religion, and insist upon individual experience of the practical
efficiency of the gospel in producing a real change of sentiment and
conduct, as the only essentials in religion. They consider the
manifestation of God in Christ as intended to be the most beneficial
revelation of the Deity to the human race; and, in consequence, they make
the life, merits, acts, words, sufferings, and death, of the Savior the
principal theme of their doctrine, while they carefully avoid entering
into any theoretical disquisitions on the mysterious essence of the
Godhead, simply adhering to the words of Scripture. Admitting the sacred
Scriptures as the only source of divine revelation, they nevertheless
believe that the Spirit of God continues to lead those who believe in
Christ into all further truth, not by revealing new doctrines, but by
teaching those who sincerely desire to learn, daily, better to understand
and apply the truths which the Scriptures contain. They believe that, to
live agreeably to the gospel, it is essential to aim, in all things, to
fulfil the will of God. Even in their temporal concerns, they endeavor to
ascertain the will of God. They do not, indeed, expect some miraculous
manifestation of his will, but only endeavor to test the purity of their
purposes by the light of the divine word. Nothing of consequence is done
by them, as a society, until such an examination has taken place; and, in
cases of difficulty, the question is decided by lot, to avoid the undue
preponderance of influential men, and in the humble hope that God will
guide them right by its decision, where their limited understanding fails
them. In former times, the marriages of the members of the society were,
in some respects, regarded as a concern of the society, as it was part of
their social agreement that none should take place without the approval of
the elders; and the elders’ consent or refusal was usually determined by
lot. But this custom was at length abandoned; and nothing is now requisite
to obtain the consent of the elders, but propriety of conduct in the
parties. They consider none of their peculiar regulations essential, but
all liable to be altered or abandoned, whenever it is found necessary, in
order better to attain their great object—the promotion of piety.
What characterizes the Moravians most, and holds them up to the attention
of others, is their missionary zeal. In this they are superior to any
other body of people in the world. “Their missionaries,” as one observes,
“are all of them volunteers; for it is an inviolable maxim with them to
_persuade_ no man to engage in missions. They are all of one mind as to
the doctrines they teach, and seldom make an attempt where there are not
half a dozen of them in the mission. Their zeal is calm, steady,
persevering. They would reform the world, but are careful how they quarrel
with it. They carry their point by address, and the insinuations of
modesty and mildness, which commend them to all men, and give offence to
none. The habits of silence, quietness, and decent reserve, mark their
character.”
The following is a sketch of the mode of life of the Moravians, or United
Brethren, where they form separate communities, which, however, is not
always the case; for, in many instances, societies belonging to the Unity
are situated in larger and smaller cities and towns, intermingled with the
rest of the inhabitants, in which cases their peculiar regulations are, of
course, out of the question. In their separate communities, they do not
allow the permanent residence of any persons as householders who are not
members in full communion, and who have not signed the written instrument
of brotherly agreement, upon which their constitution and discipline rest;
but they freely admit of the temporary residence among them of such other
persons as are willing to conform to their external regulations. According
to these, all kinds of amusements considered dangerous to strict morality
are forbidden, as balls, dancing, plays, gambling of any kind, and all
promiscuous assemblies of youth of both sexes. These, however, are not
debarred from forming, under proper advice and parental superintendence,
that acquaintance which their future matrimonial connections may require.
In the communities on the European continent, whither, to this day,
numbers of young persons of both sexes resort, in order to become members
of the society from motives of piety and a desire to prepare themselves to
become missionaries among the heathen, and where, moreover, the
difficulties of supporting a family greatly limit the number of marriages,
a stricter attention to this point becomes necessary. On this account, the
unmarried men and boys, not belonging to the families of the community,
reside together, under the care of an elder of their own class, in a
building called the _single brethren’s house_, where usually divers trades
and manufactures are carried on, for the benefit of the house or of the
community, and which, at the same time, furnishes a cheap and convenient
place for the board and lodging of those who are employed as journeymen,
apprentices, or otherwise, in the families constituting the community.
Particular daily opportunities of edification are there afforded them; and
such a house is the place of resort where the young men and boys of the
families spend their leisure time, it being a general rule, that every
member of the society shall devote himself to some useful occupation. A
similar house, under the guidance of a female superintendent, and under
similar regulations, is called the _single sisters’ house_, and is the
common dwelling-place of all unmarried females, not members of any family,
or not employed as servants in the families of the community. Even these
regard the sisters’ house as their principal place of association at
leisure hours. Industrious habits are here inculcated in the same way. In
the communities of the United Brethren in America, the facilities of
supporting families, and the consequent early marriages, have superseded
the necessity of single brethren’s houses; but they all have sisters’
houses of the above description, which afford a comfortable asylum to aged
unmarried females, while they furnish an opportunity of attending to the
further education and improvement of the female youth after they have left
school. In the larger communities, similar houses afford the same
advantages to such widows as desire to live retired, and are called
_widows’ houses_. The individuals residing in these establishments pay a
small rent, by which, and by the sums paid for their board, the expenses
of these houses are defrayed, assisted occasionally by the profits on the
sale of ornamental needle-work, &c., on which some of the inmates subsist.
The aged and needy are supported by the same means. Each division of sex
and station just alluded to, viz., widows, single men and youths, single
women and girls past the age of childhood, is placed under the special
guidance of elders of their own description, whose province it is to
assist them with good advice and admonition, and to attend, as much as may
be, to the spiritual and temporal welfare of each individual. The children
of each sex are under the immediate care of the superintendent of the
single choirs, as these divisions are termed. Their instruction in
religion, and in all the necessary branches of human knowledge, in good
schools, carried on separately for each sex, is under the special
superintendence of the stated minister of each community, and of the board
of elders. Similar special elders are charged to attend to the spiritual
welfare of the married people. All these elders, of both sexes, together
with the stated minister, to whom the preaching of the gospel is chiefly
committed, (although all other elders who may be qualified participate
therein,) and with the persons to whom the economical concerns of the
community are intrusted, form together the board of elders, in which rests
the government of the community, with the concurrence of the committee
elected by the inhabitants for all temporal concerns. This committee
superintends the observance of all regulations, has charge of the police,
and decides differences between individuals. Matters of a general nature
are submitted to a meeting of the whole community, consisting either of
all male members of age, or of an intermediate body elected by them.
Public meetings are held every evening in the week. Some of these are
devoted to the reading of the Scriptures, others to the communication of
accounts from the missionary stations, and others to the singing of hymns
or selected verses. On Sunday mornings, the church litany is publicly
read, and sermons are delivered to the congregation, which, in many
places, is the case likewise in the afternoon. In the evening, discourses
are delivered, in which the texts for that day are explained and brought
home to the particular circumstances of the community. Besides these
regular means of edification, the festival days of the Christian church,
such as Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, &c., are commemorated in a special
manner, as well as some days of peculiar interest in the history of the
society. A solemn church music constitutes a prominent feature of their
means of edification, music in general being a favorite employment of the
leisure of many. On particular occasions, and before the congregation
meets to partake of the Lord’s supper, they assemble expressly to listen
to instrumental and vocal music, interspersed with hymns, in which the
whole congregation joins, while they partake together of a cup of coffee,
tea, or chocolate, and light cakes, in token of fellowship and brotherly
union. This solemnity is called a _love-feast_, and is in imitation of the
custom of the agapæ in the primitive Christian churches. The Lord’s supper
is celebrated at stated intervals, generally by all communicant members
together, under very solemn but simple rites.
Easter morning is devoted to a solemnity of a peculiar kind. At sunrise,
the congregation assembles in the graveyard; a service, accompanied by
music, is celebrated, expressive of the joyful hopes of immortality and
resurrection, and a solemn commemoration is made of all who have, in the
course of the last year, departed this life from among them, and “gone
home to the Lord”—an expression they often use to designate death.
Considering the termination of the present life no evil, but the entrance
upon an eternal state of bliss to the sincere disciples of Christ, they
desire to divest this event of all its terrors. The decease of every
individual is announced to the community by solemn music from a band of
instruments. Outward appearances of mourning are discountenanced. The
whole congregation follows the bier to the graveyard, (which is commonly
laid out as a garden,) accompanied by a band, playing the tunes of
well-known verses, which express the hopes of eternal life and
resurrection; and the corpse is deposited in the simple grave during the
funeral service. The preservation of the purity of the community is
intrusted to the board of elders and its different members, who are to
give instruction and admonition to those under their care, and make a
discreet use of the established church discipline. In cases of immoral
conduct, or flagrant disregard of the regulations of the society, this
discipline is resorted to. If expostulations are not successful, offenders
are for a time restrained from participating in the holy communion, or
called before the committee. For pertinacious bad conduct, or flagrant
excesses, the culpable individual is dismissed from the society. The
ecclesiastical church officers, generally speaking, are the
bishops,—through whom the regular succession of ordination, transmitted to
the United Brethren through the ancient church of the Bohemian and
Moravian Brethren, is preserved, and who alone are authorized to ordain
ministers, but possess no authority in the government of the church,
except such as they derive from some other office, being, most frequently,
the presidents of some board of elders,—the civil seniors,—to whom, in
subordination to the board of elders of the Unity, belongs the management
of the external relations of the society,—the presbyters, or ordained
stated ministers of the communities, and the deacons. The degree of deacon
is the first bestowed upon young ministers and missionaries, by which they
are authorized to administer the sacraments. Females, although elders
among their own sex, are never ordained; nor have they a vote in the
deliberations of the board of elders, which they attend for the sake of
information only.
The Moravians that first visited the United States, settled at Savannah,
Ga., in 1735.
TUNKERS.
A denomination of Seventh-Day Baptists, which took its rise in the year
1724. It was founded by a German, who, weary of the world, retired to an
agreeable solitude, within sixty miles of Philadelphia, for the more free
exercise of religious contemplation. Curiosity attracted followers, and
his simple and engaging manners made them proselytes. They soon settled a
little colony, called Ephrata, in allusion to the Hebrews, who used to
sing psalms on the border of the River Euphrates. This denomination seem
to have obtained their name from their baptizing their new converts by
plunging. They are also called _Tumblers_, from the manner in which they
perform baptism, which is by putting the person, while kneeling, head
first under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the action
of tumbling. They use the trine immersion, with laying on the hands and
prayer, even when the person baptized is in the water. Their habit seems
to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a long tunic or coat, reaching
down to their heels, with a sash or girdle round the waist, and a cap or
hood hanging from the shoulders. They do not shave the head or beard.
The men and women have separate habitations and distinct governments. For
these purposes, they erected two large wooden buildings, one of which is
occupied by the brethren, the other by the sisters, of the society; and in
each of them there is a banqueting-room, and an apartment for public
worship; for the brethren and sisters do not meet together even at their
devotions.
They used to live chiefly upon roots and other vegetables, the rules of
their society not allowing them flesh, except upon particular occasions,
when they hold what they call a love-feast; at which time, the brethren
and sisters dine together in a large apartment, and eat mutton, but no
other meat. In each of their little cells they have a bench fixed, to
serve the purpose of a bed, and a small block of wood for a pillow. They
allow of marriages, but consider celibacy as a virtue.
The principal tenet of the Tunkers appears to be this—that future
happiness is only to be obtained by penance and outward mortifications in
this life, and that, as Jesus Christ, by his meritorious sufferings,
became the Redeemer of mankind in general, so each individual of the human
race, by a life of abstinence and restraint, may work out his own
salvation. Nay, they go so far as to admit of works of supererogation, and
declare that a man may do much more than he is in justice or equity
obliged to do, and that his superabundant works may, therefore, be applied
to the salvation of others.
This denomination deny the eternity of future punishments, and believe
that the dead have the gospel preached to them by our Savior, and that the
souls of the just are employed to preach the gospel to those who have had
no revelation in this life. They suppose the Jewish Sabbath, sabbatical
year, and year of jubilee, are typical of certain periods after the
general judgment, in which the souls of those who are not then admitted
into happiness are purified from their corruption. If any, within those
smaller periods, are so far humbled as to acknowledge the perfections of
God, and to own Christ as their only Savior, they are received to
felicity; while those who continue obstinate are reserved in torments,
until the grand period, typified by the jubilee, arrives, in which all
shall be made happy in the endless fruition of the Deity.
They also deny the imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity. They
disclaim violence, even in cases of self-defence, and suffer themselves to
be defrauded, or wronged, rather than go to law.
Their church government and discipline are the same with other Baptists;
except that every brother is allowed to speak in the congregation; and
their best speaker is usually ordained to be the minister. They have
deacons and deaconesses from among their ancient widows and exhorters, who
are all licensed to use their gifts statedly.
The Tunkers are not so rigid in their dress and manner of life as
formerly; still they retain the faith of their fathers, and lead lives of
great industry, frugality, and purity.
MENNONITES, OR HARMLESS CHRISTIANS.
The Mennonites derive their name from Menno Simons, an illustrious
reformer. This people came to the United States from Holland, and first
settled in Pennsylvania, where a large body of them now reside.
It is a universal maxim of this denomination, that practical piety is the
essence of religion, and that the surest mark of the true church is the
sanctity of its members. They all unite in pleading for toleration in
religion, and debar none from their assemblies who lead pious lives, and
own the Scriptures for the word of God. They teach that infants are not
the proper subjects of baptism; that ministers of the gospel ought to
receive no salary; and that it is not lawful to swear, or wage war, upon
any occasion. They also maintain that the terms _person_ and _Trinity_ are
not to be used in speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The Mennonites meet privately, and every one in the assembly has the
liberty to speak, to expound the Scriptures, to pray, and sing.
The Mennonites do not baptize by immersion, though they administer the
ordinance to none but adult persons. Their common method is this: The
person who is to be baptized, kneels; the minister holds his hands over
him, into which the deacon pours water, and through which it runs on the
crown of the kneeling person’s head; after which follow imposition of
hands and prayer.
Mr. Van Beuning, the Dutch ambassador, speaking of these _Harmless
Christians_, as they choose to call themselves, says, “The Mennonites are
good people, and the most commodious to a state of any in the world;
partly, because they do not aspire to places of dignity; partly, because
they edify the community by the simplicity of their manners, and
application to arts and industry; and partly, because we fear no rebellion
from a sect who make it an article of their faith never to bear arms.”
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST; SOMETIMES CALLED CAMPBELLITES, OR REFORMERS.
The rise of this society, if we only look back to the drawing of the lines
of demarkation between it and other professors, is of recent origin. About
the commencement of the present century, the Bible alone, without any
human addition in the form of creeds or confessions of faith, began to be
preached by many distinguished ministers of different denominations, both
in Europe and America.
With various success, and with many of the opinions of the various sects
imperceptibly carried with them from the denominations to which they once
belonged, did the advocates of the Bible cause plead for the union of
Christians of every name, on the broad basis of the apostles’ teaching.
But it was not until the year 1823, that a restoration of the _original
gospel_ and _order of things_ began to be advocated in a periodical,
edited by Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, entitled “The
Christian Baptist.”
He and his father, Thomas Campbell, renounced the Presbyterian system, and
were immersed, in the year 1812. They, and the congregations which they
had formed, united with the Redstone Baptist association, protesting
against all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjection to
the Bible alone. This union took place in the year 1813. But, in pressing
upon the attention of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of
the _sacred_ Scriptures for every thing necessary to the perfection of
Christian character,—whether in the private or social relations of life,
in the church, or in the world,—they began to be opposed by a strong
creed-party in that association. After some ten years debating and
contending for the Bible alone, and the apostles’ doctrine, Alexander
Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united with the Mahoning
association, in the Western Reserve of Ohio; that association being more
favorable to his views of reform.
In his debates on the subject and action of baptism with Mr. Walker, a
seceding minister, in the year 1820, and with Mr. M’Calla, a Presbyterian
minister of Kentucky, in the year 1823, his views of reformation began to
be developed, and were very generally received by the Baptist society, as
far as these works were read.
But in his “Christian Baptist,” which began July 4, 1823 his views of the
need of reformation were more fully exposed, and, as these gained ground
by the pleading of various ministers of the Baptist denomination, a party
in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the spread of what they
were pleased to call heterodoxy. But not till after great numbers began to
act upon these principles, was there any attempt towards separation. After
the Mahoning association appointed Mr. Walter Scott an evangelist, in the
year 1827, and when great numbers began to be immersed into Christ, under
his labors, and new churches began to be erected by him and other laborers
in the field, did the Baptist associations begin to declare non-fellowship
with the brethren of the reformation. Thus by constraint, not of choice,
they were obliged to form societies out of those communities that split,
upon the ground of adherence to the apostles’ doctrine. The distinguishing
characteristics of their views and practices are the following:—
They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian world as having, in
greater or less degrees, departed from the simplicity of faith and manners
of the first Christians, and as forming what the apostle Paul calls “the
apostasy.” This defection they attribute to the great varieties of
speculation and metaphysical dogmatism of the countless creeds,
formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as
bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have
sprung from the Lutheran reformation. The effect of these synodical
covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of ecclesiastical
polity, has been the introduction of a new nomenclature,—a human
vocabulary of religious words, phrases, and technicalities, which has
displaced the style of the living oracles, and affixed to the sacred
diction ideas wholly unknown to the apostles of Christ.
To remedy and obviate these aberrations, they propose to ascertain from
the holy Scriptures, according to the commonly-received and
well-established rules of interpretation, the ideas attached to the
leading terms and sentences found in the holy Scriptures, and then to use
the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of them.
By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the Holy Spirit, in the terms
and phrases learned from the apostles, and by avoiding the artificial and
technical language of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a pure
speech to the household of faith; and, by accustoming the family of God to
use the language and dialect of the heavenly Father, they expect to
promote the sanctification of one another through the truth, and to
terminate those discords and debates which have always originated from the
words which man’s wisdom teaches, and from a reverential regard and esteem
for the style of the great masters of polemic divinity; believing that
speaking the same things in the same style, is the only certain way to
thinking the same things.
They make a very marked difference between faith and opinion; between the
testimony of God and the reasonings of men; the words of the Spirit and
human inferences. Faith in the testimony of God, and obedience to the
commandments of Jesus, are their bond of union, and not an agreement in
any abstract views or opinions upon what is written or spoken by divine
authority. Hence all the speculations, questions, debates of words, and
abstract reasonings, found in human creeds, have no place in their
religious fellowship. Regarding Calvinism and Arminianism, Trinitarianism
and Unitarianism, and all the opposing theories of religious sectaries, as
_extremes_ begotten by each other, they cautiously avoid them, as
equidistant from the simplicity and practical tendency of the promises and
precepts, of the doctrine and facts, of the exhortations and precedents,
of the Christian institution.
They look for unity of spirit and the bonds of peace in the practical
acknowledgment of one faith, one Lord, one immersion, one hope, one body,
one Spirit, one God and Father of all; not in unity of opinions, nor in
unity of forms, ceremonies, or modes of worship.