among other things to constitute men Christians. In this oneness of belief is found another element of the true unity of the Church. The power of a belief in the same truths to unite men together is every where seen, especially when those truths are of great practical interest and importance, which is eminently the case with the truths of the Christian religion. This is one important link in the chain that binds together the various religious sects in the world. Hindoos, Mohammedans, Catholics and the various sects of Protestants, unite together in consequence of holding the same belief on the essential points of their religion. The same is true in political and other voluntary associations. The bond of union is a common belief in certain truths. Hence a lively faith in the essential truths of the Christian religion will draw believers into intimate union and fellowship, and make them one in Christ.

3. A third essential element in the unity of the Church is a oneness of aim among all its members. The great object of life is with all true Christians essentially one-the promotion of God's glory-through and by the advancement of their own and neighbor's highest temporal and spiritual welfare. Though the temporal callings in life of Christians are as various as among the men of the world, yet with true believers those callings are only means to a common end. In the pursuit of this one great object there is no jealous rivalry, and no disappointment. The success of one is the success of all, as all harmoniously co-operate together. Now this unity of purpose and aim begets a oneness of feeling and desire. By a law of our mental constitution, it binds together in closest bonds all that truly love the Saviour, and thus they being many are one body in Christ."

4. Again, the Church of God is one, as subject to the same king and head, and governed by the same code of laws. Christ is "head over all things to the Church." He has given her a perfect code of laws in the Bible, and by those laws each and all of the true members of the Church are governed. They are thus one community, one nation, one kingdom, one family. In the kingdom of God, there is no forced submission to the government of a king, and code of laws which the subjects hate. It is a joyful and ennobling obedience to a government which they love. Thus the king and laws of the Church are a bond of union among its members of the strongest kind.

5. Once more: the true members of Christ's Church are

essentially one in character. The elements of Christian character are in all the same. It is character by which the followers of Christ are distinguished from the rest of men. They have been "transformed by the renewing of their minds;" "changed into the image and likeness of God." Through the principle that "like seeks its like," the true disciples of Christ unite together in closest unity.

Thus is the true Church of the Lord Jesus one body, one in faith, one in aim and purpose, subject to one king and law; one in character, spirit, feeling, desire; having the same hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, and the same eternal home in prospect.

From these principles important conclusions follow. Outward, visible unity to be lasting and profitable, must be founded on this inward unity of faith and character. Hence the way to promote it is not through Evangelical Alliances, to patch up an outward union of incongruous elements: but by proclaiming in all its fullness the word and law of God; submitting ourselves to its power; and laboring to bring all others to the love and obedience of Christ.

Another conclusion is that the unity of the Church is violated, not by proclaiming the whole counsel of God, and exercising discipline on all offenders, but by the contrary. By suppressing the truth, admitting known transgressors to the Church, under the plea of reforming them there, refusing to exercise discipline on open, acknowledged sinners, and thus throwing the doors of the church open to those influences which will not only mar its unity but destroy its very existence. Christ, as King in Zion, merits and claims implicit obedience to the laws of his Church. The known and willful transgressor of those laws, therefore, unfits himself for membership in that Church. To retain him in her communion is, therefore, in direct contravention of the law and will of Christ; and, therefore, destructive of all true unity.

When the Church of Christ shall (as she will) become really one; when one in faith and purpose, in obedience and character; she devotes herself in her combined energy to the glorious and benevolent work entrusted to her by her head, the triumph of his truth on earth-the downfall of all oppression and crime, and violence and every form of evil, will speedily follow. Her true union, will give her a strength which earth and hell will in vain oppose.

SOUTHERN REVIVALS.

The following item is circulating in the papers:

The Editor of the Western Christian Advocate says "We have the following on authority that admits of no questioning: Recently in a town of a certain slave State, a revival took place in the church under the charge of the Rev. Mr. During the meeting a slave-trader professed conversion, and joined the church, and a local preacher became much encouraged thereat. Soon after the close of the meeting, the slavetrader made a purchase from the local preacher of a slave woman, who had a child at her breast. The trader not wishing the child, and the mother refusing to go without it, strong cords were obtained. A dray was sent for, she was tied hands and feet, and was carried by main force, and strapped down to the dray, and was thus driven off."

Our exchanges, from time to time, contain accounts of “revivals of religion" in Southern slaveholding churches. These revivals are held up as evidence that God has not forsaken those churches, and that therefore Christians in the North should not forsake them. We never publish these accounts, because we have no faith in the genuineness of these revivals. We find no evidence at all that those who are the subjects of them are in the least degree changed in their character and conduct. They continue to rob and oppress the poor, just as before. As the foregoing item shows, they are just as cruel as ever. They can tear the tender infant from the mother, just as ruthlessly as they were wont to do before they professed conversion. Indeed, the evidence we have in the case, goes to show that the subjects of these revivals are generally made worse instead of better, and it is in accordance with the philosophy of human nature, and with the teachings of the Bible, that this should be the case.

All men have some ground on which they base a hope of happiness in a future existence. Very often the "men of the world," as they are called, place their hope in their natural humanity and justice. Hence it is their religion to "do justly and love mercy," so far as they conveniently can. But as the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached in many places, in these modern days, it is made the minister of sin. A free pardon, through the blood of Christ is proclaimed, and men are taught that if they rely on Christ alone for justification, then salvation is secure. The teaching of the Bible that sanctification is the necessary accompaniment of justification, is not

so presented as to awaken and alarm the conscience. Without any real, radical change of heart, the convert settles down into a false and carnal security, and with a conscience at rest for the future, feels at liberty to indulge his wicked propensities to the full, for the present. In the practice of that guilty abuse of the doctrine of justification by faith, which the Apostle Paul so pointedly condemns, he "continues in sin that grace may abound." The parallel to these conversions is found in a passage from the sayings of Jesus Christ: "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves."

We believe in genuine revivals of religion-revivals which stir the conscience of the sinner to its profoundest depths; which bring him an humbled, heart-broken penitent to the foot of the cross, and then send him out to the world a pardoned and sanctified soul, to lead a life of holiness and true benevolence. But those "revivals" in which loud shouting is received as the evidence of conversion, and from which the "convert" goes out to "tear the mother from her babe, and chain her to a dray," are the Devil's own peculiar work.

REVIVAL EXCITEMENTS.

The long article on this subject which will be found in today's paper, we publish by request. We suppose it is intended as a reply to our article headed "The Religion that Saves," published two weeks ago. But as a reply to that article, it strikes wide of the mark, for we have never opposed genuine revivals of religion, but on the contrary have ever taught that they were the great need of the world. We think that the "Old Carmelite was a very stupid old fogy. But we think

also that the scenes sometimes witnessed in what are called modern revivals, bear a much closer resemblance to the frantic ravings of the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel, than they do to the calm but intensely earnest prayer of Elijah. From the immense force of lungs that is often expended in the prayers heard at these revivals, we have sometimes thought that the suppliants must believe that the God to whom they were addressed, was "either talking, or pursuing, or on a journey, or peradventure asleep and must be awaked." There is very often a fallacy in illustrations of spiritual things drawn from

material objects. Thus, in the article in question, the comparison of the influences of revivals to rain, would prove that all revivals are genuine, because rain is always rain, whether it flows in gentle showers or in overflowing torrents. But the most enthusiastic advocate of religious excitements will hardly contend that every such excitement is a genuine revival. All sorts of religion may be revived, and every kind of church has its revivals. Again, the smoke and fire anecdote, at the beginning of the article, is utterly absurd and fallacious. If a man must take part in every scene that he witnesses in order to judge correctly of its effects, we should find ourselves in a bad condition truly. A company of revelers, for instance, are indulging in scenes of drunken mirth. A looker-on reproves them for their sin and folly. Oh, you have got smoke in your eyes, say they, and can't see clearly; come down and partake with us of spiritual refreshment, and you will be able to see clearly. Must men become slaveholders, or gamblers, or Mormon polygamists, or pagan idolators, or Roman Catholics, before they can judge correctly of these various practices and systems? We do not wish to compare modern revival excitements to any of these things, but the anecdote proves as much in the one case as in the other; and proves just nothing in either. Then we would hope that modern revival prayers are not always mere "smoke," for every one knows that the greater the smoke the less the fire.

But passing by these things, we come to other matters. We have already remarked that any kind of religion may be revived, and that all sorts of churches have revivals. The Roman Catholic Church often has extensive revivals. We were in Wisconsin a few years ago, when a legate of the Pope, just from Rome, was visiting the churches. Revivals every where attended his labors. In a single town, after a protracted and excited meeting of three weeks, he received about eight hundred persons into his church. Mormonism often enjoys seasons of revival, during which large numbers are taken into that fold of adulterous "saints." No part of our country "enjoys" so many revival seasons as the South, and yet the "converts" do not keep "the fast which God has chosen." It is only a few weeks since we published an account from the leading Methodist paper of the North, of a Southern revival, in which a slaveholder and slave-trader were both "converted,' and during which the former sold to the latter a mother, rereserving to himself her infant child. The mother resisting their efforts to part her from her babe, a dray was procured,