150 MINISTRY AT WARRINGTON. [Chap. IV. 



truths . . . which lie at the basis of what is essentially Christian 

 in religion — man's need of regeneration and the new life which 

 is by the spirit of God through faith in Christ. That this 

 change is in progress is shown (among other things) by the 

 eagerness with which so many of our societies have laid aside 

 their old hymn-books compiled during the days of materialism ; 

 and at a considerable sacrifice of money, and still more of the 

 pleasures of old religious associations, have adopted the hymn- 

 book which we have now in use,* and of which the preface shows 

 how entirely different was the spirit in which the work has been 

 undertaken and executed. . . . That which distinguishes us, 

 therefore, as a religious society, is simply that we allow each 

 other liberty of conscience : that we put up with the danger of 

 licentiousness, as did the apostles, for the sake of the inestimable 

 privilege of being free to learn from the Lord alone, instead 

 of having to square our convictions to the judgments of mere 

 men." He allows that he sees few positive reasons why they 

 could ask others to join them. " Of negative reasons why we 

 should not join ourselves to any of the other sects, there is 

 this one, which to me at least is perfectly conclusive : that 

 I must then, less or more, either act the part of a hypocrite, 

 appearing to believe what I do not; or else I must shut my 

 mind up to learn nothing but what is taught under the authority 

 of men, and rest content with the little candle-burning of 

 light that happens to be now vouchsafed to me. Here we are ; 

 and so long as we have freedom, here we remain, and do each 

 other, and the world, good, so far as we are able : but if we do 

 not stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free ; 

 if we set up one of the many forms of Unitarian orthodoxy, from 

 the sectarian standpoint of what are already called the Old Unita- 

 rians, to the religion without Christ except as one of many 

 teachers, which gains favour in some quarters; or if we set 

 up any of the forms already crystallized in the Christian Church ; 



* ' ' Hymns for the Christian Church and Home, collected and edited by- 

 James Martineau" (first edition, 1840). Feeling that in a "generation 

 remarkable for rapid change, Christian piety itself, notwithstanding its 

 essential permanence, has insensibly modified its complexion," Dr. Marti- 

 neau in 1874 published " Hymns of Praise and Prayer." 



