Chap. 9. 



RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONa 



191 



ORIGIN OF THE nENOMINATION. 



BOND OF UNION. 



Exeter, New Hampshire, on the 24th of 

 May, 1841. Through his instrumentality 

 a church was gathered in Bradford in this 

 state in the year 1802, and in 1803 one in 

 Haverhill and Piermont in New Hamp- 

 shire, and the same year a church was 

 gathered at Portsmouth in that state by 

 Elder Elias Smith, who for a number of 

 years was one of the most indefatigable 

 and successful laborers in the cause. Soon 

 after several preachers, with almost entire 

 churches of the Baptist denomination, laid 

 aside their articles of fiith, renounced the 

 name of Baptist by which they had been 

 distinguished, and agreed to be known as 

 Christians only ; and but a short period 

 elapsed before churches were planted in 

 each of the New England and middle 

 states, and in the adjoining British prov- 

 inces. 



On the 10th of September, 1803, at Lex- 

 ington, Kentuck}', Barton W. Stone and 

 four other preachers of the Presbyterian 

 denomination withdrew from the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Synod and her Presbyteries, 

 and formed themselves into a body called 

 the Springfield Presbytery. On the 28th 

 of June, 1814, this body met in Bourbon 

 county, Ky., and agreed to cast off their 

 assumed name and power, and to sink in- 

 to the general body of Christians, taking 

 no other name than Christian, as the name 

 first given by divine authority to the dis- 

 ciples of Christ. This they announced 

 to the world in an article entitled, •' J%.e 

 last will and testament of Springfield Pres- 

 bytei-y," in which tliey recommend the 

 Bible as the only sure guide to heaven. 



This class of Christians, throughout the 

 country, take to themselves the name of 

 Christian, as the universally acknowl- 

 edged epithet to denote the followers of 

 Jesus Christ. This name they take in 

 common with all Christians, and not to 

 distinguish them from a portion of Christ's 

 disciples. Believing that party names are 

 unauthorized, and injurious to the cause 

 of Christ, they decline the assumption of 

 such names themselves, and refuse to ac- 

 knowledge any that others might be in- 

 clined to impose upon them. They re- 

 gard the scriptures as the most perfect 

 written rule of the Christian's faith and 

 practice — "able to make us wise unto sal- 

 vation, through faith in Christ Jesus ;" — 

 that " all scripture is given by the inspi- 

 ration of God, and is profitable for doc- 

 trine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 

 struction in righteousness ; that the man 

 of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 

 nished unto all good works." They be- 

 lieve this so complete, so perfect a rule, 

 as given by inspiration of God, that no 

 man, or body of men, since the days of 



the Apostles, — Pope, Council, Assembly, 

 or Conference, either local or general, — 

 has been or now are able to improve it by 

 the addition of any thing new, or by the 

 retrenchment of any redundancies ; or by 

 any difli"erent arrangement, or derange- 

 ment of its parts; or by selecting de- 

 tached parts ; or by giving what they 

 consider the substance of its truths in 

 their own language, in order to make 

 them a plainer, safer and more perfect 

 guide to the disciples of Christ. They, 

 therefore, form no covenants, creeds, con- 

 fessions, or articles of faith of their own, 

 and unhesitatingly refuse to accept those, 

 formed by other uninspired men, believ- 

 ing them to be instrumental of division 

 in the church, and injurious to the cause 

 of religion. 



They believe that persons become mem- 

 bers of the body by union with the head — 

 even Christ ; — that all, who are united to 

 Christ by faith, stand, from that union to 

 him, in the endearing relationship of 

 brethren to each other, being no lono-er 

 strangers and foreigners, but fellow citi- 

 zens with the saints, and of the household 

 of God. They believe that the duties, 

 which Christians owe one another, of 

 brotherly kindness, to watch over each 

 other, to pray one for another, to love and 

 to walk as brethren, grow out of their re- 

 lation to each other as members of one 

 family ; — that those duties are imperiously 

 binding upon all the members of the fam- 

 ily, and that it is not left to individual 

 caprice to assume, or refuse those obliga- 

 tions ; and that those duties become per- 

 sonally obligatory on the possession of a 

 knowledge of the relation and opportunity 

 to discharge them. 



They believe that all true Christian.?, 

 wherever they have opportunity to asso- 

 ciate, should make but one communion ; 

 that all who believe on Jesus Christ should 

 be one, and should, in every place, in 

 suitable numbers, convene in one cono-re- 

 gation for the enjoyment of Christian 

 privileges and be members of one and the 

 same cliurch. 



They accordingly refuse no one the 

 privileges of the church of God with thein, 

 who gives satisfactory evidence of beino- 

 a Christian. Their inquiry is not whether 

 he believes in Calvanism or Armenian- 

 ism, — whether he is a Trinitarian or a 

 Unitarian ; but simply whether he is a 

 Christian. TJiey require no assent to 

 formulas of doctrine " in the words which 

 man's wisdom teachcth, but" onlij ta those 

 7Dords, ♦' which the Holy Ghost teacheth." 

 They believe that nothing should shut a 

 person from the fellowship and commun- 

 ion of the members, which does not pre- 



