CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 



Brethren} traces its origin to the followers of John 

 Huss, who were expelled by persecution from 

 Bohemia and Moravia in the beginning of the 

 1 8th century, and who, in gradually increasing 

 numbers, settled on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, 

 Berthelsdorf, in Saxony. To this settlement they 

 gave the name of Herrnhut (or the Lord's charge). 

 Zinzendorf with others joined the little brother- 

 hood, who received the doctrines of the Augsburg 

 Confession. The Moravians profess to be con- 

 nected with the Bohemian or Moravian Brethren 

 of former times by a regular succession of bishops. 

 The bishops, however, exercise no episcopal 

 authority, and their chief peculiar function is that 

 of ordination, of which they alone have the power. 

 Every congregation is governed by a Conference 

 of Elders. The elders are bound to visit each 

 family once in three months, and to report con- 

 cerning the maintenance of family worship, and the 

 conduct of the brethren, to visit the sick, and to 

 aid the poor with money contributed by the other 

 brethren. The whole church is governed by 

 synods, which meet always in Germany at 

 intervals of ten or twelve years. Between one 

 synod and another, all affairs are managed by 

 a Conference of Elders appointed for the pur- 

 pose. 



Moravians are to some extent scattered amongst 

 the general population of the countries in which 

 they dwell ; but they prefer, where it is possible, to 

 live in colonies, or separate societies. Colonies of 

 Moravians exist in England, America, and Holland, 

 but are most numerous and important in Germany 

 and the mission-fields. The Brethren early entered 

 on missionary work, and all the prosperity of their 

 Church has been evidently connected with their 

 earnest prosecution of it. They have missions in 

 the West Indies, Greenland, Labrador, the Cape 

 of Good Hope, Sarepta in Russia, &c. They have 

 at their mission stations over 70,000 converts from 

 heathenism. 



The religious services of the Moravians are 

 conducted with great simplicity. They meet for 

 worship daily, in the evening, the service being 

 much like that of a prayer-meeting amongst other 

 Christians. They use a litany on the Lord's 

 day, but extemporary prayer is frequent. They 

 admit the use of instrumental music. They main- 

 tain the practice of washing the feet, both in choirs 

 (or classes) and in congregations, before the com- 

 munion. They meet on the last day of the year, 

 to bring in the New Year with prayer and other 

 exercises of religion. On Easter morning, they 

 assemble in the burying-ground to celebrate the 

 resurrection of Christ, and to express their con- 

 fidence concerning their brethren who have died 

 during the preceding year. The death of a mem- 

 ber of the brotherhood is made known in the chief 

 settlements by sound of trumpets, as if for victory. 



The Moravians have in the British Empire 

 83 churches and preaching stations, and 5550 

 members. 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



The Swedenborgians, or, as they designate them- 

 selves, 'The New Church signified by the New 

 Jerusalem in the Revelation,' were first organised 

 as a separate body in 1788, by Robert Hindmarsh, 

 a printer in Clerkenwell, London, who was elected 

 by lot to baptise and to ordain his comrades in 

 the ministry. The Swedenborgians accept Swe- 



denborg's voluminous writings as revelations from, 

 heaven, and regard them as infallible. Accord- 

 ing to Swedenborg, who flourished through the 

 greater part of last century. Scripture has two 

 senses, a natural and a spiritual, the latter of 

 which it fell to him to unveil He held that 

 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in the per- 

 son of Christ ; that the last judgment, terminating 

 the Church initiated by the divine advent, was 

 effected in the year 1757, in the world of spirits, 

 after which began a new dispensation, signified 

 by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation ; that all 

 angels have lived on earth ; that all in whom love 

 to God and man is the ruling principle, go to 

 heaven at death ; while all in whom self-love is the 

 ruling motive, go to hell, which, as a whole, is called 

 the Devil or Satan, there being no individual bear- 

 ing that name ; that all pass to their final lot at 

 death save a few, who make a short sojourn in 

 an intermediate state for the purposes of purifica- 

 tion and final decision. His two most distinctive 

 tenets are the doctrines, first, of correspondences, 

 according to which the natural world is a repeti- 

 tion of the spiritual, and the spiritual world of the 

 invisible mental world ; and, second, that God 

 alone lives man and creation are dead ; their 

 apparent life is the divine presence. 



The Swedenborgians transact their connec- 

 tional legislation by means of a conference com- 

 posed of both laymen and ministers, sent as 

 representatives from each congregation. Their 

 worship and ceremonies are simple, and present 

 no striking features. The number of their societies 

 in Britain is 58, with 4207 registered members. 

 They are more numerous in the United States. 

 In France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia there 

 are Swedenborgians, but few and scattered. 



THE APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



This body is usually called by the name of 

 Irvingites, from its founder, Edward Irving, a 

 distinguished minister of the Scotch Church in 

 London, who, in the winter of 1829-30, delivered 

 a series of lectures on spiritual gifts, in which he 

 maintained that those we are in the habit of 

 calling ' extraordinary,' or miraculous, were not 

 meant to be confined to the primitive Church, but 

 to be continued through the whole period of the 

 present dispensation. In connection with some 

 singular manifestations at Port-Glasgow, in the 

 west of Scotland, and in his own church in 

 Regent Square, it was alleged that miraculous 

 acts of healing had taken place, and that the gift 

 of tongues had reappeared. Irving was deposed 

 for heresy by the Church of Scotland, and propa- 

 gated his views as the founder of the Apostolic 

 Catholic Church, of which the constitution is 

 briefly as follows : 



There are, as in the apostolic times, four min- 

 istries : (i) That of ' Apostles,' to whom alone 

 appertain spiritual prerogatives ; (2) that of ' Pro- 

 phets,' to whom it belongs to give ' exhortations to- 

 holiness, interpretations of Scripture, openings of 

 prophecy, and explanations of symbols ; ' (3) that 

 of ' Evangelists,' whose function it is to ' bring in ' 

 those who are without ; and (4) that of ' Angels,' 

 or Pastors. The ministers of each congregation 

 comprise an angel with six ruling presbyters ; . 

 various assistant ministers, deacons, and deacon- 

 esses ; evangelists, and those who may have 



