He who has no tear to shed when he sees his friends embraced in the cold arms of death, is destitute of the common feelings of humanity. Reader, have you lost a relative by death? Are you a mourner? We direct you to the source of true consolation; to the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort (2 Cor. i. 3). Affliction is sent for your good; it is a blessing in disguise, and if sanctified, it will yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. Perhaps you have neglected the claims of religion and the interests of your soul, and have sought happiness only in the world. You may have said to God, with some of old, "Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?" (Job xxi. 14, 15). And he might have permitted you to pursue your sinful career without interruption, until your soul had been lost, for "the prosperity of fools destroys them;" but God in his mercy has broken off your purposes, and taken away the object of your affection, to bring you to serious reflection, and repentance for sin, which is the great cause of all sorrow: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2 Cor vii. 10). He afflicts to wean you from the world,—to constrain you to apply to Christ for pardon and peace. Affliction, by the blessing of God, has often produced these effects; and if this can be said of you, the scriptures promise you consolation and happiness in every affliction, of the sublimest kind. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. v. 4). The promise of this is confirmed by an oath, that we might have strong consolation, "who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Heb. vi. 18). A sight of Christ by faith will heal the wounded spirit, and exchange tears of sorrow to ecstasy of joy. The love of God and the work of Christ afford the richest consolation to the believer. But if affliction does not lead us to Christ, and cordially to embrace the gospel, it will be of no real benefit to the soul; and none of our sufferings here will exempt us from the torments of hell. GOOD COUNSEL. Going up Oxford-Street the other day, my attention was directed to a dial under a house of business, under which was written, "DELAY NOT, TIME FLIES!" Here, I thought, is good advice. I know not what was the precise idea which the writer wished to convey; but it is applicable to a variety of subjects. Let us look at a few. Have you a quarrel with any one? "Delay not" to make it up, for "time flies," and if you do not become reconciled soon, the opportunity will perhaps pass away. Live not at enmity with any one, for this is contrary to the law, which says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It is contrary to the gospel, which says, "Be kindly affectioned one to another." It is contrary to your example, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed for his very murderers, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." 66 Have you made an engagement? Delay not" to fulfil it, for "time flies." Now you may realize your obligation, and discharge it; but if you procrastinate, you may lose the opportunity for ever. Have you engaged to work for God? Then take your place, work while it is called to-day, "time flies," and working will soon be over. Have you engaged to give every thing to the cause of God? Redeem your pledge, the present time may be lent you for the purpose, to-morrow may be too late. Have you been reconciled to God? Are you at peace with Him? If not, "delay not, time flies," and you may be called away in an unreconciled state. Death is at the door. The Judge is on his way. The great white throne will soon appear, the books will be opened, and we shall be judged according to those things which are written in the books, every one according to his works. Live no longer God's enemy, lest you should die so; for it must be truly dreadful to enter His presence, after having lived here for years in a state of enmity with Him, and opposition to Him. Oh, be reconciled to Him! He beseeches you by us, to cast away your weapons of rebellion, to submit to His method of salvation, and to receive a full pardon at His hands. Can you refuse? Have you secured a Friend, who can and will stand by you in all your troubles, and sustain you in your last dying struggles? "Delay not, time flies," and you may need such a friend before you have secured him. There is only one who can be all that you want a friend to be, and that is Jesus. He is a friend that loveth at all times. A friend that sticketh closer than a brother. But do you know him? Are you familiar with him? Can you trust him? Have you committed the keeping of your soul to him? He only can soothe your sorrows, supply your wants, guide your steps, conquer your foes, and make you more than a conqueror over sin, death, hell, and the grave. His friendship may be secured; but "delay not, time flies," if you neglect to seek him now, you may fail to find him when you wish. grace, Have you sought grace for future trials, that you may bear them with christian patience, and be improved by them in your christian character ? If not, "delay not, time flies." There is a fulness of grace in Jesus. It is to be had. But it must be sought, and sought early, earnestly, and with importunity. The apostle says, "Let us have grace.' "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Jesus is waiting to be gracious. God delighteth in mercy. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in time of need." Have you obtained satisfactory evidence for heaven? If not, "delay not, time flies." Live not in a world like this, in times like these, without the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, without scriptural assurance that if your earthly house, which is a tabernacle, be dissolved, you have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In a word, whatever good remains to be done, whatever evil remains to be overcome, whatever engagements have to be fulfilled, whatever duty ought to be performed, think of the inscription on the dial, "DELAY NOT, TIME FLIES." "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is neither work nor device in the grave to which we are fast hastening." "Be not slothful, but imitators of them who, through faith and patience, now inherit the promises." "Time flies," therefore "delay not" to flee from danger, to flee to Jesus, and to secure the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Be it my only wisdom here, To serve the Lord with filial fear, "Oh, may I still from sin depart! And let me through thy Spirit know, New-Park-Street, London. JAMES SMITH. Biblical. THE BAPTISMAL CONTROVERSY. Let Baptists respond to the call of events. Let them enter the remarkable openings which the Head of the Church presents to them. The spell which has bound evangelical pædobaptists is all but broken. Intelligent pædobaptist piety is becoming daily more conscious of its false position. The enlightenment of the age dislikes such a mere ceremony as the baptism of an unconscious babe. Its rejection of compulsion in religion refuses to place the infant in the church of Christ without its consent, and thus far by force. The profound and impartial scholarship of the continent (and much scholarship in EngJand too), denies infant baptism an apostolic origin, and affirms that to baptize is to immerse. English Independents having long and increasingly practised the baptism of unbelievers' babes, have in this nineteenth century presented the novelty of arguing in favour of promiscuous infant baptism. Profaning the ordinance in practice, has, as might be expected, generated defence of the practice. The more devout pædobaptists, shocked at the desecration of baptism without any religious ground for it, rise in holy indignation, and Wardlaw and Wilson rebuke the temerity of Halley; all meanwhile being equally shocked at the Puseyite, who only follows the good old view of Tertullian and the succeeding church fathers, that the consecrated water impregnated by the Holy Spirit, is the direct instrument of regeneration! Pædobaptism is now a house thoroughly divided against itself. The reasons of its advocates for what they do are mutually and utterly destructive. They perform the same outward rite, but what they "mean by this service" is as diverse as the meaning of Mahometans and Jews in circumcising their children. Dr. Halley differs in reality nearly if not quite as much from Dr. Wardlaw as a Baptist does. While both differ equally from the Puseyite! God appears to have set "every man's argument against his fellow, even throughout all the host" of the pædobaptists, and surely it is that we, like Gideon, may do our utmost for the truth, amidst the confusion of its opponents. Add to this, that while only the most uninfluential or unknown have been allured from our camp, the self-sacrificing desertion to Baptists of one of the most conspicuous, respected, and beloved of the pædobaptists, has turned the attention of thousands to the subject. We are verily guilty if we do not by conversation, tracts, or books, according to the requirements of the case, kindly, patiently, and devoutly urge the subject on pious pædobaptists. It is they who, quite unintentionally, are upholding the most mischievous error of the age, the stronghold of Popery, of Puseyism, and of State-Churches. Believers' Baptism snaps the last link which binds to Rome. But we hasten to our author, our object in the present article being to present those of our readers who are unable to purchase his book, with a concise view of his opinions and arguments. He begins by avowing, what we were unfortunate enough to awaken the displeasure of a pædobaptist brother for suggesting, in a tract, as a possible case, that "an indefinite fear of the conclusions at which he might arrive, led him to avoid the study of the question of baptism." "Are we wrong in 'supposing," we had asked, "that most who reply thus have some misgiving lest close investigation might change their views, and thus either cause them mental disquiet, or require them openly to alter their conduct?" Our critic replied, "Now we must regard this as exquisitely uncandid and unfair." The Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel replies, "it was exactly my case!" We believe it to be the case of thousands; many have stated the fact to us after adopting cur views, or probably we should not have thought of such a supposition. Mr. Noel mentions the very pleasing circumstance, that in order to render his book an independent testimony, he has not read a single Baptist book or tract. One, however, of singularly convincing power to candid minds he allowed himself to read, or rather several, written by evangelists Essay on Christian Baptism. By Baptist W. Noel, M.A. London: James Nisbet & Co. The Importance of Right Views on Baptism, An Appeal to Pious Pa dobaptists. By Francis Clowes London: Benjamin L. Green. and apostles. The result was, that Wardlaw, Woods, Halley, Godwin, and sundry others, were not a match for Matthew and Mark, Luke and Paul : To "Aware how many are disposed to attribute any opinion which contradicts their own to such a partial, one-sided investigation as they practise themselves, I determined to form my judgment entirely by the study of the Scriptures, and of such authors as advocate the baptism of infants. that determination 1 have adhered. And not having read a single Baptist book or tract, I publish the following work as an independent testimony to the exclusive right of believers to christian baptism. Undoubtedly I might have enriched its pages by an examination of the able and excellent authors who have written on the same side; and by the use of their reasonings and researches might have escaped some of the errors of detail into which it is possible that, in the discussion of a question so extensive and so complicated, I may have fallen: but then I should have lessened its value as an independent testimony." Intending to present us with another volume on the mode, Mr. Noel assumes that baptism is immersion, and enters at once upon the grand question, whether believers in Christ, or babes believers in nothing, are the proper subjects of Christian baptism. He begins with "the commission," establishing water-baptism and Its perpetuity, in opposition to the followers of George Fox. He passes then to its meaning; and sums up his remarks thus: "From all these considerations we may gather that our Lord, in this commission, intended his ministers first to convert men by preaching to them the gospel, then to baptize them as disciples, and finally to urge them when baptized to be entirely obedient to him as their Lord. The structure of this sentence, when compared with sentences of similar structure in the New Testament, establishes this meaning: it is established by the meaning of the word 'disciple,' which is equivalent to believer; by the meaning of immersion, which, as a spontaneous religious act, involves a profession to renounce sin and lead a new life; by the prescribed baptismal form of immersion unto the name of God, which sig nifies consecration to him; by the place which the third command, to enforce obedience to Christ's laws, must have in the fulfilment of the commission; by the order of the terms in the parallel passage in Mark; and by the connection which that passage reveals between baptism and salvation. On all these accounts we may conclude that baptism, as a profession of repentance, faith, and consecration to the Triune God, must be preceded by faith and by discipleship to Christ."* It would seem as if the commission naturally suggested military figures; it did so to Dr. Carson, and it does to Mr. Noel too,only instead of comparing an apostle with a "drill-sergeant," he compares him with Oliver Cromwell levying Holy War against the popery and tyrany of his day! He says, "When Oliver Cromwell, who saw that the forces of the Parliament were beaten by the troops of Charles the First, because there were gentlemen in the ranks of the royal army, and none but low men of worthless character in the other, sent out his recruiting sergeants to enlist godly and sober young men into his regiment, would they have been entitled to enlist drunkards and profligates because he had not expressly excluded them? His specification of the godly and the sober excluded all the rest. And when the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded his ministers to enlist believers under his banners by baptism, he has excluded all the rest." Mr. Noel next examines the recorded baptisms of the New Testament, and thus concludes: "Now, since all the persons baptized by the apostles and their contemporaries were, according to the only records which we possess, believers, what right have we to baptize any others? The baptism of a believer is a spontaneous profession of faith; the baptism of any other class is something essentially different; and how can we innocently add to Christ's institution something essentially different? His commission declares that believers are to be baptized; the books of the New Testament record the baptism of none but believers; where, then, is the precept or the precedent for something totally distinct, It should be carefully noted, that while the order of the expressions renders our interpretation by far the most natural; yet were it overlooked, the concurrence of preaching, discipling, baptizing, and teaching in reference to the same subjects, could allow no unprejudiced interpreter to apply the commission to babes. the baptism of catechumens or of infants? If you baptize these, baptize also heathens. Why do you reject heathens from baptism, but because you have no precept or precedent to authorize their baptism? And since you are equally without both precept and precedent for the baptism of infants, rescue them also from the disadvantage of an unauthorized and deceptive rite, which, by making them christians in name, may hinder them from being christians in reality." On the nature and effects of baptism each passage of scripture is carefully examined with the following result: "Let the reader consider well the force of this evidence. Since baptism is the seal of regeneration, none but the regenerate ought to be baptized; since it is the sign of justification, it should be administered to those only who are justified; since it was attended by the gift of the Spirit, none but believers to whom that gift was limited ought to receive it; since it saves, and there is no salvation except by faith, it should be administered to those only who have saving faith; and since it conferred the right of admission into the churches of saints and faithful brethren, none but saints and faithful brethren ought to receive it. If unbelievers are baptized, baptism is the sign of regeneration to the unregenerate and of justification to those who are still in their sins; it ought to save and does not, and admits into communion with the churches those who are unfitted for that privilege. Such an application of baptism could not be intended, and therefore the baptism of the unbeliever is contrary to Christ's authority by which believers alone ought to be baptized." In chapter third, the general considerations to shew the unlawfulness of infant baptism are well put, and the puerile objection, from "female communion" being unmentioned in the New Testament, is very fittingly disposed of. The comparison of pædobaptist arguments with those of Jesuits, is striking and just. The circumcision argument is rather fully treated, and satisfactorily enough, though Mr. Noel will, on this subject, enrich his theology when he reads Dr. Carson. What will Dr. Wardlaw think of a section headed "the unlawfulness of infant baptism proved from the analogy between circumcision and baptism?" Yet Dr. Wardlaw can never refute it : "No one was permitted to receive the token of the first covenant, whether child, slave, or stranger, who was not first within the covenant; and by analogy no one ought to receive the token of the second covenant who is not first within it; and as infants cannot be shewn to be within the second covenant, because they cannot be shewn to be believers, so by the analogy of circumcision they ought not to receive its token." In the next section Mr. Noel proves the fact"that circumcision did not introduce infants into the Abrahamic covenant of grace." On the utter worthlessness of the argument from the promises made to godly parents, Mr. Noel is rather full and quite satisfactory. Our readers will remember an excellent letter on this subject in "The Church," from the pen of "Senex,"-the late excellent Mr. Blyth. Mr. Noel concludes, "When Savonarola, at Florence, agreed to test the truth of his doctrine by walking through the fire, because God has said, "When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned," he was presumptuous. When Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, in his youth, tried to dry up the puddles in his road by prayer, because Christ has said, 'All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive' (Matt. xxi. 22), he was presumptuous. When in our own day a number of serious persons attempted to speak in unknown tongues, and to heal the sick by a touch, because Jesus had said that such signs should accompany faith in him, they also were presumptuous (Mark xvi. 16, 17). And so it seems to me that to baptize children as regenerate, assuming their regeneration without any warrant, either from scripture or from facts, is no less presumptuous. As no error is innoxious, so this, I fear, leads parents, in many cases, to substitute the excited devotion of a short half-hour for the patient labour of years. It is so pleasant to the indolent and worldly to believe that a few prayers and a momentary desire to commit a child to the care of God may accomplish its regeneration and salvation; and so easy thus to extinguish the salutary fears for its welfare which would have led to a careful christian education, that this misapplication of the promises of God is, I fear, extensively injurious." On the little children brought to Christ, Mr. Noel, in the course of his arguments, |