As we have already seen, there was a great struggle in Europe to escape from the direful effects of departure from apostolic simplicity. These efforts brought forth many sects, and each sect fought desperately to secure the Bible within its own party by the spiritual fetters of partisan interpretation. The clergy of each denomination, arrogating to themselves the claim of being its divinely-authorized expounders, caused it to speak only in the interest of their sect, and thus the Bible was made to speak in defense of each particular creed. Detached sentences, relating to matters wholly distinct and irrelevant, were placed in imposing array in support of positions assumed by human leaders; the people, on the other hand, seemed to have quietly surrendered into the hands of the clergy all power of discrimination and all independence in religious matters. It seemed vain that the Bible had been put into the hands of the people in their mother tongue, since the “clergy” had succeeded in imposing upon it a seal which the “laity” dared not break, so that while Protestants were delighted that they were in possession of the Bible, it was, in fact, little else than an empty boast, so long as they could be persuaded that they were wholly unable to understand it. The Bible thus trammeled had, nevertheless, set free from spiritual bondage individuals here and there, who were more or less successful in their pleadings for reform. But among them all, however, there was no one who took hold of the leading errors with sufficient clearness and grasp as to liberate it from the thraldom of human tradition and restore the Gospel to the people in its primitive simplicity and power. PART IV The Restoration Movement in America CHAPTER I. SPIRITUAL UNREST IN MANY PLACES The close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century were characterized by efforts to get entirely on apostolic ground, originating almost simultaneously in widely-separated localities and amidst different and antagonistic sects. But, as the greatest of these efforts developed in our own country, we now turn our attention to them.