revivalism, are not in such general credit as they were a few years ago. The denomination indeed is becoming less enthusiastic and more intelligent; but it is yet by far too fond of Pedobaptist policy and orthodoxy, and most grievously remiss in its attention to the New Testament institutions as delivered to us by the ambassadors of Christ.

My friend Mr. Lynd concludes his essay with some indirect imputations as for example, "Who that knows any thing of the corruption of his own heart," &c. &c. "could say so!" We only wish that our friend may have still more deep convictions of the corruption of his own heart, and leave others to examine themselves. I regret to see so much of this unmanly and unscriptural cant so much obsequious homage to the prejudices of the multitude. Still I am obliged to Mr. Lynd for his essays; and as I have faithfully given to my readers all that he has written on this subject, I rely upon his honor and candid impartiality in giving to the readers of the "Cross and Journal" all that I have said in reply to him. I know Mr. Stevens, the judicious and able Editor of that Journal, leaves it to Mr. Lynd's discretion in what manner to prosecute this subject.

There are various comparatively weak and vulnerable points in the essay which called forth these remarks that I have not noticed, because in attending to the stronger or more fundamental, if I have been at all successful in exposing their fallacy, whatsoever is built upon them will, as a necessary consequence, fall to the ground.

In a word, with us the gospel of Christ is the almighty instrument"it is the power of God to salvation;" and, whatever theory makes it a dead letter, an impotent document, how specious and plausible soever in some respects, is to be repudiated as making the word of God of noneffect, and as taking from the "Sword of the Spirit" that point and strength by which it is able to pierce the hearts of the King's enemies. Let this grand and glorious characteristic of the gospel be preserved, and let all mankind be induced to the faithful and diligent study of that Record, and to the habitual practice of its pure and holy precepts, and then we shall have no disputations about the abstract influences of God's Spirit. They will most enjoy the consolations of the Spirit who are most attentive to what it has testified: for not they who talk and preach most about the Holy Spirit, are the most spiritually-minded: but, says Jesus, "If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him." And again, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. So speaketh the Faithful and True Witness: and with us his testimony settles all disputes. A. CAMPBELL.

DANCING.

In answer to several queries on DANCING, summed up in these words, "May Christians dance?" "May they send their children to dancing schools?" I give to my readers the following exposition, which the other day I saw in the Cross and Baptist Journal, and which comes up to my views in every essential point. A. C.

A TIME TO DANCE.

A ball having occurred in the parish of a worthy minister, at a season of peculiar seriousness among the youth of his pastoral charge, and ́ many of them, from conscientious motives, having declined to attend, their absence was attributed (erroneously) to the influence and interference of their pastor, who in consequence received the following

note:

SIR-Obey the voice of Holy Scripture. Take the following for your text, and contradict it. Show in what consists the evil of that innocent amusement of dancing.-Ecclesiastes iii. 4. "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance."

A TRUE CHRISTIAN, BUT NO HYPOCRITE.

The minister immediately wrote the following reply, which, as the note was anonymous, and without address, remained in his possession for some time, when he communicated it to the public, thinking that it might meet the eye and correct the opinion of the writer of the note

and others.

MY DEAR SIR-Your request that I would preach on Eccles. iii. 4., I cannot comply with at present, since there are some Christian duties more important than dancing, which a part of my people seem disposed to neglect. Whenever I perceive, however, that the duty of dancing is too much neglected, I shall not fail to raise a warning voice against so dangerous an omission. In the mean time, there are certain difficulties in the text which you commend to my notice, the solution of which I should receive with gratitude from "A True Christian."

My first difficulty respects the time for dancing: for, although the text declares there is a time to dance, yet when that time is, it does not determine. Now this point I wish to ascertain exactly, before 1 preach upon the subject; for it would be as criminal, I conclude, to dance at the wrong time, as to neglect to dance at the right time. I have been able to testify, myself, in some particulars, when it is not "a time to dance." We shall agree, I presume, that on the Sabbath day, or at a funeral, or during the prevalence of a pestilence, or the rocking of an earthquake, or the roaring of a thunder-storm, it would be no time to dance. If we were condemned to die, and were waiting in prison the day of execution, this would be no time for dancing; and if our feet stood on a slippery place beside a precipice, we should not dare to dance.

But suppose the very day to be ascertained, is the whole day or only a part, to be devoted to this amusement? And if a part of the day only,

then which part is "the time to dance"? But allowing the time to be ascertained, there is still an obscurity in the text. Is it a command to dance, or only a permission? Or is it merely a declaration of the fact, that, as men are constituted, there is a time when all the events alluded to in the text do in the providence of God come to pass? If the text be a command, it is of universal obligation; and must "old men and maidens, young men and children" dance obedience? If a permission, does it imply a permission also to refrain from dancing, if any are disposed? Or, if the text be merely a declaration that there is a time when they die, then I might as well be requested to take the first eight verses of the chapter, and show in what consists the evil of those innocent practices of hating, and making war and killing men, for which, it seems, there is "a time," as well as for dancing.

There is still another difficulty in the text, which just now occurs to me. What kind of dancing does the text intend? for it is certainly a matter of no small consequence to a true Christian to dance in a scriptural manner, as well as at the scriptural time.

Now, to avoid mistakes on a point of such importance, I have consulted every passage in the Bible which speaks of dancing; the most important of which permit me to submit to your inspection:

Exod. xv. 20. "And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances." This was on account of the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

Judges xi. 34. "The daughter of Jephthah came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances." This was on account of the victory over the enemies of Israel.

Judges xxi. 21. "The yearly feast in Shiloh was a feast unto the Lord, in which the daughters of Shiloh went forth in dances." This was done as an act of religious worship.

2 Sam. vi. 14-20. "And David danced before the Lord with all his might." But the irreligious Michael "came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself to-day in the eyes of the hand-maids, of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" Dancing, it seems, was a sacred rite, and usually performed by women. At that day, it was perverted from its sacred use by none but "vain fellows," destitute of shame. David vindicates himself from her irony by saying, "It was before the Lord;” admitting that had this not been the case, her rebuke would have been merited.

1 Sam. xviii. 6. On account of the victory of Saul and David over the Philistines, "the women came out of the cities of Israel, singing and dancing."

Psalm cxlix. 3. "Let them praise his name in the dance." Psalm xxx. 11. "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing." The deliverance here spoken of was recovery from sickness, and the dancing an expression of religious gratitude and joy.

Exod. xxxii. 19. "As soon as he came nigh unto the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing." From this it appears that dancing was a part also of idol worship.

Jer. xxxi. 4. "Oh! virgin of Israel, thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and go forth in the dances of them that make merry." This

passage predicts the return from captivity, and the restoration of the divine favor, with the consequent expression of religious joy.

Matt. xi. 17. "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." That is, neither the judgments nor the mercies of God produce any effect upon this incorrigible generation. They neither mourn when called to mourning by his providence; nor rejoice with the usual tokens of religious joy, when his mercies demand their gratitude.

Luke xv. 25. "Now his elder brother was in the field; and as he came, and drew nigh unto the house, he heard music and dancing." The return of the prodigal was a joyful event, for which the grateful father, according to the usages of the Jewish church, and the exhortation of the Psalmist, "Praised the Lord in the dance."

Eccles. iii. 4. "A time to mourn and a time to dance." Since the Jewish church knew nothing of dancing, except as a religious ceremony, or as an expression of gratitude and praise, the text is a declation that the providence of God sometimes demands mourning, and sometimes gladness and gratitude.

Matt. xiv. 6. "But when Herod's birth-day was kept, the danghter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod." In this case the dancing was perverted from its original object to the purposes of vanity and ostentation.

Job xxi. 7. "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power!" Verse 11. "They send forth their little ones, like a flock, and their children dance. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

What

is the Almighty, that we should serve him; and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him?" Their wealth and dancing are assigned as the reason of their saying unto God, "Depart from us," and of their not desiring the knowledge of his ways, and not delighting to serve him or pray to him.

From the preceding quotations, it will sufficiently appear—

That dancing was a religious act, both of the true and also of idol worship.

That it was practised exclusively on joyful occasions, such as national festivals and great victories.

That it was performed usually in the day-time, in the open air, in highways, fields, or groves.

That men who perverted dancing from a sacred use to purposes of amusement, were deemed infamous.

That no instances of dancing are found upon record in the Bible, in which the two sexes united in the exercise, either as an act of worship

or amusement.

There is no instance upon record of social dancing for amusement, except that of the "vain fellows," devoid of shame; of the irreligious families described by Job, which produced increased impiety, and ended in destruction, and of Herodias, which terminated in the rash vow of Herod, and the murder of John the Baptist.

Kingdom of Satan---No. 4.

ADAM and his beloved Eve came under the dominion of Satan when their sin was perfected. The King and Queen of human kind and the liege proprietors of the Lord's earth, with all its goods and chattels, having been subdued, and their hearts invaded by the Enemy, the whole earth and its inhabitants passed under the control and into the possession of the Adversary: so that the earth originally and rightfully the Lord's, and by grant Adam's, is by this stratagem seized and is now under the tyranny of Satan. He has got the field; "For," says John, "the whole world lieth under the dominion of the Wicked One." He has never been driven from this earth from that time to the present. But he has not been left in the quiet and peaceable possession of it; for his usurpation has been opposed, and the war has been prosecuted with various fortunes from that day till now. Two Kings and two armies are yet in the same field, and each has a party true and loyal. These two parties constitute two king. doms, which shall be more fully delineated in the sequel.

We can neither scripturally nor rationally suppose that Satan at first aimed at more than the simple destruction of human kind. That he expected the immediate destruction of the race in the person of their progenitors as the consequence of the seduction, is the most probable conclusion from all the premises. He could not, in all reason, have inferred any thing but the instant ruin of human kind if his scheme succeeded. That God would grant a respite, permit the race to multiply, and set up a remedial system, seems never to have occurred to him; any more than that the overthrow of Adam and his posterity would ultimate in making his own condition incomparably worse than before.

But he was not long permitted to indulge this delusion. Sentence was pronounced upon him the author of the rebellion, and enmity declared between him and the offspring of that very woman whose destruction he now regarded as complete, and all that should take sides with them in this long protracted conflict. The declaration of war against the usurper was, as it should have been, first made on the part of the injured party. It is on Heaven's side defensive, and although the frightful doom of the rebel angel and his embattled hosts is very plainly intimated, it is declared as the consequence of his malignant policy, which is finally to react upon his own pate.

He commences this campaign with very great advantages. He has by stratagem scaled the walls and got into the citadel; and thus the whole country is fallen under his sway. How appro. priately then is he called "The Prince of the power of the air,"