be no opposing sects to keep alive party pride, passion and prejudice, such as may be honestly desirous of knowing the truth, may with perfect safety, without the danger of persecution or reproach, yield themselves unreservedly to the teaching of the Holy Spirit through his own word. They will avail themselves of the history of the past, and the discussions that have already been had of perhaps every point of doctrine contained in the Bible; and as there will then be no longer any sense of disgrace in the acknowledgement that we know nothing as we ought to know, men will readily renounce their past opinions, when the force of sound argument shall prove them to have been unscriptural. And then

it will be seen and admitted that truth and error have been mingled in the creed of every sect, and the watchmen on the walls of Zion will begin to see eye to eye.

As the division of the church into opposing sects forbids the hope of eradicating any error of doctrine that finds a place in the creed of any denomination, so it is the capital engine of Satan, the arch enemy, to prevent any reformation of practice. The protestant church in its infant and undivided state, entered with a noble spirit upon the work of reformation, diffusing in a short period of time, much of the light and holy influence of true Christianity. She unhappily became afterwards the theatre of theological controversy, which, owning to the bad spirit in which their disputes were conducted, resulted more in the excitement of unholy passions, than in producing conviction of the truth, or the prevalence of Christian feeling. The consequence was a separation of the contending parties, and the formation of distinct churches, each claiming to be the true church of Christ. A division once commenced, it was

comparatively easy to produce subdivisions, until in process of time, it was almost a matter of course for a difference of opinion to produce a new denomination. And these unholy divisions have ever since been multiplying, so that every age has furnished the addition of many names in the dictionary of religious sect. Amidst the strife which these controversies and schisms have kept alive, it was to be expected that each sect would find ample employment for all the means in their power to sustain their own existence. And such has been the fact. They could scarcely have found time, and they have evinced little inclination to reform abuses in the church, or to bring the world under the influence of the gospel. To prove this assertion, we will adduce one or two examples.

The slave trade, now so justly abhorred by all enlightened men, could not have become the legalized business of protestant Christians, and been openly and shamelessly pursued by them for the space of two centuries, had the church been bound together in the bond of Christian love and unity. The early leaders of the Society of Friends protested against the traffic, and boldly proclaimed it to be contrary to the principles of the gospel, and a gross violation of Christian duty; but the practical belief of the doctrine was diffused only through the limits of that denomination. By the rest it was unheeded or treated with indifference, as the tenet of a sect, instead of being received as a Christian principle, which ought to be felt and acted upon by every member of the church of Christ. So likewise the practice of drinking distilled liquors was seen, by the primitive Quakers and by John Wesley in his time, to be dangerous, injurious and unchristian; but the truth

of this sentiment was heeded only by the Quakers and the Methodists, while the members of other religious denominations have made, sold and consumed the poisons of the still as freely and openly as if they had been the waters of life. Had the church been united in one body of Christian brethren, the light which was confined within the narrow bounds of two Christian sects, would, like the candle of the Lord, have shone upon the whole of the protestant church, and ere this, upon the rest of the world.

The principles of the reformation from popery would long since have effected the spread of the gospel through the whole earth, had they not been checked in their operation, for they were the principles of the Bible, which commands the disciples of Christ to preach the gospel to every creature. But alas! the church has found other employment. The spirit of discord having broken out among her children, the powers of the church have been wasted in controversies and persecutions, instead of being employed in evangelizing the world. The Moravian brethren, it is true, have done something towards the propagation of Christianity abroad, for more than a century past; but the other denominations seem scarcely to have been apprized of their operations; or if they were, they were not moved to follow the good example. It was the example only of a sect, and the force of it was lost upon the others, and they kept aloof from the holy work with as much indifference as though the "Brethren" had been engaged in an enterprise which concerned only themselves. There is not and there cannot be the feeling of a common interest between different sects. It is of the nature of division to destroy the community of feeling. What

one sect is doing, unless it be to aggrandize itself at the expense of the others, seems to attract little attention; so that a reformation in any particular, remains confined to the denomination in which it originates, and the others remain as unconcerned in relation to it, as they would be respecting the movements among themselves of any of the different castes in India.

The cause of benevolence has, it is true, of late excited something like a general interest in some of the churches, notwithstanding existing divisions, and has made some progress in spite of the dominion of sect. It had reposed in the slumber of ages, until a principle has recently manifested itself, which, if not resisted, will eventuate in the reunion of the church of Christ. It is in fact the principle of union itself, drawing together the warm hearts of divers denominations, who forgetting minor subjects of difference, unite in a combined effort to ameliorate the condition of man and to advance the interests of Christ's kingdom. The same principle has originated foreign missions, as well as domestic missions, the Bible Society, the Sabbath School Union, the Prison Discipline and Seaman's Friend Society, the Tract and Education Societies. The spirit which had started into life these noble institutions, emphatically the glory of the present age, will, if left to its own operation, sustain them, and bear them on to a happy consummation; but it is well known to those who are conversant with the concerns of these benevolent enterprises, that the power of sect, however it may in some instances be disguised, is already set in array against them; and unless that power of sect shall be broken, or its character essentially changed, the opposition maintained by it against the cause of reform, will be protracted and

severe.

The resistance so strongly manifested to the progress of moral improvement, has, by a vigorous writer of the day, been aptly personified under the name of “the genius of the existing order of things." This evil genius is every where employed with watchful care, exerting his utmost power and skill to keep the world in its present condition of wretchedness, guarding the "celestial empire" against the invasion of Christianity, fortifying the Musselman in the faith of the prophet and his koran. He is the privy counsellor of the despots and tyrants of the earth, instructing them to shut out from their vassals the light of knowledge, and to quench the flame of liberty. He stands at the church door of every sect, crying danger! at the suggestion of any improvement or reformation, lest they may lose their distinctive peculiarities, and fail of showing the same features which they have exhibited for ages past. Dreading the spirit of reformation, which seems to be partially kindling in the protestant world, the malignant genius is constantly vociferating, "Let things remain as they are, lest they become worse. 99 The sentiment is re-echoed by every sect, and the man who dares to propose any alteration in the doctrine, government, discipline, or practice of his own denomination, does it at the peril of being charged with disaffection to his own church. This accounts for the fact which will be readily admitted by all, that a man, whether preacher, ruler, or private member, cannot be a favourite in his own sect, unless he be thorough-going in defending every one of its tenets, rites, ceremonies, and regulations, and in opposing every attempt to change the existing order of things. A man of liberal principles may be popular in other denominations, where he has little or no power of doing good; but he