A History of All Religions

SAMUEL M. SCHMUCKER, LL.D.

AUTHOR OF "COURT AND REIGN OF CATHARINE II.," "HISTORY OF NICHOLAS 1.," "ARCTIO
EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES," "LIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON,"
"MEMORABLE SCENES IN FRENCH HISTORY," ETC.

PHILADELPHIA:

QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE,

927 SANSOM STREET.

1867.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

DUANE RULISON,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY JESPER HARDING & SON, PHILADELPHIA.

1.25

S4
1867

PREFACE.

THE design of the following work is essentially different from that of other publications on the same subject, which already exist. The larger and more extensive of these are composed of articles on the Religious Sects in the United States, which were written by members of the several denominations described, and are often expanded into immense length by reïterated and familiar arguments intended to demonstrate the truthfulness and Scriptural authority of the Sects to which the respective writers belonged. This method of treatment is much better suited to works on Polemic Theology, than to those which profess merely to contain a statement of opinions and a narrative of events. On the other hand, the smaller works which have appeared on this subject are superficial and incomplete; being generally made up of very short articles, of clippings from Encyclopedias and Biographical Dictionaries; and are utterly unfit to convey even to the general reader a satisfactory idea of the various subjects which come under consideration.

How far the present writer has succeeded in avoiding the defects of cumbrous expansiveness on the one hand, (3)

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and of superficial condensation on the other; how far he has been able to present to the reader all that is most desirable and useful to know respecting existing and former religious sects, within a moderate and convenient compass; the reader himself must judge. A portion of the contents of the following pages was originally prepared for the columns of one of the leading journals of this city; but they are so altered and adapted as to suit the form in which they now appear. It may be proper also to add, that the present writer is responsible for nearly all the longer articles contained in the volume, together with the biographical notices included in the Appendix.