"The apartment for the singers is directly over the stairs which ead to the first floor, and about seven feet above it. This is carpeted and furnished with settees, and ornamented with rich cornices and crimson draperies. It connects by doors with two stair cases, which lead to the north and south galleries. Two other stair cases lead to the gallery immediately over the singers, which contains twenty-two pews, and which are to be free. Here the scholars in the male and female Sabbath Schools are to be seated.

years

"The ceiling is a regular arch, having a spring of about six feet, the entire length of the house. From the centre is suspended the cut glass chandelier, which was procured by the society a few ago. Two sky-lights, thirty-six feet in circumference, one between the chandelier and the other on the opposite side, admit the light through the ceiling.

"In the centre of each circular sash in the ceiling is a swinging sash, nine feet in circumference, which is opened for the purpose of ventilation. The house is crowned by a handsome tower, which contains a bell of about 1600 lbs. weight.

"That part of the basement story which fronts on Hanover street, is fitted into five handsome stores, and are now rented for scmething over 1500 dollars per annum. After the building is paid for, these rents are to be applied towards the support of the gospel in that` house.

"The pews in the above church were sold at auction by Messrs. Coolidge & Haskell. One hundred and one were sold, producing the sum of 26,960 dollars. Thirty-seven remain unsold. The whole cast is estimated at 45,000 dollars."

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To the Editor of the Christian Baptist.

DEAR BROTHER,

Virginia, October 1, 1829.

HAVING heard of the snarling of the editor of the Columbian Star, from sundry persons, I felt anxious to know the cause. It was no easy matter to find one of those comets that once shone among us. 1, with many of my brethren, were regular readers of it, being the best light, as I then thought, that we enjoyed. It is true the light was so dim that I could not tell whether I was in Jerusalem or Babylon, nor distinguish the "Lamb with seven horns” from the "Beast with ten horns;" whether I was a slave or a freeWhen the Christian Baptist came among us, the light was so superior, and the privileges so much greater than what we had ever enjoyed, that it was with fear and trembling I spoke of them. I began to see I was in Babylon, and a slave to the popular systems of this day, and the priesthood. I therefore had to communicate the light I enjoyed privately to some of the readers of the Star, and it appears to have fled from among us as the stars in the firmament disappear at the rising of the sun.

man.

I soon discovered, upon reading the Star of September last, the cause of his growling about the number of your readers. I saw he was disposed to bite before he had barked. The fable of the dog in the manger rushed into my mind, and the cry, of Demetrius and

the craftsmen. For the information of brother Brantly, I can inform him that his unchristian conduct in publishing every thing that he thinks will obscure the light that the Christian Baptist has taught us to enjoy in the gospel, is as vain as if he was to stretch out his feeble hand in order to stop the light of the sun, until he takes up the Essays on the Kingdom of the Clergy, the Ancient Order of Things, and the Ancient Gospel, proving them to be inconsistent with the revelation of Jesus Christ and the happiness of the Christian societies through the earth. Whenever he shall do this, I promise his dear brother of Pittsburg shall see, or hear, that the readers of the Christian Baptist are men that do wish to learn holiness, (but it is the holiness inculcated in the New Testament,) and to "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."

I could not but smile on reading the Star. He condemns the letter of R. T. P. in your August number. Now I have never heard of any one approving of the spirit and wording of that letter, or vouching for the truth of its contents. But brother Brantly undertakes to say that his dear brother shows his discernment by saying, "Of from three to four thousand readers of the Christian Baptist, scattere over these United States, they do not wish to learn holiness" Had he rebuked this brother, as you have R. T. P. there would have been something like holiness in the conduct of brother Brantly. "And do you think this, O man, who judge those who practise such things, and yet work the same, that you shall escape the sentence of God?"-Paul.

I am really surprised at the conduct of brother Brantly. There was a time when I delighted to hear his name called. He then lived in a warm climate; nor did I know (until I saw it in the Christian Baptist) the cause why he should have removed so far towards the frigid zone. I am fearful he has not forgiven you for telling us that it was the sixteen hundred dollars that translated him from Georgia to Philadelphia. Your letting out the secret, that "all sectarianism and sectarian zeal spring from the love of money," must have been to him as the arrow of a certain man who 'drew his bow at a venture.' How can a man who gives such evidences of his love of mammon, undertake to rebuke or reprove another? Does not his conscience say, Physician, cure thyself? Can he believe that the people who have read the Star and the Christian Baptist are incapable of seeing the dissimulation used by the priesthood to keep them in ignorance? Why does he act in such a way as to induce many to believe that the Christian religion is intended to enslave the consciences of those that believe it, to the priesthood? and that we are the merchandize of the priesthood? Why introduce the opinions of the Baptists about the doctrines of grace, predestination, and election? Are these opinions to be made paramount to the gospel of Christ? or does he consider the Baptists infallible? Why give such strong grounds for suspicion that the Baptist teachers are ready to go all lengths with the sectarians, so as to call for an expose of priestcraft during the sitting of the Convention in Virginia. I must say, there is not an item that I have ever seen from the pen of the editor of the Christian Baptist, or from any of his correspondents, that could give the least reason to believe their being engaged in the supposed conspiracy of priest

craft in these United States, "tending to produce hypocrisy, weakness, and a blind devotion to usurping spiritual rulers, which must end in the total overthrow of civil liberty, and an entire destruction of all the rights of conscience, and the free exercise of all religious, and of such moral actions, as do not square with the arbitrary laws and dictates of such 'spiritual government and rulers'*--but quite the reverse. I ask, why expose the only people who are disposed to take the Word of God as the rule of their faith and conduct, to censure? Your days are about to be numbered. The Star, nor any other religious journal that has ever circulated among us, can be read with any degree of interest, except the Religious Herald, published in the city of Richmond. The editor is a man of piety and liberality, and well deserves the attention and encouragement of the freeborn sons of God. Look out! The Millennial Harbinger will soon take its flight through these United States, and will drown the inelody of your organ and piano!

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Brother Brantly, I am sorry to see such a spirit of pride as is manifested in your number alluded to, and a disposition to keep us in ignorance. Why wish us to live under Star-light when the day is dawning? Would you not suspect a man if he were to sleep all the day, and then walk in the night by star-light? I think you would. Why reflect upon us for exercising the rights of conscience? And why complain because we cannot join you in all the popular superstitions of the day?

I am satisfied superstition is in the Baptist churches; for what is not commanded to be done as a religious duty, and is done as such, is superstition. Where is the example or the precept for your erernal sermonizing or textuary preaching-funeral sermons- quarterly communion-with hundreds of other antichristian practices?

May the Harbinger open your eyes, and turn you to God and the word of his grace, is the prayer of

JASON.

THE following critique on the pernicious tendency of human creeds, merits, we think, the serious attention of the public.

Ed. C. B.

"A paralysing influence has been working mightily for ages in the Christian world, and we ought not to wonder at its results. Free action has been denied to the mind, and freedom is an essential condition of growth and power. A fettered limb moves slowly and operates feebly. The spirit pines away in a prison; and yet to rear prison walls round the mind has been the chief toil of ages. The mischiefs of this intellectual bondage are, as yet, we conceive, but imperfectly known, and need to be set forth with a new eloquence. If, as we believe, progress be the supreme law of the soul and the very aim of its creation, then no wrong can be inflicted on it so grievous, as to bind it down everlastingly to a fixed, unvarying creed, especially if this creed was framed in an age of darkness, crime, and political and religious strife. This tyranny is pre-eminentby treason against human nature. If growth be the supreme law

* See the Richmond Inquirer of the 15th September.

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and purpose of the mind, then the very truth which was suited to one age, may, if made the limit of future ones, become a positive evil; just as the garment in which childhood sports with ease and joy, would irritate and deform the enlarging frame. God having framed the soul for expansion, has placed it in the midst of an unlimited universe to receive fresh impulses and impressions without end; and man, 'dressed in a little brief authority,' would sever it from this sublime connexion, and would shape it after his own ignorance, or views. The effects are as necessary as they are mournful. mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature, with revelation, with God, with itself, loses its life, just as the body droops when debarred from the fresh air and the cheering light of heaven. Its vision is contracted, its energies blighted, its movement constrained. It finds health only in action. It is perfect only m as far as it is self-formed. Let us not be misapprehended. We mean not to deny that the mind needs the aid of human instruction, from the cradle to the grave; but this it needs as a material to act upon, and not as a lesson to be mechanically learned. The great aim of instruction should be to give the mind the consciousness and free use of its own powers. The less of instruction the better, if it only propose to engender a slavish dependence and an inert faith.” [Christian Examiner.]

ESSAY ON THE EIGHTH DAY.

"AS every thing belonging to the New Dispensation was pre figured and shadowed forth under the Old, so we shall find that different typical intimations were given of this change of the day of weekly rest. The eighth day is particularly distinguished throughout the Old Testament. Circumcision was to be administered to children on the eighth day. The first born of cattle which belonged to the Lord, were not to be received till the eighth day of their age. On the eighth day, and not before, they were accepted in sacrifice. On the eighth day the consecration of Aaron and his sons was completed, and he entered on his office as priest. The cleansing of the leprosy, which was typical of cleansing from sin, took place, after various ceremonies, on the eighth day. The same was the case as to those who had issues, and also respecting the cleansing of the Nazarites. On the feast of tabernacles, the eighth day was a Sabbath, and was called the great day of the feast. On the first day of this feast thirteen bullocks were offered; on the other six days the number of bullocks was decreased by one each day; so that, on the seventh day, there were only seven bullocks offered. But on the eighth day the number was reduced to one bullock, after which these sacrifices were ended. At the dedica. tion of the temple, when it was completed or perfected, the ark of the covenant being placed in it, Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him; and, on the eighth day, they made a solemn assembly. Ezekiel, in his vision of the city and temple and land, towards the end of his prophecies, says, "Seven days shall they purge the altar, and purify it, and they shall consecrate themselves; and when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth

Vol. VII day, and so forward, the priest shall make your offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, saith the Lord." Now let the correspondence of the spirit with the letter be observed.

"On the eighth day, when Jesus rose from the dead, those who were dead in their sins, and the uncircumcision of their flesh, were quickened together with him in whom they are circumcised. On that day he was received as the first born from thể dead. On the eighth day he was accepted as a sacrifice. On the eighth day, when he was "consecrated for ever, more," he entered on his office as a priest; for while on earth he was not a priest. On the eighth day he cleansed his people from sin. On the eighth day, having by one sacrifice for ever perfected those that are sanctified, he made an end of sin offering. On the eighth day, the temple of his body being raised up, and perfected through sufferings, his disciples, on that day, hold solemn assemblies. And upon the eighth day, and so forward, he, as that priest who having consecrated himself for evermore, entered into the holiest of all, and who "ever liveth to make intercession" for his people, stands at the altar, as the Apostle John beheld him, having a golden censer with much incense, which he offers with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne." Haldane's Evidences.

MOSES.

"MOSES at his birth, was saved from the general slaughter of the infants of the Israelites which took place by a tyrant's command, and was afterwards compelled to flee into a foreign country to save his life. Moses, accredited by the signs and miracles which he was enabled to perform-the meekest of men-and the most distinguished prophet, whom the Lord knew face to face, was the deliverer of his people from Egyptian bondage. He was the lawgiver of Israel. He was their leader in their journey through the wilderness to the promised land; and above all, the mediator of that covenant which God made with them. When receiving the law, he fasted forty days and forty nights; and when he descended from the mountain, his face shone with the reflected glory of God. In these, and in many other respects, Moses resembled and prefigured Jesus Christ, with whom also his parents were compelled to flee into a foreign land, to escape from a tyrant's slaughter of the infants in the place where he was born; who was meek and lowly, but approved by signs and miracles which God did by him. He is the great deliverer of his people from the bondage of sin and Satan. He is their lawgiver the mediator of the new covenant made with the house of Israel-the leader and captain of their salvation, leading them through the wilderness of this world, in which they are pilgrims and strangers, to the promised land of rest, which Canaan prefigured. In entering upon his work, he fasted forty days and forty nights. When he was on the holy mount, "his face did shine as the sun." Jesus Christ was that prophet whom Moses foretold God was to raise up like unto him. "Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house." "Let us search," says one, "all the records of universal history, and see it