great earnestness, "I do! I do! I do!" We then repaired to a stream near by to attend to the ordinance of baptism. Rising from the symbolic grave, she exclaimed, "Lord, help me to live a Christian life!" She was placed in a conveyance and speedily taken to her home, and was lifted into the house by the strong and willing hands of dutiful sons. Many of the friends remained in the afternoon a few hours, and spent the time in singing some of the beautiful songs of Zion, in which she engaged with great zest. was very partial to Bro. Shaw's "Golden Sheaves" one of the songs not born to die-which she raised herself, and led with a strong voice. We left her rejoicing in the hope of the gospel, and confidently expect, should we reach the land immortal, to see old mother Jordan among the "golden sheaves gathered from the harvest fields of time. She BEDLINGTON.-For a number of years a few immersed believers have assembled every Lord's-day for the breaking of the bread and mutual edification in a small chapel, or room, in Bedlington; seating about eighty persons. Of late the little church has gradually increased and, without soliciting the world for aid, has erected a commodious chapel in the main road, at a cost of about £900. The erection is of stone and brick, perfectly plain, having at the back a small school room, which opens into the chapel when needed for larger audiences than usual. On Saturday, March 11, C. Abercrombie, from Edinburgh, and D. King, of Birmingham, arrived to render aid in the opening services. On Saturday evening the chapel was really opened for worship, though the meeting was only announced to the church, members being invited to assemble for prayer. A happy meeting was addressed by C. Abercrombie, and the baptistery was also used, and a young man, a son of one of the members, was immersed into Christ. On the following morning, the chapel was comfortably filled, brethren being present from Newcastle, Shields. and other near places. R. Metcalf, of Bedlington, presided at the Lord's table. After the breaking of the bread, the prayers and the fellowship, D. King and C. Abercrombie discoursed upon the blessedness of those who know the pardon of sins, and upon topics connected therewith. In the evening, chapel and school room (opened into one) were crowded, many people going away. D. King preached on the Death of Christ. On Monday evening, Mr. Abercrombie preached in the chapel to a good audience, and Mr. King occupied the Wesleyan Chapel, at the Guide Post, some three miles distant, having a full and deeply attentive audience. Tuesday night was a time of storm, wind and snow, enough to keep all lukewarm people at home. But Mr. King was announced to lecture on Spiritualism, and the chapel was again well filled. This lecture was, by special request, as that delusion of wickedness had got some footing in the neighbouring villages. Questions were permitted and answered to the speedy discomfiture of the Spiritualists who ventured to present them. At the close of this meeting a deputation obtained Mr. King's consent to preach the next night in the Wesleyan Chapel, Scotland Gate, which, though there was only one day's notice, was well seated with an audience, almost breathless in attention, and composed chiefly of persons not in any way connected with us, there being only some five of our members present. Thursday evening, Messrs. Abercrombie and King gave gospel addresses in the chapel. On Friday evening, by special request, Mr. King lectured on Spiritualism, in the Wesleyan Chapel, Guide Post, where there was somewhat of a scene. Some good while before the time for commencement people were returning, unable to get inside the doors. Mr. King arrived a quarter of an hour before the time, but the question was how to get in, there being no entrance not choked up. Give way the people would not. There was no help for it, but that a good friend, above the average height and strength, constituted himself a wedge, and gently but firmly drove through, followed by the lecturer. This process had to be continued right up the pulpit stairs, and even the pulpit itself was not unoccupied. The service commenced before time, the hearing was good, notwithstanding the uncomfortable condition of the people, owing to overcrowding. The chief Spiritualists of the neighbourhood were present. Some opposition of an unimportant kind was put forth and replied to with effect. The chapel is the largest in the neighbourhood, but it is supposed that one three times as large would have been filled. On Saturday afternoon the new chapel was filled to a tea meeting. Two hours were spent in consuming the good things provided; the tables having to be used by three companies in succession. After tea, the chair having been taken by R. Metcalf, the large assembly was addressed on gospel themes, by Messrs. Abercrombie, Watson, Scott, Rae and King. Select singing, led by D. Phillips, had place between the addresses. At the close of the meeting the Baptistery had to be made ready in order to the immersion in the morning of one who had confessed the faith and desired to be buried with the Lord. Thus ended the first week of the opening services at Bedlington. SLAMANNAN (Scotland).-The church here has recently made an appeal to the churches, by circular, for aid to pay the cost of its present meeting place, which has been established not merely for its own convenience, but for the presentation of the truth to the neighbourhood. The smallest contributions of individuals, as well as the larger, will be gladly received and are needed. The position of the church is encouraging. During the past year forty-three have been immersed, eleven restored, five received from sister churches, the total membership being ninety Observer, April 1, '76. four. They appeal only to those of like precious faith, and trust for hearty response. R. C. LIVERSEDGE (Yorkshire).-We have pleasure in reporting the addition to the church of four by immersion; two of them from the Sunday school. N. K. GREEN HILL LANE (Derbyshire).- Lord's day, March 5, three young persons from our Sunday school were immersed into Christ. On the Tuesday evening two others were buried with the Lord in baptism. J. C. SPITTAL.-We are glad to report that three members of one family, formerly immersed, have been added to the church. J. R. LEYTON (Essex).-The little church meeting here is gladdened after three months' labour by three immersions. A. R. Family Room. THE MASTER SITS BY THE TREASURY. And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld To chink 'gainst the sides of the chest; Since the Pharisee cast in his gold. And the widow still comes with her off'ring, So much of His love and His grace, Repaid by a glance of His face. Unconscious, alas! of His sight. Observer, April 1, '76. Should He take up the gift-O, how paltry! And weigh it before us to-night, Oh, what would it seem in His sight? The Master" sits over against it,”— FAMILY ROOM. A terrible thought, and yet true- COVERING UP. W. L. M. "I WILL do my best," said the little rue-leaved fern on the wall. It was a very bare stone wall, and it wanted a vast deal of covering up to make it look respectable. And the rue-leaved fern is very small and makes so little show, that unless you were close to it, you would never know it was there. But you must notice what a resolute little plant it is, and that it has set itself to do nothing less than covering up that bare stone wall, with the beauty of its own tiny stems and fronds. So it crept into all the crevices and sent its thread-like roots into the crumbling mortar, and, nothing daunted, kept on getting a little bit farther every day, as cheerily as though it had been the easiest and most natural thing in the world. "I am very thirsty," gasped the little fern, at last; "it is so hot and dry here; if I could only grow now like the great shield-fern under the hedge yonder, it would be so nice: but never mind, I'll cover up a little bit of the wall if I can do no more, and there will be so much more green in the world by every step I take. Just the other side of the wall is a canal, and an ugly red brick archway. It wanted something to cover it worse than the stone wall, and something there was doing its best. It was a little plant with dull green leaves and whorls of reddish flowers, decidedly dull in its whole aspect-the wall-pellitory. Nobody looks at it a second time. often and often, probably without knowing the You have seen it least what it is like now. But the humble flower had its own purposes, nevertheless, and it nodded to the fern in approval of what he had been saying, and had a word to say, too, on its own account. "Yes, I too am a poor weak thing, and yet I can do something that grander plants cannot, for I can grow where they cannot. My roots rather like the taste of brick. There's no accounting for taste you know; and I have a fancy for covering up, what is ugly and unsightly. I am trying to do just what the ivy does, only he is so dignified, and I but a mean, worthless weed. Our object is the same, he covers up the castles, and I the common wayside walls. So, one brick at a time, some day I shall wave my green mantle over the whole archway." The wind carried the words of the little pellitory to a bank at the other side of the field. bare, like the stone wall and the arch; but it would It was not have been without the moss which had made a cover 111 ing, oh, so soft and green, over its length and breadth. "Humbler than either of you," said the moss, gently, "yet I feel I am a fellow labourer with you, and my end the same as yours. Perhaps it goes a little farther: "I like to soften the sharp edges, I like to smooth over what is rough and rude, and only give me leave and give me time enough, I would fling my own greenness and beauty over all the world.' "Heigho!" cried the grass in the field, so suddenly that it made the pellitory start and the moss tremble. "Why, don't you know that all this is what I am doing, and have been doing since creation? I wonder what would have become of the earth without me! I don't want to set myself up, but just think what a state of things it would have been, if I had not had this mission of covering up. Look at those mountain slopes, and fancy what they would have been with no grass on them. There would have been no lights and shades, no bright vivid green for the eye to rest upon, but only the dreary fallow from which all the beauty had died away. And beneath the hills it would not have been much better, there would only have been the dull dark soil, instead of the verdant pasture and the rich carpet of my never-fading grass. Ah! If the world only knew how every blade is at work in its cause, it might well be grateful! If people only knew what might have been!" "Ah," whispered the moss, quietly, more as if it were talking to itself than to anybody else, "there are other places in this world that want covering up, and there is something that is always doing it even as we are. But it is neither ferns nor flowers; they only shadow forth faint pictures of that higher life which lies above them and around them. There are those who move about in that higher world flinging as they go a soft green mantle over the roughness and the rudeness, over the sharp points and the cutting edges, until you would not know that they were there; they are all covered up and mossed over by the soft, magic cushion of love!" And the last word that I heard on that mossy bank, and which I carried back with me to a working, jarring, inharmonious world, was that one sweet undertone-love. Charity (or love) shall cover a multitude of sins. Charity (or love) never faileth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hoping all things, endureth all things." SOWING. SCATTER We must and scatter we will, The seeds of right or the seeds of wrong. Every thought is an embryo; Every word is a planted seed, Be for the flower, and not the weed. |