A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Christo Sacrum
CHRISTO SACRUM, a society founded in 1801, at Delft, by Onder de Wingaard, an old Burgomaster of that city, an intelligent man, privately instigated, it is said, by the Mennonites, enemies of the reformed. Though there are found among them disciples of Calvin and Luther, the Mennonites are, however, the most numerous. The members of this assembly repeat incessantly that they are not a sect, but a society, whose object is to unite all religions. They admit whoever believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ and in the redemption of mankind by the merits of the passion of the Saviour. The society began with four members, and immediately increased by two or three thousand; as yet they have no public worship except at Delft. Their temple is ornamented with some elegance; three seats and as many pulpits, which rise gradually, are designed for those who read, who chant and who preach.
The worship is divided into two parts; -adoration and instruction. The first takes place every Sunday towards five or six o'clock in the evening; they set forth especially the greatness of God as manifested in the wonders of creation. The instruction takes place once a fortnight, also in the evening; when the principles of revealed religion are developed. The Lord's supper is celebrated six times in a year; the assembly are prostrated during the prayer and blessing.
The society has published some small pieces, of which the first presents in the frontispiece the emblem which it has adopted; it is a cross placed on the gospel and decalogue, and applied to a crown of palm, in which is inscribed in Dutch these words of Jesus Christ: I am the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father but by me.[1]
Original footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Gregorie's History of Religious Sects, vol. i.