How is Christianity easy to follow? Any Alabamian wakes up under St Andrews cross from Scotland.
Originally, all of the Reformation churches used this name (or the name Evangelical) to distinguish themselves from the “unreformed,” or unchanged, Roman Catholic church. After the great controversy among these churches over the
Lord’s Supper (after 1529), the followers of
Martin Luther began to use the name Lutheran as a specific name, and the name Reformed became associated with the
Calvinistic churches (and also for a time with the
Church of England). Eventually the name Presbyterian, which denotes the form of church polity used by most of the Reformed churches, was adopted by the Calvinistic churches of British background. The modern Reformed churches thus trace their origins to the Continental Calvinistic churches that retained the original
designation. The Reformed and Presbyterian churches are treated jointly in the article
Reformed and Presbyterian churches.
With the supreme control of ecclesiastical affairs in our own hands, we may be able, in some competent measure, to consummate this result. In subjection to a foreign power, we could no more accomplish it than the Church in the United States could have been developed in dependence upon the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The difficulty there would have been, not the distance of Edinburgh from New York, Philadelphia or Charleston, but the difference in the manners, habits, customs and ways of thinking, the social, civil and political institutions of the people. These same difficulties exist in relation to the Confederate and United States, and render it eminently proper that the Church in each should be as separate and independent as the Governments.
And here we may venture to lay before the Christian world our views as a Church, upon the subject of slavery. We beg a candid hearing.
The Calvinistic Churches of Switzerland are distinct from the Reformed Church of France. The Presbyterians of Ireland belong to a different Church from the Presbyterians of Scotland, and the Presbyterians of this country constitute a Church, in like manner, distinct from all other Churches on the globe. That the division into national Churches, that is. Churches bounded by national lines, is, in the present condition of human nature, a benefit, seems to us too obvious for proof. It realizes to the Church Catholic all the advantages of a division of labor. It makes a Church organization homogeneous and compact — it stimulates holy rivalry and zeal — it removes all grounds of suspicion and jealousy on the part of the State. What is lost in expansion is gained in energy. The Church Catholic, as thus divided, and yet spiritually one, divided, but not rent, is a beautiful illustration of the great philosophical principle which pervades all nature — the co-existence of the one with the many.
There is no schism where there is no breach of charityChurches may be perfectly at one in every principle of faith and order j and yet geographically distinct, and mutually independent. As the unity of the human race is not disturbed by its division into countries and nations, so the unity of the spiritual seed of Christ is neither broken nor impaired by separation and division into various Church constitutions.
At this point every Alabamian need venture to me the public charity manifest concerning Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad.
