^*,
^
.^%
IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)
A<s^
V,
y
1.0
■50 ^^~
2.5
Vi I2ii 12.2
^ id£ 1:^.0
I
iL25 nil 1.4
1.6
6"
HiotDgraphic
Sciences
CcHpOTation
23 WIST MAIN STREiT
WEBSTEt.N.Y. MSSO
(71«)*72-4903
CIHM/ICMH
Microfiche
Series.
CIHIVI/iCMH
Collection de
microfiches.
Canadian Ir^stitute tor Historical ly/licroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquas
^
^N
i
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Note* techniques et bibliographiques
The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographlcally unique,
which may alter any of the images In the
reproduction, or which may significantly change
the usual method of filming, are checked below.
Q
n
□
Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur
I I Covers damaged/
Couverture endommagde
Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurde et/ou pelliculAe
Cover title missing/
Le titre de couverture manque
Coloured maps/
Cartes gtegraphiques en couleur
Coloured inic (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)
I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
D
Planches et/ou i!iustrations en couleur
Bound with other material/
Relii avec d'autres documents
Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/
La re iiure serrie peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge IntArleure
Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouttes
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
male, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 4t6 filmtes.
Additional comments:/
Commentalres supplimentaires:
L'InstStut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il iui a 6t4 possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la mAthode normale de fiimage
nont indiqute ci-dessous.
□
n
D
Q
D
D
D
D
D
Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur
Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^es
Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restaurtes et/ou pellicul6es
Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages d6color6es, tachet6es ou piqudes
Pages detached/
Pages d^tachdes
Showthrough/
Transparence
Quality of print varies/
Quality in^gale de I'lmpresslon
Includes supplementary material/
Comprend du materiel suppKmentaire
Only edition available/
Seule MItlon disponlble
Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refllmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partlellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont 6t6 fllmtes d nouveau de fa^on d
obtenir la meilleure image possible.
This item Is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/
Ce document est filmi^ au taux de rMuctlon indiquA ci-dessous.
10X 14X 18X 22X
26X
30X
12X
16X
aox
24X
28X
32X
The copy filmnd h:ir« ha* b««n reproducvd thanks
to tha ganarosity of:
Harold Campbtll Vaughan Memorial Library
Acadia Univanity
U'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grtca k la
g4n*rositi da:
Harold Campball Vaughan Memorial Library
Acadia Univanity
Tha imagaa appearing hara ara tha bast quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.
Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. Ail
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or iiiustratad impression.
The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol y (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.
Les images suivantes ont 6t4 reproduites avec ie
plus gi-and soin. compta tenu de la condition at
da la nattet* da i'exemplaire film*, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
fiimaga.
Les exempiaires originaux dont la couverture en
papier est imprimte sont fiimAs en commenpant
par la premier plat at en terminant soil par la
derniAro page qui comporta una empreinte
d'impression ou d'lliustration, soit par ie second
plat, salon ie cas. Tous les autras exempiaires
originaux sont filmte en commenpant par la
premiere page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration at an terminant par
la derniAre page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.
Un des symboies suivants apparaftra sur la
derniAre image de cheque microfiche, seion ie
cas: la symboia — ► signif ie "A SUIVRE", ie
symbols V signifie "FIN".
iVIaps. plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too la'ge to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper deft hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:
Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atie
fiimfo A des tdux de rAducticn diffArents.
Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour Atre
re/roduit en un seul clichA. il est filmA A pan:ir
de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite,
et de haut en bas. en prenant la nombre
d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammas suivants
illustrent la mAthode.
1
2
3
;.? *..
.■-|: ,:.
3
4
5
6
r^JTTS.^I^^^'S^Vr.''
■^■.- ■-
■'^''t.
.L '
■'■A
'A
EHSTiNG CHURCH THOUGHT AND ACTIVITY
IN RELATION TO
tbt^Utji minxutUt uxib Sbf^tte*
A SERMON
Preached before the Synod of tlie Presbyterian Church of the Lower
ProTinoes of British North America, June 24th, 1868.
W^€:L.
^*
«■ ^
BY
. wiLUAM Mcculloch, d. d.,
* ** HSotrerattt. '
!t|'
!*,M
HALIFAX, N. S.:
PRINTED AT BARNES' STEAM PRESS.
1869.
'
Ml**
*-4
k^-
m
t^f' I
^
^'ffTf^t^r
Ak^t^l.'.K . „ <■■
:^-
«*_^...^^ :
mm
EXISTING CHURCH THOUGHT AND ACTIVITY ^1' ^
IN RELATION TO
^bjenUtr ^"^xvititx o^ntr ©bfuts*
ASERMON
Freaf bed before the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower
, FroTinoes of British North America, June 24th, 1868.
BY
Rev. WILLIAM McCULLOCH, D. D.,
i^oUeratov.
HALIFAX, N. S.:
PRINTED AT BARNES' STEAM PRESS.
1869.
HB.Mk^il^f&v^i.r^EJli^jB^^M'&t.Ai:;,! .J^
^UtALiI 4«i -^ *-9i
SERMON.
1 Pet. v. 2,—" Feed the flock of God which is among you."
The Church is a divine institution. Her means and modes of opera-
tion are etiuuliy divine, and bear to God's purposes the strict relation
of cause and effect ; lience, deviation from the Revealed is forfeiture of
church character and relation, and failure in appointed results. The
fact of failure candor will not deny. That this is the consequence of
deficiency in means reverence will not affirm. Scriptural causes of
success, in their absence from church effort, proclaim the reason of
disappointed expectations : — " lie thatgoeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him." Effects cannot differ from their causes. But, that
there are in the church developments differing essentially from ap-
pointed means and divinely assured issues, is undoubted ; — develope-
ments significant of departure from scriptural principle ; and of the ex-
tent of that departure the extent of failure is the juit measure. This
does not arise from defect in the great plan of redeeming grace. That it
springs from worldly antagonism is contrary to all historical truth ;
because, in Christ's Church, when true to her character, energetic
spiritual life, visibly progressive, has ever been the correlative of
worldly antagonism. In other reasons must we seek the cause of
failure. Confessedly the church is not accomplishing her objects on a
scale commensurate with her means, while hostility is defiantly aggres-
sive, and alarmingly successful ; and why, with such an agency at her
command, it should be so, is a question of the most momentous
importance.
To this question I purpose tc call your attention by reference
I. To the nature and objects of the christian Institution.
II. To existing church thought and activity, in relation to character,
nd the accomplishment of her revealed purposes.
■M:
37^/3
r«-
I. Tin: Naturk and OnjKCXs of tiii: Ciruucii as a Divine
Institution.
The Cluirdi of Clirist is one in character, purpose, means, moth's of
operation and <levoh)ptnent, and desi<^ned to hear upon the existing
condition of the world in relation to Ood and his designs, and n[)ou
moral renovation and luippiness. Under divine government, the per-
petuity of existing worhl conditions is an imi)')ssil)ility. Revealed
procedure points to this fact in the foreshadowi.'d, recognized, su|)r('inacv
of .I(!hovah over all intelliixent l)(;in<fs; su|)reniacv fif^winf' from llis
character, and announced determination, as exhihited in the mission
and death of Ilis Sun, and in the institutiou of the church as a suhordi-
nate instrumentality. In that mission, and ai'oimd the Cross, all divine
attril)utes,— all moral principles,— all foreshadowed purposes harmoni/e,
and to develop that liarmony, as the clement of a redeemed, recon-
structed world, is the church's special work. This arrangement at
once hrings divine wisdom into collision with the ignorance and prido
of human nature, and its reluctance of dictation and control, and hence,
as in the plan of mercy itself, so in all its essential details, nothing is
left doubtful or open to human legislation. All is sovereig!i, — divine,
— repudiating man's interference, — pro(.'laiming perfect adaptation to
all Jehovah's purposes ; and christian faithfulness and experience
attest the great fact, — " The blood of Christ, God's Son,cleanseth from
all sin." The redeemed are they " who have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
The subjection, — cheerful or reluctant, — of a rebellious world to
sovereign rule, on principles and modes of action clearly defined, —
denouncing innovation, and irreverent interference, is the Church's
destiny ; and here failure, or success, is the test of character, alike of the
church and her ministry. To alter, or supplement, revelation, as to re-
veal, is God's sole prerogative, whether as to principles or forms. As a
human pretension it is presumptuous intermeddling. The church is not
an independent institution. It is, simply, an instructed, accountable, be-
cause divinely appointed agency, — accountable, solely, for the use of
means : presenting to men God and truth as received by herself, and
hence, unquestioning acceptance of the revealed is her grand duty.
In reference to the individual, her object is the production, and
development, of moral character, meeting relation to God, and supply-
ing want; and in reference to the great ends of the institution itself,
the combination of the separate, redeemed, elements, in one vast,
harmonious, aggressive, activity, in relation to the revealed future of
5
our world; — like t)ic Prophot'-s Hivcr, giitlioriiig voliiino und power
ns it rolls on, and carrying life and beauty where'er its healing waters
flow. These views, in their niinutenes.s of detail, (jr grandeur of de-
velopment, constitute Jehovah's j)ur[)o.se, and the ehureh's work; — "a
new Heaven's and a new Earth," as distinguished for moral beauty,
as eartii to-dav for loathsome vileness ; — the ^jrand eonsuminatitm to
whieii Faith and IIo[ie point, when "the L<jrd shall reign in IMoiint
Zion, ami before llis ancients gloriously"; — and if, at (Creation's dawn,
''the morning stars sang togi.'ther, and all the Sons of God shouted for
joy," what the raoturous harmony of that song, destined to signali/(!
the final ticcomplishment of the great jjurposes of the Saviour's dying
love! In all this, wo are i)ledged, — sworn, — co-workers witli (lod;
but let us not forfjet, that God (;o-work3 oidv, where thini's are done
"after the due order." "See that thou make all thiuiis after the
pattern shewed thee in the Mount"
I5ut the results of the church's work are not limited by earth, nor
exhausted in a world redeemed. In all their glorious perfection, they
lie far beyond the present scene of christian activity. A home awaita
its blest inhabitants, — a Church her m-^mbers, — a King His subjects, —
an iidieritance its redeemed possessors, — the Saviour the travail of
His soul ; and ours the duty, the privilege, the honor of converting
these waiting expectations into realities:, by exhibiting truth in all its
simple and impressive beauty, undeface<i, undeliled by personal am-
bition, popular gratilication, or cowardly expediency; " ap[)roving
ourselves to every man's conscience ;" gathering together into one, and
sending Heavenward the ransomed Sons of God, — memorials of a
Saviour's dying love, — monuiuents of ministerial faithfulness.
But ihis sublime picture has its shades of deepest gloom. Our mcs-
sajie is Eternal Life to a dvinij world, and yet, that raessaije, " the
savor of life unto life," becomes " the savor of death unto death," to
the unaroused and unconverted ; and if this be so, as undoubtedly it
too often is, under ministrations reflecting the mind of Christ, what
shall we say of those reflecting mere individual views, prejudices and
objects ? As agents of the church, and ambassadoi's for Christ, we
are bound, — sworn, — to give to [)erishing men what He has given to
us, nothing less, nothing more, — free as the winds of Heaven, — pure
as it flows from beneath the Altar; otherwise we belie our characters,
and labour in vain, and souls fitted for " light inaccessible " go down
to Eternal night. Measure the sublime results of faithfulness, in souls
redeemed and God glorified, in contrast with mere hireling labour, and
6
who would 1)0 a liireliiig ? "Wlio mingle tho wiiio of the kingdom with
earth's poUutod watorft? Who, for his own siiko, wouUl not desire to
■ay, " I have preaciied rightcionsnosn in tlie great congregation, lo! I
have not nsfrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowrst"
Such is, i)rielly, tho church's character and destiny. Let U8 consider
n. Existing Ciiukcii Titougiit and Activity in Uklation
TO Chauactkk, and tiik AccoMi'LisiiMicNT OP Rkvkaled 1*uu-
rosKs.
(L) Christian thought, us a duty, and means of efficient activity,
should ever correspond with the revealed. IJut such is not the tendency
of tho day. Tho revealed does not retain, in the estimation of the
church, its old, reverrentlal position. Free tho't, presumptuously so-
called, co-efpuilizing the human with the divine, and at pleasure re-
modelling and rectifying old estahlishcd principles and forms of action,
is the spirit of the times. Starting — if there he a God — with the
contemptuous repudiation of the oidy sound basis of deduction, the
possibility and probability of a revelation, rejection is prompt and
decided, and supernaturalism disappears from the system, and God
from the universe, — excepting as a mere idea. With Ilim, all that is
super-rational vanishes, and man arrogantly constitutes himself, uot
the humble enquirer alter truth, but the judge of what is truth, — of
the very possibility of a revelation ; — judgement is decisive rejection,
and the world breathes all the more freely by its deliverance from the
incubus of an efete superstition. Supernaturalism, involved in the
very idea of a God and moral government, does it exist? Is there
such a thing as Inspiration, and in what does it consist? What is
Truth, where the deductions of human reason are so multiform and
antagonistic, — principles established to-day, to be overthrown to-mor-
row by " new gods newly come up ?" And what say such deep
thinkers, such advanced minds, regarding our grand old Bible ? Myths
and fables, — contradictory to historical truth, — antagonistic to scien-
tific demonstration, — defective in its morality, — and unreliable as a
whole. Need we wonder that men sink into infidelity, or in deep men-
tal agony exclaim. What is Truth ? when so-called christian guides so
widely differ.
Poor worms of the dust ! Unable to solve the most simple problem
of their own being, — bewildered, yet not humbled, before the mysteries
of the mote that basks in the sunbeam, — these men of a day proclaim
their power to scan the highest heights, or fathom the deepest depths
i
of all that is inystorions and sublimo, in tlifi roiicoptioiis of divinity,
mid scattering' to tlio winds tlic (^xperiencoand ruvcroiico of a thousand
goncration'^, with groat swtdling words of vanity, teach their fellownien,
under the character of njon of God, that there Is no (Jod ; that iho
old landmarks of truth and righteousness are mere delusive convcntion-
nlitifis, which deeper thought and riper scholarship have dissipated., with
a pitying smile at the weakness and cr(!dulity of the past ! In such
hands all (dd, time-honoured traces of the Divine, — all just conceptions
of moral nature, relations and administration, — all that has constituted
the faith and hope of ages, becomes revolutionized, and the effect of
revolution is the dethronement of Jehovah, and tlu! exaltation of man.
Such is largely the tone of the church thought of the day : the conse-
quence of a claimed right to refuse acceptance of the revealed, till
subjected to and approved hy human reason, lint, in the church,
practical rationalism co-exists with theoretic; disavowal of rationalistic
principles. The moral cowardice that shrinks from open assertion of
right to deal with the Divine on human principles, or boldly to
repudiate the obligation of vows, covertly and insidiously moulds,
modifies, explains away or holds in abeyance, old apostolic truths and
modes of action, as inconsistent with more advanced thought, — with
more comprehensive charity, — with the more friendly relations of the
church to the world. SuSiordinating divine wisdom to human reason,
efforts are made to accomplish the grand, eternal purposes of Revela-
tion, without the fixed principles or power of suiiernaturalism ; thus
freeing the church from the so-called mysterious superstitious, as an
impediment to rational progress, and yet originating a mystery deeper
than that which is contemptuously denounced, — the inejrplirnble
phenomenon, of ends sovijht. to he attained hy means, not onhj titterhj
inadequate, hut actun/fi/ antafjonistic to their production !
Whence this claim of right to sit in judgment on the divine, — to
dogmatize upon its very existence, and modes of development, — to
unsettle the entire question of Inspiration, — and in its pretentious, yet
pigmy form to overturn, by novel exposition, the convictions of ages ?
From without, — from the pew ? No. From within, — from the very
altar of God ! Men styling themselves the representatives of the God
of the IJible, — guides of their fellow-beings to immortality, — pledged
to work out Scriptural ends by Scriptural means ; these the men to
whom old Heaven sent truth is less sacred than their individual views
and objects ; these the men who kindle strange fire upon the altar of
God, — these the regenerators of a world, and all iu the name of the
8
lowiy .Tcsus of Nazaretli ! " It was not an enemy that huth done this,
else I could have borne it, but thou my Friend." Church thought and
energy, unregulated by the revealed, tail to represent the mind and
[luri loses of Jesus Christ, l^estitute of that, it ceases to be His, thought
bearing I lis name. The reU'jion of Jesus Christ tolerates no J'rce
thouf/hf hidvpendcnt of revelation.
(2.) Under Christ the divinity of her doctrine ib the church's power.
But in attempts to acconnnodate the divine to the diversities and insta-
bility of human thought, not one revealed principle, not one mode of
operation, has escaped hostile criticism. This crops out in novel, far-
fetched exposition, — mistaken for deep thought, — in more advanced con-
ception of truth, or in attempts to make the Bible speak, not the mind
of God, but the language of men dissatisfied with the good old way,
and craving for change. In the rejection or nominal acceptance of
creeds, we trace its full, natural development, as the haughty protest
of reason against the usurped authority of the divine over human
consciousness. Doctrine is a necessity of Scientific Theology, — the
atmosphere of the Divinity Hall, rather than inspired, authoritative
exhibition of truth, embodying the most sublime conceptions of the
divin'^ character and mode of procedure ; the glory of the sanctuary,
— the life of the church.
To the pulpit of the day this state of thought is no stranger ; ignoring
all that is divine in the character, and positive in the teachings, rela-
tions, and administrative powe*; of the Redeemer, and presenting to
men a gospel rcbbed of its grand essential element, — the supronmcy
of the divine over the human. Morality, without fixed principle,
occupies the place of inwrought spiritual conception and life. Moral
suasion, falsely so called, instead of truth in its efficacious power, con-
stitutco the main element of rationalistic reform, and the church
dwindles down from a grand, divinely appointed, reconstructing system,
to a mere educational institute of wdiich man is the presiding genius,
and nature and reason the text book. Hence, for Christ crucified, —
the glory of apostolic teaching, — we have icy-cold moral essays, — high-
flown exhibitions of the rationalistic ideal, — sensational descriptions of
the unrevealed, — panygerics upon the* moral fitness of things, and on
man's native dignity and self-reforming power, mingled with pulpit
sentimentalisni ; sad evidence of a mind, dry and parched, turning the
Eden of God into an arid human waste. Doctrine, as an exposition
of the nature and mind of God, — of new mode of moral relations, —
and in its bearmg upon the production and development of spiritual
■■.^ife^ '
9
life, is either not understood, or disbelieved, and the sublime teachings
of the liible are supijhintcd by vapid declamation. To such a state
of thouglit, doctrine is rather the harsh, dark, lines of an otherwise
pleasant picture, than its brightest colo'irings, giving unity and at-
tractiveness to the whole.
In the pulpit of to-day, doctrine does not always occupy the prominent
position which it holds in the Bible ; and hence divinely appointed
ends are sought, not only in neglect of, but in opposition to divinely
appointed means; too frequently the cheap, voluntary offering of the
pul[)it, not the demand of the pew. Doctrine is the church's message
and power, in the hands of the Spirit, and God's revealed method of
a world's regeneration. A church, in which it is undervalued, and its
high relation misunderstood, or iu which it is either curtailed or
adulteiated, fails to proclaim the glory of her Lord, and becomes
unfitted for her high mission.
(3.) Purely of discipline, as a necessity of existence, and of vigorous
church life, is inseparable from purity of doctrine. Where right views
of the institution prevail, integrity will secure the supremacy of decency
and order, and the church reflect her principles. But where views
are not co-extensive with God's revealed purposes in the establishment
of order and law, — where they reflect personal ambition, or timid time-
serving, discipline is regarded as a hinderauce to progress, hurtful to
peace, and unsuited to the times. Tampering with, or unfaithfulness
to truth, leads to unfaithfulness in its official application in order.
Laxity and dead life are the results, and " the precious sous of Zion,
comparable to line gold, how are they esteemed as earthen ])itchers,
tlte work of the poUi'vr Is it deemed to-day any violation of christian
duty or decency, to hail as a brother, or bid God-speed to him who
cries Lord, Lord, while the poison of asps is under his lips ? Does
not the old apostolic curse upon the promulgator of false doctrine
savor of an age destitute of charity, and which, happily, the church
has outgrown ? The teaching, or action, which lowers the standard
of truth, is destructive of its administrative purity, and inconsistency
is winked out of sight, to ths dishonor of the church and injury of the
souls of men. Who deems it wrong to eat with au excommunicated
brother ; and are not rules coolly ignored in the absence of all danger
of ofhcial interference, and are not church courti. often swayed by an
unscriptural expediency ? Such a course is an attempt to construct
the household of faith without the conscientious enforcement of divine
rule, and need we wonder, that there is the absence of that loving
mm
10
unity and vigonrous life, of which Scriptural order is one of God's
appointed means ? Low, and too prevalent, views of the nature and
ends of discipline, — personal ambition, — the fear of man, and lax ideas
of ministerial accountability, are rapidly forming a church, not bound
in the " bundle of life with the Lord our God," but united by mere
personal feeling. Does the word of God authoritatively require us
to deliver the transgressor " to Satan "?
(4.) Adoption of principles, and submission to vows, are not mere
duties. They are duties, but they are voluntarily accepted obligations.
Creeds, confessions and vowti, as expositions of truth, and basis of
church position, and necessities of a state of imperfection, are the
natural effect of that accepted obligation. But current free thought,
while recognizing and tolerating creeds and vows in theory, is hostile
to their official application, as despotic interference with iiuman liberty,
— dangerous to personal integrity, and hurtful to ministerial success.
To attempt revealed ends in opposition to creeds acknowledged as
exhibiting the mind of Christ, to /ows which are usually regarded as
tests of integrity, — and even by unauthorized means, is nothing strange
in the Church of Christ, and hence. Scriptural principle and order
must often be learned, not from visible character, and modes of
operation, but from the mere letter of confessions and vows. On the
basis of creeds and vows, men are solemnly pledged to work out
Scriptural ends by Scriptural means. But vows assumed, and vows
redeemed, are two totally different things. There is often a painful
levity, — a lack of stern integrity on this subject, that, in the common
affairs of life, society would not tolerate for a moment ; and vows
solemnly pledged, and under the most awful sanctions, are as quietly
ignored, as if ordination were a mere form, instead of involving the
most momentuous duties and relations with which we can come in
contact. There is, too frequently, a want of tenderness about offi-
cial consciences, — a claimed right to interpret vows to suit men's own
purposes, and what is best in their view becomes the rule of action,
instead of the plain and only safe path of duty. All this free thought
is rapidly moulding the church, and ministerial success is measured,
not by conversions to Christ, or the beauty )f holiness and decencies of
order, but by personal popularity, crowde*' sanctuaries, and accessions
to the denomination ; modes of estimating success not exactly such as
the Saviour would sanction. From the Rationalistic impugner of the
Bible, to the puerile Ritualist, there spreads over the church a mongrel
teaching, — r.n inefficient, unscriptural, order, and a delusive spiritual
^
■^^
11
life- — bearing every kind of fruit but that which grows in the garden
of God ; turning divine guideposts to inamortality into mere human
fingerboards, and should it excite astonishment that men go astray ?
Subserviency to popular gratification, instead of authoritative exhibi-
tion of truth and principle, is the characteristic and sin of the day.
All this independency of creeds and vows is, by many, esteemed the
sign of advanced thought, — reason asserting her rightful position ; in-
stead of what it may be justly termed, ecclesiastical perjury ; — if broken
promises be entitled to such a designation. Under confessions acknow-
ledged as reflecting Bible truth, and so simple that he who runs may
read, every kind of system finds shelter, and men deem it no disgrace,
no stain upon integrity, to hold, and openly disseminate, principles,
and advocate practices, antagonistic to vows, and yet remain in the
church, whose teachings and forms they repudiate, regardless of the
moral, — or immoral, — significancy of such a position. Under ordination
vows, such free thought, such tampering with obligation, is dishonest,
and he who cannot fulfil his pledges ought, in self-respect and common
decency, to seek another and more congenial home. Pledges, lightly
regarded in the pulpit, descend, in their moral influence, to the pew,
and unfaithfulness supplants fidelity. How evident this on the general
question of strict adherence to vows, — the unity of church forms, —
consistency in order and discipline, and the Sabbath ; in short, in all
that is opposed to free independent thought. The rule of action is too
often found, not in the tenor of confessions and vows, hut the indivi-
dual opinion of what is best.
Vows are often regarded, practically, as promises made, not to God,
but to man ; and as stepping stones to church position, rather than
promises regulating the entire ministerial life, in its relation to the
souls of men, and final accountability ; and hence, as sole guide of
conscience in duty, and tests of integrity, they, too easily, sink into
oblivion. The result is a Bible rationalized, — a church in which
humanism sits enthroned, — a morality shorn of its distinctive features,
— a short pleasant path to Heaven ; the natural tendency of that light
estimation of vows, of which the unsettled, ever-changing, tone of
Church thought and activity is, to-day, the too evident indication ; — a
craving that " the good old way " cannot appease.
(5.) Unity that combines the mass, and yet, to the fullest extent,
develops individual energies, is Christ's ideal of the church. But free
thought disintegrates instead of combining, and is destructive of true
individuality, and consequently of right action. The absence of that
12
sense of personal accountability, under which the Gospel places every
christian, enforcing obligation for the entire success of divine purposes,
as far as God gives means, is no stranger to the church. Ministerial
action, comtemjdating the mere personal and local, conduces to this,
and the congregation and its members become detached units, instead
of component parts of one grand, mutually inlluentlal whole. Indi-
vidual judgment becomes thus, the sole guide uf action, and destructive
of personal, relative accountability, by Itansfeiring the authoritative
from the Bible, to man's own consciousness and convictions of duty.
Even where ihe F.iblc retains its oihcial position, — from some unex-
plained cause, — in large organizations, individual responsibility is, too
often, In the inverse ratio of the mass, the effect, it may be, of unwise
cent!ali::ation, biii. ceitainly, the effect of the absence of that teaching
which elevales the chrislian above the mere pnrsonal in religion, raises
him to the contemplation of its sublime objects, and enforces individual
accountability for all Jehovah's purposes, as far as means and qualifi-
cations are coiiiMjiiuid , — a teaching that developes the highest degree
of j)ersonal aclivily, and yet gives to centralization, — often a necessity
of circumstanc<\'^. — ii.s commanding power as the expression of the
intelligent, combined individualism of the entire church. Without
this teaching, energies become contracted and localized, and upon
pastors, office-beajcrs, boards and committees, all jiractical responsi-
bility is unconct^rnedly permitted to devolve, as if they, and they alone,
instead of all ihi jy'Gjfh', of God, were Christ's agents on earth. This
is the natural effect of substituting the personal and local for the all-
embracing activities of christian life. The absence of large. Christ-
like sympathies, working individually, yet in combination, is not un-
known in the church ; and to this fact may be traced much that is
unsatisfactory. Christians are, practically, not their brother's keepers,
feel little interest in each other, — in struggling congregations, — in the
conversion of sinners, or in the world's redemption. Large-hearted,
spontaneous, giving, for Christ sake, how rare ! There is a lack of
that individualization, and yet cohesion, which mutual character and
relations, and reciprocal duties and interests demand. The rarity of
conversions to Christ, — the low standard of professional piety, — the
limited interest taken in the great ends of christian life, are evidences
of all this ; signs of an unsound condition more dangerous than exter-
nal antagonism. There is an agency paid to do all this, — we pay it,
and thus christians settle their doubts as to their personal duty, if
doubts ever existed, and the beauty of holiness and aggressive activity
\\
I
13
ceaso to be the result of disjoititoil, partially developed piety in the
clmrcli !
AV^hy is tlicrc so much dead life, — so little vi_<5orous manhood, — so
little conscientious j^ivin^ or earnest workinij ; why do so many, not-
withstanding their solemn vows, koep so carefully aloof from all church
work, — and why are the church and the world on terms of intimacy
so close ? Simi)ly, because combined activity, the result of Scriptural
individualization, in realized personal accountability, is not the doctrine
of the day. Christians are not thoroughly trained to rise above the
Y mere personal in religion, nor to hold themselves individually pledged
for the conversion of the world, as Joshua to God's service, " Wluitso-
ever others do wo will serve the Lord." The christian, or church,
that fails to lecognize, and act upon, this great use of the believer in
his personal call, consecration aii'^ accountability for God's entire
work, in correspondence with his position, fails to realize its true
relation to d"*vine purposes, — "sees men as trees walking," and as is
the j)ositi(>n so will be its effect on efforts to promote the glory of
Christ. Can a church, in which obligation to work personally, yet in
frank, earnest combination with fellow christians, is a secondary
thought, or where self reigns " fi<jurish as the palm tree or grow as
the cedar in Lebanon ?"
How painful this state of cliurch thought and activity, as contrasted
with the all-absorbing, self-consecration of apostolic times. Time,
property, and even life itself, was consecrat<3d to Christ. A world
subdued to Jesus was the sublime idea and incentive of primitive life ;
and the disciples of Jesus, throwing their whole soul into the contest,
with all of theirs necessary to success, — went forth conquering and to
cenquer, as certain of the issue, as if the shout of victory already rolled
over the battle field. That no man counted himself, or ought that he
had his own, explains many of the wondrous facts of pentecostal times ;
and until that grand idea of individual, whole-hearted consecration, —
the effect of love to Jesus and the souls of men, — exhumed from amid
the rubbish of conventional Christianity, and freed from the selfish
spirit pervading the church, be made to occupy its true position, in
connection with a world redeemed, as the end and aim of personal
activity ; — till then, the christian will not sustain his true character, —
the church fulfd her destiny, — or " the desert rejoice and blossom as
the rose."
(6.) Theoretic, or practical, abnegation of divine influence is the
result of reliance on what is human, as adequate to the production of
14
revfialed ends. Even where supernnturalism is a recognized doctrine,
skill in planning, and energy in execution, are often more reliable
means of success, than divine influences; an error that explains many
chur(!h facts and appearances. Under the latter day dispensation of
the Spirit, there is the absence of things promised to integrity, and
men are astonished at, and exult over, passing drops of blessing,
where, to true church life, there ought to be the early and latter rain.
As a felt, individual and church want, the presence and work of the
Spirit lacks prominence in the pulpit and pew thought of the day ; the
necessary consequence of substituting human wisdom and energy for
divine teaching and blessing. The church, in which spiritual power is
a secondary necessity, is destitute of the element essential to character,
relation, and the success of effort, and the blessing comcj^ in drops,
because " Heaven over us is as iron and the earth brass." The Spirit
is stayed, — the Priest fails from the Altar, — and the "faithful from
among the sons of men ;" and yet, in self-laudation over the mere
outward and visible, men exultingly cry, " the Temple ot the Lord,
the Temple of the Lord are these," where they ought, in deep self-
condemnation, to cry, " our leanness, our leanness." It requires no
better evidence of the deviation of the church from God's order, than
the absence, under the dispensation of the Spirit, of the blessings
promised to integrity. The presence and work of the Spirit is a
necessity of true scriptural church life, and God's only means of giving
efliciency to labour. Without it we labour in vain, and " the harvest
will be a heap in the day of desperate sorrow."
(7.) The existence of a sectional spirit and of party tactics, in the
house of God, and as a combination for objects not always in accord-
ance with the mind of God, is a marked and deplorable feature of the
day. Bitter, mutual, antagonism, plotting, scheming and undermining,
exhausts energies, solemnly consecrated to the production of the loving
unity of which the apostle speaks ; " Whereto ye have already attain-
ed walk by the same rule." The expedients employed, and means
adopted, under the holy name of God, to interfere with fellow-chris-
tians, to break in upon and weaken their churches, and to add, if it
were but one, to the party, are almost incredible ; painful indication
of the substitution of denominational morality for that of Christ.
Gains are counted, not by conversions to the Redeemer, the increasing
decencies of order, or the beauties of holiness, but by mere proselyted
accessions to number. Exultation over denominational success, and
ill-concealed envy at the progress of others, or delight in their weak
>v
15
»>
ness and failure, — all this is evideuco of the absence of the Spirit of
Him who said, "forbid him not." Distinctive tenets, and matters of
secondary importance, and not the love of Jesus in the salvation of
souls, forms, too frequently, the main element of aggression against
both the world and fellow-christians, and accessions from both are
equally counted as gains to the Church of God! The church imbued
with this sectional spirit, and aiming to rise upon the ruins of others,
can neither grasp, as a conception, nor work out as a fact, her high
destiny. It forms a fold, but not of Christ's sheop, and the battle cry
is not — all for Christ, but the Shibboleth of Party.
Denominationalism is fruitful, not of that diversity of view which,
while agreeing to differ, differs in love, but of that world spirit which
renders the church, in which Christ said, that the greatest should be
the servant, — the arena for the display of a spirit, and an ambition,
becoming the world and the worldling, and not the House of God or
the christian. Purity and peace are sacrificed to personal and party
ends, not because they are right and true, but because they secure in-
dividual interests, or the objects of the party with which, for the
nioment, we happen to be identified. The altered position of the
church, as regards her secular interests, presents objects of ambition,
against whose allurements the professed lowly spirit of Christ's
ministers is not always proof. Plence her growing likeness to the
world in those ambitious rivalries, which excite wonder, even among
the men of the world.
In defence of truth, party is a duty, — " earnestly contending for the
faith." But " the faith " is not always the cause of church contention.
Individual and sectionnl antagonisms too frequently lie at the founda-
tion ; and all that is ChristUke is recklesslv sacrificed at the shrine ot
aims and purposes, us like Christ, as darkness is like light. Where
the spirit and procedure of worldly partizanship and tactics divide a
church, or predominate in relation to other churches, can religion
flourish ? Impossible, — for there, there is the presence of that ungodly
temper, which, in a common cause, refuses to recognize as a soldier of
the Cross, or to fight side by side with one whose armour, tho' tem-
pered in Heaven, forsooth, differs in pattern slightly from our own.
How condemnatory of all this the divine command : '' Whereto ye
have already attained, walk by the same rule ;" and is not the church
responsible for maintaining and increasing division and strife, beyond
what strict Scriptural principle demands ? " Keepmg the unity of the
Spirit," and " as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men,"
1.V' .-■' : _ - h''^: Aj, '^■'i<'^:.i'
IG
arc tlic oxprossion of God's will to His poofdc, whether as amon<T our
Bclves or toward those whom, C(iiially with ourselves, God has owned
and blessed Failure in this is an open violation of every priiieiplo
and demand of tho (ios^pel, disiioiioiirs the Prince of Peace, — imi)edes
His cause, and leaves without rt'rt/ success tho labourer, whoso rule of
action 'liirers from his Master's. Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, as
adopted representatives of church anta^'onisms, have done more injury
to vital godliness, in the disunion of 'orethrcn, than tho combination of
all her foes, whether in tho individual church, or in reference to other
churches. The existence and moulding power of this Spirit, is not tho
indication of flic co-existent Spirit of Jesus Christ.
These and other indica'.ious of deviation from tho divine original
are found in tho church of the day, — the necessary effect of ignoring
the divine and positive, and of underestimating responsibility. No
Prophetic power is re.[ui'ed to fortell the issue. Whatever partakes
of devialion fiom or innovation, — airogantly called improvement, —
U[»ou what is revealed, is desiructivo of tho relation and elficacy of
t'uih in view of God's (turposos, and hence, in fancied success, wo
find men exuliing over ihe beauty of a scene, whose realities are de-
lusions, "outwardly fiiir, inwardly full of roilenness." Not a liltlo
of professional christian life is tin!.- id wiih this spii-it, and men look
for Heaveidy fruit on trees that God's iiand never planted. Whatever
is real, or reliable, is inseparably connec.'ed wiili Scri/)lu:'al principle,
and conscientious adherence to vows. To the conventional chrislianitv
of the day, stern adherence to Bible truth, and to the observance of
vows, may be unfashionable ; but, however unfashionable, it is tho
teaching of Jesus Christ, whom we hail as our Master, — it is the spring
of all that has affected, or ever will affect, the church for good, — tho
element of the grand old martyr life, when men loved not their lives
to the death. — ihe bulwarks against which, for a thousand generations,
the surges of infidelity have dashed in vain ; and why not learn from
the past to deter from trifling with sacred things, or laying on the
Altar of God unhallowed hands ? Why not, ere committing ourselves,
ask of history the results of human interference with divine arrange-
ments ? Where are the men of free, independent, thought, — the giants
of the past? AVherc the men given to change, whose folly was wiser
than tho wisdom of God ? Where the mark of enduring good to tell
that they had ever been ? Neglect, or oblivion, has been their destiny,
and ^^ their loorks have followed them." Why expect different results
from similar causes ? " When the knowledge of the Lord shall cover
i-;;;.' - -^'t? r..-v*i^
17
the earth," what (jf the free tliou<'ht jjlants of our own dav, — men who
trillo with truth, ami sot order and vows at (h'flance, — wlio feed futni^h-
'u\<r souls with husks, — who (hiuh the wall with initeinpered mortar, —
what of these men ? The history of the j)ast is the history of the
future. Today, spread like the greeu hay tree, to-morrow forgotteu ;
and men, whom God eaii trust, will guide the atlUirs of His house, and
Work out the dual triumphs of the great Hedempiion.
Tliat the Church of Christ is in a satisfactory condition, — that it is
adorned with the beauty of holiuess, — that it is what its blaster de-
signed it to be, "a light shining in a dark place," — that it commands
the respect of the world, — that it is achieving results commensurate
with its origin, nature and means, or with the outwan visible a(!tivity
of the day, in relation to the present and future of our world, the
candid en(piirer will be slow to alHrm. Where then lies the evil ?
Just where, untler God, lies the remedy, — in the j)ul[)it, — so largely
accountable for existini; church tliou<dit, and modes of activitv, in neg-
lect of, or attemi)ts to supplement divinely appointed means of accom-
plishing revealed ends ; and now, when the ecclesiastical heaven is
gathering blackness, and (he storm, in no indistinct murmurs, is heard,
threatening to overthrow or supplant old established order, instead of
boldly breasting the storm, thero are strong sym[)toms of timid yield-
ing to its power, — a swimming with the tide, — as if stability and
success lav in unfaithfulness to solemn trust, instead of in God's
realized presence. That scriptural success can result from human
methods, or the combination of these with the revealed, no tiuc
student of the Bible and Providence can for one moment dream ; and
largely, to one or other of these elements of thought, is the state of the
church to bo traced.
The interests enti'ustcd to us are God's, — resting on tlie Rock of
Ages, — honoured with the latteulay dis[iensation of the Spirit, — the
conservation of those interests is one of the Jioblest works in which
man can be engaged ; and when, against rationalistic reform, — ritualis-
tic puerilities, — infidel taunts, — the antagonistic world spirit, and
worst of all, internal treachery or unfaithfulness, the church shall, rise
to her old, time-honoured position, when the rush lights of human
wisdom shall have gone out in deep darkness, and the giant thought of
to-day dwindled down to its true pigmy pro[)ortions, then " fair as the
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," will
stand forth the grand old institution, characterized by the beauty of
holiness, " a Royal Priesthood."
\Aii-li-'r\\i—J. -
18
In our Imnda God lias plncud tho means, and we are the agents of
this glorious consummation, and ours the responsibility of seeing that
nothing but divinely appointed means enters, as an clement, into the
church's activity. Ours the duty of rising to the urgent necessities of
the times, by more thorough Scriptural exposition of truth, — by higher
elevation of personal, congregational and individual lite, — by more en-
larged and thorough reliance upon the promise of tho Spirit ; combin-
ing all around our one grand object, a Redeemer's glory in a world
redeemed, and then will signs, so ominous of evil, pass away as a
dream of the night, — the church resume her true commanding position,
— the pulpit regain its lost power, lost thro' ignorance or unfaithful-
ness, — men Hock to the Saviour, " as doves to their windows," and
"Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotect reigneth," announce the
final consummation of the great purpose of " the decease accomplished
at Jerusalem."
How bright the prospect as it rises to the eye of Faith I Ours tho
duty, the privilege, the honour of rendering those visions of Faith,
realities of sight, by bending our every energy to the great purpose
to which we have been consecrated and pledged, — laying at the feet
of our Redeemer, King, a reconstructed world. To the eye of Faith
this grand result is only a question of time, for divine faithfulness is
pledged that " the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms
of our Lord, and of His Christ." Amen.
^.^l.iJ.^fi3i i
\.«fcii^<;*ri.-.;;.j!':>lJi/« -. _'.
■-.•J
fj
'I