Church South, are to debate the following propositions in Hannibal, commencing on Monday, the 7th of April, viz:

1. Sprinkling or pouring water on a believer, by an authorized person, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is Christian Baptism. Mr. Caples affirms. Dr. Hopson denies.

2. To the penitent believer, baptism is for the remission of sins. Dr. H. affirms. Mr. C. denies.

3. The infant children of believing parents are proper subjects of Christian Baptism. Mr. C. affirms. Dr. H. denies.

4. The Holy Spirit, in conviction and conversion, operates only through the word. Dr. H. affirms. Mr. C. denies.

"If the Lord will," I expect to be at the debate. I fear not the result, with so able and talented a defender of the gospel of Christ as Bro. Hopson. In haste, your brother, T. M. ALLEN.

Total number reported since last month, 431.

OBITUARY.

COLUMBUS, O., April 27, 1851. Dear Brother and Sister Campbell: To you, who have been so often called to pass through such severe trials for some months past, I neeed not say any thing of my task this morning, when you learn that it is no less than that of informing you that the tenderest earthly ties have again been severed; that death has entered our peaceful dwelling, and borne away, as his prize, my dear husband--Dr. W. F. POOL.

I cannot give all the particulars of his illness, and peaceful exit from time to eternity. Suffice it, at present, to say, that he was taken ill at Cincinnati, where he lay one week, when he returned home, and was confined to his bed for nearly seven weeks. During his long and painful illness, (of congestive fever) which affected his brain from the first, and, consequently, his nervous system severely, I never heard a murmur escape his lips, but the most perfect calmness and resignation to the will of the Lord in all things.

He had made every arrangement for devoting his entire time and talents, the remaining portion of his life, in preaching, and often, during his illness, would say to me, that "if the Lord thought he had labored long enough in his vineyard, he would call him home; if not, the Lord knew his heart, and he would restore him; and if permitted to rise from his bed again, he would die in the field of battle." He continued in this heavenly state of mind until the last; and when his tongue had ceased to perform its office in speaking to us, he would answer to our interrogatories by a nod; that the faith which had supported him in life still cherished him in death, and his hope grew brighter and brighter as he drew near his close. His anxiety for the little congregation here continued until his last moments; and the last Lord's day but one of his life, he had the brethren called to his room on purpose to commemorate the Saviour's death. He gave us quite an exhortation as he lay on his bed, telling us, that if never permitted to again partake with us on earth, to be prepared to meet him around his Father's table, &c. He lingered until Thursday night, April 17th, at 11 o'clock, when, in answer to the prayer of his friends, “that if taken from us, his passage over Jordan might be an easy one," without a struggle, a moan, or even a sigh, he fell asleep in the arms of the Saviour.

Before his death, he had selected the passage of scripture from which he desired Elder Cheney to preach at his funeral, which was this: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, saith the Spirit; yea, they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."

Before his death, he requested me to give you the particulars, and left you to write an obituary to suit yourself, as it would be the best way of letting his friends know of his death.

I need not say to you that I have lost an affectionate and doating husband, and my children a kind father. Your afflicted sister,

ANN E. POOL.

[We profoundly sympathize with our Sister Pool in this, to her, sad bereavement; but have reason to rejoice with her in the cheerful resignation and triumphant hopes with which her husband bowed to the will of the Lord.

I have known Bro. Pool for many years, and have witnessed with pleasure, on many occasions, the zeal and the devotion with which he sought to be valiant for the truth, and to be useful in the kingdom of our common Lord. We have much to assure us that his labors in the Lord were not in vain. We trust that our sister will always derive consolation from him that said: "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me." Jer. xlix. 11.-A. C.]

ELLERSLIE, Boon County, Mo., March 27, 1851. Dear Brother Campbell: I have just returned from Fayette, Mo., where I went on yesterday to attend, with many other brethren and friends, the funeral of our late brother, Elder HAMPTON L. BOON, who died about 4 o'clock on the morning of the 25th inst., in the glorious hope of immortality and eternal life. He was in the 49th year of his age, and leaves a widow and nine children, with numerous relatives and friends, to mourn his loss. But we are confident that while they sorrow, it is not as those who have no hope. Bro. Boon was an able minister of the gospel, and had but a few months since withdrawn from all secular pursuits, and entered the field of active labor as an evangelist, with a determination of devoting all his energies and time to the work of the ministry; but it pleased the Lord to have him cease from his work of faith and labor of love, and enter into the rest remaining for the people of God.

On the 3d Lord's day of this month, at night, he gave his last discourse in Glasgow; after which he was taken with a congestive chill, followed by a violent fever, from which he never recovered. On the Tuesday following he was brought home, remaining in the bosom of his family for one week, when he calmly and peacefully, without a groan or struggle, died a most triumphant and rejoicing Christian. He was conscious, from the commencement of his disease, that he would not recover, and soon were his family and friends convinced of the same fact. He conversed almost constantly with his weeping companion and children, and sorrowing friends, on the subject of his approaching death, with all the calmness, resignation, and faith of a Christian-declaring that his only regret was in leaving his wife and little children; aside from that, he desired to depart and be with the Lord. He rejoiced in the bright and glorious prospect of heaven, and exhorted his family and friends to be faithful, and meet him there.

On the night of his death he partook of the Lord's Supper, with his wife, obedient children, his sister, brother, and other sisters and brethren present: his happy soul rejoiced, and his tongue moved in praise to God. He retained his reason, and even his speech, almost to the last breath, and closed his eyes in death peacefully praising his Maker.

He was a fond and affectionate husband; a kind, tender-hearted father; a warm and generous friend; a zealous and devoted Christian, and an able minister of the gospel. He was for many years a member of, and an efficient preacher in, the Methodist Episcopal Church; but about eleven years ago he united with the Church of Christ in the town of Fayette, his wife and two oldest children taking their stand with him upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, (three others have since obeyed the gospel.)

May the Lord enable them to imitate the faithfulness of their departed friend! He soon became an able advocate and defender of the faith once delivered to the saints. The vast crowd at his funeral evinced the deep feeling of the community in which he had principally lived for more than thirty years. I addressed them from 1 Thes. iv. 13. Pardon the length of this communication. Bro. Boon, and have omitted much I could doubtless interest both yourself and readers. death, let us thank God and take courage. Affectionately your brother,

I have felt the above due to say to his praise, that would In his happy and triumphant T. M. ALLEN.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 13, 1851. Brother Campbell: I write to inform you that our beloved sister, Mrs. ELIZABETH LITTLEFIELD, has been called home to her eternal rest. She died last Lord's day about 11 o'clock, A. M., at the house of her sonin-law, Mr. James Junkins, in this city, aged 53 years.

She was born in Brunswick, Maine, A. D. 1798; was married in Bath, 1820, and removed to Boston, where she lived till 1833, when she removed, with her family, to Covington, Ky. In 1816 she was immersed, and joined the Baptist church. She continued a zealous, consistent, pious member of that denomination until 1840, when she united with the Church of Christ in Covington. She came to this city early in March last, with a letter of commendation from the church in Covington; but the state of her health was such that she never met with us.

I had the pleasure of visiting Sister Littlefield during her last illness, and enjoyed much satisfaction in conversing with her on the subject of Christianity. She was gifted with a fine intellect, and had stored her mind with much valuable information, particularly on the subject of religion. She was eminent for her piety, for correct and enlarged views in Christianity, for strong confidence in God, a fixed reliance upon his word, and a firm hope of happiness after death.

She left the Baptists and united with the Church of Christ, because she wished to cast her influence in favor of union amongst Christians on the word of the apostles. In this she rejoiced on the bed of death.

She died as she had lived-full of faith, and hope, and love; and has gone to her home in heaven. May we all meet her there! B. F. H.

ness.

Brother Campbell: Bro. FLAVEL VIVION, of Lafayette County, Mo., departed this life on the 12th of May, after an illness of ten days. Congestion of the brain, terminating in inflammation of the stomach and bowels, carried him off. He was seldom in his right mind during his illA few moments before his death, he called his children and his servants to his room, and asked them to sing "Jerusalem, My Happy Home;" which the servants did. When the song was ended, he was asked if he was ready or prepared to die? To which he nodded assent twice, being then unable to speak, and in a moment more breathed his last. He became a member of the Baptist church in early life, in Fayette county, Ky., but for the last ten years has been a member of the Church of Christ. He was in the 69th year of his age, and truly a father in Israel—a man of great firmness and force of character; but he has gone to join the host in heaven. T. N. GAINES.

ERRATUM. In our May number, the address of Bro. Henry Henderson, Principal of the Irvine Grove Academy, was given as De Kalb county, Mo. It should be De Kalb P. O., Buchanan county, Mo.

THE SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE-No. VIII.

We have already surveyed the Spiritual Universe as far as our compass and chain can lead us. True, indeed, we look through a glass, and do not, with the naked eye, see its realities. Faith is, therefore, essential to our seeing things invisible to mortal sight. “It is the evidence of things not seen." But the testimony of other men, when believed, produces as much certainty as is necessary to all the purposes of life. It yields a certainty equal to our own experience, and puts us in possession of other men's experience, in all cases where it is perfect.

The experience of some men, in some respects, is much greater than that of other men in those respects; but no man's experience, in all respects, can equal all other men's experience in all respects. In society we are, therefore, obliged to borrow and lend experience, just as much as money, or that which it represents. We always borrow experience by faith, and we can lend it only through faith. My experience is of no value to any man that does not believe it; nor is any man's experience of any value to me, unless I believe it. Faith, then, is the only circulating medium in the market and exchange of human experience.

Although I have never seen Jerusalem nor Babylon, a burning mountain nor a frozen ocean, Paradise nor Tartarus, I can, on adequate testimony, regard them as much realities as London or Paris, both of which I have seen. But it is alleged that human experience is limited to things of time and sense, and cannot, by any possibility, transcend these. But on what authority is it so alleged? On the authority of some men's experience. Not on the authority of all SERIES IV.-VOL. I. 36

men's experience; for no living man, or set of men, are now in possession of all the experience of all men. It is, therefore, unphilosophic, irrational, and most presumptuous in any man, to say that he cannot believe in the apparition of an angel, or in a special message from heaven, or from some other world than this, because it is contrary to his experience, as well as to that of all living men and to that of all dead men. Let him first produce the experience of all men, and then he will have some show of reason in so affirming.

Still, even then, he would have no absolute certainty that a communication might not hereafter be received from another worldfrom some sun, moon, or star, from which we have hitherto heard nothing. This would be to foreclose all future new developments. It would be equal to affirming that there never can hereafter be any thing that has not already been. No one, on such premises, could have believed in a universal flood in the days of Noah, nor of cities being burned by a shower of fire from heaven, because, forsooth, till the days of Abraham and Lot, no such event had happened.

Human experience is a very mutilated volume. The cover is off, the preface torn, a hundred pages wanting in the middle, and no one knows how many hundred are wanting at the end. Would he not be a silly boy, that, on entering school and taking into his hand these fragments, should, on reading them, affirm that he had read the entire volume; and fully comprehended, not only the contents of the volume, but also the contents of every other volume that could possibly emanate from the same author. As silly and as pert every man or grown boy, who affirms that he cannot, or will not, believe in an oral or written communication from the author of the volume of nature, of man, and of providence, because he has never found it on the few scattering leaves in the primer that he has read!

But it is alleged that a spiritual system and spiritual beings, are wholly without that evidence on which all faith in human testimony respecting things material and sensible, rests. We believe human testimony touching matters which are sensible, which we know from the evidence of our own senses and from our own experience, do actually exist. But what living man has ever seen an angel, a spirit, or heard an angel or a spirit speak? And how can we believe testimony touching the actions of beings of whose existence we have no evidence-neither the evidence of reason nor that of sense?

But is this the sum total of all evidence? Have we not the evidence of consciousness, as well as the evidence of sense? Are we not conscious of what passes within us? And do we not feel as