not have time, nor inclination neither, to train them in religion; for the world would eat up my religious feelings, and make me earthly. We cannot serve God and mammon. My children would in consequence become earthly, and their whole anxiety would be to abound in riches. They would not love God; nor would they love their fellow men. They would neither be happy themselves, nor be useful in promoting the happiness of others. They would probably be tyrants and extortioners, and plunder the needy, whom they ought to save. I should have the disgrace of having brought up children to be plagues and terrors to the community, and of having gathered wealth to deprave my offspring, and undo their souls. Instead of securing the approbation of God at the last day, as a good and faithful steward of his mercies, I should look for nothing but rebukes. Instead of binding my children to me in bonds of eternal affection, I should expect them to howl at me like furies. I should expect to be a reproach and a terror to myself for ever,— a bye-word and a derision to all the spirits of hell.

But in training them to wisdom and piety and benevolence, I am both securing their own happiness, and rendering them the means of happiness to multitudes. I procure to myself honour both from God and man; I secure the blessings of my children, and the approbation of my own conscience.

While money is in our own hands, we have the power to see that it is well used; if we leave it behind us, it may be employed in things just opposite to our best wishes. Let us labour to make our children wise and pious, and they will be sure to do well; and let us set them an example of piety, by using charitably what God has given us. They will always be rich enough, if they are good; and they cannot be too poor if they are wicked. Let us then live for the good of the world, and the glory of God; and God will rain down blessings both on us and on our offspring, for ever and ever.

Published by I. DAVIS, 22, Grosvenor-street, Stalybridge; Bancks and Co., Exchange-street; Heywood, Oldham-street, Manchester; R. Groombridge, 6, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row, London; and may be had of all Booksellers. [CAVE and SEVER, Printers, Manchester.}

EVANGELICAL REFORMER,

AND YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE.

BY

JOSEPH

BARKER.

Published every Saturday,-Price One Penny, or in Monthly

Parts, price Five-pence.

No. 20.

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1838.

VOL. I.

TOLERATION, HUMAN CEEEDS, &c.

THERE is hardly any thing could give me greater pleasure than to see all our churches freed from the spirit of intolerance. I am not so anxious to see them lay aside their particular errors, as I am to see them disposed to look charitably on those who differ from them: I have no desire to have them adopt my creed as their standard, but only to see them content to take the Bible as their only creed, and to allow each other to interpret and to teach the Bible as may seem right to them, without annoyance, And I am persuaded that such a step would prove a great advantage to our churches, and contribute greatly to the spread of truth and piety. It would prove a blessing both to preachers and to people. Under the present system the preachers are often under fears lest their inquiries after truth should lead them to conclusions at variance with the creed of the community. If the Bible was the only creed, a preacher could have no such fears. Believing the Bible to be true, and knowing that no truth can be at variance with any other truth, he would pursue his studies freely and without dread; and if in any case he was led to a conclusion opposite to the doctrine of the Bible, he would know his conclusion to be false, and reject it without delay. But a student cannot be sure that

any creed of human formation is true; so that when he comes to a conclusion different from its articles, he is in

doubt which he should reject, his own conclusion or the creed. And here begins the struggle. If he reject the creed, he is thought a heretic, and perhaps expelled: if he reject his own judgment out of deference to the creed, or out of fear of consequences, he sins against his God, he wounds his conscience, and becomes a miserable slave. There are no young preachers who give themselves diligently to study, who do not find creeds of men's formation a perpetual trouble. The creed does not take in every thing, for then it would have to be larger than the Bible; and yet if the student should express some sentiment which the creed does not contain, his reputation is in danger.

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The creed will very probably contain something which is contary to the Scriptures, and then the youth that searches out the truth on that point, and dares to publish it, is in danger of being cast aside as a heretic altogether. If the creed be all true, it is not in Scripture language, perhaps; and then the student doubts whether he believes the articles in the same sense in which they were intended by the authors of the creed. Thus was I perplexed and troubled for years, and I continue to be troubled still. It is true I never make the Bible bend to our creed, and I never think of taking the creed for the rule of my judgment. I pay no respect to the authority of any book but the Bible, and believe nothing, and I profess to believe nothing, but what the Bible plainly teaches. Still many of our members take the creed for their standard, and they try my doctrine by it; and when they think my doctrine does not agree with it, they think me wrong. And this is a perpetual disadvantage. If they had no creed but the Bible, they would try me by the right standard, and I should be glad of that. They might not only find that I was right, but by searching the Scriptures daily, whether the things they heard were true not, they would greatly improve their minds in the knowledge of God's will, besides learning the doctrine of forbearance towards those who may differ from them in their belief.

or

Having a creed such as we have, both tends to hinder

the improvement of our people in knowledge, and to cherish the spirit of persecution. It tends to hinder their improvement in knowledge, by fixing their attention on itself, instead of fixing it on the Bible; by confining their minds to a few subjects, instead of leaving them free to ponder the whole revelation of heaven; and by previously giving them leanings to certain views, which may prevent them from inquiring freely, and render the discovery of truth more difficult than it would be.

It cherishes the spirit of persecution. It stands there as a test by which they are to try their ministers, and as soon as they fancy they have discovered an error in a preacher's sermons, the minds of many people think at once of a trial at a quarterly meeting, or at a conference. He is wrong; he must either change his views, or be expelled. And what is this, but the spirit of those who put to death the saints of God? Many well-meaning persons, that would probably have been both liberal and well-informed, if the Bible only had been the creed of their sect, have undesignedly and almost unconsciously slidden into intolerance, in consequence of having a creed of human composition.

Requiring young preachers to subscribe a human creed, is unreasonable on other grounds. Creeds are generally formed by elder persons, and contain an abstract of their views after a life of study; but the person who is called to subscribe them is a youth, who is only just entering upon his studies, perhaps, or who is in the midst of his investigations. He who never doubted, it has been said, never properly believed; and there is much truth in the saying: yet at that very period when every one who employs the necessary means to be a right believer must be in doubt on some points, he is called to declare his faith in the most abstruse and difficult propositions. The plainest and easiest creed of man's devising that I ever saw, has some propositions which no man can properly understand with less than ten years' study.

Supposing the creed to be throughout as true as the Bible, is it proper to expect a youth of eighteen or twenty to believe it at once All that should be required of a young minister should be a sincere desire to know the truth.

If the creed be not true, (and there is not a creed on earth except the Bible that is wholly true, perhaps)-supposing the creed to be partly erroneous, what cruelty to place a timid youth in such a situation, that he must either subscribe a falsehood, or else expose himself to expulsion from the ministry. I say again, the kindest and the wisest plan would be, to observe his spirit and behaviour, and if he gives proofs of piety and a love of truth, and of a disposition to do good to the souls of men, let him pass on, and serve his Maker and the church without restraint. Judge the tree by its fruits; judge the prophet by his character and general doctrine, rather than by a few opinions on speculative points. I am persuaded that having other creeds than the Bible, tends to hinder the improvement of young ministers. It tends to render them indolent. If they had the whole Bible for their creed, they would have a task before them that might call forth all their energies, and find them employment enough for their whole life. But the creeds in common use are soon got off, and there is a disposition in ministers to relax their studies, and to stand still in the way of improvement, when they have gone through that which is considered the standard.

Some are deterred from inquiring far even into the articles of their creed, when the creed is made a standard, for fear their inquiries should make them heterodox.

The study of theology as it is taught in the Scriptures is much more delightful than the study of theology as it is laid down in human creeds. Going through a creed is like walking now upon rocks, then upon thorns, and then through a desert of sand. Going through the Bible is like walking through a universe of light, and beauty, and felicity. You may have light in going through a creed, but it is the pale and thin cold light of the moon and the stars; it does not warm and cheer you; but in going through the Bible you are cheered, and comforted, and quickened by the full bright light of the sun. I never felt happy in groping my way through controverted creeds; but in walking along the path of revelation, and taking in the vast and glorious views of truth which open to the mind, there are perpetual pleasures, and unuttérable ecsta