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THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

MARCH, 1845.

ART. I. CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES.

ECCLESIASTICAL assemblies have of late held a place among the most interesting and important events in the land. Newspapers have been eager to report their proceedings from day to day, and politicians have often anxiously watched their result as to its bearing upon great national questions. Regarding slavery, no debate has ever taken place in our country more important than that of the last session of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This large and interesting assembly possesses a wider jurisdiction upon this subject than the national Congress; and if its Northern and Southern members continue their union, its future deliberations will be of vast consequence to the cause of emancipation. No fact speaks more for the change of public opinion upon this topic than the contrast between the votes of this body at Cincinnati in 1836, and at New York in 1844. The little band of fourteen members, who stood up for the slave at the former time, has grown into a majority during the interval, and the future movements of the General Conference will be watched with great solicitude by all parties. 4TH S. VOL. III. NO. II.

VOL. XXXVIII.

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The deliberations of the two General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church-the Old School and the New — are not so interesting, both on account of their frequency and the recent quietness of their proceedings. Their debates merit attention at present chiefly for their bearing on important theological questions. A few years will show how far the rigidity of Calvinism is to be softened in its strongest holds, by showing which of the two Schools will be ready to take the first steps towards reunion. It is evident that the attention of both is very much occupied now by the great question of Church government which Episcopacy has started, and that they are disposed to waive their favorite notions about the doctrines of grace, and unite for the common defence of Presbyterianism against Prelacy.

The deliberations of the late General Convention of the Episcopal Church have occupied a prominent place in the attention of the public, on account of the unusual topics acted upon. The result does not appear to have satisfied either of the leading parties, although the High Church party has come off the better, and succeeded in preventing an expression of opinion against the Oxford doctrines. If we are to form our opinion from recent movements in the Episcopal Church, and from the evident tendencies of the young ministers of the denomination, the High Church doctrines will prevail. Already, before many an enthusiastic mind rises the vision of a splendid hierarchy, whose priests and altars shall control the land by a ritual that shall awe the senses and the soul, and by a discipline that shall rule over the home and the State, guard the child and control the magistrate. How far this vision will be realized, a century will show.

We have spoken of the conventions of these three denominations, because, with the exception of the Roman Catholics, they are the principal bodies which possess authoritative sway over the churches which they represent. Their deliberations are of great importance, from the fact that they are so little under extraneous control, being neither fettered by inexorable precedent, nor overruled by civil power, as is the case with similar bodies in the Old World. Public opinion is the only check upon ecclesiastical ambition here, and if only properly guided, may act with far better effect than any regal prerogative, or parliamentary

restrictions. As the spirit of combination is increasing among the hierarchal bodies in this country, it becomes an important question, what course shall be taken by the friends of religious liberty to resist their encroachments, and vindicate the Gospel alike in its freedom and its order. The spirit of combination is also showing itself anew in the British Church, and there is a general call for the revival of the Convocation that has been dormant more than a century, or else for the restoration of the ancient Synod of Bishops that has slumbered for six centuries in England. To meet the forces of the hierarchy alike in the Old World and the New, the disciples of a simpler Christianity have felt called upon to make new efforts, and act more effectually by acting together.

It is worthy of note, that of late, in Germany there have been many signs of new life among the clergy, and a disposition to come out from their libraries, and in conferences discuss the essentials of doctrine, and seek for the true foundations of Church order. Threatened on one side by Rationalists, and on the other by Papists, the clergy who believe in the divine mission of Jesus and in a Church of fraternal union, are taking a bolder stand, and repenting of the error by which they have so often merged the minister in the scholar.

The Orthodox Congregationalists of our country are awakening to new life. Matters of Church government and of social reform have given fresh interest to their associations. They are troubled by the inroads of prelacy and of liberalism, and are evidently conscious of their exposure to new modes of attack. The Baptists, also, notwithstanding their love of Independency, are carefully reviewing their measures, and in their periodicals and conventions showing themselves aware of their dangers from two quarters, and seeking to entrench themselves by asserting a definite Church order against too democratic license and their adult baptism in opposition to the baptism of infants, which they deem so fatal to Christian liberty.

Our own community of Liberal Christians have felt a new impulse towards social union, that has shown itself in the increase of devotional meetings, and a fresh interest in the regular assemblings of the denomination. It is a very important question, what turn shall be given to the demand.

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