h those who preach and pray do so; and the length and dulness of
the service. The morning service, for instance, begins at eleven, and is
never over till half-past one. No wonder the Sandemanians are not a
vigorous sect. I believe they have but one place of worship in England,
three or four in Scotland, and more, how many I know not, in America.
The chapel in Barnsbury will seat, I imagine, from three to four hundred
people, and it is always nearly full, and attended by people in
respectable appearance. Of the really poor they seem to have none at
all.

The Sandemanians originated in Scotland, in 1728, as a kind of reaction
against Presbyterianism and Calvinism. Mr. John Glass, a minister of the
Kirk, was deposed by the Presbyterian Church Courts because he taught
that the Church could be subject to no league or covenant--that faith was
simple belief--and that Christianity never was, nor ever could be the
established religion of any nation without becoming the reverse of what
it was when first instituted. Mr. Robert Sandeman, one of his elders,
however, by his numerous writings, left on the new organization the
impress of his name. In these days, when metaphysical speculation has
little encouragement amongst Christians, the Sandemanians tell us they
have no formal creed or confession of faith--that they simply follow
Scripture practice, and that is all. For this purpose they meet together
on the first day of the week, not only to read and hear the Word, but
particularly to break bread or communicate together in the Lord's Supper;
to pray, which is done by several in turns; to listen to an exhortation
from one of the elders. They are a Christian republic. At the
conclusion of every prayer--whether pronounced by the elders or the
brethren--the whole church say Amen, according to what is intimated in 1
Cor. xiv. 16. In the interval between the morning and the afternoon
service they have their love-feast, of which every member partakes, when
they salute each other with a holy kiss. The children are all baptized,
on the plea that if one of the parents believes the children are not
unclean but holy, and because it is written in Acts, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and _thy_ house." They deem it
unlawful to eat flesh with its blood; they wash each other's feet; they
hold all things in common so far as the claims of the poor and the Church
are concerned; they forbid no amusements but thos