hem by writing for them, at their request, a number of
articles for the earlier numbers of their work. Their attempt however
proved a failure. The work contained a heap of Antinomian and
Millenarian nonsense, and my readers had no taste for such stuff; and
the work was given up, and the Editors shortly after left me and my
friends, and joined the Plymouth Brethren, repaying me for my kindness
by treachery and abuse. One of them published a tract when he took
himself away, exhorting my friends to be on their guard lest they should
be led by me into anti-christian error. Their conduct towards me
altogether, as I thought, was unjust and dishonorable, and though they
are now both dead, I can think of no good excuse for the way in which
they acted. But God is judge.

I now laid aside the name of _Methodist_ and adopted that of
_Christian_, and I commenced a new periodical, bearing the same title. I
made it, as I had made my other periodicals, the organ of my own mind,
the vehicle of my own thoughts on every subject of importance that
engaged my attention. My writing was simply free and friendly talk with
my readers on matters in which we were all greatly interested. And the
work contains the history of the changes which took place in my views
during the period of its publication.

While publishing _The Christian_, I published a multitude of pamphlets.
In answer to a pamphlet by the Rev. W. Cooke, in which I was roughly and
unjustly handled, I published seven letters entitled _Truth and Reform
against the World_, signing myself _A Christian_. In these letters I
spoke with the greatest freedom both of myself and of my opponents, as
well as on a great variety of other subjects. I exposed a number of what
seemed extravagant or unguarded statements made by my assailant with
regard to the Scriptures. I also published a work on _The Hired
Ministry_. My tracts on _Saving Faith_ and _The Atonement_ came out
about the same time. My aim in these latter publications was to free the
subject of Saving Faith and the doctrine of the Atonement from needless
mystery, by separating from the teachings of Christ and the Apostles on
those points, the bewildering and mischievous additions of ignorant
theologians. I did not deny the doctrine of salvation by faith in
Christ, but only showed that the faith in Christ spoken of in the New
Testament was simply a belief in Him as the Messiah, leading us to
receive and obey His teachings, and to trust in