Dear Sir: —A close examination of the Word has removed many difficulties which barred me from an union with Him whose servant I now sincerely desire to become. Will you visit Virginia soon, or shall I come to New York? for my desire is to be baptised; —and, O Lord, I pray that persecution, worldly ambition, nor prejudice, may be a means of excluding me from thy kingdom!

I am convinced that the mission of the Lord Jesus is not to root out the nations from the earth, but to destroy their governments and oppressors, and to enlighten, regenerate, and bless them. Not to see this is to be ignorant of the truth concerning the Christ, which is abundantly exhibited in the prophets; therefore to deny this, or to affirm something contrary to it, is to deny the truth concerning Jesus. Of what avail is it to admit that Jesus is the Christ, while we deny or make of none effect the things revealed in the prophets concerning him? To affirm of him what is contrary to Scripture is to believe in "another Jesus" than he whom Paul preached. That man is not "taught of God" who does not believe what he has said concerning him in the prophets; and if not taught of him, he is no member of his family or household. It is testified of the Christ, and therefore of Jesus whom God hath acknowledged, "He shall govern the nations upon earth"—"He shall break them in pieces as a potter’s vessel"—"Jehovah girds him with strength for the battle"—"Subdues the people under him"—and "makes him the Head of the nations." Furthermore it is written, "The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the House of Jacob in the ages; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."—"He shall sit and rule upon his throne as a priest upon his throne, and bear the glory; He shall build the temple of the Lord,"—"and execute judgment and righteousness in the land." These are things affirmed of Christ, not one of which has received the least accomplishment in Jesus yet. He is indeed "a priest over the House of God;" i.e. over them who "hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." But he is not yet a priest upon his father David’s throne; if he were, then the Saints would be sharing with him in the priesthood of that throne: for it is written, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcome, and sit down with my father upon his throne;" that is, in Zion, the city where David dwelt and reigned over the House of Jacob, which God has chosen for the place of his throne on earth.

Now all this is utterly at variance with the burning up of the world; for in this event there will be no governing of nations upon earth, and ruling as a priest upon David’s throne. I conclude therefore, that he who believes in world-burning at the appearing of the Lord, does not believe the Gospel of the Kingdom, but in traditions that make it of none effect.

Without the restoration of Judah the kingdom of this gospel cannot be. If then the Israelites were to remain in dispersion, though Christ and his Brethren were in Jerusalem, there would exist no kingdom, even as the staff of an army is not the army—they would be as a government without a nation. The children of the kingdom are the government and the people of Israel—the two classes of the kingdom, so styled by the Lord Jesus according to Matthew, because collectively they are one nation. Deny then the restoration of the Twelve Tribes to their fatherland—the land promised to Abraham and his Seed for an everlasting possession—and God is blasphemed, being made a liar; and the gospel is converted into a mere invention of designing men. Such are some of the particulars of my faith and hope, and my convictions of the neutralising effect of error upon my position in the past.

I remain, Yours,

WM. S. CROXTON.

Woodfarm, Essex, Va. February 1854.

A WORD IN EXPLANATION.

I am glad to receive the information contained in the above. The writer was formerly a member of the Campbellite church, still meeting in a house called The Rappahannock. For several years past, however, he has been unconnected with any of the forms of opinion that are ecclesiastically organised around him. Till the gospel of the kingdom was sounded out in the woods, divided by the road from the once "free house," now appropriated by the disciples of Mr. Campbell to their own special and exclusive use and purposes, his mind partook of the lethargy which has long reigned in that benighted region. He had been immersed, but whether into Campbellistic Baptistism or into its progenitrix "Old Baptistism," I do not remember. It matters not however; for the shade of error is so indifferently distinguished between them now, that immersion into one form is regarded as valid ground of admission into the other. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" are so common to all the ecclesiastical forms of the little Essex "christendom," that "the church" can no longer cast the first stone at the sinners of the world. Our correspondent partook in all this, breathing the infected atmosphere, which has reduced "religion" there to a dry and rattling skeleton. He was immersed on the ordinary ground of an assent to what is preached by ecclesiastics about Jesus. He then of course knew nothing about the kingdom; and besides this ignorance, he held traditions which make of none effect the gospel, as he now perceives. He believed in another Jesus and in "another gospel," which Paul did not preach; and therefore, though immersed, the truth was not in him, consequently he had not the "One Faith" by which he might be justified.

But by the assistance furnished him through our instrumentality he has happily acquired the faculty of reading the Bible intelligently. This, and not I, has made him "wise to salvation," and the result is that he demands to be baptised. This is as it ought to be When a man learns what the gospel is, and what the obedience it requires, baptism ought to follow spontaneously as the effect of faith. The endeavour should be to enlighten the intellect and to purify the sentiments. This work accomplished, and there will be no difficulty about baptism—an intelligent believing man only requires to know what the disciples of the apostolic teachers did who believed the truth, and straightway he gives himself no rest until he go and do likewise.

Our friend expresses his willingness to come 400 miles, or thereabouts, that is, to this city to be immersed. But though the self-inconveniencing disposition is commendable, I have informed him that it is not necessary, as there are brethren in a near county, King William, who have themselves obeyed the gospel of the kingdom as well as I, and who will be happy to administer for him, and all others in their region who have scriptural intelligence and heart enough to become Christians.

April 20, 1854. EDITOR.

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