of the Omnipotent. Let churches in different parts of the land come together,--not to talk over the past, with its divisive tendencies and alienations re-union is the pledge that these have gone, and to dwell upon them is to perpetuate weakness, --let them come together to plead with the Most High for his reviving presence and sanctifying power. Having ascended, in the act of re-union, to an eminence, let it be to see God more clearly, and to commune with him more fully-let it be a mountain of vision, where duty can be more distinctly seen, and the wants of a dying world more vividly known. Then numbers will speak, but it will not be in mere glorying, but for new conquests and possessions; wealth will speak, but not for architecture, music, and respectability, but in larger measures for Christ's cause; and ministers will speak, but it will be in the cry, "Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." May this idea of a revived church as a thank-offering speedily take possession of the whole body!

But there must be work as well as life, and a fuller correspondence between them. The work before the church is vast and accumulating, and is assuming new and varied forms. Within the pale of our own Zion are precious interests. The children of the church are to be trained and gathered into its fold as living members; Sabbath-schools are to be watched, controlled, directed, sustained, and means put forth to secure the children to its communion; students for the ministry have to be educated; ministers, incapacitated for official duties and in need, have to be aided; ministerial support has to be increased; efforts to free congregations from debt prosecuted, and new houses of worship reared. Then, around each local organization are many to be reached with the Gospel; the growing heathenism in cities has to be confronted with a living Christianity, and the wants of the freedman are to be met and supplied. The church has to be brought face to face with home evangelization in all its departments, which has to be taken hold of as a necessity and a duty, with alacrity and joy; yea, the missionary spirit, intensified by increasing demands, must know no one locality, color, or class, but must see in the home wants a feeble type of what the heathen need and

what their condition requires. The material resources of the church have been mentioned as vast, but the power of combination to draw them forth and concentrate them on the given work is lacking. A grand centralizing uniting force is needed to bring into one the little and the large sums, to set all to work, and make the life of each fruitful. Our machinery is splendid, but it has never been fully operated. A greater denominational, yet none the less catholic, spirit must be developed. We must love our own, sustain that which has in it most truth, carries with it most power, and will accomplish ultimately the best results. If we have any ground whatever for our separate distinctive existence, it is the faith we profess, and which, as Christians, we are obligated to diffuse. Enlightened denominational zeal, drawing its life from the cross, and working through an organized church, makes no man a bigot. It, from the very nature of the case, habituates the mind to the mastery of important principles, gives scope and power to religious effort, and enlarges Christian benevolence. The greatest bigot is generally the man of no fixed principles, and the most illiberal are those who boast of their liberalism.

The church carries on its benevolent operations through certain Boards or Committees. The consolidation of these is desirable for future efficient action. Enthusiasm is to be specially awakened in this direction, and the attention of the people turned toward them, that, by a united and determined effort, a great impetus may be given to each. There may be some little delay about combined action in the foreign work, but if this cause has to receive any lasting impulse from the re-union of the two branches, it must be in the line of distinctive ecclesiastical co-operation. A steady but gradual transfer of support from the American Board would be crippling to that great institution, and directly interfere with generous appropriations to its missions, while it would weaken the church itself. The able committee to whom this matter is intrusted will no doubt be able to make such arrangements with the Board, in regard to certain missions and mission property, as will do much to bring our whole denomination soon into cordial and liberal support of its own institutions. This is 10

VOL. XLII.-NO, I.

desirable for the best interests of the body and for a speedy development of its strength.

Grave responsibilities are connected with the church's present position. It occupies a new vantage ground, and this has been deliberately taken. It stands in a new relation to the world and to the communion of saints. The eyes of many are turned upon it, and increased power and influence are demanded of it. Within its own pale men's hearts are warmed, their feelings are interested, their attention is quickened, their hopes are excited, and the enthusiasm of many is aroused. Shall these evaporate and die, or under their stimulating agency shall the church, as such, expect greater things from God, and attempt greater things for him? If this opportunity is lost, it can never be recovered. May the solemnity of this thought affect all, and lead them to read duty and a holier consecration to God in it.

But whilst called to more efficient action and more strenuous endeavors for Christ's cause, the present is an auspicious time for witnessing for him, and bringing prominently before the people of the land the great principles of our faith and practice. In this we need not be aggressive, or assail the belief of other evangelical denominations, but only seek to show the minds of our own people, especially the young, why we are Presbyterian and Calvinistic, that they may cherish these principles in turn as a priceless treasure, and transmit them to future generations; yea, we should take advantage of the present epoch in our history, and set forth, in a proper form,. up to the demands of the age, our distinctive sentiments. Many are ready to listen and to investigate. Let the press be used and let pulpits speak.

Every thing in and around our Zion, and every thing in our own and other lands, calls upon us at this juncture to hold forth a pure faith, and witness a noble confession for Christ. The minds of men are unsettled; multitudes are drifting away from the faith of their fathers; the profoundest verities of the Word are questioned, and even inspiration itself is denied by some within the pale of the visible church. Some are manifesting a reckless iconoclastic spirit, and others are cherishing or panting after a heartless symbolism. The moral, po

litical, and social world is astir. Radical changes are taking place. The indifference of the past is disappearing. A new era of thought, of investigation, of doubting, of testing every thing has dawned. Men are unwilling to take any thing on trust. Error is rife, and science, falsely so called, is arraying itself against the truth. Rome is busy, and is helped by the ritualistic tendencies of the day. The agencies of hell and of an ungodly world are leagued in every conceivable form to lead men astray. They are banded together against the Lord, and against his anointed. Then old superstitions are decaying, and their political organizations are tottering. Mohammedanism has no aggressive power; heathenism is losing its hold upon the masses. The facilities for the diffusion of the truth are multiplying, and the world is open and is being prepared for a pure Gospel. Amidst these wondrous movements the reunion of our church has taken place to combine its accumulating experience and resources for a nobler work for humanity, and a holier devotion to the Lord. Let us see God in it and hear his voice calling us to walk in his ways, and uphold the great principles of truth and love. Let us maintain the doctrines of the Apostles and the Reformation, which we have hitherto loved, simplicity of worship and healthy discipline, which will make us strong. Let us consolidate our strength, lengthen our cords, multiply our forces, and in our various organizations and relations. "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And now, arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength; let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and thy saints shout aloud for joy.

ART. IX.-NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

An Inquiry into the usage of BAITIZO, and the nature of Judaic Baptism, as shown by Jewish and Patristic writings. By James W. Dale, D. D., Pastor of the Media Presbyterian Church, Delaware Co., Pa. Philadelphia: Wm. Rutter & Co. 1870. 8vo, pp. 400.

The Baptists have seen fit to make immersion the corner-stone of their denominational structure. And the natural result of the inordinate attention paid to the outward mode of administration in the initiatory Christian rite, has been the magnifying of it out of all due proportion in the ecclesiastical system. Not content with the liberty which all would freely accord to them of applying the element of water in whatever mode they judge most suitable or most in accordance with Scriptural example, or with primitive usage, they require the whole Christian world to utter their shibboleth, or incur their anathema. Any thing but immersion is peremptorily declared to be no baptism. And the members of non-immersing churches as an unbaptized throng are debarred from all church fellowship with themselves, who alone have the true baptism, even at the table of the Lord, designed to be the symbol of unity and communion among all the true followers of Christ. The most offensive imputations of want of candor and common honesty are freely flung at those who cannot see that the baptism enjoined by our Lord requires the submersion of the entire body in water, and that the validity of the rite is vitiated or destroyed by the admission of any thing less.

And this breach of charity and open schism is all for the sake of exalting a rite which is sadly marred by the process. The pursuit of the shadow endangers the substance. The inordinate pressing of the one mode of applying water diverts attention from that essential quality which is equally represented in any mode of application, its cleansing virtue, and thus tends to obscure its proper design and character. And the particular mode so strenuously insisted upon unfortunately mars the emblem in so far as it is designed to set forth the washing away of sin, by the cleansing efficacy of the Holy Ghost poured out from heaven and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. To those who would thus hamper our Christian liberty we are bound to give place by subjection-no, not for an hour. The volume which has suggested these reflections is a sequel to " Classic Baptism" by the same author, whose line of argument it continues and whose results it further fortifies. The Baptists have loudly boasted that their position rests on the impregnable basis afforded by the true meaning of the original word. Their recognized champions have claimed that Barrigo means "to dip" and nothing but "dip," throughout the entire range of Greek literature. Dr. Dale takes up this challenge and meets it by a counter-assertion equally broad and unqualified, that Barrio does not mean "to dip," in even a single instance in any ancient author. His position is that Barrisw is not a modal term, that it