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ton Theological Seminary, was requested by its committee of publications to write a book exhibiting the great doctrines of the Gospel as held by all evangelical Christians. This he did to the entire satisfaction, not only of the Board, but I believe I may say of all evangelical Christians throughout the land that have read his work. It is appropriately entitled "The Way of Life;" the subjects are the Scriptures, sin, justification, faith, repentance, profession of religion, and holy living, under which several heads the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel are presented in an able and yet most simple and familiar manner. It is a work, in short, which none can read without surprise and delight at observing the vast extent and fullness of the system of Truth, in which all evangelical communions are agreed.

These communions, as they exist in the United States, ought to be viewed as branches of one great body, even the entire visible Church of Christ in this land. Whatever may have been the circumstances out of which they arose, they are but constituent parts of one great whole-divisions of one vast army-though each brigade, and even each regiment, may have its own banner, and its own part of the field to occupy. And although to the inexperienced eye such an army as it moves onward against the enemy may have a confused appearance, the different divisions of infantry being arranged separately, the artillery interspersed, and the cavalry sometimes in the front, sometimes in the rear, sometimes on the flank, and sometimes between the columns, yet all are in their proper places; and to the mind of Him who assigns them their places, and directs their movements, all is systematic order where the uninitiated sees nothing but confusion. Momentary collisions, it is true, may sometimes happen-there may be jostling, and some irritation occasionally-yet they fulfill their appointed parts, and discharge their appropriate duties. So is it with the "sacramental host of God's elect" with us.

No doubt this multiplication of sects is attended with serious evils, especially in the new and thinly-peopled settlements. It often renders the Churches small and feeble. But this is an evil that diminishes with the increase of the population. With a zealous and capable ministry the truth gains ground, the people are gathered into Churches, congregations increase in numbers and consistency, and though weak ones are occasionally dissolved, the persons who composed them either going into other evangelical Churches, or emigrating to other parts of the country, such as maintain their ground become only the stronger; and it often happens, particularly in the rural districts, that the number of sects diminishes while the population increases.

Great, however, as may be the disadvantages resulting from this

multiplicity of different communions, were they all reduced to one or two, we apprehend still worse evils would follow. Diversity on nonessential points among the churches and ministers of a neighborhood often gives opportunity to those who reside in it to attend the services and ministrations which each finds most edifying, instead of being reduced to the sad alternative of either joining in forms of worship which they conscientiously disapprove, and of listening to a minister whom they find unedifying, or of abstaining from public worship altogether. Rather than this, it is surely far better to bear the expense of having two or three churches in a community, for which, looking only at the mere amount of population, one might suffice.

CHAPTER XIX.

ALLEGED WANT OF HARMONY AMONG THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS OF THE UNITED STATES.

It has been often and widely stated in Europe, on the authority of a certain class of visitants from the Old World, who have published their "Travels," "Tours," etc., that there is much unseemly strife among our various religious denominations. Here, I hesitate not to say, there has been much gross misrepresentation. No doubt our evangelical Churches feel the influence of mutual emulation. Placed on the same great field, coming into contact with each other at many points, and all deeply and conscientiously attached to their peculiar doctrines and ecclesiastical economy, they must naturally exercise, on the one hand, the utmost watchfulness with respect to each other, and, on the other, employ all the legitimate means in their power to augment their own numbers. The result of such mutual provocation to good works is eminently happy. There may, indeed, be temporary cases of disagreeable collision and unbrotherly jealousy, but ordinarily these are of short duration. The best of men are, after all, but men. Hence even a devoted Gospel minister, after having long had some particular neighborhood all to himself, may dread the opening of a new place of worship of a different communion in the vicinity of his own, lest some of his hearers should thereby be drawn away; and such an apprehension may, for a time, excite some not very kind feelings in his breast. But universal experience shows that such feelings are usually groundless, and soon cease to be indulged by any but the most narrow-minded persons.

Sometimes, too, a zealous, and in most cases vain and ignorant

preacher, will show himself in a neighborhood where the churches all belong to communions different from his, and there, in his selfsufficiency, begin to denounce and attempt to proselytize. Such men, however, soon create disgust rather than any other feeling; for with us most of those who join this or that church, do so after examination of its doctrines, government, and discipline, and when once satisfied on these points, above all, after finding its services edifying, they are not disposed to allow themselves to be disturbed by every bigoted and noisy brawler that may seek to gain them over to his creed and church, which, after all, may not essentially differ from their own.

Notwithstanding such cases, I hesitate not to affirm that, taking the evangelical Churches as a whole, their intercourse, in all parts of the country, manifests a remarkable degree of mutual respect and fraternal affection. While earnest in maintaining, alike from the pulpit and the press, their own views of Truth and Church order, there is rarely any thing like denunciation and unchurching other orthodox communions, but every readiness, on the contrary, to offer help when needed. Thus, among all but the Episcopalians, whose peculiar views of ordination stand in the way, there is a frequent exchanging of pulpits. I have known the pulpit of an excellent Baptist minister in Philadelphia, when he was laid aside by ill health, to be supplied during two years by other ministers, and by those of Pædobaptist Churches for much of that time. During more than twenty-seven years the author of this work was engaged in benevolent efforts in America, which led him repeatedly to visit almost every State in the American Confederacy, and while on this mission he preached in the pulpits of no less than fourteen evangelical communions, including all the leading ones.

This brotherly feeling widely prevails among the laity also. In all parts of the country they scruple not, when there is no service in their own places of worship, to attend others, though of another communion; and, indeed, in our cities and large towns, not a few Christians regularly attend the lectures of pastors not of their own communion, when these fall on different evenings from those of their own pastors. Not only so, but as there is no bar to intercommunion, except in the case of the Baptists, whose views respecting Baptism in all but a few instances prevent it, and in that of the small Scottish Churches, the members of one evangelical communion often join with those of another in receiving the Lord's Supper in the same church. In this respect, a very catholic spirit happily prevails. The answer of the Rev. Mr. Johnes, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Morristown, New Jersey, to General Washington, who, on one occasion during the

war of the Revolution, desired to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper with Mr. Johnes's congregation, but stated that he was an Episcopalian, is just what ten thousand ministers of the Gospel would make in like circumstances: "Sir, it is not a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian table, but the Lord's table, and you as well as every other Christian are welcome to it."

Numerous occasions, moreover, bring all evangelical Christians together. The Bible, Temperance, Colonization, Sunday-school, and Tract Societies, not to mention such as are formed from time to time for particular and perhaps local objects, Sabbath Observance, Education, and the like, all bring Christians of different denominations into better acquaintance with each other, and tend to promote mutual respect and affection.

Taking all the professed Christians, amounting, it has been seen, to four million one hundred and seventy-six thousand four hundred and thirty-one, in our Evangelical Churches, I hesitate not to say that far more mutual respect and brotherly love prevail among them than would were they all coerced into one denomination. The world has already seen what sort of union and brotherhood can be produced by all being brought into one immense Church, that admits of no deviation from the decrees of its councils and conclaves. There may, indeed, be external agreement, yet beneath this apparent unanimity there will be internal divisions and heart-burnings in abundance. There may be union against all who dare to impugn her dogmas, but who can tell the almost infernal hatred with which her Religious Orders have been found to regard each other? Compared with this, all the temporary attritions, together with all the controversies and exacerbations of feeling that accompany them, that take place in our evangelical Protestant denominations, are as nothing.

Common civility, on the contrary, concurs with Christian charity to make the enlightened members of one denomination respect and esteem those of another, and to appreciate the beautiful sentiment a few years ago attributed by a Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the British Parliament, to the late Mr. Wilberforce: "I experience," said that distinguished philanthropist, "a feeling of triumph when I can get the better of these little distinctions which keep Christians asunder. I would not that any one should sacrifice his principles; but, exercising the Protestant right of private judgment, leave each to his own conclusions. It is delightful to see that in this way men of different sects can unite together for the prosecution of their projects for the amelioration of human society. When I thus unite with persons of a different persuasion from myself, it affords me an augmented degree of pleasure; I rise into a higher nature, into a purer air; I feel that

fetters which before bound me are dissolved, and I delight in that blessed liberty of love which carries all other blessings with it."

Still, the question remains, Whence have foreigners, while visiting the United States, received the impression, which, by being promulgated in their writings, has called for these remarks? The answer is easy. While such are the prevailing respect and regard for each other among the members of our Evangelical Churches, they all unite in opposing, on the one hand, the errors of Rome, and, on the other, the heresy that denies the proper divinity and atonement of Christ, together with those other aberrations from the true Gospel which that heresy involves. Now, it is this refusal to hold fellowship with errors of vital moment, it is this earnest contending for saving truth, that leads tourists in the United States, whom chance or choice has thrown into the society of persons opposed in their religious tenets to the Evangelical Churches, to charge us with uncharitableness. Hinc illæ lachrymæ.

We deny not that in some of the divisions of Churches that have taken place in the United States, men have at times permitted themselves to speak and write with an acrimony unbecoming the Gospel, and, by so doing, may have made an unfavorable impression on foreigners. But such cases have been local and exceptional rather than general and ordinary, and never could justify any sweeping charge against the evangelical denominations as a body.

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