Page:Historical Lectures and Addresses.djvu/43

 THE CONGREGATIONALISTS.

The object of these addresses is to try and understand the principles on which rest the differences which divide Christian bodies from one another. Our tendency, when first we are brought face to face with such differences, is to approach them from the point of view of common-sense, to consider them as contained in so many formulated statements which can be discussed on their own merits. But this attitude is soon found to be superficial. The causes of disagreement lie deeper than the surface. They are interwoven with every part of a man's view of life: they are a portion of his moral and intellectual heritage: they have been handed down to him from the past and appeal to his emotions by the halo of noble tradition with which they are surrounded. English Nonconformity has great memories. All its various forms corresponded to some genuine need of the time in which it arose. Each embodies some great truth which was once overlooked or neglected. Nonconformity can boast its roll of martyrs and confessors: it can point to the record of undoubted services which it rendered to England in times gone by. To understand the principles of Congregationalism we must not be content to take them