well as their spiritual affairs, they avoided all intercourse. They were shy of each other's society, and studiously refrained from everything that might soften the asperity of their hatred, and lead to some reciprocity of kind offices. Thus was the breach between them widened year by year, and Gerizim and Jerusalem became more and more the rallying points of hated and hating partisans. And have you not, my brother, witnessed a propensity among religious sects to confine their social intercourse and their secular patronage within sectarian limits? Have you not seen men in every line of business expecting and receiving the preference, solely on denominational grounds? And have you not seen the effect of all this upon Christian character, contracting the heart, narrowing the circle in which the sympathies play, and giving to the whole moral being an aspect of illiberality and exclusiveness altogether unlovely? I submit the question, if to counteract these anti-social tendencies of the spirit of sect, we ought not to take special pains to bring Christians of different denominations more together, and to secure more of that familiar acquaintance which we all believe would produce favorable results? And should we not render good service to the Christian cause by regarding less than we do, in the distribution of our social

attentions and our secular patronage, the influence of sectarian considerations? The law of brotherly love may justify many preferences; but the danger lies in the limitation of our brotherly love within too small a circle. It is bad enough that the lines of division are so distinct in our ecclesiastical organizations. Why should these lines run through social and commercial life, and keep Christians of different names from coming in contact at any point? Is there nowhere upon earth an unexceptionable place where those who may warrantably hope to meet in heaven, may come together, and look one another in the face, and read in one another's character the lineaments of a holy relationship?

6. WE MAY COÖPERATE WITH ALL CHRISTIANS IN EVERYTHING NOT INTERDICTED BY THE LAWS OF CHRIST.

The laws by which our conduct, as citizens of Zion, is to be governed, we ascertain, not from our covenant engagements to any particular Church, not from any usages of our denomination, not from any Declaration or Confession drawn up by men, however wise or holy, - but from the Word of God, candidly and prayerfully examined by ourselves. "There is one Lawgiver," the Lord

Jesus Christ, and he allows no one to stand between him and his subjects as the authoritative interpreter of his laws. The interpretations of neither the minister nor the Church are binding upon the membership. Christ, as Legislator and Judge, holds us individually and directly responsible, both for a right understanding of his laws, and for complete obedience to their requirements. Our allegiance to him is paramount to all other; and we have no right to enter into any association, or become subject to any authority, that will interfere with entire submission to his will as expressed in his inspired Word. No Church or combination of Churches, no minister or convention of ministers, not even "The Denomination," that great, indefinite abstraction,-has any prerogative in the department of conscience, either to make new laws for the regulation of our Christian conduct, or to suspend any law which Christ has given us. The statement that fell from his own lips is worthy of repetition: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." By becoming acquainted with his will, we shall know how far we may proceed in any direction, and be able to determine, on all occasions, the prescribed boundaries within which our action must be faithfully confined. If we are desirous to know what, in any given case, we should do, Jesus says ex

pressly to every one of us, as he did to the lawyer, "What is written in the Law? How readest thou?" He authorizes us to expect no new revelation, but ever remands us to the one we have. If we would ascertain the limits of our responsibility, and discover the line beyond which we must not go, even though prompted by the best of motives and treading in the steps of the best of men, we hear our Master saying, "Search the Scriptures, they contain the statutes of my kingdom." If we would discover the spirit by which we should be governed in our intercourse with the Church and the world, this also is matter of Law, and every necessary direction will be found in the New Testament.

It is not for me to specify how far any one, beside myself, may go in his intercourse and coöperation with Christians of other sects; for this would be an invasion of the sacred domain of his conscience, an unwarrantable interposition of my private opinion between him and his spiritual Sovereign. I can determine for myself the extent and the limitations of my own duty, and no man or body of men, secular or religious, shall dictate to me my duty in this or any other department of Christian action. I shall make up my own estimate of the courtesies which I owe to the disciples of Jesus of every name, and shall

pursue that course of conduct which accords with the laws of Christ as I understand them. This right I have surrendered to no denomination, no voluntary association, no Church. It is inherent and inalienable by virtue of my sonship in Christ; and it is the indefeasible right of every Christian disciple.

And yet I suppose I may, without assumption or immodesty, exhort my fellow-disciples to inquire carefully, and see if we cannot, consistently with our allegiance to the Son of God, and in ways that will be pleasing to him, exhibit towards other denominations more of the truly fraternal spirit than we have sometimes manifested, and make some additional advances towards that union which all the truly spiritual admit to be desirable. I ask them not, as I would not be myself asked, to transcend any scriptural limitations; but I surely may entreat them to examine anew, and decide for themselves if the friends of Christ cannot be more familiar with one another, more affectionate in their intercourse, more disposed to join their forces in efforts for the advancement of the common cause. It might not be wholly pertinent for me to inquire how Christ and his Apostles would act in this matter, were they to reäppear on the earth and be placed in our circumstances, for that is a point concerning which no one could give a better answer