RELIGIOUS SECTS. From the earliest days of the world's history man has been more or less a religious creature. Almost in variably he has had a god, or several of them, to whom he looked for protection. At times these gods have been crude fetishes of whittled wood or roughly hewn stone; at times they have assumed the form of animals or reptiles, or have appeared as cruel monsters eager for the life-blood of those who reverenced them. But, however they may have come, man has worshipped them, because religion, as repre sented in the worship of a supernatural power, is interwoven with the entire fabric of human nature. The religious °sect," however, is of more recent origin, for while primitive man could worship his crude fetishes blindly, it was necessary that he should learn to think before he could attempt to distinguish between the various attributes of the Infinite, that from them he might construct those well-marked divisions of faith, or creed, which are such an inevitable result of the varying phases of human thought. To-day the term is ap plied to those bodies of men who have an nounced their decisions to follow the opinions or doctrines of some philosophical or theologi cal teacher. Of course, to the Roman Cath olic all religious bodies that are not actually in affiliation with her communion are classed as sectarian, but such a definition is not the general one, the word being used to differentiate separate organizations rather than to call attention to comparatively inconsequen tial differences of opinion. Thus, for example,
the High and Low Church 'factions in the Church of England, or, in this country, the Protestant Episcopal Church, are not regarded as separate sects but as parties, or schools, within the same' communion; whereas the vari ous bodies of Baptists in America are denomi nated as not so much because of their differences in doctrinal matters, which in some instances are slight, but for the reason that they are under separate Church government. While there were sects among the ancient Jews and Greeks the coming of Christianity, with its wide field for speculation, opened the way for a more general promulgation of individual opitt; ion and the following list of the most import ant organizations of this and other days indi cates that there' has been no lack of teachers and prophets to preach new gospels to those who would hear :