called "The Christian Palladium," published in the State of New York, and two or three other journals, one published in New Hampshire, the other in Illinois. They have a Book Association also. Upon the whole, much inferior as the Christ-ians are to the Unitarians in point of wealth, the size of their churches, the learning and eloquence of their ministers, and the rank and respectability of their members, yet being far more numerous, and having doctrines of quite as elevated a character, their influence upon the masses, while kindred in nature, is perhaps greater in extent.

CHAPTER V.

THE UNIVERSALISTS.

In our chapter on the Unitarians, we expressed our views of the moral influence of the doctrines of the Universalists. The latter were little known as a sect in America until about the middle of the last century, when a few persons of reputation partially or wholly embraced their doctrines. These were afterward preached by the Rev. John Murray, who came from England in 1770, and were embraced by the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist minister of considerable talent. Both Murray and Winchester held the doctrine of restoration, that is, that after the resurrection and the judgment, the wicked, after suffering in hell for a time, and in a measure proportioned to their guilt, will eventually be recovered through the influences of the Spirit, and saved by the atonement of Christ. About the year 1790, the Rev. Hosea Ballou appeared as a Universalist preacher, and taught that all punishment is in this life, and, consequently, that the souls of the righteous and the wicked alike pass immediately at death into a state of happiness-a doctrine which, being much more acceptable to the unrenewed heart, became much more popular than that of restoration as above described. The restorationist preachers in the United States hardly exceed twelve or fifteen in number, and their churches are even fewer; whereas the Universalists, properly so called, have rapidly increased here within the last fifty years. In 1801 there were but twenty-two avowed Universalist preachers; they now state their numbers to be as follows: six hundred and forty preachers, eight hundred and twenty-eight churches, under a General Convention, and many Associations, and six hundred thousand of the population under their influence. The last item, we suspect, is much too high. Their congregations are mostly small, and many attend from mere curiosity.

The doctrines of the American Universalists are well expressed in three articles adopted as a "Profession of Belief" by the General Convention of Universalists, held in 1803. It is said to be "perfectly satisfactory to the denomination," and is as follows:

1. "We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest, and final destination of mankind.

2. “We believe that there is one God, whose nature is love; revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of grace, who will finally restore the whole world of mankind to holiness and happiness.

3. "We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected; and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto

men."

Although their churches are all severally independent of each other, yet for consultation they have local associations, State Conventions, and a General Convention. They have begun of late years to pay some attention to education, and have now what they call a university in the State of Vermont, and three or four inferior institutions. Most of their preachers, though men of little learning, by directing all their thoughts to one point, and mustering every plausible argument in favor of their doctrines, become wonderfully skillful in wielding their sophistry, so as readily to seduce such as want to find an easier way to Heaven than can be found in the Scriptures, when these are not tortured and perverted to serve some particular end. They say that they have no fewer than twenty newspapers, advocating their doctrines in different parts of the country.

The only Universalists whose preaching seems to have any moral influence, are the handful of Restorationists-the rest are heard with delight chiefly by the irreligious, the profane, Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, and all haters of evangelical religion. Their preaching positively exercises no reforming influence on the wicked, and what worse can be said of it ?*

I take pleasure in stating that of late there seems to be a growing conviction among some of the leading Universalists that there must be some punishment for the wicked in the world to come.

*On the opening of a Universalist place of worship in any of our cities and villages, it is flocked to chiefly by low, idle, and vicious persons. Curiosity sometimes attracts others of a better description for a time; but it is a remarkable fact, established by the testimony of Universalists on becoming converted to the Truth, that few can, however desirous, ever bring themselves to believe the doctrine of universal salvation. Most are like the New England farmer who, at the close of a Universalist service, went forward and thanked the preacher for his sermon, saying that he vastly liked the doctrine, and would give him five dollars if he would only make it true!

CHAPTER VI.

SWEDENBORGIANS.

THE New Jerusalem Church, or Swedenborgians, are not numerous in America. Their doctrines were first propagated here, I believe, by some missionaries from England. Their churches, which are small, are about forty-five in number, and isolated members of the sect are to be found in various parts of the country. They have about thirty-five ministers, with hardly ten thousand souls under their instruction. Their churches, in point of government, are, in the main, Independent, with consultative conventions of their ministers, held from time to time. Their doctrines, which, the reader must be aware, are of Swedish origin, and have for their author Baron Emanuel Swedenborg, are a strange "amalgamation," as some one has justly remarked, " of Sabellianism, the errors of the Patripassians, many of the anti-Scriptural notions of the Socinians, and some of the most extravagant vagaries of mysticism. Their mode of interpreting Scripture is totally at variance with every principle of sound philology and exegesis, and necessarily tends to unsettle the mind, and leave it a prey to the wildest whimsies that it is possible for the human mind to create or entertain." They practise both Baptism and the Lord's Supper. They have two or three periodicals, in which their doctrines are expounded and defended.*

CHAPTER VII.

THE JEWS.

WHATEVER may have been the early legislation of the AngloAmerican colonies in regard to the descendants of Abraham, it is certain that the Jew now finds an asylum, and the full enjoyment of his civil rights, in all parts of the United States. Yet I know not how it has happened, unless it be owing to the distance of our coun

The Swedenborgians say that they are increasing faster in America than anywhere else at present. If this be so, their increase throughout the world must be slow indeed. The late Judge Young, of Greensburg, in Pennsylvania, the Rev. Dr. Bush, of New York, and a few other men of some influence, have been reckoned among their converts. In some instances men who have grown tired of the coldness of Unitarianism, have betaken themselves to Swedenborgianism. Dr. Bush is their ablest writer.

try from Europe, and its presenting less scope for the petty traffic which forms their chief employment in the Old World, that it has been only at a comparatively recent period that any considerable number of Jews have found their way to our shores. So much have they increased, however, among us during the last twenty years, that it is now computed that there are no fewer than fifty thousand in the United States. They have about fifty synagogues and the same number of Rabbies. Five or six synagogues are now to be found in New York, instead of one, as a few years ago. There is one in which the service is conducted in English, at Charleston, in South Carolina, and no doubt in other cities also. A few instances of conversion to Christianity have taken place, but only a few, the attention of Christians, we may truly say, not having been sufficiently turned to that object. This may have been from the fewness of the Jews, until of late years, causing them to be overlooked, or from the want of suitable persons to devote themselves to the work. We are pleased to see that some interest has begun to be taken in this subject during the last few years.

CHAPTER VIII.

RAPPISTS, SHAKERS, MORMONS, ETC.

THE Rappists are a small body of German Protestants, who came to the United States from Wurtemburg, about the year 1803, under their pastor, a Mr. George Rapp, now deceased. They settled at a place called Economy, on the Ohio, about fifteen miles below Pittsburg. From Economy part of them, headed by Mr. Rapp, went to the Wabash River, in Indiana, and on its banks formed a new settlement, called Harmony, but this they afterward sold to the wellknown Robert Owen, and returned to Economy, in Pennsylvania. Their distinguishing principle is an entire "community of goods," upon what they suppose to have been the example of the primitive Christians. The whole scheme, however, of this small community, for it comprises but a few hundred members, seems mainly of a worldly and merely economical character, though they keep up the form of religious observances and services.

The Shakers are a fanatical sect of English origin. About 1747, James Wardley, originally a Quaker, imagining that he had supernatural dreams and revelations, founded a sect which, from the bodily agitations practiced in some parts of their religious services,

1

were called Shakers, or Shaking Quakers; it is not, however, to be supposed for a moment that they are connected with the respectable people called Quakers or Friends. Ann Lee, or, rather Mrs. Standley, (for she had married a man of that name,) the daughter of a blacksmith in Manchester, England, adopted Wardley's views and the bodily exercises of his followers. From the accounts we have of her she must have become a thorough adept during the nine years which she spent in convulsions, fastings, etc.; for she is said to have clenched her fists in the course of her fits so as to make the blood pass through the pores of her skin, and wasted away so that at last she had to be fed like an infant. About 1770 she discovered the wickedness of marriage, and began "testifying against it." She called herself "Ann the Word," meaning that the Word dwelt in her. And to this day her followers say that "the man who was called Jesus, and the woman who was called Ann, are verily the two first pillars of the Church, the two anointed ones." In other words, they hold that, as the first Adam was accompanied by a woman, so must be the second Adam.

In May, 1774, Ann Lee, otherwise Mrs. Standley, together with three elders, and others of the sect, emigrated to America, and two years after formed a settlement at Niskayuna, a few miles from Albany, in the State of New York. From that, as from a centre, they put forth shoots, until at length there are now about fifteen Shaker settlements, or villages, in different parts of the United States, comprising some six or eight thousand souls. Their doctrines are a strange mixture of the crudest errors with some few Gospel truths, but it would be a sad misnomer to call them Christian. They call themselves the Millennial Church. They hold that the millennium has begun, and that they are the only true church, and have all the apostolic gifts. They insist that Baptism and the Lord's Supper ceased with the apostolic age; that the wicked will be punished for a definite period only, except such as apostatize from them, and these will be punished forever; that the judgment has already commenced; that Christ will not again appear in the world, except in the persons of his followers, that is, the Shakers; that marriage is sinful, and that "they that have wives should be as though they had none," even now, and that thus alone purity and holiness, and the consequent beatitude of the heavenly state, can be attained; that sin committed against God is committed against them, and can be pardoned only for Christ's sake through them. Such are some of their absurd tenets. The discipline of their churches rests for the most part with their "elders," who follow the instructions left by "Mother Ann Lee." In their religious worship, they range them