XXXVIII. The trial of sectarian exclusiveness as a rule of expediency has been fully made. What has been gained by it? It has made more heresies than it has cured; and, instead of healing divisions, it has been the very spirit of dissension. It has been the sceptre of tyranny and the sword of persecution. As long as we keep up sectarianism, we cannot even approximate to the unity of the church. It is time to make another experiment. Instead of excusing our differences by our many infirmities, and repeating the stale truism, "When we all get to heaven, we shall surely think alike and be in perfect fellowship"-thus adjourning to the morrow of eternity what ought to be done to-day-Protestants ought to regard it as their great mission, to bring back the church to the condition in which Christ left it when it was a holy Catholic Church. The course to be pursued is plain. We are to oppose both the Pope of the polity and the Pope of the dogma, by the free spirit and the pure truths of the gospel. In some communions we shall find more of the first; in others more of the second. If we belong to a communion which contains either, but which at the same time contains and proclaims the truth as it is in Jesus, we are not to separate from that communion because of its errors, but we are to array ourselves against its errors, and to labor to bring it into the pure, unmixed fellowship of Christ. Our particular denomination is the point from which we are to work to get into the grand central unity of the church universal.

XXXIX. The Romanist and the High Churchman are both right in proclaiming that there is but one true church, and that this church was intended by Christ to exist in a visible unity; they err as to the mode of effecting this unity; they attempt to effect it by a unique ministry, ordained in an apostolical succession, and by ordinances administered by them. This, indeed, accomplishes a visible unity, but nothing more. But the unity at which Christianity aims is, first of all, a unity of faith, and love, and well doing, and the visible unity is to be the natural out-growth of this-the unity of men acknowledging and obeying a common Saviour, and engaged in pro

moting a common cause, namely, the establishment of his kingdom; not the establishment of a particular sect or order, but simply the establishment of his kingdom of light, love, and peace. Now there are marvellous inconsistencies on all sides. Those who bow down to the Pope of the polity will not acknowledge any one, who denies the polity, to be of the church, whatever may be his character and life. Those who bow down to the Pope of the dogma, acknowledge a spiritual unity between many sects, and yet will not consent to a visible unity, save on condition of submitting to the dogma. They are all one in the essential and true life, and in the heavenly hope, and yet they may not be one in visible relations, because they belong to different schools of philosophy, and have named themselves by the names of certain great doctors, who, some centuries since, were engaged in a hot logomachy.

XL. It is essential to the triumph of the gospel, that the mass of Protestant sects, who hold alike the fundamental truths of Christianity, should form a visible and hearty union, and be known as the church of the Bible, that is, the Church—the true Catholic Church, in opposition to the Church of Tradition and of the Hierarchy. It is a reproach from which we cannot at present easily escape, that the church of tradition and of the hierarchy is one, while those who profess to build upon the simple word of God are divided and discordant. The enemy may now say, in triumph, "They have the Bible, and yet they are forever warring with each other! The facts prove that the Bible cannot safely be submitted to private interpretation, and that the judgment of the church, the interpretation of tradition, is the only effectual preventive of dissension."

Now, in reality, we are warring about our favorite dogmas, and stretching Scripture into conformity with them. The evil comes not from the Bible, but from our philosophical creeds; but the explanation is difficult to make to an enemy. Let us cast aside our dogmas, and cling to the simple Word, and we shall indeed be one, and make our unity to appear.

XLI. There are three great labors to be performed in

our day, by minds nobly inspired with the love of truth and righteousness. First, To set forth the pure Gospel system, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, without any foreign admixture, that all the true servants of God may see eye to eye, and dwell together in goodly and loving fellowship. Secondly, To show, from the history of philosophy and of the church conjointly, how this pure system has been debased. Thirdly, To set forth, on its own legitimate basis, a true philosophy, as the element in human nature which responds to all God's revelations, as the statue of Memnon was said of old to send forth strains of sweet melody, when the morning sun shone upon it. In fine, it is to redeem the Bible from false philosophies, and to redeem philosophy itself from the product of these false philosophies appearing in the form of tyrannical ecclesiastical dogmatism.

XLII. The great and vital truths of Christianity have been warmly proclaimed and nobly exemplified, by men who, at the same time, were attached to doubtful, impracticable, and even palpably false philosophies. Their glorious virtues, their venerable names, their wide-spread and healthful influence were all derived from the pure practical truths of the Gospel, which were incorporated with their systems of doctrine, and which inspired their preaching. Their philosophies, as far as they prevailed, only served to deform and to impede. Their philosophies were inconsistent with the body of their faith; and the union between the two was effected by logical subtleties and scholastical dogmatism. The greatness of Augustine, of Luther, of Calvin, of Edwards, lay in the strength with which they seized upon, and the ardor, eloquence, clearness and faithfulness with which they proclaimed the central doctrine of justification by faith, and its co-ordinate Gospel truths. Their weakness lay in their psychologies and ontologies; and yet these very psychologies and ontologies are worshipped simply on account of their association with the former, however strained and unnatural. Augustinism, Calvinism, Lutherism, and Edwardism, when taken to represent the Gospel system, are not required; for this sys

tem needs no name of man or angel: and, when taken as the titles of philosophical systems, they must be placed on the common level of all such systems, and submitted to the ordeal of rational investigation.

XLIII. The vital and conservative power of the doctrine of Justification by Faith and its co-ordinates, is strikingly exhibited in the history of the Romish church. Within its bosom there have been found men of undoubted and eminent godliness, who held the absurd doctrine of Transubstantiation, paid respect to relics and the crucifix, invoked the saints and the virgin, prayed for the dead, frequented the confessional, performed penances, and acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. Amid this mass of errors, by holding steadfastly to the great central truth, they still had life and salvation, and dwelt in the radiance of the Divine communion. The Father of mercies compassionated and bore with their follies and weaknesses during the ages of darkness, while they had the pure faith, if only as a grain of mustard seed. Such men were Thomas à Kempis, Fenelon, Pascal, and the Port Royalists. Shall not this teach us a lesson of charity towards all Protestant brethren holding the great central truths, and abjuring all the above-named errors?

XLIV. The peculiar mission of Protestantism is to give every man the Bible in his own language, with an unlimited privilege of reading it for himself. It gives freedom to thought, and freedom to conscience, under that divine light by which thought and conscience may be guided aright.

The numerous sects which sprung up with the Reformation formed but the symptom and the consequence of religious freedom. The human mind, when first released from its long imprisonment, unaccustomed to the open sunlight, and to the motion of unchained energies, saw, in connection with the true and the real, many strange sights, and fell into some uncouth vagaries. But he judges with narrow-mindedness of the great struggle of human nature to find the truth, and has no insight into the blessedness of free thought, and no prescience of its glorious and triumphant end, who suffers himself to be offend

ed by this. Let Protestantism be true to its great principle. Let every encouragement be given to independent thought and investigation. Let us not be surprised and filled with wrath, when new opinions, or even new sects arise. Let the trial and conflict of thought have free course. Let every difference be fully expressed. Let every difficulty be considered and disposed of. Let no opinion be met with heat, bitterness, or calumny, but be calmly weighed in the balance of reason; if it be not of God and of truth, it will, sooner or later, perish; if it be of these authorities, it can never perish. Thus the triumph of Protestantism will be the triumph of freedom, of charity, of truth, and of the Gospel, which embodies them all.

ARTICLE IV.

THE WEST AND WESTERN ELOQUENCE.

By Rev. JOSEPH F. TUTTLE, Marietta, Ohio.

"WESTWARD the star of empire takes its way," said a far-sighted man, and the results of the last half century have singularly verified the prediction. The Genesee and Red Stone countries once were called the Far West; then the wave of population rolled on, successively covering Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. But none could say to these mightier than the waters of the ocean, "hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be staid ;" and sweeping over Wisconsin, they burst across the Father of Waters, and subdued Missouri and Iowa. As well attempt to drive back the flames, like fire-demons rushing over Western prairies, as withstand this peopled wave until it reaches the Pacific. An "old man eloquent" once thrilled an audience with this thought. "I have followed the duties of my calling forty-four years, and Oh! what changes have taken place! Some of my friends had gone to the West on