Note 407:2 — Chapter XXII

Minutes of the Convention of Delegates met to consult on Missions in the City of Cincinnati, A.D. 1831. The position of the bishop was more logical than that of the convention, forasmuch as he held, by a powerful effort of faith, that "his own" church is the church of the United States, in an exclusive sense; while the divines at Cincinnati earnestly repudiate such exclusive pretensions for their church, and hold to a plurality of sectarian churches on the same territory, each one of which is divinely invested with the prerogatives and duties of "the church of Christ." A usus loquendi which seems to be hopelessly imbedded in the English language applies the word "church" to each one of the several sects into which the church is divided. It is this corruption of language which leads to the canonization of schism as a divine ordinance.