Page:History of Gardner, Massachusetts (1860) - Glazier.djvu/157

Rh 8th. We believe that the ordinances of the New Testament are baptism and the Lord's Supper.

You do now, in the presence of the heart-searching God, and this religious assembly, voluntarily avouch the Lord Jehovah to be your God, and the supreme object of your affections. You acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as your only Saviour, and the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier. Repenting of all your past sins, you promise in future constantly, by the aid of God, to render your life conformable to his requirements. That you will observe the Sabbath and attend to the ordinances of the Gospel. That you will endeavor to advance the cause of temperance, moral purity, anti-slavery and peace. And that henceforth, denying all ungodliness and every worldly lust; you will live soberly and righteously and godly in the world. You promise, by becoming a member of the visible church in this place, to submit to the gospel discipline, rules and regulations, as established and practiced in the same.

Thus you covenant and promise. (Then the church rise.) We then, as members of the church of Christ, welcome you to our fellowship and communion at the table of our common Lord, whose body was broken, and whose blood was shed for the remission of sins. We promise, expecting the same from you towards us, to exercise over you the watchfulness of Christian love. May the grace of God make us perfect to do his will. That we may walk together as brethenbrethren [sic], preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, making vs to abound in every good word and work.

At last, preserving a character, adorned with every Christian virtue, may we all be so happy as to meet in the