FAITH IN THE SCRIPTURES. 73 
received ; and the meeting closed with devotional 
exercises. 3 
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 opimions 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 
