in sincerity; whatever they believe, if they embrace no fundamental error; whatever they reject, if they discard no essential truth, we should extend to them not only the "right hand," but the right heart of Christian fellowship. Let them stand by our side, we with them and they with us, for blessed, yea, thrice blessed are all those who can agree in the one thing needful! "Not by a party's narrow banks confined, And bound together in the heart of God." It is not our badge upon his shoulder, but Christ's image on his soul; it is not believing in Christ's warrant for any ecclesiastical polity, but it is believing in Christ himself; it is not his dwelling in our tabernacle, but it is the spirit of God dwelling in him that makes him a Christian indeed. Compared with these great realities, how insignificant the points in which believers disagree! "The sincere though mistaken believer, whose heart has been renewed by divine grace, whose motives and intentions are pure, and whose life is consistent, though clinging to some errors, is loved more by the Lord, and should be by us, than he who is perfectly correct in theory, while incorrect in practice. God tolerates such a man, then why should not we? Said Robert Hall, The man that is good enough for Jesus Christ is good enough for me!' All true believers should therefore extend to each other the hand of friendship and love, remembering that if at times they part on the road to heaven, they will ultimately meet, and surround together the same great white throne, and in accordant strains of loudest songs, extol that matchless grace, which translated them from the trials of earth to the felicities of heaven." We may rejoice more over the discovery of a single unessential idea, than over ninety-nine fundamental principles; we may isolate ourselves each upon our own glass pedestals, and stand as monuments of selfishness; man may live in a single element, develop a single faculty and cherish “ one idea," till he becomes essentially a unit, which is next to a blank; he may carry the sword in one hand and the olive-branch of peace in the other, but the sword being foremost, may wound more than the balm can heal. We may be dazzled by our own glowworm spark, so that the world appears to have no effulgence but what is reflected from us; we may have no attraction but the attraction of repulsion; we may love ourselves with all our hearts and strength, generously devoting but the remainder to our worthy neighbors; we may wear the strait-jacket of bigotry and egotism, which utterly forbids all growth or enlargement, until we become so narrow-minded and contracted in our views, that we can pray for no other denomination, rejoice at the prosperity of none, sympathize with none, fellowship none; we may wrap the threadbare folds of sectarianism around and around our meagre persons, and think nothing is done or can be done aright out of our ranks; but these circumscribed views will hold us in the lowest sphere of Christianity, they will lead us through the deep valleys and ravines, that we shall fail of the delightful prospects which the elevated walks of Christian benevolence afford. A small object held before the eye will shut out the glories of a blazing world. We should not, as was said of Burke, give to party what was meant for mankind; but denominational preferences should be held at abeyance to those great principles which are of infinitely more importance. The proper catholic and denominational feelings are not incompatible, they are of one genus and species, one necessarily including the other. And while every honest man must be denominational, having a preference for the views which he has embraced, which he teaches in his family and Sabbath school, and which he wishes to circulate rather than any others, where the facilities for circulating all are equal; yet he who has the mind of Christ will eschew the sectarian spirit. As the pure rays of white light which God has sent forth to cheer the heart of man, and exhibit the beauty and loveliness of nature, can be divided by refraction into rays of various hues, so have men divided the church of God into different sects; but it is only a sickly vision that can rejoice exclusively in a colored light. The foundations of the New Jerusalem are laid not upon one precious stone, but upon twelve. They are not all jasper, they are not all sapphire, or emerald, or topaz, but they are all precious, and together form the foundation. The names upon Aaron's girdle were twelve, but they were all sainted names, and combined to adorn the prophet. Christians should seek more than for silver, that lucid order which turns the labyrinth into a plain path; that arrangement which intergrades the multitudinous fractions into one system, even as cunning artificers taught the cedars of Lebanon, the stones of Tabor, and the gold of Ophir, — parts into parts reciprocally shot, to harmonize, in perfecting the holy and beautiful house on Mount Zion. - 35* CHAPTER XXX. UNION SABBATH SCHOOLS. If there is any department of Christian labor in which the various branches of the church should cooperate, it is the Sabbath school instruction of the young. Men may differ as to the best method of suppressing intemperance, some contending for legal and some for moral suasion; they may not agree as to whether Congregationalism or Presbyterianism is best adapted to the West, but here is a cause in which all can meet and mingle in sweet accord. The Bible, it is acknowledged by all, is the science to be taught; youth the season, and the Sabbath school institution has the suffrage of consenting Christendom. While, therefore, each church and denomination has a school of its own, and each State, organizations for the joint action of their respective denominations, there should be an organization like the American Sunday School Union, for the sympathy and mutual coöperation of all the States, denominations, and churches, that the influence of each may be felt not only at home, but throughout the land. And such are the condition, character, and peculiarities of the population of many of our |