The attempt to produce uniformity of belief has been made in every age, in every form, and by every imaginable means, and all have failed. The church of Rome tried it. They set up a standard of belief, the scholars of Christendom maintained it, the collective wisdom and imposing authority of famous Councils sanctioned it, the successors of St. Peter were set for its defence, the arm of physical power was stretched out in its behalf, and the terrors of earthly and eternal torment were made to beset every by-path of heresy and schism; but it was a failure. The early Protestants tried it. Scarcely had they broken out of the fold of Rome, when they began their measures for uniformity. Synods were convened, and decrees and confessions were published from various quarters, with revilings and persecutions more abundant; but it was a failure. Luther and his coadjutors tried it, and failed. Calvin and his disciples tried it, and failed. The church of England tried it, and failed. Every act of intolerance seemed to give birth to new heresies, and every blow that was struck for uniformity opened new seams in the church and broke off more fragments from the mass. The creeds of modern sects, set up with the same view to uniformity, are failures. The manifold exhibitions of intolerance in our own day, and all around us, are indications of the same vain hankering and struggling after uniformity, and they all fail. There is no such thing as uniformity. There is no approach to it. We differ about different things, it is true; but we differ as really and as much, as did our predecessors in any age of the church. Time raises new questions as fast as it settles old ones. The history of the past, and a glance at the present state of things, show it to be the most visionary of all vain imaginations to suppose, that there can ever be, while the Bible and human nature continue to be what they are, that there can ever be a Church Universal, whose bond of union and fellowship shall be a speculative uniformity of belief.

From these considerations we must infer, what we began by saying, that Jesus himself did not require or expect a speculative uniformity amongst his followers. Had he only possessed the sagacity of a worldly-wise man, he must have foreseen that such agreement would be utterly impracticable. And surely the infallible teacher from God, whose title was the Prince of Peace, and who taught that love was the keep

VOL. XVI. -N. S. VOL. XI. NO. I.

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as he

ing of his commandments, such an one cannot for a moment be supposed to have made the keeping of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, to consist in a kind of uniformity, the impossibility of which would be proved as soon had left the world, and be confirmed stronger and stronger in every succeeding period of his church. He could not have meant to establish a principle, which, the moment it. was adopted and acted upon, would prove itself to be irreconcilably at variance with the first principles of his religion, those of brotherly love and union. There are and always have been differences of opinion, honest and rational differences, between persons having on other subjects equal pretensions to the credit of intelligence and fairness of mind, differences among those who recognise the same inspired teacher, and have before them the same sacred and undisputed records. And men, if they think and reason at al for themselves, and if they are to have any real belief, cannot help thus speculatively differing; and it is a stigma upon the Son of God to say, that he has forbidden such differences either positively or virtually, that he has given to every sincere believer the right to suppose that he and bis sect have alone the mind of Christ and are true to his religion, and the consequent right to disown, excommunicate, and cast out as evil, all who differ from such sect. They who hold that Christ demands uniformity of speculative opinion, must of course regard their own opinions as the standard of that uniformity, and they must in consistency suppose that they are authorized by God to hold every dissenter from that standard as an infidel, an alien, and an outlaw. And those dissenters, and every petty portion of them, and every individual of them, have the same counter authority with respect to their opponents. And thus Jesus himself is made. to forbid, absolutely to forbid, all brotherhood and fellowship amongst his disciples, to cast an unquenchable firebrand in the midst of them, and to justify and sanction a spirit of exterminating and eternal war amongst them. But this cannot be so. This cannot be the divine purpose. Speculative uniformity cannot be the requisite bond of unity among the disciples of Christ. And, though there were as many differing sects in Christendom as there are individuals, this circumstance would not impair the true grounds of their unity one whit.

After taking this position, it is incumbent on us to state what we do regard as constituting the essential oneness of Christianity. What is the broad ground on which those who stand are really one and should regard themselves as one in Christ, having no reason for jealousy or distrust, having no right of mutual recrimination and denunciation, no good plea for contentious division? What is the standard, around which all who rally are one in the sight of God and Christ, one upon the principles of the gospel, and might and should be one in mutual sympathy and fellowship, owning one another, and rejoicing together in a common faith and hope? We answer, it is what all serious believers in Christ as the son and messenger of God, propose, desire, and are satisfied with, as the result of Christian faith. It is the keeping of the commandments, of Christ. It is piety and moral goodness, it is the cultivation and exercise of Christian affections and Chritian principles. "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his," and if he have the spirit of Christ he is his. This is the ground of unity which we think our Master has marked out. This we all understand and understand alike. dispute about what is the spirit of Christ. it, and learn it alike, from himself, from his words and his history, from his example of piety and obedience to God. The result is the same (wherever it exists), whether accompanied by one set of speculative opinions or another. About the religious affections and the religious character, considered in themselves and purely as a result, there can hardly be any misunderstanding. It is Character that constitutes the one Christianity.

There is no We all learn

But it may be objected that, though the moral result be the great thing about which the individual should be concerned, yet that is not a proper or convenient or practicable test, by which men should judge of each other's claims to Christian fellowship; that such a test is too judicial in its nature, that it would require too much of a system of moral espionage and investigation, too much judging of the brethren. We will adınit the objection and yield to it. Let it be that a profession, either express or virtual, of some doctrines, together with a decent outward show of Christian virtue, is

the most suitable test, the only practicable one, the true ground of visible fellowship and union. Let it be that we are to take cognizance of the doctrines of an individual or sect, and adjudge or withhold the Christian name accordingly. Let it be that this is the gospel test. We have yet something to say, why we still decline taking the popular ground, the battle ground of speculative uniformity.

We would maintain that the doctrines, the leading and fundamental doctrines of the gospel immediately concern and directly relate to the moral character, to the practical part, the affections of the heart and the conduct of life. The truths of the gospel are moral, and not speculative truths. The doctrines of our religion are chiefly moral.

One eminent exception, however, demands notice in the outset, viz. The great introductory doctrine of the gospel, it is true, is not strictly of this moral class, though it was a necessary introduction to a system of moral truths. It is a speculative doctrine, we mean the doctrine that "Jesus is the Christ," that he was an inspired and commissioned messenger from God to man. Jesus himself constantly set forth this as the primary speculative truth. He is constantly arguing it and insisting upon it. He made his miracles bear towards the proving it and the bringing it home to the convictions of men. He generally uses the word Faith in reference to this single truth. In the few instances in which he applies it differently, it means confidence in the providence and promises of God. The Apostles, in their subsequent preaching and writing, took the same course. When by the preaching of Peter three thousand were converted on the day of Pentecost, the only speculative doctrine proposed, the only one addressed merely to the understanding, was this same truth, thus summed up in his own words: "Therefore let all the house of Israel assuredly know that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." When, afterwards, by the preaching of the same Apostle five thousand believed, the only speculative article recorded in his sermon, was the same, that God had raised up his son Jesus, sent him and glorified him. When Philip discoursed with the Eunuch, and converted and baptized him, the only speculative doctrine was this, "I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.” In what did the conversion of Paul consist but in the conviction, produced by the miraculous vision on the

and

way to Damascus, that Jesus was from heaven and was in heaven, was the Christ? as we are told, that, as soon as he recovered his sight, he "straightway preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." And so on throughout the numerous instances of Apostolic preaching and success recorded in the Book of the Acts, this great article of speculative faith stands conspicuous and alone; -alone, if we make this one other exception, that in some cases the undisputed Christian doctrine of a future life, of "the resurrection of the dead," (either of the body, as Dr. Cox insists, or of the spirit only, as the Friends will have it) is brought forward. Now we mean not to say, that there are no other speculative doctrines revealed in the New Testament. On the contrary, we and all Christians do believe some others; though from our different modes of interpreting language and weighing evidence we differ somewhat as to what those doctrines are. But we do mean to say that, after the exceptions of speculative truth just considered, which all Christians believe equally and alike, moral truth and moral teaching hold the highest and the largest place in the gospel.

By moral, as distinguished from speculative truth, is meant that which not merely demands the assent and reception of the understanding (which is all that speculative truth requires), but which, while it convinces the understanding, goes directly and of its own nature to the springs of action, and demands a direct influence upon the moral state of the soul and the conduct of life. We must not understand the word moral as opposed to the word religious; for the former in its highest sense includes the latter. Moral truth means all the truth that pertains directly to the best guidance, the purifying and adorning, the elevation and blessedness of the soul, both as to its inward state and its outward action. And such truth, we repeat, is the great burden of gospel teaching. Speculative systems may with propriety be deduced from the New Testament; but a moral system, moral truth, may be deduced with a clearer light, with a more unquestionable authority, with a more important bearing and purpose, with a fuller testimony and a more earnest solicitation from Jesus and his Apostles. And next after the admission of the divine authority of Christ the teacher, such a system of truth ought to stand foremost in our regards. It ought to be considered as the truth, the leading truth, the great doctrines,

also