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al prevalence of the spirit of union among Christians,he saw the monster, sin, dethroned—the world convert-ed—heaven descending to earth, and infidelity andscepticism shamed and smiled into oblivion. |As the venerable Stone in his tour noticed somehings amongst us which in his judgment tend to checkthe progress of religion, and as his deep religiousknowledge and piety, his long experience, his disin-terestedness, entitle his judgment. to. great weight, Ibespeak for his admonitions a very attentive and graveconsideration. ‘‘Religion, where I have been, is on-ward in its march, but not so triumphant as I fondlyanticipated to find it, from the vast numbers who hadrecently professed the faith of Christ in these countries.Several things of a serious nature, conspired to checkits progress, in my opinion. These I will expose inbrotherly love, hoping that the exposure may be profit-able to all.” , | |“‘I. ‘There has been more labor expended in reapingdown the harvest, than in preserving it when reaped—there has been more care to lengthen the cords, than tostrengthen the stakes [of Zion ]—more zeal to proselyte,than to build up inthe faith and hope of the gospel.”This is most certainly, and lamentably true. And thecorrection of this evil demands our special attention.But as an apology for this state of things, it may be re-marked, that in the commencement of our plea for re-formation, in regard to the terms of pardon, it was allimportant these matters should be made prominent; es-pecially the design of baptism. For here we differedwith all the sects; and in reference to the doctrine ofbaptism for the remission of sins, we were much mis-understood and misrepresented by them. It behoovedus, therefore, to make this point prominent. Besides,the importance of this item, to a proper understanding ofthe gospel scheme, and to a rational reception of Christ,as our Saviour, required that it should be thoroughly in-vestigated. We perceived that the various denomina-tions were making frames and feelings the evidence of 6 wee Sl= ’ ' ‘ =» BARTON W. STONE. 95 pardon—that they taught penitents to expect some im-mediate revelation of their pardon—by the removal of |their burden of sin. And we saw most plainly, in thelight of the Word, and of common sense, that pardon,being an act of God, is not a matter of feeling, and can _ :only be known by divine testimony. As I can neverknow by my feelings that a sin which I have committedagainst my neighbor is pardoned, nor in any other waythan from that neighbor himself; so I can only knowthat the sinsI have committed against my heavenlyFather, are pardoned, by a revelation in words fromhimself. We perceived too, most plainly, that the op-posite view leads to enthusiasm and fanaticism of everygrade. We felt it therefore to be our duty to expose _this error, and hold up the truth in regard to thisimpor- ©tant question. But now that the battle has been foughtand the victory, toa great extent, won—that thousandsupon thousands of converts have been made, manyof whom are dying for want of the wholesome andstrengthening provisions of the gospel—our teachersstill harp upon first prmciples. ‘The young preacherswho came in among us in the midst of this conflict, en-tered with great spirit and ardor into the war, andhaving distinguished themselves in this warfare, in re-gard to first principles, and knowing little else, theyseem unprepared and quite indisposed to change theircourse. But itis my deliberate judgment, if we wouldnot convert our great victory into the most overwhelm-ing defeat, we must leave, measurably, the first prin-ciples, and ‘go on to perfection.? We must build our- —selves up on our most holy faith, perfecting holiness in |the fear of God. In the strength of the Lord we havegained much ground, but if we would not lose our re-ward we must carefully and diligently cultivate it. Letus study practical Christianity, under Christ, as we havestudied first principles—let us pray for greater measuresof the Spirit, to help us, and the stakes of Zion will beas strong as her cords are long.”? Then let this admo-nition of the venerable Stone, who sleeps in his grave, 1}i i;i) xe
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