these views may be true, that they may be thereby freed from responsibility and the goadings of conscience, has much to do with their earnestness in endeavoring to believe them. 3. Another and still larger class of unbelievers, we can hardly call them free thinkers, for they do very little thinking of any sort, are the men and women utterly brutalized by a vicious life, who are without hope and without God in the world, and who stolidly conclude that no other life, if there is another, can be worse than the present; and that somehow they will be better off after death, since, as they express it, they have had no show or chance here. These need almost a new creation to bring them up to the plane of morally accountable beings. They constitute the dangerous classes of our large cities, the material of mobs, the gangs of thieves, dead rabbits, shoulder hitters, prize fighters, burglars, and if women, the shop lifters, prostitutes, and degraded women of the slums and back alleys of the great cities. We might name as recruits in this army of unbelief, those who under the influence of the worst phases of spiritualism have lost all faith in humanity, and those in higher circles of society who departing from their early training in sound doctrine have wandered and floundered through the mazes of German rationalism, transcendentalism, and at last merged in Pantheism or utter unbelief. A very considerable portion of the educated German emigrants, and the English workingmen who migrate to this country are Freethinkers or infidels, and in many of our large cities as well as in the newer towns and settlements at the West they have organized Infidel or Liberal clubs, and seek to bring others into their way of thinking. They have united and brought out their full strength on several occasions in the effort to have all Sabbath laws abrogated in several of the Western cities. In some of the new settlements of the West they have been so largely in the majority that they have prohibited all effort for religious worship or Sabbath observance. Their periodicals vary in character according to the class whom they address. Some are decorous in tone but aim at subverting Christianity by appeals to reason and philosophy; others are ribald and blasphemous, and denounce incessantly all Christian organizations, and Christian men. Those conducted by foreigners and in German or French, are generally revolutionary in their character, and have much to say of priestcraft and restrictions upon the rights of the people. There are in all fifteen or twenty of these papers, but they give no indications of the number of the Freethinking class, since many of them do not read anything. There are no means of estimating with any approximation to accuracy their actual numbers. Men who have made religious statistics a study, and with equal opportunities of observations differ as widely as between 250,000 and 1,000,000; and the larger number is quite as likely to be correct as the smaller. There are a number of small and minor sects which did not properly come under the classification we have adopted. With a brief notice of them we close this sketch of RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS IN THE UNITed States. I. ADVENTISTS, a recent sect of Millinarians, owing its origin to William Miller of Vermont, from whom they are often called Millerites. He commenced his public teachings in 1833 and predicted the second advent of Christ in 1843. Among his disciples was one Joshua V. Himes who had been a Campbellite preacher and who surpassed Miller in earnestness and energy. After the failure of their first prediction in 1843, others were made but the adherents of the sect fell off. Himes however continued to advocate his doctrine in the Advent Herald and from the pulpit, and succeded in drawing around him a considerable number of followers, of whom, since Miller's death, he has been the leader and apostle. He is said to be inclined to Unitarian views in regard to the divinity of Christ, and with most of his followers to hold that the wicked will be annihilated at the second coming of Christ. There are no definite statistics of the numbers of the Adventists, but they are estimated at about 20,000. Their other views are generally those of the Evangelical churches, though inclining somewhat to Methodism; but they have no regular creed or form of discipline. II. ANNIHILATIONISTS. The doctrine of the Annihilation of the Wicked is not confined to Adventists. Nearly forty years ago it was defended by Rev. Henry Grew, and since that time Dr. McCulloh of Baltimore, George Storrs (an Adventist) and Rev. C. F. Hudson have published works advocating the doctrine. They have not a large following aside from the Adventists, and most of those who believe in the doctrine remain members of Evangelical churches. and no formal organization. Mr. Darby was a Millenarian and thought it the duty of all true Christians to gather in small bands and pray, labor, and wait for the III. CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH or speedy second coming of Christ. The PlyIRVINGITES, a small denomination which mouth Brethren recognize no other title originated with the teachings of Rev. Ed- except that of Brethren or Christians; they ward Irving in London about 1830, but are Calvinistic (thoroughly so) in doctrinal afterwards considerably modified through belief; but believe that all the Lord's chilthe influence of Mr. Henry Drummond, a dren are priests and kings in his service and member of Mr. Irving's congregation. They that any one of them who feels that he is hold to the present existence in the Chris- called to the work has a right to preach or tian Church of the Charisms or gifts men- to administer ordinances. They permit no tioned by Paul in Cor. xii. 27-31, Eph. iv. licensure or ordination, and all preaching 11–13, 1 Thess. v. 19, 20, viz. healing, speak- is voluntary and without salary or compening with tongues, prophesying, &c. In sation. They baptize adults on a profession their other doctrines they agree generally of faith (usually immersing them) though with the Evangelical churches though they they do not consider this indispensable to make confirmation or sealing by the laying membership. They do not allow infant on of hands of the apostles a third sacrament baptism. They exclude persons from paror ordinance. In organization and polity, ticipating in the Lord's Supper, who have however, they differ from most of the been guilty of gross sins. The Lord's Supchurches in having four orders of the min- per is celebrated every Sabbath morning. istry, apostles, prophets. evangelists, and In the afternoon or evening of the Lord's angels or chief pastors, and under the latter, day they preach to and pray for such as are a fourfold service of elders and deacons, to- not converted. They believe in the efficacy gether with under deacons and deaconesses. of prayer for special blessings temporal as The deacons, under deacons, and deacon- well as spiritual, and one of the Brethren, esses are ordained by the angel or chief pas- George Müller has maintained an extensive tor, all the superior ministers or servants by Orphan Asylum and large missionary enterthe apostles who are not themselves ordained prises at Bristol for many years, solely by but called of the Holy Spirit to their work. praying for the needed funds, which as they In their worship they use incense-lights on came in were most judiciously expended. the altar, the full catalogue of priestly vest- The denomination has had a rapid growth ments, and a very imposing and impressive in England and on the continent, and numritual. They celebrate the Eucharist, every bers many eminent men among its adherLord's day, as well as on other occasions, ents. In this country they have a considerand receive tithes during the service. They able number of congregations, but are very also have auricular confession of sin with reticent concerning their increase and absolutions and prayers in fourfold form. At their meetings for extemporaneous prayV. SANDEMANIANS or GLASSITES. This er and confession they encourage the speak- denomination, which a hundred years ago ing with tongues and prophesying. The was quite numerous is now nearly extinct. number of congregations of the Catholic It derives its name from Rev. Robert SanApostolic Church in the United States is deman, who was not, however, its real foundsmall, not more than eight or ten in all. er, his father-in-law, Rev. John Glass of Dundee, having originated the sect. Mr. Sandeman, after preaching their doctrines for twenty years or more in Scotland, emigrated to the United States in 1764, and settled at Danbury, Connecticut, where he died in 1771, having established several Sandemanian churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Their distinguishing doctrines are: That faith is a simple intellectual assent to the teachings and divinity of Christ; that all mystical or double inter IV. BRETHREN or PLYMOUTH BRETHREN, a denomination which originated about 1830 under the leadership of Rev. John Darby, an English barrister of high social position, who became a clergyman of the Church of England and devoted himself to missionary labors in Ireland for several years, but being conscientiously opposed to the doctrine of Apostolical Succession he left that church and proceeded to found one which recognized no distinctive ministry growth. pretation of the scriptures is to be rejected; that none of their members must take part in any games of chance; that they are to abstain strictly from all blood and "things strangled" that all collegiate training for the ministry is wrong; that no prayers should be made at funerals; that weekly love feasts in which all the members of the Church should dine together should be observed every Sabbath day; and the kiss of brotherhood should pass between all their members, male and female, at their solemn meetings; and that a plurality of elders is necessary in the church, two at least being required for all acts of discipline and the administration of ordinances and ritual. The ordinance of feet-washing originally practised by the sect has been discontinued. There are not more than two or three congregations of Sandemanians now existing in the United States. an intellectual belief, and that confessing this belief the man's sins are immediately washed away, and thenceforth he is above and beyond all law, being a law unto himself; though in practice he surrenders a portion of this liberty to the family or Community in which he lives. They hold to a community of goods, community of women, or as they term it, a complex marriage; no legal marriage being considered binding and the parties to it in the community being at liberty to make new selections at will, their liberty, however, being somewhat abridged by the necessity of making their proposals through a third party and their being subject to the approval of the family and in accordance with what they pronounce physiological laws. The Community or Communities now number in all about 600 members, that at Oneida having 300. They have prospered financially, having attained large wealth by their manufactures and agricultural productions. They are said to be harmonious and contented. The men dress like the citizens of the adjacent towns, but the women have adopted a sort of Bloomer costume and wear their hair short. The influence of these Communities can only be evil on the society around them. There are several other communities in various parts of the United States, practising a community of VI. CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, a sect founded in Maine in 1863 by a person named Adams, who had previously been a Mormon elder. He claimed to have visions and special inspirations. Among the points of the new faith was, that its members were of the tribe of Ephraim and that the time had come for them to return to the land of their fathers, where the Messiah was to set up the throne of David. In 1866, 156 of the members of the sect sailed from Maine for Pal-goods but not of wives. We have already estine under the leadership of Adams and landed at Jaffa, where through the efforts of the American Vice-onsul, land had been procured for them and where they erected houses and a hotel. Dissatisfaction soon occurred. Adams was accused of mismanagement, and through the kind offices of the United States government a considerable number returned in 1867, and the remainder in 1868. The sect is probably extinct. VII. PERFECTIONISTS. I. FREE LOVERS, BIBLE COMMUNISTS or PERFECTIONISTS, a small American sect founded about 1840 by John H Noyes, in Putney, Vermont, but removed subsequently to Oneida, New York, where it is now known as the Oneida Community. Branches of it are also established under the same regulations at Wallingford and Brooklyn, Connecticut. This organization is a singular medley of Biblical doctrine and unholy practice. They profess to believe that a reconciliation to God is necessary for salvation, that this is accomplished through faith which is simply described the Shaker Communities, which have all prospered; but there are others which do not find a new theology necessary to their success, such as the German Socialist Village of Economy, Pennsylvania, the Seventh Day German Baptist Community at Ephrata, Pennsylvania; the more recently organized one, near Brocton in Western New York, which from the past history of Rev. T. L. Harris, one of its founders. we suppose to be Spiritualistic, and one in Iowa, which admits only male members. II. Another and more numerous sect of PERFECTIONISTS, though, perhaps, we should hardly call them a sect since they have very generally retained their connection with the denominations to which they had previously belonged, are those persons, who in connection with Methodist, Congregationalist, Baptist, and Adventist Churches, hold to the doctrine that it is not only possible to attain, but that they have actually attained to a condition of sinless perfection, complete freedom not only from sinful acts |