Since Mr. Baker has resided in America, he has visited England, and
lectured for the Secular and Freethought Societies in England and
Scotland; the total number of lectures he delivered during his visit
amounted to 153, besides engaging in several debates, the principal one
being with the Rey. Brewin Grant, at Halifax, during ten nights, on the
"Divine Authority of the Bible," which is now published. The views
now held by Mr. Barker on "God" and Secularism may be seen from the
following extract of a letter addressed to the Editor of the Reasoner,
written by Mr. Barker from America, on February 22, 1853:--

"I confess I know nothing of God, but as he is revealed in his works.
With me, the word God stands for the unseen cause of all natural
phenomena. I attribute to God no quality but what seems necessary to
account for what I see in nature. My Jewish and Christian notions of
God are all gone, except so far as they appear to be the utterances of
nature.... As to Secularism, I think our business is with the seen, the
worldly, the physical, the secular. Our whole duty seems to me to be
truly and fully to unfold ourselves, and truly and fully to unfold
others: to secure the greatest possible perfection of being and
condition, and the largest possible share of life and enjoyment to all
mankind in this present world. The machinery of sects and priesthoods
for saving souls and fitting men for heaven, I regard as wasteful and
injurious folly, except so far as it may tend to better men and improve
their condition here. I have a hope of future life, but whatever is best
for this life must be best for another life; whatever is best for the
present, must be best for the eternal future. To reveal to men the laws
of their own being, and to unfold to them the laws of nature generally,
and to bring them into harmony with those laws, is, therefore, with
me, the whole business of man. If there be another world, as 1 hope, it
will, I suppose, be governed by the same laws as this. If men live on
for ever, they will have all the better start in a future life, for
having got well on in this. As an _art_, therefore, I believe in
Secularism."

J. W.

_Note by the American Publisher_.--Soon after Mr. Barker's return from
England, he resumed his lecturing in various towns and cities in the
United States, giving great satisfaction, by his able addresses, to
large and intelligent audiences. He still labors occasionally in the
same pursuit, t