CHMSnANITT
273
CHKISTIANS
Europe, in which the Bomiin Chorch is recognised as a state religion, and the pope, is regulated by Concor-
Tlfee Protestants in course of time formed a number of different denominations, among which two main tendencies are to be distinguished, viz. the Lutheran and the Befonned Churches. The latter were subdi- vided into the German Reformed, Swiss Reformed, Dutch Befonned, Presbyterians, Baptist, Congrega- tianal, and other minor churches. The Church of FngUnd, as &r as it identified itself with the Reforma- tkxi, belongs to the class of Reformed churches ; yet it retains also enough elements from the time before the Refonnation to leave room for the continuance of a party which rejects altogether the Protestant char- acter of the Church, refuses association with other Protestant denonunations, and acknowledges only -the churches which dium the so-called apostolical succes- lion of Irishopa as valid. From the Church of Eng- land sprang the Methodists (q. v.), who discarded ev- erything un-Protestant in the mother Church, and todL at once a prominent place among the Reformed denominations. In the rapidity of tiieir extension they have surpassed all other bodies of Protestant Christians.
In a laige part of Europe the Protestant churches have unlbrtanately allowed to the secular government an undue influence over ecclesiastical affiurs — an in- fluence wiiich has generally been used for the entire subjugation of the Church. Only by hard struggles have dissenters from state religions secured toleration. Many of them had to cross the Atlantic in order to be at liberty to worship God according to the dictates of consdenee. The declaration of American independ- ence was the first heavy blow against state-chnrchism ; tad the independence of the Church, which was now, for the first time, carried through on a large scale, worked so well, that all the European churphes began to feel the influence of the new principle, and gradual- ly to loosen, at least, the connection between Church and state. The question of a union between various Protestant bodies has been, from the beginning of Ahe BefiDrmation, a fiivorite idea of many distinguished men, though it has frequentiy led to an increase of psrties sad of controversies, especially as generally these schemes of ecclesiastical union have been at- tempted with the aid of the secular arm. The most important of these attempts was the establishment of the United Evangelical Church (q. v.) of Germany in 1S17, through the instrumentality of Frederick William III of Prussia. In noodem times the opinion has gain- ed groond that the large number of evangelical denom- iaations has had a beneficial rather than a disastrous influence on the advancement of Ctuistianity, and that it would be better, instead of turning at ecclesiastical ■nifonnity, to form a cordial alliance of evangelical Christians of all denominations. This led to the form- ation of the so-called ** EvemgeUcal AUicmce" (q. v.), which soon assumed grand dimensions. It has held ioaie large assemblies, which have been called the first (ecumenical coundls of Protestant Christianity. The development of theology during this period has centred mostly in Gennaay. See German Theol- ogy. The struggle, after- the Reformation, between Lotberanlsm and Calvinism, was soon followed by the nan nnportant contest between Christianity and an iafidd phUoeophy, represented by the Deists in Eng- land, the Encyclopedists in France, and Rationalism in Genniny. The belief in Christianity was for a time udennined in a large proportion of the European pop- alstioD, bat with the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tmy a porfrerfhl reaction in ikvor of Christianity has Mt in. The influenoe of Christianity over the politi- ol, aodal, and literary life of mankind is now greater tltta ever before. But infidel parties have not been viokbg in the xuneteenth century. Among them may ^ Booied TooDg Germany, the Free Congregations
n.— S
and German Catholics, the Young Hegelians, the So- cialistic Mechanics* Associations in Switzerland and France, the Materialism in natural science, the Poei- tivist followers of Comte, the Westminster Review and its party in England, the Mormons and Spir- itualists in America. The movements of these par- ties have led to a new development of powerfol agen- cies in defence of Christianity. In nearly every de- partment of science and literature the works of former centuries have been surpassed by modem Christian writers. The various denominations vie with each other in establishing religious periodicals, which al- ready form one of the grandest characteristics of the church history of the nineteenth century. Free as- sociations for religious and other charitable purposes have rapidly multiplied ; missionary societies, Bible, tract, and book societies have displayed a wonderful and unparalleled activity.
Thus the spread of Christianity from the beginning has been like to the growth of the *^grain of mustard seed ;" to-day its branches overshadow the whole earth ; the prospects of Christ's kingdom on earth are bright- er than at any previous period of its history. Com- pare Smith, Tables of Church Hxttory (especially the col- umn * * General Characteristics"). See Christendom ; Church Histobt ; Theology.
ChriatianB (improperly pronounced dKsf-ians), a denominati(m usuidly styled "the Christian Connec- tion."
I. History, — ^This body is purely American in its or- igin, having sprung from three diflferent sources wide- ly apart from each other— the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches in difierent parts of America. (1.) When the so-called '*0*Kelly secession" from, the Methodist Episcopal Church (q. v.) took place in the year 1798, the seceders at first took the name of " Republican Methodists," but afterward assumed the name -of ** Christians," avowing the N. T. as their only code of doctrine and discipline. (2.) In the year 1800, Dr. Abner Jones, a member of the Baptist Church in Hartland, Vermont, " beconung dissatisfied with the creed of his church, and with all sectarian denomina- tions, and preferring the Bible alone as the confession of his £Euth," organized a church of twenty-five mem- bers in the town of Lyndon, V t. In a few years he was joined by ministers from the Close Conmiunion and Free-will Baptist churches, who left their former asso- ciations, and, in some cases, brought their flocks with them. (8.) The third source of the new sect was found in Kentucky and Tennessee. About the year 1801, several ministers withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church, and '* organized themselves into a new and independent presbytery, called the Spring- field Presbytery. They kept up this organization for about two years, when they formally adopted a new name for themselves and followers — that of Chris- tians." (See Davidson, Presbyterian Church in Ken- tuchy, chap, viii.)