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We apologize for the need for an account, but it serves to protect the integrity of the works and prevent their being used without permission.

CHAPTER VI.

 

THE ACTIVITY OF CHURCHES IN THEIR COLLECTIVE CAPACITY; OR, THE DILIGENCE OF CHRISTIANS CONSIDERED AS CHURCH MEMBERS.

 

The word church is now used in its limited sense, as restricted to one assembly or congregation. It here means a regularly organized body, meeting with its office-bearers in one place for divine worship. And we are now, therefore, to show in what manner the earnestness of such a community is to show itself.

 

There must, of course, be an intelligent and pervading apprehension amongst its members of its design as being, next to its own eternal well-being, a witness for God in the world, and his instrument for spreading the truth. This ought to be a well understood, deeply rooted, and constantly recognized principle. All the members ought perpetually and conscientiously to bear in mind this their high vocation, as a testifying, proselyting body, and stir up each other's minds to carry out this their sacred and common purpose. They must not allow one another to forget that, as a part of the universal church, they are a collective and embodied testimony to the existence, nature, will, and works of God.

 

To this must be added a consciousness of the great spiritual power for accomplishing this end, which is contained in a church of Christ; a power of which it ought to be, but is not, duly sensible. There is moral power in truth, in example, in prayer, in exertion. All these combine in every sincere, consistent Christian. Each believer in Christ is an instrument of great power in our world, or has great power in himself. He has a greater force of character than he has ever yet put forth, or has known himself to possess. Think what one Christian has, in some extraordinary cases, achieved! What an immense power, then, must there be in a church consisting of one, three, five, or seven hundred members! Take even a small church of only one hundred, and imagine them all eminently holy, benevolent, and active, scattered all over the place in which they dwell, each a radiating point of light and influence in the neighborhood where he lives. And then conceive of them collecting together periodically in their church relationship, to be seen as a body of witnesses for God, and to be acted upon by ministerial exercises and mutual influence; keeping each other up to the standard of obligation and the measure of duty. Let it be supposed that they were filled with this idea of spiritual power; that they assembled in their collective capacity, to quicken and renew it, and then dispersed to employ it in their several localities.

 

There must, also, be a deep solicitude in each church to answer the end of its formation, both in reference to its own internal state and its external relations.

 

The active operations of a church may be classed under several heads: the first class includes whatever appertains to its own welfare. For this must, of course, take precedence of all other duties. It is only as it is itself in a good, sound, healthy, and working condition, that it can expect to be of any service to others. A state, as well as a church, must be strong internally, or it can have no power to be beneficial to others.

 

Every member of every community is supposed to feel, and to take, a deep interest in its welfare. The welfare of the whole depends upon the solicitous endeavor to promote it, on the part of its individual members. There is a common interest, and there must be a common activity to uphold it. Thus must it be with all church members; they must have an earnest, jealous, and ever-wakeful solicitude for the well-being of the church to which they belong. They are not, indeed, to cherish an isolated, selfish spirit, which shuts up all its concern within their own congregation, but this is to be the object of their first and chief anxiety. It is their religious home, and every man's concern is to begin with home. It is not enough that they are cordially attached to the pastor, and take an interest in his comfort and usefulness; they must also feel an interest in the church. There can be no doubt that many of our members almost drop the church, and confine all their concern to the minister. They rarely ever attend the church-meetings, though they are always, or usually, present in the sanctuary: they know scarcely any of their fellow-members, and take little interest in their spiritual welfare, however intimate they are with the pastor: they are well pleased to see a good congregation on the Sabbath, though they scarcely ever inquire about additions to the church. They are like the inhabitants of a country who have a personal attachment to the sovereign, but take no interest in the welfare of the nation. Such persons are not actually in fellowship, for they feel none; their names are upon the church books, but their hearts are certainly not in church communion. There is no earnestness here. No brotherly love is in operation.

 

A church should endeavor most diligently to carry out the ends of fellowship, which are mutual love, watchfulness, and helpfulness.

 

Love is the law of Christ's kingdom, the badge of his subjects, and the evidence of his mission; but there is not yet exhibited the intensity of affection among church members which answers this design. Brother-love is yet far too feeble in its exercise. The church is sadly deficient in this lovely grace. The world does not yet see her invested with this heavenly beauty, and therefore does not feel her power as it would otherwise do. When the earnestness of love shall come, when they who look into the "spiritual house" shall see there a scene of holy activity, and all the assiduities of a divine friendship, they will begin to think differently of the Christian religion from what they now do. For want of more of this love, there is not the watchfulness over one another there should be, nor the disposition to bear one another's burdens. We are brought into fellowship, not that we might act as spies upon each other, and wait for a brother's halting, but that we might perform with the tenderest affection the part of monitors, and prevent each other from falling. We ought to feel it a most solemn and sacred duty to gather the stumbling-blocks out of each other's path, and prevent as far as possible even a trip in the way of godliness. Then is a church in a happy state when the members are observed watching in love, with a trembling solicitude, over each other's welfare, and not sparing, when it is needed, the voice of friendly warning, or even the language of faithful reproof. Where there is love there will also be assistance; sympathy in affliction, congratulation in prosperity, relief in want, counsel in perplexity, and visits in distress. What a lovely scene would be presented to our selfish world, if the church of Christ were really in earnest to put forth in its conduct, as it is bound to do, "the charity that suffereth long, and is kind; that envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; that doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all things." Whatever else there may be, there is no real earnestness where there is no prevailing anxiety thus to carry out the ends of fellowship, and to let the world "see how these Christians love one another."

 

1. One of the first duties which a church owes to itself, is an intelligent, firm, and charitable zeal for the principles on which it is founded, both doctrines, and also such as relate to ecclesiastical polity. After what has been said in reference to the former, in the remarks on the epistles to the seven churches, it is not necessary to enlarge upon it here, any further than to remark, that it is of infinite importance for the churches to hold fast "the form of sound words," and not to be carried about with every wind of false doctrine, by which the spiritual atmosphere is so frequently disturbed. Truth is the food of piety, and, error its poison. There can be no sound spiritual health apart from sound doctrine. And yet it is affecting to perceive how lightly, in this age of spurious candor and philosophical taste, of diminished spirituality and increased worldliness, some of the fundamental doctrines are held, and how easily the transfer is made by some professors from one set of opinions to another. Let the members of our churches, then, look vigilantly after each other, and sustain each other in the profession of the faith. Let them not sacrifice the truth for talent, and be content with whatever deficiencies may exist with regard to the former, provided it is made up by a supply of the latter. Nothing can be, or ought to be, a substitute for the evangelical system. Eloquent, but vague generalities, which would suit the taste, and not offend the prejudices, of a congregation of Unitarians or mere theists, should not satisfy an orthodox congregation; and let them be careful how they choose a man who, even in his probationary sermons, seems to have come from Athens, rather than Jerusalem; and to have brought them the enticing words of man's wisdom, instead of the doctrine of the cross, which is the power of God unto salvation. No brilliancy of genius, no fluency of speech, no power of oratory, should reconcile them to a suspicion or error, or even deficiency of evangelical truth. The life and vigor of godliness can never be maintained by mere talent, in the absence of sound doctrine: and, indeed, the greater the talent the greater the danger, especially when such talent appears not only in alienation from, but in hostility to, the truth as it is in Jesus. It is a portentous sign for a Christian community; when it can be satisfied with mere displays of talent in the absence of scriptural truth.

 

Nor is it about doctrine only that our congregations should be in earnest, but about matters of polity also. Church government, though not everything, nor the most important thing, is still something, and a great thing too. It is a matter deeply affecting, in one way or other, not only the spirituality of Christ's kingdom, but the interests of evangelical religion; it is a help or a hindrance, accordingly as it is conformed or opposed to the model set up in the New Testament; and is therefore worthy all the zeal, apart however from the bitterness of sectarianism, which has been manifested on its behalf. To reduce to nonentities, as regards value and importance, the question about established or non-established churches, or concerning Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, and Independency, is a spurious and unauthorized latitudinarianism, as remote from a due regard to the authority of Christ in his word, on the one hand, as a bitter and venomous sectarianism is on the other. If Congregationalists are indifferent to their principles, they are the only body that are so. The advocates of other systems leave us no room to doubt of their earnestness, nor ought we to leave them in any doubt of ours. The principles which apostles taught, which reformers revived, and for which martyrs bled, ought not to be regarded with indifference by us. If they are not matters of conscience, they ought to be abandoned, since it is hardly worth while to stand in a state of separation for matters of mere taste or feeling; and if they are, then let them be held, as all matters of conscience ought to be, with a grasp that relaxes not even in death itself. If important to us, they are important to others, and ought to be propagated, as well as held. Liberty to hold an opinion is but the half of freedom, unless there be liberty to diffuse it. What I plead for on our own behalf, I plead for on behalf of all others. Only let us unsting controversy; only let us speak the truth in love; only let us controvert as brethren, and not as enemies; only let us contend for truth, not for victory; only let us carry on our contests about minor matters, with the recollection that we are agreed on greater ones; only let us wrestle for church polity within sight of the cross, which makes us all one, and of the heaven where we shall feel as one; only let us argue and expostulate as we should with a brother we most tenderly loved, about something he held, which we thought was doing him harm - and then we may be as zealous as we please about church government. If by an earnest dissenter be meant, not a bigoted, uncandid, or pugnacious one, but an intelligent preference founded on conviction, the holding fast of his opinions without any compromise, and a zeal in spreading them, which, though it affects no neutrality, yet neither violates the courtesy of the gentleman, the calmness of the philosopher, nor the charity of the Christian - then may all dissenters be thus in earnest, yes, and all churchmen too.

 

2. As the welfare of the church depends, under God's blessing, upon the labors of the pastor; and as the energy and efficiency of his labors depend upon the state of his own mind, it is indispensably necessary that he should be kept as free as possible from all solicitude about pecuniary matters. There are few matters about which the spirit of liberality in this age has been less conversant or less anxious, than the adequate and comfortable support of the ministry at home; and as a consequence, there are few functionaries so ill-supported as they on whom, under God, the whole cause of evangelization depends. Secretaries of societies, missionaries to the heathen, and schoolmasters, are all better paid, and have a more ample provision made for their comfort, than the preachers of Christ's blessed gospel. Preached sermons are the cheapest of all cheap things, in this age of exceeding cheapness. And yet what invaluable blessings have these sermons been to multitudes! By only one of them, in many cases, persons have been converted to God, and enriched with eternal salvation; many have been relieved of burdens of care which were crushing them to the earth; others have been rescued from a temptation which would have ruined them for both worlds; and myriads have been delivered from the fear of death, and enabled to go on their way rejoicing, even through the dark valley itself. Yes, by a single sermon all this has in many eases been accomplished. What, then, shall be said of all the sermons of a whole year, or a whole life? Think of this, and say whether a payment of ten shillings or a pound a year, is an adequate remuneration to the man who consumes his life in study and in labor for the purpose of conferring such benefits as these? Is it not next to a miracle for a man to be all energy, activity, and earnestness, in his ministry, whose mind is bowed down with solicitude how to provide bread for his family, and at the same time to provide also for things honest in the sight of all men? Christians, you want your pastor to run in the way of God's commandments to his ministries; then take off, by your liberality, the burden under which he can scarcely walk or stand. You complain that his sermons are poor and meager: is it not your own fault, by keeping him so poor and meager in his wardrobe, and in his larder, that the time which should, and would, have been spent in study, has been consumed in endeavoring to get that bread for his babes, with which you ought to have supplied him? If we would have earnest churches, I know very well we must have earnest ministers; but then, if we would have earnest ministers, we must have liberal churches. What is wanted, is a provision for our pastors which shall not be so profuse as to be a temptation to luxurious indolence, and yet so ample as to raise them above anxiety.

 

3. If it be incumbent upon a church to provide for the comfort of a pastor, how much more so for his usefulness, by improving, enlarging, or rebuilding, when his success requires it, the house in which he ministers. Happily, there is not, in the present day, much need for dilating upon this subject. One of the delightful features of this age is a noble spirit of liberal activity, at which our forefathers, were they to come back to life, would be astonished. The voluntary principle is doing wonders in this way, within the pale of dissent, and far greater wonders beyond it. Under its potency, inconvenient, dilapidated, and old-fashioned buildings have given place to modern, elegant, and commodious edifices, in beautiful symmetry with the improved taste of the day; and others have sprung up where there were none before. Parliamentary grants have been found to be unnecessary, and church rates, extorted by force and paid with reluctance, have been in many places superseded by a spontaneous liberality. Still, it is not in every congregation we witness this generous activity, and churches are yet to be found, where, through an almost superstitious regard for the places where their fathers worshiped, the present congregation are unwilling to touch a brick or a plank, and are well-nigh ready to let the roof fall in and bury them, out of reverence for antiquity; or else, out of niggardly regard to their purse, they are content to let a faithful minister, who has ability to preach to a crowd who are anxious to hear him, go on ministering to a small congregation, for which a man possessed of less than half his zeal or talent might suffice. I have known cases that answer to both these hindrances to enlargements and reerections, where the predilections for the antique have stifled the nobler predilections for the useful, and the ghosts of departed saints have been evoked to pronounce it sacrilege to demolish the pew in which they once offered up their prayers to God; whereas, if the men themselves could have been really there, they would have said, "Down with it, every stone, to make way for a place where more souls might hear the gospel and be converted to God." Wealthy men have sometimes opposed the rebuilding of a place of worship, because they would be expected to set the example of liberality, and give more than their love of money would find it agreeable to spare; and I have known opposition raised by poor, would-be gentlemen, because they could not give, and yet had not the courage or the honesty to confess their poverty. It is a gratifying spectacle, and, thanks to the Giver of all grace, not unfrequently witnessed, to see a church, not perhaps rich in this world's goods, blessed with a pious, zealous, and successful ministry, and all activity, all liberality, all earnestness, to enlarge the sphere of his usefulness by building him a new and more commodious place of worship. I have been the witness of some such cases, which are as much beyond the belief, as of the practice, of those who are taught by system to rely on the compulsion of law, or the munificence of parliament, for their places of divine worship.

 

4. A general, regular, and punctual attendance upon all the means of grace is essential to the earnestness of a Christian church. There is a wonderful difference in this respect in the various congregations of professing Christians. In some instances you will see the hearers straggling along with a dull and careless look, as if they were going to an unwelcome service; dropping into the place of worship long after the service has commenced; looking round with vacant stare upon the congregation, undevout and listless, as if they were there, they knew nor cared for why; the seats half empty, and those that occupied them seemingly neither expecting nor desiring a blessing from above. There is no earnestness there. In other cases, how different! you will observe a stream of people, just before the hour of service, flowing into the place, with a serious, thoughtful, yet cheerful air, as if they knew what they were going for, and that it was a solemn, yet gladsome occasion. They take their seats with a composed, collected, devout manner. A look of expectation is in their eye, which is first cast towards the pulpit, as if they waited for the preacher, with his message from God, and then upward to that God who alone can make the message effectual. A stranger coming in, is struck with the appearance of earnestness that pervades the congregation, and almost involuntarily exclaims, "How dreadful is this place! surely this is the house of God, and the gate of heaven." Yes, and if he were to visit that place time after time, he would see the same scene repeated; the same seats occupied by the same people, and in the same devout manner. The earnest hearer is the constant hearer, the punctual hearer, the devout hearer. There is a spirit of indolence, self-indulgence, and mischievous negligence, creeping over the churches, most fatal to fervent devotion, in reference even to the Sabbath day attendance, which is rising out of the modern taste for residing in the country. Very many of the members of our religious communities, of all denominations, go but once a week to the house of God; and this is on a Sabbath morning. All the rest of the holy day is spent in idleness, perhaps feasting and lounging over the wine through the afternoon, turning over the pages of a magazine, with little devotion, and with no profit, in the evening. If these persons were in their closets, studying the Word of God, engaged in self-examination and prayer, mortifying their corruptions, and invigorating their graces, we should think less of it - but is this their occupation? I fear this love of ease is eating out the piety of our churches, and gradually turning the Sabbath into a day of luxurious repose, instead of Christian devotion. Modern tastes are sadly at war with modern piety. It seems as if many of the professing Christians of the day were trying with how little attendance upon the ordinances of public worship, how little of self-denial, and how little a public manifestation of their religion, they could satisfy their conscience - and, alas! how very little that is!

 

But this is not all - earnestness is displayed more commonly by the week-day attendance than the Sabbath  congregations. A professor of religion who has the least regard for his reputation must be at public worship once on the Lord's day, but he has no great reason, as things exist, to fear for his religious reputation, at least in the estimation of many of his fellow-Christians, who are too much like him, though he is never present at a week-day service. There is a phenomenon in my own church which I scarcely know how to explain; I mean that the attendance upon weekly services does not increase with the augmentation of the church. I am not sure that we have more at a prayer meeting now, than we had when the church was only half its present number; and I observe that it is pretty nearly the same people who attend every time. This looks as if there were a great number of our members who have no sense of obligation to attend such services. But can we really consider those who habitually neglect them to be very lively Christians, or in any way advancing in the divine life, unless, indeed, there be any special and sufficient reasons for their absence? Earnestness manifests itself in the way of laborious effort, a willingness to make sacrifices, and a disposition to endure self-denial; and if it characterized the religion of a church; it would display itself in a willingness to put ourselves to some little personal inconvenience to attend the services of the weekdays, as well as the Sabbath days.

 

5.  There ought to be a cordial cooperation with the pastor in all his labors for the salvation of souls. He must be sustained in his endeavors to draw people to hear the gospel. The plan of District Visiting Societies, adopted of late years by the evangelical portion of the clergy of the Church of England, is an admirable one, by which Christian and matronly ladies go round to the habitations of the poor, relieving their temporal necessities, distributing religious tracts, selling Bibles, and urging the people to attend church. How can female influence be better employed? That there may be a little Church-of-Englandism, a little dread of dissenters, mixed up with this zeal, is very probable: but let dissenters then imitate the plan - let the ladies of their congregations commence similar efforts - let them form visiting societies to assist their pastors - let them go to those who attend no place of worship, and persuade them to come and hear their minister. It would be highly improper to tempt persons who already hear the gospel, to leave their own pastor, to come to theirs; but if they find people who go nowhere, and belong to nobody, let them not scruple to induce them to come to their own place of worship. There need be no delicacy, no scruple, no fastidiousness, here. Every pious churchman will allow, it is better these people should attend among dissenters, or methodists, than nowhere. There is no room for jealousy in these matters, while there are such millions in our country, who never go to public worship at all, and who, indeed, if all of them were disposed to do so, could not find sufficient places to receive them. If every congregation were really bent upon filling its place of worship, and were not to leave it all to their minister, they would soon accomplish the object, and be astonished to see what crowds could be gathered. Yet how many of our hearers are there who will go on complaining for years that their minister does not draw a congregation to hear him, while all this time they have never attempted to bring one single individual to listen to his sermons! What an immediate effect would be produced, if fifty earnest persons, or even ten, were to turn out, on a Sunday afternoon, to visit the streets, alleys, and courts in the vicinity of a place of worship, with a view to bring into it the persons who, in its very shadow, are neglecting to attend the house of God, to urge them to keep holy the Sabbath, and to seek the salvation of their immortal souls! We can never denominate a body of Christians an earnest church till it is roused to make such efforts as these; and till its members, such of them, at any rate, as have leisure, are thus exerting themselves to compel the neglecters of public worship to come in, that God's house might be full. There are some persons who are not satisfied with not helping their pastors, but who actually hinder them in their schemes for doing good. I know a minister, who, as his galleries and other parts of the chapel appropriated to the poor were not occupied as he wished, commenced an admirable course of sermons addressed to the laboring classes, with the special design of drawing their attention to his place of worship, and thus filling up the vacant seats. By many of the congregation, who entered into his views, and were anxious for his usefulness, the plan was approved; but it will scarcely be credited, that by others it was disapproved of, and resented, because it took away from them an ordinary sermon, which they deemed more appropriate to themselves, than an address to the laboring classes.

 

A man of powerful eloquence and splendid talents will, by God's blessing upon his labors, raise a congregation anywhere, without much cooperation on the part of the people; but such men are rare, and are not every day to be met with. Yet, without these qualifications, a man of good abilities, ardent piety, and great diligence, will also, by God's blessing, do anywhere, if he be sustained by the cooperation of a thoroughly working church. And it becomes our churches to recollect that such is now the competition of the different denominations, and such especially the activity and energy of the Church of England, that where the congregation is new, or small, or diminished, there is little hope of its being raised to anything like strength or stature, without the efforts of the whole body; whilst, on the other hand, if these efforts are made, there is no ground for despair.

 

An earnest church, then, is one that is in such a state of activity as to be denominated a thoroughly working church. Its members will appear to be animated by one spirit, like the bees of a hive, all busy, each in his own department, and all adding to the common stock. In a community of this description, there will be a place for everybody, and everybody will know and keep his place. Care should of course be taken by the pastor in receiving members to impress upon them the noble idea, that a desire and an effort to be useful is a part of religion; and he should also endeavor to ascertain the talents, capabilities, and tastes for usefulness, of all whom he admits, and then assign to each his proper place and appropriate labor. Over the portals of every church should be this inscription, "Let no one enter here who is not determined to be holy and useful."

 

In our large churches, an assistant minister, if not, a co-pastor, is very desirable, and is becoming more and more necessary, in consequence of the increased energy of the clergy of the Church of England. Our single-handed pastors can never, in matters out of the pulpit, cope with those who have one, two, or three curates employed under them. I am aware, that the Episcopal clergy have a mass of laborious duty, in the way of baptisms, marriages, visitation of the sick, and burials, which, except in a comparatively small amount, does not devolve upon us; but even in this our mitigated pressure the sick are too much neglected, inquirers overlooked, and the young left to themselves. The pulpit cannot, must not, be neglected; and yet how can this be duly regarded, and pastoral claims, with demands for public business, and the increased correspondence brought upon us by the penny postage, be attended to by anyone man, however quick in the dispatch of business, without assistance? We want help, and we must have it, or much of our work will be ill done, and much more left altogether undone. I do not forget the difficulties which present themselves; first of all on the ground of expense, and secondly on account of the probability of disagreement between the two ministers. To obviate the first of these is in the power, and ought to be in the will, of our people; and to meet the second, it might be well for the settled pastor to have the sole right of engaging and of dismissing the assistant, so as to be able at any time to stop incipient mischief. It must be remembered, I am not now speaking of a co-pastor; when this is determined upon, it must be by the church, both as to the time when it is to be done, and the individual who is to be elected: but an assistant is a different matter, though even with reference to him, care should be taken, by the pastor, especially if the assistant is to take a part in pulpit labors, to select such an one as would be acceptable to the people. The reluctance of some of our pastors to adopt this plan, I know is very great, from the hazard which it brings to the peace of the church. I am very well aware there is some danger of this, for it has come under my own observation to see the jars and discords of two ministers, not only among ourselves as dissenters, but also in the Church of England. In the latter case, I admit, the risk is less, on account of the exclusion of the suffrages, power, and influence of the people; and this difficulty, in our case, it appears to me, would be in some measure obviated by allowing the pastor to select and dismiss his own assistant.  This may be better than co-pastorships, except in those cases where an aged minister would gladly aid in choosing his successor, and would thus have a good opportunity for doing it.

 

Next to this, the deacons should be looked to for much more efficient assistance than they are in the habit of rendering. I allow that the original appointment of these went no further than for the care of the poor; but the customs of our churches have thrown many other things into their hands. These, or some other spiritual and experienced persons, should be found to help the pastor in the spiritual, more private, and individual duties of his office - such as conversing with inquirers, comforting the distressed, and guiding the perplexed. Unhappily our deacons are usually men much immersed in business, and who have little time for anything but their own concerns; and more than this, some of them are men much called out for the business of the town in which they live. But considering how solemn and responsible a thing it is to bear office in the church of Christ, and how momentous a community the church of Christ is, they ought either to resign their office as deacons, if they cannot discharge its duties, or else withdraw their attention from public business. A deacon, next to the pastor, should be the most earnest member of the church. He should be all energy and devotedness, breathing by his words, and inspiring by his conduct, a spirit of love and activity into the souls of his fellow members. He should be ardent, without being rash - active without being obtrusive or officious - taking the lead not merely by choice, but by request - stirring up the liberality of the church by being first in all pecuniary exertions, and setting others on fire by the warmth of his own zeal. He should be his minister's counselor, without being his dictator; his comforter, without being his flatterer; his helper, without being his master; and his friend, without being his partisan.

 

Still, as we cannot in all cases expect so much as this, or find all we could wish in deacons, there might be found in most of our churches a few spiritual and judicious persons who would be of essential service in the way of teaching some of our inquirers and young converts "the way of God more perfectly." It is painful to think how much religious impression is allowed to pass away, and how many deep and pungent convictions to be extinguished, for want of their being watched and cherished. There are many persons who would gladly avail themselves of the assistance of a kind-hearted, able, and willing instructor, guide, and comforter, though he were not an official. It is perfectly clear to any attentive student of the New Testament, that there was much more of division of labor in the primitive churches than there is in ours. If we refer to Rom. xii, 7, we find mention made of "ministering," " teaching," "exhortation," " ruling;" and it would seem as if these functions were severally discharged by different persons. So again in 1 Cor. xii, 28, we read of "governments," and "helps," as of something distinct from "teachers." The meaning of the word "helps" is of very wide latitude, and as no hint whatever is given as to its precise application in this instance, we cannot determine to what function it refers. It was not probably a designation of an office in the usual acceptation of that word, but merely a description of persons whose zeal and ability rendered them of great use in a variety of ways to the regular officers of the church. Why have we not more of these "helps" now? - we certainly need them. And if we do not think it proper to revive the supposititious office of deaconesses, why may we not have a band of matronly females, eminent at once for their piety and prudence, who shall be employed, without the formalities of office, but under appointment by the pastor and deacons, to visit the sick members of their own sex, and to aid in the way of Bible classes, the instruction of the young female inquirers. Perhaps the blame lies in the pastors, that more collateral help of this kind is not obtained and employed. We are not wise in our generation, by not finding out, and calling out, the help which must be contained in every large congregation. I never will or can believe that among those hundreds of enlightened minds, and renewed hearts, which are in our churches, there are not many who could, in various ways, be our assistants, and who would not rejoice on being solicited to give us their help.

 

A second class of obligations and duties, in the way of active operations, which devolve upon a Christian community, are such as appertain to the neighborhood in which it is placed. Every church is to be a "light of the world," and the "salt of the earth," in reference to its own locality. It is to seek to exemplify this beautiful language of Jehovah, by the prophet, "I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing." Ezek. xxxiv. 26.

 

It is now a universal custom for every congregation to have its Sunday school: this is considered so necessary an adjunct that the congregation can scarcely be supposed to exist without it; and an earnest church will be earnest in its support of this kind of agency, which is so necessary for the wants of the people, and the morals and religion of the nation. And yet how few churches, as such, and their pastors, take that lively interest in them which they ought. How common is it to leave the whole school to its own self-management, which is, in many cases, to leave it to the direction of a few boys and girls, who in general are but slenderly qualified even to be led, much less to be leaders. It is affecting to consider how these valuable institutions are often managed, or rather mismanaged. Not infrequently have they punished both pastor and church that have neglected them, by becoming seats of disaffection to the one, and means of division to the other. Left to themselves, the teachers have formed a fourth estate, which has perplexed, if not overawed, the other three; and yet, after all, they have been less to blame than the pastor, who thought them of too little consequence to be taken under his patronage, till their importance was felt in the way of mischief. A Sunday school is not so much a part of the congregation, as another congregation by itself, and is well deserving of the devoted attention of both the pastor and his flock. It were a thing to be greatly desired that none but truly pious members of the church should be employed as teachers, and of them none but the wisest and the best; and it often appears for a wonder and a lamentation, that such an opportunity of doing good should be put aside by so many persons who see it constantly within their reach.

 

It is of immense consequence that to every Sunday school there should be the appendage of a Bible class for the senior boys and girls, into which the children should be introduced when they are too old to remain in the ordinary classes. The question has often been asked, what is the best plan for the treatment of the children who are of an age to leave the school? What? Strange that such a question should be asked! The answer, however, is at hand; form Bible classes, to be superintended by some pious, judicious, and devoted persons, who shall give their hearts to the work, and who, with scriptural instruction, shall combine a devoted and assiduous attention to the formation of their general and religious character. I can speak from experience in recommending this scheme. We have long had such classes in our school, and blessed have been the results. It has been our felicity to have had ladies, and gentlemen too, who have given their time and labor to this work, and whose reward and happiness it is to see as members of the church, and as respectable members of society, many who were once under their care. One of the deacons of my church, a gentleman, whose mildness, intelligence and firmness, eminently qualified him for this work, was long engaged in it, and lately acknowledged to me that he believed he was never so useful as when he was thus engaged. Surely all our churches contain persons qualified for such employment, and could any object more gratifying to a holy ambition, more interesting to a benevolent heart, or more fascinating, to a sanctified imagination, be presented, than such an occupation? There can be little earnestness, indeed, if such agency be wanting.

 

It is not Sunday schools alone that our churches must take up, but daily and infant schools; the former must not be neglected, so neither must they be substitutes for the latter. The cry of education is raised in our country, and a noble cry it is. It is heard in the cabinet and in the senate - in the pulpit and on the platform - in the crowded city and in the sequestered village. The press, in every department, and by every means, is keeping up the subject, and filling the land with the echoes of that mighty word, "Education! Education!" Christians should be the last to let the sound die away; they must be foremost in pouring light and life over the dark masses of our ignorant population, and let it be seen that their religion hates darkness. Every church must have its day school, and be considered behind its age, and lamentably defective in its apparatus of instruction and reformation, if there be no portion of the population under its general and moral training. Let a congregation neglecting this be looked at with wonder and reproach, as if it knew not the signs of the times, or heard not the call of God and its country to supplant the crimes and curses of ignorance and vice, by the virtues and the blessings of a sound education. In the glorious rivalry that is stirred up among all denominations for the education of the people, let each and every church consider itself deficient in earnestness if it has no share in the honor of a nation's education. The people must be educated - ought to be educated - will be educated, and let us all contend who shall best and most effectually do the work.

 

Again, I observe, every working church will also have its religious tract society, and thus call in the aid of the press to counteract the mischief which the press, by another kind of publications, already mentioned in a previous chapter, is continually doing. This is a means of doing good which requires so small a capital, either for setting it up, or keeping it up, that no community of Christians, however small or however poor, can make or find an excuse for neglecting it. If only a pound a year could be raised, it would enable a few warm-hearted Christians to do much spiritual good: with even that limited amount of small arms, these spiritual guerrilla parties might do some execution in the holy war. It is painful to think how much this cheap and easy method of doing good is neglected, and even where it is not altogether neglected, how much it is left in the hands of those who, as regards some of them, are least fit for it. Where are our men of influence, and our females of standing in society, and what are they about? Is it a work beneath their dignity, to carry the message of salvation into the cottages of the poor, and to scatter amidst the abodes of ignorance, vice, and misery, those leaves of the tree of life which are for the healing of the nations? Would it degrade them to go and read such a narrative, for instance, as that of "Poor Joseph," in the dark and dreary habitation, where inmates as ignorant and as simple as he might be found, and who, like him, might be induced, and by God's Spirit enabled, to credit the "faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners?" Shall the sons and daughters of wealth leave the hymn of the widow's joyful heart, and the blessing of him that was ready to perish, to be the portion and bliss of the poor only? Why, O why do not all who have no family claims upon their attention, go forth, on a Sabbath afternoon, with these messengers of mercy, into the scenes of ignorance, vice and misery, which are in the vicinity of their own dwellings, and thus encounter the prince of darkness in his own battle­field, and fight him with weapons in size and shape like those with which he is slaying the souls of men!

 

In addition to this, how many could, in our warfare, like artillery-men, manage what might be called the great guns of Scripture, as Readers of the Word of God! Suppose every church had a Scripture-Reading Society, formed of young or older men, or both, who would sally forth with the Bible, and obtain houses where they might be permitted to sit down, and read to the family alone, or to others also that might be gathered in for the purpose. We ask not, in this case, for preachers, but simply, for readers; an office for which nothing is wanted but a capacity to enunciate in an articulate and distinct manner "the true sayings of God." This is a means of usefulness which almost everyone could command; and it is no feeble one either. God's word is as fire, and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. A single passage lighting on the judgment, heart, and conscience, might be the power of God unto the salvation of the soul. Let us have faith in our Bibles, and believe that they are instruments adapted for their end. We must raise the Bible in public estimation: and what could more effectually do this than to go and read it to the people? How would it impress them with the value and importance of this precious volume, if they saw gentlemen and ladies ever coming to their habitations for the express purpose of reading to them its contents! The plan of hired persons, who shall devote their whole time to this work, is an admirable scheme, now much in vogue both in Ireland and also among the evangelical clergy in this country,[1] and will be productive, no doubt, of much good. But in one respect the unhired and unpaid services of persons who would give themselves to this labor, would be likely to produce a still deeper impression upon the minds of the laboring population, than stipendiary agents. Here would be no suspicion of sectarianism, no supposition that it was undertaken by the agents as a means of livelihood, but there would be a deep conviction of the generosity and kindness which could undertake such a labor, with no other fee or reward but that which is bestowed by the testimony of conscience, the approbation of God, and the gratitude of the objects. How is it so simple and so admirable a plan has not been more generally adopted? Just because it has not been brought forward into notice by those whose duty it is to suggest plans, means, and motives to the people for doing good, I mean their spiritual guides and instructors. Why might not every pastor have a band of these Scripture readers under his training, selecting for them week by week the portions which they might read to the people, and illustrating these portions by such remarks as the readers might understand, remember, and repeat to those whom they visit!

 

Thirdly. There are duties which the churches owe to the country at large in the way of its more perfect evangelization. All the remarks on religious patriotism, made in a former chapter on individual effort for the conversion of souls, apply with equal force here. I cannot, nor is it necessary I should, enter into a minute specification of all the various societies so happily multiplied in this active age, to meet the various objects of Christian compassion and religious zeal; such as the British Missions for England, Ireland, and the Colonies, the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, the Seaman's Friend Society, the Religious Tract Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society.

 

Although I would not abstract either time, attention, or money, from our foreign missions, and our labors for the conversion of the heathen, yet I would have more of all these given to home. To talk of abandoning the whole heathen and Mohammedan world till this country is perfectly evangelized, is preposterous, and is usually the slang of those who do very little for either; as it will be found by an appeal to facts, that those who are most zealous in sending the gospel abroad, are the very men who are most active in spreading it at home. Still, it must be admitted that our own country has been too much neglected. Our own population are in a deplorable condition as to morals, and religion, and education also; and it would be Quixotic, indeed, to seek the conversion of Chinese, Hottentots, and Polynesians, while our own neighbors were left to perish. To leave our homestead in an ill condition, and attend only to the extremities of the farm, is certainly not good husbandry. This is starting from the end, instead of the beginning. The order of benevolence is from particulars to generals, and from what is proximate to what is remote; and this rule should be observed in part, though not rigidly, in the present case. In addition to the claims which our country gives us as ours, and as more under our influence than foreign lands, we should recollect that all we do for home is, in an indirect manner, something done for other lands. By spreading religion here, we are raising friends and funds for foreign missions. Our churches and schools, as fast as they are formed, are pressed in as auxiliaries to the missionary societies. No church, therefore, can understand its duties, or be exerting the proper influence which belongs to it, that is not zealous in supporting all institutions that have the more perfect evangelization of our own country for their object. China, India, and all other heathen countries, must be, so to speak, converted in Britain, by multiplying here the instruments and means for converting them abroad.

 

Fourthly. There are also the operations to be carried on for the conversion of the world, in support of our vast missionary schemes. This ought to be considered as the vocation of the church, the full and final development of her energies, and that for which she ought to prepare herself by all her other engagements. I know not that I could give a more beautiful exemplification of the spirit which ought to pervade our churches on this subject, than that which occurs in the life of Baxter. Towards the close of his holy and useful life, he set himself to review his history, to compare his then present with his former self, and to record the changes which time, reflection, observation, and experience had made in his views, feelings, and conduct. Among many other most instructive things we find the following: -

 

"My soul is much more affected with the thoughts of the miserable world, and more drawn out in desire for their conversion, than heretofore. I was wont to look but little further than England in my prayers, as not considering the state of the rest of the world; or if I prayed for the conversion of the Jews, that was almost all. But now, as I better understand the case of the world, and the method of our Lord's prayer, so there is nothing in the world that lieth so heavy upon my heart, as the thought of the miserable nations of the earth. It is the most astonishing part of all God's providence to me, that he so far forsaketh almost all the world, and confineth his special favors to so few; that so small a part of the world hath the profession of Christianity, in comparison with heathens, Mohammedans, and other infidels! And that among professing Christians there are so few that are saved from gross delusions, and have but any competent knowledge; and that so few are seriously religious, and truly set their hearts on heaven. I cannot be affected so much with the calamities of my own relations, or the land of my nativity, as with the case of the Heathen, Mohammedan, and ignorant nations of the earth. No part of my prayer is so deeply serious, as that for the conversion of the infidel and ungodly world, that God's name may be sanctified, and his kingdom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven; nor was I ever so sensible before, what a plague the division of languages is, which hindereth our speaking to them for their conversion; nor what a great sin tyranny is, which keepeth out the gospel from most of the nations of the world. Could we but go among Tartarians, Turks, and heathens, and speak their language, I should be but little troubled for the silencing of eighteen hundred ministers at once, in England, nor for all the rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland, and in Ireland; there being no employment in the world so desirable, in my eyes, as to labor for the winning of such miserable souls; which maketh me greatly honor Mr. John Eliot, the apostle of the Indians in New England, and whoever else have labored in such a work."

 

Such were the holy effusions poured forth in his solitude by this holy and eminent man, when looking at things in the light of an opening heaven and a coming eternity, a situation so favorable to the clear and vivid perception of divine truth. I know not where to look, among all modern missionary sermons or speeches, for anything more eloquent, more touching, or more instructive than this. Baxter lived in an age when no missionary societies existed, and when he could only lament the condition of the heathen world, and pray for their conversion; and oh, how intense were his feelings, how fervent his prayers! Could he have prophetically anticipated the scenes of our May meetings, in what rapturous strains would he have congratulated the blessed generation who were honored to bear a part in such transactions; and yet, of that generation, with all their activity, how few are there whose zeal can compare with his for purity or ardor! Which of us, in our most devoted seasons, can emulate the deep emotion of these affecting paragraphs? Baxter was now silenced from his beloved work of preaching the gospel, by that rancorous and relentless spirit of persecution which had arraigned, condemned, and imprisoned him as a culprit; and yet to hear him say, in such circumstances, that he was not so affected by his own sufferings, or the sufferings of his relatives, and his country, as by the condition of the heathen! To hear him say that he should not regret the silencing of two thousand witnesses for God in these realms, if they could but go and bear their testimony in foreign lands! To hear him mourning over tyranny, not because it robbed him of his rights and immured him in a jail, but because it shut out the gospel from perishing souls! Oh where shall we find anything like this in all the most heroic and self-denying instances of missionary zeal in the day or the country in which we live? Friends of missions, see here a pattern, at once to instruct, reprove, and stimulate you. Here is individual zeal - no waiting for others; closet zeal - no mere platform stimulus; prayerful zeal - no self-sufficient activity; serious zeal - no levity, no frivolity, no laughter-loving interest; self-denying zeal, manifested in a willingness to surrender the dearest rights of humanity, so that the gospel could be preached to the heathen - no putting off the cause with the mere parings of his comforts; and all this founded upon an intelligent and considerate acquaintance with the condition of its object. Then, when such a zeal as this pervades our churches - when each Christian apart, and each family apart, shall take up the subject on such ground, and with such solicitude as this - when the missionary fire is thus kept burning upon the altar of our hearts, fed by meditation and fanned by prayer - when our trials press not so heavily upon us as the miseries of the heathen - when liberty seems chiefly precious because it gives us an opportunity to preach the gospel to the heathen - and when even literature is valuable most of all because it aids us in translating and preaching the Word of God - then when the great misery is an unconverted world, and the great desideratum is a converted one - then will the Spirit be poured out from on high, and the world, in answer to the prayers of the church, be converted to Christ.

 

The present organization of the missionary societies is the best, perhaps, that the circumstances of our times allow, and deserves the support of all the friends of the Redeemer and his cause, till God shall show unto us "a more excellent way." That he will do so, I have little doubt. We are only in the childhood of our missionary growth, and shall lay aside, when we have reached our manhood, much that we are now doing, as the childish things of our early years. More of God, and less of man, will appear. The churches of Christ will then, probably, themselves be the missionary societies of the day, instead of one vast, and to a certain extent unwieldy organization, embracing a whole denomination. Missionaries will go out as members, representatives, and messengers of these bodies of Christians at home; and much of the machinery of our present social arrangements will be laid aside as cumbersome and artificial, for a mode of operation characterized by the simplicity of primitive times. This, however, must be left for Divine Providence to accomplish, who will, no doubt, verify in this instance, as well as in every other, the truth of that sublime declaration, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

 

What the churches have now to do, is to go on with increased zeal, liberality, and prayer, in the great work of sustaining their respective societies, which are laboring, and not without the token of God's blessing, for the conversion of the world.

 

I may devote a few remarks here on two points as strictly appropriate to the subject of this chapter - female agency and public collections.

 

With regard to the first of these I confess that while I do not wish to dispense with it altogether, for this is not possible, and if it were, would not be right, I feel jealous lest it should in any measure impair that retiringess of manner, that unaffected reserve, that modesty of demeanor, and that delight in home, which are woman's chief loveliness, and the fascination of her charms. Should the modern practice of employing females so extensively in our religious institutions, make them bold, obtrusive, and fond of publicity, it would be corrupting society at its source, by spoiling them for wives and mothers, however it might fit them to be the instruments of benevolent organizations. Whatever impairs the beauty, or diminishes the strength, of the home virtues, though it may aid the operations of public institutions, is radically mischievous, and cannot be compensated by any benefit which could be procured, of any kind, or for any object. It is always revolting to my sense of propriety to see a young girl of sixteen or eighteen, pacing a street, knocking at door after door, entering shops, offices, and counting-houses, and addressing herself in the character of a beggar, to anyone, and to everyone, not excepting young men. Such things are not unknown, perhaps not uncommon. Ministers should be very careful how they employ young females, and take especial care, when it cannot be avoided, to exert all their influence to repress a spirit of levity and folly, and the least approach to impropriety; and diffuse an air of seriousness and gravity over all that is done in this way, and by such agents. Judicious mothers will be much upon the alert in exercising a salutary vigilance over their daughters, and resist every attempt to engage them in services which may have the least tendency to despoil them of their modesty, simplicity, and love of home.

 

The following appropriate remarks are from an article in the Quarterly Review, on "The Life of Mrs. Fry." "The high and holy duties assigned to woman by the decrees of Providence are essentially of a secret and retiring nature: it is in the privacy of the closet that the soft, yet sterling wisdom of the Christian mother stamps those impressions on the youthful heart, which, though often defaced, are seldom wholly obliterated. Whatever tends to draw her from these sacred offices, or even abate their full force and efficacy, is high treason against the hopes of a nation. We do not deny that valuable services may be safely, and are safely, rendered by many intelligent and pious ladies, who devote their hours of leisure and recreation to the Raratongas and Tahitis of British Christendom - it is not to such we would make allusion; our thoughts are directed to that total absorption which, plunging women into the vortex of eccentric and self-imposed obligations, merges the private in the public duty, confounds what is principal with that which is secondary, and withdraws them from labors which they alone can accomplish, to those in which they can at least be equaled by others."

 

Considerable care should also be taken, when it is thought proper to employ the agency of children in collecting money by cards or otherwise, that no injury be done to their young minds in destroying that humility, simplicity, and artlessness, which are the ornament of childhood, and fostering a spirit of vanity, and a habit of obtrusive forwardness in their manners. It is a doubt with some persons whether this practice should be countenanced at all.

 

Public collections are a subject of immense importance: much that is going on in the world for its conversion to God, depends upon them; and the life, activity, and earnestness of a church, must be estimated in some measure by the readiness and liberality with which they are made. This plan is an easy and expeditious method of raising money, and is perfectly consonant with all the principles of the New Testament. These collections have become of so much consequence, that it seems almost necessary to systematize them. Some attempt and approach to this has been made by the plan among the Congregational churches to collect on the last Sabbath in October, for the British missions; but a far more perfect scheme is adopted, under the power of Conference, among the Wesleyans, by which I believe certain prescribed objects are collected for on certain days throughout the whole denomination. We, as Congregationalists, and indeed other bodies of Christians, have no such authority as this; the independence of our system of polity does not allow it. In Ireland, collections are made after every sermon, it being understood that copper only is expected ordinarily, and silver at stated and well-known times. In Scotland, opportunity is given to the worshipers as they go into the sanctuary, to deposit their offerings every Sabbath in plates held to receive them at the door.

 

The greater part of the denominations in this country, both established and unestablished, have no system whatever, beyond an arrangement, which some congregations make at the beginning of the year, concerning the objects they will collect for during the ensuing twelve months; and the standing rule as to time with some of them is to have a collection for some object every month. My own opinion is that, generally speaking, we have too few collections, an idea which perhaps will be startling to some, who think we have already too many. A "collection" is a very vague term; it may mean an effort to raise a large sum, or it may mean only the gathering up of the smaller offerings of the people; and attaching to it only the former idea, our congregations may well shrink from the multiplication of these efforts, but suppose a collection implied, as it does, except on occasions, in Ireland and Scotland, only the giving of a six-pence, or a penny - such collections might be multiplied indefinitely, without oppressing anyone; for who would be impoverished by a six-pence, or a penny, even every week? Suppose, then, we had a graduated scale of collections. The first class actually requiring an effort, for the Missionary Society, for instance, or for any other paramount object, when everybody would be expected to give their largest sums; the second class requiring only half this effort, for British Missions, or anything else the congregation might determine upon; the third class requiring no effort at all, but merely the smaller sums. Now it is the multiplication of this third class that I allude to, which would oppress no one, and yet, if generally made, would, for various objects that now receive very inadequate help, raise a large sum. What an amount would be raised by a six-pence, or only a single penny, being asked for from the individuals composing our whole denomination! And if it were announced, when the object is mentioned, that it came under the first, second, or third class collection, the people would then know what was expected from them in the way of contribution.

 

This scheme will be thought by some to be liable to objection; first, as being fanciful; but if it be effective we need not mind that. Secondly, it would often lead us into difficulty under what class to place an object; but there is already such a classification, though not so systematically arranged and designated; for who gives as much to the Seaman's Friend Society, or to the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, or to the Moravian Missions, or to many other objects that could be mentioned, as they do to the London Missionary Society, or to British Missions? The objects classify themselves. But it will be said this will restrict benevolence. By no means, for no one need be tied down to the six-pence or penny; if they choose to give more, it is perfectly at their option to do so, but they are not asked for more. And then as to giving dissatisfaction to the societies which would only get into the third class, many of them would gladly get there, rather than not get into anyone. Let them have only the smaller gatherings from all the churches, throughout the country, and they would account themselves much better supported than they are at present. But the multiplication of collections, it may be said, would spoil the ministrations of the sanctuary, and make us weary of hearing about societies. So it would if there was to be a long statement made about each; but not if a simple announcement was made, and very little said about the matter, leaving the thing to commend itself to every man's judgment, for no one would want a long appeal which was to get only so small a sum from him.

 

This plan would suit small congregations as well as large ones, which are apt to excuse themselves from doing anything, because they cannot do much. It is a plea often used by a congregation that the little they can raise is not worth sending; but if they would consider how a multiplication of these small sums makes a large one, they would see that they ought not to be deterred by the consideration of their paucity and poverty. Such a plan as I now recommend would save the trouble, expense and inconvenience of deputations, at least to a considerable extent. Not that I think these can be entirely dispensed with, though it is high time they were reduced within a much narrower compass than they occupy at present. They are a waste of public money, a disparagement to resident ministers, a hindrance to the duties of the pastorate, a pandering to a vicious appetite for novelty and excitement, and a means of rendering churches dissatisfied with their own pastors, by their being thus brought into comparison, not to say contrast, with the strangers who visit them.

 

The whole system of modern evangelization partakes far too much of the noisy, the showy, the ostentatious and vain-glorious. We are not content to work, but we must talk so much about what we do; there must be such endless speechifying, such blowing of trumpets, such parade of names and sums and operations, that it looks as if it were not the doing of the thing upon which we were intent, but telling what we have done, and priding ourselves upon it. And why is all this, but because our passions rather than our principles are at present engaged in the work; because our tastes rather than our convictions are employed; because motives have less to do with these matters than impulses. We want a deeper sort of piety in our churches, a more realizing sense of the claims of Christ, the value of the soul, the misery of men without the gospel, and the great ends and obligations of the Christian profession. If the love of Christ constrained us - if no man lived to himself - if we felt that for every farthing of property we were accountable to God, and were habitually looking on to the day of account, we should not want such instrumentality as is now employed; or at any rate should want much less of it.

 

But we now return to the idea that an earnest church is a working church. Churches as well as individuals have their character; and an honorable one it is for either, to be known as always busy in doing good. There are four descriptions of religious communities to be found, as regards their prevailing character. The first consists of those in which an apparent, and perhaps it may be but an apparent, high degree of spirituality exists - the preacher is devout, and his sermons partake of his own habitude of thought and feeling, and the people, like the pastor, are thought to be, and perhaps are, professors of a higher tone of piety than many others - there is much of the divine life, in one of its phases, there - but although numerous, and wealthy, they do nothing, or nothing in proportion to their ability, for the cause of Christ. Their collections are few and small; they are not at all known as engaged in any of the great societies of the day. Their calling seems to be to luxuriate on gospel privileges, to enjoy a perpetual feast of fat things; but they appear to think they have no vocation to sound out the word of the Lord; or, at any rate, they consider themselves as something like the Jewish church, a stationary witness for God.

 

The second description of our churches is that of the communities of Christians where there is perhaps less of spirituality, less of the unction and the odor of doctrinal theology, either in the pastor or the flock, though the spiritual life is by no means low in comparison with many others; but then all is activity and energy - the pastor is devoted not merely to his people but to the cause of God at large. The collections are numerous and great. The church can be depended upon, and is looked to for assistance by the directors of our institutions. All hands are busy in Sunday and daily schools - tract distribution - working parties - Bible classes and organizations for home and foreign societies - all that know them think and speak of them as a thoroughly working church.

 

The third description applies to those who are neither the one nor the other of these; they have lost their spirituality, and have not gained a character for activity - they neither enjoy the life of godliness nor diffuse it - they have not even a name to live, but are dead.

 

The fourth includes those - alas! how few they are - who unite an earnest spirituality with an activity and liberality no less eminent; where the spiritual life is all healthfulness and vigor, and where its developments are seen in all the operations of a holy zeal. This, then, is what we want; churches in which the vital principle of piety shall be so strong that they may be said to be like the mystic wheels of Ezekiel, instinct with the Spirit of God and ever in motion - churches whose activity, like that of the strong and healthy man, is the working of a life too vivacious to remain in a state of indolence and repose - churches so filled with the Spirit, that his gracious influence is perpetually welling up and flowing over in streams of benevolent activity for the salvation of the world - churches partaking of so much of the mind of Christ that from their own internal constraint, they must, like him, be ever going about doing good. Oh that God would pour out his Spirit, and raise every separate fellowship of believers to this blessed state of spiritual prosperity!

 

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[1] Among the latter this scheme is become, and very deservedly, a great favorite. The Rev. J. C. Miller, the rector of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, has lately addressed to his parishioners a heart-stirring appeal, entitled "A Few Anxious Words," to excite their zeal and liberality in supporting this plan, by raising for him a fund to employ four readers in his parish; and I believe that from the high and deserved esteem in which he is held, this indefatigable Christian pastor will be supplied with all he asks for.