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WE thank our friends for the many kind,
encouraging words they send us. Many
say, that they prize The Earnest Christian
next to the Bible. Pious, devoted fcmilies
consider it a necessity. We have preserved
many extracts of letters, •which we thonght
of publishing; but can only give a few
specimens.
A brother, •writing from Chickasaw Co.
Iowa, says: " It is aU the earnest preaching
we get here, in this western country."
Another, writing from Berrien Springs,
Mich., says; " The January number comes
laden with thepredouB fruits of The Bangdom.
It is worth more than the subscription
price. It is full ot inspiration—^food
for the soul."
Another writes from Greene Co., N. T.:
" 1 always am blessed •with means to pay
for BO valuable a visitor as the Earnest
Christian has always been in my family.—
•» My wife says, she cannot think of discontinuing
it."
A sister, writing from Sterling, Iowa,
says; " It ifl fuU of good, sound. Gospel
doctrine, and I hope I am the better for perusing
it."
A brother, writing from Burlington, Vt.,
sayB: " Yonr magazine teDs the hard, sol­
EDITOBLAL. 65
There is, however, one serious drawback emn truths of God so pointedly, many
to these easy conversions. They deceive cannot endure it. They cnnnot bear to
souls to their eternal undoing. They fill up have their idols hurt, so they cannot take
the churches with men and women Who it anymore. O! how will they stand the
are utter strangers to the grace of God. judgment, if they cannot stand your book ?
These select ministers after their own hearts The Lord pity them! The fashionable
and the eril is perpetuated. The real work dresses of some are assailed; the pipe and
of God is denounced as fanaticism. He quid of others suffer ; another seUs yeUowcovered
that is bom after the flesh, persecutes him
thatis bom after the Spirit.—Gal. iv. 29.
Oh, ye who have to do with souls! see to it
that you have yourself a genuine, Bible experience.
novels, and all the race of soul-
destroying fiction—as the New York Ledger
—and so he does not like it; the Masons
honor its honesty, but say it speaks of what
"If the blind lead the blind, it does not know : and so it goes."
both shall fall into the ditch." Then as
you prize your own eternal salvation, deal
honestly and thoroughly with aU with whom
yon have to do. Do not heal BUghtiy. Encourage
none to hope that they are accepted
A sister, -writing from Westport, N. T.,
says: " Its pages I have eagerly perused
for the laat five years, and have found theih
' as rivers of •water in a dry place'—refreshing
my soul, and furthering me onward
of God, until they have clearly complied in the way of life and salvation. Many,
with the conditions of salvation as laid
down by Christ and the Apostles.
many times has my soul been blessed in
reading the experiences of others, and the
victories achieved through ' Jesus Christ,
To our Friends.
the Captain of our salvation.' May the
Lord bless you, and prosper every work of
your hands, and open the hearts of the people
to receive the Word in its purity and
fnllness."
A devoted preacher writes us from Cold-
•water, Mich.: " I have been holding a meeting
near Albion. The Lord was with us.
in power ; have organized a class of fifteen.
We are introducing the Earnest Christian ;
for, in these days of worldly policy and
conformity, it is refreshing to find so bold
an advocate of the truth as yonr excellent
periodical. . E. P. H."
#»»
Rev.E.Bowen, D.D.
THIS eminent minister of the gospel, after
over fifty years spent in the ministry ofthe
M. E. Church, has united •with the Free
Methodists. Hesaid, upon joining, thathe
had for over fifty years been a Free Methodist,
They were the people •with whom
he originally united. He could notrun th©
risk of losing his soul, by even seeming to
countenance the anti-Scriptural innovations
which have become so firmly entrenched
in the chnrch to which he nominaUy belonged.
He could not, and would not, belong
to a church whose leading Bishop
wonld sell his influence to the New York
Ledger.