This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
34
the looking-glass

anything that would cause contention amongst the members, except the board and body fully consent to their introduction among you. But to force such things upon the members, whether or not, is unlawful, and cannot be approved either by saint or by sinner.

About eighteen months since, the ministers, trustees, and members proposed to take down and rebuild Bethel Church, at which period the society was free from debt, and owned property worth from $25,000 to $50,000; they having begun from nothing between forty and fifty years since, under the direction of Rev. Richard Allen. At that time, they trusted in the promises of a merciful God, and the good feelings of the humane citizens who aided them with means, and granted them a charter and a discipline that we might do justice to each other and all mankind, at the same time that we honored and worshipped the God of glory in spirit and in truth, under our own vine and fig-tree, with none to make us afraid: for the wholesome law of the land would protect us while we acted the part of Christians. Now, we must have a new church, which is very right; but let us have it in peace and harmony, and let us not leave the good old way. But I am sorry to say that we have left that path, and have gone