Mahometans eat up the hog. You laugh-'tis well-the tale applied While one as innocent regards A snug and friendly game at cards; Some love a concert, or a race; And others shooting, and the chase. Reviled and loved, renounced and followed, With sophistry their sauce they sweeten, But we must again notice the subject, with more immediate reference to the New Testament. A. C. "GOOD ORDER." INDIANAPOLIS, June 4, 1849. BROTHER CAMPBELL: For reasons, which we will give, if required, we find it necessary to say to our strange brethren, now moving into our city from parts remote, that it is expected of them that they will report themselves to the Elders of the church, or to the church at their regular meetings, at their earliest convenience. By so doing, they will not only secure the prompt fraternal attention of their brethren in the city, but they will also afford very satisfactory evidence of their own sense of good order and Christian propriety, and of their attachment to the cause which we all love. In addition to this, they will save us a great amount of unnecessary trouble, and themselves as much evil surmising, and unavailing complaint for the want of Christian attention from the Disciples in Indianapolis, as will fully justify them in pursuing the course recommended. O. H. BUTLER, J. M. BRAMWELL. BROTHER CAMPBELL: If you approve of the above notice, will you take the time to make a few remarks in relation to church letters, and their uses? Many persons seem to think it a matter of no importance to procure such papers,-and others, that with a letter in their pocket, they are neither members of the church militant nor triumphant, but in a kind of transition state, for which we have not a name, and in which they feel themselves at liberty to indulge in a great many improprieties, that their consciences would rebuke, if they were in relation with any church. No person should fail, when leaving a particular church, to procure letters of introduction and commendation; and no person holding such letters should fail to deposite them in the church in the neighborhood of which they locate, within a week, or two at the greatest extent, after they locate in such neighborhood. Any person pursuing a different course from the above, unless good reason can be shown for it, cannot fail to shake the confidence of a reflecting brotherhood, in his Christian integrity.It may appear hard, but I can assure such persons that it is certainly the case, all their indifference to the contrary notwithstanding. May grace and peace be with you. I am yours in hope, L. H. JAMESON. The necessity and importance of letters of commendation, and their use, are so well expressed by brother Jameson, that I need not add a word farther than to say, that every brother who has not so obtained and used them according to his circumstances, is at fault, and should immediately reform. A. C. CONVENTION. A SUGGESTION. BROTHER CAMPBELL, in the last Harbinger, says :- "We will concur with the brethren in the call of a general meeting in Cincinnati, Lexington, Louisville, or Pittsburgh." We all seem to see the necessity of such a meeting, and doubtless a great majority of the brotherhood are anxious to have it; but there is a difficulty in taking the initiative. The call for a general convention, which was issued by the October meeting of last year, does not seem to be sufficient; and how any other call can be given is difficult to say. Perhaps it would be a judicious step for the pastors, elders, and prominent brethren of the church of Cincinnati to meet together, and again issue a universal invitation to the brethren to come up here in October next. We concur with brother Van Dake's suggestion, found in another place, that the question of organization ought first to come up, in order that other movements may be regulated by the decision to which we shall come, upon it. It would be highly satisfactory, if we could get a definite answer from our scribes and elders to the question, Will you come here in October next? Will brother Campbell come? Will brethren Shannon, Fanning, Fall, Pinkerton, Kendrick, Hall, Mathes, Franklin, Howard, Ferguson, &c., &c., &c., all come? Some public expression of such determination from these and other brethren would give certainty and interest to the deliberations of such a meeting, and doubtless would insure a large and respectable attendance. Will you come out on this question, and "signify your intentions," brethren? In the meantime, we offer the above suggestion to the attention of our city brethren.-Christian Age & Unionist. Following the present wake of the cholera, there is little reason to calculate that it will have finally evacuated Cincinnati against the beginning of October, or before November. It would, therefore, be imprudent, and fatal to a general meeting at Cincinnati, to appoint it there before full assurance is afforded that the Ohio river and the city are free from this visitation. Persons cannot, with safety to themselves or satisfaction to their families, leave home under such circumstances. I am disposed to attend at Cincinnati or any other place on which the brethren may agree, and will, all things concurring, be present. A. CAMPBELL. REV. T. J. FISHER. THIS gentleman, a celebrated Baptist revivalist, once excluded from our communion for reasons set forth in the Harbinger for 1839, it is reported, from good authority, has been slandering our brethren while soliciting money from the Baptists in Georgia to relieve his farm in Kentucky from a mortgage of seven hundred dollars, on account of which, he says, some heartless creditor is about to sell it. After the style of his old associate and model grand revivalist, by every carnal expedient and romance, he succeeds in producing great excitements and in raising considerable sums of money from all sorts of people-Baptists, non professors, Freemasons, &c. This may be all justifiable, according to his standard of morality; but we must say to those who have addressed us from that quarter, on his allegation, that no one has yet attempted to set aside, either spiritually or according to any established form of church government, the verdict reported or the statements made in said Harbinger for 1839. He has produced to some committees in Georgia some explanations between him and brother J. B. Ferguson touching some notice in his Christian Magazine of his exclusion from our communion, of which we cannot say any thing at present, save that when an investigation of the matters reported in the Millennial Harbinger was by me challenged, it was not accepted nor publicly responded to, and, therefore, that report stands unrefuted. NOTICE. A. C. The annual meeting of the Disciples composing the congregations of Western Pennsylvania, will be held at Connelsville, Fayette Co., Pa., commencing the Friday before the third Lord's day in August next. A meeting will commence before the fourth Lord's day of August, at Pleasant Valley, near Washington, Pa. The brethren are cordially invited to attend, especially those who labor as Evangelists. NEWS FROM THE CHURCHES. CооKSTOWN, April 7th, 1849. DEAR BROTHER:-On the third Lord's day of March, brother Streator held a meeting, and four made the good confession and were buried in the emblematic grave. I remain yours in the Lord, DANINL FORREY. NEWTON, April 9, 1847. BROTHEE CAMPBELL :-Brother M. J. Streaton closed a meeting with us -ast Wednesday, at which fifteen became obedient to the faith. To the Lord be all the praise. A. B. GREEN. PERRY COUNTY, Mo., May 5, 1849. DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL: Myself and brother Samuel have recently visited a congregation in Madison county, Mo., which I organized last summer, consisting of some fifteen members (perhaps some more) and one preacher, all of whom were Baptists prior to that time, and found them happy in the cause of our blessed Redeemer. During our stay in that section, or in Wayne county, adjoining Madison, we had three additions from the Baptists, and on yesterday I buried one by baptism, with Christ (a Methodist). The Lord be praised for his goodness. Yours, in hope of eternal life, WM. L. FENEX. WASHINGTON, June 11th, 1849. BROTHER CAMPBELL: Cholera seems at present to have ceased in Maysville. One member of our congregation in Maysville died of it, and one in Washington, but upon the whole, we have great reason for gratitude that this scourge of nations has so far fallen but lightly upon us. You have no doubt had a report of the valuable accession of some forty persons to the Maysville church, in a protracted meeting, conducted by brethren Challen and Ricketts. The Beasley congregation is also encouraged by an addition of 35. In these meetings I had not the privilege of participating to any great extent, having been detained at home partly by my school labors, and partly by the sickness of one of my children. In Washington, I have baptized two during the spring, and at Georgetown, Ohio, on my last visit, two were baptized, and two received into the church,-one of them from the Baptists, and one from the old Christian connexion. We have succeeded in the erection and completion of a very respectable brick meeting house in Washington, which will place the congregation in a far more comfortable position than they have ever been in before. Yours, JOHN YOUNG. SOMERSET, May 23d, 1849. BROTHER CAMPBELL: We closed quite an interesting meeting, last week, resulting in mine additions by confession and baptism, and one by letter, from the Baptists. Yours sincerely in the faith, J. G. SCHELL. OBITUARY. DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL: This line is to communicate to you, and through the Miliennial Harbinger, to his relatives, the painful intelligence of the death of our beloved and highly esteemed brother, Dr. FRANCIS M. CRAIG, who died on the 28th inst., of consumption. He labored among us in the holy cause of our Lord and Saviour, with diligence and success, from July, 1848, until about the middle of January, present year, when sickness put an end to his very profitable labors. He remained confined from that time till death kindly put an end to his severe sufferings. For the consol tion of his absent and distant family, (a wife and two little boys,) permit me to say, that he bore his great sufferings with the patience and fortitude of faithful and obedient Disciple of the Lord and Saviour. The only thing that appeared to trouble his mind, was the absence of his dear wife and chi dren, one of which he never enjoyed the pleasure of seeing! Still he bore his afflictions patiently, and calmly fell asleep in the Saviour His talents Christian virtue, and gentlemanly deportment, endeared brother Craig all the Disciples, and gained for him the high respect and esteem of all our citizens who became acquainted with him. We deeply sympathize with the friends and relatives of the deceased in this heavy affliction, but feel happy to say, that although among strangers yet the brethren cheerfully administered that relief and aid which his situa tion and virtues demanded. Yours in love of the truth, JOHN ABBOT. |