tivation of manners, morals, and piety, cannot fail of attaining an uncommon degree of eminence in literature, commerce, agriculture, improvements at home, and respectability abroad.

"As mankind become more liberal, they will be more apt to allow, that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community, are equally entitled to the protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their revolution, and the establishment of their government, or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed.

"I thank you, gentlemen, for your kind concern for me. While my life and my health shall continue, in whatever situation I may be, it shall be my constant endeavour to justify the favourable sentiments which you are pleased to express of my conduct. And may the members of your society in America, animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and still conducting themselves as the faithful subjects of our government, enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity."

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CHRISTIANS, OR CHRISTIAN CONNEXION.

BY THE REV. DAVID MILLARD,

AUTHOR OF TRAVELS IN EGYPT, ARABIA PETREA, AND THE HOLY LAND.

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WITHIN about one half century, a very considerable body of religionists have arisen in the United States, who, rejecting all names, appellations, and badges of distinctive party among the followers of Christ, simply call themselves CHRISTIANS. Sometimes, in speaking of themselves as a body, they use the term Christian Connexion. In many parts of our country this people have become numerous; and as their origin and progress have been marked with some rather singular coincidents, this article will present a few of them in brief detail.

Most of the Protestant sects owe their origin to some individual reformer, such as a Luther, a Calvin, a Fox, or a Wesley. The Christians never had any such leader, nor do they owe their origin to the labours of any one man. They rose nearly simultaneously in different sections of our country, remote from each other, without any preconcerted plan, or even knowledge of each other's movements. After the lapse of several years, the three branches obtained some information of each other, and upon opening a correspondence, were surprised to find that all had embraced nearly the same principles, and were engaged in carrying forward the same system of reform. This singular coincidence is regarded by them as evidence that they are a people raised up by the immediate direction and overruling providence of God; and that the ground they have assumed is the one which will finally swallow up all party distinctions in the gospel

church.

While the American Revolution hurled a deathblow at political domination, it also diffused a spirit of liberty into the church. The Methodists had spread to some considerable extent in the United States, especially south of the Potomac. Previous to this time they had been considered a branch of the Church of England, and were dependent on English Episcopacy for the regular administration of the ordinances. But as the revolution had wrested the states from

British control, it also left the American Methodists free to transact their own affairs. Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury, and others, set about establishing an Episcopal form of church government for the Methodists in America. Some of the preachers, however, had drank too deeply of the spirit of the times to tamely submit to lordly power, whether in judicial vestments, or clad in the gown of a prelate. Their form of church government became a subject of spirited discussion in several successive conferences. James O'Kelly, of North Carolina, and several other preachers of that state and of Virginia, plead for a congregational system, and that the New Testament be their only creed and discipline. The weight of influence, however, turned on the side of Episcopacy and a human creed. Francis Asbury was elected and ordained bishop; Mr. O'Kelly, several other preachers, and a large number of brethren, seceding from the dominant party. This final separation from the Episcopal Methodists, took place, voluntarily, at Manakin Town, N. C., December 25th, 1793. At first they took the name of "Republican Methodists," but at a subsequent conference resolved to be known as Christians only, to acknowledge no head over the church but Christ, and no creed or discipline but the Bible.

Near the close of the 18th century, Dr. Abner Jones, of Hartland, Vermont, then a member of a regular Baptist Church, had a peculiar travel of mind in relation to sectarian names and human creeds. The first, he regarded as an evil, because they were so many badges of distinct separation among the followers of Christ. The second, served as so many lines or walls of separation to keep the disciples of Christ apart; that sectarian names and human creeds should be abandoned, and that true piety alone, and not the externals of it, should be made the only test of Christian fellowship and communion. Making the Bible the only source from whence he drew the doctrine he taught, Dr. Jones commenced propagating his sentiments with zeal, though at that time he did not know of another individual who thought like himself. In September, 1800, he had the pleasure of seeing a church of about twenty-five members gathered in Lyndon, Vt., embracing these principles. In 1802 he gathered another church in Bradford, Vt., and, in March, 1803, another in Piermont, N. H. About this time, Elias Smith, then a Baptist minister, was preaching with great success in Portsmouth, N. H. Falling in with Dr. Jones's views, the church under his care was led into the same principles. Up to this time Dr. Jones had laboured as a preacher nearly if not quite single-handed; but several preachers from the regular Baptists and Freewill Baptists, now rallied to the standard he had unfurled. Preachers

were also raised up in the different churches now organized, several of whom travelled extensively, preaching with great zeal and success. Churches of the order were soon planted in all the New England states, the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and more recently in New Jersey and Michigan. A large number of churches have also been planted in the Canadas, and the province of New Brunswick.

A very extraordinary revival of religion was experienced among the Presbyterians in Kentucky and Tennessee, during the years 1800 and 1801. Several Presbyterian ministers heartily entered into this work, and laboured with a fervour and zeal which they had never before manifested. Others either stood aloof from it, or opposed its progress. The preachers who entered the work, broke loose from the shackles of a Calvinistic creed, and preached the gospel of free salvation. The creed of the church now appeared in jeopardy. Presbyteries, and finally the Synod of Kentucky, interposed their authority to stop what they were pleased to call a torrent of Arminianism. Barton W. Stone, of Kentucky, a learned and eloquent minister, with four other ministers, withdrew from the Synod of Kentucky. As well might be expected, a large number of Presbyterian members, with most of the converts in this great revival, rallied round these men who had laboured so faithfully, and had been so signally blessed in their labours. As they had already felt the scourge of a human creed, the churches then under their control, with such others as they organized, agreed to take the Holy Scriptures as their only written rule of faith and practice. At first they organized themselves into what was called the "Springfield Presbytery;" but in 1803, they abandoned that name, and agreed to be known as Christians only. Preachers were now added to their numbers and raised up in their ranks. As they had taken the scriptures for their guide, pedobaptism was renounced, and believers' baptism by immersion substituted in its room. On a certain occasion one minister baptized another minister, and then he who had been baptized immersed the others. From the very beginning, this branch spread with surprising rapidity, and now extends through all the western states.

From this brief sketch it will be perceived that this people originated from the three principal Protestant sects in America. The branch at the south, from the Methodists; the one at the north, from the Baptists, and the one at the west, from the Presbyterians. The three branches rose within the space of eight years, in sections remote and unknown to each other, until some years afterwards. Probably no other religious body ever had a similar origin.

The adopting of the Holy Scriptures as their only system of faith,

has led them to the study of shaping their belief by the language of the sacred oracles. A doctrine, which cannot be expressed in the language of inspiration, they do not hold themselves obligated to believe. Hence, with very few exceptions, they are not Trinitarians, averring that they can neither find the word nor the doctrine in the Bible. They believe "the Lord our Jehovah is one Lord," and purely one. That "Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God." That the Holy Ghost is that divine unction with which our Saviour was anointed, (Acts x. 38,) the effusion that was poured out on the day of Pentecost; and that it is a divine emanation of God, by which he exerts an energy or influence on rational minds. While they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they are not Socinians or Humanitarians. Their prevailing belief is that Jesus Christ existed with the Father before all worlds. (See Millard's "True Messiah," Morgridge's "True Believer's Defence," and Kinkade's "Bible Doctrine.") Although the Christians do not contend for entire uniformity in belief, yet in addition to the foregoing, nearly, if not quite all of them would agree in the following sentiments: 1. That God is the rightful arbiter of the universe; the source and fountain of all good. 2. That all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 3. That with God there is forgiveness; but that sincere repentance and reformation are indispensable to the forgiveness of sins. 4. That man is constituted a free moral agent, and made capable of obeying the gospel. 5. That through the agency of the Holy Spirit souls, in the use of means, are converted, regenerated and made new creatures. 6. That Christ was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification; that through his example, doctrine, death, resurrection and intercession, he has made salvation possible to every one, and is the only Saviour of lost sinners. 7. That baptism and the Lord's supper are ordinances to be observed by all true believers; and that baptism is the immersing of the candidate in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 8. That a life of watchfulness and prayer only will keep Christians from falling, enable them to live in a justified state, and ultimately secure to them the crown of eternal life. 9. That there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. 10. That God has ordained Jesus Christ judge of the quick and dead at the last day; and at the judgment, the wicked will go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.

In the Christian Connexion, churches are independent bodies, authorized to govern themselves and transact their own affairs. They have a large number of associations called Conferences. Each con