are four in New Jersey,* more than thirty in New York, six or eight in Ohio, eight in Rhode Island, and four in Virginia, and a number in Wisconsin and other parts of the country. They observe Saturday with great strictness as their Sabbath, have Sabbath-schools, and one religious newspaper. They have a Tract Society, a Missionary Society, and a Society for the Conversion of the Jews. They have four Associations, and a General Conference-all meet annually. Their collections for missions were $3,000 in 1855. Altogether they are a very worthy people.

2. FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. This body dates in America from 1780, when its first church was formed in New Hampshire. In doctrine, they hold a general atonement, and reject election and the other Calvinistic points. On the subject of the Trinity, justification by faith alone, regeneration, and sanctification, they are, with some exceptions, sound.

Starting with the wrong principle that, dispensing with written creeds, covenants, rules of discipline, or articles of organization, they would make the Bible serve for all these, they were soon in great danger from Arians and Socinians creeping in among them. But of late years they have separated from the "Christians" (a heretical sect we have yet to notice, and likewise opposed to creeds), and are, consequently, endeavoring to regain a sound orthodox position. Some of them have come to see that creeds are unavoidable, and had better be definitely expressed in writing than merely understood. They have, accordingly, introduced creeds, and in some instances, even written articles in the form of a constitution. This augurs well.

Their church government, like that of all the Regular Baptists, is vested primarily in the churches, or assemblages of believers convened for worship. These send delegates to Quarterly Meetings, the Quarterly Meetings to the Yearly Meetings, and these, again, to the General Conference. The office-bearers in their churches are elders and deacons. The former are ordained jointly by the church to which they belong, and by the Quarterly Meeting acting by a council. Each Quarterly and Yearly Meeting has an elders' conference, which, with the General Conference, regulates the affairs of the ministry as

*In New Jersey, and I doubt not in other States also, there are special laws in their favor. The disposition on the part of the civil power in the United States not to coerce the consciences of any religious community, however small, strikingly contrasts with the legislation of France in a like case. In the winter of 1840-41, when the factory-children's labor-bill was before the Chamber of Deputies, it was asked whether there ought not to be a clause for the protection of Jewish children in the observance of their Sabbath. "No," said the committee upon the bill, "they are too few to make that necessary." To this M. Fould, the banker, himself a Jew, assented, saying that the Jews were only three hundred thousand in the kingdom!

far as the Presbytery is concerned. Thus they depart from the principle of a pure Independency. Within the last ten years they have entered on the work of sending the Gospel to the heathen, and there can be no better sign than this. They have also a Home Missionary Society, a Tract Society, and an Education Society. Many of their churches have Sunday-schools and various charitable institutions. A religious paper, also, is published under their auspices.

Until a few years ago, these Arminian Baptists took but little interest in the education of young men for the ministry; but they now have several academies.

They had last year (1855) one thousand one hundred and seventythree churches, one thousand one hundred and seven ordained ministers, two hundred and fifty licentiates, and about sixty thousand communicants.

3. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, OF REFORMERS, as they call themselves, or CAMPBELLITES, as they are most commonly called by others. It is with some hesitation that, by placing these in this connection, I rank them among evangelical Christians. I do so because their creed, taken as it stands in written terms, is not heterodox. Not only do they not deny, but in words their creed affirms the doctrine of the Trinity, of salvation by the merits of Christ, and the necessity of the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Yet I understand that there is much about their preaching that seems to indicate that all that they consider necessary to salvation is little if any thing more than a speculative, philosophical faith, in connection with immersion as the only proper mode of baptism; so that there is little, after all, of that "repentance toward God," and "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," which are the indispensable terms of the Gospel.

The founder of this sect is a Dr. Alexander Campbell, a Scotchman, who, together with his father, left the Presbyterian Church in 1812, and became Baptists. Soon after this change he began to broach doctrines that can hardly be called new, for the "Christians," now, though not always a heretical sect, had advanced them before his time. His views seem to be substantially as follows: "All sects and parties of the Christian world have departed, in greater or less degrees, from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians." "This defection" Dr. Campbell and his followers "attribute to the great varieties of speculation, and metaphysical dogmatism of countless creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Lutheran Reformation." All this has led, as they suppose, to the displacing of the style of the

living oracles, and the affixing to the sacred diction ideas wholly unknown to the Apostles.

And what does Dr. Campbell propose to do? Simply "to ascertain from the Holy Scriptures, according to commonly-received and wellestablished rules of interpretation, the ideas attached to the leading terms and sentences found in the Holy Scriptures, and then use the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of them!" But let us hear him further: "By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the Holy Spirit, in the terms and phrases learned from the Apos tles, and by avoiding the artificial and technical language of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a pure speech to the household of faith." And in this way they expect to put an end to all divisions and disputes, and promote the sanctification of the faithful. And all this is proposed by those who reject all creeds for churches; excepting, indeed, that which consists in making the Bible speak theirs! However plausible it may be to talk in this way, all Church History has shown that there is no more certain way of introducing all manner of heresy than by dispensing with all written creeds and formularies of doctrine, and allowing all who profess to believe in the Bible, though attaching any meaning to it they please, to become members of the Church. For awhile, possibly, this scheme may seem to work well; but, before half a century has passed, all manner of error will be found to have entered and nestled in the House of God.

"Every one who believes what the Evangelists and Apostles have testified concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and who is willing to obey Him, is a proper subject for immersion." And this is the sum and substance of what Dr. Campbell says respecting the way in which a sinner is to attain salvation. This is all well enough, if faith be truly explained, and the sinner does really come to Christ with that godly sorrow for sin from which saving faith is never dissevered. But if a mere general belief in what the Evangelists and Apostles have said, together with immersion, be all that is required, it is not difficult to see that churches may soon be gathered in which there will be but little true religion.

It is on this account that evangelical Christians in America, Baptists as well as Pædobaptists, have many fears about Dr. Campbell and his followers. It is believed, however, that, as yet, there are not a few sincerely pious people among his congregations, who have been led away by his plausible representations respecting the evil of creeds. Time can only show the issue. Two or three religious papers are published by ministers of this denomination, and are almost entirely devoted to the propagation of the peculiar tenets of the sect. The churches in its connection are constituted purely on Independent

principles. Its statistics are not well ascertained. It is said, however, by well-informed men in that body, that it now embraces from three hundred thousand to three hundred and twenty thousand persons. As for the churches and ministers, I have never seen their number stated.

4. ANTI-MISSION BAPTISTS, supposed to have in the United States one hundred and fifty-five associations, one thousand seven hundred and twenty churches, eight hundred and twenty-five ministers, and fifty-eight thousand members. They are tinctured with an Antinomian spirit, it is believed.

5. "GENERAL BAPTISTS," seventeen churches, fifteen ministers, and two thousand one hundred and eighty-nine members.

6. "CHURCH OF GOD," two hundred and seventy-four churches, one hundred and thirty-one ministers, and.thirteen thousand five hundred members.

7. TUNKERS AND MENNONITES. These are of German origin. The Tunkers are supposed to have at least one hundred and fifty churches (mostly very small), two hundred ministers, and eight thousand members. The Mennonites are estimated to have three hundred churches, two hundred and fifty ministers, and thirty-six thousand members. In these statements, we follow the Baptist Almanac for 1856. They are not definite, but as accurate, probably, as can be expected.

SUMMARY OF BAPTIST CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES. The Baptist Family of Churches in the United States in 1855 stood thus:

All these Churches are supposed to hold the doctrine of "salvation through grace," or "justification by faith."

Among the "Regular Baptist" Churches, there are five associations, sixty-six churches, forty-eight ministers, and two thousand three hundred and seventy-five members, of German, Swedish, and Welsh people.

The number of "licentiates" in this large branch of the Baptist Family of churches in the United States was, in 1855, no less than five hundred and ninety-six. They are not included in the number of ministers.

CHAPTER IX.

SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. THE CUMBERLAND PRESBY

TERIANS.

THE origin of the Cumberland Presbyterians was as follows: In the extensive and, in some respects, wonderful revival of religion that took place in Kentucky during the years 1801-3, the call for Presbyterian ministers was far beyond what could be satisfied, and in this exigency it was proposed by some of the ministers that pious laymen of promising abilities, and who seemed to have a talent for public speaking, should be encouraged to make the best preparations in their power for the ministry, and thereafter be licensed to preach.

This suggestion was carried into effect. Several such persons were licensed by the Presbytery of Transylvania; and a new Presbytery, which had been formed in the southern part of the State in 1803, and was called the Cumberland Presbytery, admitted and ordained those licentiates, and took on trial others of similar characters and attainments.

These proceedings were considered disorderly by the Synod of Kentucky, and a commission was therefore appointed to examine them, and to inquire what were the doctrines held by persons thus admitted into the ministry, in a way so foreign to the rules and practice of the Presbyterian Church. The upshot was, that the course pursued by the Cumberland Presbytery was condemned, and this sentence having been confirmed by the General Assembly of the whole Presbyterian Church, before which it had been brought by appeal, the censured Presbytery withdrew from that body, and constituted itself an independent Church in 1810, since which has been called the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Its doctrines occupy a sort of middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. It holds that the atonement was made for all mankind; it rejects the doctrine of eternal reprobation; holds a modified view of election; and maintains the perseverance of the saints; but on the other points is essentially Calvinistic.

In its ecclesiastical polity it is Presbyterian; the Session, Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly are all constituted in the manner described at length in our notice of the Presbyterian Church. It dif fers, however, in one point, from all other Presbyterian Churches, by having adopted the itinerating system of the Methodists. By that system of circuits and stations, its ministers have been able to reach almost all parts of the Valley of the Mississippi, that being the