CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE-No. I.

THE abuse of any creature of God, is no argument against the use of it. Nor is the abuse or improper application of a word or phrase, any reason or argument against its proper use and application. The word experience, was not in popular favor in the reign of James I., when our commonly received version of the Sacred Writings was made. They gave it to us only five times in all the whole volume, and the word experiment but once.

But it may be said that the Greek dokimee, was not in much more favor with the apostles of Christ, for none but Paul ever used it, and he but seven times in all his epistles; and for it, in these passages, King James "authorized" the English word experience twice; proof, three times; experiment, once; and trial, once.

Its pedigree is remarkable. It is the first-born of Patience, and the mother of Hope, whose descendents are Love, Peace, and Joy. The family is illustrious, and yet, like many illustrious families, it is of rather ignoble and obscure origin. It is lineally and naturally descended from Tribulation, and, farther than this, its genealogy is not known. Strange, indeed, that Joy, one of the most noble creatures in the heraldry of earth, should be a remote descendent of Tribulation. The whole family known on earth, in all the records of time, are Tribulation, Patience, Experience, Hope, Joy. This grand descendent of Tribulation was, unfortunately, first miscalled Experience, till, on its baptism, it was changed into Approbation, its most natural and appropriate name. Hence, the true line, properly traced and legally named, are entered on the church records-Tribulation, Patience, Approbation, Hope, Joy. But Joy is the youngest of this noble family. The eldest sister is called Love, the second is called Peace, and the youngest Joy. I can assure all my readers, that I have consulted the ancient and true heraldry of this noble family, and can affirm, with all confidence, that so they are enrolled, each having its own signature and seal, witnessed by two of the Apostles of Christ, living and being present when they were recorded, as I have reported them, by a scribe wearing the King's signet.

Now, then, on the highest authority, we shall always think of them, speak of them, and write of them, as so descended, and endeavor to treat them with all due respect and decorum. For a long time past-time out of mind-the history of this family has been in perpetual litigation, some claiming Approbation to be the parent of the whole family, and Joy to be the mother of Hope. But it SERIES IV.-VOL. I.

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would be an unprofitable and interminable discussion, to investigate the numerous and various suits entered in the high courts of metaphysico-theological chancery, and the reports of innumerable lawyers, and doctors of law, on the premises. We have found the true roll of their lineage, and shall hereafter regard the matter as most satisfactorily settled. But we shall, for our edification and comfort, occasionally refer to some interesting scenes in the history of this ancient and venerable family.

With regard to Tribulation, it must be noted, that when Christian Faith was yet in its infancy, it was, like Moses in his infancy, exposed to persecution by some of Pharaoh's wicked legitimate descendents, who suspected, from some remote tradition, that it was to take possession of his throne and kill off all his children. For this reason, it, with all its kindred, was cruelly treated, and finally banished from his empire. During these days of adversity, Tribulation was born and nurtured in the furnace of Affliction. But though degraded, it rose, through its connections, to a degree of respectability, and Faith, falling in love with her, entered with her into holy wedlock, the first born of which was appropriately named Patience. She was a beautiful creature, though of a tender constitution, and, when grown to maturity, was exceedingly amiable, and married Self-Denial, from whom Approbation was born. The family began to rise in esteem, and, soon as Approbation came to maturity, was led to the altar and honorably married to Truth; from whom, in due time, Hope was born, the mother of three of the most beautiful children that ever descended from one person, who, in the order of their birth, were named Love, Peace, and Joy.

From this parable we may learn the true history of what is commonly called" Christian Experience." It is a real entity—a positive being of well ascertained character, and of noble and divine origin; but it is very improperly conceived of by many of its warmest friends and advocates. No one can enjoy Christian experience until he is a Christian. Therefore, to call any thing preceding conversion, or conversion itself, or regeneration, Christian experience, is a very great mistake, and frequently of serious consequences. Hence, the relations or details of "Christian Experience," sometimes very uncouthly and improperly called "the experience of religion," formerly required, and even yet, in some portions of the Baptist brotherhood, still required, as necessarily antecedent to the privilege of Christian baptism, is as unphilosophical-that is, as irrational-as it is unscriptural and unapostolic. No one can have the evangelical experience of a Christian before faith and baptism.

He may, indeed, believe with all his heart the gospel, and repent of all his sins, and ardently desire baptism and the privilege of the Christian church, and this he may orally and unequivocally avow to an individual minister or church, and yet not have Christian expe. rience, or, rather, Christian approbation; which is the evangelical, the scriptural, and apostolic name and representation of this thing. No one can have the experience of any thing on which he has not yet entered, whether personal or social, civil or religious. Who, before marriage or naturalization, can have the experience of those who have entered into these important and well known relations of life? No more can any man have the experience of a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, whether in its present earthly form and character, or in its heavenly form and character, till he has entered into it. We are sorry to learn that this delusion still obtains in some portions of the Baptist churches, and that it is still necessary for a candidate for immersion to attend a meeting of the church, be examined, and his Christian experience related, heard, and approved, before he can be admitted to baptism-a custom as irrational as unscriptural, and not merely of very questionable, but of dangerous tendency. A. C.

AMERICAN CENSUS ABROAD.

THE London Athenæum makes some comments upon the extraordinary growth of this country, which, though true, would have possessed much less interest had they appeared in any American journal:

Men in the habit of reading daily newspapers, may sometimes observe, in small type, and carefully packed away in spare corners of the broad sheet, queer looking paragraphs, one half names and the other half figures. Often enough these paragraphs are the result of much labor and skilful arrangement, but too frequently the reader hurries past them to the more exciting police reports or foreign correspondence. Yet some of them are well worth pondering. In one, for example, we have just read a few returns of the American census, of such unusual significance, that we doubt whether farseeing men will not regard them as more interesting than the finest revolution abroad, or the foulest murder at home.

The American census is not yet complete; but the returns already received point to conclusions far beyond hope or expectation. Look at New York, for instance. In 1820, it had a population of 123,000; in 1830, 130,000; in 1840, 312,000. This rate of increase was un

paralleled in the history of statistics. But the population is now said to have risen to the astonishing number of 750,000! There are but two larger cities in Europe; in ten years more, at the same rate of progress, it will be larger than Paris. In thirty years

from this date New York will, on the same terms, be larger than London.

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And it must be considered that the commercial capital of America is not fed like our Manchester and Liverpool, at the expense of the country; its advance is the type of that entire continent. 1810 the population of St. Louis was 1,600; in 1830, 6,600; in 1840, 16,400; in 1850 it numbered 90,000! So far as the general nature of the returns can be inferred from the data at hand, the population of the Union will be about 25,000,000. From 1800, when the number was a little more than 5,000,000, to 1840, when it had advanced to 17,000,000, the decennial rate of increase was about 33 per cent. This rate would have given for 1850 a population of 22,000,000 only.

Material power has been developed equally with population. Great Britain alone excepted, no state in Europe could now maintain equal armaments in the field for any length of time. This marvellous growth is deranging all the old tradition of balances of power.' America is not only a first class state-in a few years, if no internal disorder shall occur, she will be the greatest of all. Should the 1840-50 rate of increase be maintained for fifty years, the population will then amount to 190,000,000-nearly equal to that of the whole continental Europe! Were it possible to conceive the same ratio maintained for fifty years more, the census of 1950 would give the astounding number of 1,696,000,000! German wars and French revolutions sink into complete insignificance by the side of considerations like these.

With such a comment, how well we may understand the roars of laughter' with which the American Senate recently received the menaces of Austria! When the United States shook off the yoke of England, their people numbered no more than 3,000,000; when they were last measured against a European power, they were not more than 8,000,000. Ten years hence they will be equal to France and Austria. There hardly seems to be a limit to their growth. The valley of the Mississippi would alone support the whole population of Europe. In its vast basin, nations are now growing up as if at the bidding of enchantment.

The valley already contains about thirteen millions of inhabitants; at the beginning of this century it did not contain as many thousands! There is a moral as well as a material, marching on from conquest to conquest, absorbing into itself less energetic stocks, and planting from ocean to ocean the freest institutions ever adopted by a nation. America is destined for its sole inheritance; the Spaniard and the Portuguese will disappear as surely as the Gaul, the Dane, and the Hollander have disappeared; and two centuries hence the English tongue will no doubt be spoken from the Cape of Storms to the Frozen Oceans of the North.

THE TWO COMFORTERS, FIDO AND LOGOS: OR, FAITH AND REASON.

Logos.-I am weary with the world and myself, dear Fido. I thought not so soon to lose the glowing hope of my youth and the strong faith of my manhood; but affliction, like a wave, yea, in successive waves, hath dashed over me, and I feel myself a wreck; powerless and aimless, on the still, dull bosom of a rayless sorrow. The performance of my duties no longer brings the sweet rewards of self-approbation, and the society of happy friends rather agitates than settles the bitter elements so largely mingled in my life-cup.

Fido-You will not be surprised when I tell you, that many dear friends have marked in your countenance the deep sorrow in which your spirit seems wellnigh buried. You have striven to hide from the world what you have but just now confessed even to me, your most intimate friend; but you have not succeeded. Your friends know you are unhappy-weighed upon by a heavy and oppressive grief; and they feel for you-deeply and sincerely feel for you. No one knew the worth of your loss better than I did, and no one can more fully sympathize with you.

Logos.--Truly hath a great thinker said, Every man carries, written upon his countenance, either a prophecy or a history. There may well be on mine both, since they must needs be the same. If, as I believe, our faith and our hope fashion our course through life, then must my future be, even as my past-transient joys, pure and sweet as dreams, but around them, and infused with them, the long, dull, dead stagnancy of a formless void, spreading itself like an eternity of emptiness before the imagination, and consuming, as with the maw of annihilation, every germ of hope or of peace. You will tell me this is but the shadow of memory, but it is a shadow that hath power to darken and to blight; and to the heart, therefore, a grave reality. Besides, is not the past the type of the future? That which hath been, is it not that which shall be? On what, then, cau I ground a reasonable, a philosophical hope for the future?

Fido. The intimacy of our friendship has emboldened me to seek this interview with you, for the very purpose of conversing with you on the subject which you have so fortunately and characteristically introduced. So far as philosophy is concerned, our doctrine, I be. lieve, is as nearly the same as we could desire it to be. As to its sufficiency for all the ends of happiness, we have ever differed. It is, indeed, a subject on which you discourse much more freely and SERIES IV.-VOL. I.

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