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and in baptisteries furnished by natural reservoirs. changes attended its transfer from Eastern and warm countries, where the sexes resort to a common place for their daily bath, to regions where other customs prevailed. And, finally, a still greater change was effected, in the case of the Nations of Northern and Central Europe, not so much by the influence of climate as might have been expected, (for some of the more Northern Nations held most tenaciously to the ancient mode,) but from considerations of decency, or health, or of convenience, or from haste to bring infants to Baptism, or the fear of death without it; a change, which, at this day, is felt to be a change for the better. Objectors will say, that it is in the line of effeminacy, and of squeamishness. May it not be in the line of the higher civilization, and of greater refinement? It is a great change: it is well-nigh universal: it has the mothers and sisters of all lands, on its side; and it has prevailed long enough to claim prescription upon its side; we do not believe it can ever be changed.

In the early history of the Diocese of Kentucky, a prudent, but very earnest effort was made to restore Infant Immersion. It soon became a decided failure. It did not extend beyond those with whom it began. It could neither have been brought into general use, or kept up, after extensive changes in the ranks of those Clergy who were its first promoters, without an amount of agitation, which would certainly have been fatal to the peace of the Church; and, if persisted in, to its Unity.

The only change at all likely to be effected, may be regarded as a sort of compromise; not, indeed, by the expressed consent of parties; but as a virtual concession, so far, to the merits of the question. From three different sections of the country, at least, information has reached us, that, amongst Churchmen, the mode of Infant Baptism is being transformed into Trine Affusion. Sprinkling is regarded with increased aversion-and bowls and basins are rapidly giving place to large and graceful Fonts; and the one scanty aspersion, to a plentiful Trine Affusion; in some cases, from a shell, or a cup. Nearer than this, during this age, we are not likely to approach what we deem the primitive practice.

There is no indication, that any idea of conciliating his former Baptist friends entered into the mind of our Author, although, in most instances, they are treated with all proper courtesy and respect. To all of them who are at all disposed to look into the facts of the case, the Book must be welcome; but it would betray a singular ignorance of the virulence of sectarian prejudices, had he supposed that any concessions, short of conceding the whole question, would have conciliated the great body of that numerous and powerful denomination. They seem to be even more tenacious of their opinions with regard to the subjects of Baptism, than they are with regard to the mode. Trine Infant Immersion, even if it could be sustained by universal primitive practice, would be only one degree less offensive than Infant Sprinkling, with no older precedent than the practice in Geneva. Not long since, the sentiment was expressed by a respectable Campbellite Minister, in the hearing of an Episcopal Clergyman, that he could not feel repelled from the most offensive dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church-from the supremacy of the Pope, or from Transubstantiation, with a more violent repugnance, than hewas from the very idea of Infant Baptism. Their virtual return to it in practice, furnishes no indication at all of their disposition to admit the principle.

The principle, that is the thing. The starting-points of the two systems, that which admits Infants to the benefits of the Christian Covenant, and that which restricts those benefits to. adult believers, are diametrically opposite. And the ideas, in which we have been educated, with regard to them, give such a coloring to every view of truth and duty, as to render it next to impossible to obtain a candid hearing from any unreflecting. Baptist mind, upon the subject. Organic Christianity has no place in their scheme. The idea of a Covenant, embracing those who are too young to appreciate its benefits, the whole theory of Christian Nurture, growing out of that Covenant relationship, Scriptural and beautiful as it is, and adapted to our Moral Nature, is yet quite aside from their habitual conceptions. The notion, that we are baptized for the remission of sins, is irreconcilable to their notion, that sins must be for

given before an adult is baptized. Individualism is the center and the circumference of their whole theory. Individual conversion-individual experiences-individual application for the privilege of the Sacraments. And so, the whole fabric is built up of individualisms, until it grows into Congregationalism and we can see no logical termination of the series, till each individual is considered as fully authorized to baptize and ordain himself.

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Most devoutly do we wish, that we could look forward with reasonable hope that facts and arguments would, in our day, begin to weigh, with educated minds, against such preconceived opinions, or that the honest endeavors of our Author would be rewarded with a tolerable measure of success. But we must confess to a despondency, profound and gloomy, that the application of the remedy direct, to the enormous evils of disunion amongst Christians, in the way of argument, will ever produce any sensible effect. Arguments addressed to the understanding, simply, considerations addressed to the interest and welfare of all concerned, and even appeals to the spirit of Christian forbearance and charity, will, we fear, prove unavailing. There is no hope but in the mercy and Spirit of our God, and in His overruling Providence. The application of the remedy indirect, seems to be God's own peculiar method of remedy. The magnitude of the evils of Sectarianism, working their own cure; the Unity of the Church, emerging from all discordant elements, just as soon as they cease to be any longer endurable this may be the Divine plan. The Unity of the Church, in the Bond of Peace: oh, auspicious day, sweet harbinger of the Second Coming of the Prince of Peace! It will come, sooner or later; Christians will yet be brought to see eye to eye; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim; it may come under the pressure of stern necessity and amid the baptism of blood; the Saviour's Prayer will yet be fulfilled, "that they all may be One."

ART. VII.-BISHOP BOWMAN.

SAMUEL BOWMAN, the son of Captain Bowman, an officer of the Revolutionary War, was born at Wilkesbarre, in the State of Pennsylvania, on the twenty-first of May, in the year of our Lord 1800. His native town is situated on the Susquehanna river, in Luzerne County, in the very heart of the celebrated Valley of Wyoming. The circumstances of his boyhood were well calculated to draw out and develop all the nobler feelings of his character. In point of natural beauty, there is not upon this continent a more charming spot than the Valley of Wyoming. At the beginning of this century, too, the story of its memorable Indian Massacre was comparatively fresh. Many were still living, in the prime of life, who could relate thrilling stories of peril and adventure closely connected with all the magnificent scenery around them. The boy's own father, too, could tell him of the battle of Lexington, in which he was an actor, and could inspire his soul with patriotic fervor by his anecdotes of Washington, then lately dead, of Alexan-ander Hamilton, and of other heroes and statesmen with whom he was personally acquainted. What wonder is it, then, that young Bowman should have eagerly devoured, as we have heard him say that he did, the odd yet picturesque biographies by our pioneer Plutarch of America, the eccentric Parson Weems ? In early life he was a great pedestrian. Often has he described, with admirable glee, his long walks and excursions among the mountains, to visit old hunters, renowned for their exploits among the bears and deer. Mr. Catlin, a fellow-townsman, who has since gained a European reputation by his adventures among the Indian tribes of the Far West, may be named as one who sometimes joined him in these delightful expeditions. It is impossible to estimate the advantages he may have gained, both in physical and spiritual vigor, by this early communion with nature in her wildest and most charming phases. He was always proud of his native valley, and seemed to cherish for it something like a personal affection.

When the subject of our narrative was in his tenth year, Thomas Campbell, then in the height of his celebrity, gave to Wyoming a world-wide reputation, by the publication of his Gertrude. Notwithstanding the poverty of the story and the inaccuracy of its descriptions, that pathetic poem by the Bard of Hope, must have had a considerable influence in calling out the literary taste of such a lad as Samuel Bowman. Primitive

as the Valley then was in some of its social aspects, it numbered among its people an unusual proportion of cultivated persons ; and we have heard the late Bishop tell of pleasant reading parties in his boyhood, in which the best current literature of the time was abundantly admired and discussed, from the Sacred Dramas of Hannah More to the Homeric minstrelsy of Walter Scott.

Our young friend had no access, in his youth, to any place of education higher than the Academy of his native town. Here, however, he picked up the rudiments of learning, which by his own diligence were afterwards expanded into a scholarship that might put to shame the attainments of more favored students. In those early days, our Church was not represented in Northern Pennsylvania; and until he was fourteen years old, young Bowman had never joined in that liturgic worship which he afterwards so loved. When Mr. Kemper (now the venerable Bishop of Wisconsin) was a young man assisting Bishop White in Christ Church, Philadelphia, he was sent out on a missionary tour to the west of Pennsylvania. During his absence, Bishop White received a letter from three laymen in Wilkesbarre, one of whom was young Bowman's uncle, asking him to send them an Episcopal minister. The Bishop wrote to Mr. Kemper to go there before his return to Philadelphia. He did so, and officiated to a very large congregation. His sermon was listened to with much attention, and a request was made for its publication, by a minister of one denomination, seconded by another. This was the first time the Church Service had been heard in Wilkesbarre, and Mr. Kemper was the first Church clergyman our young friend had ever seen. Little did he then suppose that he himself would one day be a Bishop, and that the officiating minister wonld preside at his consecration!