This term is used among Christians to denote those who form separate communions, and do not associate with one another in religious worship and ceremonies. Thus we call Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, different sects, not so much on account of their differences in opinion, as because they have established to themselves different fraternities, to which, in what regards public worship, they confine themselves; the several denominations above mentioned having no intercommunity with one another in sacred matters. High, Strict, and Moderate Calvinists, High Church and Low Church, we call only parties, because they have not formed separate communions. Great and known differences in opinion, when followed by no external breach in the society, are not considered constituting distinct sects, though their differences in opinion may give rise to mutual aversion. The Jewish, Christian, Mahometan, and Pagan world is divided into an almost innumerable variety of sects, each claiming to themselves the title of orthodox, and each charging their opponents with heresy. Where perfect religious liberty prevails, as in the United States, and where emigrants from all quarters of the globe resort in great numbers, it is not surprising that most of the Christian sects in foreign countries, with some of native origin, should be found in this part of the American continent. CHURCH GOVERNMENT. There are three modes of church government, viz., the _Episcopalian_, from the Latin word _episcopus_, signifying _bishop_; the _Presbyterian_, from the Greek word _presbuteros_, signifying _senior_, _elder_, or _presbyter_; and the Congregational or Independent mode. Under one of these forms, or by a mixture of their several peculiarities, every church in the Christian world is governed. The Episcopal form is the most extensive, as it embraces the Catholic, Greek, English, Methodist, and Moravian churches. Episcopalians have three orders in the ministry, viz., bishops, priests, and deacons; they all have liturgies, longer or shorter, which they either statedly or occasionally use. All Episcopalians believe in the existence and the necessity of an apostolic succession of bishops, by whom alone regular and valid ordinations can be performed. The Presbyterians believe that the authority of their ministers to preach the gospel and to administer the sacraments is derived from the Holy Ghost, by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery. They affirm, however, that there is no order in the church, as established by Christ and his apostles, superior to that of presbyters; that all ministers, being ambassadors of Christ, are equal by their commission; that _presbyter_ and _bishop_, though different words, are of the same import; and that prelacy was gradually established upon the primitive practice of making the _moderator_, or speaker of the presbytery, a permanent officer.