| 858 In Philadelphia, the same generous spirit prevails. At Pompton N. J. liberality characterizes the saints, and so far as the knowledge comes to us, there is an earnest desire and a laudable intention, manifested to tithe for the Temple, and support the present authorities.
There never was a better feeling prevailing among the saints, than there is now: so, purging the old dross, and blowing it to the four winds, the gold begins to appear, while confidence, faith, hope and charity-mingled with union, love, and fortitude-make the everlasting gospel what it ever was, a refiner's fire.
TROUBLE AMONG THE BAPTISTS.
"Some time ago says the N. Y. Tribune, the Foreign Missionary Board of the Baptist Triennial Convention, which has the seat of its operations in Boston, in answer to an interrogatory put by Rev. Jesse Hartwell of Alabama, made the following declaration:
'If, however, any one should offer himself as a Missionary, having slaves, and should insist on retaining them as his property, we could not appoint him. One thing is certain; we can never be a party to any arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery'
This avowal, as might naturally have been expected, has caused much excitement and dissatisfaction at the South. The Board of the Virginia Baptist Foreign Missionary Society have published an Address, accompanied by a series of resolutions, in which they pronounce the decision of the Parent Board at Boston unconstitutional and violation of the rights of the Southern members of the Triennial Convention, and declare that all further connection with the Board, on the part of such members, is inexpedient and improper. They also express the opinion that, in the present exigency, it is important that those brethren who are aggrieved by the recent decision of the board in Boston, should hold a Convention (either at Augusta, Geo. [GA] or Richmond, Va.) to confer on the best means of promoting the Foreign Mission cause, and other interests of the Baptist denomination in the South. Such a Convention will probably be held either in May or June next, and there is little doubt that it will work a permanent division between Northern and Southern Raptists [Baptists]. It is thus that one religious sect after another splits on the rock of Slavery, finding it impossible to reconcile the growing anti-slavery sentiment of the North with the slaveholding spirit of the South."
INFERENCE.
(->) The inference we draw from such church jars among the sectarian world, is, that the glory which professing clergymen think to obtain for themselves by division on slavery, temperance, or any other matter of no consequence to pure religion, is "nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit."
Christ and his apostles taught men repentance, and baptism for remission of sins; faithfulness and integrity to masters and servants; bond and free; black and white, and what was the result? It was that the church in the days of the apostles came unto "Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Were it possible for God to be ashamed of his creation, the sectarians bluster about foreign missions, preaching to the heathen, the temperance cause, the light of revelation, would make him blush. The Pharisees and Sadducees among the Jews, never whited more sepulchres [sepulchers], filled with dead bones,)than do the popularity seeking sects of the nineteenth century.
Like the fable of the dog and the meat, the christian community are preparing to lose what little religion they may have possessed, by jumping after the dark shade of abolitionism. So passes falling greatness.
COMMUNICATIONS.
THE ANSWER
To the parable in our last number.
To make the subject plain, the explanation is given in question and answers.
Q.-1. Who is the king and his son?
A.-The king is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Q.-2. Who is the woman?
A.-Christ's Church.
Q.-3. When was the marriage and dinner proposed?
A.-At the time Christ and his apostles offered salvation to the Jews.
Q.-4. Who banished the king's son?
A.-The Jews.
Q.-5. Who put to death the woman's friends?
A.-The Roman Church.
Q.-6. What was the rod?
A.-It was the power and priesthood after the holy order of the son of God, which the church had; and was delivered of it, or rather, it was taken from her in the year 570, and the church fell into the hands of the Pope of Rome.
Q.-7. What were the twelve diamonds?
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