sence of traffic in ardent spirits, and of the use of them as a drink; avoiding places of diversion, and the frequenting of taverns; observance of temperance in other respects; providing for poor members, and schooling their children; faithful support of testimony against oaths, an hireling ministry, war, fraudulent or clandestine trade, dealing in prize-goods and lotteries; care to live within their circumstances, and to keep to moderation in trade; punctuality to promises, and just payment of debts; timely attention to such as give ground for uneasiness in these respects; dealing with offenders in the proper spirit and without delay, for their help, and when necessary to disown, seeking right authority; support of schools under the care of the meeting. At the close of the answers to the queries, certain advices are read in the preparative and monthly meetings, in the conclusion of which Friends are enjoined to conduct the affairs of their meetings in "the peaceable spirit and wisdom of Jesus, with decency, forbearance and love of each other."

A summary of the answers to the queries is made out in the quarterly meeting, and forwarded to the yearly meeting, thus setting forth the general state of society. Appeals of disowned persons, from the judgment of the monthly meetings, are brought to the quarterly meetings for revision. It is also the business of these meetings to assist in any difficult cases that may be presented by the monthly meetings, or where remissness appears in the care of these bodies over their members.

The yearly meeting has the general superintendence of the society within the limits embraced by the several quarterly meetings of which it is composed; and therefore, as the accounts which it receives discover the state of inferior meetings, as particular exigencies require, or as the meeting is impressed with a sense of duty, it gives forth its advice, makes such regulations as appear to be requisite, or excites to the observance of those already made, and sometimes appoints committees to visit those quarterly and monthly meetings which appear to be in need of immediate advice. Each yearly meeting forms its own discipline. Appeals of disowned members from the judgment of quarterly meetings are here finally determined. A brotherly correspondence, by epistles, is maintained with other yearly meetings.

As we believe that women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, we also think that to them belongs a share in the support of our discipline; and that some parts of it, wherein their own sex is concerned, devolve on them with peculiar propriety. Accordingly, they have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own, held

at the same time with those of the men, but separately, and without the power of making rules.

In order that ministers may have the tender sympathy and counsel of those, who by their experience in religion, are qualified for that service, the monthly meetings are advised to select such, from both sexes, under the denomination of elders. These, together with the approved ministers, have meetings peculiar to themselves, called "meetings of ministers and elders;" in which they have an opporturity of exciting each other to the discharge of their respective duties, and of extending advice to those who may appear to need it, without needless exposure. Such meetings are generally held within the compass of each monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting. They are conducted by rules prescribed by the yearly meeting, and have no authority to make any alterations of, or additions to the discipline. The members of the select meeting, as it is often called, unite with their brethren in the meetings for discipline, and are equally amenable to the latter for their conduct.

Those who believe themselves required to speak in meetings for worship, are not immediately acknowledged as ministers by their monthly meetings; but time is taken for judgment, that the meeting may be satisfied of their call and qualification. It also sometimes happens that such, as are not approved, obtrude themselves as ministers, to the grief of their brethren. But much forbearance is used towards these, before the disapprobation of the meeting is publicly expressed.

In order that the yearly meeting may be properly represented during its recess, there is a body called the Meeting for Sufferings, or Representative Committee, composed of a certain number of members appointed by each quarterly meeting. It is the business of this meeting to receive and record the account of sufferings from refusal to pay fines and other military demands, sent up annually from the quarterly meetings; to distribute useful religious books; to advise or assist our members who may incline to publish any manuscript or work tending to promote the cause of truth, or the benefit of society; and in general to act on behalf of the yearly meeting in any case where the welfare of the body may render it needful. It keeps a record of its proceedings, which is annually laid before the yearly meeting. Except this meeting and the meeting of ministers and elders, all our members have a right to attend the meetings of business, and to take part in the proceedings; and they are encouraged to do so. We have no chairman or moderator, and the duty of the clerks is limited to recording the proceedings. We decide no ques

tion by vote, but by what appears to be the sense of the meeting. In matters which elicit a difference of sentiment, personal and censorious remarks are discouraged, and care is taken to exercise a spirit of condescension and brotherly love. Thus it often occurs in our meetings, that deference to the views and feelings of a few consistent members will prevent the body from adopting a measure in which there is otherwise great unanimity.

The Yearly Meetings of New York, Genessee, Baltimore, Ohio, and Indiana, hold an epistolary correspondence with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, according to ancient practice. But the Yearly Meeting of London has declined this intercourse since the separation in 1827.

GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH.

BY LEWIS MAYER, D. D.,
YORK, PA.

THE German Reformed Church, as its name imports, comprises that portion of the family of reformed churches who speak the German language and their descendants, and as such is distinguished from the French Reformed, the Dutch Reformed, &c. It embraces the reformed churches of Germany and of the German part of Switzerland, and their brethren and descendants in other countries, particularly in the United States of America.

The founder of this church was UERIC ZWINGLI, a native of Switzerland. He was born on the 1st day of January, 1484, at Wildhaus, a village of the ancient county of Tokkenburg, then a dependency of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall, under the guardianship of the canton of Schweitz, but, since 1803, included in the new canton of St. Gall.

About the time of Zwingli's birth, the people of Tokkenburg had effected their emancipation from the condition of serfs to the saintly abbey, and now breathed the air of freedom in all its delightful freshness; and the future reformer, inhaling the same enlivening air from his infancy, and growing up to manhood under its influence, became the champion of liberty, in all the forms in which the human mind is by nature free.

Possessing talents of a high order, and cultivated by the best education which the times could afford, and a lofty genius could attain; taught, at the same time, by the Spirit of God, and guided by him into a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus: Zwingli rose upon the world a burning and shining light, and showed to bewildered men, groping in the darkness of a long night, the way to God, whose mercy they sought, and the path to heaven, for which they sighed. Dark clouds often intercepted the light; but its beams burst forth again in their wonted brightness; the truth prevailed, superstition gave way, and the church arose in her strength, the fetters falling from her

hands, and occupied the place which God had assigned her as the bride of his Son, and the parent of true piety and virtue.

The first principle of the German Reformed Church is contained in the proposition: "The Bible is above all human authority, and to it alone must every appeal be made." This principle Zwingli first announced in 1516, when he was yet pastor of the Church of Glarus ; from it he went forth in all his subsequent investigations of religious truth, and in all his public instructions; and when he reformed the church, after his establishment in Zurich, he swept away from her ritual, as well as from her doctrinal system, all that the Bible did not authorize, either by an express warrant or by an implied one. The interpretation of the Bible he left, where God had left it, to the judgment and the conscience of every man who can apprehend the meaning of words, and compare one passage with another; and if the truth could not be ascertained in this way, he felt assured that neither the fathers, nor the Pope, nor a general council, could be trusted as interpreters of the sacred oracles; for these, he knew, had no better way.

The Reformed Church differed, at first, from the Lutheran in nothing but the single point only of the Lord's Supper. In the conference at Marburg in 1529, which had been procured by the Landgrave of Hesse for the purpose of healing the breach between the Saxon and the Swiss divines, and where Zwingli and Ecolampadius disputed with Melancthon and Luther, this was the only point on which they did not agree. Neither did they differ concerning the whole subject of the eucharist, but concerning only the import of the words, "This is my body," "This is my blood." Zwingli took them as a trope, and understood them to mean that the bread was a sign or figure of the Lord's body, and the wine of his blood. Luther insisted on a literal meaning, and contended that these words were the irrefragable testimony of the Lord himself, that his material body and blood were really present in and with the bread and wine, and were received, together with them, by the communicant; and to fix this notion, he maintained that, like the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ were received, not by faith, but by the mouth; not by the believer only, but by every communicant.

The Reformed regarded this difference as unessential, and acknowledged their opponents as brethren in Christ, whom it was their duty to receive. Luther classed it with the essentials of Christianity, and would not admit that those who denied the real presence were Christians at all. Zwingli proffered his hand to Luther and besought him with tears to receive him as a Christian brother, saying that there