synods." "Although our ministers are strenuous advocates of parity, they pretty extensively favour the idea of returning to the use of the word bishop in its scriptural sense, as applicable to every minister of the gospel; the sense in which, as Luke informs us, (Acts xx. 28,) instead of one bishop having oversight over a large district of country or diocese, there were several bishops in the one city Ephesus."

"In this country, the Lutheran Church, in common with her Protestant sister churches, deprecates, as unwarranted and dangerous, all interference of civil government in religious affairs, excepting the mere protection of all denominations and all individuals in the unrestricted right to worship in any and every way they think proper."

The validity of Luther's ordination as a presbyter in the Church of Rome, has sometimes been questioned, because of the corruptions which destroyed her title to the standing of a Christian church. But when Luther received ordination from the hands of the Romish hierarchy, the corruptions which branded that church as Antichrist, had not been formally and officially adopted; nor were they, until enacted into the essential features of her system, and made integral parts of her prescribed formularies of faith by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1542. And when she excommunicated the Reformer, and thundered her anathemas against him, he had previously renounced her jurisdiction, by burning her standard works and the Bull of her Pontiff. His ordination, therefore, and that of all his Protestant successors, is as valid as that of the Romish priesthood at the beginning of the sixteenth century; i. e. he was ordained by ministers properly accredited at the time of its performance. With regard to the subject of ordination in general, our Lutheran brethren, in common with most other Protestants, understand the various Greek words employed by the sacred writers to express it, to mean simply induction into office-an appointing to the particular duties of the ministry by a prescribed form, to preserve the sacred office from indiscriminate and of course unworthy usurpation; utterly discarding the Romish superstition that by the "laying on of hands" some mystic influence is imparted by apostolic succession. They maintain, therefore, that as in the only three instances of ordination after the time of our Saviour, mentioned in the New Testament, the rite was performed not by one man, called a "diocesan bishop," but by several persons; [as that of Barnabas and Saul by Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen (Acts xiii. 3); that of the presbyters or elders of the churches in Iconium, Lystra, Antioch, &c., by Paul and Barnabas (Acts xiv. 23); and that of

Quarterly Register.

*

Timothy by the hands of the eldership or presbytery (1 Tim. iv. 14);] and as in other cases, individual ministers, as Timothy and Titus, were directed to induct or appoint others: they regard ordination as valid when performed in either way, whether they who perform it be called bishops, presbyters, ministers, or pastors. And in cases of necessity, they further maintain, that a minister may be set apart and constituted by the laity themselves. "As to the doctrine of Papal apostolic succession," Dr. Schmucker very justly remarks, "it is a mere figment, and can never be proved by the Papists themselves. To say nothing of their doctrine of intention, which, Cardinal Bellarmine himself asserts, renders doubtful the validity of every Romish sacrament, (Bellarm. Lib. Just. cap. 8,) where was their Papal succession when Liberius, the occupant of the Holy See, professed Arianism, A. D. 357! Where was it in the fourteenth century, during the so called great western schism, from A. D. 1378 to 1414, when two different lines of contending Pontiffs reigned simultaneously, each having a portion of the church adhering to him; each excommunicating the other; and finally both deposed as heretical by the Council of Pisa, in 1409?"†

We have thus traced, in as brief and comprehensive a form as was consistent with our limits and the nature of the subject, the history, progress, and present state of the Lutheran Church, especially as planted on our own soil. To quote once more the language of her advocate, who has been our authority and guide in most of these statements: "She may be emphatically styled the Church of the Reformation. She holds the grand doctrines of Christianity with fewer appended peculiarities than most other denominations. With the Calvinist she holds the graciousness of salvation; with the Congregationalist she believes that Christ tasted death for every man ; with the Methodist she approves of regularly recurring protracted meetings; with the Episcopalian she occasionally employs a liturgy and forms of prayer; with the German Reformed she agrees in the instruction and confirmation of catechumens; and with all she unites in ascribing all the glory of our privileges on earth and hopes in heaven, to that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."

In closing this sketch, we would congratulate our Lutheran brethren on the past and present indications that they share the smiles of Him who is King in Zion, and whose favour is life. In reviewing

* Portraiture of Lutheranism; Appendix, on Ordination. + Quarterly Register.

+ Portraiture, p. 17.

their history, and in contemplating their ecclesiastical features and character as presented among us, we have felt that fraternal spirit of Christian fellowship which the recognition of an ancient and devoted member of the great family of Protestant Christendom is fitted to awaken and inspire. Nor could we suppress the rising regret that so many of their contemporaries, in the land of their origin, had ne glected to maintain and hold fast those vital principles of religious faith and that form of sound words, which their fathers so nobly and fearlessly espoused and defended.

It is interesting to notice amid the diversity of forms and the various shades of difference on minor points of religious sentiment, which mark the freedom of thought and opinion among Protestant denominations, that so large a proportion of them agree in the essential elements of " the truth as it is in Jesus." Although on the great doctrines of the divine decrees, the nature of faith, the efficiency of grace, the believer's perseverance in it, and the sacraments of the New Testament, some unessential difference of views have distinguished the Lutheran from the Calvinist: yet both agree that salvation is of grace alone, and that that grace is sovereign and omnipotent, through an atonement of infinite merit and sufficiency, received and applied by a faith that is of the operation of God, the fruit of his Spirit, all which is represented under the emblems employed in baptism and the Lord's Supper. The cardinal doctrine of the Reformation, justification by faith alone, they both wield, in opposition not only to the Popish doctrine of merit, but also to the native self-righteousness of the unchanged heart, to which the latter doctrine is adapted.

In this age of free inquiry, and of superficial views on the great and essential truths of revelation, when every form of wild conjecture and fanciful speculation is embodied into a theory, and finds numerous advocates and followers; and when, amidst it all, the "Man of Sin" is looking with renewed courage to this western continent and its heterogeneous population, as the last hope of his tottering throne: it is a matter of gratulation that we have here a remnant of that people who stood foremost in the contest which crippled his power at the maturity of its strength, and liberated mind and empire from his yoke of ignorance, superstition and oppression. May the spirit and zeal of Him whose name they bear, abide with them, and arm them to meet the arrogant demands of Papal Rome in this land of their adoption, as he did in the land of their ancestors. We particularly rejoice in that feature of their ecclesiastical system which provides for the culture of piety in the heart, and for the religious training of the young, particularly of their baptized children. On

this point, their example administers a just rebuke on the practice of too many Protestant churches, who with them profess the rite of household baptism, but treat it as a nullity. We trust that with this example before them, in connexion with the exclusiveness of the Romanists towards their children and adults in shutting them out from the light of truth: such churches will not only profess, but act upon the belief, that the baptismal covenant with children imposes upon the parents and the church the duty of their careful and constant religious training.

With her high estimate of the value and necessity of learning in her ministry, the early catechetical instruction of her children, and her strict regard to the vitals of Christian experience, the American Lutheran Church cannot fail to exert a high and holy influence in the cause of truth, and the religious welfare of our nation, and shine as a luminary of the first magnitude in the constellation of our American Zion. We bid her God-speed in her progress onward and upward, till the distinctions of earth are merged in the church of the Firstborn in heaven, and our mutual toils and conflicts terminated in one triumph, one song, and one everlasting rest.

LATTER DAY SAINTS.

BY JOSEPH SMITH,
NAUVOO, ILLINOIS.

THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was founded upon direct revelation, as the true church of God has ever been, according to the scriptures (Amos, iii. 7, and Acts i. 2.) And through the will and blessings of God, I have been an instrument in his hands, thus far, to move forward the cause of Zion. Therefore, in order to fulfil the solicitation of your letter of July last, I shall commence with my life.

I was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23d of December, A. D. 1805. When ten years old, my parents removed to Palmyra, New York, where we resided about four years, and from thence we removed to the town of Manchester, a distance of six miles.

My father was a farmer, and taught me the art of husbandry. When about fourteen years of age, I began to reflect upon the importance of being prepared for a future state; and upon inquiring the place of salvation, I found that there was a great clash in religious sentiment; if I went to one society they referred me to one place, and another to another; each one pointing to his own particular creed as the "summum bonum" of perfection. Considering that all could not be right, and that God could not be the author of so much confusion, I determined to investigate the subject more fully, believing that if God had a church, it would not be split up into factions, and that if he taught one society to worship one way, and administer in one set of ordinances, he would not teach another principles which were diametrically opposed. Believing the word of God, I had confidence in the declaration of James, "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."

I retired to a secret place in a grove, and began to call upon the