The difference was almost forgotten. Semi-presbyterian and semi-congregational, in their primary assemblies, from necessity, at their feeble beginning, a few of them continued so from choice, when the new settlement had become a city, and the wilderness populous villages. Thus, while in reality the churches without elders were a separate sect, so far as polity was concerned, they did, in some, consider themselves as attached to the Presbyterian church, and entitled to be represented in its higher judicatories. This plainly was not authorized by the terms of the Plan of Union; still nothing was more natural, under the example of the General Assembly, in admitting delegates from Congregational bodies to its full membership, than that the presbyteries should do as much, and that, without much question from any quarter, it should come to be considered a matter of right. And so it was considered, and Congregátional ministers and committee men, (quasi-elders,) were allowed to sit in the presbyteries. They had, however, in these cases, no Congregational connections, and were considered as parts of the Presbyterian church. For thirty-six years the undisputed operation of that plan multiplied and increased the churches and the means of religious instruction. It was really a plan of united missionary enterprise,-the first fruits of a liberal spirit, manifesting itself in the concerted action of two great sects; the same spirit which, a little later, brought so many, of so many sects, together, on the great platform of united action in voluntary association, interchanging the hands of cordial fellowship, and laboring for united success in a common cause. Of these none came foward with a readier zeal, or labored with a more willing industry, than the Presbyterians, urged on by the often repeated recommendations of the General Assemblies. It is refreshing to look back and see all those great men, whose talents and piety have given so much honor to that church, rallying upon the principles which should always characterize American Presbyterians. It would give pleasure to illuminate the page with their names, but we could not do so without calling up some whose subsequent shrinking into narrowness, and falling away into sectarianism, would be such blots upon the lustrous record that it would be painful to look upon.

In the matter of doctrine too, the framers of the constitution were no less considerate. They did not require, as a condition of church membership, the formal adoption of an extended creed or detailed specification of all theological and metaphysi

cal truth. They well knew that the vast majority of private Christians are unable to form a belief on many of those subjects, upon which the sincerest piety has not secured agreement in divines of the clearest minds, the soundest learning and the deepest study. Besides, "free thoughts,"-liberal investigation, the right to differ in opinion,-is the foundation of protestantism. Thus, while the constitution declares that "there are truths and forms about which good men may differ," and on which they should exercise mutual forbearance, it sufficiently provides for soundness in the faith by adopting "a system" of theological truth, which candidates for licensure and ordination -bishops, elders, and deacons are required to receive and adopt, "as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." It is to be adopted as "a system," not as a formula of words, from which there could be no departure; else illustration and argument, explanation and enforcement of doctrine would be denied to the ministers of religion, and "forms" of preaching, as well as forms of prayer, should have been provided. 66 Requiring implicit faith and absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also," is the emphatic language of our confession of faith.

I have thus, at greater length than I intended, endeavored to sketch such an outline of the organization and principles of the Presbyterian church in this country, and its relations to the Congregational churches, as seemed to be necessary to a full understanding of the pending unfortunate controversy. It was under such an organization, administered on such principles, that this church grew from the one hundred and seventy-seven ministers of 1788 to more than twelve times that number, while the population of the country increased fourfold. It was a great and harmonious sect, and, by the silent operation of principles, it interchanged with our political institutions a mutual and indirect support ten times more efficient than could have arisen from a legal union of church and state, which American Presbyterians have always believed to be as surely destructive of genuine piety as of political and religious liberty.

I said it was a harmonious sect. It would have remained so, if its own principles had not been departed from;—but where has not discord been, within the last few years? All human opinions and conduct seem to have been marked by a singular agitation. Religion, morals, politics, learning, have all felt it, and have been disturbed by its malign influence. It has

seemed to spring from a zeal of wonderful intensity, pursuing its object with a small and exclusive intellectual vision,—a microscopic eye, which has no field of view, which cannot span a system or appreciate the force of mutually operating causes. Instances will occur to every mind in which a single principle or practice has been on one side attacked, as though it were the last citadel of all the powers of evil, and on the other side defended, as though it really supported the whole "pillared firmament" of truth. A striking feature of this spirit has been pride and conceited sufficiency, a practical guardianship of one's neighbor, and of all the interests of earth and heaven,which says to others, "stand thou there, I am holier than thou. We are the people, and wisdom shall die with us." In short, it is a total disobedience, in practice, of the apostolic command, that we study to be quiet, and do our own business. The Presbyterian church did not escape this besom of destruction. Individuals began to agitate there, also, and soon gathered a party which took up, in quick succession, the creed, the order, -the infallibility of the church, as the "one idea" with which to work reform. The creed-all its words must be learned and carried by vote, as the essence of truth. "And they said unto him, say now Shibboleth, and he said Sibboleth. Then they took him and slew him.' Order a departure, no matter on what expediency, from the forms or usages of the church, must not, in any, the least matter, be tolerated. Infallibility-the church, in her organized and corporate capacity, is, by the appointment of God, the censor of the books, the supervisor of the conduct, the conductor of the education, the collector and distributor of the alms of all mankind. In the matter of doctrine came doubts and suspicions and jealousies, spending their force, at first, in cold looks and unbrotherly passing by on the other side. It was whispered in certain places that Mr. is unsound, he has said so and so. Dr. thus. His principles certainly tend to this or that error. hint, the shrug, the solemn shake of the head, the significant regret poisoned the minds of the church and of the presbytery. The pastoral relation was broken up. Discord began to manifest itself in presbytery and synod, and open charges of heresy, at length, took the place of the ambiguas voces of infant calumny. Men in great favor among the churches were pointed at with solemnity as exercising a dangerous influence, by their words and their writings. They were accused and convicted

thinks thus and

The

of heresies, which they strenuously and honestly insisted they had never believed, and, though the General Assembly restored the victims of local injustice, the peace of the church was destroyed, and disunion and schism began to be openly avowed as desirable. An acknowledged large majority remained, however, firmly friendly to the peaceful administration of the liberal constitution of the church; and the agitating party, though they had gained some strength by their exclusive claims of doctrinal purity, were defeated. They then addressed themselves to the love of the constitution and order of the church, with the same modest practical demand, that all should bow to their interpretations. The same waking up of excitement, which had been resorted to in the matter of doctrine, told with still more effect on this point. They seized upon the assumption, that many of the churches in western New York, Ohio and Michigan, were formed on the plan of union,-were without ruling elders, and were Congregational or semi-congregational, in their government. The cry was raised, "the Congregationalists are trying to overthrow the constitution, and to substitute their own system in its place!" Every one knew that New England was Congregational, and the western part of our country was filled with citizens and clergymen of New England origin or descent. This gave a sort of foundation for the cry. "Look," said they, "at our opponents! were they not born Congregationalists? They are, of course, attached to the form of its government still.-We are the only true Presbyterians. Look at the men whom we could not overthrow. They are New England men!-Look, who defended,-New England men!Look at the majorities in the Assembly,-New England menCongregationalists! Look at the West. Many churches there have no elders, no regular Presbyterian organization. And the graduates of the schools and seminaries of New England are now flocking thither to take charge of them! Our Zion is in danger; and when it is too late, the friends of good orderborn Presbyterians,-will be but a handful ;-we shall be driven from the church, or humbled and degraded in it!" Allegations so absurd and unsupported by proof were seldom noticed or denied by those against whom they were made, and that was made "confirmation strong, as proof from Holy Writ," of their truth. A portion of the church was fearfully excited and honestly alarmed;-but even yet the friends of union and peace were a majority. The General Assembly and the constitution

were still bonds of union.-Then came a new rally, on the grounds both of doctrine and of order; and Congregationalism, and Pelagianism, and Perfectionism, and Taylorism, were rung, in discord and in unison, without specific charges, till there could be no peace. A foreign mission board was proposed to be appointed by the General Assembly. This was opposed by the friends of united and concentrated effort, as unnecessary, while the American Board located at Boston was so well performing that duty. This was another fact, to show the progress of Congregationalism! And the American Home Missionary Society, which had done more to extend the Presbyterian church permanently, than all other organizations, was, without proof, charged with possessing the power and the purpose to subvert its constitution, simply because its happy plan of calling out and aiding effort had given it an almost miraculous growth and extension, and many, perhaps most, of those who had been its beneficiaries, voted against the disunionists; and its secretary had never ceased to contend for the integrity of the church.

Hereupon, suddenly, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Education Society, (and later, the American Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union, etc.) during their whole previous existence, the favorites of the Presbyterian church, were discovered to be, not the church in her organized and social capacity, but mere voluntary societies, and wholly unauthorized to spread the gospel.

There are many who cannot see why errors in administration are not to be charged upon a general principle of organization. They confound an object with the abuse of it. They see no way to separate adventitious and remediable evil from inherent and necessary good. To such, an attack upon some of the oldest, largest and most useful of these societies came with all the favor which the practical adoption of one's preconceived notions usually finds in the human mind. The disunionists thus acquired much additional strength, in their onset upon voluntary societies. They did not stop to see that the evils which were really to be lamented in some voluntary societies were not to be found in all, and had no manner of connection with the voluntariness of the principle of association, but would all be quite as likely to exist, and many of them with much greater aggravation, under what is called ecclesiastical