in unity and love, and one or two individuals raised up in Lewisham a village about six miles from London bridge, a congregation of disciples has been organized in that place, consisting of twenty-two individuals, with the prospect of others soon being added to their number. On Thursday, March 14th, I visited these brethren and had the pleasure of speaking in the evening to about forty persons; again on Lord's-day the 17th, spoke three times; heard two confessions; saw these converts buried with Christ in baptism; aud broke the loaf in memory of the Redeemer's dying love. After the conclusion of the evening service, the following inquiry was presented: "Sir, If I understand you right, in the salvation of a sinner, you place baptism on the same footing as the death of Christ—is this correct?" Answer, No. The death of Christ for our sins, and his resurrection from the dead for our justification, are facts which originated with the Divine Being, and may, and do exist, without the sinner being in any way benefited thereby. Faith, repentance, and baptism, are all placed on the same footing being things commanded by God, to be attended to by sinners, that they may thus become united to Christ, and receive the remission of all past sins and the hope of eternal life.

"Thank you for making the distinction between those things which God has done, and the things he has enjoined upon us to do."

I returned to my abode with heart-felt gratitude to the God of all grace, that his truth which alone makes known the way of salvation, the glorious doctrine of remission of sins, through faith in a Redeemer's blood, had again become victorious in the hands of his faithful people. To him be all the glory now and evermore. J. WALLIS.

QUERY 1. Mr. Editor,-Will you or some of your correspondents. be kind enough to reconcile the following passages of Scripture: 1 Cor. xi. 5-15, with xiv. 34, 35, 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12; and you will much oblige, INQUIRER?

[I BEG to remark, without wishing to prevent others expressing their minds on the subject, that whatever were the practices of women as it respects teaching, praying, or being the mouth of the body, prior to the epistles being written, when they, as well as the men, appear to have been wonderfully puffed up with their supposed capabilities, that the Holy Spirit has now positively prohibited the practice; nor may they either stand or kneel in the congregation uncovered while they unite with the brethren in offering up prayer. Some have supposed the sisters do not pray unless they act as the mouth of the body!! In this we hope the parties are greatly mistaken.-ED.]

QUERY 2. What are the peculiar signs of the present over any former century, which warrant the conclusion that the second and glorious advent of Christ is near at hand?

A circumstantial answer to the above from one or other of your able correspondents will much oblige, 0.0.0.

CONTRIBUTIONS for the evangelists' fund have been received from igan and Dundee.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

ON Monday the 11th ultimo, business of various kinds required me again to visit London, where I continued till the 18th inclusive. During that short time I paid two visits to the brethren in Lewisham. On my return home sixteen letters and communications chiefly relating to the Messenger, Debate, &c. were waiting my arrival. Two of these articles were on the subject of teetotalism, which when added to three previously received for insertion, would have filled up more than half the present number. Now as the Messenger is not devoted to the advocacy of this subject-at the same time the parties having so many periodicals through which they can communicate their thoughts to the publicI have concluded to reject them all.

I would again remark, although a total abstainer from intoxicating drinks as a common beverage, that teetotalism is not, in my judgment, a religious question. It is not revealed in the Bible any more than Toryism, Whigism, Chartism, and almost a hundred other isms, which are highly esteemed among men. As a sober man is in all respects a better man than a drunkard, whether he be an atheist, infidel, or sectarian in his theological views, so I would advocate sobriety and self-government in all things.

Some of our respected friends are very liberal in writing and publishing to the world their designations of myself as а "dissembler," 99 66 hypocrite," "liar," &c. &c. But as all these charges arise entirely from ignorance, or fanaticism run mad, those who write or publish them, are the objects of my sincere pity and compassion.

I may just remark that most of the arguments hitherto advanced to prove that teetotalism is taught in the Bible, and that "Paul was an out-and-out teetotaller," are about equal in force and conclusiveness to the following, presented by one of the Society of Friends, to prove the truth of his inward light system. "Thou knowest friend," said he, "that the grace of God can be received without the Bible as well as with it, for St. Paul says, 'The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.' Now as all men have not the Bible, thou seest it must follow, if Paul be true, that the grace of God can be received without it." Wonderful logic! EDITOR.

POPULAR LITERATURE.-No. I.

Mr. EDITOR. Many a wild element enters into the intellectual compound of the present age. A great-an important crisis in human affairs seems confidently to be expected by all thinking men. Like the turbulent waters of the ocean, the world is agitated, startled, excited. A thousand theories are on the wing of every hour, and all are looking for some dread winding up of the present order of things.

MENT.

Were there any one word that could of itself give the character of an age or people, the generation of which we form a part might be well portrayed by the word EXCITEI presume, in no age of the world has the love of powerful, maddening mental excitement, been so obvious as at the present moment;-we look almost in vain for the calm dignity of reflection. Our arts, science, literature, are all hurrying forward with all the impetuosity, but not with the power, of the thunderbolt. The pulpit, the press, the forum, exhibit the same phrensied excitement. Ah! there are strange powers at work in this great crisis of the world's history.

Where are the men who are stopping to think? They are scarcely to be found. And even those who would wish to pause a moment and collect their thoughts, are not allowed; the foaming, rushing current of time's tide bears all before it, in its resistless energy. The ball, down the inclined plane, rolls at first but slowly; as it progresses, its impetus becomes quickened, until, at length, it rushes like

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light from the sun; and the nearer the end, the greater its force. Strange how this excitement enters into all the multiplied situations of life. The man of business must rush to the great marts of trade upon the winged steam-horse; the mere traveller, who goes on a tour to see the world, is not content unless speeding over twenty miles an hour! The former seizes eagerly on every new invention in machinery, which can spur to a gallop the energy of his operations. The press stands not still a moment, the steam god urges it on and on, and it daily flings from its teeming womb its millions of half-formed children of the brain.

Yet the age is a moral one, and it loves to talk of reform: vast experiments are abroad, for the elevation of the world; splendid theories of education; gorgeous buildings erected; grave doctors of learning provided, and all other excitements to reform everywhere at hand. These are mighty movements; but all the good effects are not to be discovered till the next generation. These mammoth systems, like the roots of the mountain oak, do not strike deeply in the soil for a hundred years. Every one knows that moral improvement must, in the very nature of the case, be but slowly progressive so long as there are the present powerful and secret influences to retard its course. We may lecture students, and drill them into obeying dull forms of morality, uneasily worn,-anxious to be flung off; we may even make them love the beauty of holiness; but one six months' license, under the soft dominion of a doting mother, anxious for her darling to show off his accomplishments, in what is called "good society," would exterminate all the moral precepts inculcated by the best teachers in a four years' siege.

In theories of education, as in every thing else, there is a sad want of that reflection which should always characterize them; there is a reckless rushing into schemes, the success of which is dubious, and the end of which is very obscure. When men of worldly wisdom enter into any large commercial speculation, they deliberately survey the field on which they intend to act; particularly scan all the opposing forces in the way to their success, and systematically make the effort to remove these obstacles out of their path.

Now, I would ask, has the immense power of the opposition to the moral and religious education of the world been duly considered? Has the deadly resistance of the paternal

roof been weighed? Have the poisoning influences of what is called "society" been appreciated? Have the immoral tendencies of "popular religion" been critically examined? But, above all, has not that vast and terrific engine of moral destruction, called "popular literature," rolled on almost unheeded; indeed, almost universally patronized by the very men who are forming ingenious theories of moral education, and who are exerting all the energies of their powerful intellects to find a cause for the overwhelming depravity which seems ready to engulph the world. It is too true that such is the case. Those benevolent enthusiasts are anxiously scanning the heavens, fearing a thunderbolt may hurl its fiery venom upon their favourite tree of morality; while the destructive worm is silently gnawing at its roots-eating into its very life—wholly uncared for, wholly unobserved.

It is to this point, Sir, that I would, with your leave, address a few essays, through the medium of your paper, to the friends of virtue and piety, and if I can only alarm some more able mind to take up this subject, in all its frightful details, I shall conceive that I have performed something for the cause of morality and religion which has not yet been accomplished.-Mill. Harbinger. E.

PRAYER.-No. I.

[As several questions and difficulties on the nature of prayer, have been recently sent for notice in the Messenger, we have concluded to commence with a series of essays and discourses already in our possession, and which have been published at different times and by different brethren in the United States, on that important subject. We have also several essays on what is called "The General and Particular Providence of God," which we hope in due time to lay before the brethren; by a careful perusal of which many of their questions will be answered, and the difficulties removed in a more efficient and masterly manner than by anything we could write upon the subject.-ED.]

DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL.-Being in some measure sensible of the multiplicity of business with which you are pressed, it is with some reluctance that I at this time trouble you. I am, however, the rather induced to do so from having observed the freedom and good nature in which you are wont to respond to the inquiries of the honest-minded in quest of truth. Without any further preface or apology, I will come at once to the object I had in addressing you at