Dearly Beloved Brethren!
     Thro' the kind providence of our God, we have had another comfortable meeting, tho we feel sorry that we cannot give you a more comfortable account of the work of God among us.

     The letters from a part of the Churches composing our Association, appear to express Zion as being in a widowed state: Dear Brethren! Our Lord does not afflict his people, without cause, but has promised that if we keep his commandments, we shall abide in his love; and we have always found him as good as his word. Now do we keep his commandments? If so, we pray without ceasing, and continue to give thanks to God for all his mercies to us from day to day, and without this, and living in our duty to God and our neighbors, and by doing unto all men as we would wish them to do unto us, we cannot expect any thing short of a barrenness of soul. There is one thing, dear brethren, that we cannot pass without notice, that is, the great neglect of assembling ourselves together, at our public meetings, both for preaching and business, and thereby falsifying our engagements to each other, as well as a breach of the commands of our Lord, and thereby weakening, instead of holding up the hands of the servants of the Lord. Dear brethren! we, of all people in the world, have the greatest reason to be thankful to God: He thro a kind turn of his providence, has placed us in a fruitful soil, in which we have long enjoyed our liberties, civil and religious, guaranteed to us by wholesome laws and constitutions: but it appears at this time that our liberties, civil and religious, are about to be assailed by our enemies. Now, Dear Brethren! let us endeavor to unite in prayers to the God of Heaven, that he may continue those privileges which we have long enjoyed, and that they may remain unimpaired to the latest posterity: and let us not think that any sacrifice is too great to secure the same; as the people of God were not in the days of old exempt from war, if need be let us make use of force to repel force, exercising judgment in mercy, and in our day, David-like, be men after God's own heart; if so, when we come to die, we shall be gathered to the God of our fathers, to that rest, which remains for the people of God, ever to be with the Lord. Now, brethren, the above duties you know; happy are ye, if ye do them! now we leave you in the hands of the Lord, praying that he may, by his grace, cause your little feeble vessels to sail through all the storms of temptations and floods of error, until we all arrive safe at the eternal port of everlasting rest, appointed by our Lord for all that love and serve him. May this be each of our happy lots, for Christ's sake. Brethren, farewell. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.

THOMAS GRIFFING, Mod'r Attest,

ABSALOM GRAVES, Cl'k

=============== [From Northbend Baptist Association Minutes, 1812. The grammar and spelling are unchanged. The War of 1812 (6/1812-12/1814) was being fought between the U. S. and England at that time. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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