else, it will be nothing more nor less than a "by authority" monsterone of the same family against which we have waged an exterminating war, and in which I hope we shall eventually be completely successful. The Pope of Rome was but the emanating source of truth to Romanism at first. 2. We now need four times as many periodicals as we have issued, which should be suited to the wants of the districts in which they are published. Some should be clearing the ground of trash, some breaking up, some cultivating the fruit, &c. &c. It is disorderly to have all this in one issue, and leads to confusion. There is no danger of having too many papers of this description, if the editors are governed by the love of the truth, instead of rival jealousies. Such papers should be supported-and I, for one, will not lend a farthing to support one of any other character. 3. The publisher of a paper is not a petitioner, making his appeals to the generosity of the public for his support, any more than is the farmer. He gives a fair equivalent for all that he asks, as much so as the farmer does when he asks a dollar in exchange for a bushel of wheat. It is high time that the notion that publishers are beggars, and that all that is given them is a kind of charity, should be banished from the mind of all reflecting people. But if the commodity he offers in the market is not worth what is asked for it, don't take itthe rights of man are not to be sacrificed. Enough, however, at present. I beg the indulgence of those brethren in our wide difference of views of expediency in this matter, and close with the proverb, Fasten not your fortune to any thing, the sinking of which will drown you,' am, brethren, yours in hope of the triumphs of the gospel, Beloved brother Campbell, ST. JOHN, N. B., May 17th, 1841. HAVING a few moments at my disposal, I cheerfully appropriate them in placing a few thoughts on paper for your inspection. If they are worthy of a place in a spare corner of the Harbinger, hand them to your compositor; if not, commit them to the flames. My subject is Religious Periodicals. Although a young man, I have been for some time a careful observer of the progress of the cause in which we profess to be engaged. This cause owes much to our periodicals. That they have called up the attention of the brotherhood on many subjects connected with the well-being of the church, no person can dispute. That they have been for some time like so many indices pointing to the oracles of God, and have been the means of inducing the present age to read more attentively the scriptures of truth, and have thus made men more intelligent in the heavenly science, are indisputable facts. They can yet be useful; and were they conducted in a proper manner, I would say the more the better; for under the present state of things, the greater number of publications the greater the number of readers! Extra exertions are called for to support the numerous publications, and thus thousands have the principles of the present reformation spread before them, who otherwise would grope along, ignorant of the true path. For example, about 500 copies of "The Christian" circulate through these provinces, where not a dozen of any of the publications of our brethren in the U. S. ever have been, or would be read. Sometimes the postage on the Harbinger, in this city, has been charged as high as 12 cents per number, and they have consequently remained dead in the office. Hence the necessity of a publication in these provinces. Perhaps good reasons could be given by our brethren who have started publications east, west, north, and south for their existence. Their motives have been unquestionably good, and therefore they should be encouraged; but when a brother, who has the control of a paper, thinks that he has a right to engage in personal warfare with another brother, through the medium of his periodical, professedly devoted to the defence of the truth; it is then they are injurious to the cause of the Lord. He who would publish the faults of his brethren to the world, faults which have offended him, without taking the necessary steps ordained by the Lord, in my estimation has committed a fault-yes, a sin, of which he must repent or cease to enjoy communion with God. Were this sentiment entertained by all the brotherhood, and acted upon, I say, for the good of the cause, the more periodicals the better. But I fear that this course neither has, nor will be pursued; and therefore I would suggest to you, and through you to the brotherhood, a plan on which brother Crihfield, some others, and myself, had some correspondence some three or four years since. It was in substance the following:-Merge several, if not all the publications, in one weekly or semi-monthly quarto of respectful dimensions-endeavor to stimulate the brethren to do all they could to circulate it through the length and breadth of the land, and either allow every devoted evangelist well reported of for zeal and success in the dissemination of the truth, a handsome per cent. for subscribers; or appropriate all the profits for the purpose of employing able preachers to visit all the congregations of the Lord to announce the glad tidings, and help the disciples to set in order the things that are wanting. The latter plan would meet my views. In this case, every disciple who has the cause at heart, would take the paper and pay for it cheerfully. When he paid his money he would know that he was throwing a certain part into a treasury which was being raised to send abroad the heralds of the cross. Our present editors might each have a department which they could occupy with as good, if not better effect, than at the present time; and then instead of addressing a few thousands, they would be heard by some ten thousands. I have thought much on the subject, and really I cannot see that any rational objection can be raised to this proposal. Our editors cannot certainly find their present employments very lucrative. If, indeed, they have, they fare better than I do; for I have spent half of my time for two years endeavoring to sustain "The Christian," and my reward is $150 in debt to my Printer, after giving him all I can possibly raise. This, however, is the fault of my subscribers or agents, who have not paid their dues. I am really anxious that some plan like the preceding may be adopted. I love the cause, and will lend what little influence I possess to carry out any measures consistent with the oracles of God, to strengthen the bands of love among all the disciples of the Lord, and to put forward the victories of Calvary. Brother Campbell, come and see us, and lend us your aid and presence in holding up the gospel of God's grace in this part of the world. This would be a pleasant summer visit for you. Only about thirty hours steaming from Boston. In great haste, in hope of immortality, yours, W. W. EATON. EXCURSIONS—NË. III. CONVEYED in the carriage of our generous brother T. Bradford, of Nashville, and accompanied by young brother Walker, we bade adieu to Nashville, and hasted to Hopkinsville, by the way of the residence of the amiable and excellent Dr. Meriwether; at whose meeting-house, purchased by himself, and denominated Okia Delphia, or The Brethren's House, we addressed a very large and most attentive audience; and immediately after dinner, accompanied by brother Benjamin Campbell, we hasted to Hopkinsville, 25 miles distant; at which place, that night, we addressed as many persons as could possibly find admittance into a respectable meeting-house. The next day also we continued our labors-grieved, indeed, to see so many persons from a distance precluded the possibility of a hearing. The church in Hopkinsville, so far as I could discover, and from all that I learned, is in a very healthy and prosperous state. The Bible is high authority in Hopkinsville, and it is regarded practically as the greatest and best book in the world. There must be some Bible classes there, or else the Bible must be read a great deal, both in public and in private; for a class of more intelligent and more devoted brethren and sisters I did not meet with in my recent excursions through Tennessee and Kentucky. I cannot soon forget the intelligence, conscientiousness, and exemplary piety of a goodly number of young sisters belonging to the church of Hopkinsville. They are a good specimen of what is attainable under a good church order, and where the professors are in good earnest determined to know, love, honor, and obey the Lord. In such society as this My weary soul would rest: The man that dwells where Jesus lives, Must be forever blest. After a pleasing sojourn of two nights in Hopkinsville, conveyed by brother Long, we next addressed a very numerous assemblage in the Cumberland Presbyterian meeting-house in Elkton, and proceeded next day to Russelville. For two days we reasoned out of the scriptures with the citizens of Russelville and the surrounding country, convened in the Baptist meeting house, on sundry great items of the Christian system. Helped forward on our journey by sister Edwards, next day we addressed a large assembly in the Presbyterian meeting house in Bowling Green. In this place rather a curious and interesting incident occurred. When my visit to Bowling Green was first announced, all the churches in the village-Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist-firmly resolved that the citizens should not hear me in their respective houses. Startled somewhat, at their own courage to face a frowning community, the Presbyterian church of the old school first rescinded the orders in council, and tendered their meeting-house on a certain stipulation; namely, that I should not publicly assail the Rev. Mr. Dickinson, Presbyterian Pastor of the new school, who held, in common, a semi-monthly occupancy of the said meetinghouse. Fearful that the feelings of Mr. Dickinson or his people might be injured through the old school's liberality to the community In permitting them to listen to me in a house which they helped to erect, they very prudently and politically stipulated for the safety of the reputation of a person for whose character and tenets they had no more esteem or affection than for mine. The reader must be as ignorant of this precaution as I would have been, were it not for the brotherly kindness of Dr. Ford, of Edmunson, who, meeting me at Russelville, put into my hands a copy of a printed sermon delivered in the said Presbyterian pulpit about a year before, being a most misshapen and distorted caricature of my views and teachings of Christianity, from the tongue and pen of the aforesaid Mr. Dickinson. As though conscious of the outrage committed upon my doctrine and character as a teacher, these generous friends of both parties, stipulated that I should not assail the author of the calumnious sermon. Fortunately having, the day before read the discourse as I was borne over the hills and vallies of Logan, I was enabled to understand the conditions on which the house was tendered. I therefore replied to the committee who kindly waited upon me at Mr. Buckner's Hotel, that I came not to the Bowling Green to assail any one, much less the Reverend Pastor of the New School; but as they had brought the thing up to my consideration, I asked them whether they would consider a defence of my views from the assault of Mr. Dickinson, an aggression upon my calumniator? The committee replied that they had nothing to say on that subject: they merely informed me of the conditions on which the house was offered, I rejoined-Well, then, BETHANY COLLEGE. 329 gentlemen, I shall go to the house this morning and address the congregation in waiting on some practical subject; and when there I shall ask the Trustees from the pulpit the question, Whether they will on the morrow allow me the house to defend myself from the allegata of my Reverend assailant. I did so. Next morning, after the Methodists had revoked their Berlin and Milan Decrees, and had tendered their house; and after some overtures were on foot for preparing the markethouse, the Trustees, or a committee from the Presbyterian congrega. tion, besought us to accept the house, and to collect the congregation from the Methodist meeting-house already filled with ladies. We complied with their wishes, and in a speech of some three hours, as copiously as we were enabled, went into the examination of the aforesaid sermon; and if I might judge from what I heard, I think, thoroughly expelled some of the demons, which, through prejudice and misrepresentation, had unhappily possessed some portion of that community. Through this singular providence we were enabled to expose the sophistry of sectarianism, and to give a fair exhibition of our views in the very pulpit, and before the community, in which we had been so unceremoniously denounced as reprobate silver, and proscribed from the courtesies of Christian society. I am, moreover, greatly deceived if that gentleman shall ever have the same power to impose on that community in any matter affecting the great points at issue in said pamphlet. From Bowling Green on Monday evening we repaired to Br. Ford's, on our way to Glasgow; and after night addressed a congregation that usually assembled immediately in the vicinity of brother Ford's resi dence. Next day we proceeded to Glasgow, where we delivered several discourses to large and attentive audiences. We also lectured them on the subject of education in general, and Bethany College in particular; and hope to learn at no distant day that our labors in that cause were not vain. Brother Trabue, our kind host, holds a subscription paper, and those who desire to further one of the most promising enterprizes of the present day will please give him a call and become participants in this great and good work. Upon the whole, there is no field in Kentucky, known to me, more neglected than the Green River country, and none that would, in my opinion, more amply reward the labors of able and devoted evangelists, by yielding an abundant crop of converts to the faith. A. C. BETHANY COLLEGE. Ir is intended to lay a broad, as well as a deep and permanent foundation for eminent usefulness in every department of Bethany College. |