LETTER TO A FRIEND. MY DEAR FRIEND,—I have not forgotten your request nor my own promise, but numerous and pressing engagements have prevented earlier compliance. "Thou hast showed thy people hard things; thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment." (Psa. lx. 3). These are the words upon which you desired my thoughts. But my poor thoughts, unassisted by the Holy Ghost will profit you little, for the Book of God is sealed to all human minds, so far as its spiritual meaning is concerned, until He becomes the teacher. Then, oh the mercy! such as are fools in the world's esteem, shall not err therein." Blessed be the Lord, he has not left you altogether in ignorance of his holy word. Once you were blind to the beauties of Christ as they shine in the glorious gospel of his grace, then you went to hear those who set sinners to work for salvation. Now your eyes are open to see that Jesus, our glorious Substitute, did all the work in your stead, and you love to hear of him in all the grace relations he sustains, and the offices he holds. Yes, you love to "Talk of all he did and said, And suffered for us here below; The path he marked for us to tread, And what He's doing for us now." But I presume he sometimes shows you "hard things," and makes you to "drink the wine of astonishment." If so, you have therein a proof that you are in "the footsteps of the flock," "the old paths" in which God's ancient people walked, and although it be rough, it is "the right way to a city of habitation," Psa. cvii. 7; and "your shoes shall be iron and brass, and as your days, so shall your strength be." (Deut. xxxiii. 29.) 66 The "hard things" and "wine of astonishment" are one and the same, and all God's own children must have their share in some form or other, as he sees fit. And I beg you to look at the words of David, he speaks to the Lord and says, Thou hast showed us." He regards God's hand in them all, although men and devils had much to do therewith; they were only the ignorant instruments whereby the Lord worked upon his servant, and they only go so far and no farther. We shall assuredly experience hard and astonishing things if we are faithful to the truth; our views will be misrepresented, and we shall be called hard names, and we feel it the more because these things are done by the professed friends of the gospel. David's own son rebelled against him, and his most intimate friend and counsellor, Ahithophel, became his foe. Ab, when "one told David, Ahithophel is among the conspirators," (2 Sam. xv. 31) it was as the "wine of astonishment" to him, and he cried out in the anguish of his soul, "It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it," &c. (Psa. lv. 12). Ah, my friend, we cannot escape persecution in some form or other. The Master did not these are his words though spoken by the prophet, "I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neigh bours," (Psa. xxxi. 11); and in the former verse he says, "My life is spent with grief and my years with sighing." His cup of grief was completed on the cross, "without the gate," and we must go forth unto him "without the camp." (Heb. xiii. 13). Yes, we must dwell outside the great camp of worldly professors, and be content to bear reproach for Jesus' sake. "Yes," you say, "I know all this, but there are other hard and astonishing things in the Lord's deal - 66 ing with me." No doubt, for this also is the lot of the saints to "endure hardness" - hard fighting with Satan, sin, and self righteous-self as well as sinfulself. Hard things in providence: you have an afflicted body, and often cannot, when you would, go the house of prayer. The wicked around you are strong. They are not in trouble as other men:. .they have more than heart could wish." (Psa. lxxiii. 5, 7.) Well, all this simply proves that we are the Lord's: "Thou hast shown thy people"--not other people. His are a poor, and an afflicted people. But he never deals unkindly; it is only as "needs be" that we are in heaviness through manifold temptation, and there is "something secret that sweetens all :" compensating grace. So that we can sing with the poet, when he says, "I would not change my blest estate, For all the world cal's good or great." And at the end glory awaits. Keep, my dear friend, that end in view. The sinner's Friend is preparing your mansion, and by May he bless you and yours abundantly I trust you are all well and happy in and of the happy times we had together in your little church. I often think of you the worship of our ever-gracious God. Remember me kindly to the few people comprising your Christian circle, and with best wishes believe me yours faithfully in the Lord Jesus, London, April 3, 1869. A. Reviews. BAPTIST TRACT SOCIETY.-On October 15, | 1841, this Society was formed for the purpose of supplying deficiencies which necessarily exist in unsectarian societies. By the publication of small tracts and treatises, it seeks to disseminate the doctrinal and institutional views of strict communion Baptists. In pursuance of this object it has issued 370 Tracts, 92 Handbills, 37 Children's Books, and 10 Tracts of a New Series on toned paper. The number of copies from all these publications amount to nearly five millions. Several of the issues appear in German, French, Flemish, Swedish, and the languages of the East. Other translations are required; and encouraging testimonies to the value of its labours are said to be constantly received. We are glad to learn this, hoping funds will be supplied for new publications and grants for gratuitous distribution. Among the tracts forwarded to us, and deserving special notice, we might select "Sunday Pleasuring," No. 365; "Special Providences," 370; "A Converted Deist's Profession of Faith," 355; "Popish Persecutions in France, before or during the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, in four parts, Nos. 357-360; also "Anglican Popery," 354. We call particular attention to these last-named tracts, not because we fancy, even for a moment, that Popery can ever obtain political ascendancy or tempo ral jurisdiction in this country; but because its fierce and beastly spirit, however modified by circumstances, is natural to the system which sprung from it, and requires exposure as the best means of holding it in check. The subtle and unwearied efforts of Popish agents, priestly and laical-accepting descriptive terms for the sake of convenience-are such as to call for vigilant and enlightened action on the part of sincere Protestants. And as the logic of facts serves to convince and impress more than recondite arguments, which are not often listened to and seldom appreciated, the publication of these timely tracts may do much good. So may the one on Anglican Popery," which is adapted to the fleshly religion of the present evil world, and takes mightily with various classes of both sexes, young and old. The ungodly like it, for they can feel religious under priestly manœuvres; the self-righteous like it, for it improves them wonderfully by lifting up their unhumbled hearts; the newly-convinced like it, for the easy method it opens up of setting everything right by priestly interposition. Sentimentalists like it, for it is "sweetly pretty," and the music is so good. Boys and girls, and youths of both sexes, like it, and will like i as a substitute for theatrical gratifica 66 tions. And what is to be done? That is everybody's question. Some are issuing reasons in favour of the State Church, as a preservative against Popery! But we are happy to find the Baptist Tract Society has no sympathy with a State Church, but calmly proposes its disendowment and disestablishment; a wiser thing, we opine, than issuing a hundred reasons on its behalf. "We are nourishing,' it says, Tract 354, p. 3, "by our State-pay of religion the very men who are striving hard to banish true religion from the land, and to bring back the darkness and the despotism of the Empire of Rome." A Baptist's Appeal to the Nonconformist Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland; or, Ten Reasons in favour of a Separation of Church and State. By R. HUTCHINGS, (a Baptist of nearly forty years' standing.) A shrewd, clever parody on Mr. Banks's "Ten Reasons in favour of Church and State." It should be scattered broadcast over the land from one end to the other. Editorial Jealousy: A Letter by JOHN WATERS BANKS, addressed to the Editors of "The Gospel Herald" and "The Voice of Truth." Published by Robert Banks, 30, Ludgate-hill. Price 1d. Some time since an unusually scurrilous tract made its appearance as No. 1, entitled, "The Inquisition of Dissent," which, judging from internal evidence, owed its existence to the same author as the tract under notice. We can understand the strong emotions of a filial mind viewed in relation to paternal injuries, real or supposed, and pity that mental condition which seeks relief in epithetical vituperation; but the present effusion is so rank and bitter as to challenge the strongest inclinations to compassion and forbearance. The author charges us with vicious designs and improper language; but had he thought for a moment that two offenders can reprove each other with only small effect, he would have first cast the beam out of his own eye, that he might have seen clearly to have pulled the mote out of ours. What is curious, after having made himself sole confessor to the secrets of the heart, revealed our thoughts, and headed his tract "Editorial Jealousy," he turns round upon us and demands our motives, declaring he will not rest till he obtains them! The birth of the "Ten Reasons," we are told, was on this wise: "A clergyman, the author says, "who knew my father personally, and who knew likewise, that he was the Archbishop of the Strict Particular Baptist Churches, wrote to him, and asked him which way, in his opinion, Dissenters should vote in reference to the Irish Church question? After repeating the interroga. tion two or three times, my father wrote what is contained in the tract. The clergyman wrote again, wishing to know if he had any objection to its being printed; after a little consideration he (meaning C. W. Banks) sent the following reply: 'He was not ashamed of his opinions, therefore he had no objection to its being printed.' Again the clergyman wrote, asking whether he had any objection to having his name attached to it? The answer was, 'Certainly not.' This is its origin." Anybody may believe this who pleases; but whoever thinks he understands the whole by the sample here given, will, we think, be much deceived. To us it seems a good deal like the Bond street mystery. We do not blame Mr. Banks for attemptThe thing is natural enough; especially as ing to make his father beautiful for ever. his father is an Archbishop.' But, 1. We should like to know the name of this anxious clergyman, and his address. 2. We should like to know, how it happened that the author of these "Ten Reasons" wrote in the third person to this clergymau? For, in quoting from one of these letters, the quotation is given in inverted commas, and the father is made to write in the third instead of the first person. How did this come to pass? 3. The tract is not in the shape of a letter to a friend. There is nothing epistolary about it. 4. The substance of the tract is not analogous to the question put. The question was, in which way the Dissenters should vote in reference to the Irish Church; and instead of a letter in reply to this clergyman, here is a tract with an introduction, "Ten Reasons in favour of Church and Stute," and a sort of peroration, the whole addressed not to a clergyman, but "to the Nonconformists of England, Ireland, and Scotland !” Upon the face of all this, we submit that there is ground for suspecting, not perhaps the truth of what is stated, but the fulness and fairness of the statement. There was evidently a correspondence between the author of the "Ten Reasons" and some unknown clergyman, while between the question and the tract there is a wide difference, which the ostensible "origin" of the tract fails to account for. The tract itself brought deep shame and disgrace upon the Baptists, and made the author contemptible in the eyes of many, who up to that time had held by him. We accord to every one the unquestion 66 secular interference, are conclusions which have been reached only after the throes of centuries, and which even now, in many directions gain but a bare admission. But they are true, and "truth is mighty, and must prevail." "The Irish Church Question" is the question of the day. Ecclesiastics are loud in their support of their ancient institution, while not a few timid spirits tremble lest the severance of Church and State should be the downfall of the ark of God, and, like Uzzah, do not scruple to attempt its support by unsanctified means. But while it is scarcely surprising that churchmen should assume the attitude of defence, it excites not only surprise but disgust, that any who profess dissent, should so far forget the principles they profess and the claims of common consistency as to championize on behalf of an institution from which they voluntarily separate, and whose unscriptural character_their__ separation tacitly avows. Hence, had "Ten Reasons in favour of Church and State" been penned by a Conservative Churchman instead of by "A Baptist Minister of forty years' standing," no surprise would have been excited; and had their influence been confined to the limited sphere of an obscure individual, a merited oblivion would probably have been their only reward. But the employment of them as a means of mischief by a public body has prompted rejoinders, of which the pamphlet under notice is the principal. able right of uttering in whatever language, | to outward coercion, and of religion to and setting forth in whatever way he pleases, the whole of his mind; but we also maintain the right of the public to criticise whatever is thrown upon it; and if a man makes an ape of himself, as many a public man does, even in the house of Peers, he is bound to take the consequences, and when held up to ridicule or contempt to accept the penalty as a just recompense of reward." When a Dissenter, a minister, a Baptist minister, and a Baptist minister of nearly forty years' standing, becomes recreant to his principles, sells, barters, or flings them away, just when he ought to exhibit them; when he not only surrenders them to the State Church party, for State Church purposes, but makes that very church from which he dissents a true church and writes Ten Reasons on its behalf, he is not entitled to admiration or esteem. It is puerile, if not contemptible, to wince and whine under rebuke, and foully asperse men who vindicate public principles and public interests, because the honour of some favourite happens to be impugned. True, our notice of the tract could hardly be called a review, in the ordinary meaning of that word. But in our judgment the whole of the affair was an outrage upon decency, upon religion, and upon the principles of dissent; we therefore treated it with scornful derision. It is time the public should know that whatever influence Mr. Banks may have in some of the Baptist churches, that he no more represents the collective views of the Strict Baptists than Mr. Brewin Grant represents the views of the Independents. Mr. Palmer is always a powerful antago nist, and to be subject to the destructive Would the Separation of Church and State fire of his adverse criticism is never an be the Overthrow of the Protestant Cause? enviable position. In this respect Mr. Palor An Examination of "Ten Reasons by mer's last production is worthy of himself. a Baptist Minister, in favour of Church One by one the sophisms employed in the and State." By W. PALMER, Homerton. "Reasons are demolished, and his antaLondon: Houlston & Wright, Paternos-gonist is followed to his very citadel, over ter row. Price 9d. We read concerning the "last days" that "many shall run to and fro" and "knowledge shall be increased;" and if the unwonted activity and general progress of present times lead to the supposition that we are approaching a great crisis, the conelusion can scarcely be challenged. Whatever individual mistakes may have been made, it is beyond question true that the world has ever been steadily progressing towards a great future; and the advance of liberty is not the least feature in that progress. Man may have been slow in learning that he is man; but the lesson has at length been mastered, and the inalienable rights of humanity are everywhere gaining respect. The superiority of mind powered by the force of his reasoning and the caustic of his illustration. The "Ten Reasons" are severally subjected to the process of mental anatomy, and the fallacies employed made manifest to the plainest observer. Yet the religion of the Establishment and the Establishment by which it is fettered are carefully distinguished, and the conclusions drawn are founded on the immutable basis of truth and justice. Besides being valuable as a polemical work on a popular topic, the pamphlet contains much useful information-historical, political, and ecclesiastical, on the various subjects involved in the argument. The constitution and limits of civil governments are clearly unfolded-so clearly, that two centuries ago the enunciation of the senti ments here advocated would have been interpreted as treason;-while the incongruity of amalgamating religious authority with secular control is as plainly proved. The principles of civil and religious freedom are powerfully advocated, and statistics produced to show the special necessity for the liberation of religion from connection with the State in Ireland at the present time and while man's natural rights are upheld, the spirituality of Christ's kingdom is maintained. The whole is supplemented by an Appendix, in which the general features of the argument are more fully developed, or facts adduced to prove the assertions made. Perhaps the only fault of the work is its profundity, if indeed this can properly be called a fault. Mr. Palmer is an exhaustive writer, and not until his point is thoroughly discussed does he leave it. If effeminate minds refuse the application necessary to a mastery of his arguments, they will amply repay the honest enquirer, and are calculated to stimulate the Nonconformists of the present day to be followers of those who, in a dark age, and at the risk even of life, advocated the principles here laid down. The book deserves a wide circulation among all classes. J. T. B. Intelligence. STRICT BAPTIST MISSION. ORDINATION OF MR. ANDRIESZ. IN connection with the above Mission in Colombo, an interesting and impressive service was held on the evening of Feb. 2, to set apart publicly Mr. Andriesz, one of the missionaries (a Portuguese by birth), for mission service. The meeting was held at the Pettah Baptist Chapel, kindly lent for the occasion. Mr. Pigott presided, and was supported by Mr. James Silva, Mr. VanGeyzel, and others. The chapel was well filled. Mr. VanGeyzel on behalf of the Strict Baptist Mission in England, stated that Mr. Andriesz having fulfilled a term of probation, in connection with the Mission, was now received as its accredited agent in Colombo. The Chairman, after reading suitable portions of Scripture, called upon Mr. Andriesz to give some particulars of his call by grace and to the work of the ministry. Mr. Andriesz then gave a long and most interesting statement, from which we give the following condensed report. "From my earliest years, I had been accustomed to lead a morally good life, and was a regular attendant at the Dutch Presbyterian church. When I was a youth I believed it my duty to join a church, so I joined the Walfendahl church by its prescribed form, that of being confirmed. I was after that a strict attendant on the means of grace, and had a great desire to establish prayer meetings, though I knew not how they should be conducted. I thought by all this I should please God and get admission into heaven. I never once thought that I was a sinner before God, and if any had told me so I should certainly have been angry. One day I had occasion to visit a friend, a morally good man, who gave me a book he had got from a Christian soldier called, "Hell opened to Christians." I began to read it, and while doing so terror seized my heart. From that time I began anxiously to search the Scriptures, to see whether all was right. Then hidden sins appeared like mountains to my view. I made a book, and wrote resolves to guard against committing such and such sins, and then went on resolving, breaking, and resolving, till I was tired of myself. The scales fell from my eyes, and I clearly saw that I was a lost sinner, utterly undone and ruined. Then all the terrible things I read of in that book came against me, and for the first time I knelt down with fear to pray. I took my Portuguese New Testament in my hands, and two passages came before me: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," and, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Trying to grasp these, I had grace given to me, and was enabled to believe with joy that Jesus had obtained the pardon of my sins, and that God was reconciled to me through him. But the devil was not quiet, and tried to upset my mind by doubts as to whether I had not committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. I was again put to it, until, by my Testament, with the help of a commentary, my mind was settled. And now the same blessed Spirit that convinced me of sin and brought me to the foot of the cross, instilled into my heart a strong desire to make the precious gospel known to others. I was now twenty-five years of age, and still kept my place in the church of my childhood. About this time, however, a |