purpose to follow presumptuously my own thoughts about this. We may remark that the people of God have found, since the increased outpouring of His Spirit, a sort of remedy for this disunion, (manifestly an imperfect though not an untrue one) in the Bible Society,[1] and in Missionary exertions; which gave the one a sort of vague unity in the common acknowledgment of the word, which, if investigated, will be found to have, partially inherent in it, the germ of true unity, though not recognized in its power; the other an unity of desire and action, which tended in thought towards that kingdom, the want of the power of which was felt. And in this they found some relief for that sense of want which the workings of the Divine Spirit had produced in them. From the state of things I have spoken of, have resulted other efforts,[2] either of the energies of knowledge, or the desires of spiritual life. The spirit and desire in which much of this was carried on, was, doubtless, in many instances, the cravings of a mind actuated by the Spirit of God, but it has often been defective, in not practically waiting upon His will, nor has it been framed upon that largeness of mind and purpose of which it was the evidence; in many cases assuming perhaps, the particular views of one by whom it was locally originated; and therefore merging in the mass of ordinary Dissent, or becoming a special sect. This has arisen from so little community of the Spirit in Believers, and want of dependence upon it, and I must be forgiven if I add, in faithfulness, that while the effects have been charged upon those who have thus acted, the cause is found in the state of that which they have just left, where they have been habitually accustomed to lean on any thing rather than on the Spirit, Hence, though these efforts have doubtless afforded so much of testimony to what the proper character of the Church is, as corresponded with the infirmity of our nature, and the actual position in which Believers are, yet often, even when of the highest order as to personal religion, they have failed for the purposes
- ↑ The writer is not agreeing with the mixture of Socinians or Infidels in the Bible Society, for he thinks it a great sin. He merely refers to the exhibition of the effort at union in principles, not involving sectarian opinions.
- ↑ Efforts, far more numerous than are supposed, and which have extended, in unconnected instances, over most of the Continent, where it was possible, showing it not to have resulted from individual fancy, but from the working of some great general principle; and to which, accompanied as it has been by practical holiness and a growing devotedness of purpose, the presence of the Spirit cannot be denied.
