My dear Friend and Brother: —Your welcome messenger "the Herald" reminds us that another year is about closing; and an eventful one it has been for the nations of "the whole habitable." The "proud man" "who enlargeth his desire as the grave" has entered upon his mission of "gathering unto him all nations." (Is the first part of the 5^th verse of the second chapter of Habakkuk correctly translated in our English version, "because he transgresseth by wine"? —rumour does not accuse the present Czar of that vice I believe.) Your article "The War of the East" is opportune, and is quite a common-sense view of the present political state of the continent; although the men of this generation are quite unwilling to believe it true, and yet they fear it is. Is it not strange that, for more than eighteen hundred years, men have been saying "thy Kingdom Come!"—and yet when told that "the Kingdom of the Heavens" is really at hand, they begin to deny the very existence of a promise of its coming! A Baptist preacher in this neighbourhood treated his audience, last Sunday, to an essay on the subject of the war in the East, as a sign of the times; wherein he was pleased to say (in opposition to the word of the Lord), that the Almighty had nothing to do with the present war, seeing he commanded peace! I asked a member of his "church" to request him to preach a sermon from this text, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword;"—but of course, being ignorant of the gospel, he can make nothing of it, believing, as he does, that the kingdom is already set up, and affirming that its conquests are bloodless! Albeit they were not always so, or else history has sadly misrepresented some of the rulers of their so-called spiritual kingdom. But then their kingdom cannot last for ever, Jesus himself being their judge; for he said, a kingdom divided against itself could not stand; and their kingdom is divided into so many sections, warring against one another, striving to recruit their own ranks from among the soldiers of the same king, as if it could make any difference in what division of the same army they served; for in their misnamed charity they profess to belong to one kingdom, to be soldiers of the Cross; and yet Wesleyans are as anxious to recruit from among Baptists and other sects, as from the world at large, or the heathen. But I fear that they all have "another king;" one Wesley, or one Campbell, or one Calvin, or one Knox; and this recruiting applies equally to all sects; it is as great a triumph to secure a recruit from an opposition sect as to "convert a sinner," to use their own term; a repentance that needs to be repented of, is it not?

I wrote to Brother L— the other day, and inclosed four dollars to be forwarded to you, as I have no way of remitting it direct. You may do, as you please, about sending the second copy; it is useful to lend, but I consider the $4 quite little enough for the one copy; and should be willing to double it rather than be without it; so eagerly do we look for it that in August, when some mistake about the mailing occurred, and it came by steamer taxed full letter-postage, I paid the tax rather than wait for another number to be sent by the cheaper and usual route. Although I occasionally find a reader for particular articles in the Herald, nothing has been done here yet. I am alone; and as the accounts are adverse to, or favourable for, the allies, so my readings of the Prophets rise or fall in this market. Your Anatolia and Elpis Israel have rendered the main features of the gospel familiar to many of my neighbours; but until they "seek first the Kingdom of God," the Eastern question will prove a Gordian knot to them.

And this leads me, my dear Friend, to feel the obligation I am under to you; not that I intend repeating the offence of the Corinthians, and ascribe to you the power of the Word; but still, you it was who furnished me with the implements, and showed me where to dig for truth—the pearl of great price; had it not been for your toil and research, I might have travelled over the ground again and again, ignorant of the treasure beneath. O, may we never barter away the rich inheritance, but hold out unto the end!

I have one or two difficulties I should very much like to have your assistance to overcome, when you can afford the time, which indeed seems already taxed to the full. Who was the "satan" that came among the sons of God to present himself before the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils? If "the adversary" is only a personal enemy of Job, yet he seems to have had supernatural power to afflict him. The second difficulty is this: Did Christ eat the Passover the same year in which he was crucified? To fulfil the law ought he not to have been sacrificed on the 14^th day of the 1^st month? Paul says, "Christ our passover is sacrificed;" yet John and Mark seem quite at variance. Mark says, "they made ready the Passover," and in the evening he cometh with the twelve, and as they sat and did eat, &c.; and John says, "now before the feast of the Passover, and supper being ended," &c.; after which they went out, and he was betrayed. According to John’s account, it is very plain he was put to death on the preparation-day; and therefore could not have eaten the Passover; and yet, according to Mark, it would appear as if he did eat. And yet, if the law was fulfilled, he could not. Please devote an article to this as soon as you can. But I must not intrude too long; I dare say your correspondents are very numerous, and as I am not likely to write any thing that will be very interesting to you, I shall desist.

Esteem me, your grateful and very affectionate Brother

CHARLES CREED.

Pugwash, N. S., December 4, 1854.

We shall be careful not to forget the doctor’s difficulties. They shall be attended to on some future occasion, when we have worked through some other matters, which have preceded them. —EDITOR.

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