WE live in what is called The United States of America.--United States! A name that promises peace and happiness to every citizen; but, under this specious name of Union, what a picture is exhibited? A great Christian empire, divided into a thousand little kingdoms, all inclosed in the bowels of a great republic, and each contending for the mastery. America exulting in her health, the liberty and equality of her members, and yet full of worms, biting and devouring one another, each pursuing a distinct cause to which he presumes all others must finally give way. The Presbyterian minister, the Baptist, Methodist, Christian and Church minister, each proposing to reduce the whole commonwealth under his laws and government. In the midst of these party attachments, who shall be governor, representative, magistrate, major, captain, &c.? This question at once proves the spirit of the union, while it arouses christian against christian, party against party, each to contend with his fellow professor, who shall be the greatest--Tell it not in Great-Britain! Publish it not in the streets of London! Lest the daughters of Babylon sneer at the apparent effects of civil and religious liberty.

      Whence arises this motley mixture of kingdoms and states? Is it not through a grand mistake--converting the Bible into a civil law-book,^{1} and accounting those to rule who adopt it as such? From this egregious error, has not every aspiring worm been encouraged to form his separate party, set himself at the head of it, read and [105] expound his laws, bestow privileges and execute judgment upon his subjects? And can it be otherwise until the eye of common sense is open to see that the kingdom of Christ has nothing to do with civil government, and that civil government has nothing to do with the church or kingdom of Christ? Let this plain maxim of Christ be adopted; of course that civil institution about which there has been such an uproar among the Christians of late, will be restored to where it belongs.

      II. That the abusers of the Bible have betrayed great ignorance and idolatry in assuming the reins of government by the supposed authority of that book, and given great occasion of disgust to the name of Christ, is a truth that every man of good sense will yet acknowledge. Look at the Church common prayer book, established by a mighty defender of the faith, and it will appear that the subject of that kingdom, must either go unmarried or repeat after his priest the following obligations to a woman:--

"With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.--Amen."

"Come back! Come back," says the Christian! Where? "To the Church--the one Church." Nay, let me rather be a Hottentot, and worship the moon, and have the liberty of giving part of my goods to the poor.

      The Christians say, "let us all worship one God," then let them settle the point who it shall be. They say the word of God (i. e. the Bible) tells them so and so. Very well; it says, "Fall down and worship me." This will not do. I dare not worship a book, and my soul recoils at the idea of worshipping that spirit which originally suggested these words. Therefore, I must worship according to my present faith, tho' it should appear "solemn mockery," in the eyes of all the Christian world.

      III. I am thankful to the disposer of all human events, that I was not more than seven years old when the American eagle first stretched her pinions and began her ascent toward the air of liberty. And, therefore, the meridian of my temporal life is at a period when reputed fools and fanatics no longer smoke on the altar of [106] Christianity, but every man's religion may be correctly examined of whatsoever kind it is. Surely, if Church officers knew they might as well be still and silent, as to try to crowd back and shut up their flocks and cry, Wolves! Wolves! For every man's character must be known in this day, and each one judged not by his good words and fair speeches, but according to his WORKS.

      IV. For upwards of two years I have studied Shakerism, with as close application as I ever bestowed on the system of Calvin, and at least upon as proper a plan. I have had the documents of it open before me without covering or disguise, i. e. the people who have set but to be righteous and follow Christ, in deed and in truth. And in all their actions at home and abroad, however scrutinized as a test of that faith upon which my salvation was suspended, I never have discovered any thing that could furnish any ground of a cavil; but am bound to say, that the same characteristics of a child of God, which the Christian reads in his Bible, I have been able to read in the daily deportment of this people, and that without a blot. A people blameless and harmless--without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom they shine as lights in the world, having their conversation honest, and yet all manner of evil spoken against them falsely. Moreover, their daily fruit has been manifested to my satisfaction, to be the fruits of that spirit which the Christians say, lives in the letters of a book, viz. Love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, against which there is no law. Therefore I conclude brother Dooley's text, Let them alone, was very pertinent when he came to preach among their neighbouring persecutors had he not added, they be blind leaders of the blind, &c.

      V. It is no matter to me what a tree is called if its fruit is good. If all my neighbours should call my Apple-tree a Buckeye, and tell me that it grew from the seed of Hemlock, this would not alter the taste of the good apple; no more can any name, destroy my regard to a people that bring forth the fruits of righteousness.

      But though some may imagine that the name Shaker bears analogy to something very mean and [107] contemptible, it has never been my conception of it, nor have I used it at all in that sense.

      The first thing that struck me when I heard that name, was that the universal cry in the revival had been that God would shake the heavens and the earth! Shake out the things that were made, that those things that could not be shaken might remain.--How then was he to do it? He always works by means and instruments.

      When the nations were to be threshed, he made Jacob his threshing instrument, of course the men of Jacob were his threshers. People talk of the great wars of Bonaparte, and the great sins that the Devil commits, yet a reasonable person will grant that Bonaparte wars with his warriors, and the Devil sins with his sinners. Then was it not reasonable for the subjects of the revival to expect that God would shake the heavens and the earth with his Shakers? Some perceiving this tried to substitute his name Quaker, but as this name was already appropriated to another people, it only served to take the charge of their first light, and suffer that abuse which the name was originally supposed to merit, until it appeared that the contrast between this people and the Quakers in their present standing, rendered it improper to call both by the same name; therefore the general appellation has been finally adopted.--Behold I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them, and after will I send for many hunters and they shall hunt them from every mountain, &c.--Jer. xvi. 16. And again, Saviours shall come up on mount Zion, to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.--Obadiah, 21. This is a time of universal liberty work, and for each one to be known and distinguished by his works: and has not God a right to work as well as man?--And if he has a work to do with mankind, who can hinder? Therefore, if he sends out many fishers to fish them, many hunters to hunt them, many, Shakers to shake them, and many Saviours to save them, let all the people say--Amen.---- [108]