He began to preach in 1822, and for four years traveled through Virginia as a missionary exhorter. He was ordained as a Baptist minister on 4 May, 1824, and became pastor of two churches in Campbell county in 1826. He held various pastorates till 1835, when he took charge of the 1st Baptist church in Richmond, Virginia, with which he remained connected for nearly fourteen years. In 1849 he accepted a pastorate in St. Louis, but in 1852 returned to Richmond, and became pastor of the Grace street church. After the division of the denomination, he presided over the southern Baptist conventions for several years. He was for some time president of Richmond college, and held the offices of president of the Southern foreign missionary board, and president of the trustees of the Baptist theological seminary at Louisville, Ky. At the instance of the board of missions he visited Italy to supervise the missionary work in that country, and to provide a chapel in Rome. About the close of the civil war he became editor of the "Religious Herald," published in Richmond. He was distinguished as a preacher and controversialist, and successful as an author. Among his published works are a "Life of Mrs. Henrietta Shuck, the first American Female Missionary to China; "Memoir of the Reverend Andrew Broaddus" (1850); "Campbellism Examined" (New York, 1854); "Campbellism Re-Examined"; "The Christian Mirror, or a Delineation of Seventeen Classes of Christians" (Charleston, 1856); "The Seal of Heaven" (New York. 1871); "The Life of the Reverend Daniel Witt"; and "Recollections of a Long Life." With the Reverend Richard Fuller he compiled "The Psalmist," a book of hymns that came into general use in the Baptist congregations of the United States, and was introduced in British North America and in England.
 

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Evils of Gaming

That gaming is a sinful practice, you will readily admit. It is, like many other sins, not expressly but virtually prohibited in the scriptures. It is utterly at variance with their spirit and tenor. It springs from the inordinate love of money, "the root of all evil." This insatiable desire plunges the gamester "into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts," by which he is in dander of being drowned "in destruction and perdition."

Campbellism Examined

This system is with great propriety termed Campbellism. Systems of philosophy, science, and religion, have usually been designated after their discoverers, first promulgators, or most distinguished advocates. Mr. Campbell is the author, and most eminent proclaimer of the peculiar doctrines, which, within the last thirty years, have spread in the Southern and Western states, under the title of "The Reformation."

Baptist Principles Reset

Before we enter on a discussion of Baptist principles, it may be proper to state them briefly, that the reader may see the ground which we propose to traverse. A spiritual church membership lies at the foundation of all Baptist peculiarities.