SECTION VI.

THE FORMS OF SELFISHNESS IN THE CHURCH.

Or selfishness it may be said, as of its archetype, Satan, that it "takes all shapes that serve its dark designs." One of the most frequent forms in which it appears is that of party spirit; and which, for the sake of distinction, may be denominated, the selfishness of the sect. Circumstances, perhaps, inevitable to humanity in its present probationary state, have distributed the Christian church into sections; but as the points of difference which have divided it are, for the most part, of much less importance than the vital points in which these sections agree, there is nothing in the nature of such differences to necessitate more than circumstantial division, there is every thing in their principles of agreement to produce and per

petuate substantial oneness, and cordial love. But this the demon of selfishness forbids. It erects the points of difference into tests of piety. It resents any real indignity offered by the world to the entire church, far less than it resents any supposed insult offered by other sections of the church to its own party. The general welfare is nothing in its eye, compared with its own particular aggrandisement. When Christians should have been making common cause against the world, selfishness is calling on its followers to arm, and, turning each section of the church into a battlemented fortress, frowns defiance on all the rest. It is blind to the fact that God, meanwhile, is employing them all, and smiling upon them all; or, if compelled to behold it, eyeing it askance with a feeling which prevents it from rejoicing in their joy. When the church should have been spending its energies for the good of man, devoting its passions like so much consecrated fuel, for offering up the great sacrifice of love which God is waiting to receive, it is wasting its feelings in the fire of unholy contention till that fire has almost become its native element. And thus Christianity is made to present to the eye of an indiscriminating world

the unamiable and paradoxical spectacle, of a system which has the power of attracting all classes to itself, but of repelling them all from each other;-forgetting, that in the former they see Christianity triumphing over selfishness, and in the latter selfishness defeating Christianity.

Bigotry, is another of the forms in which an inordinate self-love delights-the selfishness of the creed. In this capacity, as in the former, its element is to sow division where nothing should be seen but union-among the members of the family of Christ. The great scheme of mercy originated in a love which consented to overlook the enmity and fierce rebellion of its objects, or, rather, which looked on that enmity only to pity and provide for its removal; but those who profess to have been the objects of that love, will not allow each other the liberty of the slightest conscientious difference, without resenting that difference as a personal and meditated affront; as if the natural enmity of their hearts against God had only changed its direction, and had found its legitimate objects in his people. Under a pretence of zeal for God, bigotry violates the sanctuary of conscience, and creates an inquisition in the midst of

the church.

Erecting its own creed into a

standard of universal belief, it would fain call down fire from heaven, or kindle a furnace seven times hotter than an ordinary anger would demand, for all who presume to question its infallibility: thus justifying the world in representing the odium theologicum as a concentration of all that is fierce, bitter, and destructive, in the human heart. The Lord they profess to obey, would have them to embrace with a comprehensive affection all who exhibit the least traces of his image; but the strongest traits, the most marked conformity to his likeness, is a very uncertain introduction to their hearts compared with a likeness of creed.

Nearly akin to this is, what, for the sake of convenience, may be denominated, the selfishness of the pulpit: that fearful spirit which presumes to limit what God meant to be universal-the overtures of redemption to a ruined world. Selfishness, indeed, in this repulsive form, is of comparatively limited existence; and, as if by a judicial arrangement of providence, it is commonly, in our day, associated with errors and tempers so unamiable, that its own nature forbids it to be

come general. It daringly undertakes to "number Israel;" to determine not only that few will be saved, but who that few will be. Its ministers, faithful to their creed, stand before the cross, and hide it; lest men should see it who are not entitled or intended to behold it;—a danger which they jealously avoid, a responsibility they would tremble to incur. The gospel charters redemption to the world, but they have heard that there are divine decrees; and until they can logically reconcile their views of the divine inflexibility with the universality of the divine compassion, the charter must stand over; and souls perish unwept; and the gospel of Christ, God's great gift, the adequate image of the infinitude of his love, be branded with the stigma of exclusiveness. Put the affairs of the kingdom of Christ into their hands,—and, under the affectation of a pious dread of contravening the sovereign purposes of God, or of forestalling his appointed time,—they would forthwith call home the agents of mercy in distant lands, break up the institutions, and stop the whole machinery, of Christian benevolence. In the midst of a famishing world, they would establish a monopoly of the bread of life; and,

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