separated and broken asunder. Again, Bishops, Patriarchs, General Councils, and lastly, Popes, have each in their turn risen up, and by usurpation claimed to exercise Apostolic functionsto give Apostolic decisions for the whole Catholic Church-and to administer those offices and bestow those gifts and blessings which are wholly and solely confined to Apostles. But let us only look at the present state of Christ's Church under their hands who lay claim to such usurpations! Behold the utter failing in all Faith, Hope, and Charity! See how the land-marks of the ages of usurpation are being all removed by a lawless and ungodly generation! See how the unruly wills, imaginations, reason, and affections of the baptized, which should have been all educated, disciplined, and used for God,-but which have been stifled and pent up in manacles and chains, through the insufficiency of the ordinances remaining, are now ready to break loose from all their old restraints, in order to become the active agents of Antichristian demolition and destruction; and afterwards to be the victims and slaves of Antichrist's tyranny and power. See the interminable

and ever-widening schisms, divisions, and heresies, among the smaller schisms of Christendom! See the earthliness,-the utter incapacity for heavenly hopes and objects;-the spiritual degeneracy reigning triumphant over us all; and then say if it is not TIME FOR THE LORD TO WORK WHEN WE HAVE ALL SO UTTERLY MADE VOID HIS LAWS!" Shall He

not then now,—in the day when the high towers are falling,—when earth's foundations are shaking,-when the tumultuous people like the waves of the sea are roaring,-shall not God prevail again to "open the heavenly windows from on high?" And shall He not pour forth through them the latter rain to ripen His harvest, before it be reaped and housed? Ah! it shall be seen at least in the remnant whom the Lord our God shall call! In them shall be found true rule when all else is lawless insubordination! In them shall be heard again the voice of Jesus our Head, as of the trumpet, and as the sound of many waters! And through them shall flow that peaceful river, the streams whereof shall make glad the holy place and tabernacle of the Most High, when all without shall be one deluge of anarchy, wickedness, and confusion.

“There is a stream whose gentle course

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Surrounds the city of our God;

"A sacred river from whose fount

"The living waters flow abroad."

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That stream is the one Baptism of the Holy Ghost, again imparted by Apostles! A world-wide flood of impious doubt, lawless agitation, and gigantic spiritual wickedness,-inflamed with the fire, and smoke, and brimstone of hell, by hosts of wicked spirits from the bottomless pit,—shall rise, and heave, and roar,— ferment, and toss its troubled waves on high,—against God in Christ and every sacred man and thing named with His name, till it explode in that last dread volcanic earthquake shock, which shall bring on and terminate in THE DAY OF DECISION!!" the day when the strife of Omnipotence itself against the power of Satan, sin, and corruption, in man's rebellious spirit and fallen flesh, SHALL ENGAGE IN ITS LAST DECISIVE DEATH STRUGGLE, AND PREVAIL! the day when it shall be finally and eternally proved beyond all controversy, THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST! THAT HE IS KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS!! THAT HE IS THE PLAGUE OF DEATH, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GRAVE!! THAT THE WORLD, FLESH, AND DEVIL, HAVE FORGED A TRIPLE LIE AGAINST HIM!! Oh! thenblessed it is amidst this fluctuating restless mass of fermenting wickedness, to know one ark of deliverance-one little Zoar-one City of refuge-one place, where order, love, and peace,—where joy and hope, repose and rest, shall reign! "As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man shall come!"

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THE

CRY IN THE DESERT:

OR,

EARNEST WORDS OF WARNING ADDRESSED TO A SLUMBERING CHURCH, TO KNOW THE DAY OF HER VISITATION, AND TO PREPARE TO MEET HER GOD.

A MONTHLY TRACT.

V.

THE EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON THE CHURCH, IN HOLINESS AND POWER,-IN GRACE AND GIFTS.

"Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take "the water of life freely."-Rev. xxii. 17.

HAVING now fully considered the nature, bestowal, and subsequent distribution of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, as manifested in the constitution and propagation of the Christian Church at the first;according to the plan mentioned in the first number of these tracts; let us now proceed to the examination of what WERE ITS EFFECTS

UPON THE CHURCH IN HOLINESS AND POWER-IN GRACE, AND GIFTS.

And here let me remark, that as I do not write for Infidels, but for Christians, who profess to reverence the Bible in all its jots and tittles; I must request that if they are in earnest, they will take their Bible in their hands, and read for themselves the portions of Holy Scripture which are selected and referred to. It will save time and space to do so. When they have done so in each instance,

Ah!

to enlighten and speak to them words of heavenly rebuke and comfort, THEY SHALL HAVE SPIRITS WHO PEEP AND MUTTER!" Spirits who "peep" into the ways, counsels, and purposes of God, only that they may steal from God, and use what they have seen- -to hinder, forestall, and counterfeit God; and so, by lies, hypocritical deceptions, or perverted truths-allure, seduce, bewilder, and destroy the Baptized children of God. if God's children will not let the Holy Spirit now prepare them— to mount, like Elijah, the heavenly chariot of fire when it descends to catch away the faithful from the woes of Antichrist,—they shall be fanatical indeed! Like the American enthusiast, who desiring, as Elijah, to mount to heaven, but could not wait for the heavenly chariot,-mounted a hay-stack and set fire to it by his own hand, expecting to ascend in the flame;-so shall thousands now in maddened disappointment and rage; conjure up, and kindle the very pile of hell;-instead of receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Like Saul, when he had rejected God, and the holy Anointing had forsook him, they will go to the Witch of Endor in sacrilegious daring and despair. THIS WILL BE CHRISTENDOM'S LAST FALL. She fell from heaven to earth, and became Babylon; substituting the powers, influences, policy, and maxims of this world, for her heavenly endowments; she falls so low at last,-that so far as hell is a condition as well as a place, she is even upon earth turned into hell; and becomes "the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird!" Ah! and the day is close at hand, when it shall be heard, Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins, lest ye be partakers of her plagues." OH! WHAT PLAGUES ! (See note at the end).

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Matt. x. 7, 8.-Even before the day of Pentecost, while yet Apostles were only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,before the Baptism of the Spirit was vouchsafed; their commission was,-"Preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give." When now arisen, and the kingdom of heaven is set up and constituted, and Jew and Gentile called into it,—does the Lord as He increases, cause the church to decrease? Are his gifts, then so freely bestowed to be freely administered, curtailed, called in again, lessened, or withdrawn? He did not, and could not then say, "all power in heaven and in earth was given unto him," He could when arisen. Now He is ascended into heaven, and has

become the Head of all Principality and Power;-if we are one with Him-are we lessened by His exaltation and increase? When His Apostles could not cast out Satan, even then, it was not because they ought not, and were not responsible for so doing; but because they were faithless;-because of their unbelief (See Matt.xvii.. 17, 21). And when He Himself "did not do many mighty works" among His own fleshly kindred, and fellow countrymen at Nazareth, it was because of their unbelief! This sensual, sight-seeing, unbelieving age would say,-that the very reason He did not do many mighty works among infidel blaspheming fellow Citizens, was the very reason why He ought to have done them (See Matt. xiii. 54, 58). Christ put forth and manifested His Divine power and glory-to aid, increase, and strengthen, humble, childlike faith; not to overpower, coerce, and be-dazzle with appeals to sense and sight, those who "Can any gave Him no honour, and superciliously asked, good thing come out of Nazareth?" or who cried, "Physician, heal thyself!

Matt. xii. 22, 37.-Our blessed Lord casts out a Devil,-blind and dumb. The common, unlettered, irreligious people were arnazed; and said, "Is not this the Son of David? The unreasoning simple folk were awe-stricken. Not so the sanctimonious punctilious, self-sufficient, religious Pharisees. They said, "This fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the Devils!" Religious wickedness is always the most daring, Devilish, blasphemous, and God-defying. Man's desperately wicked heart,-when blinded and prejudiced by foregone conclusions, can forge any lie-twist and distort any evidence-frame any theory-raise any hypothesis,—in order to form the dust, which when cast into his own eyes, will render him incapable of seeing, receiving, or believing, the truth he dislikes. Such self-inflicted blindness fell upon the most religious sect, of the most religious people in the world, at our Lord's first advent,-when He, the Son of Man was spoken against and blasphemed; let the most religious sect of the most religious portion of Baptized Christendom take warning,-lest when the Holy Ghost-the special gift of Christ to her, puts forth his manifestations at last ;-He be repudiated and blasphemed, IN HIS WORDS, WAYS, AND ACTINGS; AND BY THEM—EVEN THEM, CHARACTERIZED AS A DEVIL! The most prejudiced, self-conceited, heady, high-minded restorers of the commandments and customs of the Elders and Fathers, are precisely the men who are now as then, in the greatest danger of blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, the third Person in God,-now-when He is again putting forth the