BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN UNION. 



147 



Jie scene he has surveyed, and can form an accu 

 rate judgment of the nature, the tendency, and 

 bearings of the laws, institutions, and political 

 economy which have been the subject of his inves 

 tigations. So that the accounts given by these 

 two visitors, of the same country, behoved to be 

 materially different. The sectarian bigot is one 

 who has taken a partial and limited view of one 

 or two departments of thf&amp;gt; field of revelation, who 

 fixes his attention on a few of its minute objects, 

 and who overlooks the sublimity and the grand 

 bearings of its more magnificent scenery. The 

 man of knowledge explores it throughout its length 

 and breadth, fixes his eye upon its distinguishing 

 features, and brings all the information he has 

 acquired from other quarters, to assist his concep 

 tions of the nature, the bearings, and relations of 

 the multifarious objects presented to his view. 

 The luminous views ho lias taken of the leading 

 objects and design of revelation, and the expansive 

 conceptions he has acquired of the perfections of 

 Him by whom it was imparted, will never suf 

 fer him to believe, that it is agreeable to the will 

 of God that a Christian society should be rent 

 asunder in the spirit of animosity, because one 

 party maintains, for example, that dipping- is the 

 true mode of performing baptism, and the other, 

 that it should be ad ministered by sprinkling, while 

 they both recognise it as a divine ordinance, and 

 symbolical of spiritual blessings, or that such 

 conduct can have a tendency to promote the 

 glory of God, and the best interests of men. He 

 can never believe that that incomprehensible Be 

 ing who inhabiteth eternity, who superintends the 

 affairs often thousand worlds, and who hath ex 

 hibited in his word the way to eternal life in the 

 clearest light should attach so great a degree of 

 importance to such questions, that either the one 

 party or the other should be considered as exclu 

 sive supporters of divine truth, while they in 

 fringe the law of Christian love, and forbear &quot; to 

 keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.&quot; 

 For, in reference to the example now stated, a 

 few drops of water are equally ^.symbol or emblem 

 as the mass of liquid in a mighty river ; and to 

 consider the Almighty as beholding with appro 

 bation such speculations, and their consequent 

 effects, would be little short of affixing a libel on 

 his moral character. The man of knowledge is 

 disposed to view in the same light, almost all the 

 minute questions and circumstantial opinions, 

 which have been the cause of separating the 

 church of Christ into its numerous compartments. 

 If we attend to facts, we shall find, that, in 

 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the man who 

 is a violent party- partisan, is one whose ideas run 

 in one narrow track, and who has taken a very 

 limited and partial survey of the great objects of 

 religion. He is generally unacquainted with the 

 range of history, the facts of science, the philo- 

 gophy of nature, and the physical and moral state 

 of distant nations. His mind never ranges over 



the globe, nor contemplates the remote wonders 

 of the Creator s empire. His reading is chiefly 

 confined to the volumes and pamphlets publish 

 ed by the partisans of his own sect; he can run 

 over the scriptures and arguments which sup 

 port his opinions, like a racer in his course, but, 

 if you break in upon his train of thought, and re 

 quire him to prove his positions, as he goes 

 along, he is at a stand, and knows not how to 

 proceed. While he magnifies, with a microsco 

 pic eye, the importance of his own peculiar views, 

 he almost overlooks the grand and distinguishing 

 truths of the Bible, in which all true Christians 

 are agreed. On the other hand, there is scarcely 

 one instance out of a hundred, of men whose 

 minds are thoroughly imbued with the truths of 

 science and revelation, being the violent abettors 

 of sectarian opinions, or indulging in party ani 

 mosities ; for, knowledge and liberality of senti 

 ments almost uniformly go hand in hand. Wnile 

 we ought to recognise and appreciate every por 

 tion of divine truth, in so far as we perceive its 

 evidence, it is, nevertheless, the dictate of an 

 enlightened understanding, that those truths which 

 are of the. first importance, demand our first and 

 chief attention. Every controversy, agitated 

 among Christians on subjects of inferior import 

 ance, has a direct tendency to withdraw the at 

 tention from the great objects which distinguish 

 the revelations of the Bible; and there cannot be 

 a more absurd or fatal delusion, than to acquire 

 correct notions on matters comparatively unim 

 portant, while we throw into the shade, or but 

 faintly apprehend, those truths which are essen 

 tial to religion, and of everlasting moment. Every 

 enlightened Christian perceives the truth and 

 importance of this position ; and were it to be 

 universally acted upon, sectarian divisions and 

 contentions would soon cease to exist ; for they 

 have almost uniformly taken place in conse 

 quence of attaching too great a degree of import 

 ance to matters of inferior moment. 



Were the minds of the members of (he Christian 

 church, therefore, thoroughly enlightened, and 

 imbued with the moral principles of the religion 

 of Jesus, we should soon behold, among all deno 

 minations, a tendency to union, on the broad ba 

 sis of recognising the grand essential truths of 

 Christianity, which formed the principal subjects 

 of discussion in the sermons of our Saviour and 

 his apostles and a spirit of forbearance mani 

 fested in regard to all opinions on matters of infe 

 rior importance. Were this period arrived 

 and, from the signs of our times, its approach 

 cannot be very distant it would be attended 

 with a train of the most glorious and auspicious 

 effects. A merging of party differences, and a 

 consequent union of enlightened Christians, 

 would dissipate that spirit of trifling in religion 

 by which so much time has been absorbed in dis 

 cussing sectarian opinions, to the negleetof the. 

 great objects of the Christian faith ; for when 



