Morning Star

For the Morning Star.

"ERROR CORRECTED."

OXFORD, U. C. Dec. 4, 1832.

I read in the Star last evening a communication from brother Shaw respecting the pronunciation given to the name Christian, in its application to his Connexion in the F. W. B. Register. Being one of the compilers, and the publisher of said Register, I think it my duty to make the following statements.

1. I did not observe the peculiar pronunciation given this name till after the whole edition was printed, consequently I had nothing to do in affixing the pronunciation there given. [In copying the article from another work, the compiler of that part of the Register retained the hyphen in the word Christians*] for the sake of distinction, merely to show that in this place the name Christians did not signify the great body of people called by this name, but a particular sect of this class, that has acknowledged no other name.

2. I would make an apology for having overlooked an error in this publication, had I sufficient evidence that it is right for our brethren of this Connexion to take that name, which for eighteen centuries has been applied to all religious sects professing faith in Christ, and make it a sectarian name, to distinguish one sect from another. Were I convinced that they were the only sect properly called by this name, I could not doubt the justice of the claim. But if there be other sects properly called Christians, and this sect, which acknowledges no other name, plants a church in a town where there are already two or three Christian churches, how can they in truth call their new church the "first Christian church" in such a town?

3. If this name is used in truth to distinguish this sect from others, then I must wait to be convinced that there are any Christians in the world except those that belong to this denomination; and I must conclude that the Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists, are not Christians.

4. It appears that God in the beginning appointed that different things should have different names--so he brought various things to Adam to see what he would call them. If, therefore, there be more than one religious sect, holding different sentiments properly called Christians, I cannot see why they should not be distinguished by names.

5. I detest sectarian spirit and that narrow mindedness which can fellowship none as Christians, but those of a particular denomination; and it is my constant prayer that I may be saved from it. My soul bleeds for the divisions that afflict Zion, and the imperfections and errors that hinder its prosperity; and I should rejoice to do any thing that is right to increase union and love between different religious denominations. But the idea which many have embraced, that names make divisions among Christians, appears to me not founded in truth; for a thing must exist before it can have a name; therefore to reject the names by which Christians, holding different sentiments, are readily distinguished, would, in my view, no more lessen these divisions, than to reject the use of the names sin and Satan would put an end to transgression and destroy the devil.

6. There is a man named Smith, who has seven sons, called James, John, Joseph, &c. These children are not led to contention by reason of these names; neither does the seventh son find any occasion to say he will have no given name--that his name is Smith, and that is enough. True, his name is Smith, and the same is true of all his brothers; but I cannot see how it would be fair for this seventh son to try to get the name Smith to distinguish him from his brothers: but if he should, and his brothers loved him enough ever to make mention of him, if they could not fairly distinguish this brother by the name of Smith, I cannot see as they would be blameable if they should call him something whereby they might know him, especially if there were nothing unpleasant or diminutive in the name they should give him.

7. I love Christians of every denomination, and those of the sect that acknowledges no other name than that of Christians; and though I have called them Christians by way of distinguishing them from other sects, (as though they were the only sect entitled to this name,) still I have not seen the propriety of using the name in this way. I wish not to "nick-name" any one, much less a Christian community, and to avoid giving offence and show Christian friendship, I have used that name which for 1800 years has signified all believers in Christ to signify a sect that numbers twenty five or fifty thousand. And now whether in this I have done right or wrong, I leave to others to judge.

D. MARKS.

The sentence enclosed in brackets is inserted by the person who compiled the miscellaneous part of the Register, instead of a remark of Elder Mark's, which was calculated to give a wrong impression as to the author of the pronunciation adopted in the word Christians.