Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/439

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 199 parade of Christian charity ; indeed they pretended that they had emigrated in order to enjoy a higher degree of religious liberty than was now to be found in America, where men were divided into sects, thinking more of their distinguishing tenets than of the Being whom they pro fessed to serve. Forgetting the reasons which brought them from home, or quite possibly carrying out the im pulses which led them to resist their former neighbours, these men set to work, immediately, to collect followers, and believers after their own peculiar notions. Parson Hornblower, who had hitherto occupied the ground by himself, but who was always a good deal inclined to what are termed " distinctive opinions," buckled on his armour, and took the field in earnest. In order that the sheep of one flock should not be mistaken for the sheep of another, great care was taken to mark each and all with the brand of sect. One clipped an ear, another smeared the wool (or drew it over the eyes) and a third, as was the case with Friend Stephen Dighton, the quaker, put on an entire covering, so that his sheep might be known by their out ward symbols, far as they could be seen. In a word, on those remote and sweet islands, which, basking in the sun and cooled by the trades, seemed designed by providence to sing hymns daily and hourly to their maker s praise, the subtleties of sectarian faith smothered that humble sub mission to the divine law by trusting solely to the media tion, substituting in its place immaterial observances and theories which were much more strenuously urged than clearly understood. The devil, in the form of a " profes sor," once again entered Eden ; and the Peak, with so much to raise the soul above the grosser strife of men, was soon ringing with discussions on " free grace," " immer sion," " spiritual baptism," and the " apostolical succes sion." The birds sang as sweetly as ever, and their morning and evening songs hymned the praises of their creator as of old ; but, not so was it with the morning and evening devotions of men. These last began to pray at each other, and if Mr. Hornblower was an exception, it was because his admirable liturgy did not furnish him with the means of making these forays into the enemy s camp.