Dear Brother - I have received five numbers of the Primitive Baptist, and have read them very carefully, and can say I truly endorse the sentiments advocated in your paper as the doctrine of the Primitive Baptist Church. I have had a name in that church about sixty years, and have passed with her through many wars, trials and afflictions. I have witnessed the rise of New Schoolism, of Campbellism, Two-seedism, and a host of other isms that have caused strife and division; but in the midst of all we had faithful men who have stood at their post, and fearlessly displayed the banner of truth before their enemies. I have witnessed their afflictions and have mingled my tears with theirs when error, like a flood, was sweeping over the land, and the voice of weeping and lamentation was heard in every part of Zion. The clouds were dark and threatening; our harps were upon the willows; the enemy was strong, and in our midst making rapid changes upon us, calling us opposed to the spread of the gospel, and doing all we could to keep the world in darkness, and prevent the salvation of men. But, thank God, we had a few noble spirits who counted not their lives dear unto themselves, and refused to bow to the image of the old beast, or to take its mark, or live in fellowship with its unscriptural institutions; and, like their brethren of the 12^th century, declared non-fellowship for all unscriptural institutions and inventions of men unknown to the gospel, and gotten up as auxiliaries to the church. These resolutions produced a division, and gave birth to what is now called the New School or Missionary Baptist Church. Before this split, there was no such a body in existence. This I know, and every other man that has been a Baptist sixty years knows by his own personal observation, and is acknowledged by such men as Wayland, Graves and Wood. Such unprincipled historians as Benedict and Ray may try to conceal these truths and claim that they are the Primitive stalk of Baptists, but to do it they have to convict their most learned and honest men of falsehood or ignorance. I am prepared to give the testimony of those men, and a host of others, of the modern date and unscriptural characters of the practices and institutions that produced them as a separate sect. The sect calling themselves the "Christian Church" are a little older than the "New School Baptist," and came out of the Presbyterians, and received their ministerial ordinations and baptisms from them (See the life of Dr. Pervoynce, one of their founders). They and the New School Baptists both preach a conditional salvation, and that the preached word is the means of giving spiritual or eternal life to the sinner dead in sin. They both teach that the preacher is the medium through which eternal life is given to the dead sinner, and that without the preached word there is no salvation; and I think that a just inference, according to their preaching, is that there is no damnation; for they say that "it would be unjust to damn the sinner unless the gospel is preached to them, and a chance given him to repent and believe and obey the gospel," so without the gospel, he could not be condemned; but by it, he has a chance to be condemned; and , to my mind, both parties make the gospel a curse to the world, for all will not believe and obey it. For rejecting these things and teaching that the gift of God was eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and through no other medium, we were called anti-means and Anti-nomians; but none of these things moved us while we found that Paul and the other Apostles taught the same truth, and were persecuted for it.

To be a primitive Baptist we must observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded, and reject all the inventions and traditions of men. The order and discipline of Christs church must be maintained, for He, as the Head and leader, has, by His teachings and specific commands, given us the doctrine and order to be observed in His church, and it is rebellion on our part to add anything to it, or to take anything from it.

In the last few years I have traveled extensively among our churches from Maryland and Virginia, to Kansas and Texas, and I find our churches in a more prosperous and united condition than they have been in for the last fifty years; and I feel that a better day is before us if we abide in the word of our Lord and keep ourselves unspotted from the religion of the world and its institutions.

My work is about done; I shall soon lay my armor down, and rest from my labors; but while I live I shall love the Primitive Church and its primitive gospel, and shall pray that God may bless and prosper you and all who are laboring for that blessed cause. May His Spirit guide you as editor, and your correspondents, so that truth may be proclaimed, and the saints comforted, and the peace of Zion maintained. G. M. Thompson Ashland, Mo., April 6, 1886