f 1620 1920 o, 3 , . , , 3 Puritan Views .3 Origin of Separatism 4 Parish System v ' 4 Gathered Churches 5 Robert Browne 6 Greenwood and Barrowe 7 John Penry 8 The Scrooby Church '. 8 Scrooby Church Emigrates 9 Dutch Protestantism 9 John Robinson 9 Brewster and Bradford 10 Decision to leave Holland 11 The "Mayflower" 11 Beginnings of New England 12 Early Hardships 13 The First Years 14 The Heritage Secure 14 Development in a New Land Chapter II Isolation of the Pilgrims 17 James I Proves Stubborn . . ... . . . 17 Archbishop JLaud . . , . -. . . . . . 18 vii viii Table of Contents PAGE Thomas Hooker 18 The Puritan Exodus 19 Pilgrim and Puritan 20 Salem Church 20 Uniformity Reversed 21 Settling of Connecticut 22 New Haven Colony 23 Roger Williams 23 Anne Hutchinson 24 The Quakers 25 Witchcraft 26 Colleges and Schools 26 Missions to the Indians 27 John Eliot 28 The Halfway Covenant 29 Jonathan Edwards 30 The Man and His Message 31 The Great Awakening 31 Results to the Churches 32 Other Results 32 Edwards as a Theologian 33 The Heritage Maintained ...".... 33 Democracy in Church and State Chapter III Sources of Democracy 36 Dimness of Vision 36 Kind of People 37 A First Step 38 Church Organization 38 The Town Meeting 40 Church Life 40 Disestablishment . 42 Table of Contents PAGE Local Independence . . . . / ; . . . 42 New England Confederation . ../;. . . . 43 The Cambridge Platform . ... ., . . . 43 The Proposals of 1705 . ; ; : ,. . . -.. ... 44 The Saybrook Synod 44 Hooker's Influence 45 John Wise -. . 46 The Outcome '. . 47 Nineteenth Century Expansion Chapter IV The Dynamic Century . . 49 Rise of Unitarianism 49 How It Happened 50 The Loss of Harvard 52 Andover Seminary 52 Other Seminaries 52 The Missionary Motive 53 Founding of the American Board ...'.. 53 Its Remarkable History 55 An Established Work 55 Its Manifold Agencies 56 Beginnings of Home Missions 57 The Northwest Territory 58 A National Home Missionary Society .... 58 Typical Beginnings 59 The Louisiana Purchase 60 The Coast States . 61 Immigrant Populations 62 The American Missionary Association ... 63 Its Varied Work 63 Western Colleges . . . ....'. . . 65 Great Leaders . 66 Table of Contents PAGE Christian Endeavor 67 The Heritage Invested 67 Adjustment to Changing Needs Chapter V A Century of Adjustment 70 The Slave Question 70 Intellectual Readjustment 71 The Social Awakening 73 Reforms 74 Certain Key Notes 75 A Curious Modesty 76 Internal Organization 78 Administrative Readjustment 79 Unity in Diversity 81 Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism Chapter VI Congregationalism's Unique Place 84 No Exclusive Claims 85 Good-Will 85 Friendly Deeds 86 Prophets of Unity 87 Unwilling to Surrender 87 Central Convictions 88 Message of Redemption 89 The Missionary Obligation 90 Wide Liberty 91 Thorough Democracy 92 Fellowship 93 Emphasis Upon Righteousness 94 Conviction of the Value of Knowledge .... 95 Spirit of Progress 96 Table of Contents PAGE New Educational Demands 97 Together 98 BETWEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 99-101 APPENDIX 101-116 Along the Congregational Way 101-104 Heralds and Pioneers 101 Of the Mayflower Company, 1620 .... 101 A Hundred Noted Names 101 The Puritan. 105 Important Events in Congregational History . . 106 Statement of Faith and Polity Adopted by National Council Kansas City, October, 1913 108 A Tercentenary Program 109 STATISTICS 112-115 Comparisons 112 Statistics of Congregational Churches in U. S. . 113 International Congregationalism 114 Theological Seminaries 115 A BRIEF LIST OF BOOKS ON CONGREGATIONALISM 116 PILGRIM DEEDS AND DUTIES CHAPTER I THE BEGINNINGS OF CONGREGATIONALISM /- TT -A . It is hard for any age to imagine the Our Heritage of ,. . . , . y . _ , difficulties of its predecessors. In our Freedom . , , ,. . __ , land and century religious toleration is taken for granted. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Lu- therans, Presbyterians and Congregationalists live together in friendly relations. All communions to some extent co- operate in good works and are loyal to a common flag. We have not reached agreement in belief but we have learned that each man must be free to believe what he will. How little we realize the long struggle which purchased our freedom. _, . , The story of this struggle as definitely related TT *f *fv * Congregationalism begins with Queen aity Elizabeth (1558-1603). She was an en- lightened and liberal monarch. But personal religion meant very little to her and the political uses of the church meant much. It appeared to her highly important to prevent any change in the religious organization of her realm. So by the " Act of Uniformity " she made com- pulsory the use of the Book of Common Prayer by every religious assembly. Narrow-minded ecclesiastics followed the matter with zeal and before long it was almost impossible Pilgrim Deeds and Duties to hold an unauthorized meeting or " conventicle " without arrest. Th En li h ^ un ^ erstanc ^ tn * s state f affairs we must _, , remember the course which the Protestant Establishment ,. , , , Reformation had almost universally taken. While the Reformation under Henry VIII in England was more political than religious, it was similar to that of other countries in the assumption that a state could have only one type of Christianity. In Germany, for instance, if a prince changed his faith, the people were forced to change theirs, if he remained Catholic, the people were expected to remain true to Rome. The break with the Pope in England meant merely the substitution of a national for an international authority in the church. The monasteries were suppressed and the spoils divided, otherwise there was as little change as possible. The " reformed church of England " represented no radical reformation and was not intended to do so. Formalism, the ignorance and immorality of the priest- hood, the tyranny of the church in purely personal matters these were only slightly mitigated. The people continued to be denied any voice in the appointment of their parish ministers. No general church convocations with lay representatives were allowed. Clerical convo- cations could assemble only at the command of the sovereign. Instead of freedom Henry had given the church a single despotism in place of the joint authority previously exercised over it by kings and pope. The " Act of Supremacy " by which the King became the head of the church was a declaration of independence for the nation. But for the individual Englishman it was simply a new form of slavery. Under this act when Henry was gone his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, was empowered to The Beginnings of Congregationalism 3 establish the court later known as the " High Commission for Causes Ecclesiastical." We shall presently see some- thing of the working of this court. _,, _,. Politically the development just described The Rise of * J , . , _ .. . was doubtless a fortunate one for England. Puritanism _. .. . , . L , , , . Religiously it was most deplorable. It led to long years of corruption and strife. The evil of it is still manifest. The events which followed were very natural. Early Protestantism everywhere believed that the Scriptures are the sole rule of faith and order. These Scriptures, which long years before had been translated into English by Wyclif and others, were permitted by the authorities to circulate freely. They rightly thought that an open Bible would turn the minds of the people against Rome. They failed to see that it would also turn them against the Roman traditions and abuses which Elizabeth was con- tinuing. Protests soon began. At first they were only concerning ceremonies and vestments. A party arose which favored greater simplicity. It soon came to be known as the " Puritan party." p . The Puritan movement stands out as one of the ,,. great landmarks in the history of Christianity. As time went on it came to represent two things of profoundest importance. One was the humble recog- nition of God's ceaseless and sovereign guidance of human affairs. It was the Puritan's desire to live in constant realization of the presence of God. In the Appendix of this book will be found a passage from Macaulay which wonderfully describes this characteristic. The other mark of the Puritans was their endeavor to Pilgrim Deeds and Duties order all human conduct down to its least detail in accord- ance with the will of God. This meant antagonism to the evils of their day and of course won for them an abundance of hate. " Puritan " became on the lips of many a word of derision. In our own day we often hear people speaking contemptuously of Puritanism. Thoughtful people cannot share the sneer. They remember that Puritanism was and is nothing more than the effort to face all of God's truth and to meet all of man's duty. There is no better program than that. The world owes an immeasurable debt to the Puritans. The mistakes they may have made do not prove their purpose mistaken. They only reveal afresh the frailty of human nature. _ . . , Since the time of Wyclif, who has been called _ . " the Morning Star of the Reformation," there had been developments here and there of independent churches. In 1567 there existed in London a small, " poor congregation whom God has separated from the churches of England, and from the mingled and false worshipping therein used." The word " separated " indicates the emergence among the stricter Puritans of the doctrine of " Separatism." These people were not merely saying that the national church was full of abuses but were asking whether its fundamental idea was not altogether wrong. Ought there to be a national church at all? Or if so, ought it not to rest on different principles? These feeble beginnings were promptly crushed out. But they were mile-posts on the way toward Congrega- tionalism. _ . _ In order to understand what Separatism meant to the people of that time we must recall the nature of their parish system. " Parish " with us is a term used in various senses, but without very precise Th e Beginnings of Congregationalism 5 meaning. In the England of Elizabeth's time it was the local unit of a national ecclesiastical monopoly and had control religiously of every soul within its bounds. The case in theory is not much different today. The Anglican church thinks of itself as the national church of the whole people, an integral part of the constitution of the realm. In practice, of course, this theory has had to be greatly modified, since only about half the English people are in the established church. But at the date under dis- cussion it was legally required that every English child should be baptized into the national church and every citizen of England was by reason of his citizenship, even though he was flagrantly wicked, a member of the English church and subject to its laws. G th d ^ y ^^ there were perhaps two hundred bold P. , spirits who had deliberately taken their stand outside the national church. They claimed to be more truly a church than any " parish " church, for they held that they conformed to the primitive pattern. To them the New Testament plainly taught that only the fellowship of believers constituted the church. The " mingled " communion of the parish churches seemed to them to make impossible true spiritual comradeship. They rejected a system which offered no guarantee of the spiritual fitness of the ministry other than the approval of a bishop. They determined to have a voice themselves in deciding whether a man should minister to them in the Word of God. As Robert Browne finally put it, " The Kingdom of God was not to be begun by whole parishes, but rather by the worthiest, were they never so few." Accordingly we have so-called " gathered " churches appearing, each with its own mutual covenant as a basis of fellow- ship. Pilgrim Deeds and Duties _, . , .p, This man, Robert Browne, was an Angh- Robert Browne . & can minister at Norwich. Just prior to 1580 he began to champion the cause of the Separatists. Numerous persons were attracted to a congregation under his leadership. Its members became associated in a religious " covenant " to the refusing of all " ungodlie communion with wicked persons." Such activities, how- ever, resulted in his early arrest. In 1581, after repeated imprisonments, he and his follow- ers went into voluntary exile and established themselves at Middleburg, Holland. Here Browne published a book which set forth the system of church government which he advocated. In it he frankly urges his readers to separate from a church which he considers incapable of reformation. How dangerous it was to circulate the printed matter which these early Congregationalists managed to publish in Holland and smuggle over to England, is shown by the fact that at Bury St. Edmunds in 1583 two men were executed for sedition because they circulated a collection of Browne's " scismatical " writings published the year before at Middleburg. Unfortunately, Browne himself seems to have been less heroic. There is reason to suppose that his mind as well as his courage became impaired. In any case he finally returned to the established church, and his life, it must be admitted, came to a rather unfortunate anticlimax. His church at Middleburg broke up within two years owing to internal dissensions. Early Congregationalists naturally resented the nickname " Brownists." None the less, Robert Browne was a pioneer of such large originality and force that he has a right to be looked upon as the first champion of the Congregational ideal. The Beginnings of Congregationalism 7 Happily, others were made of sturdier Greenwood and . T - , . ^ . . , stuff. In 1586, owing to the increasingly Barrowe . ' * . stern repression of sectaries, we find one John Greenwood in jail in London for exercising that sort of freedom of conscience in religion that is a mere commonplace with us today. There is a touch of comedy though doubtless he did not think of it so in the ex- perience of Greenwood's friend, Henry Barrowe, who went to see him in jail. The jailer, without authority but pretty sure of his course, promptly locked Barrowe up, too! After six months the two men were released on bail, but a second imprisonment lasted five years. During this long confinement they wrote tracts which were printed in Holland. It so happened that Francis Johnson, the Puritan clergyman who was serving the British residents of Middleburg in those days, was a very human mixture of loyalty and curiosity. While he re- ported the publication there of a dangerous book by Greenwood and Barrowe, and saw to it that the entire edition was burned, he was very careful to save two copies, " one to help in his own study that he might see their errors, and the other to bestow on a special friend for a like use." This curiosity paved the way for his own conversion to the Separatist view. With the courage of his convictions he returned to London to confer with Barrowe, who was in prison, and was made pastor of the Separatist church. Greenwood was elected as teacher and others were chosen as ruling elders and deacons. Very shortly both pastor and teacher were arrested. It was thereupon decided to make an example of Greenwood and Barrowe. They were found guilty of circulating seditious books and sentenced to death. Although twice reprieved, they were finally hanged. Pilgrim Deeds and Duties T hn P Meanwhile another eager spirit, John Penry, had found himself in trouble for what seems to us a commendable interest in the welfare of his country- men, the Welsh people. At that time there was no preach- ing in Wales, but only the reading of the services as pro- vided in the Prayer Book. Penry made bold to offer some suggestions of improvement. His reward was imprison- ment. On his release he managed to continue his sugges- tions by the publications which came in fugitive manner from a press that had been given him. Many efforts were made to locate that press, but for a long time without success. In 1589 Penry had to flee to Scotland. Here he adopted Separatist principles. The day before the execution of Greenwood and Barrowe, Penry 's place of concealment in London, whither he had returned, was discovered by treachery. At thirty-three years of age he was hanged, the last of the martyrs of early Congregationalism. Just before his death, he advised his friends to leave London. He was doubtless right. The Queen, the Parliament and the clergy were combined to crush out Separatism. What could a few poor and obscure people do? Penry 's advice was followed by most of the London church. ,, , This is a very famous name in Congrega- Ch h ti na ^ sm - A Separatist church had been started at Gainsborough. In 1606 they concluded to divide it. One part went to Amsterdam. Others joined with a company of Separatists at Scrooby, some miles out in the country. They worshipped in the manor-house of William Brewster. This house, very much built over, can still be seen. Like all the early Separatist churches, they had two ministers one called " pastor " and the other, " teacher.' John Robinson was their teacher. The Beginnings of Congregationalism 9 He was a Cambridge man, only twenty-five years old, but beginning to show leadership. _, In 1607 the Scrooby church also decided Scrooby Church TT .* - . to move to Holland to escape the growing Emigrates . ~ persecution. But England was as un- willing to have them leave as to have them stay. Fifty miles from Scrooby was the seaport of old Boston on the eastern coast of England. Here they made their way, only to be betrayed by a shipmaster and imprisoned for a month. Six months later we find them trying to leave England from Hull. This time after a chapter of accidents some of the men got aboard and were carried away on a tempestuous voyage to Holland, while the women and children were detained by officers on shore. These helpless captives proved only an embarrassment to their captors, and finally, singly or in little groups, the entire Scrooby company reached Amsterdam. ^ What does it mean that these English ._. exiles so uniformly went to Holland? Be- Protestantism * u- j * u- cause it was near at hand for one thing. But the chief attraction was the fact that the Dutch people at that early day had learned the lesson of religious freedom. They had bought their own liberty with a great price. For long years they had been at war with Spain, which was determined they should wear her yoke and the yoke of Rome. Just before the Scrooby people emigrated the Spanish forces had been driven out. The Dutch people were free and were willing others should be free. The world owes a debt to the Holland of that day, and indeed to the Holland of all the days since. TV, t> ^-r, The newly-arrived exiles found Amster- Jonn Robinson , . , , , dam uncomfortable. There were various causes, principally the fact that the Separatist Church al- 10 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties ready in existence there was a contentious body. Finally the Scrooby church moved to Leyden, twenty-five miles away, where they lived from 1609 to 1620 with John Robin- son as their pastor. John Robinson is one of the most remarkable examples in history of the value of goodness and good sense. He was not an aggressive reformer like Luther, nor a fiery preacher like Knox, nor an organizer like Wesley, nor a system maker like Calvin. But he was a diligent scholar, a sweet-tem- pered, faithful and wise pastor. He was not great in any of the things which the world counts conspicuous, but he had the greatness which overtops them all, for he was a great man. Among those early Separatists he is easily chief. He looked out on the world with tolerant eyes, willing to think and let others think. He lived in gracious relations with his Dutch neighbors. He recognized as his brethren the great company of true-hearted men in the English church. Among his own people he showed a sweetness of spirit and an elevation of character which compelled their reverence. He had great power in moulding the lives of those under his influence. The spirit of Plymouth Colony was in large degree the spirit of John Robinson stamped upon the lives of its leaders. Of Robinson's words the most often quoted is a sentence from an address in which, urging his people to keep their minds and hearts open to the Divine Spirit, he said, " God hath more Truth and Light yet to break out of His Holy Word." It has been one of the mottoes of Congregationalism throughout its history. n Two other men were prominent figures in Brewster and , , , , T wii- n the church of Leyden. William Brewster was the postmaster at Scrooby. In Holland The Beginnings of Congregationalism 11 he supported himself by teaching English. Also, he and one Thomas Brewer printed books on religion, whose nature is easily guessed, for sale in England. It furnished them " imploymente inough," as the old record runs. In 1619 the English government managed to seize their types. William Bradford was younger than Brewster. Living at Austerfield, a few miles from Scrooby, he became in- terested in the Scrooby church and went to Holland with the exiles. There he studied Dutch, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Evidently early Congregationalism believed in knowledge. We shall meet Brewster and Bradford again over in America. But these Scrooby people were unhappy Decision to leave . T ~, TT , in Leyden. Ihe reasons were many. Holland , . ~ They had been farmers in England. Holland was a commercial country. They were homesick and poor. There seemed no future before them in a land which was not their own. Their Puritan Sabbath was hard to keep in a continental country. Their children were growing up in an alien atmosphere. Then, too, there was always stirring in them the desire to extend the faith which they had learned, and to worship God in full freedom. So they decided to go to America. They had all kinds of trouble in making arrangements. Evidently rascals were even more numerous in those days than now. But after three years, they were ready. The Mayflower . We come n w toa very f^ 11 f the story. Certain men in England entered into partnership with the Leyden company to procure ships and supplies for the voyage and settlement. A patent was obtained from the Virginia Company, which had already founded a colony at Jamestown in 1607. Two vessels, the " Speedwell " and the " Mayflower," were 12 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties secured. About the middle of July, 1620, they sailed from Delfthaven, Holland, to Southampton, England, whence they were to embark for America. It was necessary for John Robinson and part of the Leyden company to remain behind. The anxiety and grief of those days of parting are revealed in the quiet words of Governor Bradford's " History," " The time was spent in powering out prairs to y e Lord with great fervencie mixed with abundance of tears. So they left y c goodly and pleasante citie which had been ther resting place near twelve years: but they knew they were pilgrimes and looked not much on those things but lift up ther eyes to y e heavens ther dearest cuntrie and quieted their spirits." Attempting to sail from Southampton, the " Speedwell," a crazy craft of only sixty tons, sprung a leak and had to be abandoned. But the little " Mayflower," " the most famous ship in history," as some one has called it, bore them safely across the sea. Burdened and anxious but unfaltering in their purpose to do God's will they drew near to their Promised Land. D - f Their first landing was at what is now TO- -p 1 j Province town on the very tip of Cape Cod. It was not at all where they intended to go. Their patent called for a location hundreds of miles farther south. But they were worn with the journey and winter was drawing on. They had to make some swift decisions. The first was to settle in that region whether they had a legal right to do so or not. The next was to draw up a constitution for the government of their colony. Here it is, the famous " Mayflower Compact," signed in the Cabin of the " Mayflower " by forty-one men. The Beginnings of Congregationalism 13 In y e name of God Amen. We whofe names are underwriten, the loyall fubjects of our dread fover- aigne lord King James, by y e grace of God, of great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y e faith, &c. Haveing undertaken, for y e glorie of God, and advancemente of y e chriftian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y* firft colonie in y e Northerne parts of Virginia. Doe by thefe prefents folemnly & mutualy in y e prefence of God, and one of another; covenant, & combine our felves togeather into a civill body politick; for our better ordering, & prefervation & furtherance of y 8 ends aforefaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, con- ftitute, and frame fhuch juft & equall lawes, or- dinances, Acts, conftitutions, & offices, from time to time, as fhall be thought moft meete & convenient for y e generall good of y e Colonie: unto which we promife all due submiffion and obedience. In wit- nes whereof we have hereunder fubfcribed our names at Cap-Codd y e .11. of November, in y e year of y" raigne of our foveraigne lord king James of England, France, & Ireland y e eighteenth and of Scotland y e fiftie fourth. An Dom. 1620. In that compact were the beginnings of American democ- racy as well as of American Congregationalism. i TT j !_ They coasted around the bay, spending Early Hardships _. . , T . , , ., * a Sunday at Clark s Island, where they " rested according to the commandment," and finally con- cluded to settle at a place which they called " Plymouth." It was late December. We, who are familiar with northern winters, know, as they did not, how grave was their situa- tion. They hastily built log cabins for shelter, made friendly advances to the Indians, gathered about them their scanty resources and began their life in the new world. Serious sickness broke out among them due to the poor fare of the long voyage, and before the first year had passed 14 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties a full half of their number were buried on the shoulder of the hill which overlooks the bay. Their graves were placed in the roadway, so that, effaced by the tramp of feet, they might not reveal to the Indians the heavy loss. Spring found the survivors weak and burdened but undaunted. In April the " Mayflower " sailed away home, but not a soul went with her save her crew. ,_, ..,. The story of the early years at Plymouth cannot Y be told in detail here. Their Governor, John Carver, was of the company who died the first year. William Bradford succeeded him and continued for thirty years. He wrote an account of the colony, which, lost from sight for many decades, was found in England, finally restored to America, and has been published by the Massachusetts Legislature. William Brewster, though unordained, acted practically as pastor. Rev. John Lyford, sent over by their English partners, proved of no account and they got rid of him as soon as they could. John Robinson, to their great grief, did not live to reach America, but many others of the Leyden colony came. The colonists had in the main friendly relations with the Indians, though Captain Myles Standish had to deal with them rather strenuously at times. They had frequent reenforcements from the old world, some of whom proved liabilities rather than assets. Through it all at the end of ten years (1630), Plymouth Colony was a compact estab- lished community of three hundred people, with its future fairly secure. Th H 'ta ^' * n t ^ ie P rov *dence f God, out f R man s g Catholicism, out of Anglican conformity, out of Puritan protest, out of the heart of England, had come a sturdy band of pioneers, to build the The Beginnings of Congregationalism 15 foundations of a new faith, to bequeath to us a noble heritage, to mould the new republic of the west. They were very human folk, but they made a beginning remarkable in its vision and power. Beginnings last. Although many potent forces have entered into American life since their day, we must give a primary place to these early deeds and thoughts of the Pilgrim company. Especially must Congregationalism recognize with reverent gratitude that whatever it has been able to accomplish is rooted in that early adventure of faith. QUESTIONS 1. When did Puritanism begin and what was its nature? 2. What was the " Act of Uniformity "? 3. Outline the course the Protestant Reformation had taken. 4. What was " Separatism "? 5. What English kings and prelates persecuted the Separatists? 6. Describe " Parish " as related to " Gathered Churches." 7. Name five men especially associated with the earliest beginnings of Congregationalism. 8. Give a brief sketch of each one's relation to the movement. 9. Tell something of the Scrooby Church. 10. Who was John Robinson and what were his charac- teristics? 11. Name two contemporaries of Robinson. 12. Why did the Puritans desire to leave Holland? 13. Describe their journey to America. 16 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties 14. What was the " Mayflower Compact "? 15. Where was first permanent settlement made? 16. Tell something of the first year at Plymouth. 17. State briefly the political and religious importance of the Puritan movement. CHAPTER II DEVELOPMENT IN A NEW LAND T , ,. The hopeful view of Plymouth Colony Isolation of the . , , . , , , . , , , p.. . with which the last chapter closed would probably have seemed to indifferent observers of their day rather absurd. The external cir- cumstances were not particularly cheering. Three hundred people, well led, but isolated in a great wilderness across a stormy ocean, with the mother country largely hostile to their whole program, with no certainty of further immigration to strengthen their numbers, with the natural tendency of strong-minded people to split up into factions, with a heavy burden of debt, with the danger from Indians, with the rigor of the climate, the hardness of the soil, and the struggles with disease on the whole, it was not an encouraging prospect for the little colony at Plymouth. T T _, Fortunately, as so often in the Provi- James I Proves , , ^ , , , . , , , dence of God, the unexpected happened. The stubbornness of the English crown and the stupidity of the English hierarchy proved to be a great help in the making of America. While James I was on his way up to London to ascend the throne of England in 1603, seven hundred and fifty clergymen of the Church of England, Puritan in their views, had ventured to address him with a petition looking toward a further reformation of the national church. They thought the king, with his Scotch Calvinistic training, would surely favor such mild 18 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties changes as the abolition of the sign of the cross and the requirement of cap and surplice, or the revision of a few passages in the Prayer Book. For any change in doctrine or government in the church they did not ask. But James proved to be a sort of Rehoboam. He declared that he would make the Puritans " conform themselves, or harrie them out of the land, or else do worse." As a result per- haps three hundred and fifty ministers were driven from their parishes. ' the eighth year of James' successor, A hV h Charles I, William Laud was elevated to the archbishopric. There had been strict Angli- cans in the archiepiscopal chair before, but none whose strictness had proved so costly to the church of England. Laud not only felt it his duty to persecute nonconformists, but apparently found a brutal joy in doing it. In the case of one author, an extreme critic of the established order, Laud gave thanks to God that the Star Chamber had sentenced the offender to degradation from the ministry and life imprisonment, besides a fine of 10,000, to which was added the pillory, the loss of both ears, the slitting of his nose, and branding on the cheeks with " S S " (sower of sedition). Free speech was not yet an accomplished fact in England! _, TT In parishes where the minister was non- Thomas Hooker ., resident, ignorant, incompetent or ob- noxious a state of affairs evidently not at all infrequent it had at this time become customary to permit a Puritan preacher, usually an ordained priest of the established church, to " lecture " Sunday afternoons on some theme of morals or religion. Against these lectureships Archbishop Laud, to whom only uniformity of worship mattered, set himself. Development in a New Land 19 One of the men whom he attacked was Thomas Hooker. He was deposed from his lectureship at Chelmsford, al- though forty-nine of his clerical friends including the Chelmsford rector certified that he was both orthodox and peaceable. Yet Laud would not even permit him to teach school. With the assistance of friends, who paid his forfeited bail when he had been summoned to appear before the High Commission, Hooker finally escaped to Holland. With such men as Hooker hounded out of The Puritan , , ., . . . . . _ , the land, the Puritans were increasingly in- clined to leave England. In 1628 John Endicott and a small band emigrated and settled at what is now Salem, Massachusetts. The next year a more ambitious enterprise was organized in London called, " The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay." The king granted them a charter, being apparently rather glad to get rid of troublesome subjects. In the company thus formed one name stands out pre- eminent John Winthrop. Of remarkable strength and beauty of character, grave and modest, intelligent and scholarly, intensely religious, yet for those days liberal and charitable in disposition, Winthrop at once gave character to this new emigration. Under his governorship the colony was vigorous from the outset. In the year 1630 a thousand people in seventeen ships reached these shores, settling in and near Boston. By 1640, when persecutions ceased in England with the assembling of the Long Parliament and therefore the Puritan emigration ceased, more than twenty thousand of England's most capable citizens had crossed the ocean a migration unique in the history of the world for the dignity of its manhood and womanhood. 20 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Pil ' d sett ^ ers at Ply moutn an d those at p . Massachusetts Bay belonged alike to the Puritan party. But in their view of church organization there was a sharp difference. The Plymouth people were, as we have seen, Separatists, deeming the mother church in hopeless error. The Boston and Salem people did not believe in Separatism. They clung to the Church of England, desiring only to reform certain evils within her. Naturally they were somewhat suspicious of the church at Plymouth. Inasmuch as they were more numerous, ten to one, with wealth and prestige thrown in, we would expect that New England Christianity would be fashioned according to their ideas. It doubtless would have been so fashioned if their ideas had not changed. This is the way the change came about. There was serious illness in Salem. Governor Endicott appealed to Plymouth for medical aid. Dr. Samuel Fuller, deacon of the Pilgrim church, was sent to help. As he helped, Fuller was a sort of medical missionary of the Pilgrim way. All those who talked with him discovered that Separatism as practiced at Plymouth was by no means so dangerous as they had supposed. Moreover, England was far away. The exigencies of practical situations at once arose. Out there in the wilderness these colonists found it natural to choose their own church officers, set aside their own min- istry, conduct their worship as they chose, and inflict such discipline as seemed to them fitting. As John Robinson had predicted, when once out of reach of the establish- ment, Puritan and Separatist were no longer distinguish- able. . In 1629 the Salem church was organized Salem Church .... , , , ,,. with thirty members bound under this simple covenant: Development in a New Land 21 " We Covenant with the Lord and with one an- other; and doe bynd ourselves in the presence of God, to walke together in all his waies, accord- ing as he is pleased to reveale himself unto us in his Blessed word of truth." Thus they illustrated the Separatist principle by admitting only those who professed to have a Christian experience. That same summer several ministers were sent out from England and two of these were solemnly chosen as pastor and teacher. Subsequently they were duly ordained by the " imposission of hands " by " ye gravest members," " using prayer therewith." To realize how revolutionary this was we must remember that both these men had been ordained in England by bishops who professed to be in the unbroken line of descent from the Apostles. And here they were kneeling to be ordained again and that, too, by the laymen of the church! Incidentally it is interesting to note that on this occasion Bradford and others arrived tardily from Plymouth, in time to " extend the right hand of fellowship " the first instance of that characteristic custom of our modern denominational life. TT -f -j-. And now these men who had fled from in- i tolerance showed themselves intolerant. When Reversed e , , , . . j 1 1. i a few kindred spirits decided to establish separate services with the use of the Prayer Book and the English liturgy they were promptly bundled off to England as disturbers! One can easily find reasons for this act. He can even believe that it saved the colony from worse divisions later. But it is not a pleasant thing to think of. Conformity now meant the Puritan type of worship. In 22 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties the royal charter nothing had been said about religious liberty. As a matter of fact the colonists did not want it. They were glad to be left free to solve their problems in their own way. This they did by substituting for a state church in which Puritans were nonconformists, a church state in which Anglicans were treated as nonconformists. The people in England complained bitterly. But the colonists held on their way. S ttlin f * n 164 more than thirty churches had P rt f sprung up in eastern Massachusetts. Among these were the churches of Dorchester and Newtown (now Cambridge) . The pastor of the latter was Thomas Hooker, whom we have already seen driven into Holland. His people were a prosperous and vigorous folk. Before long they began to feel the characteristic American desire to " go West." One would think that with an end- less stretch of virgin forest at their doors they would not have felt the need of any more frontier than they had. But they had learned of the fertile valley of the Connecticut. By contrast with eastern Massachusetts it was inviting. Moreover, there was probably some restlessness on the part of Hooker and his associates because of the dominating influence around Massachusetts Bay of John Winthrop and his minister, John Cotton. There was a difference in judgment about the order of the church, the Cambridge people desiring more of democracy. So in 1636, permission being obtained from the General dourt, Hooker and almost his entire church migrated to Hartford, Connecticut. At about the same time many from the Dorchester Church removed to Windsor, Connecticut. It was a brave piece of pioneering. There must have been some heavy and doubtful hearts as they trudged through the forests with keen-eyed Indians watching their journey. But it was a Development in a New Land 23 step big with meaning for the coming nation, as we shall see later. N H In 1637 Rev. John Davenport, a London c . minister driven out via Holland, as Hooker had been, landed in Boston with a con- siderable company. Here the winter was spent ; but being desirous of working out their own form of government, they removed in 1638 to found the New Haven Colony. Davenport and his associates were perfectly sure that the " Scriptures doe hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men." This theoretic view of church and state they worked out as fully as they were able. They limited the franchise to church members, Davenport con- tending that this was as good a test of competence to make right use of political privileges as could be found. These " free planters " had a unique method of forming their church. First they chose twelve electors, who in turn chose seven men from their own number as the first members of the church. When, in 1665, by order of Charles II, the New Haven Colony was joined with Con- necticut Colony (Hartford) as a punishment for having harbored two of the judges who condemned Charles I to death, its peculiar features including the restriction of the franchise passed away. To Davenport, who had publicly counselled the protection of the fugitives in a sermon on the text, " Hide the outcasts . . . ," this meant that the colony had fallen under a " Christless rule." He was glad to return to Boston to end his days. Later Cotton Mather wrote of him, " Yet, after all, the Lord gave him to see that in this world a church state was impossible, whereinto there enters nothing that defiles." Roger Williams A pioneer community attracts radicals and oddities. The colonists had their 24 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties share. They were unwelcome not only because they were disturbers but because the well-poised men who founded New England particularly disliked fanatics. One of these trouble-makers was Roger Williams. His place in our country's history is secure because he was the first advocate of full religious liberty. He was an ardent soul and only missed large usefulness by lack of balance. But all this is easier to see and say now than it was then. Williams was a universal critic and had gifts of speech with which to express his criticisms. The magistrates, ministers, laws, opinions and everything else in the colony were wrong. One of his favorite phrases was, " full of anti-Christian pollution." He was at first in Plymouth, where he struck Governor Bradford as a man " godly and zealous, having many precious parts, but very unsettled in judgment." Then he became pastor of the Salem church. Here he stirred up trouble which spread up and down the coast until finally the authorities sentenced him to banishment. He fell ill and was allowed to stay through the winter, provided he would stop talking. He did not stop and the sentence was enforced. He lived among the Indians for a while and then became the founder of what is now Providence, Rhode Island. He developed Baptist opinions and was immersed, afterward immersing the man who immersed him! Then he concluded " that their baptism could not be right because it was not administered by an apostle." So the rest of his life he was in suspense of mind, believing that things could not be put right without some new revelation. __ , , . Somewhat similar was the case of Mrs. Anne Hutchmson A TT , . 01 , , , Anne Hutchmson. She and her hus- band had come to Boston, Massachusetts, from Boston, England, with Rev. John Cotton. She was a woman of Development in a New Land 25 strong personality, a skilful nurse, an eloquent lecturer, a believer in " perfectionism," and, like Williams, an all- round critic. She gathered quite a party about her, among them young Henry Vane, for a time Governor of the colony. All sorts of friction sprang up concerning her and her teachings. In 1637 a Synod (what we now call an Advisory Council) was assembled to consider Mrs. Hutchinson's case. This was a significant assembly as being the beginning of a custom widely used in Congregationalism ever since. It condemned all her distinctive teachings. She remained obdurate and claimed to have a direct divine revelation to support her. The authorities took hold of the matter and she was banished. She went with her family down to Rhode Island and afterwards to the Dutch settlement at New York, where she was murdered by the Indians. The cases just described reveal both the intensity of religious feeling in those days and the fact that full liberty of thought and speech was not yet conceived possible or desirable. We can only say for the colonists that their dealing with disturbers was gentle compared to the custom of the time. Q ua ^ er movement in England started Th O k ' by John Fox was remarkable. Its asser- tion of the privilege and duty of living under the direct illumination of the Holy Spirit put emphasis upon a long neglected New Testament truth. The influence of the Quakers upon all denominations of Christian people has been wide and profound. But in its beginning Quaker- ism, like many another ism, was accompanied by many extravagances. Some of its adherents migrating to Boston came into collision with the established order. Just how violent their 26 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties criticisms were at the outset we do not know. Dr. Williston Walker remarks that they were perhaps increased by the repressive measures adopted. Anyhow, before the episode was over (in Dr. Walker's words), " much that they did would if done in our own day have brought them before the police court and into examination as to mental sanity." After much reviling of magistrates and laws, they were banished. They came back with new revilings. At last must it be told three men and one woman were sent to the gallows. The colonists speedily grew ashamed of such methods. There was general satisfaction when in 1691 full freedom of worship was granted. nT-4. t, ** The history of belief in witchcraft is a curious witcncrait . , _,, , ,. - one, too long to recount here. The belief has not been confined to any land or religion or age. The essential feature of it is the idea that a person may enter into alliance with an evil spirit in such way as to be morally guilty for acts done under the prompting of that spirit. The colonists did not escape the delusion. Twenty persons were executed in Salem in 1692. But the panic quickly passed. Judge Samuel Sewall, one of the court which tried the " witches," publicly acknowledged his error and entreated forgiveness. In later years money was voted to the families of the victims. These Puritan pioneers belonged to their time, but they escaped from the bondage of its superstition more quickly than others. We have spoken of some of the unhappy Colleges and , . . , - T , , ... T 5 _ T' things in early New England life. Let us turn to the things which gave it dignity and power. First, we note that among the earliest New Englanders there was a large proportion of university graduates. As a consequence there was a consuming passion for education. In 1636, a year when Indians Development in a New Land 27 threatened, when the home government was peculiarly hostile, and dissensions were rife among the colonists, the Massachusetts General Court appropriated 400 toward the establishment of a college. When John Harvard left his library and half of his estate to this new institution it was promptly given his name. The name of the town where it was located, Newtown, was at the same time changed to Cambridge in honor of the homeland university where for many years Puritanism had been rife. This was the first time in history that a place of educa- tion was founded by the vote of the people's money through their representatives. But it was the firm foundation for a new policy. Yale was founded in 1701. The year before a number of ministers gathering at Branford, Con- necticut, brought books, each one saying as he laid his contribution on the table, " I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." The number of volumes that thus made a beginning for the Yale Library was forty! Still more important was the development of grammar school education. The citizen church members of those days had been brought up on the Bible in the vernacular, and they wanted their children to be able to read it. One of the first acts of the colonists in each instance was to provide for public primary and grammar schools. These were instituted in Massachusetts in 1647 and in Connecticut three years later. As the colleges were founded to recruit the New England ministry, so the elementary schools were established to defeat " one cheife project of ye ould deluder Satan, to keepe men from knowledge of ye Scriptures." -,. A second significant aspect of this early Missions to the ,, -._* ... j ,. New England life was its missionary zeal. A letter from the Governor of the Massa- 28 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties chusetts Bay Company to Governor Endicott had reminded the colonists of " the main end of our plantation, to bring the Indians to the knowledge of the Gospel." It was the rule of the Puritans to purchase their lands from the In- dians that had formerly occupied them. The only excep- tion was in the case of the Pequot War, which opened up the Connecticut coast. In 1643 Thomas Mayhew is discovered doing missionary work among the natives of Nantucket and Martha's Vine- yard. Finding them loath to give up thirty-seven deities for one, Mayhew finally persuaded them that God was greater than all their manitous! Their children learned to read and write, and simple courts were set up with the right of appeal to the court of Plymouth. In Massachusetts it was agreed in 1646 that the elders should choose two persons each year to spread the Gospel among the Indians. In 1649 Parliament established the " Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England." In 1665 one lone Indian graduated from Harvard. The first pupil of an Indian school, which in 1769 developed into Dartmouth College, was the picturesque Indian preacher, Samson Occom, a Mohegan, who was welcomed in many English as well as American pulpits, and who was success- ful in gathering considerable funds in England for the institution. _ , . John Eliot, a graduate of Cambridge, England, came to Massachusetts in 1631. He was settled as pastor at Roxbury and remained there all his life. A great-hearted, devoted man, he was profoundly stirred by the sight of the pagan Indians about him. In the midst of his pastoral duties he mastered the Algonquin language. Fourteen years of patient toil it cost him. To this he added the incredible labor of creating a grammar of the language Development in a New Land 29 and translating the Bible. After long effort funds were secured to print it. A copy may be seen in the library of Harvard College, but it is many a decade since there was anyone who could read it. It seems like wasted labor. We have an idea that the great Master will know how to reward those lonely burdened years through which Eliot wrought in his labor of love. In 1646 he began preaching among the Indians, whom he believed descendants of the " lost tribes " of Israel. Some of them he gathered into villages where they might have the advantages of a simple Christian civilization. In 1660 there were fourteen such villages and in 1674 the number of " Praying Indians " had reached 4,000. But disappointments and defeats came in quick succession. The tribes converted by Eliot were among the smallest and weakest. The colonization of the Indian villages was re- garded by other tribes as having some unfriendly purpose. To them to be civilized meant to be subjugated. In the reign of terror during King Philip's War some of the "Pray- ing Indians " reverted to savagery. At the end of that costly strife the Indian had disappeared from central and southern New England forever. A cen- tury later the aborigines of New England were practically extinct. Greatly crippled, the work finally lapsed for want of a field to evangelize. But John Eliot's name is secure. At the conclusion of his grammar he had written, " Prayers and pains through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything." Cotton Mather wrote, " I was never with him but I got or might have got good from him." TM. TT tr A third development that of doctrine The Halfway ...... c must be examined in its historic setting. The Congregationalism of the latter part of the seventeenth century was characterized by a declining re- 30 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties ligious enthusiasm. The children of the first and second gen- erations were, of course, baptized in infancy as partakers of the covenant. But many of these children grew up without the " religious experience " which was held to be evidence of a " regenerate " life and the prerequisite for church membership. Hence they were excluded from the Lord's Supper. When children were born to these persons the question arose can the children of moral parents receive Christian baptism, if the parents themselves have not been " born again "? Godly grandparents were influential in securing an affirm- ative answer to this question. The arrangement which per- mitted such baptism was called " The Halfway Covenant." It was an interesting feature of the development of Con- gregationalism. Endless controversies arose concerning it. It was one of the chief subjects considered by a remarkable gathering called " The Reforming Synod," held in 1679. But the story is too long for this handbook. It will be found in any of the larger histories of the time. T _ , In 1723, when Increase Mather died, Jonathan Edwards , , , , . , .. , A . he deplored the fact that the in- terest of New England seems to be changed from a religious to a worldly one." This feeling was shared by many. Failing in an effort to secure the calling of another synod, the ministers were at a loss to know how to go about the bettering of the situation. Help came from an unexpected quarter. Early in 1727 Jonathan Edwards was ordained as a colleague of his famous grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, at Northampton, Massachusetts. The first eight years of his ministry appear not to have been noteworthy. Mr. Stoddard was one of those who warmly favored the " Half- way Covenant." Edwards did not at first oppose these and like views. But before he was done he set himself Development in a New Land 31 against them with all the force of his profound convictions. _, ,, , ,.,.. At this distance Jonathan Edwards The Man and His ,. . J , _-. chiefly impresses most of us as a severe personality. We judge him largely by the title of one of his sermons " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." As a matter of fact he was a man gifted with a vivid imagination, overawed by the sense of God's holiness. He thought of himself as an abject, hopeless sinner, absolutely dependent on God's grace in Christ. Except for Christ's death he saw himself in the midst of hell, to which all the non-elect were to be assigned. In joy over his own deliverance, he ceaselessly urged men to accept God's mercy as revealed in the Cross. The sermons which seem to us cruel were uttered with a passion of eager love which melted all hearts. _. p By the end of 1734 Edwards' influence began to be strongly felt. Several remarkable con- Awakening . XT i i- Di- versions at Northampton made religion the talk of the town. That winter many meetings were held in private houses for prayer and religious conversation. The fire kindled in Northampton spread to other places. Presently western New England was in the midst of what came to be known as " The Great Awakening." The knowledge of it went out over the world. In Eng- land and Scotland people eagerly read Edwards' " Narrative of Surprising Conversions." The Wesleyan revival was then just beginning in England. George Whitefield, at first associated with the Wesleys, had separated from them and now came to America to help on the work begun by Edwards. He was already famous, though but twenty-six years old. He was warmly welcomed and all New England was soon in the midst of a period of revival. Extraordinary enthusiasm was produced by his glowing eloquence. His 32 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties journeys were a long succession of triumphs. Everywhere large numbers were converted under his appeals. Five different times Whitefield came to America for evangelistic work. On his last trip, in 1770, he died. His grave may be seen at Newburyport, Massachusetts. _, No reliable estimate can be made of the Results to the . . , , , , . . , p. . accessions to the churches during the years 1735-42 as a result of "The Great Awaken- ing." But beyond any question there was a wonderful increase in the strength of the New England churches. Congregationalism was being made ready for the test of the Revolutionary War and the great tasks which lay beyond. -. ,, _, .. Like most men of high wrought emotional Other Results ,, . r , , natures, Whitefield was not an easy man to live with. One of his defects was censoriousness. He saw everything so clearly and felt it so keenly that he had no patience with those who did not see the same things and feel in like way. Naturally the ministers received drastic criticism at his hands. Just as naturally they did not enjoy it. Weaker men copied his manners and methods and made matters worse. The net result was that two parties were developed. Those in favor of revivals of the White- field type were nicknamed, " New Lights," those opposed, " Old Lights." All this, of course, intensified the controversy about the " Halfway Covenant." Under Edwards' influence the tendency for which it stood was checked and the old em- phasis on regeneration widely restored. Other sharp theological issues began to arise. We are at the begin- nings of a cleavage which years later will give us two parties, " Orthodox " and " Unitarian." Development in a New Land 33 Edwards' revolt from the " Stoddardean " Edwards as a , A , . , . ,. . , , _ . system resulted in his dismissal from the Northampton church in 1750. How amus- ing and how tragic! This pure-hearted saint, one of the profoundest thinkers the world had produced, was driven from his parish and forced to settle in the little church at Stockbridge, where he was also a missionary to the Housa- tonic Indians. For seven years he continued there. He was then called to the presidency of Princeton College, but died just as he was beginning his work. Those years on the frontier proved a great blessing to Edwards and to the world. There he produced a number of volumes of moment, among them (1754) his famous treatise on " The Freedom of the Will." It is no part of our concern to investigate his doctrinal works in detail. In the main they expound a modified Calvinism which sought to foster a warm, emotional type of Christian character. Edwards defined sin in terms of voluntary action, and virtue as unselfish benevolence. His successors took up and finished the work cut short by his death. Under Nathanael Emmons and Timothy Dwight, respec- tively, two sub-schools took their rise, the former a stricter, the latter a more moderate Calvinism. The Herita e For a centur y and a half the pil g rim wa Y TUT x j had proved a good way. Cities and com- Mamtamed , monwealths had been founded in the fear of God. Great problems had been faced and conquered. Great truths had been wrought into the structure of the new world. Men of integrity, of moral passion and of steady purpose had determined the trend of the life of the nation in church and state. We have thus reached the point where we are ready to 34 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties study the fundamental principles on which has been built that America " beautiful for Pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness." QUESTIONS 1. Tell of the difficulties facing the Pilgrims at Plym- outh. 2. What effect did the incoming of a new king in Eng- land have on the colony? 3. Characterize Archbishop Laud. 4. Who was Thomas Hooker? 5. Tell of the founding of Salem and Boston. 6. How were John Endicott and John Winthrop related to the movement? 7. Differentiate between Pilgrim and Puritan. 8. When was the Salem church organized and who was eligible to membership? 9. Speak of the new intolerance that arose. 10. Tell of the settling of Connecticut. 11. What led to the founding of the New Haven Colony? 12. Tell something of Roger Williams and Anne Hutch- inson. 13. Speak of the Quaker movement. 14. Name two colleges that were organized early and tell something of their founding. 15. What other educational provisions were made? 16. Tell something of the achievements of John Elliot and other activities in missions to the Indians. 17. Describe the " Halfway Covenant." Development in a New Land 35 18. Tell what you know of Jonathan Edwards the man, his message, his theology. 19. What was the "Great Awakening" and what were its results on the church? 20. Speak of the revival under Whitefield. 21. What had been accomplished in the first 150 years? CHAPTER III DEMOCRACY IN CHURCH AND STATE ~ , Students of history are entirely agreed that _ American democratic institutions are in large measure traceable to the influence of the early New England settlers. In Virginia there was another exceedingly influential center of democratic senti- ment. But its harmonious development was prevented by various causes, notably the continuance of slavery. We are now to trace the process by which democracy found itself and became a power in New England. We shall find that it was by no means simple. A variety of forces, in some cases antagonistic to one another, were at work. Out of it all it came to pass that the beginnings of the nation and of American Congregationalism moved on parallel lines toward the democratic ideal, an ideal which has been defined as the effort to " let all the people you can, into all the things you can, in all the ways you can, to the utmost measure you can." -y It is easy to overestimate the amount of . _. ' democratic conviction which these early Puri- of Vision . , . . . tans brought with them to America, ihose settling at Plymouth were beyond doubt awake to the subject so far as the ordering of their own little com- munity was concerned. The " Mayflower Compact " is de- cisive on that point. Just how far they saw the larger meanings of the policy then adopted we cannot tell. Democracy in Church and State 37 With the Massachusetts Bay people there were decided forces pressing the other way. John Cotton, minister of the First Church in Boston, said as late as 1636 that democracy was not " a fit government eyther for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors who shall be governed." We have ample evidence that he spoke for many, probably for the majority. In other words, they brought over from England the type of democratic thought prevalent there. Mr. Gladstone says, " All that was democratic in the policy of England . . . they carried with them in pro- nounced and exclusive forms to a soil and a scene singu- larly fitted for their growth." Mr. Gladstone evidently thinks of the England of that day as possessing much more democracy than it really had. The latter part of the quotation contains the important fact. The partially developed democracy which emigrated came into condi- tions remarkably favorable for its growth. .. . . T About 1688 William Stoughton wrote, Kind of People ,, ~ , . r , . . . God silted a whole nation in order that he might send choice grain into the wilderness." This was true, but in what sense? First of all these pioneers were remarkably homogeneous. Drawn almost exclusively from England down to the end of the eighteenth century, they represented that solid, thrifty, industrious, aspiring, middle class of Eng- land's population which has made her a conspicuous nation for many a century past. They possessed her blending of the conservative and progressive spirit. They knew how to cling to the old until they had a firm grip on the new. Above all, they had a religious faith at once enlightened and reverent, well-balanced and profound. Add to this the fact that they left England for the sake 38 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties of their convictions and you have a fair picture of these self-reliant men and women whose story we are studying. A F' t St T ^ e colonists wom d never have gone far toward democracy if they had remained contented dependencies of England. The stupidity of her kings and statesmen saved America from that peril. Almost immediately they began to concoct repressive measures. In 1635 they decided to send out a royal gov- ernor for New England, and to create a special commis- sion to have oversight of colonial affairs with Archbishop Laud as its head. The first demand was that the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony send its charter home. The minis- ters of the churches were asked for advice. Their answer was quickly ready. " We ought," said they, " to defend our lawful possessions if we are able." Governor Win- throp, who had so wisely led the colony from the be- ginning, agreed with them, declaring that if it became necessary to renounce the authority of Parliament they would be justified in doing so. Preparations were made for armed resistance. But a turn in England's affairs came and she gave up her Commission plan. A few years later Charles I was beheaded and the Parliament and Oliver Cromwell came into power. This meant that affairs on both sides the Atlantic were under the control of the Puritan party. But aside from that fact the break had been made when the colonists decided to resist. The principle of home rule thus asserted was a stepping-stone to democracy. Thoroughgoing democracy became estab- n ' lished in church life but slowly. We have seen that at Salem and elsewhere they adopted promptly the idea of selecting and ordaining their own ministers. This was a vigorous start in the Democracy in Church and State 39 right direction. But they could not get out of their minds the ancient idea that somebody must be put in an independent position of authority. The theory at first was that a church should have one minister called " Pastor," another called " Teacher," and an official known as a " Ruling Elder," in addition to " Deacons " and " Deaconesses." The underlying thought was that this rather elaborate staff of officials should constitute a controlling body which should settle many questions for the church. To quote John Cotton once more, " The Gospel alloweth no church authority (or rule properly so- called) to the brethren but reserveth that wholly to the elders." Our present idea that all questions belong to all the members of the church would have seemed to them quite impossible. Altogether, the early Congregational churches had in them a liberal admixture of the aristo- cratic principle which had so long shaped the thinking of the old world. But here again the movement of events led toward democracy. There were not ministers enough to furnish two to a church. There was not enough money to pay them both, anyhow. So rather quickly the office of teacher ceased to be filled. The ruling elder, who was supposed to be somewhere between a minister and a lay- man, did not prove to have any place of real usefulness, so he ceased to exist. Their theory of church organization did not give large responsibilities to deacons, and as for deaconesses, prac- tically none were ever chosen. The consequence was that things largely centered in the pastor. But the people were not willing that one man should settle everything and gradually took matters over into their own hands. So the early tendency toward Presbyterianism was 40 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties checked and the organization of the local churches tended toward the Congregationalism of today. The Town Meeting *" the mana S ement of ^ secular affairs the colonists started out on lines closely parallel to those of the church. The geo- graphical unit was the town. Originally each town had but one church. In its " meeting-house " the people met now to discuss church affairs and again to discuss town affairs. The same people were in both meetings, for only members of the church could vote. The New England town meeting was a miniature parliament. All the free- men were there to say their say and cast their ballot. Gradually the whole region became covered with these little self-governing republics. It is an interesting fact that the town meeting has been widely preserved down to the present time. Towns with a population of tens of thousands still gather in annual mass meeting to pass upon questions of common concern. But even the early town meeting was not quite so democratic as it sounds. The restriction of the franchise violated the democratic principle in a way quite foreign to the thought of our day. Moreover, the governor and magistrates had an authority beyond that which we are willing to delegate to them in our time. None the less, the town meeting contained the germ of the full democ- racy to come. p, v, T -f Let us glance for a moment at some features ! of the church life of that day. They do not bear directly on the question of democracy, but they reveal the thoughts that were in the minds of the people. In breaking from what they regarded as the pagan customs of the Roman and Anglican churches they naturally went to extremes. Christmas and Easter were Democracy in Church and State 41 entirely disregarded. Such festivals were to them part of that formalism from which they were trying to escape. Weddings were celebrated with very little ceremony, funerals with less. The minister was not called in for either. The magistrates solemnized marriages, and the people stood silently by the grave which received their dead. Both of these customs were changed before the end of the first century in America. In the seating of the churches men and women were separated and an attempt was made to assign seats according to the social rank of the occupant. This rem- nant of old-world distinctions of course made trouble. In the public services of the church great simplicity was observed, the sermon having the place of honor. The Sabbath was kept with scrupulous care after the model of Old Testament teaching. A long service in the fore- noon and another in the afternoon pretty well filled the day. The Lord's Supper and Baptism were administered in much the same way as at present. The reading of the Scriptures was accompanied with copious comment. Reading without comment (called by them " dumb read- ing ") reminded them of the old stupid days in England when the minister seemed only anxious to have it over with. The offering was not " taken " but " made," the people passing from their seats to put their money into the deacons' box. There was no instrumental music and at first no hymn books, the hymns being " lined out." The churches were not heated, except with the little charcoal foot-stoves carried by the worshipers. The buildings were plain structures, but dignified. As the years went 42 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties by their lines became increasingly attractive. Many of the old colonial churches are a delight to the eye. . , ,. , The close union between church and Disestablishment ... i_ i_ r state instituted at the beginning ot the New England settlements was bound to disappear before the growing spirit of democracy, even without ex- ternal help. But vigorous help came from the long struggle with the royal power. In 1684 the English Court of Chancery declared the Massachusetts charter void. Later, Edmund Andros of evil memory, was sent over as governor. The Boston people imprisoned him and later on Increase Mather, a remarkable example of the minister in politics, succeeded not only in securing his removal but in getting another charter. As the result of various forces not easy to trace, this charter abolished all ecclesiastical tests for the franchise, and thus delivered the Congregational churches from that control over the state which would have prevented their wholesome development. _ . Although there were in those early churches many elements foreign to a Independence _,_, , . , _,_, thoroughgoing democracy, there was no deviation from one of its fundamentals, viz., the inde- pendence of the local church. New England from the beginning was steadfast to the first half of the slogan, " A church without a bishop and a state without a king." Before many decades had passed she adopted the second half as well. As for the tendency toward Presbyterian- ism, it was confined to the form of the local organization. New England was never in any serious danger of de- veloping a general Presbyterianism " exercising control through an ascending series of ecclesiastical courts," Democracy in Church and State 43 It is time for us to examine some of the New England , ,_ . , ' movements of cooperation. Democracy Confederation , . . .. . does not come to full fruitfulness except as it creates what has been called, " A continuous process of union." One of the early ties between the colonies was known as the " New England Confederation." This was a defen- sive league of the four Puritan colonies formed in 1643. At that time their combined territories contained thirty- nine towns and a population of twenty-four thousand people, fifteen thousand of whom lived in Massachusetts. The league had entire control over all dealings with the Indians and with the French and Dutch. It was a time of sad distraction in England, and the colonists were determined to be in readiness for any emergency. The Confederation maintained its existence for a period of more than forty years. While it was only a league, it is noteworthy that the colonists did not ask the mother country for permission to form it. The Cambridge e ha . ve 5 , een that , fr m the beg i nning _,, ,. the churches consulted one with an- Jriauorm , , _ , , , . other. The first formal and conspicu- ous conference was the Cambridge Synod (Council) of 1646-8. Though it was called by the General Court of Massachusetts some churches doubted whether such gatherings were wise and did not send delegates. So the Synod adjourned for nine months, and then to August, 1648. At that time it issued what is known as the " Cam- bridge Platform," which dealt with questions of church organization, doctrine, discipline, fellowship and authority of magistrates over the church. Doctrinally it adopted the Westminster Confession which had just been jointly formulated by Presbyterians 44 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties and Independents in England, and which has been the standard for Presbyterian churches ever since. But it was expressly stated that this doctrinal declaration was " in no way to be made use of as an imposition upon any." The Synod further declared that the churches ought to be subject to the interference of the state, if they swerved in doctrine or administration from the " revealed " standard. The student of Congregationalism will desire to study the provisions of this platform in larger histories. It is sufficient here to say that it was much less democratic than our present convictions. Too little democratic, many even in that time thought it. Democracy was slowly gaining strength. About fifty years later a group of Massa- The Proposals . . . . . , , jTflt chusetts ministers (permanent ministerial associations had begun to appear) adopted some resolutions which are known as the " Proposals of 1705." The most striking feature was the suggestion that the pastors and lay delegates from the churches of a locality should constitute a " standing council," with authority to decide a wide range of matters. The Massa- chusetts churches promptly rejected their proposals, al- though probably a majority of the pastors favored them. _ , , In Connecticut, however, they were re- S od garded with fav n In 17 8 the legisla " ture of that colony directed that repre- sentatives of the churches come together for consultation. This was called the Saybrook Synod. It consisted of twelve ministers and four laymen. The place of meeting was determined by the fact that Yale College was just then beginning at Saybrook. This Synod adopted a Democracy in Church and State 45 platform essentially in agreement with the proposals mentioned in the preceding paragraph. One of its features has peculiar importance in Con- gregational history. The platform provided that the churches of a county should be organized as a " con- sociation." This body was to have much the same power as the presbytery has in the Presbyterian denomination. The arrangement resulted in some difference of type between the church development of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and put the latter in sympathetic relations with the Presbyterians of states further west. With the lapse of years this difference has, in essentials at least, disappeared. The Connecticut churches thus seemed to be Hooker's . . ,, r _ moving away from democracy. We must not, however, hastily conclude that Connecticut is to be counted out of the struggle for the rule of the people. On the contrary one of the most potent forces making for constructive democracy in the nation can be traced to that state. We have already made the ac- quaintance of the clear-headed, vigorous and masterful Thomas Hooker. He had not been long in Hartford before he had the chance to express himself on the sub- ject of democracy. Preaching before the General Court in 1638 he declared, " the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people." "Therefore," said he, " as God has given us liberty, let us take it." This is the " Mayflower Compact " over again. It is not strange that when all the freemen of Con- necticut met the next year to frame a written constitu- tion nothing is said about " dread sovereign " and " gracious king " or other like nonsense. This constitu- tion provided that the governor and council should be 46 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties chosen by majority vote of all the electors. In the colonial assembly there was equality of representation for each township. That is to say, Connecticut was organized on the plan afterward adopted by the nation. John Fiske says, " Thomas Hooker deserves more than any other man to be called the father of American De- mocracy." When the nation's leaders met one hundred and forty years after Hooker's death to fashion a federal republic, they built on the principles he proclaimed and constituted a government of the pattern he believed in. The wisdom of Hooker and his neighbors was built into the fundamental law of the Republic. No wisdom is final. Improvements have been made and will be made upon their thought. But we owe them an immeasurable debt. T . __.. Somewhat later Massachusetts produced a great apostle of democracy rather more radical than Hooker, but not able to secure the prompt adoption of his views in the same way. John Wise was pastor of the church in Ipswich, Massachusetts (his church is now in Essex). In 1710 he wrote a brilliant little book called, " The Churches Quarrel Espoused." It was a defense of democracy in the church as against the " Proposals of 1705" and the "Saybrook Platform." His central proposi- tion was, " Power is originally in the people." From this he went on to say, "If Christ has settled any form of power in his church he has done it for his church's safety and for the benefit of every member. He must needs be presumed to have made choice of that govern- ment as should least expose his people to hazard either from fraud or arbitrary measures of particular men. And it is as plain as daylight, there is no species of government like a democracy to attain this end." Democracy in Church and State 47 Wise, too, has the honor of being " the first conspicu- ous opponent of taxation without representation." His protest against taking the taxing power from the town meeting and giving it to the governor cost him a fine of fifty pounds and suspension from the ministry. He felt it was worth the price. No great stir was made by Wise's books at the time of their publication. But in 1772, when its author had long been dead and the ferment of the Revolution was beginning, two new editions were welcomed in a single year. In the words of Dr. Williston Walker, " The demo- cratic principles which he had declared the essentials of Congregationalism, and which a slowly increasing number had recognized since his day, were the theories which men welcomed in church and state alike." In other words the impulse toward democracy like many other valuable things is found to have a significant connection with a Con- gregational parsonage. Our political freedom and to a large extent the form of our government were the gifts of the church to America and to the world. _,,_., The decades passed. Democratic con- The Outcome . .. ... F , victions steadily grew, helped on by many a force without and within the nation. When at last the cannon on Bunker Hill issued their challenge to King George, all the colonies were ready to support the common cause. Puritan Massachusetts and Episcopal Virginia counselled and prayed and fought side by side^with no consciousness of difference. The struggle was first for liberty as the basis of democ- racy. Later it was for fraternity as the substance of democracy. It is still going on for equality of opportunity as the condition of a real democracy. By and by the goal will be reached. But all the way along we must remember 48 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties our debt to the Puritan and Pilgrim, who worked out the problem for themselves and for us. With them we rejoice in " a church without a bishop and a state without a king." QUESTIONS 1. Tell of the beginnings of democracy in America. 2. How far had the people of early New England a distinct desire for democracy? 3. What stimulated the colonists in their effort toward democracy? 4. Tell something of the early form of church organi- zation. 5. Explain the New England town meeting system of government. 6. What were some of the peculiar features of early church life? What the causes of each? 7. What is meant by " Disestablishment "? 8. What feature of the early churches was thoroughly democratic? 9. Tell about the New England Confederation. 10. What was the Cambridge Synod and what creed did it adopt? 11. Describe the Saybrook Synod and Platform. 12. Discuss Thomas Hooker's relation to American democracy. 13. What part did John Wise play in the growth of democracy? 14. Speak of the outcome of the struggle for democracy. CHAPTER IV NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPANSION _, -^ In the history of America the nineteenth The Dynamic ... * . ., . _ century will always be known as the time of swiftly enlarging life. The foundations had been laid, liberty had been won, and the nation was ready to develop its vast resources. An unnumbered multitude of immigrants crowded in to share the task. Steam and electricity put undreamed of powers in men's hands. Congregationalism was ready to have part in this ex- pansion. The little group of churches founded on the Atlantic sea line had become a vigorous body covering all New England. The strength gained in two hundred years of preparation was to accomplish wonderful results in the next century. We do not know just how many Congrega- tionalists there were in 1800. The statistician was not abroad. But they invested their strength so well that in the century which followed they kept pace with the growth of the nation in all the essentials of achievement. p. , This seems the more remarkable when it TT ., . is remembered that the century began with Umtariamsm ,. . . y * a distinct loss, ror many years Congrega- tionalists had been drifting apart into two theological groups. The cleavage began in the controversy over the " Halfway Covenant." It showed itself in the opposition to revival methods and messages at the time of the "Great 50 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Awakening." There followed a sharp disagreement over the theology of Jonathan Edwards. The two parties came to be known as the Liberals and the Orthodox. Suspicion and dissension were in the air. The question most debated was the divinity of Christ. An increasing number believed Him only the loftiest of created beings. The stormy days of the Revolution and the anxious days of nation building which followed postponed the break. But at last it came. Oddly enough, its beginning was not among the Congregationalists, but in the feeble company of Episcopal churches then found in New England. In 1787 King's Chapel, an Episcopal church in Boston, de- clared itself no longer a believer in the Deity of Christ. In the same year a Boston Congregational pastor published a hymn book from which all recognition of the Trinity, or the Deity of Christ, was excluded. In 1801 the Old Pilgrim Church at Plymouth became Unitarian, a portion of its members withdrawing to found a Congregational church. It was a heavy blow to Congregationalists that this church, the first of their churches established, should be the first to withdraw from their fellowship. From this time on one church after another passed over to Unitarianism until there were three score or more in eastern Massachusetts. In Boston only two churches (the Old South and Charles- town) remained in the Congregational body. This rapid growth was not duplicated in other parts of the country. Down to the present time Unitarianism has little strength outside the locality where it began. It is not possible in this brief history How it Happened . , .. , , A , to give a detailed account of the nature and causes of this unhappy division. It should, however, be clearly understood that there was not at the outset any desire or purpose to form a new denomination. Even the Nineteenth Century Expansion 51 name " Unitarian " was distasteful to the early Liberals, because in England it was used by a type of semi-infidel thought widely different from their own reverent attitude toward the Scriptures and toward Christ. They accepted the name only when at last it became evident that there must be a break and that they must adopt some distinctive title. It should also be noted that the Unitarian protest was not solely concerning the deity of Christ. They also ob- jected, and quite as strenuously, to the rigid Calvinism common in the New England of that time, with its views about depravity, atonement, salvation, heaven and hell. In other words, it was a contest between two widely different modes of thinking. Very few churches went over bodily to Unitarianism. Ordinarily a minority remained Congregationalists and founded another church. Sometimes, odd as it seems, the majority of the church desired to continue in the Congre- gational way but were forced out. The explanation is found in the fact that all the churches of that time had a double organization, the " church " and the " society." The latter was the legal corporation and the courts decided that it had the right to say whether the church should be Unitarian or Congregational. The church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was an illus- tration of the working of this principle. Its pastor, Rev. Abiel Holmes (father of Oliver Wendell Holmes), was a Congregationalist of the most orthodox type. His con- gregation gradually became Unitarian. Finally the " so- ciety " held a meeting and voted that he was no longer their pastor. Then the " church " met and decided by a small majority that he was still their pastor. None the less the church and its pastor had to move out of their house of 52 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties worship. They took with them the communion set and some money which had been raised for the poor. But by order of court these had to be returned! Those were certainly strenuous times. ,. - , Very early in those sad days of controversy __ , there arose the question who should control Harvard College. Naturally there was in- tense interest in the matter, for the college was not only profoundly important to the churches but the object of warmest affection. In 1805, after a long struggle, the liberals elected their candidate to the chair of theology. This, of course, settled the question. The loss of Harvard was the immediate cause of the establishment in 1808 of the well-endowed and vigorously manned theological semi- nary at Andover the first school of its sort in the land, and which became a force of incalculable value. Very soon Andover was sending out " fifty or sixty recruits each year for the evangelical ministry so trained and equipped for their work as never young ministers had been before since the apostolic era." It was a great advance over the old custom by which a minister was trained in a sort of apprenticeship through serving as assistant to some dis- tinguished pastor. The same new energy and unity among Congregationalists which caused the founding of Andover resulted in 1821 in the establishing of Amherst College, which for many decades was to furnish no small portion of their leaders. ^ , _ In due succession other theological her Seminaries schools sprang up . !n i 8 16 the semi- nary soon to be located at Bangor was started at Hampden, Maine. Bangor has always been of special service to men not fully equipped in collegiate preparation. In 1822 Yale Nineteenth Century Expansion 53 Divinity School was organized under the leadership of Nathaniel W. Taylor, creator of " The New Haven The- ology." In 1834 the followers of Edwards established at East Windsor, Connecticut, the beginnings of the present Hartford Seminary Foundation. The founding of Oberlin Seminary in 1835 was due to the increasing discussion of the slavery question. Charles G. Finney, then pastor of Broadway Tabernacle, New York, was secured as leader. James H. Fairchild later made distinguished contribution to its life. In 1858 Chicago Theological Seminary the first seminary in that city was established by the enterprise and loyalty of the churches and pastors of the Middle West. The Seminary is now affiliated with the University of Chicago, near which its new quarters are located. As early as 1869 the needs of the Pacific Coast were met by the Pacific Theological Seminary, now located at Berkeley, California. Since 1901 those of the South have been similarly served by the Seminary at Atlanta, Georgia. From the outset the New England theo- The Missionary . . _-. . logians were a great deal more than mere intellectual disputants. In the very midst of the controversy just described, at least a part of the Congregational churches were beginning to catch a vision of an entire world to be evangelized. Three great undertakings prove the growing power and the living faith of our fathers, viz., the beginnings of foreign missions, the advancing frontier of home missions, and the work under- taken for the belated races of the South and West. p. j- t xi- Let it never be forgotten that the foreign Founding of the . . . , , . . . 6 . *'_j , missionary enterprise had its beginnings American Board .., , c ,, , , , , not in the wisdom of the church leaders, but in the indomitable faith of a few college boys. In 1806 54 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Samuel J. Mills, with four other students of Williams College, formed a little society called, " The Brethren," with the avowed purpose of personally under- taking a " Mission or Missions to the Heathen." This historic band, together with a few other earnest Christian students, were accustomed to meet for prayer and discussion in a grove near the college. On one of these occa sions a violent thunder-storm arising, they took shelter under a haystack in a nearby meadow, and there the great decision was made. " The Haystack Prayer Meeting," as the birth-place of American foreign missions, is now known throughout the Christian world. On graduating from Williams this little group of volun- teers went to Andover where three men from other colleges were added to their circle. After seeking counsel from faculty and ministerial friends, four of this band presented a memorial to the General Association of Massachusetts, asking for counsel and support in their enterprise. The leading spirit was Adoniram Judson, afterwards to have so great a place among the pioneers of foreign missions. The others were Samuel Nott, Samuel J. Mills and Samuel Newell. It was thought prudent not to have a larger number sign the petition for fear the churches would be frightened over the magnitude of the enterprise. As a result, in 1810 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was duly constituted and the enter- prise was launched. In 1812 a bequest of $30,000 made it possible for five of the Andover group to be sent to India. These were: Adoniram Judson, Gordon Hall, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Luther Rice. On the voyage out Judson and Rice became converted to Baptist views, with the result that they returned to America and appealed to the Baptist denomination to send them to Burma. Under Nineteenth Century Expansion 55 their persuasion the Baptists fell into line and in 1814 organized their foreign board. It is quite futile to try to crowd into a Its Remarkable , 111- e . few paragraphs the history of so colossal an undertaking as that of the American Board. Its beginnings were as romantic as fiction; its missionaries have had courage and faith truly apostolic; its achievements are astounding. Like the Pilgrims of old, the bearers of the evangel to other lands have been human, but with them there has been superhuman wisdom over- ruling their mistakes. Some work was begun only to be abandoned. Some missions were eventually transferred to other agencies, Congregational or connected with other denominations. As off-shoots of the Board two other great foreign mis- sionary societies were organized, the boards of the Presby- terian and Reformed (Dutch) denominations; so that, directly or indirectly, the American Board became the parent of all the American foreign missionary societies. In this connection, however, it should be noted that Moravian missionaries had gone out from America, under the auspices of a European society, before the American Board was started. From the prudent and cautious beginnings of only a little over a century ago the Board has developed to a point where its annual income exceeds eleven hundred thousand dollars, and its credit and name stand high in every quarter of the globe. _ , The transformation of the Hawaiian race, An Established , .. . , r . ~ , w , the political ferment in 1 urkey, the noble progress among the Armenians which makes their present dire calamity doubly tragic, the estab- lishing of a great self-governing and self-supporting native church in Japan, the slow emerging of China from her 56 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties age-long sleep, despite the horror of the Boxer outbreak, the uplifting of large sections of the African races and also of the islands of the Pacific, the steady siege of the degrading citadel of caste in India, where for twenty years more mis- sionaries died than converts were made, the attempt to bring something of the spirit of free religion into Mexico, Spain and Austria labors like these have been per- formed with apostolic patience, fervor and courage, yet with a statesmanship that has challenged admiration from traveler and diplomat. A generation ago it was thought that the theological standards of that time must be scrupu- lously maintained lest the " nerve of missions " be cut. Suitable adjustments, however, were made, and never was the work of the Board so firmly established, never did it receive more eager and able recruits than today. T* iv/r * i A While fundamentally an evangelistic agency, Its JVLaniiolcl . , , 11-1 r experience has demonstrated the wisdom of uplifting pagan civilizations at every possible point. The American Board is now in one of its aspects a vast educational foundation, with schools of many sorts in many lands theological seminaries, high grade colleges, normal, grammar and primary schools, kindergartens, industrial schools and other institutions as special needs may require. Its pupils reach a total of over eighty thousand, an impressive fact. Fourscore hospitals and dispensaries stand beside the church and school, with their record of 380,000 treatments each year. The gospel of good health and the ministry of healing are being proclaimed in the effective language of good deeds. For many a race, Congregational missionaries have created a written language, from grammars to Bibles. Presses have been founded ; literature of all kinds books, magazines, papers, pamphlets have been circulated in Nineteenth Century Expansion 57 bewildering array. Chief, of course, among these labors has been the circulation of the Scriptures, a task in which the Bible Societies have given indispensable and hearty cooperation. One of the conspicuous marks of the wisdom of the Board has been its development everywhere of an educated native ministry and its relinquishment of ecclesi- astical control as rapidly as possible into the hands of the resident body. To use President Edward C. Moore's pregnant phrase, its policy has been that of " the naturali- zation of Christianity " in the non-Christian world. Not without its difficulties, this policy has established itself as one of sound missionary procedure, widely recognized and adopted by other boards. The American Board from the first has been a leader in missionary strategy and the development of a true science of missions. In every field, moreover, our missionaries are leading in movements toward union and cooperation. In days like this, when mission lands are caught in the throes of a world war, no leaders anywhere are more dauntless than those who in many crises in the past have proved the irresistibleness of the oncoming Kingdom. Its foreign mis- sionary successes have doubtless been Congregationalism's proudest achievement. T, . , But such a tremendous advance on the Beginnings of tt , a , . ,. ,, f , ,, ,.. . far-flung battle-line could not have Home Missions , , . , ,. been made without a corresponding broadening of the " Home Base." The Connecticut General Association was discussing the needs of the " settle- ments to the westward and northwestward " before the days of 76. In 1793 nine pastors were sent out into what was then the frontier, viz. Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. The Connecticut Missionary Society was organized in 1798, the Massachusetts Society in 1799, 58 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Every state in New England had organized a missionary society before the war of 1812. TV, 'ivr *u The nex t step was to begin the planting me iiortnwest ,. , . . , e . . , ., of churches in the great region from Ohio westward, then called " The Northwest Territory." It will be worth while to digress at this point and note that a Congregational minister named Manasseh Cutler, who organized a colony which settled at Marietta, Ohio, very soon after the Revolution, was an influential factor in framing the " Ordinance of 1787 " by which the " Northwest Territory " was constituted. It is also signif- icant and entirely natural that in that Ordinance should be written sentences like the following: " No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religious sentiments, in the said territory." " Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Nor are we surprised to learn that the Ordinance, thus shaped in line with Congregational convictions, prohibited slavery in the territory covered. A modern historian has said, " Next to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, no early event in Ameri- can history is more significant or far-reaching in its influ- ence than the famous Ordinance of 1787. It is not too much to claim that this Ordinance was the birth of nationalism." The same impulse which had sent A National Home . . __. . . missionaries across the seas resulted Missionary Society also }n pushing ^ church Qut into the Nineteenth Century Expansion 59 Northwest Territory and the regions beyond. Samuel J. Mills, one of the Andover Band, prevented from going to India with his companions, threw himself with great ardor into work on the frontier. As a representative of the Connecticut and Massachusetts home missionary organiza- tions he investigated conditions over wide areas of the West. One tour took him as far to the southwest as New Orleans and a second to St. Louis, where in 1814, he preached the first Protestant sermon delivered west of the Mississippi. Finally in 1826 the American Home Missionary Society was formed for the purpose of nationalizing the home missionary undertaking. This organization was at first interdenominational, but as time went on other participat- ing denominations withdrew and in 1896 its name was changed to the Congregational Home Missionary Society. In its ninety years of work it has expended almost $30,000,000 for the evangelizing of America. . , In 1834, at a cost of $600, the first house of . . worship was erected at Fort Dearborn, then LngS a village of 300, now the city of Chicago. It was twenty-nine below zero on the January day when the building was first used. In 1829 a group of Yale students had formed the " Illinois Band." Going out on their journey to that state, which took them then from four to six weeks, they were provided with outfits and guaranteed a salary of $400 each. Illinois College at Jacksonville and the labors of J. M. Sturtevant are part of their monument. John D. Pierce, commissioned in 1831 as a home missionary for Michigan, became the first superintendent of public instruction for the new commonwealth. So wisely did he plan, and so successful was the Michigan model, with its famous state university, that it has been widely followed by all the newer states. 60 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties T , T . . Little did Napoleon know what he was me Louisiana ^ when in lg()3 he tQok Purchase , ,, lt T . . , ,, . * . for the Louisiana Purchase, containing the major part of the nation west of the Mississippi River. It opened a vast field for home missionary effort. It was not long before Congregationalists entered it. Early in the forties Horace Hutchinson said one day to a group of fellow-students at Andover, " If we could only go out and take possession of some field where we could have the ground and work together, what a grand thing it would be! " The autumn of 1843 found " The Iowa Band " at Den- mark, Iowa, receiving ordination on the field, though there were more parts in the ceremony than there were ordained men available to take them. Their dream was, "If each one of us can only plant one good and permanent church and all together build a college, what a work that will be! " Enthusiasm, hard work, devotion and states- manship made the dream come true. The two hundred and eighty-six Iowa Congregational churches with thirty- eight thousand members and Iowa College at Grinnell are its fulfillment. In 1854-5 the Kansas Emigration Company despatched ten emigrant colonies numbering fifteen hundred people with equipment worth $150,000 " for the planting of free labor towns in Kansas." This and similar efforts led to the rejection at the polls in 1858 of the proposed slavery con- stitution for the new state. In 1856 an "Andover- Kansas Band" was organized to help evangelize free Kansas. Reuben Gaylord, who with Asa Turner in Illinois, had prepared the way for the " Iowa Band " and had helped plan Iowa College, was later commissioned for heroic service in Omaha, Nebraska. His salary for the first year was less than half the cost of maintaining his family. Nineteenth Century Expansion 61 In 1868 Joseph Ward graduated from Andover and with the cordial consent of his helpmeet chose Yankton, South Dakota, as " the opening calling for the hardest work." Of him an Episcopal governor said, " Ward has more influence than any other man in this territory! " It was he that was responsible for the clean statehood achieved by South Dakota, and for Yankton College. Of the " Yale-Dakota Band " that built on his foundations, it is interesting to note that only two men were from New England. The frontier had begun to give of her sons for the farther west. The first Congregational church in Colorado was organized in 1863. Although his labors were cut short by a fatal accident at the end of only eighteen months, the service of Joseph Pickett, appointed first missionary superintendent in 1878, was sufficiently noteworthy to stamp the mark of his personality on the beginnings of the state. Such are some of the heroisms, taken almost at random, from the crowded missionary records of the states carved out of the " Louisiana Purchase." story ^ Marcus Whitman is among the Th C t s hero tales of America. He went overland in 1836 as a missionary of the American Board to the Indians in what is now the state of Washington, then part of Oregon. Presently, it developed that the British were planning to settle in that region and get possession. At the beginning of the winter of 1842-3 Whitman mounted his horse, and in defiance of the perils of winter storms, the lonely desert, and hostile Indians, rode southward across Idaho and Utah into Arizona, eastward across New Mexico, on to St. Louis and, at last to Washington to tell the Presi- dent how enormously valuable was that great Oregon area and how imperative the necessity of taking steps to hold it. We do not certainly know just how much his influence 62 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties had to do with the result, but we know that soon after measures were adopted to retain possession of Oregon. That long, lonely, perilous ride will stand forever as one of the great offerings on the altar of patriotism. A few years later Whitman and thirteen other members of the mission were murdered by the Indians whom they had been trying to serve. The Pilgrim who founded his tiny republic at Plymouth little realized that some day his descendants would attempt to evangelize a state so vast as California. We all remem- ber that the gold rush came in '49; we may not realize that a Congregational periodical was established on our western coast in 1853. No wonder that so great a domain boasts two Conferences of Congregational Churches. T . The story of home missions in the West ought Immigrant , , , r i * . also to include some account of the work in opulent Minnesota, mighty Montana and the newer states like Oklahoma. Space forbids more than the barest mention of the peculiarly difficult task courageously undertaken and sacrificially pursued in Utah in the effort to counteract the dangerous influence of Mormonism. Only a word can be said about the South. Congregationalism was practically unknown there before the Civil War. Since then it has been increasingly perceived that it is our duty to bear a share in the religious care of that great section of the nation. The Home Missionary Society has been steadily extending its work until there are over two hundred and fifty Congregational churches among the white popu- lation in the South. During the last quarter of a century effort has been put forth to meet the tremendous problem of immigrant life. There are nearly eight hundred churches and missions among immigrant people maintained by the Congregational Nineteenth Century Expansion 63 churches. Twenty-three languages are used in these missions. Certain training schools such as the Chicago Seminary Institutes, the Schauffler Memorial School and the Oberlin Slavic Institute provide leaders for this work. In these last days not only has the flag taken us to Alaska, Porto Rico and the Philippines, but in the heart of New England we have found the foreigner inhabiting the home- stead of the Puritan, and the city of which Winthrop was governor a citadel of Irish Catholicism. While the New Englander with his " indestructible and aggressive energy " has been making his way across the continent, leaving his colonial names as guide-posts to show the direction of his migration, he has found it necessary to redouble his efforts in the region where he first settled. The churches of New England are making a brave and successful effort to main- tain their strength and to reach a helping hand to the new- comers about them. _>, . But before Congregationalism had estab- The American ,. , , . ., ,,. . hshed itself on the western coast, new Missionary , f , , . . . ,., , \ . . ,. problems had arisen in the life of the re- Association , ,. . . , , . , public which demanded new agencies to meet them. In the earlier days of the anti-slavery agitation the American Board felt that it had a definite mission to perform, and that the question of the emancipation of the American negro was not one on which it should take ground in advance of public opinion. This non-committal attitude was distinctly unsatisfactory to some. Failing to alter the Board's stand on a matter which seemed to them not to be evaded, these objectors withdrew in a friendly fashion to form in 1846 the American Missionary Association. -rj.tr j At first the Association's work was largely in Its Varied r . , , A A < j w . foreign lands. An African mission was under- taken but was later transferred to the United 64 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Brethren. Other missions were maintained in the Sandwich Islands, in the West Indies and in Siam. Work among the American Indians was undertaken early and still persists. In the course of time the Association has come to regard as its special field all the backward peoples under the flag except the Filipinos among whom the American Board is working. These are such as the Es- quimaux, the Porto Ricans, the Orientals in America, the Mountaineers of the Southern Appalachians, and the Negroes. By recent transfers of work the Association will assume the mission schools among Cubans and Mexicans in the United States. Four schools in Utah will also be under its care. The particular field in which this organization has done most conspicuous service was thrust upon it as a result of its persistent opposition to slavery. Before the war a few institutions had been founded. Behind the advancing armies the missionary pressed steadily into the South, at first on a mission of relief to the fugitive negro, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation but left destitute, later in the slow task of educating and uplifting a race but a few decades out of savagery. Alert to seize every opportunity, not sectarian in origin nor in the aim of its work, the American Missionary Asso- ciation has carried on an enterprise which has required strong leaders, courageous workers and loyal supporters. That it was able to plan large things was due at the outset to the action of the National Council of 1865 commending to the churches the raising of a fund of $250,000 for the task presented at the close of the war. Some of the achievements of the Association are to be seen in the founding of Hampton Institute and the work of General Armstrong, in the consecrated leadership of such Nineteenth Century Expansion 65 a man as Arthur Tappan, in splendid institutions like Fisk, Talladega, Straight and Tougaloo, in all the varied results made possible through the generous gifts of the living augmented by notable legacies, of which the Daniel Hand Fund of nearly two million dollars stands preeminent. w True to type, Congregationalism, as it spread p .. westward, preached resolutely the gospel of ^ education. When in the spring of 1788 a com- pany of forty-eight New Englanders left their barge, " The Mayflower," on which they had sailed six days down the Ohio river, to land at Marietta, they were typical of many a company of Congregational pioneers. Disciplined by the life of the army of the Revolution, self-respecting and respecting each other, law-abiding, reverent, patriotic, dauntless, frugal, they duplicated in new scenes what was best in New England. One of their first steps was to set apart one piece of land as a parsonage lot and two townships for a college. This school, known as Marietta College, has had a fruitful history. Oberlin was founded in 1833 by a Presbyterian pastor and a friend who had been a missionary of the American Board to the Indians. Charles G. Finney soon became its president and gave it the Congregational stamp it still bears. Olivet and Tabor are children of Oberlin. The same spirit which founded Bowdoin and Middlebury, later established Beloit and Ripon, Washburn and Carleton, Rollins and Pomona, Howard and Atlanta, Doane and Drury, Colorado and Whitman and many others. It is perhaps less widely recognized that Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley, conspicuous among colleges for women, were from their beginnings in close relations with Congrega- tionalism. Throughout the century under review the denomination 66 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties has expressed its educational interest in a national way through the Congregational Education Society. Organized in 1816 under the name, "American Education Society," it has founded or fostered scores of colleges and academies, at the same time aiding thousands of young men to enter the ministry. _, , T No record of nineteenth century Con- Great Leaders . ,. , , . ,. , , , gregationahsm, however brief, would be complete without mention of a few of its great leaders. As a theologian, Edwards A. Park of Andover might be men- tioned, as evangelists, Finney and Moody, as educators, Mark Hopkins and Timothy Dwight. On the foreign field one would have to include such statesmen as Cyrus Hamlin, who could bake bread for an army or establish a Robert College, and Joseph Hardy Neesima, the fugitive Japanese boy befriended by a Congregational merchant, founder of the Doshisha University in Tokio. Perhaps Beecher and Bushnell loom as large and as typical as any leaders in the homeland. Henry Ward Beecher, America's greatest pulpit orator and one of the greatest preachers of any age, was for forty years (1847 to his death in 1887) the pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. An ardent foe of slavery, a fearless and brilliant champion of the Union, editor of " The Independent," founder of " The Christian Union," he was preeminently a preacher. With his sermons were published, also, his noteworthy "Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit"; and his Yale Lectures on Preaching are among the classics of that brilliant series. The year that Beecher went to Plymouth Church, Horace Bushnell of Hartford, Connecticut, published a little volume on " Christian Nurture." It consisted of two discourses which had at first been unanimously accepted for publi- Nineteenth Century Expansion 67 cation by the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, but were later rejected, with the result that their author published them privately. Through the stormy dis- cussion which followed the publication of this book and others from his pen, Bushnell's church stood loyally with him. Bushnell lived to see his community con- spicuously beautified through his civic labors, and to find himself recognized as " the first citizen of Hartford." His views have been widely accepted by Congregational churches and have had extraordinary influence on the movement of theological thought. p, . . As a by-product of Congregationalism, we may count the whole modern movement among Endeavor _, , ~, , . Protestant young people. Taking its rise m the definite needs of a single parish, Williston Church, Portland, Maine, and the fertile brain and big heart of its beloved founder, " Father Endeavor " Clark, the Christian Endeavor Movement has spread to every corner of the globe. It was from the first interdenominational and has proven adapted to communions of nearly every type. From it have sprung various other strictly denominational agencies for young people which have proven a blessing to sister denominations. ,. TT . Such a brief sketch of a century of growth The Heritage . . f , . , can give only the crudest suggestion ot the rich life here briefly recorded. As the Pilgrims needed hardihood on that bleak coast, so the pioneers on the western frontier and on the far foreign field have needed a glimpse of " the vision splendid," and a high, undaunted courage. To read the record of these years in any detail is to realize anew the debt of the present to the past, and to honor our fathers for their splendid investment of that religious 68 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties heritage which they received from the forefathers. To open the continent in a century, to circle the globe with truth and righteousness and good-will, to ennoble the life of an entire nation, and to hold out a helping hand to the ignorant and the downtrodden all around the globe such an achievement puts upon us of today an exacting obligation. If the college boys of the early nineteenth century could establish enterprises of such astounding moment, what will the young people of the twentieth century dare to dream and resolve to accomplish? QUESTIONS 1. From a Congregational point of view why is the Nineteenth Century " a wonderful century "? 2. Describe briefly the rise of Unitarianism. 3. Explain the system of " double organization " known as " church " and " society " and how it worked in the Unitarian controversy. 4. What was the name of the first Theological Seminary organized? 5. Give name and date of organization of other im- portant educational institutions. 6. What other great motive stood alongside the educational ideal? 7. What is the name of the first foreign missionary organization in America? 8. When and how was the American Board founded? 9. Name some of the principal countries in which it is at work. 10. State briefly the outstanding features of its work. 11. Tell of the beginnings of Home Missions. Nineteenth Century Expansion 69 12. What part did Congregationalism play in the settlement of what was then known as " The Northwest Territory "? 13. What is the Congregational Home Missionary Society and what led to its organization? 14. Speak of its beginnings. 15. What effect did the Louisiana Purchase have on Home Mission work? 16. What was the " Iowa Band "? 17. Give an outline of Marcus Whitman's life. 18. Indicate the nature and extent of Congregational work among immigrant people. 19. Describe the origin and work of the American Missionary Association. 20. Name some of the colleges founded under Con- gregational auspices. 21. Who was Horace Bushnell and what the nature of his influence? 22. Describe Henry Ward Beecher's place in the history of American Christianity. 23. When and by whom was the Christian Endeavor movement started? 24. What was the result of the " Heritage Invested "? CHAPTER V ADJUSTMENT TO CHANGING NEEDS r nt When Congregationalism was about two , A , , hundred years old that is to say of Adjustment ^ ^ ^ Qf ^ first ^ rf ^ nineteenth century there began an era full of changes swift and profound in all departments of life. We cannot stop to describe them except as they have had bearing on the life of the church. But those bearings have been many. It has been a time of crisis, full of danger and full of possi- bilities. Courage and faith have been constantly needed. Congregationalism, like every living denomination, has been compelled to adjust itself rapidly to new conditions. Because it has so much of the progressive spirit it has had to face the demand of these conditions in a more distinct way than most other denominations. _. . This era was first obliged to meet a great ques- Q . tion of public morals the slavery issue. Congregationalists in early New England had to some degree been slaveholders as we have seen. But slavery died out in New England, doubtless partly because it proved unprofitable, partly because conscience began to awaken in the matter. And when one hundred years ago the fight was fairly on, Congregationalists almost without exception were on the anti-slavery side. Back in 1791 the younger Jonathan Edwards preached on " The Impolicy and Injustice of the Slave Trade." This sounds to us rather Adjustment to Changing Needs 71 mild, but it shows the movement of thought. The " Pano- plist," a Congregational paper published in Boston, was outspoken in its fight against slavery. Oberlin College was founded in 1833 and arrested the attention of all thoughtful people, by admitting not only both sexes but all races. The American Missionary Asso- ciation came into existence in 1846 as a protest against slavery. In 1848 the New York "Independent" was founded with leading Congregationalists like Leonard Bacon and Henry Ward Beecher in control. It began to fight slavery from its first issue. About this time Beecher in a famous address flayed the American Tract Society for its refusal to circulate anti-slavery literature. In 1852 the Albany Convention of Congregational churches went on record as opposed to the " stupendous wrong of human slavery." To such happenings we must add also "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a book evidently somewhat Congregational in its back- grounds, for its author's father, husband, brothers, uncles and son were all Congregational ministers! Broadly speaking, the denomination was ready to follow this leadership, although of course there were many search- ings of heart and sharp differences of judgment as to almost every aspect of the case. T , The Unitarian controversy which came Intellectual . . , . ,, , ,. . . , _, ,. just before the era under discussion quick- Readjustment J , ., , i ^ ened thought on theological questions. But its most conspicuous immediate effect upon Con- gregationalists was to cause them to draw together in de- fense of the historic faith. The period of intellectual exploration and wide readjustment of thought was to come later. The most conspicuous factor in bringing about such readjustment was the theory of evolution. Formulated 72 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties some sixty years ago by Darwin and others, it was at first regarded in most quarters with aversion. Little by little it won its way among thoughtful men. At length it reached the place of pervasive influence it holds today. This does not mean that men of sound judgment are inclined to assert that in the evolutionary theory we have the final word as to the history of our planet. It simply means that they regard it as furnishing the key which is to open to us wide realms of knowledge hitherto closed. Along with evolution came a transformation in methods of historic inquiry. All the story of man's past was sub- jected to merciless re-examination. A new and resolute effort was made to separate legend from fact, and to perceive the meaning of the facts. As a part of this process ancient literatures, including the Bible, were critically studied. Their nature and value were freshly appraised. Traditional views were put to the historical test. A new science of literary criticism was created. These and lesser intellectual movements of the last century had an immediate and profound influence upon religious thought. The period from 1870 to 1900, especially, was full of intense study and warm discussion of the issues raised. Previous eras of debate had been quite as heated. But in no era had men's thoughts ranged so wide a field or dealt with matters so fundamental. Congregationalists naturally were among the first to face the questions thus brought to the front. Sharp antagonisms of opinion appeared. Not a little bewilderment and anxiety was felt. Fortunately the flexible polity of Con- gregationalism makes possible wide disagreement without cleavage. Moreover, three hundred years of history marked by freedom and fellowship have made for breadth of vision. We had been learning during all those years Adjustment to Changing Needs 73 that the less the compulsion the more the agreement. So Congregationalism came through the period of debate without serious strain or loss. Today our Congregational churches are to a remarkable degree united in their attitude toward the modern move- ment of thought, and in their emphasis on intellectual freedom. Varying widely in their views of one aspect and another of the faith of the Gospel, they are at one in their desire to maintain unity of spiritual purpose and fidelity to evangelical truth. Increasingly it is perceived that no method or kind of scholarly inquiry honestly pursued can imperil the Christian faith. Everything that men can find out about God's world or His Word will help to understand Him. Thus we have come to see something of the oneness of truth and the way part fits into part. The future history of the Protes- tant Church will be one of ever closer alliance with the intellectual forces of the world. In bringing this to pass Congregationalism has had an honorable place of leadership. TU q 1 Beginning a little later than the process just . , . described came one of the greatest experiences in the history of the Church of Christ. Her eyes were opened to see that the Gospel which we proclaim has just as real a message of salvation for society as it has for the individual. This sounds harmless, but enough dynamic has proven to be in it to revolutionize the church's program. The process is still on, so no one can assume to describe it fully. But there is no longer among thoughtful people any room for debate on the main proposition. Right relationships between men, just and brotherly, educational, industrial and political conditions are agreed to be things for which the church is responsible, as truly as for leading individual men to accept Jesus Christ as 74 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties their Saviour from weakness and sin. It ought to be said at this point that the church has from the beginning had in one measure or another a consciousness of her social obligation. That which is new is the clearing of her vision and the enormous extension of the recognized field of obligation. Great things have been happening in our land and time as the result of the clearer social vision of Christians. All Christendom is interwoven with a network of philanthropies. The care of defectives, delinquents and criminals has become a science ardently followed in a spirit made up of warmth of devotion and cool common sense. The ways of politics have been cleansed alas, not completely but so far that the grosser forms of corruption are largely stamped out, the spoils system is dying, and the spirit of service grows steadily more prevalent. The light has been turned on the world of industry. Year by year the child toilers grow fewer; the destruction of life by dangerous machines, inhuman hours, and unsanitary conditions is reduced. If peace has not come between employer and employee, it is no longer because the Church of Christ is unconcerned. Tens of thousands of men and women are praying over the problem as well as working at it. _ , Great reforms have been effected. Public gambling has nearly disappeared. The " social evil " has been conspicuously reduced. The saloon has been driven from the sight of half the people of the United States. There is state-wide prohibition in nineteen states. Before long we shall have a saloonless nation. The moral meanings of property are under the microscope now. We no longer think that we have a right to spend what we will on ourselves if we get it honestly. We are making more searching definitions of " honesty " year by Adjustment to Changing Needs 75 year. The problem of a fairer distribution of material possessions is much in our thoughts. We are growingly sure that neither luxury nor poverty can have place in a Christian social order. In these and countless other ways the Church of Christ is beginning to realize the meaning of " the new heavens and the new earth " of which John wrote. Of course, it is only a beginning. It makes one sick at heart to think of the remains of animalism and paganism in human lives and human society. But we have made a brave start. We have at last possessed ourselves of a fully rounded message and faced our whole task. We will finish the task by and by through God's grace. Congregationalism has had a distinguished share in this process. Through her gifted men she has helped to think out the problems of the new social order. She has furnished leadership in attacking them. Her churches have in many cases made themselves strongly felt in their communities on behalf of decency and justice and fairness and fraternity. When one thinks of such socially minded Congregationalists as Josiah Strong and Samuel B. Capen and William Hayes Ward and Charles M. Sheldon and Washington Gladden and Lyman Abbott and Graham Taylor and a host of others, he gives thanks and takes new courage. Congregationalism is ready for the new and greater social era ahead. ^ To get the drift of the conviction of Con- Certain Key s . .. . . . pj- f ' gregationalists on social matters one needs only to turn the pages which record the resolutions and utterances of their national meetings. Back in 1865, at their National Council meeting on Burial Hill at Plymouth, they declared that our Puritan fathers applied the principles of the Gospel " to elevate society, to regulate education, to civilize humanity, to purify law, to reform the church and state, and to assert and 76 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties defend liberty in short, to mold and redeem by its all- transforming energy everything that belongs to man in his individual and social relations." They certainly did do just that and the Puritans of today are trying to do the same thing. In 1913 the National Council at a meeting in Kansas City adopted a new creed. It is not an official creed. It has no binding force on anyone except the people who voted for it and those who adopt it. Congregationalists do not believe that anyone needs to be told what he believes! But it represents beyond doubt the general thought of the denomination. In that creed it is declared to be the busi- ness of the Church of Christ to " labor for the promotion of justice, the reign of peace and the realization of human brotherhood ... to work and pray for the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of God." Like utterances can be found scattered all the way along between 1865 and 1913, each year witnessing a growth in social grasp. The Congregational churches stand squarely committed to a definite gospel of human brotherhood resulting in political equality, economic justice, international good-will, and progress in all that makes life sane and sweet. . _ ,, , Pastor John Robinson in an oft-quoted A Curious Modesty , , , , . ^ , , phrase told his people that God has " more truth and light yet to break forth from His holy Word." It was a beautiful saying. One could wish that a good many more people had said it and meant it. It is a happy thing that in so large degree Congregationalists have possessed the spirit of this utterance. But being men and women of mortal clay they have not always made a perfect success of putting the principle into practice. In this period of setting forces in order for progress they found it necessary to correct a strong but mistaken tendency. It is called in Adjustment to Changing Needs 77 the heading of this paragraph " a curious modesty." Congregationalists were so determined not to be guilty of sectarian zeal nor to put on any ecclesiastical airs, that they fell into a way of excessive deference to other forms of church organization, and a corresponding lack of aggressive- ness in extending their own influence and developing their own life. For instance, it was stoutly believed by the New England churches up to the middle of the last century, and by some of them a long while after, that the Congregational polity would not work in the newer settlements of the West. This belief has been facetiously described as teaching that " Congregationalism is a river rising in New England and emptying south and west into Presbyterianism." The allusion is to an arrangement between Presbyterians and Congregationalists known as " The Plan of Union " by which pioneer churches in New York, Ohio and further west, belonging to either body, might, by certain arrange- ments which need not be described here, have a relation to both bodies. It was an innocent looking agreement and was the expression of a most admirable and sincere friend- ship between the contracting parties. But the centers of Presbyterianism were much nearer the territory in question and their denominational spirit was strong. Quite in- evitably, therefore, the majority of the " Plan of Union " churches became Presbyterian. They could hardly be expected to believe in Congregationalism for themselves if their supporters in New England did not believe in it for them. Finally we " came to ourselves." A convention was called in 1852 at Albany, New York. It took up for con- sideration the problem of western work. It decided that the Congregational churches of the West were doing ex- 78 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties ceedingly well and ought to be encouraged. It voted to withdraw from the "Plan of Union." It issued an appeal for a fund of $50,000 to aid in building western churches. This fund was promptly oversubscribed. It resulted in establish- ing the " Church Building Society " with its history of marked achievement. The whole atmosphere of the denomination was changed by this convention. Whoever thought of calling it was a far-visioned man. Of course, the cure of morbid modesty was not immediate and entire. But Congregationalism as a whole, from the time of the Albany Convention, came into an increasing consciousness of its validity and power. _. . Having turned the corner it became rela- Internal . . , , . , ,. . , . . tively easy for the churches to live in the spirit of John Robinson's word and to in- corporate into their thoughts and plans the " more light " which was coming to them. They had long had state organizations for fellowship and for considering matters of common interest. Now it was perceived that they needed some sort of national bond. So in 1865 a national meeting was called at Boston, some of its sessions being held at Plymouth as already noted. A committee was appointed to report at a future meeting. In 1871 they called a meeting at Oberlin, Ohio, at which the permanent organiz- ation of a National Council was effected. Subsequent sessions were held every three years until 1913. The Council now meets biennially. Another illustration of adjustment to new conditions is found in the matter of the ministry. The early idea was that one became a minister by being ordained and installed as a pastor of a church. When he ceased to be such he ceased to be a minister. There are some things to be said for this view, but so many more things to be said against Adjustment to Changing Needs 79 it that it has been abandoned. A minister is now ordained by a " Council " or " District Association," then joins the Association and remains a minister as long as he lives, unless by his own choice or by act of the Association his name is taken from the rolls. If he removes from one Association to another he secures a letter of transfer. As time went on and the churches of the Congregational order spread over the entire country, it came to be felt that their unity and strength would be promoted if larger service were expected of national representatives. No one knew just how to get at it until in 1901 the late Rev. Dr. Amory H. Bradford of New Jersey, being chosen moderator of the Council, announced his purpose to give a large share of his three years' term to speaking and writing in the interest of the churches of the nation. Considerable alarm was felt. Were we to have a full-fledged archbishop thrust upon us? But Dr. Bradford's gracious and helpful ministry-at-large disarmed all criticism. In 1904, the Council by vote asked the incoming moderator to continue the practice. Later on as the common concerns of the churches grew more numerous it became clear that some one was needed to act as the coordinating executive agent of the Council and on its behalf to render so far as he might any services desired by the churches. So in 1913 the office of Council Secretary was enlarged in its scope and an ampler force provided for the Council office. j. *. By the time the National Council was Administrative y . , .. , Readjustment or S anized Congregationalism had become a great business concern. Its mission and publishing organizations handled annually hundreds of thousands of dollars and were guardians of millions of dollars of funds. These grew from year to year. Naturally there arose a desire that the churches which supported this 80 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties work should have control of it. This was only partially the case under the method then in force. Each missionary agency was organized on its own plan and none of them had an effectively representative basis. In some cases so little interest was taken in their business affairs that the officers and Boards of Directors were compelled to assume full responsibility for everything that was done. This was of course patently unfortunate and unwise. Finally at the Kansas City Council of 1913, on recom- mendation of a strong body of men appointed by the National Council and known as " The Commission of Nineteen," it was agreed that all the affairs of all mission organizations ought to be determined by the National Council at its biennial sessions. This simple solution of the problem was accepted by the missionary societies and has given almost universal satisfaction. It makes it possible for the churches through their representatives to shape their missionary policy as they will. It places the responsi- bility for the mission work of the denomination squarely upon the churches, where it rightfully belongs. It ties the mission boards together in a unity which ensures coopera- tion. It has made possible some readjustment of their structure in the interest of economy and efficiency of effort. None of these readjustments, nor lesser ones unmentioned, have made any change in the fundamental principles and ideals of Congregationalism, which will be described more fully in the next chapter. They have simply been the outworking of those principles in adaptation to the needs of a constantly changing world. None the less these changes will prove of profound significance for the denomination and for the Kingdom of God. As a result of them every Congregational church member is made a stockholder in a tremendous world-wide Adjustment to Changing Needs 81 enterprise, sharing in the responsibility for the evangeliza- tion of 75,000,000 people in foreign lands and for the education and spiritual care of no small portion of the 100,000,000 in our own land. He is in a position where his voice and his vote along with his prayer and his gift can directly help the boy who seeks an education, the struggling church which is trying to build a house of worship, the community which has lapsed away from God, or the race that needs a friend. The individual Congregationalist may ignore his opportunity if he chooses. None can say him nay. Or he may rise eagerly to the dignity of his larger place in shaping and furthering the task of the Christian church. TT -fy ^ s ^e outcome f tne century's readjustment . Congregationalism begins the twentieth century with remarkable unity and homogeneity. It is not the unity of uniformity. Customs, modes of organiza- tion and of activity vary widely. Forms of worship range from simplest informality to noblest liturgy. There is wide diversity of theological belief. None the less a real unity has been attained. As to its intellectual aspect it has been described in a previous section. But the bond which most securely holds in unity our six thousand Congregational churches is the bond of a common purpose and a common task. Because Congregationalists are united in the desire to bring the world under the rule of the One Master, and because they have found themselves able to agree upon the means and measures by which to work toward that end, they find themselves drawn into ever closer relations. On the basis of this united purpose, and in the use of the agencies which they have created for their world -wide work, they are planning together for the future. If we are to keep our leadership representative, if we are 82 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties to avoid the perils of centralization, if all our cooperative effort is to be fraternal, it must be because there is behind the machinery a motive power none other than the passion of good -will seeking effective means for self-expression. The best harvesting machine will never bind a crop or thresh it until it is put to work in the field. We have created a national denominational unity not for the sake of self- congratulation, pleasant as that might be, but for the sake of the aggressive propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our best celebration of the Tercentenary will be not a proud and complacent period of smug reminiscence, but an eager pressing forward to the tasks of the new day. Memory ought to provide us not with satisfaction alone, but also with inspiration. The men and women who wrought mightily for God in days gone by have left us a sacred trust. " Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith." QUESTIONS 1. What was the conspicuous characteristic of the Nineteenth Century? 2. Name some of the agencies through which Con- gregationalism expressed itself against slavery. 3. What most conspicuously inaugurated the period of intellectual readjustment? Adjustment to Changing Needs 83 4. What has been the result? 5. How has Congregationalism been related to the social awakening? 6. Name some Congregationalists who have been conspicuous in promoting social progress. 7. What utterances on social matters were made by the Councils of 1865 and 1913? 8. Explain the lack of denominational aggressiveness in early Congregationalism. 9. What was the " Albany Convention " and what did it do? 10. When was the National Council organized and what was the occasion for its organization? 11. What readjustment of Congregational agencies has been effected and what are some of the results? 12. What are the chief factors in the unity of Con- gregationalists? CHAPTER VI PLACE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF CONGREGATIONALISM Congregationalism's Unique Place hundred Y ears a g held certain con- victions. These have entered into the unfolding life of the world. They have influenced every denomination of Christians. But in a special and distinct way they have been carried forward and developed by Congregationalism. At the end of the three centuries what shape have those convictions taken? And how do they stand related to the problems of today? The question is vastly more important than many realize. In the easy-going friendliness of our time we often assume that all denominations are alike. In fact, one would sup- pose from what he occasionally hears that there are no questions left about which judgments can differ, nothing worth standing for. The notion is, of course, false and therefore disastrous. Men are still divided into many types of belief. A large and deplorable group has little belief of any kind. In the interest of that group and of every other it is the duty of a denomination to find its place and to endeavor with fidelity and vigor to fill it. Con- gregationalism believes that it has such a place and that it is of unique importance. We are now to consider its nature and responsibilities. Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 85 Congregationalists have no disposition to No Exclusive , . , , . ^ . appeal to the teaching of the New Testa- ment or the practice of the early church as giving divine sanction to their mode of organization. To be sure, they believe their organization is in harmony with that teaching, and that their churches are shaped on the general pattern of those of the first century. But they do not believe that the New Testament was written for the purpose of determining the form of the organization of the church, nor that the external features of early organizations were regarded as especially important. They do not be- lieve that any church " was divinely appointed for all times, countries and stages of civilization." Therefore, Congregationalism makes no exclusive claims. It is not "The Church." It has no monopolies, no copy- rights, no barrier walls. It does not believe that the world is to be Congregationalized. It simply believes that certain great principles which it holds will under some form and name control the final shaping of organized Christianity. _, , ... A denomination which thus thinks about itself Good- Will , , . . , , ., and others ought to show a spirit of good-will. Congregationalism has done so. Speaking of the English Church and the faith which he personally had found in it, toward the end of his life John Robinson declared, " I esteem so many in that church as are truly partakers of that faith (as I account many thousands to be) for my Christian brethren. ... I have always, in spirit and affection, all Christian fellowship and communion with them, and am most ready ... to express the same." When Congregationalists met in National Council in 1865 in order to make perfectly evident that we hold " the several households" of " the one catholic church," " though called by different names," to be " the one body of Christ," 86 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties they said, " recognizing the unity of the Church of Christ in all the world," and acknowledging " that we are but one branch of Christ's people, we extend to all believers the hand of Christian Fellowship." The constitution adopted by the National Council of 1871 had this statement: " We especially desire in prose- cuting the work of evangelizing our own land and the world, to observe the common and sacred law, that in the wide field of the world's evangelism we do our work in friendly cooperation with all those who love and serve our common Lord." And the Council Creed of 1913 says, "While affirming the liberty of our churches and the validity of our ministry, we hold to the unity and catholicity of the church of Christ, and will unite with all its branches in hearty cooperation; and will earnestly seek, so far as in us lies, that the prayer of our Lord for his disciples may be an- swered, that they all may be one." , ^ , Those are fine words which have just Friendly Deeds , .JTT U^JJ^T- been quoted. How about deedsr rrom the beginning we have striven to cooperate with all branches of the church so far as they would let us. We have not only cherished " the holy catholic church " as an ideal, but we have tried to give it reality. In all union movements such as the American Bible Society, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the Student Volunteer Movement, the Missionary Edu- cation Movement, the Laymen's Missionary Movement and hundreds of like sort, we have taken an eager share. Our National Council is most cordially and intimately related to the great federation of denominations known as the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Our state conferences are doing their utmost to promote close relations between denominations and to do away with the over-churching of small communities. Again and again Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 87 we have given up our technical rights in order to further the cause of cooperation. It is not too much to say that Congregationalism " is willing to lose and often has lost members and prestige in order to be fraternal." As an expression of the same spirit our churches almost universally welcome to the communion table all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We hold that along the whole line of church relations the obligations of neighbor- liness are in full force. Congregationalism has gone still fur- Prophets of Unity , 5 ...... , ther. Ever since the possibility of advancing toward the organic union of denominations arose it has worked toward that end. Some years ago prolonged and earnest effort was put forth to bring about a union with the United Brethren and the Methodist Protestant de- nominations. The failure to secure it is not to be charged to our fault, certainly not to theirs. It was due simply to the fact that the world had not quite reached the point where such a step was feasible. Recently the Protestant Episcopal Church has made the proposal that representatives of all denominations meet to consider questions of Faith and Order. Congregationalists have cordially responded to the proposals. They do this not because they have any more liking for Episcopacy than they ever had, but because they believe the proposal sensible and sincere. A like welcome is sure to be given to any proposal which looks toward the coming unity of Christ's Church. But all this does not mean that Congre- j gationalists are ready to abandon their con- Surrender . . - , , f - A rr, j victions for the sake of unity. I hey do not see how it will promote the Kingdom of God for the de- Pilgrim Deeds and Duties nomination which believes in fraternity to leave the field to those which are conspicuous for sectarianism. The Congregational denomination holds that it can best serve the cause of all denominations by being loyal to its own ideals. If it is to help bring the denominations together it must develop strength for the task. Such results are not wrought by weakness. Many a form of bigotry has en- listed whole-hearted devotion. How much more should breadth of view and regard for others command it. More than ever, therefore, Congregational leaders are calling for a strong denominational consciousness. It is not a movement toward sectarianism. It is a call to take our place faithfully in the total structure of Christian organization. The sectarian spirit emphasizes peculiarities as a ground for suspicion and separation. Congregation- alism desires to be peculiar only in putting supreme em- phasis upon the chief truths and duties which constitute Christianity. Congregationalists hold with one of their great thinkers, the late Dr. R. W. Dale of Birmingham, England, that, " The only adequate justification of what is distinct and characteristic in the creed or polity of any particular Christian community is the desire to assert in the most effective form the truths in which all Christian com- munities agree." p . Considerable space has been given to the _ attitude of Congregationalism toward other Convictions , .. , . bodies. This was necessary because the theme has so fundamental a place in its thought. We now consider the convictions around which Congregationalism centers. It must be borne in mind that these are not claimed as its peculiar and exclusive possession. Some 'of them are held by the Church universal. Others are shared Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 89 by many denominations. But the combination of these principles and the relative emphasis given them represent certain distinct characteristics of the Congregational outlook. It will be noted, too, in the paragraphs which follow, that these convictions are applied in characteristic ways to concrete aspects of the life of the Church of Christ. These central convictions may be described as seven in number: 1. The Supreme Place of the Person and Message of Jesus Christ as Revealed in the Scriptures and the Continuous Leadership of the Holy Spirit. 2. The Missionary Obligation which Summons every Christian and Organization of Christians to Labor for the Kingdom of God Throughout the World. 3. The Duty of Making the Church of Christ a place of Wide Liberty. 4. The Obligation of Shaping All the Life of the Church on the Democratic Model. 5. The Privilege and Duty of Close Fellowship between Christians. 6. Emphasis upon Personal and Social Righteousness as the Practical End for which the Church Exists. 7. A Confident Conviction of the Value of All Knowl- edge. Let us inquire more in detail what these seven things involve. __ , Among the myriad facts in which human life T, is set, one standsout in clear and transcendent Redemption . _ . , (t _ , preeminence. It is the fact that God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son." To know that God is, that He is a God of Love, that He has revealed His love and that the revelation has taken the form of the divine life, death and resurrection of Jesus 90 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Christ, is to possess knowledge in comparison with which all else is unimportant. It is the faith of Congregationalism that this supreme fact should be kept in clear relief at the very forefront of the life of the Church of Christ. Questions of sacrament, ritual, ceremony, organization and orders must not only be held subordinate but must be so completely subordinated that there shall be no slightest risk of their obscuring this great primary thing. Two men or two denominations to whom this central truth is a reality should feel themselves close akin, no matter how they may differ on the things just named. It is both the comedy and tragedy of Christian history that men have allowed petty things to divide hope- lessly those professing to believe in the stupendous miracle of divine love which brought Jesus Christ into the world. For light by which to understand the message of Christ, and for strength to do His will, Congregationalists believe we are dependent upon the continuous ministry of the Holy Spirit. To wait upon Him and to follow obediently where He may lead are fundamental to the Christian life. To make Christ known to all men the The Missionary , , . .. ,. . , , . . world over, to win them to discipleship, to " teach them all things whatsoever He has commanded us," to help them to reshape their relationships and institutions according to the mind of Christ, to make this world the Kingdom of God this is the task to which the Church of Christ is called. Con- gregationalists had some vision of this task from the beginning. It has grown and broadened with the passing years. As has been shown, the Puritans and the Pilgrims were the first Protestants upon the American continent to plan for carrying the gospel of Christ to the savages about them who Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 91 menaced their very life. As the church gained in strength it organized for the Christian conquest of the regions beyond. Congregationalists were the first to form societies for the purpose of sending missionaries into the western frontier. The first foreign missionary society upon the American continent had its origin in a Congregational college and seminary, and assumed permanent form in a Congregational convention. Congregationalism is strong today because it has been a forth-putting body, and it will continue to increase in knowledge, force and grace only as it adheres to and practices the eternal truth that the living Church of Christ must be fundamentally missionary. Many are hop- ing and praying that the approaching Tercentenary Anni- versary may be a time of great advance along all the lines of Kingdom extension. TTT--J T-t. From time to time there appears on the Wide Liberty , , P ,. , ,. calendar of one of our leading churches a statement including these two sentences: " A Congregational church governs itself, makes its own creed, if it wants one, frames its own rules of order, organizes its own life, manages its own work. If it needs advice about these things, as it often does, it calls in the neighboring churches to advise it; but they have no power over it." Such has been the thought of Congregationalism throughout its history. The same spirit has increasingly pervaded all departments of its life. It does not make rules for control of the conduct of its members. This is not because it thinks conduct unimportant, but because it believes they should be left face to face with the one Master. There is no inclination to prosecute ministers for heresy. This is not because the denomination does not care what men teach but because it 92 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties does not conceive that a church has the right to dictate to its minister what he shall teach. If he departs from the Gospel of Jesus Christ it is believed that the cure will be found in the unwillingness of the churches to listen to one who has lost the message he was set apart to proclaim. So without statute making bodies or a prescribed liturgy or church courts or canon laws or bishops, Congregation- alists dwell together unbound and free. They believe that only thus can unity, fidelity and sincerity be had. T , . The whole world today is moving toward de- _ mocracy. Politically, educationally and in- y dustrially there can be no mistaking the trend. It is hard to overestimate the extent to which this is due to the influence of the early Puritans and Pilgrims of New England. Other forces and other creeds have had their share. But three centuries ago the Pilgrim began to see what the world at large is now accepting as the basis of its organized life. Congregationalists hold fast to this democratic tradition. They are unhesitatingly sure that the Church of Christ should build her life broad on the will and the interest of all the people. No one is clothed with authority, no one is set above another. The minister is a member of the church he serves, subject to its oversight as are other mem- bers. All acts of the church are acts of the entire body. Naturally and properly as individual churches have grown in size and as the denomination has spread over the nation, there has been an increase of the representative phase of democracy. A denomination of 800,000 members cannot meet in one place to pass upon matters of common work. But these representative forms do not impair the demo- cratic basis of the denomination's life. The problem of democracy is to find the method which Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 93 shall enable the will of the majority most intelligently, promptly and effectively to express itself on matters which come within the scope of its right to decide. This is what Congregationalism is trying to work out. Many other denominations share the democratic ideal Baptists, Disciples, Unitarians, etc. About forty per cent of the Christian people of the United States are members of communions independently, i. e., democratically organized. And the spirit of democracy has widely influenced those communions which in one measure or another still allow ecclesiastical officials to control powers which rightfully belong to all the people. Freedom and democracy are not complete ex- Fellowship . . . , , cept as they exist in connection with the fraternal spirit of fellowship. Just as one man alone is but a fragment of a man, so an isolated Christian is a frag- mentary Christian. Congregationalism is profoundly con- vinced of the importance of fellowship in all its forms. The people of a local church ought to live in closest bonds of charity, mutual helpfulness and united effort. The churches of a denomination should draw together for coun- sel and encouragement and in the promotion of their common undertakings. The denominations should come into sympathetic cooperative relations. So all along the line the watchword of the Church of Christ should be " Together." There is one aspect of this subject often overlooked. It is that of our fellowship with the Christian past. Con- gregationalists feel that it is both a duty and a privilege to seek to realize our oneness with the generations gone. It means much to them to feel that they are in the unbroken spiritual succession of prophets, apostles and saints. 94 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Changes of creed or method or emphasis must not be suffered to break this historic tie. T7 ,. TT It will be remembered that Puritanism Emphasis Upon .. Righteousness was P nmanl y a P rotest against corruption in the church. The dispute about vest- ments and ceremonies was a feature of the larger question. Congregationalists have tried to be true to this beginning. They do not suppose themselves better than other people. Their knowledge of their own short comings forbids. But they have held steadily to the conviction that a religion which is primarily formal or external may easily be worse than no religion. Creeds, sacraments and ritual have value only when and so far as they help to produce Christ-likeness. Religious emotion has its place, but consistent living and faithful deeds are the only proof that one has in his heart a new life begotten by the Spirit of God. As we have seen in earlier pages, there has been a growing perception of the place of social righteousness. A " saved man in a saved society " is the ideal of thoughtful Christians everywhere. The test which the church must next meet is that of her ability to mould the organized life of com- munities and nations according to the mind of Christ. If she is to rise to this task she must have the staunch virtues of our Puritan fathers, their iron in her blood, their strength if not their stiffness, in her structure. The world has come around to the sober dress of the Puritan as against the showy garments of the Cavalier. Men wear their hair cut short in the fashion which gave the name " roundhead " to the Puritan as against the flowing wigs of King Charles' court. It is time for a like imitation of the Puritan's sturdy devotion to the will of the all holy God. Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 95 Conviction of the Jt , SOUnds T a . H " Ie M tO "<%. thU Value of Knowledge phrase ; U ls the c mmo " a f ""*" tion of men everywhere that knowl- edge is valuable. Unfortunately their affirmations have often been more in word than in deed. One of the greatest of the sins and follies which disfigure the history of the church of Christ has been opposition to the growth of knowledge. One's thought at once turns to the Roman Catholic church and her well known attitude toward in- tellectual progress. If anyone supposes, however, that opposition to the increase of knowledge is confined to the Roman Church or that where found in Protestantism it is entirely a thing of other generations and other lands, he is grievously mis- taken. There are still American Protestants, not a few, who suppose themselves to be serving God by maintaining positions which science has proven baseless, and by refusing to hear what enlightened students of God's Word and World have to say. Congregationalists, of course, have had something of this sort to be ashamed of. But from the beginning their tendency has been the other way. They began at once to champion higher education. They have never ceased its championship. Their schools have been free with the freedom of the republic of letters, as well as loyal to the faith of Christ. More and more as the years have gone by it has been perceived not only that knowledge is desirable but that all knowledge is desirable. This side of the denominational life has been described in a former chapter and need not be emphasized here except to point out some of the present results of this high estimate of knowledge. 96 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties _ . . , The most immediate result is, of course, found p in the spirit of progress which marks the de- nomination. It does not fasten upon some great name and refuse to go further. It does not regard any set of ideas or view of truth as a finality. The little group of Congregationalists in London in 1616 covenanted " to walk together in all God's way and ordinances according as he had already revealed or should further make known to them." After three hundred years the Council creed of 1913 breathes the same spirit. It declares that our " stead- fast allegiance ... to the faith which our fathers con- fessed " recognizes that the faith " which from age to age has found expression in the historic creeds " will in the future find new expression in new creeds. For we depend, " as did our fathers, upon the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth." The Congregational worship and practice of the early centuries were very different from those of today. Our church life is flexible. We are not bound to rigid creedal tenets or strict liturgical forms, or to an unchangeable church government. We are free to experiment, to re- model, to reject and revise, to launch out on unexplored seas. Innovations are not sacrilege with us. Our relative simplicity of worship may be " enriched," or our church life may reach out into new fields of endeavor; none com- plains so long as all is done in the spirit of Christian service for the sake of God and man. We have always emphasized the value of the forward look. In missionary spirit, in education, in reform, in evangelism, in young people's work, we have been explorers. The Pilgrim Spirit is the spirit of the pioneer. Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 97 - T -, , The time has come when education in New Educational Al _ - , , r ,. . , . _ the field of religion and morals is to Demands occupy a more prominent place than it has ever had. There must be a new emphasis, better methods, greater enthusiasm. The whole educational world is in process of transformation. The church must share the process. She must find a way to cooperate in the efforts which states and cities are instituting here and there to make place for religious education in the public school system without violating our basic principle of the sepa- ration of church and state. The field which she must cover is a vast one. The great truths about God and man, sin and salvation, the worlds seen and unseen, are to be taught. Personal conduct with the whole range of its obligations must be covered. The social duties, including the wide fields of public affairs, philanthropy, reform, sex morality, industry and inter- national relations, need to be enforced. It is a huge task. The Church of Christ has never fairly faced it, to say noth- ing of fully discharging it. The Congregational churches are making ready to bear their share in this great new era of education. By bringing together in affiliated relations their Publishing Society and their Education Society they have created what is in effect a Board of Religious Education. This Board will be pre- pared to render to the churches two great services. The first will be to furnish in printed form the amplest and most varied helps possible for all their manifold educational needs. The other will be to maintain a corps of field specialists who shall be available for aiding the churches in developing their educational plans. If this provision in the nation at large shall be matched by vision and devotion on the part of local leaders everywhere, we shall at no distant 98 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties day find ourselves in possession of previously unmatched resources of trained and devoted lives. In this connection it should be said that the work of planting mission Sunday schools so successfully conducted for many years past by the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society will for the future be prosecuted in close affiliation with the Home Missionary Society. ,p , All this means more and better cooperative work for the denomination. Everyone must " do his bit," and it must be done so as to fit into a great program. Prayer, speech, plans, service, gifts all must be multiplied in amount and potency. In the Appendix of this book there is the outline of a Tercentenary Program. It does not propose that we project new lines of effort. It asks that we pour new tides of sacrificial purpose into the great unchanging tasks of the church. Let us make this Program the base line from which to move into a triumphant future. Great hazards and great opportunities face the church of our time. By God's grace we have the power to turn both into realities of high achievement. We must not hesitate to pay the price. When the Gains- borough church in those dark days of persecution made its covenant, the agreement was to be binding " whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them." For their Master's sake and for our sakes the men of those days endured damp, vermin-haunted, fever-smitten dungeons, they crossed the stormy sea, they subdued the wilder- ness, they braved the wrath of kings. Let us meet the tasks and problems of our time with the same solemn pur- pose of heart, the same blood-red convictions. Place and Responsibility of Congregationalism 99 QUESTIONS 1. What view does Congregationalism hold relative to its organization and place among denominations? 2. How has Congregationalism shown its willingness to cooperate with other denominations? 3. What attitude has Congregationalism taken toward movements for church unity? 4. Name the seven central convictions for which Congregationalism stands. 5. Write a 250 word paper in which you set forth the principal characteristics in these seven central convictions. 6. Show some evidences of the spirit of progress in Congregationalism. 7. What are we doing to meet the new educational demands? 8. In what five ways must we cooperate in the work of the church? 9. Have you read the Tercentenary Program? 10. Suggest ways in which your church can do its full share to accomplish the aims of this program. (Suggestions will be welcomed by the Tercentenary Com- mission, Fourteen Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts.) THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT ELIOT PREACHING TO THE INDIANS JOHN COTTON CHARLES G. FINNEY JONATHAN EDWARDS DWIGHT L. MOODY TIMOTHY DWIGHT J. H. FAIRCHILD MARK HOPKINS JAMES B. ANGELL SAMUEL C. ARMSTRONG HENRY WARD BEECHER HORACE BUSHNELL EDWARDS A. PARK AMORY H. BRADFORD RICHARD SALTER STORRS APPENDIX ALONG THE CONGREGATIONAL WAY HERALDS AND PIONEERS The Weavers of Worcester, 1165, "scourged, excommunicated and banished for using freedom to worship God." Wm. of Occam, 1270, condemned by Pope John xxiii for asserting the supreme authority of the Scriptures. John Wyclif, 1380, with his Bible done into English and his " Lollards," so alarmed priests and Parliament that an Act was passed for burning heretics. Robert Browne, d. 1630, " the first Englishman of strong in- tellectual gifts to win distinction as a preacher of separation." John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe and John Penry, martyrs, 1593. OF THE MAYFLOWER COMPANY, 1620 Wm. Brewster, d. 1644, Ruling Elder. Wm. Bradford, d. 1657, Governor. John Carver, d. 1621, Governor. Samuel Fuller, Physician. John Robinson, d. 1625; remained at Leyden. Myles Standish, d. 1656, Captain. Edward Winslow, d. 1655, Gov- ernor. A HUNDRED NOTED NAMES Residents of England are indicated by (E) Abbot, Jacob, d. 1879, Author. Allon, Henry, D.D. (E.), Author, ed. British Quarterly, d. 1892. Angell, James B., d. 1916, U. S. Min. China, Pres. Mich. Univ. Armstrong, Sam'l C., d. 1893, Brig. Gen.; founder Hampton Inst. Atkinson, Geo. H., pioneer miss'y to Oregon, 1848. Bacon, Leonard, D.D., d. 1881, pastor, author, Prof. Yale Col- lege, one of founders of The Independent. Barrett, G. S., Rev. (E.), d. 1916. Beecher, Henry Ward, D.D., d. 1887. Beecher, Lyman, D.D., d. 1863. Berry, Chas. A., D.D. (E.), d. 1899. 102 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Bingham, Hiram, D.D., d. 1908, miss'y Sandwich Isls. Binney, Thos., LL.D. (E.), d. 1874. Bliss, Edwin E., D.D., d. 1892, miss'y Amer. Board in Turkey. Bradford, AmoryH., D.D., d. 1911. Moderator National Council. Brainerd, David, d. 1747, miss'y to Indians. Bushnell, Horace, D.D., d. 1876, pastor and theologian. Capen, Samuel B., d. 1915, Pres. S. S. Soc. and Amer. Board. Chamberlain, Joshua L., Gen'l, Gov. Maine 1867-70, Pres. Bowdoin Col. Chapin, Aaron L., D.D., d. 1892, Pres. Beloit Col. Cutler, Manasseh, LL.D., d. 1823, one of founders of Marietta Col., O. Dale, R. W., D.D. (E.), d. 1895, pastor, author, theologian. DeForest, J. K., D.D., d. 1911, miss'y Amer. Board in Japan. Dexter, Henry Martyn, D.D., d. 1890, Ed. Cong'list, writer and authority on Cong'l history and usage. Diman, Jere. Lewis, d. 1881, Prof. Brown Univ., Historian. Dingley, Nelson D., Editor, mem- ber of Congress, Mod'r Nat. Council. D'ooge, Martin Luther, d. 1915, Prof, of Greek, Univ. Mich., Director Amer. School of Arch., Athens. Dwight, Timothy, LL.D., d. 1817, Pres. Yale Col., Theologian. Edwards, Jonathan, D.D., d. 1758, Pastor Northampton, Mass., miss'y to Indians, Pres. Princeton Col., first great American philosopher. Eliot, John, d. 1690, " Apostle to the Indians." Emmons, Nathanael, D.D., d. 1840, Pastor and Theologian. Fairbairn, Andrew Martin, LL.D., d. 1912, Prin. Mansfield Col., Oxford (E.), Theologian. Fairchild, James H., D.D., d. 1902, Theologian, Pres. Oberlin Col. Finney, Charles G., d. 1875, Evangelist, founder and Pres. of Oberlin College. Fisher, Geo. P., D.D., d. 1909, Prof. Yale Univ., ecclesiastical historian. Ford, H. Clark, d. 1915, banker. Goodell, Wm., D.D.,d. 1871, mis- sionary to Turkey. Grout, Lewis, Rev., d. 1905, mis- sionary to Africa. Hamlin, Cyrus, D.D., d. 1900, miss'y Amer. Brd., Turkey. Hardy, Alpheus, d. 1887, Boston merchant, promoter of Missions. Harvard, John, Rev., d. 1638, first benefactor of Harvard Col. Headley, P. C., Rev., d. 1903, author. Hitchcock, Edward, d. 1864, Geologist, Pres. Amherst Col. Hopkins, Mark, LL.D., d. 1887, Pres. Amer. Board, Pres. Williams Col. Hopkins, Samuel, D.D., d. 1803, Theologian. Home, C. Sylvester Rev., (E.) d. 1914, Yale lecturer. Along the Congregational Way 103 Howard, O. O., d. 1909, Major Gen., chief Freedmen's Bureau, editor and proprietor The Advance. Johns, Griffith, D.D., (E) d. 1912, miss'y London M. Soc. China. Livingstone, David (E.), d. 1873, missionary and explorer, Africa. Mason, Lowell, d. 1872, Mus. Doc., " father of American church music." Mather, Cotton, D.D., d. 1725, pastor Second Church in Boston, author. Mather, Increase, D.D., d. 1723, co-pastor Second Church, Pres. Harvard Col. Mead, C. M., D.D., d. 1911, Prof. Andover and Hartford; author. Milton, John (E.), d. 1674, author, poet. Mofifat, Robert, D.D., d. 1883, miss'y London M. S. Africa, father-in-law of Livingstone. Moody, Dwight L., d. 1899, evangelist. Munger, T. T., D.D., d. 1910, Pastor, author. Nason, Elias, d. 1887, author and compiler of hymn-books. Neesura, Joseph, Japan, founder Doshisha. Nettleton, Asahel, D.D., d. 1844, evangelist and hymn-writer. Packard, Alpheus S., d. 1884, author, Prof. Bowdoin Col. Palmer, Alice Freeman, Mrs., d. 1902, President Wellesley Col. Palmer, Ray, D.D., d. 1887, pas- tor, poet. Parker, Jos., D.D. (E.), d. 1902, City Temple, London, preacher, author, and lecturer. Patton, W. W., D.D., d. 1889, pastor, founder and editor The Advance. Pearsons, D. K., benefactor of colleges and schools. Porter, Jeremiah, D.D., pioneer preacher on site of Chicago. Porter, Noah, D.D., d. 1892, pro- fessor at Yale, philosopher, lexicographer. Powell, James, D.D., d. 1881, Sec. Amer. Miss'y Assoc. Prentiss, Eliz. Payson, d. 1878, authoress. Punchard, Geo., D.D., d. 1880, founder and editor Boston Traveller, author of Hist. Congl'ism. Quint, Alonzo H., D.D., pastor, statistician, authority in mat- ters of polity. Riggs, Elias, D.D., d. 1901, miss'y Amer. Board in Turkey, trans- lator of Scriptures. Riggs, Stephen R., d. 1883, miss'y to the Dakota Indians. Seelye, Julius H., D.D., d. 1895, author, philosopher, Pres. Amherst Col. Shaw, Lemuel, LL.D., d. 1861, jurist. Silliman, Benj., d. 1864, chemist, geologist, Prof. Yale Col. Stearns, Lewis F., D.D., d. 1892, Prof. Albion Col., BangorTheo. Sem. Storrs, Richard S., D.D., d. 1900, pastor, editor, Pres. Amer. Board. Stoughton, John, D.D. (E.), d. 1897, historian. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Mrs., d. 1896, author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," etc. 104 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Strong, Josiah, D.D., d. 1916, sec. O. H. M. S., writer on social subjects. Sturtevant, Julian M., D.D., d. 1886, pioneer, Illinois Band, founder and Prof, in Illinois Col. Taylor, Nathanael, D.D., d. 1858, theologian, leader of the " New Haven School." Thompson, Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. (E.), d. 1915, Sec. London Miss. Soc. Trumbull, Henry Clay, D.D., d. 1903, army chaplain, editor S. S. Times. Turner, Asa, D.D., d. 1885, pio- neer, Iowa Band. Tyler, Bennet, D.D., theologian, leader of the "East Winsor School." Waddington, John, D.D. (E.), d. 1880, historian. Walker, Amasa, LL.D., d. 1875, political economist, lecturer at Oberlin and Amherst Colleges, member of Congress. Walker, Francis A., d. 1897, Brig. Gen., supt. census, Pres. Mass. Inst. Technology. Ward, Eliz. Stuart Phelps, Mrs., d. 1911, authoress. Ward, Jos., D.D., Pres. Yankton Col., S. Dak. Ward, William Hayes, LL.D., d. 1916, Archaeologist, author, editor. Warren, I. P., D.D., d. 1892, Sec. Seaman's Friend Soc., Amer. Tract Soc., proprietor and Ed. Christian Mirror. Washburn, Geo., D.D., d. 1915, Pres. Roberts Col., Constan- tinople. Watts, Isaac, D.D. (E.), d. 1748, pastor and hymn-writer. Whitman, Marcus, Rev., d. 1847, pioneer missionary " who saved Oregon to the Union." Williams, John, Rev., d. 1839, miss'y L. M. S., South Sea Islands. Williams, S. Wells, LL.D., d. 1884, China. Woolcott, S., D.D., d. 1886, Sec. Ohio H. M. S., author of hymns. THE PURITAN THE FOLLOWING FAMOUS PASSAGE is TAKEN FROM LORD MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON JOHN MILTON THE Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catch- ing occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on his intolerable brightness, and to commune with him face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terres- trial distinctions. The difference between the greatest and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but his favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems, crowns of glory which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with con- tempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged, on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest, who had been destined, before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events which shortsighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet. He had been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacri- fice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God. IMPORTANT EVENTS IN CONGREGA- TIONAL HISTORY 1582. Browne's " Statement of Congregational Principles " pub- lished. 1592. First known Congregational church, completely and formally organized in London. 1593. John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe and John Penry hanged; the last of the Congregational martyrs put to death. Fifty- six members of the First Congregational church, London, imprisoned. 1609. John Robinson, with the Pilgrims of Scrooby Church, settled in Leyden. 1620. Pilgrims left Leyden, July 21; sailed from Plymouth, Sep- tember 16; signed civil compact in the " Mayflower," November 21; landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, Decem- ber 11 (O.S.), December 21 (N.S.). 1628. A company of Puritans settled in Salem. Another at Boston, 1630. 1636. Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Colony. Har- vard College founded. 1691. Heads of Agreement adopted, in London between Presby- terians and Congregationalists. Episcopalians, Baptists and Quakers exempted from taxes for the support of Con- gregational churches in Massachusetts. 1709. General Association of Connecticut ministers organized; the first State organization. 1740-2. Great Revival of Religion in New England. 1750. Jonathan Edwards, forced to leave the Church at North- ampton, went to Stockbridge, a missionary to the Indians. 1784. Saybrook Platform, by revision of statutes, ceased to be civil law in Connecticut. 1795. The London Missionary Society instituted. 1801. Plan of Union adopted between the General Congregational Association of Connecticut and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. 1808. The first theological seminary opened at Andover, Massa- chusetts. Important Events 107 1810. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions established by the General Association of Massachusetts. First Sunday School in Massachusetts, at Beverly. 1815. Unitarianism avowed by some Massachusetts Congregation- alists. 1816. American Education Society formed. 1826. The American Home Missionary Society organized; name changed in 1896 to the Congregational Home Missionary Society. 1831. Congregational Union of England and Wales organized. 1832. Massachusetts Sabbath School Society organized (later the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society). 1846. American Missionary Association organized. 1852. General Convention of Congregational Churches at Albany, N. Y.; End of Plan of Union. 1853. Congregational Church Building Society formed. 1865. First National Council of Congregational Churches held at Boston, June 14-24. 1871. Triennial National Council established at Oberlin, Ohio. 1891. First International Congregational Council. Held in London. 1899. Second International Council. Held in Boston. 1907. Congregational Home Missionary Society reorganized, federat- ing with state bodies. 1908. The Third International Council. Held in Edinburgh. 1909. The " Together Campaign," which freed the missionary soci- eties from debt. 1913. The National Council reorganized, assuming administrative direction of mission agencies. STATEMENT OF FAITH AND POLITY ADOPTED BY NATIONAL COUNCIL KANSAS CITY, OCTOBER, 1913 The Congregational Churches of the United States, by delegates in National Council assembled, reserving all the rights and cherished memories belonging to this organization under its former con- stitution, and declaring the steadfast allegiance of the churches com- posing the Council to the faith which our fathers confessed, which from age to age has found its expression in the historic creeds of the Church universal and of this communion, and affirming our loyalty to the basic principles of our representative democracy, hereby set forth the things most surely believed among us concerning faith, polity, and fellowship: Faith We believe in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, goodness, and love; and in Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord and Saviour, who for us and our salvation lived and died and rose again and liveth ever- more; and in the Holy Spirit, who taketh of the things of Christ and revealeth them to us, renewing, comforting, and inspiring the souls of men. We are united in striving to know the will of God as taught in the Holy Scriptures, and in our purpose to walk in the ways of the Lord, made known or to be made known to us. We hold it to be the mission of the Church of Christ to proclaim the gospel to all mankind, exalting the worship of the one true God, and laboring for the progress of knowledge, the promotion of justice, the reign of peace, and the realization of human brotherhood. Depending, as did our fathers, upon the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we work and pray for the transformation of the world into the kingdom of God; and we look with faith for the triumph of righteousness and the life everlasting. Polity We believe in the freedom and responsibility of the individual soul, and the right of private judgment. We hold to the autonomy of the local church and its independence of all ecclesiastical control. We cherish the fellowship of the churches, united in district, state, and national bodies, for counsel and cooperation in matters of common concern. The Wider Fellowship While affirming the liberty of our churches, and the validity of our ministry, we hold to the unity and catholicity of the Church of Christ, and will unite with all its branches in hearty cooperation; and will earnestly seek, so far as in us lies, that the prayer of our Lord for his disciples may be answered, that they all may be one. A TERCENTENARY PROGRAM Proposed by the Commission on Missions How shall we celebrate the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims? Well, for one thing there will be in the Summer or Fall of 1920 a great meeting of Congregationalists. It will be composed of delegates from all nations, meeting under the auspices of the International Congregational Council. If possible it should be held at Plymouth. There ought not to be less than 3,000 persons present throughout. We will celebrate in speech and song our spiritual forbears. We will have conference together con- cerning present day needs, doctrines and duties. All this is well. But ever since such a meeting began to be discussed it has been felt that it is not enough. We must not only say something to commemorate the Pilgrims but do something. And that something must be in the line of the blood-red convictions which stirred the hearts of the Plymouth immigrants. What shall it be? After much conference our various denominational agencies have agreed in submitting through the Commission on Missions a program of practical activities with definite goals covering the years 1916- 1920. Item One It is proposed that we give much effort to clear our minds and increase our influence in the lines of the Pilgrim outlook on church and state. Theirs was no petulant revolt against personal tyranny. It was the deliberate endeavor to institute a better human order. There was not much leisure on the " Mayflower," or in their wilderness home, to put their thoughts into formal shape. But their deeds were sufficient. With easy minds they cast off the old tyrannies in church and state and moved toward freedom and democracy. If we are to celebrate their memory by following their example, we must find a way in our complex age to secure an ampler freedom, a more perfect democracy, a truer fraternity. There is great need of it. The church of Christ has only begun on its social task. Let us, therefore, fill these anniversary years with " an intelligent study and setting forth of those political and religious convictions, which brought the Pilgrims to America." And let us apply them to the needs of the world of today. Item Two There is upon us the ever present duty of recruiting the ranks of the army of disciples of Christ. We must make this an evangelistic era. To bring people to Christ as their Saviour and Lord, to enroll them as disciples and fellowworkers is our fundamental business. Right along with it is the duty of conserving our membership. 110 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties Leakage has been very heavy. Last year 22,968 names were " revised " from our rolls. So it runs every year. People lapse from church membership. Letters lie in trunks. Therefore, a goal is suggested which includes accessions both by letter and confession. The figure is a half million one hundred thousand a year for five years. This would in round numbers mean that each eight persons in our Congregational fellowship must bring into the membership of our churches one person by letter or confession each year. Not an excessive task surely, if we really believe in it and work at it. And shall we then try to win people merely in order to make a big numerical showing? It may fairly be doubted whether there is anybody in our fellowship who is capable of such folly. But it may fairly be hoped that a numerical goal will help us all to keep in mind the primary duty of winning people to Christ. Item Three We need ministers, missionaries, parish assistants. Year after year for many years past the number graduating from our training schools has been from 100 to 150 less than the need. We have made up the shortage mainly by drawing on other denominations. All are agreed that we ought to train our own workers and not ask other bodies to do it for us. What shall be done then? Why not tell our young people and their parents and their teachers and their pastors? Tell them how great is the harvest, how few the laborers, how blessed the task. Tell them we are increasingly trying to es- tablish conditions under which they can work with hope and power. All this, it is proposed to do. Through every part of our fellow- ship by means of all our agencies, we must sound out the call for life service. At the present time something over 400 young Con- gregationalists are in training for the kinds of life work above men- tioned. There ought to be by the end of 1920 just twice as many. This would give us 265 recruits each year to fill the gaps made by death and other losses and to take up new work. Item Four We must raise more money for this work. Twelve years ago, after careful consideration, we adopted an Apportionment Goal of $2,000,000 per year. Counting in such gifts of the living, as really help toward the current budget of our Boards, we are raising about $1,500,000. We have a half million to go. Some doubt whether we can do it. What they mean is that they doubt whether we will do it. For, of course, when one realizes that 800,000 Congregationalists multiplied by 52 weeks, multiplied by 4 4-5 cents will produce $2,000,000, he knows that the only question before the house is whether we want to do the thing or not. Let us agree that we want to and then do it. A Tercentenary Program 111 Item Five It is proposed to build a monument to the Pilgrims. Granite? Bronze? Well, surely not, if we consult their tastes. Let us build the monument out of human lives coined into a great permanent fund. The income of this money will be devoted to some cause or causes which make for the Kingdom of God. The National Council of 1915 agreed that the amount to be sought and the ends to which its income shall be devoted may best be decided by the Council of 1917. It ought to be a big sum to stand forever as a Pilgrim me- morial yielding its blessing to all the generations ahead. But by what method shall all these five things be brought about? Will it come to pass simply by agreeing that we want it done? None of us is under any delusion about that. We are perfectly familiar with the one single unvarying process through which things are brought to pass for the Kingdom of God. Devoted and prayer- ful effort intelligently put forth by individual Congregationalists, by local churches, by organizations of our churches, state and national this is the only way. And it all comes back to this Will you get under this big, far-reaching program for celebrating the Pilgrim landing and advancing the Kingdom of God? STATISTICS COMPARISONS Comparisons between the figures reported and printed for the years 1914 and 1915 in the Congregational YEAR-BOOKS of these years: Churches: Number of churches, January 1, 1915 6,093 Churches added during 1915 96 Churches dropped during 1915 86 Net gain 10 Number of churches, January, 1916 6,103 Number of churches, A. B. C. F. M 676 Grand total 6,779 Membership: Number of members, January 1, 1915 763,182 Admitted during 1915 70,026 Dismissed during 1915 52,794 Net gain 17,232 Number of members, January 1, 1916 780,414 Admitted on confession of faith: Admitted during 1914 40,787 Admitted during 1915 43,172 Gain 2,385 Sunday Schools: Number of members, January 1, 1915 757,873 Number of members, January 1, 1916 766,103 Gain 8,230 Young People's Societies: Number of organizations, January 1, 1915 3,120 Number of organizations, January 1, 1916 3,261 Gain 141 Number of members, January 1, 1915 133,474 Number of members, January 1, 1916 137,827 Gain 4,353 Total Benevolent Contributions: Amount reported, 1914 $2,272,040 Amount reported, 1915 2,433,205 Gain $161,165 Home Expenditures: Amount of home expenses for 1914 $10,716,311 Amount of home expenses for 1915 10,382,503 Decrease , . . $333,808 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties fi! L f'OT i *i ^H CN CN CS CS CS tN CS CS ^- StN-^^-H T-U-OO- vOCvOsO OOO^H o oo< vOt^OO< 114 Pilgrim Deeds and Duties INTERNATIONAL CONGREGATIONALISM COUNTRIES Churches, Chapels, and Stations Members of Churches Members of Sunday Schools England and Wales Scotland 4,713 214 454,748 36,042 707,512 28,193 Ireland 77 2,108 4,672 Channel Islands Canada: Nova Scotia 12 26 480 794 669 851 New Brunswick Ontario and North West 9 89 251 8,042 113 6,038 Quebec 28 2 943 2 361 American Zulu Mission British Guiana 23 SO 6,306 3,963 5,258 4,765 China 4 647 473 India Jamaica SO 48 7,285 3,516 13,507 1,975 Japan 103 18,265 7,727 Natal 52 16 2,558 415 1,634 390 New South Wales 88 5,121 8,529 New Zealand 44 48 2,985 2,163 3,660 4,115 South Australia 86 4,286 6,986 Syria Tasmania 47 '974 1,843 Victoria 94 4,401 8,588 West Australia South Africa 63 272 1,299 19 553 3,177 7 279 United States Independent and Mission Sunday Schools. . . A. B. C. F. M 6,103 780,414 80 844 766,103 39,129 85 769 West Africa (Sierra Leone) 19 1,321 667 12,378 1,451,724 1,721,983 Statistics 115 I*;ox PUBJO mt~oiOT-**ON-^-iTjHoo NO^COONNONO T^^OONtS H joiunf Tj"oSJH <^M6KOOc2H>^ A BRIEF LIST OF BOOKS CONGREGATIONALISM A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States. Prof. Williston Walker, Ph.D. 451 pages. $2.00 Congregationalists in America. Rev. A. E. Dunning, D.D. 552 pages. $1.25 The Genesis of the New England Churches. Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D. 485 pages. $2.50 The Pilgrims. Rev. Fred'k A. Noble, D.D. 483 pages. $2.50 The Congregationalists. Rev. L. W. Bacon, D.D. 280 pages. $0.50 Hero Tales. Grace T. Davis. 237 pages. $1.0 i Congregationalism. Rev. Chas. E. Jefferson, D.D. 32 pages. $0.25 The Pilgrim Faith. Rev. Ozora S. Davis, D.D. 266 pages. $1.00 The Beginnings of New England. Prof. John Fiske. 296 pages. $1.80 The Colonial Era. Rev. Geo. P. Fisher, D.D. 348 pages. $1.00 Congregational Administration. Rev. Chas. H. Nash, D.D. 179 pages. $0.50 Democracy hi the Church. Rev. Edgar L. Heermance. 268 pages. $1.25 The Law of Congregational Usage. Rev. Wm. E. Barton, D.D. 500 pages $2.50. The Place of Congregationalism hi Recent History. Rev. Hubert C. Herring, D.D. 32 pages. $0.10 Organized Congregationalism. 32 pages. $0.10 Forms for Use in Congregational Churches. 32 pages. $0.10 The prices named do not include postage. The Pilgrim Press, Boston and Chicago, will fill orders for these or other books desired. I A 000 030 966 6