ties, and every time it returns to the heart it has lost much of the life which it carried away; so that it becomes necessary for it to replenish itself by drawing upon those roots and fibres which furnish it with chyle from the stomach. I see you are quite astonished at this learning, and no wonder. Epicurus and Zeno were school-boys in comparison with this age. Indeed, my friends, I could say that the body receives its life through the blood; the blood through the chyle; the chyle through the gastric juice; and all from the stomach; and finally the stomach receives all its supplies from the soil. We may conclude, then, that the soul is in the earth!!

Spirit signifies the wind in motion, breath, energy, &c. &c. It generally means the effect of an impression on the brain, or a vibration of the thinking organs. It is a word which relates to the intellect of man. For instance, the cabbage, as I have told you, opens its avenues to the sun, rain, and dew, by an instinct or law of its nature. This I call the spirit of the cabbage; and the nourishment thus received I call its soul. So man has his five grand avenues to his stomach and brain-the five senses. That which opens these avenues and makes the hand minister to them, is the spirit of man. My friends, I suppose when you first saw this needle projecting out of my waistcoat pocket, you thought the "tent-maker" knew nothing about these things; but I tell you, learning is not alone in heads with wigs on. Your ideas of matter have caused you to make mistakes about spirit: you have believed that matter has been eternally what it isthat "nothing can spring from, or be decomposed into nothing." By this error you have looked upon matter as an immutable prin. ciple of evil, running coeval with the immutable principle of good. Hence all your speculations about the incapacity of matter to think! Yes, walking masses of matter have strutted forth and feigned to despise the stuff they are made of!

Some preachers of the gospel would persuade you that it is only necessary for you to believe in the coming of the Messiah, and in the efficacy of his blood for the remission of sins. But I conceive it all-important to enlighten the understandings of men; to eradicate from their minds these old poisonous errors before I can expect an intelligent confession of the name of Jesus Christ. And

let me here say, that I think some of the Apostles have been rather remiss in this matter; for I confess to you that even Peter on the day of Pentecost said nothing about the "immortality of the soul." I think I can give a reason why Peter did not speak on this subject. It was either because, being a "fisherman," he had not learning enough; or it was because he did not wish to be unpopular with the people. For, my friends, directly you tell the people they have no immortal souls, they will kick your natural souls out of you if they can. My authority is as good as Peter's; and as you Athenians are known to be a curious and speculative people, and as this my discourse will be a model discourse for after times; and further, as you are known to hold peculiarly erroneous views on this subject, I have this day addressed you on it, with the hope of making you all confess what simpletons you have been.

Farther on this subject at another time.

DIOTREPHES.

The Philosophers became enraged; called Peter a babbler and requested that at a convenient season they might hear him again on these topics, remarking that he was the first Nazarene they had heard of who reasoned in a philosophical manner.This commendation was gratifying to Paul, but mortifying to Peter. J.UKE.

THE RICHMOND LETTER AND DR. THOMAS.

THE Elders of the church in Richmond have addressed a circular letter to the brethren disavowing the speculations of the Doctor as well as inculpating his moral standing. A door is opened in it for investigation, and therefore the imputations are not given as absolutely established and confirmed. This letter we will not now publish. We have some other documents and communications against this dogmatist which we cannot spread upon our pages. When we published the Philadelphia letter we did not anticipate that the Doctor was so lost to all sense of decency as to abuse those brethren even to the detailing of private conversations, for the sake of detracting from their well merited and timous rebuke. I cannot, therefore, think of subjecting the Richmond brethren to similar abuse; for I have long since learned that the character of no individual is safe in the hands of him who has no regard for his own reputation; and they could not expect to fare any better than their brethren in Philadelphia. I will not abuse my pages with such details as would have to be given to our readers were we to give the pro and the con.

The "Apostolic Advocate" has now no merit except it be its abuse of myself, my brethren, and the reformation. It is as I feared for some time it would be with the Dr.when he would fail in making a party to his opinions, he would sketch out a new mode of worship and oppose and calumniate the cause of reformation itself. He is now doing it with all his might. I expect in a few months to see him the most biiter opponent in the

country. He has tried to flatter "The Primitive Christian" and "The Voice" of brother Emmons, and other periodicals, into a partizan co-operation. Failing in this, he will doubtless oppose us all, as he has done the Philadelphia church.

I was once asked if there was any thing personal between the Doctor and myself. I auswer, Nothing. I received him on recommendation from the brethren in Cincinnati, and treated him as a brother-recommended him to others-and when I last saw him we parted, as I supposed, ¡most cordially. I exceedingly regretted to see him turn aside into foolish speculations-thought it my duty to call his attention to practical matters; but his pride would not suffer him to listen or take a hint, though suggested with the kindest personal and Christian regards. To have written to him in private, I suspected, from some circumstances, would have been misinterpreted; and therefore all communications are and have been as public as our periodicals.

Having myself brought him forward, and introduced him to the brethren in full confidence, I could have no desire but his reputation and success. But from the first effort to keep him in the track, his pages have displayed a singular compound of self-sufficiency, cunwing, folly, pride, and obstinacy-superadded to an ardent desire to distinguish himself by some new opinion or speculation. I now discover my fears and anticipations are being more than realized. I expect nothing henceforth hut opposition and abuse. All those who will henceforth doubt or dissent from his speculations will become reprobate silver. Í am therefore resolved that his name shall never again appear on our pages, until he reforms.

But as to those brethren in Philadelphia, or those in Richmond, should they be assailed in a similar way, who may wish to defend themselves from his calumnies; should they desire to publish or substantiate any thing by certificates or any sort of documents, I hereby inform them we will publish in pamphlet form the pro and the con, and send them free of cost to all our readers. But on the pages of the "Harbinger" the "Apostolic Advocate” and its Editor are henceforth not to be named. We have better names and more useful themes for the edification of our readers. A. C.

REFORM MUST BE GRADUAL.

MANKIND are more frequently swayed by prejudice than by reason. Reason has a clear eye; but prejudice is blind, and either clings tenaciously to old doctrines and time-worn systems, or gropes forward in imminent danger of stumbling upon the dark mountains of error. Hence new systems* generally meet with more opposers than advocates; and hence, too, bad systems and false doctrines, on their first promulgation, gain as many proselytes as those that are genuine and useful. We need not wonder, then, that philosophers have been imprisoned, statesmen banished, poets starved, apostles beheaded, and that the Saviour of men was crucified; while dupes and impostors have been countenanced, honored, and even deified. Nor need we be astonished that every successful improvement in science and the arts has gained its popularity only by slow degrees. That reformer, therefore, who would succeed, must not attempt, at once, any great innovation. They who have long groped in the darkness of a dungeon, cannot bear to be suddenly ushered into the full glare of a nonnday's sun.-S. Kirkham. J. R. H.

An old system revived is new to strangers to it.- H.

MR. WALLIS:

LETTERS TO ENGLAND-No. IX,

Dear brother-Ar the request of brother Campbell I take the pen to address you, during his absence Every thing in this new world involving in any way the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom, will be interesting to you. There has indeed been a great excitement produced in these United States within the last ten years, by an attempt to restore the apostolic gospel. The attempt has been regarded with a jealous eye by the different religious denominations: nor are there wanting the most unceasing exertions to prejudice the public mind against us, as heretics, disturbers of the peace of the church; "troublers of Israel;" disorganizers, pulling down every thing, and building up nothing; as delighting in controversy, as despising heart religion, and substituting instead thereof a few external observances; in fine, as seeking to destroy the very vitals of Christianity. The charge that we make religion to consist in external observances, has perhaps some show of truth. The brethren in the commencement of the reformation with us, deeming that the moral and devotional precepts of the Christian religion were better understood and observed than the positive ordinances, turned their attention more to the latter; regarding that branch of Christianity (in the language of the Apostle) as "the present truth." But the circumstances which first prompted to this course have ceased to exist; and the brethren are now laboring to convince the public that their chief objection against the religious systems of the day is, not that they do not exhibit correct views of baptism, but because they leave the great mass of their adherents in a carnal state, a prey to the same wild passions, the same worldly ambition, and desires for the same personal and family aggrandizement, as are the men of the world. The love of money is the ruling passion of the day. Covetousness is the crying sin of this nation; and, we think, of yours also. We labor under many evils at this time which had their origin in covetousness, and owe their perpetuity entirely to that hidden idolatry. Extortion, wild speculations, cruel abuses of the relations of society, and oppressions and exactions of the most unjust and demoralizing nature may be traced to this inordinate passion. And these things are the sin, not of the world, but of the church, in your country and ours. If the church, however, would set her face unitedly against these sinș, they would die in a day. Under all these circumstances, the brethren who led the way in our reformation conceived the idea of the necessity of a reformation, more deep, thorough, and heartfelt than any which has ever been attempted since the midnight of Papal darkness.

Beloved brethren, we consider the Christian religion as wholly practical. All the truth, the commandments, the ordinances, contained in the Holy Book, from Genesis to Revelation, have for their object the purification of the heart and the perfection of the character. If all the zeal and talents which have been exhausted in fruitless controversy and the dissemination of vain opinions, had been employed for practical purposes to make men hate sin and love holiness-to bring men under the influence of the moral and devotional precepts of the gospel, how widely different would have been the condition of the Christian church at this time. Milnor says of Calvin and his coadjutors at Geneva, that

"it took them so much time to make men think right, that they found very little time to attend to the conduct of their church members." [I quote from memory.] This has been the fatal error of sectarians-they have preferred right thinking to right living. But as one of your country authors says, "Scripture was not given to make work for interpreters, nor to teach men how to doubt, but how to live." Sectarians have attended to the head and neglected the heart; but as the poet says, "If wrong our hearts, our heads are right in vain." They have substituted knowledge for wisdom and confounded them together—than which no two things are more distinct. As says the poet

"Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,

Have oftimes no connexion-knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own.

Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more:"

And as to their relative value, "knowledge puffeth up," says Paul; and again, "If any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." But of wisdom it is said, "Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding:" and again, "The wisdom which is from above is first indeed pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

Thus, dear brethren, instead of seeking to destroy the vitals of religion and set aside its spirituality, the strongest objection we feel against the systems of the day is, that they have not enough of spirituality in them they do not make men heavenly-minded, or watchful, or prayerful; they are not filled as were the ancient Christians, "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." It is only with reference to these blissful objects that we value the positive ordinances of the gospel-it is in these that "our sense assists our faith."

The observances of the Lord's day are designed to have the effect spoken of by Paul to Timothy, conveyed by the word ANASOPUREIN— "to stir up," or bring to life again, a fire which has been buried and partially gone out. So the cares and business of life during six days would smother and partially extinguish the flames of devotion and spirituality enkindled by the exercises of the Lord's day; and unless we could often have our memories refreshed with the recollection of what the Lord has done for us, we might soon forget that we were at all indebted to his grace. In the institution of the Lord's supper we have virtually before us the mangled, bleeding body of our Divine Lord and Master. And how ought we to approach this institution? With what gratitude should we call to mind that love which prompted Jehovah, Jesus "to give himself a ransom and a sacrifice for us"? With what abhorrence ought we to view our sins which brought down such unspeakable sufferings upon the spotless "Lamb of God"! With what profound veneration and awe should we view that Divine Justice which said, "Awake, O Sword, against the Shepherd, and against the Man that is my fellow, saith the Lord." But the design of these institutions is not merely to awaken these emotions for the time, but to make impressions which shall be fixed indelibly in our minds during the week ensuing. We wish on this day to throw off entirely all worldly care,

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