THE SANDEMANIANS 313
THE SOUTHCOTTIANS 320
THE SPIRITUALISTS 328
THE CAMPBELLITES 335
THE MORMONS 344
CHAPTER XVIII.
ADVANCED RELIGIONISTS:--
THE CHURCH OF PROGRESS 352
THE INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORMERS 359
SOUTH PLACE, FINSBURY SQUARE 365
THE SECULARISTS 371
CHAPTER XIX.
THE IRREGULARS 380
IRREGULAR AGENCIES 381

CHAPTER I.
ON HERESY AND ORTHODOXY.

The original meaning of the word heresy is choice. "It was long used,"
writes Dr. Waddington, "by the philosophers to designate the preference
and selection of some speculative opinion, and in process of time was
applied without any sense of reproach to every sect." The most fruitful
source of speculative opinion is, and has ever been, religion; from the
schools of philosophy to those of theology the term heresy passed by a
very intelligible and simple process. The word is thrice used in the
Acts to denote sect (Acts v. 17, xv. 5, and xxiv. 5), and Paul himself
when on his defence before Felix and in answer to Tertullus confesses
that "after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my
fathers."

In process of time heresy came to have a bad meaning attached to it. It
is easy to see why this should be so. We naturally prefer our own
opinions to those of other people. We naturally prefer the society of
those who hold our own opinions to the society of those who do not. Life
is short, and we do not want to be always disputing. Life to most of us
is hard, and it would be harder still if after a day's toil Paterfamilias
had to discuss the three births of Christ, or His twofold nature, the
AEons of the Gnostics, the Judaism of the Ebionites, the ancient Persian
dualism which formed the fundamental idea of the system of Manes, or the
windy frenzy of Montanus, with an illogical wife, a friend gifted with a
fatal flow of words, or a pert and shallow child. We like those with
whom we constantly associate. They are wise men and sound Christians.
They are those who fast and pay tithes, and are eminent