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one which has imparted most valuable lessons to the church of the past two hundred and fifty years, with the sectarianism, dogmatism, denunciation, belligerancy, indifference to or complicity with prevailing iniquities and barbarisms, which have characterized its different branches; and one from which scarcely less important lessons may be derived for the upbuilding of the church of the future and the bringing in of a new era to the world.

DISCOURSE XXVI.

CHRISTIANs, swedenbORGIANS, AND SHAKERS.

"Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will;" "what then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." —Phil. i. 15, 18.

I resume my examination of the smaller nominally Christian Denominations, introducing to my readers. in the present Discourse several whose prominence in certain sections of our country or whose distinctive peculiarities entitle them to respectful consideration on my part, if not to my indiscriminate approval. I begin with a body numbering, it is claimed, several hundred thousand communicants, and more than a million adherents in the United States, who wish to be designated by the simple name first given the followers of Jesus at Antioch, viz. :

CHRISTIANS.

This Denomination seems to have been distinctively American in its origin, having sprung from three different directions, East, West, and South in the early part of the present century; each

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division being, at first, entirely independent, as it was ignorant, of the others; but, upon becoming acquainted and finding much in common between them, deciding, after a brief period of time, to consolidate and form one integral, organic religious communion. They adopted at the outset the distinctive name they bear, protesting against all others; declared the Bible to be their only rule of faith and practice, leaving each member to interpret it for himself; affirmed practical godliness to be the grand aim and test of fellowship; and avowed the largest liberality and toleration towards all who gave evidence of pursuing this aim and of standing this test, irrespective of doctrinal beliefs, of ritual observances, and of party affiliations. They generally reject the dogma of the Trinity and its cognates, the Adamic Fall into total depravity, Vicarious Atonement, Election and Reprobation, and all kindred tenets, while holding to human sinfulness, the necessity of regeneration or birth into a higher life, the practical exemplification of the Christian virtues and graces, and a just retribution for all workers of iniquity in time or in eternity. They also hold to a divinely called ministry, to special seasons of religious revival, to baptism by immersion, causing them to be sometimes called Christian Baptists, to the observance of the Lord's Supper, and to most church usages common among Protestants. The majority of them, I think, believe in the second personal coming of Christ, the resurrection of the body, and one fixed day of judgment; some of them in endless punishment, some in the annihilation of

the incorrigibly wicked, and a few in the ultimate restoration of all souls to the favor of God and their attainment of the blessedness of heaven; though none of these doctrines are to be publicly professed and preached as of vital importance, or the acceptance of them to be regarded as a condition of church membership or of Christian fellowship. I began my religious and ministerial life in this denomination, but on becoming a so-called Restorationist was disowned and cast out solely on that ground, although such procedure was contrary to their profession of no-creedism and of a godly life as the only test of discipleship of Christ, showing that an unwritten creed may be as potent and quick as a written one to detect heresy and expel heretics. This transpired so long ago (1822), and my personal intercourse with this body since has been so limited that I cannot speak very positively of their present status, theologically or otherwise; but it is to be presumed that in common with most Evangelical sects they have drifted into larger liberty and a more tolerant spirit.

The Christians, notwithstanding their limitations and errors, are entitled to much respect and commendation for their personal piety and moral worth, having attained, in these respects, quite as high standing in the sight of God as some of the larger, more popular, and more self-satisfied sects which affect to despise and scorn them as weakly heretics. And so far as zeal for what they deem the cause of Christ and the salvation of souls is concerned, they will compare favorably with their

fellow-disciples of other communions. But their interest and concern seem to center largely in a future state of being, and in what is to be the destiny of mankind when they have shuffled off this mortal coil. The cause of Christ and the salvation of souls relate primarily and chiefly to that state and destiny; to deliverance from hell and the gaining of heaven in the world to come. And that religion, Christianity, has anything to do with human character here and now in this world, any farther than as a preparation or requisite for final acceptance with God and for eternal blessedness, seems never to enter their thought any more than it does the thought of other sects with which they are brought in contact if not in collision. They share the common lot of prevailing religious bodies, orthodox and heteradox alike, being afflicted with a sort of otherworldliness which indisposes or disqualifies them for the work of improving human conditions in this mortal state of existence, of regenerating society of which they form a part, of overthrowing the great evils that now afflict the children of men, and of building up a kingdom of heaven on the earth. They have never been known as reformers, and their testimony has never been heard in opposition to Mammonism, social injustice, political chicanery and corruption, oath-taking, vindictive punishment, war, etc., or in favor of a radical change of the social order, the rigid application of the principles and precepts of the Gospel to political life and the international relations of mankind, the Christianization of industry, property, etc., and

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