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 FOR THE PRESBYTERIES OF 
 
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 MINISTERIAL DEPOSITION 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL NON-INTERCOURSE. 
 
 P.Y Ri:v. IIEXRV WARD BEECIIKR. 
 
 OAKLATsl): 
 
 •OAKLAND DAILY NEWS HOOK AND JOft PRINTING OFFICi:. 
 
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 J^ S E E M o jsr 
 
 FOR THE PRESBYTERIES OP 
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 ON. 
 
 MINISTERIAL DEPOSITION 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL NON-INTERCOURSE. 
 
 By Kev. HENKY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 OAKLAND: 
 
 OAKLAND DAILY NEWS BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1869.
 
 :B39 s 
 
 MODERN EXCOMMUNICATION, 
 
 A^ serm:on 
 
 Cyv^ PREACHED BY 
 
 no 
 
 -i 
 
 HENEY WARD BEECHER, 
 
 5 PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN, K. Y 
 
 Sunday DEveniiig, Mlay 31, 1868. 
 
 g [The first portion of this discourse refers to the case of the man who received 
 
 — ; his sight at the hands of the Saviour, and who, for persisting in saying that Christ 
 3E opened his eyes on the Sabbath day, was cast out of the Synagogue by the Phari- 
 ^ sees.— John ix, 35-38.] 
 
 It may seem needless to preacli on the subject of excommuni- 
 cating men from the church ; but the ecclesiastical power of the 
 church over men's convenience, over their comfort, over their 
 profit, over their good name, and over their influence in society, 
 although it is very much abated, is still not insignificant ; and 
 now and then there are paroxysms of this ecclesiastical spirit 
 breaking out, even in our day, and manifesting itself in such a 
 manner as to make it worth our while to look a little at the 
 grounds of and reasons for these things. 
 
 One minister is unfellowshipped because he insists upon his 
 right to commune at the Lord's table with other acknowledged 
 Christians, though they have not been baptized by immersion. 
 He has violated no canon of morality. He has not fallen from 
 faith in any important or fundamental doctrine. He has simply 
 
 29559",
 
 Tiolated a custom, an ordinance, a usage of an ecclesiastical 
 cliiircli. 
 
 Another niinititer is disciplined for preaching Christ without 
 asking leave of a man who holds ecclesiastical title to certain ter- 
 ritory. It is not alleged that he has preaclied a false doctrine, 
 or that he is not worthy to preach at all. lie has simply violated 
 a man-made custom in a Christian church or sect.* 
 
 Another man — George IF. Stuart, known and beloved in two 
 hemispheres, wherever zeal, liberality and Christian activity are 
 prized — has been excommunicated; and, In (iod's name, for 
 what ? 
 
 For singing hymns instead of singing psalms ! Nothing else, 
 and nothing more ! For there is one sect of Presbyterians in 
 this country who have agreed among themselves that if any man 
 sings anything but the Psalms of David he shall be cast out ! 
 But do they sing the Psalms of David themselves ? If they sang 
 Hebrew they could be called consistent, but not otherwise. 
 However, this is a regulation of that church, and George H. 
 Stuart sang Watts' Hymns, and they excommunicated him, at 
 Pittsburg, this last week. It is the Reformed Presbyterian 
 Cliurch. I should like t«) know what its condition was before it 
 was reformed I 
 
 Such and such like things are occurring not unfrequently ; and, 
 since such things are likely to occur, it is time that we should 
 apply that corrective which belongs to us in this land — namely, 
 tlie enlightened ]iublic sentiment of the intelligent Christian men 
 of all churches. And, in behalf of men exconnnunicated from 
 any sect whatever — not for immorality, nor for the violation of 
 fundamental faith, but merelv for violatino- human regulations 
 or customs — in behalf of them all, I appeal from the judicatory 
 to the enlightened sentiment of the Christian community, with- 
 out regard to sect. 
 
 It is said that it is indispensable to the maintenance of relig- 
 ious organizati«»ns, that men who join themselves to any sect, or 
 to any church, and consent to abide ])y its rules and regulations, 
 take the reuult of t.uch violation. It is declared that if intelli- 
 gent men j..in a sect or a church, thcv ouo;ht to do it with their
 
 eyes open ; and that if, wlien their eyes are really opened, they 
 find themselves to have entered it upon mistaken ground, and 
 see that they can no longer conform to the requirements of that 
 church, their duty is to leave it ; but that in no case have they a 
 right to violate the ordinances, the rules, the customs, or the 
 canons, of any sect or church which they have promised to keep. 
 Logically considered, this is correct. "Certainly," it is said, " if a 
 man has agreed in joining a body to maintain the rules of that 
 body, and he violates them, he must go out ; either willingly or 
 by expulsion." And that is supposed to end the question. But 
 no, it just begins it. Under such circumstances the question 
 arises, or ought to arise in any enlightened community. What 
 is the nature of that church or that sect in which a good, a just, 
 a holy, a true man cannot stay ? What is the nature of an organ- 
 ization in which a man that is honest and fearless, a man that is 
 enterprising and zealous, a man that is useful, and proves him- 
 self such before God and before men, cannot stay? And the 
 question then becomes this : Has any body of men a right so to 
 organize religion ? I hold that all men have an interest in the 
 common religion that is revealed, and that is emphasized, and 
 ratified, and applied through the life and death of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. And in the name of our connnon Christianity, 
 you and I have a right to protest against any organization which 
 makes it impossible for a clean, pure, true, right man to sit in it, 
 and that casts a man out of it under any pretence of violating 
 canons, rules or regulations in any way which does not invali- 
 date nor implicate his true, manly, Christain character. 
 
 " Have we not a right to organize as we please ?" you say. 
 As between yourselves and human law, you have. So far as 
 human law is concerned, men have a right to organize in such 
 a manner as that nobody could belong to the church who did 
 not measure exactly five feet eight inches. There is no reason 
 in human law why the church might not ordain in its rules and 
 regulations that no man should belong to its organization who 
 did not weigh a given number of pounds. There is no human 
 law against men's decreeing that none shall be admitted to the 
 ehurch except by the carpenter's rule, or by the scales,- -without
 
 6 
 
 being weighed or measured. But has the church, in the Court 
 of Conscience, under the inspiration of enlightened judgment, 
 or according to the teachings of Scripture, a riglit to take our 
 coninion religion and enclose it in an organization that is man- 
 jnade, and that is prescribed by human wisdom in such away 
 that religion inself is ]»ut to shame by the mode in which it is 
 admistered { It has no such moral right. It is right for any 
 church, in things indifferent, to ordain things for which there is 
 no pattern in Scripture. There is no pattern in Scripture for 
 common schools, and yet we have a right to common schools. 
 There is no ]>attern in Scripture for Sunday schools, and yet we 
 have a rii^ht to Sunday schools. There is no law in the New 
 Testament for the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, if we 
 believe tliat that is the true Sabbath. There is no special com- 
 mandment in the Xew Testament to observe tlie Lord's Day 
 instead of the Jewish Sabbath, and yet it is not only expedent, but 
 right and jirojier so to do. But while we have a right to organ- 
 ize churches in such a manner as conduces to education and devo- 
 tion, we have not a right to insist upon human ordinTinces when 
 they are brought into collision with true manly character, when 
 they sacrifice just and noble qualities for the sake of an ordi- 
 nance. 
 
 The Pharisees would not believe in Christ because he healed 
 this man on the Sabliath — thereby, as they alleged, violating a 
 churcli can. .11. All tlu- moral splendor (jf the miracle; all the 
 noble humanity that was manifested l)y it; all that the city, and 
 the state, and the world, had gained by reforming a man and 
 elevating him to activity and usefulness; the wonder of the 
 miracle which consisted in giving man]ioo<l and plenary power 
 to a degraded and helpless man — this was nothing. But because 
 he had d<me it on that conventional day he was not godly, he was 
 not a jToplict. he was not a good man — and he and the bene- 
 ticiary were both thrust out, with contempt, from the synagogue. 
 Vou know very well, that there was no right in the synagogue 
 to thrust out a man for sijoli a cause, even two thousand years 
 ago, and in another nation, and if you bring to mind the facts, 
 you will all say, "It was a mean thing ; it was a narrow thing;
 
 it was an unmanly thing." They ought to have been so glad of 
 the moral revolution in this man, and of the display of Divine 
 power and humanity in his amelioration, that the wonder of the 
 moral element should transcend all thought of the violation of a 
 mere agreement or compact. You think so in respect of Judea, 
 hut how is it in regard to New York ? How is it in regard to a 
 sect in our own time, in which perhaps some of you have been 
 bred, in which you have dear friends, and which is a useful, and, 
 God be thanked, widely extended sect. When you at the pres- 
 ent time, sit in judgment upon the same state of facts, how do 
 you feel ? If this case was wrong ages ago, then identical or par- 
 allel cases are wrong to-day. 
 
 Elaborate organizations of Christianity are liable to the per- 
 version of the powers of religion, and to gross persecutions and 
 oppressions. So far as it is abstractly considered, there is no 
 reason w^hy men should not organize themselves as artificially 
 and complicatedly as they please ; but artificial and complicated 
 ecclesiastical organizations are peculiarly liable to preversion. I 
 think them 1f> be unwise, because they are laborious, they are ex- 
 pensive to maintain, they draw men's attention from weightier 
 matters of spiritual lite, and they become mere engineers — servers 
 of machinery. As much effort is required tc keep up elaborate 
 organizations as is necessary to preach the Gospel itself. And 
 at last the body not only does not serve the spirit, but oppresses 
 it. Churches oftentimes are like old men who are full of rheu- 
 matisms, full of gouts, full of all manner of infirmities, and are 
 oppressed by obstacles rather than served by helps. Yet if men 
 prefer elaborate organizations, they have a civil right to them ; 
 but they have no right by them to oppress any man. It is said, 
 " When a church asserts its own authority according to its pre- 
 scribed rules does it persecute i!" It does persecute. It is said, 
 " It does not subject a man to any odium or any penalty : it says 
 — not, You shall not go into the kingdom of God by any other 
 church, biit — You shall not remain in this church." Well, is not 
 that persecution? Consider how men go into churches. Consider 
 what the process of transplanting is. Consider the temptations 
 and inconveniences and interferences that it involves. Consider
 
 8 
 
 what suftering and odium take place when men, for no moral 
 wrong, are told to walk out of a eliureli. If a church was like 
 a hotel where the lanlord goes to a uian and says, " You are in 
 the wrong room, and we have no other room for you, and you 
 must go somewhere else ;" he would have nothing else to do but 
 to pack his trunk, and go somewhere else, and it M'ould be all 
 ritjht. But a church is not like a hotel. It is more like farming 
 o-round. Here is a large oak tree that was planted as a small 
 tree in a rich soil, and has been growing for twenty or thirty 
 vears, and now its roots spread far and wide. Contiguous to it 
 are other trees, that hold a council, and say to this tree, "Look 
 here, vou are beginning to overshadow us, and you must clear out. 
 You have a right to be an oak tree, and to throw out your roots; 
 but you shall not have them here any longer. Get you up and 
 begone!" No persecution! Oh no! Is it so easy, then, for an 
 oak to I'ull up its roots and walk off and live somewhere else? 
 Can vou take all the ramifications of a great tree and transfer 
 them, and do the tree no harm ? 
 
 Now men root a thousand times broader than a Iree, by sym- 
 pathy, by love, by custom, by habit, in a church iu which they 
 are brought up. And when you take a man and pull uj) his 
 roots, and ca>t him out from a cliurch where he has formed asso- 
 ciations and attachments, do you say that you do him no harm, 
 because lic<-an goto the Methodist Church or the Baptist Church, 
 or wherever he pleases ? Is it not an opjjression ? Is it not an 
 outrage i Churches that excommunicate their members, merely 
 l)ecause they do not o1)ey canons and rules, put canons and rules 
 liiglier than they do faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They admit 
 that a man is a ]>raying man, a holy man, and a useful man ; 
 but his roiiscienco is set against a certain thing, and they say 
 to him, " ^ oil must go out." And I liear some persons under 
 buch circmiistances say, " lie ought to go out ami not stay in 
 the churcli, if he cannot oljey its canons. 
 
 But 1 i)ray you to consider Avhat it is to be i»ut out of a church 
 forno breach of morality. Is it not persecution? There are 
 two Borts of ])err.ccutioii — the major and the minor. The minor 
 is where a man is lined ; where he is imprisoned ; where he is
 
 put in jail ; where his goods are sequestered. And sometimes 
 an inflammatory course is taken with men, and, for the benefit 
 of their souls, their bodies are purged with fire ; but this is called 
 by all persecution, I call it persecution, too ; but it is the minor 
 persecution, because they have power to slay the body, and that 
 is the end of it. The major persecution is where a man lives 
 and the magistrate does not meddle with him, and the church 
 does not harm him outwardly, hut only hlasts him ! It shuts the 
 door against him. It takes the table of communion from him. 
 It refuses him all fellowship and love and confidence. It denies 
 him those very things on which the soul subsists. It takes away 
 from him that which makes life M'orth having. It makes him a 
 marked man ; so that the children, hearing their parents talking 
 of his being cast out of the church, shrink from him, and sup- 
 posing him to be some monster, look for his horns and hoofs. 
 They tormeut his soul. Is there no persecution in that ? I tell 
 you that moral intolerance is a great deal more hideous than 
 civil intolerance ; and I think there is no punishment so wicked 
 and so unauthorized l)y reason and conscience as that which you 
 inflict upon a good, right-living, true-hearted man, merely be- 
 cause he differs from you on a doctrine or on a ritual. I affirm 
 the individual right of Christian men . I stand upon that broad 
 ground, which was first taught by Christ, that God receives all 
 men that worship him as a Spirit in sincerity and in truth. 
 Speaking to the woman of Samaria, Jesus said, " Whosoever 
 worships God anywhere, after any form, in sincerity and in truth? 
 him God accepts." And, following the example of the Master, 
 I stand on the same ground, declaring, in the words which I read 
 in your hearing at the opening service, '• Who art thou that 
 judgest another man's servant V^ — saying it on the supposition 
 that every one of us belongs to and is the servant of God. We 
 are tlie Lord's Avhile living, and we are his while dying. I' am 
 the Lord's more than I am yours. The humblest and poorest 
 here is the Lord Jesus Christ's more than he is mine, though I 
 am his pastor. He is Christ's more than he is his brethren's, 
 though he is a member of this church. And the Apostle says, 
 " Every Christian man — God has received him."
 
 10 
 
 yc.w, wli«> are yuu that dare sit in judgment on a man wlieo 
 he is received of God i' When a man gives evidence that God 
 lias received him, lie has a right to church fellowship. Are we 
 holier than God, that we should refuse to hold fellowship with 
 a man whom (iod accepts, though he may differ from us in 
 helief ^ 1 have a right to say to him, " Let me exhort you, my 
 own beloved brother, to your safety, and to the peace and har- 
 mony of the church, to be a temperance man, a total abstinence 
 man:" nevertheless, if for reasons that seem to him wise and 
 good, he says. '* I cannot take that ground," and if he gives evi- 
 dence that he is in the sj)irit of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 have no 
 authority to exclu(k' him, and you have no authority to expel 
 him. In other words, the ground of acceptance in churches is 
 this : That a man shall be Christian in spirit; that he shall be 
 a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the moment you 
 have evidence that he is such, that settles the question. lie has 
 a right to fellowship in the church, and you have no right to 
 deprive him of it. Once in the church, he has a right to remain 
 there so long as he lives a godly life and continues to give evi- 
 dence in his spirit and in his conduct that God accepts him. I 
 (itand on the ground of the lil)erty of the individual Christian ; 
 and I say that it is to buft'et Christ, it is to insult and assail Jehovah, 
 when, for any reason less than the violation of Christian charac- 
 ter or iiinral oMigatioii, you excommunicate from the church any 
 man in whom Christ lives, in whom God dwells. To use the 
 authority of an ecclesiastical organization for this purpose is to 
 ]>ervert it — is to destroy the individual liberties of a Christian 
 for the sake of iiiaiiitaiiiing a religious establishment, and I will 
 tell you just where this spirit came from. It is the old Roman 
 rpirit. What was the idea of Rome in this matter 'i It was that 
 the uuit was society. ln<li\i(huil rights were scarcely known. 
 AVhftt were men gond \\,y( They were good to build uj) the nation 
 uimI the empire. 'I'la- idea had not been disclosed and developed 
 as Christianity has disclosed and developed it, and the individual 
 is an empire : that each man is, himself a kingdom of wealth ; 
 and that the jiower of any nation, rightly organized, resides in 
 tlic iidierent strength of each oiic of its units. Modern civiliza-
 
 11 
 
 tion undertakes to make the state stronger Ijy developing the 
 individnal man, on every side, and so making as much of him as 
 possible. The Roman doctrine was that the state, that the gov- 
 ernment was more important than the individual. Therefore 
 men were built up like bricks. What is a brick good for? 
 Kothing except so far as it lielps to make the wall of a temple, a 
 pyramid, or other building. And when the wall is built, that is 
 all we look upon. The bricks are lost sight of. But not so with 
 the individual in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is 
 a tree, and not a wall composed of dead brick. Every single 
 brancli has a separate identity ; every branch is rooted into 
 every other ; but each has its own individual vitality and power 
 to germinate and bring forth first, flowers, and then fruit. 
 
 The peculiarity of Christianity is this — that it proclaims and 
 guards the liberty of the individual, the liberty of his conscience 
 and judgment, and the liberty of his actions, and makes life in 
 the individual supremely sacred. Churches that think that 
 governments are more important than the rights of individual 
 men are Roman churches, of whatever sect they may be . The 
 man that uses a church organization to sacrifice individual lib- 
 erty is Roman, heathen, despotic. 
 
 There are signs that this subject lias got to be more largely 
 considered and more largely discussed. They are not signs that 
 alarm me ; but they are signs that show that there Avould be 
 danger if we did not comprehend and forestall and resist them, 
 I am heartily glad to see growing unity . I do not believe in 
 ecclesiastical unity. The age has gone by in which you are to 
 do much in that way. It would make no difference to me if 
 every single town had a church with a new name. The only 
 things that are going to be fruitful — the only things that are 
 going to be permanent, in this world, are the things in which 
 men have unity — unity of feeling ; but not unity in ecclesiastical 
 governments — not unity in worship. This is of no importance 
 whatsoever. But there are a great many good men who differ 
 in this matter. There are some who think that the power of a 
 church is in its compact physical organization. And, therefore, 
 it is now sought to organize all Presbyterian churches into one.
 
 12 
 
 Let thein do it. God speed tlieni, if there is any good in it. But 
 
 I do not consider that they are thereby going to augment their 
 
 moral influence. The evil consists in the bad manners exhibited 
 
 by churches towards each other. The mischief consists in the 
 
 quarrelsomeness of sects. There might l)e as many different 
 
 sects as there are families in a neighborhood, and no harm would 
 
 come of it if there was spiritual unity. That is my confidence. 
 
 If men have a feeling of Christian brotherhood, it men have a 
 
 (Jommon love to God and a common reverence for humanity, if 
 
 men are ]-eally one in mind and spirit, if men are truly united. 
 
 spiritually, then the more variety you have the richer you are. 
 
 The world is not rich by reason of identities, but by reason of 
 
 variations. "Who would send out a mission to turn all the trees 
 
 of the forest into one tree? Which tree would you select? 
 
 "Why, when we plant trees, we put in twenty or thirty or forty 
 
 different species, and the arboretum is the richer for it. Who 
 
 Would, if he could do so, change all flowers into one immense 
 
 unity flower ( What flower should it be ? Is not the prairie 
 
 purfled every spring and summer with varieties of plants and 
 
 flowers, and is it not gorgeous from their diversity ? Is it not 
 
 their difterence that makes flowers so beautiful and attractive ? 
 
 One new flower is enough to drive a true botanist mad for 
 
 awhile. AVhy i Simply because it is dift'erent from everything 
 
 else i And yet, how do we see men attempting to hew down 
 
 . churches. There are men now who are striving w^ith all their 
 
 might to unite all Cliristian churches in one, and make one great 
 
 church, as if the world would be the l)cttcr for it. One immense 
 
 iinhy — no variety I That is to say, all sing just alike — I would 
 
 not go near them I All preach just alike— I would get tired to 
 
 death of them I All think just alike — I would not believe a 
 
 word of any of them! It is not possible for men to think just 
 
 alike. It is contrary to human nature. And yet men are at- 
 
 temi>ting to make churches like so many machines, into which 
 
 clay is tlirown and which turns out brick just eight inches long, 
 
 four inches broad, and two inches thick. There are men who 
 
 would make the church a machine that should turnout Christians 
 
 of just such a size and shape. That does for bricks, but doeg not
 
 13 
 
 answer for men. When God makes men, he makes them like 
 trees with branches, and some brandies are parallel, some point 
 heavenward, and some droop to the gromid. And He that makes 
 the clouds with iniinite draperies, and in gorgeous colors ; He 
 that never makes the snn to rise twice alike, and that never 
 makes the snn go down twice alike ; He that sends the same 
 seasons diiferently ; He that makes the fields rich with diversi- 
 ties — He seems to stndy variety, as if his populous thoughts 
 sought new^ modes of disclosing themselves. He writes his 
 name differently in every spot. And is it to be supposed that 
 He made an exception where men are organized to be the body 
 of the Lord Jesus — as if that kind of stale, useless, homely, lap- 
 sided unity was the thing to be sought ? I abhor it. It is a 
 phantasm. It is a superstition received from Heme. Kick it 
 out ! Let that be excommunicated ! Let the members stay in. 
 
 The tendencies are to organize greater and greater power in 
 churches ; to employ that power more and more to control men's 
 feeling, their morals and their course of life ; to augment penalties 
 if members do not conform to man-made standards. These ten- 
 dencies I do not much fear ; but there is a time of revival in 
 them, and we feel their power in the community. Let true men, 
 therefore, find what the true ground U — the God-made liberty of 
 the individual man in believing ; the responsibility of a man in 
 in his belief to his Maker and not to his fellow men ; the liberty 
 of the organization ; the right of a man to cohere with his fellow 
 men — with his brethren and sisters of every name — though he 
 may not be in the same company, nor in the same battalion, nor 
 in the same regiment. The doctrine of the right of an indivi- 
 dual carries in it the power to repress and restrain whatever there 
 is of mischief, and to bring into use whatever there is good with- 
 out carrying with it the corresponding abuse. 
 
 There is but one other point that I will make to-night, and 
 I do it to guard you from the impression that the tenor or spirit 
 of this discourse is one that assaults particular churches or indi- 
 vidual churches. Far from it. I have the advantage of most 
 churches. I own them, though they will not own me. I own 
 the Methodists, and the Baptists, and the various other Christian
 
 14 
 
 deiiominations. He that takes in others owns them. Now my 
 heart is big enough to take tliem all in. 1 do take them in, and 
 they are mine — fathers and mothers, and brethren and sisters- 
 And I rejoice in it. Let me see a Methodist church that is labor, 
 ing to spread the Gospel that I will refuse to fellowship with. 
 Let me see a Presbytetian cliurch that is building up the king- 
 dom of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I will not, with all my heart, 
 bid God speed. Let me see a Baptist church that can put through 
 the Jordan more discii)les ihan we can, in whose success I will 
 not rejoice and bless God. Let me see an Episcocal church, that 
 is doing God's work, that I will not give thanks for as much as 
 the best priest of them all. 
 
 According to the very tenor of this discourse, I believe in sects, 
 not only in what you have already, but in many more. Multiply 
 their number. I think that uo harm but that much good would 
 come of it, if the churches that now exist were divided and sub- 
 divided. Fine flour makes better bread than coarse ; and I think 
 if our churches were ground a little more, it would make better 
 churches of them. So long as they maintain the right spirit, 
 their richness and efliciency will be increased by external di- 
 versity. 
 
 My heart is cordial. 1 am too liberal, ])erhaps you think. That 
 is the difference of opinion between us. 
 
 "What then, is our duty as Chtistian lue'ii in this emergency, 
 and in these times ? 
 
 First, where external churches arc in trouble it is not right for 
 us to stand derisively by and rejoice at their misfortunes. What 
 if a chuix-h lu.-os a bi.-]ioi) froiuiiniiiortality ! Have you a right 
 from that circuinstance to draw an argument against bishops? 
 AVHiat if a christian church that has arrogated to itself all the 
 peace which comes with the spirit of Christ, falls into temptations 
 and quarrels ! Have you a i-ight to say, " Ah ! where is your 
 peace? where is your harmony?" Would that be gentlemanly ? 
 Would it l>e decent, even in a neighborhood of gentlemen? 
 AVouid it be christian :; Why, my brother, my sister, every church 
 in the land has something of CHirist in it; something of His 
 truth; something of His heart; sojnething (;f His cleansing
 
 15 
 
 blood ; and some who are the disciples and children of the Lord 
 ^Jesus Christ. And there is not a chnrch that falls into trouble 
 that the woe is not in part mine. It belongs to Christendom. 
 The obstructions, the hindrances, the divisions — thej are mine. 
 Thej do not argue one way or the other in respect to the ques- 
 tions that divide men — questions that do not need to be argued, 
 and would not be, if there was a larger spirit allowed. 
 
 ]^ow, you are Congregationalists in this church, and if a divis- 
 ion should come up among our Methodist brethren on the sub- 
 ject of lay representation, you should pra}", and I should pray, 
 that God would use this question for his own honor in that 
 denomination. Let them not be damaged by anything that you 
 say or do. Men stand and see tlie troubles arising, or perhaps 
 existing, in the Episcopal Church, and say, " Now, then, that 
 church will be got out of the way, and" we shall have the spoils." 
 "We do not want the spoils. Christians, is not the Episcopal 
 chnrch your church ? Is it not my church ? Where have I drawn 
 the weapons with which I have contested with evils but from 
 some of their most illustrious sons ? Whence have come many 
 of the most powerful aids by which'I have been enabled to heal 
 men's souls, and teach them the way to salvation, but from that 
 Church ? I am proud of their trophies, and wlien they put them 
 upon their battlements, there is no envy in my heart. I own 
 that church, and every church. I believe that Christ liimself 
 looks down from above upon every church that looks up and 
 calls him Lord and master, and owns it as his. A true Christian 
 spirit must do the same toward the Lord's children. And, my 
 brethren, if a sect is brought into trouble, I pray God that they 
 may safely come out of that trouble. Take care that you do not 
 indulge in any feeling of envy or revenge. There is no Christi- 
 anity in bitter sectarian feelings. Do not let them exist in your 
 bosom. And if a sister church is so unfortunate as to contain 
 corrupt elements, pray to God that he will purify them and 
 make them more worthy of his name, and more M'orthy of your 
 love. No church could seek to build itself up by pulling down 
 another. 
 
 We have in regard to all the troubles that are going on in 
 other churches around about us, aright to study their rise and 
 progress, and the results which will flow from them ; but we 
 
 295597
 
 .16 
 
 have no right to be envious or revengeful, or unkind, or discour- 
 teous. On the other liand, instead of raihng, it is our duty to 
 pray more for otlier denominations. If we would criticise less, 
 and pray more, I think the peace of the household would be pro- 
 moted. I think friendship would be richer and more stable. I 
 think neighborhoods would become more compact and more 
 refined. We criticise too much ; we rail too much ; we rejoice 
 too much in iniquity and not enough in truth. A true Christian 
 disposition would lead us to endeavor, as far as possible, to see 
 the good and rejoice in it, and to pray for the prosperity of Zion. 
 
 " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem," — and Jerusalem is as wide 
 as the out-spreading arms of Him that was crucified there — " if 
 I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 
 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of 
 my mouth." ''For my brethren's sake, I will say," to every 
 denomination, '' Peace be within thy walls." 
 
 May God give power to Christ's name, and grant to his dis- 
 ciples a nobler manhood, a wider sphere, ampler harvests, and a 
 more glorious final ingatlieri^ig, until the blessed day shall come 
 when the angels shall be commissioned to fly through the heavens 
 and proclaim, '" The kingdoms of this world are become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for- 
 ever and forever."
 
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