Should any one say, 'I profess no religion, therefore have nothing to do'-I ask, do you ever expect to appear at the bar of God? If you do, hear what your final Judge says, speaking of himself, Matt. xxv. 41. Then shall he say to them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was an hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer and say, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it not to me. My servants that I sent out to invite you to come and partake of the blessings of my purchase, were destitute of the necessaries of life, and you would not minis and be worse than infidels, by neglecting to provide for those of their own house. Another consequence, is, that where study and meditation are neglected, ministerial performances will be dry and uninteresting, and the hearers will become lukewarm; stupidity will prevail, and a neglect of public worship will naturally follow. The minister is obliged to leave, for want of the necessaries of life, and thus the church is in a broken situation, for want of the regular administration of the word and ordinances. They are left like sheep without a shepherd, who wander upon the mountains of error and delusion. Divisions take place, they dwindle, and finally the candlestick is removed out of its place. But on the other hand, let christians contribute liberally to the support of ministers and missionaries, and at the same time maintain a sense of their dependence upon God, and they will rejoice and be blessed together. We have an instance of this in a neighbouring church, where a few sisters who are single, some of whom have no propter to their necessities, with the erty, none of whom have more than two hundred dollars, give upwards of ten dollars per annum, to support a preached gospel; yet they are in no want of the necessaries of life, and are able to entertain their friends in a hospitable and decent manner. Now if every member of the Baptist churches in America should be as liberal, there might be four hundred dollars for a minister in every Baptist church, and nine hundred and eighty-eight missionaries supplied with upwards of one thousand dollars per annum. Now, dear brethren, let us bring all the tythes and offerings into God's store-house, and prove him now herewith, and see if he doth not pour us out blessings, both spiritual and temporal, both for time and eternity. with The bounties of Providence BEREANUS. SHIP. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts !" ●N THE PLEASURES OF PUBLIC WOR- ifesting almost a total indifference to the services of the house of breathless silence," with a heart God, and while I am sitting in "burning within me," feasting upon the luxuries of an intellectual banquet, they remain dispassionate and unmoved, and perhaps either carelessly gazing upon the audience, or indulging in a quiet slumber. "SABBATH and sanctuary privileges" are among the most valuable blessings which the christian enjoys. They cheer and animate his soul, and inspire him with fresh confidence and zeal. How refreshing is the Sabbath to the weary christian, after a week of restless anxiety, toil and labour! it relieves his mind from the cares and fatigues of the world, and he enjoys, for a season, uninterrupted peace and tranquillity. Every earthly object is banished from his mind, and the glories of the eternal world rise in prospect before him! Auspicious day!"the best of all the seven." Thou art ever charming, ever lovely. I will welcome thy approach, and enter upon thy duties with joy and delight. Let the world spend this sacred day as they please," as for me, I will devote it to the Lord." Gladly will I enter the courts of Zion, and join in the worship of the Most High. Inestimable privilege! I would not exchange it for all the wealth and honour of which the world can boast. In this delightful service would I spend my days, and employ my latest breath. "A day spent in thy house," O Lord, "is better than a thousand" elsewhere. But why am I so passionately fond of the Temple of the Lord? Why do I approach it with such feelings of holy joy, and leave it with so much reluctance? Is it from any principles of religion I possess? Or is it owing to an attachment to a beloved pastor, whose touching eloquence and vehement fervour But while I am sitting under the "droppings of the sanctuary," "faring sumptuously" from week to week, there are thousands destitute of this invaluable blessing; and while I am "led into green pastures," and "by the side of still waters," they are starving in barren wastes, and parched deserts. And shall I feel no sympathy for their situation! make no effort to extend to them the blessings which I enjoy ? Blush, O my soul! at the indifference which thou hast hitherto felt! be ashamed of the little thou hast done for the support of the Missionaries of the cross; solve henceforth to be more interested in this benevolent object, and no longer suffer thy talent to remain "hid in a napkin," but cast it into the treasury. Y. re THE IMPORTANCE OF ITINERANT PREACHING. Messrs. Editors, BELIEVING that the multiplication of objects embraced by our christian benevolence, (like the union of christian graces) tends to strengthen each other, and by their general excitement the mind is more disposed to realize their importance and attend to "Warms the passions, and proselytes their individual claims, I am not the heart?" I see others, who are esteemed for their virtue and religion, man surprised when a new society is originated, or a new object proposed to our liberality. And in connexion with this, when I consider that it is the Spirit of God which puts it into the heart of some of his servants to devise and propose measures for the advancement of his visible kingdom in the world, others are by the same influence induced to approve and promote them. Thus while there are different operations by the same Spirit, there are similar views wrought in different persons. While Saul, arrested by the vision of Jesus, was inquiring, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? the same Lord was preparing Ananias to give the necessary instructions. So, when the love of God, which is the main spring of the benevolent mind, induces the prayer, "thy Kingdom come," it furnishes the best evidence of a readiness in its subjects to co-operate; and it is found only necessary, to hearts thus prepared, to exhibit the object claiming their benevolence, and it is at once in existence. Proof of this hardly need be adduced while we witness the existence of so many Societies supported by increasingly liberal contributions. Christians in public and private life are thus uniting their energies to accomplish the designs of God who worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure. In some recent excursions, which I have made among the scattered members of our churches, I have found many, who, with open doors and open hearts, have desired a preached gospel, that they and their inquiring neighbours might hear. Meetings for religious worship have been genrally crowded with solemnly attentive hearers. It is a well known fact that in many of our towns, evangelical preaching is not enjoyed; a majority of the inhabitants not wishing it, employ a teacher who does not believe in it. In this view, such towns have been thought Mis sionary ground; and the remark has been repeatedly made, 'in connexion with a pressing request for another visit, "we need Missionary labours as much as the Heathen." These considerations are suggested with reference to the expediency of forming a Baptist Itinerant Society; which, I think, in this section of the country, as well as elsewhere, would find some able members in its support; who, from a conviction of its promising utility, founded on experience, would give weight and respectability to such an Institution. It The success of Itinerant labours, which in some instances have been wholly the fruit of female liberality, encourages the hope, that, upon a more extended plan, and under the patronage and direction of a Society, having this for its exclusive object, it might be extensively useful. will be found by recurring to the London Evangelical Magazine, that as early as June, 1815, a Society of this kind was there formed. And in this country persons are not wanting, who are prepared to consider themselves as stewards of him who has said, “the silver and the gold are mine;" and, anxious to be workers together with God, wish to realize the truth of that divine assurance, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." If it should not be thought advisable to form a society for this exclusively, let this form a distant object, to be embraced by the Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts. So that while donations and subscriptions which are made for education, or translation societies, (defining the particular object,) or Auxiliary to the Foreign or Domestic Missionary Society, can be applied agreeably to the intention of the donors, there also may be the same facility, fer such as desire to subserve the best in As the Rev.Editor of the above History conceives that his reputation has suffered in the public estimation, and that this interesting work has not met with the reception which its merits justly claim, in consequence of a Review which appeared on pages in 1818, we, therefore, cheerfully admit him, through the same medium, to make his defence. While we would ex press our affection and respect for him as a faithful Minister of Christ, and as a laborious Author, who deserves the thanks of the public, we must refer both the Review and Strictures to our candid readers, and leave them to examine and judge for themselves. [Ed. Messrs. Editors, You have learnt that I am dissatisfied with a communication which appeared in the 55th and 56th Numbers of your useful and much esteemed work, under the character of a "Review of Robinson's History of Baptism," which I had then lately abridged, and which had just been published by Messrs. Lincoln & Edmands, and myself. Had the strictures of which I complain been a fair and candid Review in the opinion of my brethren at large, and had they been employed to detail literary blunders and inaccuracies in my editorial labours, I should have considered it my duty to have patiently borne the correcting rod, however painful it might have been. But as the Review labours principally to refute statements and opinions, which it is implied I inadvertently passed over; and as it has operated against the credit of the History, and has brought me under blame, I have from the first considered it a duty which I owe to my own reputation, and to the merits of the work, to publish a reply. But I have waited to obtain my own consent to omit this painful task, and to be convinced that it was not needful or expedient. And I have finally concluded that I cannot have confidence again to appear before the public, till this business is explained and settled. As the name of the Reviewer has been publickly announced in another publication, the production cannot be ascribed to you; and as I cannot suppose it was altogether satisfactory to you, as to its general scope and tendency, it has been somewhat surprising to me, that it went through your ordeal in its present form; and I am led to suspect that it passed into your columns, without undergoing that general and rigid scrutiny, to which most of the important communications you publish are subjected. It is not my design in this reply to impeach the motives either of the Reviewer or yourselves; it is much more pleasant to conclude that your friendship was unalienated, that your motives were unhostile, and that this unexpected trial of my feelings ought to be ranked among those singular events, which sometimes happen both in writing and conversation, among the most intimate friends, and which ought always to be disposed of with the utmost forbearance and care. Did the matter lie only among ourselves, we might easily adjust it, and hand it down to oblivion, by a private conference or correspondence; but as the Review has been published in ten thousand Magazines, and has been cir culated through the whole range of our connexion, and been the subject of conversation and inquiry, among thousands of our friends, I have no mode of redress so convenient and effectual as through the medium of the Magazine, to make my apology and defence. I have no desire to convert your useful and widely circulating Publication, into a controversial work; but I would recommend that every thing disputatious and controversial, both among our selves and other denominations, should, as far as possible, be avoided. And though I consider myself entitled to the medium of the Magazine for my reply, yet for the peace and harmony of the Magazine, and to avoid the appearance of rupture and collision, I have many times more than half resolved to try to forget the whole matter, to abandon the right which I claim, and to trust to the friendly aid of the stream of time, to bear away and bury in its oblivious channels, the evils which the Review has operated against me. But I have as often been shaken in my resolves by repeated and increasing accounts in my extensive correspondence, of the prejudices under which I labor, in consequence of being the Editor of such a dangerous and corrupting book, as the Review pronounces Robinson's History to be. And in this day of public excitement and prevailing error, suspicions are often magnified into realities, and suspicious circumstances are consolidated into facts; the defenders of orthodox sentiments, also, are often so hasty and unwise, as to proscribe their friends, from mere reports of their defection; and Socinian advocates, being very zealous for converts, give the most favourable construction to any opponent leaning to their side. As I am conscious that I have never given any occasion for this wide spread suspicion of my favouring the Socinian sentiment, except in the concern I have had in Robinson's History, I am reduced to the necessity of concluding that the implications of the Review have excited them against me. It is extremely unpleasant to enter on a discussion of this nature, on account of the unfriendly and unsocial aspect which it bears. But I wish to assure all the readers of this Reply, that I feel an unabating friendship for all who have been concerned in the Review, and I am confident they reciprocate all the friendly feelings of fellow ministers, of brethren and friends, which they ever felt; and on account of this, the transaction which has occasioned these remarks, seems the more peculiar and unaccountable. I think of it with pain; and indeed I can hardly realize that we are all of one denomination;-that the work in question is a History of Baptism, written by a Baptist, with a view to establish our distinguishing sentiments;—that it was abridged and edited by one of the same persuasion; that it was printed and published by Baptist printers; that it was reviewed by a Baptist Reviewer; and that this Review was inserted by Baptist Editors, in the American Baptist Magazine. Had the work been denounced by Pedobaptists, it would have been a thing of course, of which I would not have publickly complained. Had they issued a review calculated to hinder the circulation and effects of a history so calculated to affect infant baptism, it would have been consistent with denominational preference and attachment. I am far, however, from believing, that the support of believers' baptism depends on the arguments and researches of |