©132BII SUSANS’ SET So
Elder Daniel W. Kerr, Editor.
Hillsborough, April 1, 1846.
The following is extracted from the
Christian Register, a weekly paper in the
interest of the Unitarians, published at
Boston- The arguments upon the Chris
tian name, are the same as those which
the Christians have been urging for the
last half century. It affords us great plea
sure to discover that many respectable per
sons of other denominations are coming
forward in a commendable spirit of inde
pendence, proclaiming the convictions of
truth relative to this subject, to whieh their
investigations of Bible Christianity and of
Bible Order, have conducted them. It is
only under this great family name, that we
can entertain the most distant idea of any
thing like Christian Union. If we mis
take not, it augurs well for the prosperity
of Zion, to see the subject of Union a
mong Christians occupying the thoughts
and reflections .of prominent indi
viduals in the various Protestant denomi
nations. Christians, I have no doubt,
have become ashamed of the dissentions
which have been so rife amongst the pro
fessors of religion, even the blessed reli
gion of love. We can but rejoice, when
“ we meet with able arguments for concen
trated action amongst the disciples of tb>e
blessed Lord, and some fundamental posi
tion taken and exhibited in bold relief, as
the rallying point for all the Lord’s friends.
Sectarian names can never bring about
union among the Lord’s people. There
must be one name which all acknowledge,
and by embracing which, none will have
to sacrifice conscience. One party will
mot thereby have to pass over and join itself
to another; but by throwing down partition
walls, which consists in the works of men,
IB will be together, all may rally as cffris
tians, and by taking the book of God, move
sweetly on under the standard of Prince
Emanuel. Those invidious distinctions
which have heretofore prevailed to a great
extent, will then be thrown by, as fit to be
used only by those who are laboring for
the prince of darkness.
As long as men, collected together as a
body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall appropriate to themselves some epi
thet besides that of Christian, as indica
tive of certain doctrinal views, there must
necessarily be jcism oiTdivision among
them; unless they should possess powers
of mind superior to human; for owing
to the imbecility of human judgment, no
one can be absolutely certain that the
views he may entertain are infallibly true.
And hence the importance of assuming a
name, not from any point of doctrine or
particular mode worship, or of administer
ing the ordinances, but from the circum
stance of relationship to the great Head of
the Church. Now a name selected in this
way must be expressive of the relationship
a believer sustains to the Lord Jesus Christ;
no other name expresses that relationship
so appropriately as that of Christian. Sec
tarians, while they contend for their dis
tinctive appellations, still claim, in con
nexion therewith, the name which they
confess is peculiarly apposite to the fol
lowers of Jesus our Lord. So then, the
present divided state of the church cannot,
be correct, from the fact that it seems to
demand the use of other names than that
which the Lord designated. The first
thing to be done, in our humble judgment,
in a return to primitive simplicity, is to
disregard every name or title except the
one plainly set forth in the word of God.
It is a clear case to all persons who are
well informed upon these subjects, that
names, as party distinctions, are powerful
in keeping up divisions amongst saints, sq
that we conceive it to be a matter of greal
importance to have the name of the Lord