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Church, of our denomination, be organized in this city." (Min. Presb., p. 366.)
It would be uninteresting to state what followed upon the division of this church, and it is just at this place we must recall to the mind of the reader what I said in the commencement of this narrative, that not having the early records of the church during Mr. Gloucester's life, prevents me from inserting in this history, no doubt, much that is really necessary to be known, for when the minority withdrew from the church, singular as it may seem, they took the records of the church along with them, and hence, the church was thrown upon the necessity of recording, as far as they were able from memory, their early history; and it has caused the writer no small amount of labor to obtain what dates and facts are herein recorded.
In dropping this disagreeable part of the history of the First Church in its division, and offering our reflections upon it and all other instances like it, I repeat again, that I wish to be understood as having a general allusion.
As it is in civil communities, so in religious ones. According to the manner in which matters are at present constituted, divisions, contentions and strife, will, in a greater or less degree, prevail. This state of things need not necessarily exist, particularly in the Church of Christ. It has, indeed, been argued by some, that in order to purge the church from corruption and error, these elements of discord are necessary and beneficial; and I have been told repeatedly, that as thunder and lightning purge and purify the atmosphere, so these conflicting elements in the church produce like results. But I think the apostle finds an answer to such an assertion, and as I am treating upon a purely religious
