their first principles. Those principles were stronger in the Baptists than in other bodies, and they could renew their first energy in simple appeals to the souls of men, couched in rude, outspoken eloquence. It is noticeable that still there is a tendency in common speech to distinguish between a Baptist preacher and a Congregationalist minister; and this marks a real difference. The Congregationalists are more educated and organised; the Baptists are more popular and evangelistic. The strength of the Baptists has lain in their readiness to appeal to the people and speak a tongue which all could understand. For this, and for their readiness to find employment for the zeal of all active members of their body, they are worthy of our warm admiration. We still have something to learn under both these heads.
We of the Church of England are separated from the Baptists in our conception of the nature and function of the Church of Christ. Much controversy has raged about infant baptism, but this does not really touch the main question in dispute. The reservation of baptism for adults is merely the outward expression of a desire to set up the visible Church as a body of pure and regenerate believers—in fact to make the visible Church correspond with the invisible Church which exists only in the knowledge of God. The aim of the Baptists is higher than that of the Congregationalists, who discarded the idea of a visible Church that they might affirm the rights of separate congregations. The Baptists, on the other hand, affirmed the right of freedom from outward control not as an object in itself, but as a condition necessary
