The PLYMOUTH BRETHREN, so called probably from the place where this society first arose, do not allow themselves to be a sect, though in their practices they differ considerably from those of the Established Church. They meet together on the morning of the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when any “Brother” is at liberty to speak for mutual edification. In the afternoon and evening, when they have preachers, the services are similar to those in the Congregational Churches (Independents): the desk, however, for they condemn pulpits, is not occupied by one man, but used as a convenient place for speaking, being alternately occupied by the “Brother,” who reads the hymn, the one who prays, and the one who teaches or preaches the Word. There are also “Meetings for Prayer,” and what are technically called “reading meetings;” when a chapter is read, and those “Brethren” who have made it matter of reflection, speak upon it clause by clause for their mutual instruction. Before a person is acknowledged a “Brother,” his name is announced at one of the times of “meeting together to break bread,” as it is termed, and if nothing occurs in the interval, he takes his seat with them the next Sunday.{85} Any one is admitted to their communion whom they believe to be “a child of God;” but they do not receive or acknowledge him as a brother, “while in actual connection with any of the various forms of worldliness,” i.e. the other churches of Christ. Their preachers move about from place to place, forming different congregations, which they again leave for other places where their services are required. None of their ministers receive any _stipulated_ charity. The “Brethren” disapprove of any association of Christians for any purpose whatever, whether civil or religious, and therefore discountenance all Sunday School, Bible, Missionary, or even purely Benevolent, Societies. They do not disapprove of sending either Bibles or Missionaries to the heathen; but they say that if they go at all, “God and not the church must send them.” They do not think that the Gospel is to convert the world, but that it is to be “preached as a witness to” or rather against “all nations.” The world, they say, “is reserved for judgment, and therefore it is wholly contrary to the character of a Christian to have any thing to do with it or its government.” When a child of God is born again, “he lays,” say they, “all his worldly relations down at the feet of Christ, and he is at liberty to take up none but those which he can take up in the Lord.” They neither pray for pardon of sin, nor for the presence and influence of the Spirit, and carefully exclude such petitions from their hymns. Many of them think it inconsistent with the Christian character to amass wealth, or to possess furniture or clothing more than is _necessary_ for health and cleanliness; and very great sacrifices have been made by the more wealthy of them.