therefore comparatively a stranger to the greater part of his four several flocks.  He can not know their daily life.  A few preachers among the old Baptists preeminently godly, self-sacrificing, and devoted to the Lord’s cause, have left their families to suffer poverty and want, and have spent their lives in looking after the stray lambs of the flock; but this is not the general rule.  This Baptist bishop has no authority whatever in any matter of discipline, his function being that of a moderator in a Saturday business monthly meeting.  The sitting in judgment on the alleged acts of disorderly members belongs to the whole church, men and women, boys and girls.

We are now prepared to take the measure of the means of spiritual culture enjoyed by this people.  It is just one sermon a month; or, if they are peculiarly favored, it is three sermons a month.  The children are left at home.  They run wild like so many young apes, and wander along the streams or through the forests; or, if they are brought by their parents to the meeting, there is nothing especially for them.

It will be well for us to ponder well the inevitable consumption and slow decay that is surely wearing out these Old Baptist churches.  Like the house of Saul, they are growing weaker and weaker.  What a contrast between their condition now and seventy years ago.  Then the United Baptists were the most powerful religious body in the great West.  Then Jacob Creath and Jeremiah Vardeman could, if they had been so disposed, have elected the Governor of Kentucky.  Then the Baptists were strong in the affections of the people, and strong in the memory of those men who had, through incredible toil, obloquy, poverty and loss of goods, planted the Baptist cause in the American wilderness.  Alexander Campbell, with his eminent gifts of eloquence and learning, was welcomed among the Baptists almost as an angel from heaven.  But his well-meant efforts to work a reformation in the Baptist churches were despised, and he was thrust out as a heathen man and publican.

What treasures untold reside in the Lord’s house, the Lord’s day, the Lord’s book, and the ordinances of the Lord?  It is the glory of Christianity.  Now let the members of a Christian Church fail to meet at the Lord’s house for Christian worship on the Lord’s day, and to what snares and temptations do they not subject themselves and their children?  What temptations to idleness and to wasting the Lord’s day in visiting and gossiping, or in drowsy lethargy!

The sanctification of the Lord’s day by meeting in honor of the resurrection of the Saviour, and especially with a reference to the celebration of the Lord’s supper, is essential to the edification, spirituality, holiness, usefulness and happiness of the Christian community.  It is not designed to throw into the shade any other duties of the Christian Church while contending for those above stated; but because no society save the Disciples of Christ so regard, observe