t. May all the citizens of America be found in the performance of
such social duties as will secure them peace and happiness in this world,
and in the world to come life everlasting!"

PERFECTIONISTS.

A modern sect in New England, who believe that every individual action is
either wholly sinful or wholly righteous, and that every being in the
universe, at any given time, is either entirely holy or entirely wicked.
Consequently, they unblushingly maintain that they themselves are free
from sin. In support of this doctrine, they say that Christ dwells in and
controls believers, and thus secures their perfect holiness; that the body
of Christ, which is the church, is nourished and guided by the life and
wisdom of its Head. Hence they condemn the greatest portion of the
religion in the world named Christianity, as the work of Antichrist. "All
the essential features of Judaism," they say, "and of its successor,
Popery, may be distinctly traced in nearly every form of Protestantism;
and although we rejoice in the blessings which the reformation has given
us, we regard it as rightly named the _reformation_, it being an
improvement of Antichrist, not a restoration of Christianity." This last
opinion, which has some foundation in truth, has been long held, variously
modified, in different parts of the Christian world.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to propagate the views of this sect
through the medium of a paper published at New Haven, Conn., entitled the
_Perfectionist_.

Methodists' Views Of Perfection.

"The highest perfection which man can attain, while the soul dwells in the
body, does not exclude ignorance, and error, and a thousand other
infirmities. Now, from wrong judgments, wrong words and actions will often
necessarily flow; and in some cases, wrong affections, also, may spring
from the same source. I may judge wrong of you; I may think more or less
highly of you than I ought to think; and this mistake in my judgment may
not only occasion something wrong in my behavior, but it may have a still
deeper effect; it may occasion something wrong in my affection. From a
wrong apprehension, I may love and esteem you either more or less than I
ought. Nor can I be freed from a liableness to such a mistake while I
remain in a corruptible body. A thousand infirmities, in consequence of
this, will attend my spirit, till it returns to God, who gave it; and, in
numberless instances, it comes short of doing the wil