FAITH IN THE SCRIPTURES. 73 
received; and the meeting closed with devotional 
exercises. 
We did not require any written confession of 
faith, nor invariably a verbal account of experience, 
from the persons admitted. In this latter respect, 
our procedure was not uniform, but regulated by 
the peculiar circumstances of the individual* 
There is another pleasing trait in their Chris¬ 
tian character, namely, their undoubting recep¬ 
tion of the scriptures, as a Divine revelation. 
We have plainly and uniformly stated its truths, 
inculcating among them no opinions or sentiments, 
on matters of religion, but such as are found in the 
Bible ; declaring that what it taught was essential, 
and that all the opinions of men, however excel¬ 
lent, are in comparison unimportant. To the 
Bible we have always appealed, as the authority 
for what we have taught, stating that its de¬ 
clarations allowed of no evasion. The injunctions 
of scripture they have therefore been accustomed 
to receive implicitly, as they are recorded; and 
while they exercise their own judgments very 
freely in matters of human opinion, I never knew 
one, who professed himself a Christian, inclined to 
doubt the authority of the Bible. To this standard 
we have always referred their sentiments and their 
conduct; and by the criterion it furnishes, we always 
recommended their examining their own condition, 
rather than comparing themselves with others. 
Often, when we have recommended some mea¬ 
sure of a religious or general nature, which we 
have supposed would be advantageous to them, 
they have inquired, What says the scripture ? Is 
there any thing about it in the word of God ? If, 
as was sometimes the case, we were under the 
necessity of stating, that there was nothing in the 
