Men may differ from each other in many religious opinions, and yet all may retain the essentials of Christianity; men may sometimes eagerly dispute, and yet not differ much from one another. The rigorous persecutors of error should therefore enlighten their zeal with knowledge, and temper their orthodoxy with charity; that charity without which orthodoxy is vain; charity that "thinketh no evil,” but "hopeth all things" and "endureth all things." DR. SAMUEL

JOHNSON: Life of Browne; in Works, vol. ix. p. 298.

It is greatly to be feared, that religious controversialists are often under the influence of pride, envy, and a contentious disposition, which they and their admirers mistake for the warm glow of a pure zeal. I am led to draw this unfavorable conclusion from the vehemence and acrimony of their language. The love of truth operates indeed, steadily and uniformly, but not violently. It is the love of victory and superiority which sharpens the style. The desire of literary fame, of becoming the patron or leader of a sect, of silencing the voice of opposition, usually inspires that eagerness and warmth of temper which it is not natural that the truth or falsehood of any speculative opinion should excite. —VICESIMUS KNOX: Sermons; in Works, vol. vi. p. 249.

Religious charity requires that we should not judge any set of Christians by the representations of their enemies alone, without hearing and reading what they have to say in their own defence...... Some men cannot understand how they are to be zealous, if they are candid, in religious matters. But remember that the Scriptures carefully distinguish between laudable zeal and indiscreet zeal. ... The object is to be at the same time pious to God, and charitable to man; to render your own faith as pure and perfect as possible, not only without hatred of those who differ from you, but with a constant recollection, that it is possible, in spite of thought and study, that you may have been mistaken; that other sects may be right; and that a zeal in his service, which God does not want, is a very bad excuse for those bad passions which his sacred word condemns. SYDNEY SMITH: Sermon on Christian Charity; in Works, pp. 308, 310.

We have a well-authenticated statement respecting an orthodox professor of Christianity, who declined to assist a neighbor's family involved in distress, on the ground of the heterodoxy of a member of that family. That tendency in our fallen nature which induces us to place reliance on a doctrinal creed or on a zealous temperament, to the neglect of humane sentiments and of a generous disposition, is the reason why the apostles so earnestly admonish their disciples on

the subject. Nearly allied to this disposition, and perhaps a result of it, is candor in judgment, a habit of putting a charitable construction upon the motives of our fellow-men; the absence of bigotry and exclusiveness; a resolute determination to judge of books, of systems of knowledge, and of men, with discriminating kindness. No one ought to be considered as eminently pious, who is rash and overbearing in his moral or literary judgments. If his piety does not enter into and control these matters, it is one-sided and partial. . .. These illiberal judgments and uncourteous feelings are intimately connected with a narrow understanding and with confined intellectual opinions. The natural tendency of enlarged views, and of extensive and patient reading, is to break down the barriers of party, and of a selfish bigotry, while it refines and ennobles the soul. - BELA B. EDWARDS: Writings, vol. ii. pp. 479–80.

True religion imparts to the mind all those ideas that are fitted most potently to stir the heart of man. . . . It kindles and perpetually feeds that wise zeal which has a grasp, breadth, and elevation, of which mere sectarian selfishness is destitute, because not possessing the selfdenying heroism and affection of which true greatness is always formed.

Christianity is not merely that indolent good nature which often. steals the name of philanthropy, but the supernatural fire that flashed transforming ideas on the brain of Paul as he journeyed to Damascus, and poured still more celestial revelations on his heart; rousing divine yearnings that bigotry had smothered, and unsealing that fountain of charity toward all which theological thorns tend so much to choke, and which partisan bitterness is sure to destroy. — E. L. MAGOON: Republican Christianity, pp. 321-2.

A schismatic spirit often insidiously puts on the disguise of commendable zeal for the glory of God.... When a vain and weak-minded Christian has been wrought upon either by flatterers or designing teachers or by his own warm distempered imagination, to suppose that he of all others is called upon to seek the glory of God, and punish his foes, he soon devises bold and decisive means for vindicating the supposed honor of God, and finds arguments for his employing the most cruel and unscriptural measures against heretics and blasphemers. ... It was not a blood-thirsty cruelty that always kindled the fires of the Inquisition, but at times an intense desire to glorify God, by searching out his concealed foes, penetrating the arcana of their heart, and compelling them, by civil pains and penalties, to come back within the pale of the church; otherwise they were to be extirpated as here

tics, whom it was dangerous for religion to allow to live. The same fiery, schismatical spirit passed, in a mitigated form, from the Roman into the Reformed churches; for they also persecuted, and persecuted from a sincere desire to promote the glory of God. The amiable Bishop Hall wrote a treatise on Moderation, and, with all his tenderness to sectaries, he lets out the symptoms of a deeply-seated schismatical spirit when he says, "Master Calvin did well approve himself to God's church, in bringing Servetus to the stake at Geneva." The good man knew not what spirit he was of. . . . It is an angelic attainment to have burning zeal, and yet zeal burning in love, to compass the whole world, not for proselytes, but for converts, and to respect every sincere inquirer after truth as an honest, conscientious professor. True zeal draws no other sword from its scabbard but the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God. DR. GAVIN STRUTHERS: Party Spirit; in Essays on Christian Union, pp. 417–19.

When, in the course of our reading, we meet with passages so finely conceived as these, so beautifully exhibiting the divine and gentle spirit of our Lord, and so admirably conducive to the harmony and peace of Christendom, without furnishing any grounds for indifference to the study, reception, and spread of gospel truth; and when we recall to mind the jealousies and the heart-burnings which so-called Christians have cherished within their hearts, and the wars and persecutions which they have waged against each other, on account of mere differences of opinion, -we have sometimes thought that the religious world would lose little of truth, and far less of love, if the creeds and confessions and systems of theology, which have encouraged feelings and acts so alien to all that is good and pure and peaceable, had, without the concurrence of man's embittered passions, been swept by the winds of heaven to the mouth of some great volcano, there to be engulfed, and perish for ever. But we remember our Master's words, and exclaim, in the spirit of his far-seeing counsel,-"Nay! lest, while we gather up the tares, we root up also the wheat with them." Let the follies and errors, and even the fulminations, of theologians remain unconsumed in the monumental piles which they have raised in their codes and books, lest, while they are being burnt, the wisdom, the piety, and the truths, weak and imperfect as they are, which have to some extent been incorporated with their opposites, perish also. Let them remain awhile, but remain inactive in the production of further evil, till the great field of humanity be covered by the fruits of truth, righteousness, and love, — till the harvest of a liberal Christianity appear, when the tares of error, of bigotry, and of persecution will either have rotten away from the face of the earth, or been consumed by the flames of a catholicism not assumed as a badge of distinction by any one church, but operating as a vital principle in all societies and communities bearing the name of the blessed Jesus.

SECT. III. NOT UNIFORMITY OF OPINION, BUT PIETY, MUTUAL FORBEARANCE AND AFFECTION, LOVE TO GOD, CHRIST, AND MAN,THE BASES OF CHRISTIAN UNION.

Let them see

That as more pure and gentle is your faith,
Yourselves are gentler, purer.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Although a difference in opinions, or modes of worship, may prevent an entire external union, yet need it prevent our union in affection ? Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we nut be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? It is certain, so long as we know but in part, that all men will not see all things alike. It is an unavoidable consequence of the present weakness and shortness of the human understanding, that several men will be of several minds in religion as well as in common life. Nay, farther: although every man necessarily believes that every particular opinion which he holds is true, yet can no man be assured, that all his own opinions, taken together, are true. Nay, every thinking man is assured they are not; seeing Humanum est errare et nescire, to be ignorant of many things, and to be mistaken in some, is the necessary condition of humanity. Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking, which he desires they should allow him; and will no more insist on their embracing his opinions, than he would have them to insist on his embracing theirs. He bears with those who differ from him, and only asks him with whom he desires to unite in love that single question, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart ?" No man can choose for, or prescribe to, another. But every man must follow the dictates of his own conscience, in simplicity and godly sincerity. He must be fully persuaded in his own mind, and then act according to the best light he has. Nor has any creature power to constrain another to walk by his own rule. God has given no right to any of the children of men thus to lord it over the consciences of his brethren; but every man must judge for himself, as every man must give an account of himself to God. I dare not presume to impose my mode of worship on any other. I believe it is truly primitive and apostolical; but my belief is no rule for another. I ask not, therefore, of him with whom I would unite in love, “Are you of my church ? of my congregation? Do you receive the

same form of church government? Do you join in the same form of prayer wherein I worship God?" My only question at present is this, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?" Is thy heart right with God? Dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is thy faith filled with the energy of love? Art thou employed in doing "not thy own will, but the will of Him that sent thee"? Is thy heart right towards thy neighbor? Do you show your love by your works? If it be, "give me thine hand."

A catholic spirit is not an indifference to all opinions, nor an indifference as to public worship, nor an indifference to all congregations. Catholic love is a catholic spirit. But, if we take this word in its strictest sense, a man of a catholic spirit is one who gives his hand to all whose hearts are right with his heart; one who loves his friends as brethren in the Lord, as members of Christ, and children of God; as joint partakers now of the present kingdom of God, and fellow-heirs of his eternal kingdom; all of whatever opinion, or worship, or congregation, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; who love God and man; who, rejoicing to please, and fearing to offend God, are careful to abstain from evil, and are zealous of good works. He is the man of a truly catholic spirit who bears all these continually upon his heart. Abridged from JOHN WESLEY: Works, vol. i. pp. 347–54.

The preceding extract consists of a few sentences culled from Wesley's Sermon on a "Catholic Spirit," which, though unambitious in its style and objectionable in one or two of its ideas, will perhaps bear comparison with any thing of the kind ever published. Would that this discourse, containing more of the principles of true religion than can be found in many a professed work on divinity, were scattered in every Christian home; read and digested by every man, woman, and child; and exemplified in every thought and word and deed!

Away with names, and the petty distinctions of religious party! Are you a Christian, or wish to be one, in deed, not in word only; for the sake of spiritual, not temporal purposes? Then drop your prejudices, and seek the spirit of Christianity, not in systems, but in the written gospel, assisted by prayer, and the pious illustrations of men sincere and good, however they may have been reviled or neglected through prejudice, political artifice, or mistaken zeal. When you have thus found the truth, show its influence by your charity. Be united to all Christians, as well as to Christ; and beware of making distinctions by nicknames, and thus exciting envy, wrath, and malice, which are of a nature opposite to the fruits of the Spirit, — love, joy,