ct
sects, though their differences in opinion may give rise to mutual
aversion.

The Jewish, Christian, Mahometan, and Pagan world is divided into an
almost innumerable variety of sects, each claiming to themselves the title
of orthodox, and each charging their opponents with heresy.

Where perfect religious liberty prevails, as in the United States, and
where emigrants from all quarters of the globe resort in great numbers, it
is not surprising that most of the Christian sects in foreign countries,
with some of native origin, should be found in this part of the American
continent.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

There are three modes of church government, viz., the _Episcopalian_, from
the Latin word _episcopus_, signifying _bishop_; the _Presbyterian_, from
the Greek word _presbuteros_, signifying _senior_, _elder_, or
_presbyter_; and the Congregational or Independent mode. Under one of
these forms, or by a mixture of their several peculiarities, every church
in the Christian world is governed. The Episcopal form is the most
extensive, as it embraces the Catholic, Greek, English, Methodist, and
Moravian churches.

Episcopalians have three orders in the ministry, viz., bishops, priests,
and deacons; they all have liturgies, longer or shorter, which they either
statedly or occasionally use. All Episcopalians believe in the existence
and the necessity of an apostolic succession of bishops, by whom alone
regular and valid ordinations can be performed.

The Presbyterians believe that the authority of their ministers to preach
the gospel and to administer the sacraments is derived from the Holy
Ghost, by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery. They affirm,
however, that there is no order in the church, as established by Christ
and his apostles, superior to that of presbyters; that all ministers,
being ambassadors of Christ, are equal by their commission; that
_presbyter_ and _bishop_, though different words, are of the same import;
and that prelacy was gradually established upon the primitive practice of
making the _moderator_, or speaker of the presbytery, a permanent officer.

The Congregationalists, or Independents, are so called from their
maintaining that each congregation of Christians, which meets in one house
for public worship, is a complete church, has sufficient power to act and
perform every thing relating to religious government within itself, and is
in no respect subject or accountable to other