REFORMATION A SUCCESS. It is true, also, that “God’s word, as the only rule of faith and practice, is as much set at naught by the religious world to-day as it was fifty years ago,” and more too; and there is nothing so unpopular with the masses of the people, and some _called brethren_, as precisely the apostolic way; and the Reformation is not a failure either. Our reformatory movement was right, and is still right. It needs no modification, but needs to be faithfully and honestly carried out. No reformatory movement can ever get in ahead of it. It went back to the divine fountain to find the truth, and not something _like it_, that could be _proved by it_. It went back to the Bible itself, and not to something _like it_, or something that can be _proved by it_. It went back to the religion of Christ itself, and not to something _like it_, or something that can be _proved by it_. This was no failure. The attempt was to go back to the Lord himself; to his own Book, his own religion; and those who attempted this, and _did it_, made no failure. They found the Lord, his Book, and his religion, and found the salvation of the Lord. There was no failure in all this. This movement has been in the world about sixty years, or about half as long as Noah’s mission lasted. Noah found the salvation of the Lord for himself and family. There was no failure in his case. WHAT WE ARE FOR. We are for the kingdom of God, and for all that pertains to it, but not for the _kingdom of the clergy_, either as manifested in the Papacy or among Protestants; nor are we enlisted to get up a _new kingdom of clergy_. We will never give our influence to establish any new kingdom of clergy, or recognize any old one. The people of God are _free_. They do not belong to the clergy. The congregations of the Lord are free, and not to be manacled down into human confederations and their great work ended in an insignificant sect. The day we agree to be banded together into some kind of general confederation of congregations, under a conference, convention, or we care not what you call it, we become an insignificant sect, a denomination, a christian sect, and will be nothing more forever. _Ichabod_ will be written on us. But that day _will never come_. Mark that. We hope that none among us will ever make the experiment, but if they do, they will simply land in faction, to dwindle away and die.