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Party-Spirit

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Partridge, Alfred H., D.D.

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is a certain limitation of that general social principle which binds together- the human species. It consists in the attachment men are disposed to feel towards any association or body they may belong to in itself, and towards the fellow-members of the same, as such, over and above any regard they may have for them individually. Those who are unaccustomed to clearness of distinction are, when speaking of party spirit, apt to confound together the combination itself and the particular objects which in any particular case may be proposed. There is no party-spirit necessarily generated in the forming of a combination with others for fixed and definite objects, to be pursued by specified means, and under regulations distinctly laid down and strictly observed; but the party-spirit which is to be wholly removed and sedulously shunned in religious matters consists in a general indefinite conformity to the views and practices of some party, without limitation of time or objects. Those who disapprove of such adherence to a religious party found that disapprobation upon the opinion that it is setting up man in. the place of God. "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," they consider to be the expression of precisely that sort of allegiance which is due to God, and not due to man. They remember the injunction, "Be not ye called Master; for one is your master, even Christ."