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TheGlasites/ˈɡlæsaɪts/ orGlassites were a smallChristian church founded in about 1730 inScotland byJohn Glas.[note 1][1] Glas's faith, as part of theFirst Great Awakening, was spread by his son-in-lawRobert Sandeman intoEngland andAmerica, where the members were calledSandemanians.[2]
Glas dissented from theWestminster Confession only in his views as to the spiritual nature of thechurch and the functions of the civilmagistrate. But Sandeman added a distinctive doctrine as to the nature offaith which is thus stated on his tombstone:[3]
In a series of letters toJames Hervey, the author ofTheron and Aspasio, Sandeman maintained that justifyingfaith is a simple assent to the divine testimony concerningJesus, differing in no way in its character frombelief in any ordinarytestimony.[3][note 2]
In their practice the Glasite churches aimed at a strict conformity with the primitive type of Christianity, as understood by them. Each congregation had aplurality ofelders,pastors, orbishops, who were chosen according to what were believed to be the instructions ofPaul, without regard to previous education or present occupation, and who enjoy a perfectequality in office.[5] To have been married a second time disqualified one forordination, or for continued tenure of the office of bishop.[3]
In all the action of the church unanimity was considered to be necessary; if any member differed in opinion from the rest, he must either surrender his judgement to that of the church, or be shut out from itscommunion.[6] To join in prayer with anyone not a member of thedenomination was regarded as unlawful, and even to eat or drink with one who had beenexcommunicated was held to be wrong. TheLord's Supper was observed weekly; and between forenoon and afternoon service every Sunday alove feast was held at which every member was required to be present.[3] This took the form not of symbolic morsels of wine and bread, as in other communions, but a (relatively) substantial meal, a custom leading to the Glasites' nickname of "Kail Kirk" for theScotch broth that was served at this setting.[7] This custom may have arisen, in part, as a charitable response to the poverty of most members of this Church and also as a pragmatic response to the length of meetings (particularly the sermons) and the distances some members of the congregation had to travel in order to attend.
At Glasite services, any member who "possesses the gift of edifying the brethren", was allowed to speak. The practice of washing one another's feet was at one time observed; and it was for a long time customary for each brother and sister to receive new members, on admission, with aholy kiss.[3]
"Things strangled and blood" were rigorously abstained from. They disapproved of all lotteries and games of chance. The accumulation of wealth they held to beunscriptural and improper.[8]
A church was set up by Glas inDundee following his suspension by theChurch of Scotland, with its congregation becoming known asGlasites. The first meeting house inPerth followed in 1733.[9] Glasite churches were also founded inPaisley,Glasgow,Edinburgh,Leith,Arbroath,Montrose,Aberdeen,Dunkeld,Cupar, andGalashiels.[3] Buildings built as Glasite chapels survive inDundee,Edinburgh andPerth (two),Galashiels and possibly elsewhere.[10]
Glas's views were again advanced beyond Scotland with Sandeman's publication ofLetters on Theron and Aspasio in 1757. The resulting correspondence between the leading church elders, Glas and Sandeman, and English pastors,Samuel Pike, John Barnard, and William Cudworth among others, led to the adoption of this primitive form of Christianity for theirLondon congregations beginning in the early 1760s.[11] John Barnard's petition to Robert Sandeman brought the latter south toLondon fromScotland in April 1761 with his brotherWilliam and John Handasyde, an Elder from the Northumberland meeting house. This visit led to the establishment of the first legitimately constituted Sandemanian congregation on 23 March 1762 atGlover's Hall.[12] To accommodate larger gatherings, this congregation moved initially to Bull and Mouth-Street,St. Martin's Le Grand, and then to Paul's Alley in the Barbican in the autumn of 1778.[13][14] This third London meeting house was that ofMichael Faraday's youth.[note 3] The Sandemanians relocated toBarnsbury Grove, innorth London, in 1862 where they met until nearly the turn of the century. Michael Faraday was a Deacon at Paul's Alley in the Barbican during the 1830s, an Elder there from 1840 to 1844 and again from 1860 to 1864, the final two years of which were at the Barnsbury Grove meeting house (see 2008 photograph[15]).[16] A plaque was installed in the building indicating his seat of prayer. The building was converted into a telephone exchange, and that end of Barnsbury Grove renamed Faraday Close.
As the congregation on Bull and Mouth-Street, St. Martins-le-Grand, London solidified through the inclusion of noted pastors likeSamuel Pike in 1765, other English parishes followed their Sandemanian lead.[17] The first response outside London occurred inYorkshire with followers ofBenjamin Ingham. Ingham discreetly sent two of his preachers, James Allen and William Batty, to Scotland to observe Glasite practices in 1761. Of these three Methodist preachers, only Allen fully converted and began to establish Sandemanian meeting houses in Northern England, to include his hometown ofGayle,Kirkby Stephen, Newby, andKirkby Lonsdale. By 1768 Allen, together with John Barnard and William Cudworth from London, helped establish congregations inYork, Norfolk,Colne, Wethersfield,Liverpool,Whitehaven,Trowbridge andNottingham.[18] Sandeman personally established fewer than a dozen churches in England including Liverpool before he went to America in 1764.[19] The Trowbridge meeting house, in Wiltshire, was the location to which Samuel Pike moved and at which he preached for the final two years until his death in 1773.[20]
Robert Sandeman sailed intoBoston fromGlasgow aboard theGeorge and James, captained by Montgomery, on 18 October 1764.[21] At the invitation ofEzra Stiles, Sandeman preached his first sermon in Newport on 28 November. He spent Christmas and most of January 1765 inDanbury, Connecticut, discussing theology and church governance with Ebenezer White and his followers. Over the next four months, Sandeman and his party traveled toNew York,Philadelphia,New London, Connecticut,Providence, Rhode Island, and finallyPortsmouth, New Hampshire. Sandeman established his first church in Portsmouth on 4 May 1765, accompanied by James Cargill, Andrew Oliphant, and his nephews. Within the month, Sandeman returned toBoston and established his second meetinghouse at the home of Edward Foster. From Boston, he returned to Danbury and created his third church among White's followers, with Joseph Moss White and himself serving as elders.[22] Sandeman referred to his church asformal to distinguish it from Ebenezer White's church, which retained traditional church authority.
Colonial resistance to Sandemanianism initially stemmed from the absence of ministerial authority within their congregations. This lack of a central authority challenged the existing social fabric throughout New England, which relied upon thestate to enforce church orthodoxy. As many colonials rose in protest of punitive Crown policies in the decade following Robert Sandeman's arrival, his followers remained passively loyal inPaul's footsteps, setting the stage for bitter estrangement between the factions.[23] It was not until Sandeman's passing in 1771 that the remnants of the Danbury church moved toNew Haven and formed the fourth church in America. Sandemanians as a whole were labeled "Loyalists" for their pacifist stance, to conform with Paul's teachings, since they did not oppose the crown like so many of their colonial brethren.[24][25] Besides passivism, many Boston congregations evacuated with the British. It went into exile inHalifax,Nova Scotia, further escalating the fears of their colonial brethren. This relocation to Halifax led to the formation of the fifth church. A Boston printer,Mr. John Howe followed the British lead to Canada with his family, only to return alone with the British army to document the unfolding war story upon its return to New York.[26][27] The'History of Danbury, Connecticut, 1684-1896', by James Montgomery Bailey, mentions three additional Sandemanian congregations located in Taunton, Massachusetts, Newtown, Connecticut, and the Plumtrees district of Bethel, Connecticut. It is not clear what role, if any, Robert Sandeman played in the establishment of these congregations. However, the Boston records indicate he performed several marriages in that city during the winter and spring of 1767 to 1768.[28][29] Many Loyalist Sandemanians were uprooted during the revolution and lost most of their property.[30]John Howe's story exemplifies this situation. In his case, he sailed to Nova Scotia and became an elder in the congregation that formed.[31]
The last of the Sandemanian churches inAmerica ceased to exist in 1890.[3] The London meeting house finally closed in 1984.[32] The last Elder of the Church died in Edinburgh in 1999.[9]
Their exclusiveness in practice, neglect of education for the ministry, and theantinomian tendency of their doctrine contributed to their dissolution.[33] Many Glasites joined the general body of ScottishCongregationalists, and the denomination has long been considered extinct.[3]
A prominent critic of Sandemanian beliefs was BaptistAndrew Fuller (1754–1815), who publishedStrictures on Sandemanianism (1812), in which he argued that if faith concerns the mind only, then there could be no way to distinguish genuine Christians from nominal Christians. He also argued that knowing Christ is more than mental knowledge of facts about Him; it involves a desire for fellowship with Him and a delight in His presence.[34]
John "Rabbi" Duncan said once that Sandemanianism was "the doctrine of justifying righteousness along with thePopish doctrine of faith."[35]
Prominent Sandemanian families include the surnames Barnard, Baynes, Baxter, Boosey, Bell, Deacon,Faraday, Leighton, Mann,Vincent, Whitelaw and Young. There was a strong link between the Sandemanians and scientists. Notable members of the Sandemanian Church includeWilliam Godwin,Michael Faraday,[36]Charles Wilson Vincent andJames Baynes.[37]
The Sandemanian church and its members are mentioned several times inEdward Everett Hale's short story "The Brick Moon". In Hale's short story "My Double, and How He Undid Me," the main character and narrator is a Sandemanian minister.
The archives of the Glasite Church are held by Archive Services at theUniversity of Dundee and have attracted researchers from America.[9][38][39]
[They] consider it to be their duty to abstain from blood, and from things strangled, considering the decree of the first council of Jerusalem to be still obligatory upon all Christians... They regard it as unlawful literally to lay up treasures on earth, and each member considers his property liable to be called for at any time to meet the wants of the poor and the necessities of the church. They look upon a lot as sacred, and accordingly they disapproved of all lotteries and games of chance.
Re missing citation pertaining to Michael Faraday:Ira Brodsky, The History of Wireless, Telescope Books, p 20.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Macfadyen, Dugald (1911). "Glasites". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 86.