4. Fourthly, the importance ascribed to this particular
ordinance is not consistent with the spirit of Christianity. The
general object and effect of this ordinance is unexceptionable. It
has been, and is, I doubt not, the occasion of indefinite good; but
an importance is given by Christians to it which never can belong to
any form. My friends, the apostle well assures us that "the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy, in
the Holy Ghost." I am not so foolish as to declaim against forms.
Forms are as essential as bodies; but to exalt particular forms, to
adhere to one form a moment after it is out-grown, is unreasonable,
and it is alien to the spirit of Christ. If I understand the
distinction of Christianity, the reason why it is to be preferred
over all other systems and is divine is this, that it is a moral
system; that it presents men with truths which are their own reason,
and enjoins practices that are their own justification; that if
miracles may be said to have been its evidence to the first
Christians, they are not its evidence to us, but the doctrines
themselves; that every practice is Christian which praises itself,
and every practice unchristian which condemns itself.
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