of faithful men to be able to manage its
own affairs; but they differ from nearly every other Christian
denomination on two points--the proper _subjects_ and the proper _mode_
of _baptism_. According to them, _adults_ are the proper subjects of
baptism, and _immersion_, not sprinkling, is the proper mode of
administering that rite. As an organized community, we find them in
England in 1608, about thirty years after Robert Brown had begun to
preach the principles of Independency. The Baptists have many
subdivisions. The Particular Baptists preponderate: they are
Calvinistic. A remarkable unanimity of sentiment has always existed
among them, except on one particular point--the propriety of sitting down
at the communion table with those who reject adult baptism. Mr. Horace
Mann gives the general body 130 chapels; Mr. Low, 109. The Census
returns give them accommodation for 54,234.

The Methodists have, in all, 154 chapels in London, the larger number of
which belong to the Wesleyans, who are Arminians, who are governed by a
Conference, and whose ministers are itinerant. Mr. Mann tells us they
seldom preach in the same place more than one Sunday without a change,
which is effected according to a plan generally re-made every quarter.
London is divided into ten circuits. Then there are the Calvinistic
Methodists, who were originated by the labours of George Whitfield, aided
by that devoted Countess of Huntingdon whose name yet lives in connexion
with one of the most remarkable revivals of religion in our land. There
are several sub-divisions besides. The original Wesleyan body has
suffered much of late in consequence of the operations of the Wesleyan
Reformers. It is stated that, by this division, the connexion sustained
a loss of 100,000 members. In London, the Methodists, including, as in
the case of the Baptists, six or seven sub-divisions, have sittings for
69,696. Of the number of attendants it is calculated about 12,000 are
church members, or communicants. It may be as well to mention here,
that, with the exception of the Irvingites, and, of course, the Roman
Catholic Church, which only admits priests to the celebration of the
Lord's Supper, and of the Quakers, who do not profess to observe that
ceremony at all, there are two classes of persons attending all churches
and chapels--the common hearers, and the smaller class who profess to be
converted and regenerated men. In the Church of England the theory