Shelf No.
to <%r4 Pcmkr
BY THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Boston Congregational Council.
-
The Series Complete in Twelve Numbers, viz:
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS or NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY
STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF
THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
No. 9. THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
No. 10. THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
By Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
No. 11. THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE
SAVING OF SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
No. 12. THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY
AMONG THE POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT
THE SERVICES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
ft;^* The entire series or either address, separately, may be
obtained of the publishers.
NICHOLS AND NOTES,
117, Washington Street, Boston.
^c^c
Jiel ; .
t-~ri
RESULT OF COUNCIL
HELP IX THE
LECTURE ROOM
OF THK
ESSEX-STREET CHURCH, BOSTOX,
JAN. 31, FEB. 8, 15, A.VD 21, 1866.
BOSTON:
XICHOLS AND X Y E S.
I860.
RESULT OF COUNCIL
HELD IN THE
LECTURE ROOM
OF THE
ESSEX-STREET CHURCH, BOSTON,
JAN. 31, FEB. 8, 15, AND 21, 1866.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
I860.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND N O Y E S,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
i f t C7f~r~**8
ft,, /
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
LETTER MISSIVE.
BOSTON, Jan. 19, 1866.
To the Church, Boston, uith their Pastor,
Rev. the Union Church, Essex Street,
Boston, sends greeting :
DEAR CHRISTIAN BRETHREN, You are aware that there
seems to be a growing desire and expectation among us with
regard to an increase of attention to the subject of personal sal-
vation by Christ, and that Christians are consulting with one
another as to the best ways of promoting it.
In former years, our Churches, with their Pastors, were
accustomed to confer and act together with regard to the in-
terests of religion in Boston. A united action on this subject
serves to give strength to such measures as may be deemed
desk-able.
And whereas it is consonant with our Congregational usage
that some one Church should take the first step when the
Churches are invited to council together, and it having been
suggested by some who are interested in this movement, that
the Church whose Pastor has had the longest term of pastoral
service in one Church could, with common assent, properly
issue the Letter Missive for this purpose :
We do, therefore, as a sister Church, affectionately invite
you to be present, by your Pastor and three Delegates, at an
Ecclesiastical Council, in the Lecture-room of this Church, on
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, JANUARY THE THIRTY-FIRST, in-
stant, at a quarter past three o'clock, to devise and recommend
such practical measures as the Council may judge best adapted
to extend a knowledge of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ
among the population of this city, and to impress the claims of
the Gospel upon their consciences and hearts.
With cordial affection, your brethren in Christ,
In behalf of the Union Church,
N. ADAMS, Pastor.
DANIEL W. JOB, Clerk (pro tern.). [3]
THE COUNCIL WILL CONSIST OF
THE ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES
OF BOSTON, viz.:
CHURCHES. PASTORS.
C Rev. G. W. Blagden. D.D., and
OLD SOUTH -?
C Rev. J. M. Manning.
PARK STREET ....... Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D.*
UNION Rev. N. Adams, D.D.
PHILLIPS Rev. E. K. Alden.
BERKELEY STREET Rev. H. M. Dexter, D.D.
SALEM Rev. S. P. Fay, Acting Pastor.
MARINERS'
CENTRAL Rev. J. E. Todd.
MAVERICK Rev. J. S. Bingham.
MOUNT VERNON Rev. E. N. Kirk, D.D.
SHAWMUT Rev. E. B. Webb, D.D.
SPRINGFIELD STREET ....
E STREET Rev. A. R. Baker, Acting Pastor.
( Rev. G. W. Blagden, D.D.. and
CHAMBEKS STREET .... <
t Rev. J. M. Manning.
* Rev. Dr. Stone having resigned the pastoral charge of the Park-street
Church, subject to the action of a Council, he is hereby invited as an hon-
orary member, in the event of his dismission.
RESULT.
PURSUANT to letters missive of which the fore-
going was the form, the Congregational Churches
of Boston met in Council, by their Pastors and
specified number of Delegates, at the appointed
time and place, for the purpose of considering
the state of religion, and devising and recom-
mending practical measures for the furtherance
of the Gospel in this city ; and having held several
sessions of a deeply devotional as well as a delibe-
rative character, and having listened to important
reports of committees appointed to set forth the
defects in our religious condition, their causes
and their remedies, and having heard these
subjects freely remarked upon and discussed,
and having humbly and earnestly sought the
Divine guidance, came to the following
RESULT.
For the feelings among Christians which led
to- the call of this Council, for our assembling,
[5]
6 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
for the spiritual interest and power of our
sessions, increasing to their close, and for the
influence of these things upon the Churches,
manifest and already extensive, we are pro-
foundly grateful to the Head of the Church.
We feel that in these things some of the true
purposes of this Council have been already ac-
complished.
What further measures for the promotion of
a deeper and more extensive religious interest
' among us may be expedient, is an important but
difficult question. Different measures are suited
to different times, and to Churches and neighbor-
hoods of different character and condition ; and
therefore we are compelled to pass by many
measures which are not of general applicability,
and do not meet with universal approval.
We call the attention of the Churches to the
imperative duty of entering upon new and more
earnest courses of action. We are beset on the
one side by rationalism and infidelity, on the
other side by superstition, on every side by
worldliness, ungodliness and vice. Multitudes
around us, including many united to us by the
strongest ties, are without any interest in the
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 7
Saviour, and are, therefore, in the way to ever-
lasting ruin. At the same time, wordliness has
crept into our Churches, the love of many has
grown cold, and a wicked and fatal indifference
and inactivity has paralyzed their energies.
We do, therefore, by their love of C.irist, by
their compassion for the perishing, by their hope
of salvation, affectionately and solemnly adjure
our Churches to employ such prompt, new and
decided measures for the advance of the king-
dom of Christ in and around them, as the Spirit
of Christ which is in each shall suggest ; and we
do affectionately and solemnly adjure each of
our Church members to enter at once upon a
deeper and more thorough humiliation and re-
pentance before God, a more entire separation
of heart and life from the world, and a more
faithful and earnest personal activity in the work
of saving souls.
We feel that our first duty is, to point out
affectionately but very plainly, some of the causes
of this coldness, indifference and inactivity which
we all so deeply deplore.
We all acknowledge the general truth, that if
there is ever to be a revival in a Church, it must
8 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
commence in the hearts of its members. We can-
not hope for God's blessing upon the meetings
and the prayers of nominal Christians who are
daily sinning against their Maker, and whose
daily lives are devoted to the service of mammon ;
such prayers are empty forms, without reverence,
or love, or faith.
The sins of individual Christians are the cause
of this condition of the Churches of Christ.
While we rejoice to know and to acknowledge
the unaffected piety, the simple faith and holy
lives of so many Christians, we are also aware
that the most earnest and the most devoted are
those who are most alarmed at the general con-
dition of the Churches.
There are many of the nominal members of
the Churches of Christ whose daily lives are at
war with the plain commands of the Gospel.
Do they love God supremely ? Are their affec-
tions set upon heavenly things ? They do not
endeavor to renounce the sinful customs and
vanities of this world ; but they allow the solemn
realities of religion to become secondary to the
duties and pleasures of the passing hour. Par-
ents neglect family worship and faithful religious
instruction in their families ; they disregard the
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 9
eternal welfare and the salvation of the immortal
souls of their children, and make their duties to
God subordinate to the friendships, the claims, the
pleasures and the frivolities of social life. Trifling
causes, which do not keep the lovers of pleasure
from theatres and balls and parties, are sufficient
to prevent nominal Christians from attending
the services of God's sanctuary and the weekly
meetings for prayer.
Prominent among the evils with regard to
which there can be no trifling and no compromise,
are two. We refer to the neglect of daily secret
prayer and of the daily study of God's Word.
We desire to express our settled conviction,
that daily secret prayer (not a formal lip service,
but a real and consecrated communion with our
Heavenly Father,) is as essential to a true Chris-
tian life as vital air is to the life of the body ;
and that a daily study of the Bible, with prayer
for God's blessing upon the study of His own
Word, is indispensable to growth in grace, and,
indeed, to any really religious life. We have
reason to believe that both of these vital points
are daily neglected, to the endangering of many
souls.
1*
10 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
In connection with these duties we wish to
bring forward into prominent view one great
cause of the want of progress in the Church of
Christ on earth. This is, that with but com-
paratively few exceptions, our members are not
working for the cause of Christ and His king-
dom.
What different results we might expect if
every Christian were earnestly at work for the
saving of souls ! We believe that this is a plain
Christian duty which cannot be neglected of
evaded, that it is essential to a true Christian life,
and that the only truly happy Christians are
always working Christians.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
RENEWAL OP COVENANT.
In view of the painful declension in the
Churches, and of the solemn responsibilities of
this hour, when all around us we can hear of the
coming power and glory of God, we do solemnly
and earnestly recommend to each one of you,
our Christian brethren and sisters, that you study
RESULT OP COUNCIL. 11
carefully, and with earnest prayer, your covenant
with God. Your conscience will instruct you
as to your fidelity to the vows which you once
took upon yourself in the presence of God and of
His holy angels. If you feel that you have
broken your covenant and neglected your duties,
you must return, as a penitent sinner, to the one
strait and narrow way. You must humble your-
self before your Maker, and repent, and seek
forgiveness and mercy through the atoning sacri-
fice of Christ, until you receive that free pardon
which He gives to all who in sincerity and hu-
mility come to Him ; and then you will be enabled
by a sincere and heartfelt reconsecration of
yourself -to Christ, to become a living member
of the Church to which you now are an occasion
of grief and reproach. We know that this re-
consecration is possible to every individual Chris-
tian, not as an empty form, nor by any public
profession only, but after sincere self-humiliation,
and a new pardon, and a glad reconciliation with
God.
In order that this individual duty of humiliation
and repentance, and of a new consecration to the
service and glory of God may, in the most solemn
12 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
manner, be brought home to the heart and con-
science of every Christian, we recommend that
all our Churches should simultaneously, on the
third Sabbath of March, solemnly renew their
covenant with God and with each other, and that
this day should be devoted by every Christian
to conscientious and searching self-examination,
and to sincere humiliation before God. In order
that this reconsecration may be general and
effectual, we suggest that early notice should be
given so far as possible, to every member of the
Churches, and that one or more appropriate
sermons be preached in each Church on or before
the appointed day.
UNION COMMUNION.
We recommend also that in the evening of this
day there should be united communion services
in the Park-street Church, designed solely for
the members of the Churches represented in this
Council, in which they may join in token of their
brotherly love, and union in Christ, as well as to
seek the Divine blessing upon their solemn vows
of reconsecration to the service and glory of
God.
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 13
ADDRESSES TO CHURCH MEMBERS.
In order that the dangers and temptations to
which Christians are exposed, the causes of cold-
ness in our Churches, and the means through
which we hope for a renewal of the work of the
Holy Spirit among us, may be plainly set before
the members of our Churches, we recommend
that addresses by the Pastors be prepared and
printed for distribution in every Church, upon the
following subjects :
1. The Duty of a More Strict Observance of the
Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
2. The Power and Office of the Holy Spirit, by
Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
3. The Power of Prayer, by Rev. Dr. KIRK.
4. The Christian's Reconsecration, by Rev. Mr. AL-
DEN.
5. The Worldliness of Nominal Christians, by Rev.
Dr; WEBB.
6. The Spread of the Gospel in the City among the
Poor and those who habitually neglect the Services of
the Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
7. The Christian's Duty to work for the Saving of
Souls, by Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
8. Revivals of Religion, by Rev. Mr. TODD.
14 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
*
9. The Duty of Daily Secret Prayer and Daily
Study of the Bible, by Rev. Mr. MANNING.
10. The Duty of Christians to unite with some
Church, and the Duty of Church Members to unite
with the Church where they statedly worship, by Rev.
Mr. FAY.
11. The Divine Sovereignty in its Relation to Hu-
man Salvation, by Rev. Mr. BAKER.
OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
"We are convinced that the services of the
Lord's Day ought to be considered supreme above
all other times and means of grace. The mem-
bers of our Churches should keep God's Sabbaths
holy, and reverence His sanctuary by attending
on both the services usually held. We know
that these great duties are too much neglected.
PREACHING.
We believe that it is desirable that the Pastors
should select subjects for their sermons such, as
the present hour seems to demand : and we
recommend great plainness and distinctness in
preaching upon those grand and solemn doctrines
of the Bible : Man's total alienation from God ;
the Divine justice in the eternal punishment of
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 15
the wicked ; the new birth ; salvation through
faith in Christ.
These primal truths of God's Word, and Christ's
stern and awful warnings against a nominal and
merely formal worship of God should be preached
afresh without any compromises with pride,
heresy or worldliness ; and God's ministers should
be sustained and supported by Christians in this
high duty.
UNION AMONG CHURCHES.
We recommend that every means should be
taken to bring about a more fraternal union and
practical sympathy and co-operation between all
our Churches in the city. A more familiar
intercourse and more frequent associations will
bring about these desirable results. Mutual re-
gard and respect and acquaintance should be
cultivated, in every manner, and as some of the
means to insure these objects, we recommend :
combined or union prayer meetings ; informal
delegations of members from one Church to
another at the usual social meetings ; united pub-
lic services as occasion may offer ; occasional
unions in the communion services ; and more
frequent exchanges among the Pastors.
16 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT.
We need a higher faith in the prevailing power
of prayer. If the five thousand members of our
Churches were awakened to the solemn respon-
sibilities of the present moment, and were all
united in fervent daily prayers for God's bless-
ing, we should not require councils, or need to
suggest reforms.
We therefore earnestly adjure all who love the
Lord Jesus Christ that they do daily, with deep
earnestness and trusting faith, strive earnestly
in prayer for the manifest presence and power
of the Holy Spirit in all our Churches.
EXTRA MEETINGS.
We are disposed to believe that much of the
force and efficiency of the Sabbath services is
lost because the hearers during the week are
given up to the world, and the solemn impres-
sions of the Sabbath are effaced. We therefore
recommend that each Church should increase the
number of its social prayer meetings : and that
for the present these meetings should usually be
devoted to prayers for the Holy Spirit and for
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 17
the conversion of the impenitent. We suggest
also that increased efforts should be made by
Christians to induce the unconverted to attend
these meetings.
GENERAL VISITATION.
We recommend that in each Church compe-
tent and experienced Christians shall be ap-
pointed to visit the members, for the purpose of
conversing with them on the subject of personal
religion, for their mutual profit. In this way
the hearts of true Christians may be encouraged
and quickened, and the unfaithful may be won
back to duty and their first love. It would be
well for the visitors to go forth two and two, as
the Lord appointed, a few members of the
Church being assigned to each pair. Simultane-
ous neighborhood prayer meetings, or a special
Church meeting might profitably close the work.
SPECIAL AND PROTRACTED MEETINGS.
The subject of special meetings in the day-
time during the week, and of protracted meet-
ings, seems to depend so much upon the spiritual
state, and the situation in other respects, of our
18 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
several Churches, that we think it best to make
this suggestion only, that whenever any Church
shall appoint such meetings, it is the duty of all
sister Churches, so far as it may be convenient,
to co-operate sincerely, and assist them.
SABBATH SCHOOLS.
We recommend a more general and faithful
attendance upon the Sabbath Schools, especially
on the part of adults. Every member of our
congregations, and especially every Christian,
for whom it is possible, should be connected with
some Sabbath School, as a teacher- or a scholar.
The Sabbath School ought to be employed as a
means of drawing children and others into the
services of the sanctuary, and not as an inde-
pendent and superior instrumentality of grace.
We suggest also, that the Sabbath School should
be made less a means of merely interesting and
amusing the children, and more a means of in-
structing them and bringing them to Christ;
and that every Sabbath School teacher is bound
to use the most diligent and faithful efforts to
bring the children to a personal interest in the
Saviour.
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 19
CITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
We recommend a more earnest attention on
the part of every Church to the wants and
claims of the City Missionary Society. The
number of missionaries needs to be increased ;
and the means of enabling them to minister tem-
poral relief, as it opens a direct road for the
Gospel to the hearts of the suffering, should be
liberally supplied. Every Church ought to have
missionaries of its own employed under the gen-
eral direction of this Society.
LAY PREACHERS.
If any Church can procure from among its
own members, or elsewhere, suitable men to
preach Christ in mission chapels, halls, or ves-
tries, as lay preachers under the supervision and
with the co-operation of the Pastor, we earnestly
recommend the employment of such assistance.
NEW CHURCHES, ETC.
In view of the dense and neglected population
in the north part of the city, it would be obvi-
ously unfaithful to the Master, should our
20 BESULT OF COUNCIL.
Churches cease to maintain vigorously our faith
and polity in that part of the city; while the
rapid growth of the city, in our judgment, re-
quires the immediate erection of a new meeting-
house and the consequent organization of a new
Church of our order at the extreme South End,
and also at East Boston.
DISTRICTING THE CITY.
We believe that the apportionment of the city
into districts, and the assignment of a district to
each Church for its religious care, is already in
progress. We recommend each church to accept
the field of labor which shall be offered it, and
enter with alacrity and vigor upon the work.
The religious condition of every family should
be known ; and not a child unconnected with
any Sabbath School should be left unsought ;
not a stranger in the city should be left to its
temptations and snares, uncaught by a Christian
hand ; and not an individual should be permitted
to pass through and out of life, within the
bounds of the district, without having distinctly
and repeatedly presented to him, the knowledge
and offers of Christ's salvation.
RESULT OF COUNCIL. 21
Such a work will call for much self-denying
labor on the part of the whole Church ; and we
do, in the most solemn manner, and by the most
sacred considerations, urge the Churches to come
up heartily to the work. Let every Christian
feel that there is something for him, or her, to
do. Let some work be assigned to each, accord-
ing to his or her several ability. Let every
Christian remember, that not only among the
poor and lost, but at home and by the way, in
business circles and among his friends, he is
under the strongest obligations to preach Christ,
with modesty, wisdom, meekness and love, not
only by his works but with his lips.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO LABOR.
We call the attention of the Churches to the
fact that at the present time we have special en-
couragement to labor. There seems to be a
readiness in the minds of men to listen to the
Gospel. There seems to be a general expectation
of an unusual outpouring of the Spirit. All
around us showers of grace are falling. In all
of our Churches there is an element of faithful-
ness and prayer; in some of them there is an
22 RESULT OF COUNCIL.
unusually tender and solemn state of feeling.
In our own sessions and their influence we
believe that we have seen indications that the
Lord is with us, and going before us.
Let us, then, Pastors and Churches, awake to
the responsibilities and privileges of the hour.
The time is short ; the reward is great ; and lo !
Christ is with us alway.
10 Cjnirtlj |ilcmlm*s
Are in preparation, as follows, viz. :
1. The Dutv of a more Strict Observance of the
/
Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
2. The Power and Office of the Holy Spirit, by
Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
3. The Power of Prayer, by Rev. Dr. KIRK.
4. The Christian's Reconsecration, by Rev. Mr.
ALDEN.
5. The Worldliness of Nominal Christians, by Rev.
Dr. "WEBB.
6. The Spread of the Gospel in the City among the
Poor and those who habitually neglect the Services of
the Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
7. The Christian's Duty to work for the .Saving of
Souls, bv Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
v
8. Revivals of Religion, by Rev. Mr. TODD.
9. The Duty of Daily Secret Prayer and Daily
Study of the Bible, by Rev. Mr. MANNING.
10. The Duty of Christians to unite with some
Church, and the Duty of Church Members to unite
with the Church where they statedly worship, by Rev.
Mr. FAY.
11. The Divine Sovereignty in its Relation to Hu-
man Salvation, bv Rev. Mr. BAKER.
In accordance with the recommendation of the Coun-
cil, the Addresses named above will be printed without
delay, for the purpose suggested. The first of the
series, by Rev. Mr. ALDEN, will be issued in a few
days.
THE
CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
Bv REV. E. K. ALDEN.
BOSTON:
XICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
THE
CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
BY REV. E. K. ALDEN.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NOYES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
THE
CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION,
UPON the twelfth day of January, 1723, Jonathan
Edwards, being then nineteen years of age, wrote
the following words : " I have this day solemnly
*
renewed nay baptismal covenant and self-dedica-
tion, which I renewed when I was received into
the communion of the Church. I have been
before God ; and have given myself, all that I
am and have, to God, so that I am not in any
respect my own : I can claim no right in my-
self, no right in this understanding, this will,
these affections that are in me ; neither have I
any right to this body, or any of its members ;
no right to this tongue, these hands, or feet ; no
right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this
smell, or taste. I have given myself clear away,
and have not retained any thing as my own. I
13]
4 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
have been to God this morning, and told Him
that I gave myself wholly to Him. I have given
every power to Him ; so that, for the future, I
will challenge or claim no right in myself in any
respect. I have this morning told Him that I
did take Him for my whole portion and felicity,
looking on nothing else as any part of my happi-
ness, nor acting as if it were ; and His law as
the constant rule of my obedience ; and would
fight with all my might against the world, the
flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life. And
did believe in Jesus Christ, and receive Him as
a Prince and a Saviour ; and would adhere to the
faith and obedience of the Gospel, how hazard-
ous and difficult soever the profession and prac-
tice of it may be. That I did receive the blessed
Spirit as my Teacher, Sanctifier, and only Com-
forter ; and cherish all His motions to enlighten,
purify, confirm, comfort and assist me. This I
have done. And I pray God, for the sake of
Christ, to look upon it as a self-dedication ; and
to receive me now as entirely His own, and deal
with me in all respects as such, whether He
afflicts me or prospers me, or whatever He
pleases to do with me who am His. Now hence-
THE CHRISTIAN S RECONSECRATION. 5
forth I am not to act in any respect as my own.
I shall act as my own, if I ever make use of any
of my powers to any thing that is not to the glory
of God, or do not make the glorifying of Him my
whole and entire business ; if I murmur in the
least at afflictions ; if I grieve at the prosperity
of others ; if I am in any way uncharitable ; if I
am angry because of injuries ; if I revenge my
own cause ; if I do any thing purely to please
myself, or avoid any thing for the sake of my
ease, or omit any thing because it is great self-
denial ; if I trust to myself ; if I take any of the
-^praise of any good that I do, or, rather, God does
by me ; or if I am any way proud. . . Resolved,
frequently to renew the dedication of myself to
God, which was made at my baptism, and which
I solemnly renewed when I was received into the
communion of the Church ; and which I have
solemnly ratified this twelfth day of Jan-iary,
1723. Resolved, never to act as if I were any
way my own, but entirely and altogether God's."
Upon -the twenty-fifth of July, 1805, Edward
Pay son, being upon that day twenty-two years of
age, wrote the following words : " Having resolved
this day to dedicate myself to my Creator, in a
6 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
i
serious and solemn manner, by a written cove-
nant, I took a review of my past life, and of the
numerous mercies by which it has been distin-
guished. Then, with sincerity as I humbly hope,
I took the Lord to be my God, and engaged to
love, serve, and obey Him. Relying on the assist-
ance of His Holy Spirit, I engaged to take the
Holy Scriptures as the rule of my conduct, the
Lord Jesus Christ to be my Saviour, and the
Spirit of all grace and consolation as my Guide
and Sanctifier. The vows of God are on me."
Upon the first of May, 1807, he renewed this
dedication of himself to God in a solemn Con-
fession and form of Covenant, closing thus: " As
a testimony of my sincere and hearty consent to
this covenant, of my hope and desire to see the
blessings of it, and as a swift witness against me
if I depart from it, I do now, before God and the
holy angels, subscribe with my hands unto the
Lord. Edivard Payson. . . . And may this cove-
nant be ratified in Heaven ! And do thou remem-
ber, my soul ! that the vows of God are upon
thee. . . . Having drawn up the above covenant,
I spread it before the Lord ; and, after confession
of sins, -and seeking pardon through the blood of
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATIQN. 7
Christ, I did solemnly accept it before Him, as
my free act and deed ; and embraced Christ in it
as the only ground of my hope."
These are illustrations of a Christian's re-
consecration, a practical commentary upon the
apostolic precepts : " I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. . . .
Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. . . . Know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
Which is in you, Which ye have of God, and ye
are not your own? For ye are bought with a
price: therefore, glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God's."
Reconsecration supposes a first consecration.
There was a time when, as an anxious sinner
oppressed with a sense of guilt and peril, des-
pairing of human help, you beheld the Lamb of
God who taketh away the sin of the world ; you
accepted Him as a personal Redeemer, you recog-
nized His claim to your entire being, and you ded-
icated yourself to His service. That hallowed
8 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. .
hour may be but recent in your experience, or it.
may be that for many years you have been active
in various departments of Christian usefulness ;
you have enjoyed continuous and comforting evi-
dence that you are a child of God, or, perhaps,
your mind has been at times perplexed and dark-
ened ; you have maintained a consistent Chris-
tian deportment in the eyes of your fellow-men,
or, possibly, the fervor of your first love may have
declined, and you have been led astray by the
corruptions of your own heart, and the tempta-
tions of the world. Whatever and wherever you
now may be in the Christian pilgrimage, permit
me to suggest for your candid consideration the
value of a solemn personal act of reconsecration
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. There are some Christians in whose early
experience the idea of consecration is not prom-
inent. They believe in Christ as a Saviour
through whom they receive forgiveness of sins
and adoption into the household of God. They
know, in some measure, the peace of those who
are justified by faith, and rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God. But they do not, with the
same definiteness, apprehend Christ as their Mas-
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 9
ter, to Whom they belong, and in Whose service
they dedicate their entire energies to practical
personal obedience. This thought does not thor-
oughly take posssession of their souls, and decide
the conduct of their lives. They are not con-
scious of a distinct renunciation of the world,
deliberately forsaking all f its attractions, and
choosing a life of self-denial, as disciples of
Christ. They may live many years, knowing at
times genuine Christian" emotion and affection ;
and yet may not thoroughly surrender every
thing to the service of Christ, and enter vigor-
ously upon the Christian work. Some are puz-
zled and perplexed by the call to an entire dedica-
tion of thought, purpose, energy, time, property,
business, every thing, to Christ, and confess to
themselves and to others that they do not un-
derstand what it means. They are conscious
that it is, in many of its aspects, a new question,
and that they have never fully grappled with its
requirements. But, as the question begins to
present itself in its true significance, and they
perceive its fundamental nature, and become
aware that it is searching to the innermost
motive of their hearts, not unfrequently their
l*
10 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
whole religious experience is upheaved by it,
they take the question up prayerfully and con-
scientiously in the fear of God ; and when,
yielding to its claims, they do indeed dedicate
their entire being practically and for ever to the
service of Christ, the act marks in their history
a new and momentous era.
II. There are some who begin the Christian
life with a definite act of self-dedication to God,
but who fail to retain the idea as an influential
power amid the exposures of the world. Of the
multitudes awakened to serious thought, who
have read " The Rise and Progress of Religion
in the Soul," by Philip Doddridge, not a few,
endeavoring in all simplicity to follow his direc-
tions, have paused as they concluded the seven-
teenth chapter, and then and there for them-
selves have transcribed and signed some form
of " self-dedication to the service of God." They
have done it with seriousness and prayer, and
have never forgotten the impressions of the hour.
Probably something of this style of dedication
has been known by a considerable number of
persons who have been hopefully converted dur-
ing childhood or early youth. Occasionally, there
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 11
is one who records that he signs this private
covenant of his soul with God with his own
blood. The years roll on, and this young, ardent
disciple has gone forth to his work in life, deter-
mined to be entirely dedicated to the service of
Christ, according to the spirit of the covenant
into which he has entered with the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. But he finds that he
has very feebly comprehended what those solemn
words included ; that it is quite a different matter
in youth, in the solitude of private meditation,
to transcribe such a covenant, and to sign it upon
the knees before God, and in mature years, amid
all the exposures of earth's ambition and wealth,
to observe that covenant in daily life and con-
versation. There are some, indeed, who never
give over this purpose ; who hold themselves
steadily to their vows during all their days ; and
who frequently renew their consecration, with a
clearer apprehension of its meaning and with
increasing solemnity, to the end of life. But it is
a fact to which many will testify in sadness, that
the personal dedication which they made to God
in the days of their youthful religious fervor,
long since lost its practical power in their Chris-
12 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
tian experience. " The cares of the world, the
deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other
things, entering in have choked the word, and it
has become unfruitful." The glow of tender
personal love to Christ has passed away. They
have not cherished the thought of His presence
as they have journeyed along their pilgrimage.
They have been living, in a great degree, for
themselves, consulting their own ease and con-
venience, turning aside from the path of daily
self-denial, gradually conforming to the world,
ceasing the strenuous endeavor to be entirely
free from sin and entirely godly in heart and
life, until by and by, awakened in the midst
of their days to consider where they are in the
Christian life, they find themselves absorbed in
selfish and worldly plans ; and the idea of an
entire self-dedication to the service of God, into
which they once 'entered with alacrity, is well-
nigh appalling to them. They wonder how they
ever subscribed to such a covenant, and are
almost ready to protest against the act as sacri-
lege. As they apprehend it now, its significance
becomes awful. They begin to reason with them-
selves, and ask, Does every thing I have belong
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATIOX. 13
to God ? Am I only a steward using God's
property sacredly for His service ? Am I living,
speaking, transacting business, regulating all my
affairs on that principle ? If this is the test
of Christian discipleship, what is my evidence
of piety worth? Some refuse to yield to the
searching power of such questions as these, ad-
ministering to themselves a delusive comfort in
the hasty assertion, that entire consecration is an
impossibility, and need not be attempted ; but
others bow down beneath this startling revelation
of their own selfishness and pride, submit them-
selves to the word which pierces even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, cry earnestly
to God for mercy, mourn bitterly as they meet
the eye of the Saviour they have grieved, and at
length know in their own experience the priceless
worth of a genuine reconsecration.
III. There are some striving to follow on to
know the Lord, who become conscious that their
practical ideal of the Christian life is changing,
their views are enlarging, they are hungering and
thirsting for a type of Christian experience to
which they have not yet attained, and which yet
seems attainable : they want, as far as it can be
14 .THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
known on earth, the full liberty of a child of God ;
and they find themselves in prayer, meditation,
and Christian labor, perpetually impelled toward
the endeavor to be consciously and entirely
Christ's, " body, soul, and spirit." As one of the
helps in this direction, they learn, perhaps after
protracted and weary struggles, that there is a
wondrous power, while in this attitude of thought,
in appropriating the Lord Jesus Christ as an
atoning Saviour anew, in recognizing God's right
to all we have and are anew, in receiving in a
special sense the personal anointing of the Holy
Ghost anew, and in accepting the fulness of prom-
ises, as they are dawning upon the illumined soul
in a richer and more glorious significance, anew.
" Resolved," writes Edwards, " to improve
every opportunity when I am in my best and
happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my
soul on the Lord Jesus Christ ; to trust and con-
fide in Him, and consecrate myself wholly to
Him." " In order to maintain this habitual
delightful sense of God," writes Doddridge, " ]
would frequently renew my dedication to Him,
in that covenant on which all my hopes depend,
and my resolutions for universal zealous obedi-
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 15
ence. I will study redeeming love more, and
habitually resign myself and all my concerns to the
Divine disposal. ... blessed Spirit ! graciously
descend on my polluted heart. Strike the flint,
thou almighty arm of the Lord 1 that the waters-
may flow forth. I come to humble myself before
God ; I come to renew my resolutions against
sin ; I come to refer my concerns to Him ; I come
to seal my engagements to be the Lord's." This
is the man who wrote the familiar hymn, whose
final stanza begins,
" High Heaven that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear.' 1 ' 1
Whitefield writes, in the maturity of his life,
after long years of fervent laborious service for
Christ, " I intend, by God's assistance, now to be-
gin; for as yet, alas ! I have done nothing. Oh that
1 may begin in earnest! God quicken my tardy
pace, and help me to do much work in little
time ! "
Occasionally it is an epoch in the Christian life
from which some believers date a remarkable
change in the joyous consciousness of their souls,
when after a painful strife for entire consecration
to Christ, at length, with all simplicity of faith,
16 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECEATION.
they receive a consecration from Christ : when
yielding to what they perceive are His acknowl-
edged claims, they hear Him saying, " Ye have
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and or-
dained you, that ye should go and bring forth
fruit, and that your fruit should remain. ... As
My Father hath sent Me, so send I you." Cal-
vin, in his Commentary on the First Epistle of
John, exclaims, " I have not sued Thee by niy
love, Christ ! Thou hast loved me of Thy free
will. Thou hast shone into my soul, and then
every thing that dazzled my eyes by a false splen-
dor immediately disappeared, or at least I take no
count of it." Here the Christian's reconsecra-
tion and his re-acceptance of the unsearchable
riches of Christ sweetly blend together ; and what
is regarded as that difficult act of self-abdication
is found to be a precious act of childlike faith,
leading into all the joy and peace of believing.
This idea is finely illustrated in the account, given
by President Edwards, of the remarkable trans-
ports of one whose fresh experience, though she
had been a devoted Christian for twenty-seven
years, he thus relates ; u They began near three
years ago, in a great increase, in an extraordinary
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 17
self-dedication and renunciation of the world and
resignation of all to God, made in a great view of
God's excellency, and high exercise of love to
Him, and rest and joy in Him, . . . and began in
a yet higher degree, about a year and a half ago,
upon another new resignation of all to G-od, with a
yet greater fervency and delight of soul, . . . and
began in a much higher degree still, the last win-
ter, upon another resignation and acceptance of Grod,
as the only portion and happiness of the soul,
wherein the whole world, with the dearest enjoy-
ments in it, were renounced as dirt and dung ; and
all that is pleasant and glorious, and all that is
terrible in this world, seemed perfectly to vanish
into nothing ; and nothing to be left but God, in
Whom the soul was perfectly swallowed up as in
an infinite ocean of blessedness." Is there such
a self-dedication of the soul to God as this ? Are
there such reconsecrations of the already renewed
and partially sanctified believer as these, followed
by " a constant sweet peace and calm and serenity
of soul, without any cloud to interrupt it, ... a
wonderful access to God by prayer, as it were
seeing Him, and sensibly, immediately conversing
with Him ; as much, oftentimes, as if Christ were
18 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
here upon earth, ... all sorrow and sighing fled
away, except grief for past sins and for remaining
corruption, and that Christ is loved no more, and
that God is no more honored in the world, and
a compassionate grief toward fellow-creatures, a
daily sensible doing and suffering every thing for
God, . . . doing all as the service of love, and so
doing it with a continual, uninterrupted cheerful-
ness, peace and joy ? ' Well may we exclaim,
with the narrator of this experience, " If such
things are enthusiasm and the fruits of a distem-
pered brain, let my brain be evermore possessed
of that happy distemper ! If this be distraction,
I pray God that the world of mankind may be all
seized with this benign, meek, beneficent, beatifi-
cal, glorious distraction ! '
It does not become one Christian believer to
mark out the precise method in which another
shall for himself perform this solemn act of per-
sonal reconsecration to God. The method will
differ according to the constitutional tempera-
ment and external circumstances of each indi-
vidual, and will also be modified by peculiarities
of past religious experience. Let each one
select his own method. It may be by means of
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 19
some written form of covenant signed and sealed
as in the Divine presence ; it may be by making
an inventory of all one has and is, and specifi-
cally dedicating property, business, time, reading,
recreation,* family, person, body, and mind to
God ; it may be in the forgetting of what is
behind, and a new and full acceptance of Christ
as all in all ; it may be in connection with ago-
nizing supplication ; it may be in simple, quiet
trust : but in some form let it be a transaction
between each individual and God, the genuine
outpouring of the soul with the sincerity of one
meeting his Lord face to face, and henceforth
knowing Him in the fellowship of a loved and
loving child.
Come then, longing disciple ! not merely to
make a consecration, but also to receive a conse-
cration. Your Lord and Master is setting you
apart anew for His own work, and will bestow
upon you of His own fullness. For it is the
blessedness of yielding up all to God, that hence-
forth you receive all from God ; and, if you are
His, He also is yours. Not, then, with timid and
* " Let me consecrate my sleep and all ray recreations to God, and
seek them for his sake." Doddridye.
20 THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION.
hesitating steps, but with joyous thanksgivings,
amazed at our own sinful distrust, hastening to
fall down penitently and confess our sin, hasten-
ing to receive the Divine benediction waiting to
be bestowed upon us, let us now approach the
altar of our God, blessing Him that it is our priv-
ilege, with a clearer apprehension of the signifi-
cance of the act, to present our bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our
reasonable service.
Almighty God ! Whose I am by creation, preser-
vation, and redemption, I do now bow before
Thee, a sinner utterly unworthy, renouncing self,
appropriating anew to my own soul the blood of
the atonement ; accepting anew the Lord Jesus
Christ as the way, the truth, and the life ; ac-
knowledging Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
as my gracious, ever-present God. I do now
surrender every member of my body and every
faculty of my mind to Thee, to be used by Thee
as 'Thou shalt please. I give to Thee, without
reservation, my time, my business, my earthly
possessions, receiving all that Thou shalt bestow
as a sacred trust to be employed in Thy service.
To the extension of Thy kingdom in the world, to
THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. 21
the salvation of my fellow-men, to the glory of
Christ, my Saviour, I devote, with thankfulness
of heart, all I have and am. I accept Thy bless-
ing, Thy guidance, Thy constant presence, Holy
Comforter, to be with me and in me evermore to
the end. And as I now feel Thy hand, Divine
Redeemer, laid upon my head re-dedicating me to
Thy service, / accept the dedication. " God for-
bid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is cruci-
fied unto me, and I unto the world." "THY
VOWS ARE UPON ME, GOD I "
COVENANT.
[The folio-wing form of covenant has been prepared, by Rev.
Dr. KIRK, on the basis of one which was written by President
EDWARDS. It is inserted here for those who may desire to use
such a form.]
IN the name of my God and Saviour, "Who promises me
strength for all my work, I hereby enter into this cove-
nant.
Acknowledging my unworthiness and His infinite
goodness ; deeply lamenting my present unhappy dis-
tance from Him ; fervently imploring the forgiveness of
all my sins, and entreating for Christ's sake to be called
a child of God, I hereby renounce the world as my
portion ; all the pleasures, honors, and profits of sin ;
and take the Lord to be my portion and my Saviour.
I engage to make it my supreme design, to exalt God
above all creatures in my own view, and in the view of
all men.
I will endeavor evermore to stand upon the founda-
tion God has laid in Zion, the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, as the ground of my peaceful
relations with God.
[22]
COVENANT. 23
I engage, in all my conversation and intercourse with
others, to deal honestly, justly, and uprightly; never
overreaching or defrauding in any matter, nor wilfully
injuring them in their interest.
I engage to give no just cause of offence to any;
either by negligently withholding from him his dues, or
by speaking evil of him, or needlessly mentioning his
faults, or by allowing a spirit of ill-will or any unkind
feeling, or by maintaining a party spirit.
I engage to obey the Lord's command, "If thou
bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy
gift before the altar, and go thy way : first be reconciled
to thy brother ; and then come, and offer thy gift."
I engage to avoid all those pastimes, which, upon
sober and prayerful consideration, seem to me inconsis-
tent with a devout religious spirit and close walking
with God.
I engage to promote, in myself and others, all gen-
erous, pure, heavenly dispositions ; to walk in my house
in the fear of the Lord.
I engage to put away, as far as is in my power,
within me and around me, every thing that hinders my
own growth in holiness and the conversion of others to
God.
Cheerfully and gratefully I lay myself, and all I am
24 COVENANT.
and own, at the feet of Him who redeemed me with
His precious blood, engaging to follow Him, and bearing
the cross He places upon me.
By this covenant I will frequently examine myself,
and review my life ; occasionally renewing it with
prayer and fasting.
To God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the God
of grace and salvation, I hereby devote myself for time
and eternity. Amen.
Slbbrcsscs to Cburcb
Are in preparation, as follows. viz. :
1. The Duty of a more Strict Observance of the
/
Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
2. The Power and Office of the Holy Spirit, by
Kev. Dr. ADAMS.
o. The Power of Prayer, by Rev. Dr. KIRK.
4. The Christian's Reconsecration, by Rev. Mr.
ALDEN.
5. The Worldliness of Nominal Christians, by Rev.
Dr. TV EBB.
6. The Spread of the Gospel in the City among the
Poor and those who habitually neglect the Services of
the Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
7. The Christian's Duty to work for the Saving of
Souls, by Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
8. Revivals of Religion, by Rev. Mr. TODD.
9. The Duty of Daily Secret Prayer and Daily
Study of the Bible, by Rev. Mr. MANNING.
10. The Duty of Christians to unite with some
Church, and the Duty of Church Members to unite
with the Church where they statedly worship, by Rev.
Mr. FAY.
11. The 'Divine Sovereignty in its Relation to Hu-
man Salvation, bv Rev. Mi 1 . BAKER.
In accordance with the recommendation of the Coun-
cil, the Addresses named above will be printed without
delay, for the purpose suggested. The first of the
series, by Rev. Mr. ALDEN, will be issued in a few
days.
THE AYOKLDLHSTESS
OF
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS.
BY
REV. E. B. AVEBB. D.D.
hiblisbro bu $ot of the Congregational Council.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
3
TILE WOELDLI^ESS
OF
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS.
BY
REV. E. B. WEBB, D.D.
bg 0otc of tfje Congregational Council.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NO YES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
of
JOHN, writing to fathers and young men, uses
this language, terse and decisive : " Love not the
~ o /
world, neither the things that are in the world* If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him" Is there occasion for Christians
now to take this stringent exhortation home to
their own heart and life ? and are we ready to
apply a test so incisive and irresistible ?
It seems to be taken for granted, that the mem-
bers of our churches are worldly-minded. It is
a root disease, blighting our strength, and repel-
ling the Divine approaches. It is a guilty state,
calling for self-scrutiny, immediate repentance,
and practical reform. How many are willing to
look into this matter, and determine what spirit
they are of ? Are you ?
[3]
4 WORLDLINESS OP
Let us see. Paul makes a clear, sharp dis-
tinction between the flesh and the Spirit : " To
be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace." And the test he puts
in this way : " They that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." Now,
we are not going into the street for evidence ;
nor into places of business, nor into places of
pleasure, nor into circles of friendship, to note
the conversation ; nor into Christian homes,
to learn, from the tastes and habits of the
children, what is the dominant spirit of the par-
ents. This might be very conclusive, and still
very superficial. Let me put it and leave it to
every one's own conscience : Say, brother, in the
presence of God, and to Him who searches the
heart, have you been spiritually minded or world-
ly-minded ?
" No man can serve two masters." " Ye can-
not serve God and mammon." Either the love of
the world or the love of God must be uppermost.
And, if a man love the world, " how dwelleth the
love of God in him ? '
Paul puts the test still further: " But ye are
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. 5
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you." There is a dif-
ference between a dwelling and an inn. The one
is a place for transient visitors ; the other, a per-
manent abode, a home. Now, we have had a
great many good thoughts during the last half-a-
dozen years ; but have our hearts been any thing
more than an inn, into which they have entered
and from which they have departed like transient
visitors ? Jesus was constrained to abide with
the two disciples till they knew Him, and had a
message for those at Jerusalem. Have you con-
strained Him to abide with you ? Or is this all
that you know, that He has occasionally passed
by ?
The Comforter was given expressly to " abide ' :
with you for ever. You know how He lifts the
soul into sympathy with Jesus ; how the world
seems but vanity and ashes, and the kingdom of
heaven real and precious, when He is present.
Has your heart been a home for the Comforter ?
Blessed companionship ! happy home ! Or does
all this sound like talk about dreamland, or a
vision of the future yet to be overtaken ?
If further evidence of our want of the spirit-
6 WORLDLINESS OF
ual mind is required, we have it in the fact, that
the peculiar, distinguishing doctrines of the gospel
are assented to rather than believed. As a dead
chieftain in the camp, they inspire no awe ; as an
opinion about the height of the Andes, they feed
the strength of no supreme conviction. But
these vital truths of the gospel, such as the guilt
of all men ; forgiveness only through faith in the
blood of Christ crucified ; native depravity, and
regeneration by the Holy Ghost ; a day of judg-
ment ; a final and eternal separation of the
righteous and the wicked, these are not dead
theories, not the footballs of human speculation,
but living truths for living men to confront and
grapple with, ay, rather, truths to be received
in mastery of the conscience and will, heart and
life, of every rational creature.
And not only these, but the principles which
should govern our daily life are equally ignored,
if not equally offensive. We are ready to soften
down the doctrines, and indulge, with many
plausible excuses, the desire for personal ease
and sensual gratification. Jesus said unto his
disciples, " If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. 7
and follow me." Now, where are the cross-bearers
in this ease-loving, pleasure-seeking age? Are
there none ? yes, here and there one. But put
the test just quoted, and put this further test:
" If any man come to me, and hate not his father
and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple." Do you really put your Saviour
before yourself? Do you consciously subordi-
nate all family considerations to the interests of
Christ's kingdom ? You may decide, if you will,
what spirit you are of. Dear brethren, shall we
fly from this subject to something more agreea-
ble ? or shall we tremblingly put the test, and
abide the issue ?
Still further, keeping to our own hearts, let us
examine our aims. For what, for whom, are we
living ? You know the Scripture : " If ye be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above." " Take no thought for the body, what
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or what ye
shall put on, but" think about this, do this,
u seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness." Brethren, it is a fearful thing
not to be in sympathy with Jesus. Are we aim-
8 WORLDLINESS OF
ing at his ends ? " Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven." Now, brother, have you
not been devoted for some years past, mind and
heart, to material possessions and worldly pleas-
ures? Can you claim confidence in your self-
knowledge, and admit any thing else ? If, in all
this struggling and crowding and jostling, you
have been aiming to advance the cause of Christ,
and, in a spirit of self-denial, serenely laying up
treasure in heaven, God be praised ; but have
you?
We do not suppose that Christians are guilty
of gross sins or inconsistencies. We take it for
granted that they avoid all sharp practice, and
doubtful indulgences, and open selfishness. But
he who goes no further than this has a most im-
perfect idea of Christ, and of the believer's rela-
tion to Him. He who stops with the outward,
has not even approached the Divine life ; and
" knows nothing as he ought to know it."
And now let us turn to look at some of the
consequences of woiidliness :
1. It excites the displeasure of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When the Lord talked to Peter about
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. 9
going to Jerusalem and suffering at the hands of
the chief priests and elders, and about being
killed, and raised again 011 the third day, that
disciple would change the subject, and avoid the
predictions. But the Lord, whose heart was set
on the prosperity of His kingdom, though it must
prosper through self-denial and self-sacrifice, was
offended with Peter, and turned His face from
him with this rebuke : " Thou savorest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of
men." To enjoy Christ's favor, we must have
His spirit. To share His fellowship, we must
share his purposes. Napoleon once said, " Jeru-
salem is not in the line of my operations." But,
if we would stand in the presence of Jesus, and
enjoy His face, we must be ready to sympathize
with Him in all His expectations, and go wher-
ever He shall lead. AVhat can compensate for the
displeasure of the Lord ?
2. Another result of worldliness is an utter
want of confidence in the use and efficacy of the
simple, essential truths of the gospel. To suffer,
to die, " that be far from Thee, Lord." To rely
upon the doctrines, to resort to prayer, to expect
the presence and conscious influence of the Holy
10 WORLDLINESS OP
Ghost, " that be far from our confidence," is
the practical testimony of the nominal Christian.
And, instead, he relies upon mere human talent
or influence or eloquence to advance the cause of
Christ, and resorts to mere worldly contrivances,
and panders to a depraved popular taste. As
well advance the spring, and loose the streams,
and clothe the valleys with golden harvests, with
a fire of brush and a garden hose. How can one
have confidence in spiritual powers and persons,
when he has lost all spiritual perception and
affinity ? How can his interest be any thing but
transient, or his experience any thing but shal-
low ?
3. Another effect of worldlv-mindedness is
tf
ignorance of the Holy Spirit's special presence.
It must be a poetic mind to recognize the poet.
It requires a spiritual mind to recognize the
Spirit's presence. Christ agonized in the garden,
but the disciples had not sympathy enough with
Him to keep awake. He came and stood beside
them, and bent over them, with words on His
tongue that would have thrilled their hearts and
gladdened all their future ; but they were igno-
rant and unconscious of His presence. And that
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. 11
was a lost opportunity, a loss never to be made
up, an occasion never to be repeated. Just so,
within the last few years, the Spirit has been
present again and again, present to open the
Scriptures, present to quicken and comfort and
convert the soul ; but worldliness has held every
sense fast locked in sleep. " Oh that thou hadst
known the times of thy visitation ! ' Brethren,
is it not " high time to awake out of sleep," and
listen for the sound of descending wings ?
4. Another effect of worldly mindedness is,
that the believer is obliged to go over the whole
question of his own conversion every time the
Spirit is really poured out. While all are in the
dark together, one man's foundation is as good as
another. But, as soon as the light begins to shine,
the worldly mind is in trouble. Thoughts, affec-
tions, aspirations, have been elsewhere ; and now
a painful want, a miserable uncertainty, is re-
vea^d. Of course, such a Christian can do no
good. He has no strength, no confidence in him-
self. Like a beam of light, severed from the sun,
separated from Christ, his light is darkness. He
has no voice, no burden of prayer, for others ;
all his anxiety is to hear for himself, " Thy
12 WORLDLINESS OP
sins be forgiven thee." And thus it is, over
and over again, every time the Spirit is forced
upon him.
5. And hence another result is very few ad-
ditions to the Church. And even those who
suppose themselves converted find so little differ-
ence between the Church and the world, that they
can hardly decide to change their relation. On
the other hand, the young from Christian families
are brought over to card-playing and wine-drink-
ing ; children spend their sabbaths, or a portion
of them, where they are taught to call their
fathers' faith illiberal, bigoted, puritanic ; operas
flourish, theatres multiply, and Christians relax
their watchfulness and yield to the magnetism of
pleasure, and follow their children. Bohold the
result ! The Church as impotent as a debating
society ; the sharp gratifications of sense sought
and enjoyed, instead of the fruits of the Spirit
and the peace of God in the soul ; Zion trailing
her beautiful garments in the dust ; and almost
no conversions from the world. Again and again,
the atmosphere of our worshipping assemblies
seems agitated, as by the emotions of the Divine
heart ; but it is as when the sunshine and the
NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. 13
dew visit the rock. There is no springing foliage,
no fruit. To be sure, there are, here and there,
conversions among us, and, from time to time,
a few inquirers ; but the appalling confession
forced to the lips even then is, " The children
are come to the birth, and there is not strength
to bring forth."
And now, brethren, what shall be done? We
must go back to the point of departure. When
Bunyan's Christian got out of the way and found
himself in sore trouble, his burden growing hea-
vier instead of lighter, Evangelist told him he
must go back, and enter the path to the wicket-
gate, where he left it. " Then did Christian ad-
dress himself to go back."
And then what ? How shall we prevent a rep-
etition of this turning aside and turning back
from the narrow way ? We must have the love
of God as the supreme and masterful affection of
our soul. The love of the world must be eradi-
cated from the heart. And this can be done only
by enthroning a new spiritual affection. Chal-
mers's phrase, set as the title of a sermon, " The
expulsive power of a new affection," contains the
whole philosophy of a holy, devout Christian life.
14 NOMINAL CHRISTIANS.
We must know this " power" in a conscious daily
experience. To love God according to His char-
acter and worth is to subdue and extirpate every
other affection. Then the Christian's course will
be onward and upward, like the sun, and 110 more
steps backward, and no more aside.
"As by the light of opening day
The stars are all concealed;
So earthly pleasures fade away
When Jesus is revealed."
" Love not the world, neither the things of the
world. If any man love the world, the love of
the Father is not in him."
. 4:. Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Button.
THE
DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
TO UNITE WITH SOME CHURCH ;
AND THE
DUTY OF CHURCH MEMBERS
TO UNITE WITH THE CHURCH WHERE
THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP.
BY REV. S. P. FAY.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND N O Y E S.
1866.
THE
DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
TO UNITE WITH SOME CHURCH;
AND THE
DUTY OF CHUKCH MEMBERS
TO UNITE WITH THE CHURCH WHERE
THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP.
BY REV. S. P. FAY.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
18G6.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G6, by
NICHOLS AND NO YES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND PONS.
of Christians ani
WE are told, in Acts iv, 23, that, as soon as Peter
and John had been dismissed by the chief priests,
" they went to their own company," they went to
their old friends, and returned to their Church-
fellowship. They neither thought themselves ex-
alted above their brethren, nor were they deterred
from joining their own company, either by their
desire of ease or by the fear of the wrath of their
rulers. If they had followed their own personal
wishes, they might have retired to their closets,
and spent their time in quiet, peaceful retirement;
but they were men in a public station, and must
seek the public good also. They knew that their
place was with their own company ; and, in going
" to their own company," they revealed a law of
our nature. It is this, that we associate with
[3]
4 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
those of our own kind. We choose our social
circle ; we choose our party. We unite ourselves
with those who are most like ourselves. We may
not be able to agree with them in all points, to
indorse every thing that the majority receive ; but
we go with those in politics and social life, that,
in most particulars, are of our " own company."
Much more in religious matters, " being let go '
from the bondage of sin, should we " go to our
own company."
I wish to apply this principle to those who
think they have accepted the plan of salvation by
Jesus Christ, and are seeking to lead lives of se-
cret devotion, but who have made 110 public choice
of the side on which they stand. They think
they have accepted Christ as their Saviour, but do
not join themselves with His followers. They
seek to serve Christ in secret, but leave the
Christian community utterly in doubt to which
party they belong. They hope that they are
Christians ; but, if they are, they refuse "to go to
their own company."
Now, I maintain, and wish to illustrate and en-
force the principle, first, that it is the duty of
every Christian to unite with some Church ; and,
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 5
secondly, that it is his duty to unite with the
Church where he statedly worships.
In the New Testament, we find the Church re-
ferred to under two ideas. (1.) The Church as
the aggregate of true believers. This includes all
those who have been redeemed by Christ, and of
which Christ is the spiritual Head : all who are re-
generated by the Holy Ghost, and only such,
belong to this Church, universal and invisible.
It is the assembly of believers, and it is evident'
that onlv believers do in fact belong to it. Others
J
may profess to do so, and the genuineness of
their profession may not be suspected ; but the
revelations of the last day will discover the mis-
take, and show that they never were members of
the true Church, however they might be called
by the name of Christ. The only means of access
into this Church is regeneration by the Spirit of
God. " He that climbeth up some other way is a
thief and a robber."
But, (2) besides this spiritual body, there is
the Church as an association of professed dis-
ciples, an organized, localized, officered body,
into which are to be gathered all those who are
supposed to be the true disciples of Christ. Such
6 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
was the " Church of God which was at Corinth,"
" the Church of Laodicea," each of " the seven
Churches of Asia." When Christ gave to His
followers a rule of discipline for His Church,
in Matt, xviii. 15-18, they understood that all
believers, who in their totality would constitute
the one enduring Church, would also enter into
forms of association, under mutual obligations
and responsibilities. I have not space to develop
the idea at length, and can only say that the truth
is abundantly and clearly established in the New
Testament, that Christ meant that all such as
profess to be real saints, and appear to be so in
the eye of Christian charity, should be gathered
into and constitute a gospel Church. This is
meant by the Church when Christ says to Peter,
" Upon this rock will I build my Church ; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The
idea is fundamental that this visible Church is
not a voluntary and human association. It is a
distinct and entirely different society and king-
dom from civil, worldly associations and confed-
erations : it is of Divine authority. It is called,
in the Scriptures, " the kingdom of heaven,"
" the kingdom of God and of Christ," Who said,
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 7
" My kingdom is not of this world." Christ is the
Founder and Head of the Church. He " loved
the Church and gave Himself for it, that He
might present it to Himself a glorious Church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,"
and tfc God hath put all things under His feet, and
gave Him to be the Head over all things to the
Church." If, now, the visible Church is of Divine
authority, and is organized by the command, and
according to the rules, of Christ, for the perfecting
of His saints and the observance of His ordi-
nances, then it follows that the disciples of Christ
are not at liberty to belong to it or not. They
are bound, by every relationship to Christ, to be-
long to it. But there are special reasons why all
who have been regenerated by the Holy Ghost
will naturally go to their own company, the
Church.
1. A very obvious and conclusive reason is,
because the Saviour commands it. Simple,
prompt obedience to all of God's commands is the
chief characteristic of every true child. It is
hard to see where one can get the evidence of
adoption without obedience. The Bible does not
leave you at liberty to follow your inclinations
8 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
or caprices. You are bound to obey tne com-
mands of the Master at all hazards. Christ
says, "If ye love Me, ye will keep My command-
ments." Now, the command is most plain and
positive : " Take, eat ; this is My body broken for
you." This was a general command, given to all
disciples, because the sacrament itself was de-
signed for all disciples. If you are a disciple, the
command is addressed to you. Put, now, this
command with that other strong statement of our
Saviour, " Whosoever, therefore, shall confess Me
before men, him will I confess before My Father
Which is in heaven ; but whosoever shall deny
Me before men, him will I also deny before My
Father Which is in heaven." The expression,
" before men," shows the act here referred to, to
be a public one. It is a clear declaration, that, if
we refuse to obey the Divine command to confess
Christ before men, Christ will deny before His
Father that we are His disciples. This is in ex-
act agreement with the principle laid down in
2 Cor., chap, vi., respecting separation from the
world ; and the conclusion of the apostle is,
" Wherefore come out from among them, and be
ye separate, saith the Lord." Do you say, " I am
not good enough to eat of the bread and drink of
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 9
the cup " ? But God knew just how bad you were,
when He commanded you to " eat." He knew
what even the wife of your bosom did not know.
If you are a disciple, He commands you 'to come
to His table, and He assures you that His blood
shall cleanse from all stain and spot. He says,
" Come ; because I live, you shall live also."
But you ask, "If I join the Church, shall I not
bring dishonor upon it? If I make a profession
of religion, shall I not make matters worse for
the side I pretend to take ? If I knew I could
live a consistent religious life, I would make a
profession ; but I do not wish to lead a life that
would dishonor Christ." But what are you now
doing but dishonoring Christ ? Is the obligation
to obey Christ, on those in the Church more than
on those out of the Church ? Is not every disciple
a child of God, and under one law ? A man that
stays away from duty and from God dishonors
the cause of God, whether he is in the Church or
out of it. You cannot bring half as much dis-
honor upon the cause of Christ by trying to
obey Him, as you do now while you publicly re-
fuse to obey the command to eat and drink " in
remembrance" of Christ.
1*
10 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
2. Christ has not only commanded us to eat
and drink, but He has enjoined it upon us under
the most impressive conditions. " This do in re-
membrance of Me." It was His dying command;
this fact ought to bind us to obedience. " He
died for us, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him
Who died for them and rose again." Look at the
facts. You were dead in sinfulness, in guilt,
under the law. God was against you, a holy
God, and you unholy. You were proud, prayer-
less, and ungodly. But Christ came and died,
that you might live : He spoke to you in love.
That love was the procuring cause of all your
mercies here and hopes hereafter. He estab-
lished the Church, and instituted the sacrament
on purpose to commemorate that wondrous love ;
and, with His dying lips, He asks you to eat and
drink in remembrance of Him. Can any Chris-
tian heart refuse to obey the command ? Will
not the love of Christ constrain you to do this act
in remembrance of Him? This is one of the
first things that a man should do, when God has
delivered him from the bondage of sin and the
power of the Devil. It is the least that he can
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 11
do. Nobody else has suffered so much on his ac-
count as Christ ; nobody else has such a claim
upon his remembrance. When Christ has accept-
ed him, and promised to save him, and healed his
lusts and his appetites, there is nothing more ra-
tional and right than that he should stand up and
take the vows of Christ upon him. Under such
circumstances, silence and hiding God's work in
the soul is monstrously ungrateful and wicked.
And therefore, when Christ says, " Do this in re-
membrance of me," He commands you to do
that which accords with every sentiment of grati-
tude, and with every sense of justice.
3. It is a testimony to the Divine cause, to
God's law and Christ's kingdom in this world,
that you are in duty bound to give.
There are two opposing forces in this world,
and there is no third party : God and mammon,
righteousness and sin, the Church and the world,
these are drawn up in sharp and bitter warfare.
Our Master declared that this world was the
battle-field on which God and Satan were in con-
flict ; and He says, " He that is not with me is
against me." The conflict is still going on un-
abated in your day and mine. We are born into
12 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
a world where struggle and strife are the law
of moral growth. We are born into a world
where two great contending influences right
and wrong are seeking to overthrow each
other; and the conflict will go on. You can
take your choice as to which side you will be
arrayed upon. You cannot take your choice as to
whether you will be arrayed upon either or not.
There is no middle ground. You are not at
liberty, in this matter, to be indifferent. Under
the circumstances in which you are placed, in-
difference is a sin. When the eternal welfare of
your own friends and children is involved in your
example, indifference is a crime. You are bound
to determine which side you will take. God es-
tablished the Church, that he might gather into it
all who are His friends. He says to every man,
" Choose you this day whom you will serve."
Oh, how many there are in these congregations,
who have been standing for a long while, feeling
that they ought to be Christians, and that they
ought to let it be known that they are Christians !
but they have been ashamed of the service of
Christ, they have been ashamed of themselves.
They have been standing irresolute and uncom-
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 13
mitted. They have not represented Christ before
men. Whatsoever good things they may have
had in the family, they have hid their light
" under a bushel." Men do not think they are
Christians, even though they may be ; and it is
time that you came out, and acknowledged your
allegiance to Christ. It is time that the sanctuary
became a safe place ; for you are in danger of
wearing out your heart and conscience. You are
in danger of wearing out your susceptibility to
truths that are most sacred. Woe be to you,
if you have no taste for the bread or water of
life, or for the fruit of the tree of life ! Woe be
to him who has lost conscience and faith and love
and aspiration ! and, under the circumstances in
which God has placed you, you cannot help losing
all these and more, by your continued refusal to
give this public testimony to the Divine cause.
The sense of gratitude must compel you to this
course. You are the perpetual recipient of God's
mercies. Christ has redeemed you from sin.
There is not one moment in which He does not
brood over you with His thoughts of love. And
by what public act on your part has there been
manifested any love or gratitude or recognition,
14 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
that answered to the noble affection which He has
displayed towards you ? I do not ask you
whether you believe in this Church or that,
^ \.
whether you hold to this doctrine or that : I
present to you this love of God that has upheld
you all the days of your life, and then lay before
you the command of Christ, " Do this in remem-
brance of me," and ask you this question : Can
you, with reason, with honor, with gratitude,
with any sentiment that man ought to cherish, be
indifferent to it? Can you refuse this act of
public recognition of the love of God towards
you?
But I must pass now to speak of " the duty
of Church members to unite with the Church
where they statedly worship."
Instability is one of the marked characteristics
of our times. Men change their opinions and
their pursuits, their residences and their con-
nections, political, social, and religious, almost
as easily as they change their dress. Hence the
counsel of the Apostle, to be " steadfast, immo-
vable," has gone into disrepute, so that the
Christian world " abounds " less than it ought
" in the work of the Lord."
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 15
Multitudes of Christians, in " good and regular
standing," move their residence, but leave their
coven uit vows and Church relations at home.
They give two reasons for doing so : 1. Because
they love the Church of their first espousal to
Christ so much that they cannot endure to take
their names from it. But if you have taken your
personal presence and services from it, if your
j ersonal influence cannot be given to it, of what
value is your name to it? It can only go to
swell the list of those, who, being away from the
watch and care of the Church, in scenes and
temptations unknown to it, are a source of con-
stant anxiety to every faithful Church. Nothing
gives a Church, that is true to its Covenant vows,
so much anxiety as its column of " absentees."
Hence, a true and right love for the Church
would constrain you to take your name from that
list, if, in the providence of God, you are com-
pelled to forsake it, in regard to your bodily
presence and personal helpfulness.
Because they are uncertain how long they shall
remain in a given place. But, if you remain long
enough to take the trouble to move your goods,
your residence, your family, you surely can
16 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
take the trouble to remove your Church relation-
ship, which can be done simply for the asking.
This were better if you were to remove every
six months. Your letter will be your intro-
duction into the new Christian community. It
will give you a spiritual home while you stay.
And the re-examination as to your faith, and
the reasons for your hope, and the reconsecra-
tion of yourself to the new Church, will tend to
make you a live Christian.
I think there is something in the column of
" absent," as given by the statistical Secretary
in the " Congregational Quarterly," to make our
Churches sad. This column is imperfect, because
many Churches do not give their " absentees."
In Massachusetts, nineteen Churches reporting
4,172 members do not give the number of" absen-
tees." Deducting this from the total, and you
find 71,246, of whom 11,706 are absentees ; i.e.,
one-sixth of the whole are absentees. Our own
Churches in this city report (Mariner's Church
not counted) 4,960 members. Of these, the Old
South and Central Church, with a membership
of 718 do not give the number of " absentees ; '
deducting these two Churches, and out of a mem-
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 17
bersliip of 4,242 we find 889 absentees. Where
are these absent ones ? Who is watching over
them, and seeking their edification as we cove-
nanted to do ? Are they guilty of a breach of
covenant in withdrawing " from the watch and
communion of the saints " ? But other Churches
send their members to us also. Let any Church
in our city make an accurate estimate of the
number of Church members elsewhere, who are
worshipping with it without taking letters to it,
and the result will be most significant. One who
was a pastor in one of our neighboring Churches,
searched this matter out carefully, and found this
class forty per cent of the whole number belong-
ing to his Church. It is to be feared that this
case is not an exceptional one. There is
thing wrong here. There is a defect somewhere.
Either Churches are unfaithful to their covenant
vows, or there is a sad depreciation of this sol-
emn value of covenant vows on the part of the
absent themselves.
The evil of this whole matter is, that it is a
practical disowning of the Church relation. It is
true, in theory, that these can never " be as they
have been." The solemn vows " go with them
18 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
through life and accompany them to the bar of
God." They are everywhere and always account-
able to God for the manner in which they keep
these vows. But they are vows made to be kept
in connection with the visible Church. Yet the
Church at home cannot watch over them, and
they cannot labor in connection with it, and they
refuse to unite themselves with the people of God
where they are. Are they not practically re-
moved from the watch and care of the Church ?
There is something in our very nature which
forces us to feel less perfectly an obligation which
we do not acknoiuledge with those with whom we
worship. Our vows do not bind us so perfectly,
because we have not renewed our promise to keep
them where God has cast our lot.
Then, also, it brings upon us the weakness of
& divided heart. The vows of the professed fol-
lower of Christ bind him to give his affections
and energies to the Church where his name is
recorded. But his bodily presence and his daily
interests bind him to the Church where he wor-
ships ; and so, by a law of our nature, in this
divided state of his heart his labors are paralyzed.
His sympathy cannot flow forth strongly ; and so,
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 19
by a .natural consequence, he becomes absorbed in
pleasures, or in the acquisition of honor, or in
the accumulation of wealth. No man will labor
with all his heart for the Master where he resides,
unless the covenant vows of God are upon him.
This is why God requires us to become His by
taking upon ourselves the obligation, and pro-
nouncing the voluntary pledge, the recorded and
blood-sealed oath. In going from the familiar
home of his early consecration, the Christian
needs to carry his armor with him, and put it on,
and openly range himself shoulder to shoulder
with the followers of Christ. He must unite him-
self with the people of God where he is, and make
to himself a new home for his faith, and a new
field for his Christian service. The exigencies of
no man's condition can be met by a hidden and
secret Christian life, or by an occasional, inciden-
tal, and easy effort, or by worshipping here to-
day and there to-morrow. That is not complying
with the exhortation of Christ to " strive to enter
in at the strait gate." The gate was designed
expressly for entering ; and God desires that men
shall enter, and has established His Church, and
made arrangements for all to enter, and He says,
20 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
" strive, agonize to enter in," i.e., put forth every
effort. When the mild and calm Saviour speaks
thus, I know that there is peril about ; I know
that there is danger which may well arrest the
attention and call out the utmost skill and exer-
tion of man. No Church, 110 Christian man, can
afford to be indifferent in regard to these cove-
nant vows. In the midst of peril and the thun-
der of excitement in a city like this, that man is
especially in danger who is least awake. No
man can afford to live without taking these cove-
nant vows fully upon himself. No man can afford
to treat the question of his soul's welfare as you
do who make no profession, or you who think
you can live and prosper without carrying the
covenant vows with you wherever you go. You
are drifting on towards the ocean of eternity with
the idea, perhaps, that you are about as well off
as other people. You look about you, and see a
great many people who are living as you do, while
they hope they are Christians, and perhaps have
recorded their vows some hundreds of miles
away ; and you say, " I am as good as they are,
and, if they go to heaven, I shall." But suppose
that neither of you are going there. Our Lord de-
AND CHURCH MEMBERS. 21
clares that there are many who will go up in the
last day, and say, " Lord, Lord, have we not pro-
phesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out
devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful
works ? ' and who will hear the response, " I
never knew you." All the probabilities certainly
are that this number will be largely taken from
those who have never confessed Christ before
men, or, having confessed Him, are living in care-
less neglect of their Church relations. By all the
honor that is in you, by all the truth that is in
you, by the hope of your soul's health and happi-
ness, I beseech of you to flee within the sacred
enclosure of the Church. " Take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to with-
stand in the evil day, and, having done all, to
stand."
/>. Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
THE DUTY
OF
DAILY SECRET PRAYER
AND
DAILY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
15 V
REV. J. M. MANNING.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AXD NOTES.
18GG.
s
THE DUTY
OF
DAILY SECRET PRAYER
AND
DAILY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
BY
REV. J. M. MANNING.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NOTES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
ALOXE WITH GOD.
A TIME comes, in the experience of every true
Christian, when the words, " enter into thy
closet," are no more the stern command which
they once were, but one of the sweetest of all
Christ's invitations. The moments set apart for
our secret devotions are " the children's hour '
in the Divine family. You know how it is wont
to be in the household where love reigns. The
child grows weary of playing, and steals away
to the door of the room in which the father is.
It finds that door ajar, and hears, from within, a
voice of welcome. And so, entering in and hav-
ing shut the door, it climbs upon the father's
knees, is folded in his arms, and hangs about his
neck, interchanging kisses of affection with him,
and hearing tender replies to all its little story of
[3]
4 ALONE WITH GOD.
wants and troubles, till its heart is made to over-
flow with comfort and gladness.
And is it at all otherwise, only unspeakably
more blessed, with the soul which has learned
to turn toward God, and say, " Abba, Father" ?
That new-born soul is forced to pass much
of its time in a temporal world, where it finds
many disturbances. It is driven hither and
/
thither by unholy impulses. It is tossed up
and down upon a sea of temptations. It is
deceived, misled, betrayed, 'disappointed, until
it cries out, as did the poor Prodigal, for its
Father. And that Father, " Who seeth in se-
cret," hears the cry of the distressed child. He
is near it, in the calm and retired place, saying,
" Enter in, thou bewildered and helpless one,
and rest thee for an hour, communing with Me.
Has the storm dealt hardly with thy little bark ?
Here, in ' thy closet,' is its haven of peaceful
waters. Have the archers shot at thee, and art
thou sorely wounded ? Here, in ' thy closet,' is
the balm of Gilead. Thy spirit hungers for food
which the world cannot give : here it is, ' the
bread of heaven,' of which if a man eat, he
shall never hunger. Poor child of immortality,
ALONE WITH GOD. 5
thou art thirsty ; and here is < the water of life,'
which, if thou drink it, shall be in thee a well
of water springing up into everlasting life.
Come, thou weary child, born of Mine own Spirit, t
and refresh thee in thy Father's love ! ' Enter
into thy closet,' and be alone with Me in that se-
cret place, until thou shalt learn how much more
eady than any earthly parent I am to give good
gifts unto My children." Such, though alas!
how unworthily spoken by my poor lips, is the
mind of the Father towards us, when He bids us
enter into our closet, and shut the door, and pray
in secret to Him.
This meeting with the Father in secret, in
order to fulfil its blessed purpose, must be dis-
tinguished by three things, the reading of the
Scriptures, self-examination, prayer. These may
be considered separately, though, in experience,
each of them involves the other two. You can-
not examine yourself in the light of God, without
praying all the time, " Create in me a clean
heart, and renew a right spirit within me."
Together with your reading of the Scriptures
goes forward that process of your own thoughts,
" accusing, or else excusing, one another." And
6 ALONE WITH GOD.
even while you pray, uttering the weakness and
longings of which you are conscious, you find no
words but those of the Spirit adequate to your
groanings. As a vessel escapes from the tem-
pest into its quiet harbor by means of three
things, ballast to keep it low in the water,
sails to catch the wind, and a helm to guide its
course, so the Christian returns into his rest in
the closet by means of self-examination, prayer,
and reading of the Scriptures, all helping to-
gether. It is the Scriptures, read with a docile
spirit, that hold him to his course ; it -is beholding
himself in the light of God that keeps him low
in his own thoughts ; it is crying, " Abba, Fa-
ther," that bears him consciously on into his
rest. Each of these exercises so involves the
others, that, if you are diligent in either of them,
you will be in all ; and, if you neglect either
one, you will become negligent of them all. As
soon as you begin to examine yourself, you will
look for the perfect standard with which to com-
pare your life and character. As soon as you
begin to know that standard, you will begin to
cry, " God be merciful to me a sinner." If
you tell me that you never pray, then I know
ALONE WITH GOD.
that you are not a faithful student of the Bible
and your own heart. If I could persuade you to
attend to either of these duties as you should, I
might feel sure that you would soon be attending
to them all.
And what words of persuasion shall I speak ?
But hold a moment, fellow-disciple, and consider
what I am proposing to do. Persuade you, who
profess to be God's child, to have a time and
place for meeting with that Father! Can it be
that any such persuasion is needed ? Oh, where
is my charity ! do I not, with cruel tongue, speak
evil against you falsely, when I intimate that you
have not daily communings with God, in your
closet? Persuading you, at this late day, to do
that in which the new life begins, and which is
its light of life for evermore ! The conversion of
the apostle Paul was proved by his praying. The
Lord said to His servant Ananias, " Arise, and
go into the street which is called Straight, and
inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul,
of Tarsus ; for, behold, he prayeth." Ananias
need be afraid of him no longer. He had been
born into God's family : God had begotten him,
through the Spirit, to be a dear child ; and the
8 ALONE WITH GOD.
voice of that sonship in him was a prayer, feebly
lisped in the dawn of the truth that God was his
Father, and to be spoken more articulately, and
with a richer fulness, as he grew toward the
stature of a man in Christ Jesus. A prayerless
Christian ! that seems impossible. To be a Chris-
tian is to partake of the life of Christ. But the
life of Christ was that of a Divine sonship in
humanity. That sonship was a being in the
Father as His dear child, knowing Him, and
being known of Him, as in this tender fellowship,
a fellowship which was expressed by the Son
in prayer, and by the Father in hearing and
answering that prayer. So, if you pray not, as
Christ did, what can we say but that you have no
part in, Him? Can you be God's child if you
never call on Him as your Father ? if, when
you hear Him say, " Seek My face/' you answer
not, "Lord, Thy face will I seek"? If you
have been born of the free woman, how is it that
you speak not the language of the free woman ?
Should not the children of Canaan use the speech
of Canaan ?
Let God decide the question. I see not how it
can be, yet will assume as true what a Council
ALONE WITH GOD. 9
of Pastors and Delegates, representing five thou-
sand Church-members, has said of the prayerless-
ness of Christians. It may, in some mysterious
manner, be true, that you are a child of God,
though you have not the power to call Him
Father. The Holy Spirit, let us assume, may
have begotten you from the dead, and made you
a partaker of Christ's life, though you are not
conscious of such a life, " hid with Christ in
God." Granting that this life of sonship is
in you, though so stupefied by worldliness as to
have no longing unto the Father, no filial im-
pulse to go and meet that Father in the secrecy
of the closet ; how, then, shall you be persuaded
to make that closet your daily resort, till the
heart of the child in you shall find its voice in
finding the heart of the Father ?
First, think. upon the life of Christ, and how
large a space in that life was filled by His secret
communion with God. He prayed so much, and
entered so fully into the mind of the Father, as
to seem almost to carry His closet about with Him
wherever He went. Appearing outwardly to men,
in temporal form and vesture, He yet inhabited
eternity, dwelt "in the bosom of the Father."
1*
10 ALONE WITH GOD.
This spiritual indwelling was that which most
filled His consciousness ; so that, even in the
midst of earthly disturbances, He could at any
moment make Himself alone with God. We read
of Him as absorbed in works of love ; yet, even
while performing those works, rejoicing in spirit,
and saying, " I thank Thee, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth : ' ' saying these words in such a
way as to indicate that nothing temporal, but
only the eternal, was in His thoughts, no con-
sciousness of any thing but a being in the Father,
Who was also in Him. So at the grave of Lazarus,
while touched with the sorrow of Mary and
Martha, and while the company of Jews present
were angrily watching Him, this whole scene
being shut out from the sanctuary of His spirit,
" He lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank
Thee that Thou hast heard Me ; and I knew that
Thou nearest Me always." This was to Him a
praying in secret, and His prayer was answered
openly in the coming forth of His friend from the
grave. In like manner, when He prayed for His
disciples at the Last Supper, all His words came
out of eternity and the Father's bosom. Nothing
earthly or temporal disturbs Him. He is con-
ALONE WITH GOD. 11
scions only of being in the high sphere and
region of His own divinity, as a beloved Son
communing with the infinite Father, praying in
the secrecy of His spirit.
Yet even Christ, thus always in secret with the
Father, had His hours for going away by Himself
and praying. We read of Him in a certain place,
that " He was alone praying." The whole tenor
of His life, as sketched by Luke, was this : " In
the day-time He was teaching in the temple ; and
at niffht He went out, and abode in the mount
o '
that is called the Mount of Olives." When He
came to His disciples in the fourth watch of the
night, walking to their drowning ship on the
boiling waves, they knew that He came out of His
place of prayer, where He had been " abiding
under the shadow of the Almighty." "And it
came to pass in those days," says one of the
Evangelists, " that He went out into a mountain
to pray, and continued all night in prayer."
After His baptism, being consecrated to His re-
deeming work by the coming of the Spirit upon
Him, He went away into the wilderness, and was
there forty days and forty nights alone with the
beasts of the earth. Oh, how those long hours
12 ALONE WITH GOD.
of communion with God strengthened Him to
vanquish the Tempter, to hold fast His faith that
He was the Son of God ; to undertake for lost
men, who, as He foresaw, would lay on Him .the
burden of their hatred and scorn, and nail Him in
their wrath to the shameful cross ! And when
He saw that cross prepared, waiting that He
might be lifted up upon it, He went over the
brook into a place where was a garden ; and
there, curtained by the night and the shadows of
the olive-trees, He girded himself for the sacri-
fice. "Being in an agony, He prayed." And
then He came to His disciples, and found them
sleeping ; whereupon He went away again and
prayed; and then again the third time, in the
very same words ; until at last He overcame His
great sorrow, found Himself able to drink the
cup which might not pass from Him, could re-
spond perfectly to the judgment of the Father
against sin, saying, " Thy will, not Mine, be
done ! "
Now, if the holy Son of God, who was without
sin or sinful taint, and Who dwelt in the bosom
of the Father, was wont thus to feed the sources
of His spiritual life by setting apart hours for
ALONE WITH GOD. 13
drawing near to God in prayer, how should we
do, who are by nature strangers, the children of
God only by a second birth, but feebly conscious
as yet of the new life in us, and prone to evil ?
If He needed that strengthening which conies by
abiding in the Father, then we should not dare
trust ourselves a day, no, nor an hour, without it.
He is not ashamed to call us brethren, though so
little of His consciousness of sonship is in us.
That consciousness was so vivid and constant in
Him as to enable Him, amid scenes of the greatest
confusion, to call God " Father." But we, even in
the still hour of meditation, can hardly lisp the
infant's cry, " Abba, Father." Oh, then, if we
would meet the brotherliness which is in Christ,
and, together with Him, would have our life hid
v
in God, calling God "Father" 1 with the full and
articulate voice of our spirits, must we not again
and again, and often and regularly, with the
outgoings of the morning and evening, and " in
season and out of season," enter into our closet,
and shut the door, and pray to our Father who
seeth in secret ?
Turning now from Christ to those who have
most nearly resembled Him in being the children
14 ALONE WITH GOD.
of God, we shall find that in the closet was the
hiding of their power. "Enoch walked with
God." And this life of prayer, which he lived in
a wicked age, gave him power to be translated,
that he should not see death. Abraham had so
much of this spirit, and communed with the Lord
so often in secret places, that he was called " the
friend of God." Jacob was named Israel, be-
cause he wrestled in prayer till he prevailed.
When Moses came down out of the mount, his
face shone so that the people were afraid to
meet him ; and that shining, so dreadful to con-
sciences defiled by idolatry, was but the outward
glow of a soul irradiated by the light of God, and
filled and suffused with almighty power by being
so long in the companionship of Jehovah. Such
was the empowering of which Samuel, and Elijah,
and Daniel, and Isaiah, and even Jeremiah, were
conscious by entering into prayer before God.
Herein was their inspiration ; this the live coal,
from off the altar, which touched their lips. Take
out of the record of those holy men of old the
accounts we have of their secret prayers and long-
ings unto God, and the charm of that record, would
be gone. The little remnant of outward fact
ALONE WITH GOD. 15
would be dull and stale. You can no more think
of those men without tracing all their wondrous
words and works to the fountain of communion
with God, than you can think of a river as possi-
ble without a source, or of the light of day as
existing without a sun. Whom did God make
ruler of His people, so that the kings of the earth
feared him, and call " a man after His own
heart," but David? David, full of evil impul-
ses, yet who loved to " draw nigh to God ; '
whose sweet Psalms, Ijie joy of all burdened
hearts, are but the voice of his own heart praying
in secret ; who called upon the Lord in the morn-
ing, at evening, and during the night-watches ;
who envied the bird that had her nest in the wall
of the house of prayer ; whose " heart panted after
God," and " cried out for the living God ; ' ' who
was constantly exclaiming, " When shall I come,
and appear before God ? ' How almost sadly we
read, " The prayers of David, the son of Jesse,
are ended," feeling that then his life must have
ended ; or, if he lived after he had ceased to
pray, that he must have been a weak and miser-
able old man, all the sweet freshness and
strength of his early manhood having gone from
him !
16 ALONE WITH GOD.
The words " human strength " seem at times
to have no meaning. All our strength is weak-
ness, and "power belongeth unto God;' :i and it is
in His strength only that we feel ourselves to be
really strong. And it is our prayer, the voice
of the child in us longing unto its Father, that
makes us conscious of receiving God's strength,
even as the branch receives the life of the vine,
by abiding in it. There is nothing men desire so
much as the consciousness of power. This ex-
plains their indecent "haste to be rich," and
scramblings for office or for the magic of a great
name. But no such consciousness of power
comes by these means, as comes to the Christian
when he feels himself empowered from on high.
This is the power of God in his soul, a spiritual
might, by which he can do all things, subduing
his own evil nature, " overcoming the world,"
" bearing all things, hoping all things, believing
all things, enduring all things." " In us, that is,
in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; ' nor have
we any power of ourselves, either to do or think
any thing as we ought, save as God works in us,
" both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
And this inworking comes through prayer, being
ALONE WITH GOD. 17
that " secret of the Lord ' ' which is " with them
that fear Him." And oh, what pleasure they have
with whom this secret ever abides ! I have no
doubt that we here lay open the source of all that
is greatest, purest, and best of man's doing. Out
of this dwelling in God as a dear child, came the
" Confessions " of Augustine, the sermons of Mas-
sillon, the " Thoughts ' of Pascal, the concep-
tions of Michael Angelo, the sustained fervor of
Whitfield. The singing men and singing women,
whose hymns make melody in the Churches all
round the world, have caught their inspiration in
that secret fellowship of God into which prayer is
the appointed way. We understand the patriot-
ism of Washington, the missionary zeal of Brai-
nerd, the courage of Luther, and the patience of
the great company of saints " of whom the world
was not worthy," by knowing that they went
often, arid were always going, into see-ret places
of prayer ; where the spirit of the child in them
uttered itself beseechingly, till they felt the life
of the Father raising them up into " newness of
life," and His Spirit witnessing with theirs that
they were born of Him.
Let it be distinctly noticed that Christ, and
18 ALONE WITH GOD.
those His brethren who have most largely shared
in His experience of sonship, have never felt
any embarrassment in coming before God to
pray, as though their asking were a doubting
of the Divine goodness, or a putting of their pri-
vate wish in the way of changeless decrees. If
God were a law of nature, or a fate, we might
feel an impropriety in prayer. But He is our
Father ; and He is ready to do for us above all
that we are able to ask, or even to think ; and,
when we are brought into perfect accord with Him
in the way of childlike prayer, only then do we
grasp the truth of this exceeding readiness to
bless ; and in this knowing of God as our un with-
holding Father is that " eternal life ' which is
both the hearing and answering of prayer, and to
which there need be added no other granting of
our requests. " Do you pray as a child of God,,
whose first and nearest relationship is to God,
your Father ; whose most deeply felt interests are
bound up in that relation, in what lies within
the circle of that relation contemplated in itself?
Do you pray as one to whom the mind of God
towards you and your own mind towards Him
are the most important elements of existence,
ALONE WITH GOD. 19
and whose other interests in existence are as
outer circles around this central interest ; so that
you see yourself, and your family, and your
friends, and your country, and your race, with
the eyes, because with the heart, of one who
' loves the Lord his God with all his heart and
mind and soul and strength ' ? Is this at least
your ideal for yourself; what you are seeking to
realize, to realize for its own sake, not for
any consequences of it in time or eternity ? for,
whatever the blessed consequences of its realiza-
tion will be, they shall be far, and for ever infe-
rior and secondary to itself." *
But perhaps you plead that I have, in these
remarks, transcended any thing you have ever
experienced of the rewards of secret prayer.
You have many times consecrated a closet, but
have always forsaken it after a brief trial ; for
you found no upliftings of soul, no inspirations,
no enlarging^ of your joy and strength, such as
I have described. Let us see, then, if the causes
of your discouragement cannot be laid open ; and
if you cannot be put in such a way of performing
this duty as never again to neglect it, but, on the
contrary, to esteem it the one pleasure of your
* John McLeod Campbell,
20 ALONE WITH GOD.
life, with which you shall allow no engagements
or stress of worldly business to interfere.
Your closet is a dreary and barren place for
just this : you do not, as God's child, so experience
daily your own weakness as to feel driven to your
Father for strength. And why is not this expe-
rience of weakness constantly yours ? Because
your new life is not a conflict with the powers of
darkness, with which you are unable to cope, save
in the strength of God. It is the consciousness
that the battle is going against him, that causes
the child of God to take refuge in his " Strong
Tower." Oh blessed danger, that forces us to fly
into our " Fortress," where we find the peace
which passeth understanding ! If you, compassed
about with infirmities, are daily striving to live
the life of the holy Son of God, then are you in
a conflict which is continually forcing from you
the prayer, " Father, save me from this hour."
Are you not driven every day to the utterance of
such " strong crying with tears " ? Then you can-
not be struggling to put down all your evil
thoughts, to overcome the world, to convert sin-
ners from the error of their ways, and to bear
about the dying and the life of Christ daily in
your mortal body. The sons of God do perpetu-
ALONE WITH GOD. 21
ally experience that they are utterly weak, power-
less to be in perfect accord with the mind of the
Father. Billows go over their head, and they are
all the time ready to perish. Not allowing them-
selves to be drifted along in the currents of
worldliness, but being in the way of their holy
purpose to be conformed to God, they have such
experience of weakness as to be ever crying,
" Father, Abba Father, keep us through Thine
own name, for we are Thy children ; calm us,
strengthen us, lead us, give us the victory over
foes too mighty for our strength." And, finding
that prayer answered, daily answered in their
closet, where they pray to the Father in secret,
answered with such consciousness of deliver-
ance, and of incomings of peace, joy, and strength,
the bitterest deprivation of their life would be
not to be allowed to pray, while in praying they
receive a thousand-fold for all their conflicts and
troubles.
" Father, I'm now alone with Thee !
Thy voice to hear, Thy face to see,
And feel Thy presence near;
It is not Fancy's lovely dream,
Though wondrous e'en to Faith it seem,
That Thou dost wait me here.
22 ALONE WITH GOD.
A moment from this outward life,
Its service, self-denial, strife,
I joyfully retreat;
My soul, through intercourse with Thee,
Strengthened, refreshed, and calmed shall be,
Its scenes again to meet.
K
How sweet, how solemn, thus to lie,
And feel Jehovah's searching eye
On me well pleased can rest !
Because with His beloved Son
The Father's grace has made me one,
I must be always blest.
The secret pangs I could not tell
To dearest friend, Thou knowest well ;
They claim Thy gracious heart ;
Thou dost remove with tender care,
Or sweetly give me strength to bear
The sanctifying smart.
Thy presence has a wondrous power!
The sharpest thorn becomes a flower,
And breathes a sweet perfume ;
Whate'er looked dark and sad before
"With happy light shines silvered o'er;
l
There's no such thing as gloom! "
to Cjntrrjj
BY THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
X
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Boston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY STUDY
OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
The remaining Addresses will follow at intervals of about one
week; viz:
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE SAVING OF
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF THE SAB-
BATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev.
Dr. ADAMS.
THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN
SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
. d. Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
BY
FUv. J. E. TODD.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND X O Y E S.
18GG.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
BY
REV. J. E. TODD.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NOTES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
Are revivals desirable?
IT is too late to discuss this question. As well
might we discuss the desirableness of summer
showers. It is evident that they are a part, and
a blessed part, of the Divine administration. It
may be said that religious interest ought to be
continual rather than fitful ; that it would be
better for a Church to be perpetually alive, rather
than occasionally revived. But an occasional
increase of interest does not necessitate a low
state of religion at ordinary times. And the
question is, not what might be, but what, in
the present imperfect state of sanctified human
nature and under the present dispensation of the
Spirit, is possible. From the day of Pentecost
until now, the growth, and even the existence, of
the Church has been largely owing to revivals.
Whatever of life and earnestness there is in any
[3]
4 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
of our Churches has originated in and been fed
by revivals. Most of those who have been re-
deemed from off the face of the earth were
converted in revivals : almost every faithful min-
ister of the Gospel and missionary has traced
his conversion to a revival. And the hope of the
Church for the future is in revivals. If ever
the kingdoms of this world are to become the
kingdom of our Lord ; if ever the Church of
Christ is to be redeemed from schism, heresy,
and worldliness, and made pure, earnest, and
living ; if ever our impenitent friends are to be
brought to Christ; if ever we ourselves are to
make the highest Christian attainments here,
it will be through revivals.
How do revivals come?
They are given by God, not created by men.
They are produced by the spontaneous move-
ments of that sovereign Spirit, Who, like the
wind, " bloweth as He listeth." They are not
produced by human efforts. But God loves to
work through means ; and He has made the
visitations of His grace dependent, for the most
part, upon certain action on the part of His
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 5
people. To say that a revival may at any time
be secured by the use of the right means, is not
to limit the sovereignty of God ; for it is He Who
gives the disposition to use the means. To say
that a revival may not be secured at any time by
the use. of the right means, is to cast discredit
upon the promises. If, then, a greatly needed
revival fails to come, some of us are in fault.
Who is it ? Is it you f
Do you want one?
Undoubtedly your answer is, Yes. You would
like to see a great revival in progress ; you often
pray, " Lord, revive Thy work ; ' " Pour out
Thy Spirit upon us." But are you in earnest ?
Do you mean what you say ? How much do you
want a revival ? There is, certainly, need enough
of a revival. Worldliness and sloth have half
paralyzed the Churches ; the love of many has
grown cold, they have forgotten their first love ;
infidelity and idolatry and wickedness are rapidly
increasing around us ; vast multitudes are living
near us without God, and passing in endless
procession from us to His bar to be condemned
and punished for ever. You have personal rea-
6 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
sons for desiring a revival ; your own soul needs
to be refreshed with a new anointing from on
high ; you have very dear friends, and not a few
of them, of whom you know that there is no
reasonable hope that they will ever be converted
and saved from the wrath to come, unless in a
revival. Are your desires for a revival propor-
tioned to the urgency of the need ? Is there an
earnestness in your prayers, springing out of a
conviction that some of your best friends are on
the brink of hell? Does the condition of. the
community rest with an insupportable weight
upon your heart ? Some years ago, one said,
" I feel, that, if we do not have a revival soon,
I shall die ! ' Is that your feeling ? Are you
crying mightily unto God, if so be that we perish
not, or are you asleep in the sides of the ship ?
How much are you willing to do and sacrifice
in order to secure a revival ?
Will you help to secure a revival?
In reply, you ask, " What must I do ? '
1. You must prepare your own heart.
If you had grieved your own father, and driven
him away from your dwelling, by disregarding
REVIVALS OP RELIGION.
his wishes and contemning his person, and
introducing into your home companions and oc-
cupations and scenes that he abhorred, and if
you wished to have him again visit you, you
would humble yourself, you would ask forgive-
ness, you would show contrition ; and you would
put away all that he abhorred, you would assure
him that he might return without fear of finding
in your house the things which were offensive to
him. If you wish the Spirit to come, you must
humble yourself before God, you must confess
your sins with sincere sorrow and abhorrence for
them, you must seek forgiveness anew through
the blood of Jesus ; and you must not only
humble yourself, you must put away evil. When
Jacob went up to Bethel to meet God, his com-
mand to his family was, " Put away the strange
gods, and be clean, and change your garments."
Before God would come down to Israel on Sinai,
they had to sanctify themselves, and wash their
clothes. If you wish for a visit from the Spirit,
you must put away evil. If you are angry with
any one, you must become reconciled to him. If
you have wronged any one, you must go to him
and " confess your faults ' frankly, humbly, and
8 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
whether there has been wrong on his part or
no, and whether there is penitence in him or no.
And not only so, but you must, so far as possible,
make restitution, prompt, cheerful, and complete.
You cannot be forgiven the wrong, while you
still possess that for which you did the wrong.
"May one be pardoned, and retain th' offence? "
You cannot clear yourself till you have restored,
and, like Zaccheus, " fourfold." If you have
neglected any duty, you must take it up. If you
are indulging in any forbidden pleasure, or in
any sin, open or secret, you must drop it. If
you have set your affections upon social position,
property, reputation, or any worldly eminence,
and have in thought and conduct bowed down to
the creature, you must tear from the throne of
your heart the dearest and every idol. If you do
not, the Spirit will not visit you, and perhaps
he will not visit your Church. By secretly
taking some of the forbidden spoil, Achan took
the victory from the banners of Israel, and
"troubled" the people of God. Who is it, that,
by his secret lust after the things of this world, is
preventing the Lord from going forth with His
people, and hindering the triumphs of His grace ?
Is it you f
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 9
2. You must apply yourself to seeking and ex-
peeling the Spirit.
Suppose, that, when Jesus was on earth, He
had come one day to a village, and had found, that,
although His coming had been expected, yet the
villagers, instead of being all gathered " waiting
for Him," were all scattered, " one to his farm
and another to his merchandise," one to his shop
and another to his net, some to the amphitheatre
to see the sports and others to a feast to mingle
in the revels. Do you. think that He could
have tarried long, or done there " many mighty
works " ? Do you imagine that there would ever
have been any Pentecost, if the disciples, instead
of all " continuing with one accord in one place,"
had been scattered, some to their business and
some to their amusements, these to the temple
and those to the palace ? Revivals usually com-
mence, and exert their greatest power, in public
religious assemblies. If you want a revival, you
must, for the time, leave concerts and lectures,
operas and plays, dinners and parties, whether
they are right or wrong, innocent or injurious ;
you must, for the time, give up as much as you
consistently can of your business and daily occu-
10 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
1
pation, and resort to the assemblies of the people
of God, to where the multitudes are waiting and
praying for the promise of the Father. Suppose
that all the members of one Church should begin
with one accord to meet together in one place in
prayer and supplication ; have you the least doubt
what the speedy result would be ? And can you
for slight cause absent yourself? And suppose
that every one should be ready with some exhor-
tation or prayer ; do you not know that the effect
of the very first meeting would be electric ? And
yet you can sit silent ! But you " have not the
talent." Possibly you are hiding it. But grant
it ; you can, at least, pray. There never yet was
one whose heart the Lord had touched, who
was unable to speak to Him. Forget that there
are others around you ; see " no man save Jesus
only." Oh, these silent Christians! Do you
know the distinguishing characteristic of the
guest who had not on the wedding- garment ?
" HE WAS SPEECHLESS."
3. You must sustain the right kind of preaching.
Truth, and truth presented in public address,
is a mighty and chosen instrument of God for
reaching the consciences and hearts of men.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 11
P
But it is not every kind of preaching which tends
to produce a revival. It is not by elaborate
periods of eloquence, by graphic descriptions,
by flights of poetry, by theological discussions, by
political tirades, by moral lectures, by literary
essays, or by pious remarks, that sinners are ever
going to be awakened and converted. This can
only be accomplished by the tender and affection-
ate, but simple, plain, direct, forcible presenta-
tions of the truths of the Gospel, the holiness of
God, the wickedness of the natural heart, the
judgment, and wrath to come, pardon and salva-
tion through the crucified Saviour, the guilt of
resisting the Holy Ghost, the unsearchable riches
of Christ ; and by kind and meek, but yet plain
and severe rebukes of every form of sin, and
earnest pleadings for practical holiness. Is this
the kind of preaching that you want to hear?
Will you sustain God's ministers in it? Will
you even demand that the preaching of the word
of life to dying men shall be of that stamp ? Or
are you restive and impatient under it, disposed
to depreciate and speak against it, angry and de-
fiant when your own conscience is disturbed ?
How much do you want a revival ? Perhaps you
12 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
.
would rather that your minister should preach
poetical and ingenious and smooth and pleasant
things, and that your friends should slumber on
undisturbed till they awake in hell.
4. You must PRAY for a revival.
I
How rich the promises 1 " If ye, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ! '
" Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
You do, often, pray for the out-pouring of the
Spirit. Yes, but how ?
It is not the occasional repetition of the hack-
neyed phrases of the prayer-meeting, which is to
bring a revival. In every meeting for prayer,
every time that you kneel at the family altar,
every time that you go to your closet, as often as
your heart ascends to the throne of grace, you
must pray for a revival ; and that, not with cold
and formal words, but with the earnestness of a
heart that is oppressed and wearied and aching
with the burden of perishing souls, with a pro-
found sense of the dependence of man upon
the grace of God, with an unwavering faith in the
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 13
promises, with the pleadings of a bleeding heart,
and a " soul breaking for the longing that it hath
at all times," " with strong crying and tears unto
Him that is able to save," " with groanings that
cannot be uttered." Do you know HOW to pray?
How would you plead with the Governor for a
father or a son condemned to die ? And what
will you say* to God for dear ones whom He may
this very night, not deliver unto death, but " cast
soul and body into hell "?
5. You must WORK for a revival.
It is time that God only can convert. He
sends the quickening light and showers ; but
man must sow the seed. Is it not wonderful pre-
sumption which enables us, after having done not
one thing to lead any soul to Christ, to go to
God, and coolly pray, in measured tones, " Re-
vive Thy work " ? What tender and almighty
pity that holds back the thunderbolts from those
who burn such strange incense before Him !
You have an unconverted brother : go and tell
him that you have " found the Christ," and bid
him " come and see." You have young men in
your employ : " run, speak to that young man."
You have a class in the Sabbath School : point
14 REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
the children plainly, tenderly, to the great Shep-
herd. You have a beloved friend who is still
unreconciled to God : go and talk with him,
tremblingly, it may be, but faithfully, affection-
ately, tearfully. Or, if you have reason to fear
that your words may do more harm than good,
seek to bring other influences to bear upon him,
or, at least, go and tell Jesus. But be not too
timid. It may be that he is waiting and wishing
for some one to take him by the hand, and lead
him to Christ, and wondering that " no man
cares for his soul." Speak to Christians as
well as to the unconverted ; it may be that you
will encourage, quicken, reclaim, comfort, or
strengthen something that is " ready to die."
If you have received any thing, if you hope for
any thing from the Lord, improve every suitable
opportunity, watch for opportunities, make oppor-
tunities, to speak for Jesus ! Tell " every morn-
ing of His loving kindness, every night of His
faithfulness." Oh, the words that we speak for
Jesus cannot die ; though they may seem to
accomplish nothing here, they will come back
to us hereafter in everlasting strains of music.
Let your every going forth be that of a sower
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 15
of the word. " In the morning sow thy seed,
and in the evening withhold not thine hand ; for
thou knowest not whether shall prosper either
this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
good." Cast it on the " troubled sea," as well as
on the good ground, and in likeliest spots : it
may be that you will find it after many days.
It is not possible that God should withhold all
increase from the planting of love and the water-
ing of tears. " He that goeth forth, and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return
again with, joy, bringing his sheaves with him."
But if, with all your labors and prayers, you shall
fail to secure a revival, or even the salvation of
a single soul, you will, at least, win the approba-
tion, yes, the gratitude, of Christ ; and when you
come to stand before Him, and bathe His feet with
tears of disappointment in having been able to
accomplish little for Him, you will hear from His
lips some such words of loving praise and ever-
lasting welcome, and recommendation to the deep-
est and tenderest sympathies of His followers, as
He pronounced over her who anointed His body
for its burial, " She hath done what she could."
presses 10 Cjjurclj
BY THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
jBoston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OP NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
THE DUTY OF DA ,Y SECRET PRAYER and DAILY STUDY
OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
The remaining Addresses will follow at intervals of about one
: r/z :
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE SAVING OF
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF THE SAB-
BATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev.
Dr. ADAMS.
THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN
SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
c
7". Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
DIVINE SOVEKEIGNTY
HUMAN SALVATION.
BY
REV. A. R. BAKER.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
DIVIDE SOVEKEIGlsTTY
HUMAN SALVATION.
BY
REV. A. R. BAKER.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NO YES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
HUMAN SALTATION.
What is the sovereignty of God?
SOVEREIGNTY enters into the very idea of govern-
ment, which, within its own sphere, has one, and
can have but one, highest power, one supreme
authority. This may exist in an individual, or in
a plurality of persons. In. every well-regulated
household, it is in the head of the family, whose
laws are exempt from foreign control, subor-
dinate only to those of the State and of God,
and demand prompt and implicit obedience. In
schools and seminaries of learning, it resides
in the Principal, who is responsible to the super-
visors of education, and to those for whom they
act. In the Commonwealth, it is vested in the
Governor, who approves and authenticates, or de-
[3]
4 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
feats, the bills of the Legislature ; who signs and
executes, commutes or remits, the sentences of
the Judges ; who affixes the seal of the State to
the commission of its subordinate officers, and
gives them authority. In the Republic, it is
exercised by the President, who, in addition to all
such acts which he performs for the nation, com-
mands her army and navy, pardons or punishes
transgressors of her laws. In the world, it is in
God, Who " works all things after the counsel of
His will," and Who " does according to His
pleasure in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth."
This is His Own definition, from which we
learn that God's sovereignty is not caprice, or
action without good reason ; nor arbitrariness,
or action for the mere display of authority : but
it is intelligent action, exhibiting the will of the
highest power. Divine sovereignty is God's gov-
ernment of the world according to His will, so
as to fulfil His purpose in all creatures and
events ; it implies " His perfect right to govern
and dispose of them in conformity with His Own
good pleasure." It also implies God's right to
command, and our duty to obey. In respect to
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 5
the system of redemption, to the salvation of men,
His language is more precise and specific : "I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy ; and I
will have compassion on whom I will have com-
passion. So, then, it is not of him that walk-
eth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
sheweth mercy." Here sovereignty is exercised
in pardoning the guilty, saving the lost.
But what are the characteristics of Divine sover-
eignty ?
In a family, a school, a state, and in every
government, we learn the character and plan of
the sovereign from his own declarations and
acts. Thus we call Tarquin, the Proud; Julian,
the Cruel; Job, the Patient Man; Abraham, the
Faithful ; Solomon, the Wise.
So the sovereignty of God bears the impress
of His Own character, holy, wise, and powerful.
It is intelligent, for " His understanding is infi-
nite ; " powerful, for He is " almighty ; " universal,
for He " filleth all in all ; " uniform, for He is
" the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; " wise,
for He abounds " in all wisdom and prudence ; '
faithful, for He always fulfils His promises and
6 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
threatenings ; righteous, for " He sitteth upon the
throne of His holiness ; ' benevolent, for " He is
good," supremely good, and "His tender mercies
are over all His works ; ' compassionate, for
" His mercy endureth for ever ; " glorious, for He
is " the King of glory ; ' praiseworthy : " Let
every thing that hath breath praise the Lord,"
and all may shout, with the heavenly hosts,
" Alleluia ; salvation, and glory, and honor, and
power, be unto the Lord our God." Such is
the adorable sovereignty of God.
But does He reign supreme in the kingdom of
grace f
It is eminently desirable that God should rule in
this kingdom, with a comprehensiveness embrac-
ing the whole plan, with a minuteness extending
to every son and daughter of Adam, to every
display of His mercy towards each of them.
What would you not give to have these qualities
always distinguish the sovereignty that rules your
family, sanctifying your social relations, multiply-
ing and sweetening the joys of home ; converting
your habitation into a Bethel, into " the gate
of heaven " ? What a blessing, if you could have
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 7
such sovereignty preside over the schools which
you attend or sustain ! How it would aid the
acquisition and communication of knowledge ;
lighten or remove the burden of discipline ; and
subordinate education, in the largest, best sense
of that word, to the wisest and most benevolent
of purposes ! If you knew that such sovereignty
would always preside over the nation, how that
assurance would relieve the fears of your loyal
heart, and confirm your faith in the ultimate
attainment of the highest consistent welfare of
each citizen and of the whole nation ! Any peo-
ple, blessed with the right of elective franchise,
would act wisely in choosing a person possessed,
as far as possible, of such qualities to rule over
them. None but bad men and criminals fear the
legitimate exercise of such authority.
You cannot but esteem it a blessing that a
sovereign God has created and rules the material
universe; the clouds which are His chariot;
the stormy wind which He directs ; the ocean
that rolls in the hollow of His hand ; the sun,
moon, and stars that shine to His praise ; " Arc-
turus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the
south " which .He made ; all planets and systems
8 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
revolving harmoniously at His command : yea,
that He governs all the objects of nature, from
the falling of a hair to the destruction of a world ;
and all the events of providence, however trivial
or momentous in our esteem. All things are
open to His inspection ; all, subject to His control.
" Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone ; Thou hast
made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all
their hosts ; the earth, and all things that are
therein ; and thou preservest them all ; and the
host of heaven worshippeth Thee."
It is much more desirable that this adorable
Sovereign should reign in the kingdom of grace,
to which both nature and providence are subser-
vient. These are but the scaffolding of God's
temple, to be removed when its head-stone shall
have been laid with shouting, " Grace, grace
unto it ; " when Jesus, Who " holds the stars in
His right hand," and " walks among the golden
candlesticks, " shall have put down all rule, and
all authority and power ; and when " every crea-
ture in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them, shall be heard, saying, ' Blessing, and
honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 9
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for
ever and ever.' Then Christ will appear as He
is iu truth, " all in all ; ' and salvation by His
grace, the end for which the sovereign Ruler made
and governs all things, the theme most worthy
the aspirations and endeavors of mankind and
the praise of " the just made perfect."
Every child of God looks on the land and sea,
on the starry heavens, and the various objects of
nature, and sings, " My Father made them all."
He sees God's hand in every event of providence ;
and, though "clouds and darkness are' : some-
times " round about Him," he rests on the assu-
rance, " righteousness and judgment are the
habitation of His throne." In his devotions, he
acknowledges and celebrates sovereign grace,
which transformed him. from a "vessel of wrath "
into one of mercy, from an enemy to a friend,
from an alien to a child and heir. He prays with
David, " Uphold me with Thy free Spirit ; then
will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners
shall be converted unto Thee." With the beloved
disciple, he says, I was " born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God." He cries, with Paul, " It is not of him
l*
10 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy." "Hath not the potter
power over the clay, of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dis-
honor ?" "We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works." We are ena-
bled " to will and also to do of His good pleasure."
With intensity of emotion, he repeats the words
of his Divine Master, " I can of Mine Own Self
do nothing; " but adds, with the apostle, " I can
do all things through Christ Which strength-
eneth me. '
Christ, then, is " Head over all things to the
Church." He is " the true Vine, ' imparting to
each branch life and productiveness ; the Al-
pha and Omega of every man's salvation. God
is a Sovereign in the kingdom of grace, as well as
in nature and providence.
But how is His sovereignty displayed in our sal-
vation ?
1. By the gracious plan which His wisdom
devised, His love adopted, His faithfulness and
grace carry steadily onward, and are pledged to
consummate. We, His intelligent creatures, act
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 11
by design. If we are faithful parents, we educate
our children, and settle them according to the
purposes of our wisdom and love. Are we to
construct for ourselves a habitation ? We make
known our wants to an architect, who draws a plan
which we adopt and execute. "Every house is
builded by some man ; but He that built all things
is God." But, if we build houses and ships by
plans and according to purposes previously adopt-
ed, shall we not concede to God the right to form
and govern the world and the Church according to
the counsel of His mind ? The patriarch of Uz
says of God, "What His soul desireth, even
that He doeth." God Himself adds, " My coun-
sel shall stand; and I will do all My pleasure."
But, respecting the system of grace and medi-
ation, the Bible is full and explicit: "Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called ;
and whom He called, them He also justified ; and
whom He justified, them He also glorified."
Every step in the process of salvation develops
His plan, and teaches the good pleasure of His
will. So reasoned the apostle, who contemplated
this theme, as we should do, with wonder and
admiration : " Blessed be the God and Father
12 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him,
before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love ;
having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to
the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. " If any thing can move the
soul to its lowest depths, it is the thought that
God so loved it from eternity, and out of His mere
good pleasure, as to cherish toward it designs of
mercy, and to adopt a plan whereby it may be
saved, may sing and shine before Him for ever
and ever. In the formation of that plan, God
had no counsellor, but acted in the exercise of
His adorable sovereignty.
2. But this is also displayed by the covenants
which He formed and revealed in fulfilment of
His plan. These are reducible to two, the
covenant of works, and the covenant of grace.
In the first of these, He formed angels, created
mankind, and proffered eternal life on condition
of perfect obedience. What the law says to one,
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 13
it says to all: He that obeyeth shall live (Gal. iii.
12) ; but " the soul that sinneth, it shall die '
(Ezek. xviii. 20). Lucifer and others of the heav-
enly host fell from the privileges of this Divine
constitution. So also did our first parents. By
their " disobedience," " many were made sin-
ners ; ' that is, all their posterity were corrupted,
constituted sinners, and brought under the wrath
and curse of a broken law, so ruined that no
works of future obedience could save them.
Here, whatever link you strike, the tenth or
ten thousandth breaks the chain alike. " By the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." "All
have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God."
Sin ruined this provision for human salvation.
But God's love did what it always intended to
do: it promulgated a system of mediation, a
covenant of grace in which eternal life is freely
offered us, and even urged upon our acceptance,
on condition of faith. " By grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is
the gift of God."
Of these two covenants, the first admitted of
no modification, but was complete from the mo-
14 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
ment of its proclamation. The second was grad-
ually developed ; it rose and increased like the
king of day. Adam and the antediluvians saw
only the morning star of redemption ; Abraham
and other patriarchs, the early dawn ; Moses and
the prophets, the brightening light; while the
disciples of Christ behold " the Sun of righteous-
ness," rising and shining in the greatness of His
strength.
Hear how God speaks of justification by each
of these covenants : " Moses describeth the right-
eousness which is of the law, that the man
which doeth these things shall live by them. But
the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise. ... If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved." Of each covenant sal-
vation is the end. Both were adopted out of
His mere good pleasure, and express His holy
sovereignty. " God, willing to show His wrath
and to make His power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, that he might make known the riches
of His glory, on the vessels of mercy." Mark
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 15
the words : " endured with much long-suffering"
the guilt and misery of some of His accountable
creatures that He might more clearly reveal His
glorious sovereignty in the salvation of others ;
even as the sun, in his march through the heav-
ens, appears brighter in contrast with the dark
spots on his disk. Like prisons and dungeons
in civil government, hell is a dark spot in the
universe ; but it is necessary for persistent cove-
nant-breakers ; sovereignty subordinates it to the
highest general good : and therefore all may
sing, "Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth."
3. The adorable sovereignty of God appointed
Christ the Mediator of the covenant of grace.
Sin cut us off from access to God, from His favor
that is life, and His loving kindness that is better
than life. God would deliver us ; but how could
He, without the subversion of supreme authority,
the compromise of right, the evasion of the
threatened penalty ? We needed some one to
satisfy for our offences, to atone for our sins, and
to procure for us free forgiveness. All had
sinned ; not one of the human race could make
16 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
satisfaction for the rest. Angels could not ; for
they must keep the law constantly and perfectly,
to secure their own salvation. Who could or
would undertake the mighty work ?
When God inquired, " Whom shall I send,
and who will go for Us ? ' His eternal Son
replied, " Here am I : send Me." God, in the
exercise of His holy sovereignty, " laid help upon
One that is mighty," " Jesus Christ the right-
eous." He chose and appointed Him our Medi-
ator, a Day's-man, an Umpire between Himself
and us, human, and therefore able to compre-
hend our guilt and misery imputed to Him ;
Divine, and therefore capable of understanding
perfectly the claims to be met and satisfied ;
Immanuel, the God-man who laid one hand on
the throne and the other on the footstool, and
became the way perfect and entire, whereby
Divine mercy could be consistently conveyed
to us, and our prayers and praises ascend to
Him. " Such an High Priest became us, Who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin-
ners, and made higher than the heavens ; Who
needeth not daily, as other high priests, to offer
up sacrifice, first for His Own sins, and then for
IN HUMAN SALVATION. IT
tho people's: for this He did once, when He
offered up Himself." " Him God set forth to bo
a propitiation, to declare His righteousness for
the remission" of our sins. He died our death,
and exhausted our curse, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him, and that God
might be just, and yet justify us miserable
offenders. We adore the sovereignty which
selected Him for our Mediator, the only Person-
age that could make an atonement for our sins ;
and when we think of Him laying aside the
glory He had with the Father before the world
was, veiling His divinity with humanity, suffer-
ing, praying, groaning, bleeding, dying for our
sins, rising for our justification, ascending to
heaven, and preparing mansions for our ever-
lasting abode, we exclaim, with the chief of the
apostles, "Oh, the depth of the riches, both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God ! '
4. Sovereignty selected fallen men, rather than
apostate angels, to be the objects of Divine mercy.
Angels existed before the creation of man-
kind; for, when God laid the corner-stone and
foundation of this world, they celebrated the
18 - DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
event. " The morning stars sang together, and
all the sons of God shouted for joy." In the
scale of being, they were originally exalted far
above us, and probably possessed rninds endowed
with faculties more enlarged, knowledge and
wisdom more profound ; and they were capable
of service more pure and exalted. Why, then,
did God pass by the angels who fell, and " whom
He hath reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day,"
and provide redemption for mankind ? Why
took Christ on Him the nature, not of angels,
but of the seed of Abraham ? Reason and
speculate as we may on these questions, they
resolve themselves at last into this: "Even so,
Father ; for so it seemed good in Thy sight."
5. The amiable sovereignty of God fixed the
simplest conditions to our pardon and eternal life.
It is the prerogative of the highest power to
specify the terms on which its clemency may
be enjoyed. This belongs to parents in the
family, to the Governor in the state, to the Pres-
ident in the nation. And that power displays
its magnanimity and glory by making the terms
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 19
as simple and easy of compliance as may be
consistent with the general good and the per-
sonal welfare of its subject. If $ parent forgives
his disobedient child without a confession of his
fault and a pledge of reformation, he weakens
family government, and encourages wayward-
ness. If a chief magistrate pardons criminals
while a spirit of insubordination still reigns in
their hearts, it is presumption for him to expect
social order and general tranquillity in the na-
tion. So in the moral government of God, and
under the reign of grace, we who have sinned
cannot enjoy the smile of Divine favor, till we
" put away sin by righteousness, and iniquity
by turning unto the Lord;' till our rebellion
against God is succeeded by loyalty to Him ;
till our impenitence yields to godly sorrow, our
unbelief to a childlike trust, our carnality to
spirituality, our heart of stone to one of flesh.
Therefore God's sovereignty, which commands
us to make a new heart and a new spirit, to
repent, believe, and obey the Gospel, speaks with
the wisest reference to our good, to the welfare
of Christ's kingdom and to the glory of the
Lord. It specifies the simplest conditions on
Z(J DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
which grace can be received and enjoyed. As
the drunkard must reform before he can inherit
the blessings which reward temperance, so every
sinner must become holy, his heart must beat
in unison with God's; he must love what God
loves, and hate what He hates ; and he himself
must be refashioned in the moral image which
he lost by the fall, or he cannot enter the king-
dom of heaven. Through this gate every man
must pass or perish.
6. Out 'of His mere good pleasure, God sent
His /Spirit to dispose and enable us to comply with
these conditions of lifeeverlasting .
Sin has so debased and enfeebled us that we
cannot do the good we would. " Ye cannot
serve the Lord ; for He is a holy God." Of
yourself alone, you cannot make you a new
heart, repent, believe, or obey the Gospel. The
Saviour says, " No man can come to Me, except
the Father Which hath sent Me draw him." He
draws you by His Spirit, by the prayers of His
people, by the institutions of religion, and the-
means of grace.
If you imagine you are both able and willing
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 21
to perform these duties, make the attempt ; and
the experiment will be likely to convince you
that you must have such help as the Holy Spirit
alone can render. The Bible compares this Di-
vine Helper to the wind or atmosphere which
circles and pervades every material object, but
which you must inhale in order to sustain your
animal life.
Yet God was under no obligation to send you
His Spirit ; or, having sent it, to continue His
gracious strivings a moment, especially after your
grieving and resisting Him. The gift and opera-
tion of the Spirit are expressions of Divine
sovereignty : so, too, are all His whispers in the
recesses of your mind, all His calls to repent-
ance, all His impulses to faith, all His motives
to obedience, all His earnest pleadings by the
voice of providence, and the living ministry, all
the intercessions which He inspired in your
behalf. Each of these is a witness of His good
pleasure, a fresh proclamation of His desire for
your salvation, a new endeavor to lead you to
Christ, to give you the new heart which you are
commanded to make, the repentance and faith
which you are required to put forth, and the
22 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
salvation which you should work out; for it is
God that worketh in you and with you, and
disposes and enables you to work out obedience.
7. In the exercise of His holy sovereignty, God
makes distinctions in the display of His grace.
He chose Noah, before other antediluvians,
to preserve His Church from the flood ; formed
His covenant with Abraham, rather than with
any of his contemporaries ; called the Jews, in
preference to other nations, to be His peculiar
people ; chose David, out of the sons of Jesse,
to rule His kingdom ; Mary to be the mother
of the infant Saviour ; Paul, before other perse-
cutors, to become the chief of the apostles ;
Christians at Antioch, before other disciples, to
commence Foreign Missions.
In the economy of His grace, does He not
now do more for our nation than for the tribes
of Central Africa ; more for one church, family,
and individual than for another ? Does any
one doubt whether he bestowed grace on John,
the beloved disciple, not received by Judas Is-
cariot? Now, as of old, what diversity in the
endowments of God's people ! By the same
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 28
Spirit, " to one is given the word of wisdom ; to
another, the word of knowledge ; to another, the
working of miracles ; to another, prophecy ; to
another, discerning of spirits ; to another, divers
kinds of tongues : to every man severally as
He will." He imparts to one convert a quicker
perception of sin ; to a second, more adorable
views of Christ ; to a third, clearer and more
comprehensive conceptions, of the pla*n and cov-
enants of God ; to a fourth, overflowing love ;
to a fifth, stronger faith ; to a sixth, a larger
measure of humility ; to a seventh, more stead-
fastness or zeal. There are " diversities of oper-
ation, but the same Spirit working all in all,"
and calling each to improve his peculiar gifts,
and to perform the special service. for which they
qualify him. All such distinctions display His
sovereign grace, and prepare each of its subjects
for the part he is to sing in the new song of
heaven.
Who 'will not rejoice in the display of Divine sov-
ereignty in human salvation ?
Has not God a right to do what He will with
His Own ? Had He not a perfect right to create
24 DIVINE SOYEREIGNTT
the world according to His eternal purpose ? to
form both angels and men, and to endow the
mind of each according to the good pleasure of
His will ? to place them all under the covenant
of works ? and, when they fell by sinning against
Him, to reveal to mankind a system of grace ?
to elect His Own Son as our Mediator ? to allow
Him to become incarnate, to suffer and die, for
our redemption ? God Himself asks, " Is thine
eye evil because I am good ? ' Who doubts
His right to pass by the angels that fell, and to
show mercy to men ? to offer salvation to you
and to me on the simplest possible conditions ? to
send His Spirit to help us comply with the terms
of pardon and eternal life ? to make or to allow
all the distinctions which we witness in the dis-
play of grace ? Why, then, should any object to
His sovereignty in our salvation ?
Is its action mysterious ? Of course, the finite
cannot embrace the Infinite. Yet we believe
and act constantly 011 what we very imperfectly
comprehend. We know not how our body and
soul are united in one person ; but we believe
the fact of that union, and daily act upon it. In
our childhood, we could not always comprehend
IX HUMAN SALVATION. 25
the principles on which our parents issued their
commands ; but our confidence, working by love,
prompted obedience. " Shall we not much rather
be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and
live ? "
How can God's sovereignty make Him appear
a partial Being? He has clearly revealed His
will ; He sincerely invites all to accept proffered
mercy ; He gave His Son to redeem and save
the lost, sent His Spirit and commissioned His
Church to call mankind, and is faithful in the
execution of His promises and threatenings.
He nowhere approves of sin, but suffers it for
a season to exist, even as wise earthly rulers
sometimes allow the transgression of their laws
for a short period, either in the hope of overcom-
ing evil with good, or to render more manifest
the necessity and justice of punishment. He
treats all men better than they deserve, and has
good and sufficient reasons for all the distinction
which He makes in the economy of His grace.
If any unreconciled heart object, inspiration
answers, " Nay, man, who art thou that repli-
est against God ? Shall the thing formed say to
Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me
26 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
thus ? " Underlying this objection is the old man,
which is corrupt, and in arms against his supreme
Ruler. " Let the potsherd strive with the pot-
sherds of the earth ; but woe to him that striveth
with his Maker ! ' He must surrender, or per-
ish.
Does the sovereignty of God in salvation inter-
fere with the freedom of man? No; as well ask,
whether the laws of the solar system, and the
revolution of the planets, interfere with the activ-
ity of the inhabitants of the earth ; whether the
currents of the ocean hinder the action of the
fish that swim therein ; whether the wind pre-
vents the flight of birds through the air ; whether
the plan of a campaign destroys the responsi-
bility of the officers and men who execute it ;
whether the authority of a wise and loving father
suspends the personal accountability of his own
offspring. When parents live and act in their
children, earthly rulers in their subjects, think
it not strange that " God works in us to will and
to do of His good pleasure*" You are to work
out what He works in you. Let His promise
encourage, sustain, and crown with success, your
endeavors to obtain eternal life.
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 27
What are the special duties to which the sovereignty
of God in salvation noiv calls you ?
A faithful use of all the means of grace. These
are the tools of this Divine art, the appointed
instruments of salvation, by which a sovereign
God works in you the salvation which He requires
you to work out " with fear and trembling." If
you are a believer, and would mature your faith
and piety ; or if you are an unbeliever, " without
God and without hope in the world," and would
be saved by Christ and His gospel, sanctify the
Sabbath, remembering the day to keep it holy.
Attend regularly and faithfully public worship,
" in season and out of season ; " for " Thy way,
God, is in the sanctuary," His way of instruc-
tion in Divine knowledge, of consolation, and of
salvation. " Search the Scriptures ; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life." Like the Bereans,
try the sermons you hear by this Divine standard,
appealing " to the law and to the testimony ; if
they speak not according to this word, it is
because there is no truth in them." Pray, like
the poor publican, " God be merciful to me a sin-
ner ; ' for every one who asks in such a spirit is
heard and blessed.
28 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
But God's adorable sovereignty in salvation
calls you to comply with the conditions of mercy.
Your inviting Saviour cries in your ear, " Come
unto Me ; ' " take My yoke upon you : ' that is,
" Submit yourself as a loyal subject unto My
government ; yield your will in sweet submission
to Mine ; confess and forsake your sins ; return
unto Me, and I will return unto you. Repent,
believe, and obey the gospel : for i behold, now
is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of
salvation.' If you verbally or practically reply,
" No, not now" you really, and so long as you
continue of the same mind, rebel against His
supreme authority ; you return His ocean love
with hatred; you hinder prayer in your behalf;
you resist and grieve His waiting, striving Spirit.
Every moment you do this, you hazard your soul ;
that lost, what can you account gain ? All is
lost, irrecoverably and for ever lost!
But you need not, you must not, longer incur
that awful risk ; you must not allow the favored
moment, " big with mercy," to pass unimproved,
and to force from you the lamentation, " The
harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and I am
not saved." God forbids it ; " the Spirit and the
IN HUMAN SALVATION. 29
Bride" forbid it ; your own reason and conscience
forbid it.
Come, like the prodigal, to your offended Sov-
ereign, and say, " Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy
to be called Thy son : make me as one of Thy
hired servants." Then He will meet and em-
brace you, will make you His child and heir;
heaven will rejoice ; and you yourself will join in
the song, " Worthy is the Lamb ! "
presses to C|nrt|
BY TILE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Boston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT or COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY
STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
The remaining Addresses will follow at intervals of about one
week ; viz :
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. ^By Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE SAVING or
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF THE SAB-
BATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev.
Dr. ADAMS.
THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
l ( s o
THE DUTY
A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
OF THE SABBATH.
HY
W. HLACDKN. D.I).
H O S T N :
AND NOTES.
THE DUTY
OF
A MOEE STRICT OBSERVANCE
OF THE SABBATH.
BY
REV. G. W. BLAGDEN, D.D.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NOYES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND FEINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
X
THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERV-
*
ANCE OF THE SABBATH.
Is the keeping of the Sabbath, now, commanded
by Divine authority ; or, is it only a duty required
by a wise expediency, but not Divinely, and abso-
lutely, commanded under the Gospel of Christ ?
In reply to this inquiry, I shall try to show
that the remembrance of the Sabbath day, " to
keep it holy," is now required of all believers in
Jesus, by the law of God as it is magnified and
made honorable in the Gospel ; and that the
manner in which this is done leads" us to right
conclusions respecting the ways in which we
should fulfil " the duty of a more strict observ-
ance of the day."
I. The Lord Jesus declared, on one occasion,
that the " Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath
day." What does such a declaration imply ?
It implies that Jesus, as the Son of man,
possessed and exercised authority to regulate the
[3]
4 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
keeping of the Sabbath. He spoke the words in
asserting His authority to do this, for He was
then correcting the false views the Pharisees enter-
tained of its observance. They supposed it un-
lawful for His disciples, in passing through the
corn-fields on the Sabbath, when engaged with
Him, their Lord and Master, in works of love and
mercy to men, to pluck the ears of corn and sat-
isfy IJieir hunger. But He assured them, from
facts in their own history, that the spirit of the
law of the Sabbath permitted such necessary acts.
He alluded to the act of David and those who
were with him, in entering, when they were an
hungered, the house of God, and eating the shew-
bread, which it was lawful, commonly, for only
the priests to eat ; and He cited the conduct of
the priests as being harmless, when they, on the
Sabbath day, did certain acts which might seem
to profane it, thus showing His hearers, as He
is recorded in the Gospel of Mark as having dis-
tinctly declared, that " the Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath." It was de-
signed and adapted to promote alike the holiness
and the comfort of men ; and therefore permitted,
and even required, those acts which were needful
OF THE SABBATH. 5
to renew and preserve the vigor and health of
their bodies, that they might the more fully and
faithfully worship and serve God, and do good to
man on His holy day with all the powers of their
souls. Therefore, in His own words, if they had
known what this meaneth, "I will have mercy
and not sacrifice," they would not have con-
demned the guiltless.
The declaration that the Son of man is Lord
of the Sabbath day, also implies, that Christ,
the Son of man, came not to destroy, but to fulfil
the law of the Sabbath. This law is clearly con-
tained in the fourth commandment of the moral
law, given by Jehovah to Moses amid the solemn
scenes of Mount Sinai. Of this, Jesus said,
" Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but one jot
or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until
all shall be fulfilled." Unless it can be shown
that this particular command of the law, " Re-
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy," has
been clearly repealed and annulled by the Sa-
viour in His Gospel, it is still, binding on all who
believe in His name. But this cannot be shown.
So far from this, it seems evident from the whole
tenor of His words to the Jews, at various times,
6 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
respecting the Sabbath, that He always spoke of
it as an institution which was ever to continue
under the gospel, as it had done under the law.
He corrected their superstitious and self-righ-
teous errors respecting it ; but, in doing this, He
always implied that it must continue to be kept
in its true spirit.
We may apply to His declaration, that He is
Lord even of the Sabbath day, the same principle
of reasoning which He also applied to His Own
citation from the Old Testament respecting the
resurrection from the dead, saying, " Touching
the resurrection from the dead, have ye not read
that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
6 1 am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob ? ' God is not the God of
of the dead, but of the living." So here we
may say, that, as it is directly affirmed by
our Lord, that He came not to destroy the law,
but to fulfil it, and as the keeping of the Sab-
bath is a commandment of the law, when
Jesus declares that the Son of man is Lord also
of the Sabbath" day, He is Lord not of a dead,
but of a living day. In correcting and re-
proving the false ideas of the Pharisees respect-
OF THE SABBATH. 7
ing it, He only restored it from the letter which
killeth to the spirit that giveth life, causing the
ministration written and engraven in stones,
which was glorious, to have no glory by reason
of the glory that excelleth.
On the same principle, we may say, what
some of the most pious and learned commentators
on the text have said, that the declaration may
have been designed by our Lord as a prophetic
intimation of the fact, that the Gospel was, in its
process of magnifying the law of God and making
it honorable, to change the seventh-day Sabbath
of the law, into the first-day Sabbath of the gos-
pel, called repeatedly the first day of the week,
and, in the book of the Revelation of John,
" the Lord's day." Possibly, if not probably,
this was intimated by David in the 118th Psalm,
the versification of which by Dr. Watts, we often
sing in our worship of God : " This is the day
which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and
be glad in it."
We say, then, in great confidence, that, if any
one will take the facts stated in the Bible respect-
ing the Sabbath day ; if he will take the fact that
the keeping of it is directly commanded in the
8 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
moral law of God ; that Jesus declared repeatedly,
in the Gospel, that this law shall never pass
away ; and His apostle, that we do not make void
the law through faith, but establish the law ; that
in all our Saviour's instructions respecting the
Sabbath, exposing and correcting Jewish errors
respecting it, He never intimated, in a single in-
stance, that it was not then binding upon men ;
that He declared Himself, as the Son of man, to
be Lord of the Sabbath, and that it was made for
man ; that the disciples and first Christians, after
His death and resurrection, evidently paid marked
attention to the first day of the week ; that He
Himself first met with them on that day, after He
rose from the dead ; that they also met on that
day to break bread, or, as we have the best rea-
sons to believe, partake of the Lord's Supper;
that Paul preached to them on that day ; that he
afterwards directed the members of the Church
in Corinth each to lay by on that day, as God had
prospered him, a portion of his earthly possessions
for the necessities of the saints, and to aid in
advancing the gospel; and that the last of the
apostles, John, " the disciple whom Jesus
loved," wrote, in recording the last words of His
OF THE SABBATH. 9
Lord to all His Churches in all ages to the end
of time, that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, and that the Lord appeared to him in a
special manner then, and gave him special mes-
sages to deliver to the Churches, when we place
all these interesting and remarkable facts to-
gether, and draw from them the general rule
which a fair comparison of them with one another
seems clearly to demand, the satisfactory con-
clusion must be, that the Sabbath is now binding
on all men, and on every man, to be remembered
and kept holy as a commandment of the moral
law of God, which shall never pass away ; that
Jesus, the Son of man, is Lord of the day ; and
that He has exercised His lordship, not by annul-
ling it, but, by giving to men, in His own person,
and through the practice of His apostles, a larger
and more intelligent liberty respecting the man-
ner of keeping it ; but no license to desecrate and
neglect it. He has shown that the precise day
on which a seventh portion of time shall be hal-
lowed in the special worship of God, and the
learning and doing of His will, is nol important
in the spirit of a true obedience to His command-
ment, as it is made impossible for all men, in all
l*
10 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
places, from the daily revolutions of the earth
upon its axis in its orbit round the sun. He has,
therefore, by leading His disciples to keep the
first, instead of the seventh day of the week, en-
larged and not contracted the blessedness and
power of the motives for keeping it holy by
making it commemorate the finishing of the work
of redemption, as well as the work of the' natural
creation. And He, therefore, by His Holy Spirit,
led an apostle to teach men, in the liberty of the
gospel, to rise above, and be superior to those
self-complacent and contracted reasonings of the
Jews, which, making the precise time, in which it
must be kept, essential, fell into the error re-
buked in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Let
no man, therefore, judge you in. meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the
new moon, or of the Sabbath days : which are
a shadow of things to come ; but the body is
Christ," Paul thus agreeing, in the teachings
of his Epistle, with the remarkable declaration of
Jesus, that " the Son of man is Lord, even of the
Sabbath day."
Of this, as we think, very strong evidence
from the Bible of the binding obligation of the
OF THE SABBATH. 11
law of the Sabbath, as a moral, and not a positive
or temporary, institution, under the Gospel of
Christ, there are two facts, one of a historical,
and the other of a natural or physiological kind,
strongly corroborative.
The historical fact is, that from the earliest his-
tory of the Christian Churches, the first day of
the week has been reverenced by being devoted,
as the Lord's day, to be a Sabbath or day of rest
from the earthly toils of other days, and passed
in the worship and enjoyment of God in Christ.
And the natural or physiological fact is, that
the direct testimony of a great number of the
most learned and impartial men, sought and
given with direct reference to this subject, tes-
timony thus given by statesmen, physicians, law-
yers, machinists, merchants, and intelligent men
from other departments of life, agrees in affirm-
ing, that man and beast most evidently need the
rest and recreation of one day in seven, for the
restoration and vigor of their health and energy,
otherwise exhausted by the perpetual toils and
cares of life.
To this it may be added, that when the deisti-
cal philosophers, in a nominally Christian nation,
12 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
not yet a century ago, attempted to abolish the
Christian Sabbath, they were so deeply convinced
of the natural need of men of some similar in-
stitution, that they appointed one day in ten as a
season for similar needed rest and recreation, and
change of employment, thus bearing their un-
willing testimony to the truth that the Sabbath
was made for man.
II. With these evidences, then, of its Divine
authority, as it is confirmed by the precepts and
practice of Jesus and His apostles, and the his-
N
tory of all the Churches of Christ, we are pre-
pared to consider the duty of its " more strict
observance."
This implies that its observance among us has
been, and is, too greatly neglected, and needs to
be more strict. Need I go into details to show
that this is true ? Is it not evident to every se-
rious observer of the habits of our country and
commonwealth and city, that the neglect of the
worship of God on the Sabbath, and the posi-
tive and unnecessary breaking of its rest, by
various practices, has of late years greatly in-
creased ?
In our own city and vicinity we are certainly
OP THE SABBATH. 13
coming very near, under fair and plausible names,
to theatrical performances on the evening of the
Lord's day ; to political harangues during the
day and evening, sometimes from the lips of pro-
fessed preachers of the Gospel ; to habitual drives
for pleasure ; and a great neglect of attendance
on the public worship of God, and the hearing of
His Word, by private persons.
Without speaking farther of what all know, let
us inquire what we -ought to do far the more strict
observance of the day.
To this inquiry it may be said, generally, that,
as it is a day of rest on earth, in which men
may, in the use of its means, be preparing to
enter into the rest of heaven, and as they are
specially encouraged and aided by the day to
come unto Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath,
and find " rest unto their souls," which shall
thus prepare them for rest eternal ; so, what-
ever duties lead them most directly and per-
fectly to rest in Christ must be, so far as practi-
cable, done ; and all acts which hinder them from
thuo coming unto Him, and finding rest unto
their b^uls, on this day of rest, ought to be, so
far as ^ra/x'cable, avoided.
14 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
In doing these duties, and abstaining from these
unnecessary practices, we are ever to keep in
mind that the Gospel teaches us that we are in a
world of discipline; in which, for our highest
good, we are to be continually tried, in our char-
acters and conduct, by questions respecting truth
and duty. On this account our path is not, and
ought not to be, always and clearly " chalked out
for us." Good is not to be done altogether or
mainly by law, but by the Gospel. Some men
among us are always relying on law too much.
They would, in this sense, go back to the " weak
and beggarly elements of this world," by specify-
ing in distinct rules what may be done or left un-
done respecting the forms and institutions of
religion, and, of course, in regard to the keeping
of the Sabbath, instead of leaving the con-
duct to be prompted and governed by the intelli-
gence of Christian love. The tendency of such
legal action, respecting Christian duty, is to make
the manners of men stiff, and suspicious, and
censorious ; not free, natural, confiding, kind and
charitable.
We are ever to remember, that, in respect to
all the forms and institutions of religion, we
OF THE SABBATH. 15
" have been called unto liberty ; only we should
use not our liberty as an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another." In regard to the
keeping of the Sabbath, therefore, we are to feel,
and act as if we felt, that we are " not under law,
but under grace." "We are to keep it, from the
promptings of supreme love, and ever-operative
gratitude and praise to God, in Christ ; regarding
it not as a yoke, but as a privilege ; and well as-
sured that when men are under the influence of
the love and service of Jesus, they need not fear
that they shall not arrive at clear and satisfactory
views of truth and duty, respecting the keeping
of the Lord's day.
There ought to be among us a more strict
observance of the Sabbath, under the influence of
this love and liberty of the Gospel, in OUT public,
social, domestic, and personal duties respecting it.
By our PUBLIC duties respecting it, I would be
understood to mean the influence we may prop-
erly exert on the acts of the government under
which we live. It is plain that for its acts, each
of us, as a subject of it, can be only indirectly and
partly accountable. And this, our accountability,
must be proportioned to the degree of influence
16 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
we can exert in directing its action. This is, in
most cases, small in degree, and very limited in
extent. To whatever degree and extent it can be
effectual, we are accountable, and no farther.
But, to that degree and extent, we ought to ex-
ert our influence in promoting the public keep-
ing of the Lord's day.
By the truths we embrace, and strive to pro-
mote respecting it ; by our personal example in
keeping it ; by the character of the persons we
aid in placing in positions of public trust, we
can, and ought to strive to, promote its public
observance. After having faithfully made such
efforts, our personal accountability for what may
be done by government, ceases. But whatever
influence we can wield ought to be used to the
extent of our ability.
In this way the Churches of Christian disciples,
and private believers in Jesus, as they increase
in numbers and influence in a nation, shall
gradually, but surely make the government what
the people are ; and gradually, but surely, the
rulers, of whatever form the government may be,
whether despotic or democratic, shall be event-
ually wise men, ruling in the fear of the Lord,
OF THE SABBATH. 17
keeping His Sabbaths and reverencing His sanc-
tuary, knowing that He is the Lord. In our
own government does not much need to be done,
in such ways, to promote the better observance
of this holy time ?
It is thus, also, with regard to our SOCIAL du-
ties in keeping the Sabbath. In these I would
include particularly the acts of the city, or town,
or village, in which each of us may reside ; and
the various circles, whether of organized associa-
tions, or of a smaller kind, with which individu-
als may be connected. In these, much more effi-
caciously than in any departments of the public
government, each person may exert an influence
for good. In any official position he may hold,
either permanently, or only for a limited time,
each private disciple carf, in many ways, directly
or indirectly, by his word, his acts, his example,
do much to promote the observance of God's Sab-
bath, and the reverence of His sanctuary. This
may be done, in any such bodies as are formed to
advance public ends and private interests, like
manufacturing companies, or railroad and steam-
boat associations. In any of those combinations
of men where the personal influence, or the vote
18 A MORE STRICT ^OBSERVANCE
_
^
of an individual, can be intelligently and wisely
used, to promote the keeping of the Sabbath, it
ought, in conformity with the principles of the
Gospel already stated, to be done.
I say, on the principles of the Gospel already
stated, meaning by this, those principles which
show us that we are under a dispensation of
things, in a world of trial, where questions of truth
and duty often arise in which it is difficult to
decide what course of action, respecting the
keeping of His Sabbaths, may be most pleasing
to God, and, therefore, of the highest benefit to
man.
Whatever may be the decisions of a truly Chris-
tian wisdom on such subjects, what I wish to say
is this : that all who would keep the Sabbath so-
cially, in the light and liberty of the Gospel, must
be prepared to find questions of religious duty
sometimes arising, which call not for quick and
rash decisions, and stringent laws, but for hum-
ble, patient, prayerful watchfulness ; and a firmer
reliance on the ultimate influence of Christian
faith, working by love, in men, than on laws
quickly enacted, and sternly enforced. God will
have mercy, and not sacrifice. We must have
OP THE SABBATH. 19
moral courage enough to be kind and forbearing
and long-suffering to man in all our zeal for God.
In our DOMESTIC relations, by which are meant
those of the family-circle, in our respective
households, the influence, good or bad, of every
member, in regard to the Sabbath, is most directly
exerted by one's self, and felt by others. To this,
therefore, the fourth commandment of the law of
God directly refers, and is now binding : "In it
thou shalt not do any work ; thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy
maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that
is within thy gates." Regard should be had, iu
all domestic arrangements, to the religious good
and bodily rest of servants.
How interesting and instructive it is, thus to
have the law of God magnified and made hon-
orable, as it is, by the Gospel, entering, by faith
in Christ, our families, and commanding us, in
the name of the Lord of the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy ; thus blessing all the families
of the earth by its sacred rest ; in which the
parents and children, one day in every seven,
take sweet counsel in their home, and go to the
house of God in company. What a fountain of
20 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE
purity and peace is thus opened, by the arrange-
ment of God, in every household, from which
streams of blessed influence shall flow out into
all the masses of a nation, and make glad the city
of God. " Happy is that people that is in such
a case : yea, happy is that people whose God is
the Lord."
In our PERSONAL and private habits, ought there
not to be a more strict observance of the Sab-
bath ? In our time of rising in the morning ; in
the kind of books we read ; in the nature of the
thoughts and imaginations we indulge ; in the
regularity and number of the times in which we
attend the public worship of God ; in the kind of
silent, yet great influence we thus exert on all
whom we love in our domestic circle, ought there
not to be more faithfulness ? In prayer to God,
and the searching of the Scriptures, ought not
each of us to be more faithful, fervent, diligent ?
Should we not avoid the tendency to indolence,
in which, during its hours, we may be tempted
to indulge ?
There are several very important, practical in-
ferences, which might, were there time, be drawn
from this subject, as thus presented.
OF THE SABBATH. 21
One of them, were I to attempt to speak of
them, would be the evidence it gives of the Di
vine nature and authority of Jesus. He is Lord
even of the Sabbath day, which day we are com-
manded to remember and keep holy, in God's
eternal law.
But let me only speak, in closing, of the blessed
opportunity afforded to every person, in a Chris-
tian land, by the weekly recurrence of each Sab-
bath, for coming unto Jesus, the Lord of the Sab-
bath, and finding rest unto the soul ! Possibly,
it might be said, with truth, that our Lord's fre-
quent cures of the maladies of men, when He was
on earth, on the Sabbath day, were designed to
direct our attention to this blessed truth. On
this day He healed the man with the withered
hand ; on this day He loosed the woman who " had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself;"
on this day He commanded the man who had
been waiting a long time at the pool of Bethesda,
and had an infirmity thirty and eight years, to
rise, take up his bed, and walk ; and immediately
he was made whole, and took up his bed and
walked. " And on the same day was the Sabbath."
22 A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE, ETC.
It was on the Sabbath day that Jesns made clay r
and opened the eyes of the man who was blind
from his birth. It was on the Sabbath day that He
went into the synagogue, in Nazareth, where He
had been brought up, and " stood up for to read ; ' :
and when He had opened the book He found the
place where it is written, " The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me
to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord." " And
He began to say unto them, c This day is this
Scripture fulfilled in your ears.'
So now, in our time, He comes by His Word,
His preachers, His Spirit, in the rest of every
Sabbath day, of which He is the Lord, to heal the
diseases of the souls of men ; to cause the spirit-
ually blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to
walk ; to heal the broken-hearted ; to deliver men
from the slavery of sin ; to set at liberty them
that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord.
to C'jjurrjj
1 THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
Boston Congregational Council.
The foil 01 : 'itblished, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF < --IL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Churcli.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE'
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY Si PRAYER and DAILY
STULM HIE BIBLE. By Re\ ; 'i .
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. Tone.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY' IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSER\
THE SABBATH. Bv Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
Th( ; Addi< ill follow at intervals of about one
THE SPREAD OF THE THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY ;;OT THE SERVI-
^Ai;i?ATii. By Rev. Dr. DEXT
WORK FOR OF
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
Tin; Pow: THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev.
Dr. ADAMS.
THE Po\\ i
i;. B\ Rev. Dr. KIRK.
.!Vo. &. Published by direction of tin- Congregational Churches of Boston.
THE
POWER OF PRAYER.
BY
REV. E. X. KIRK, D.D.
BOSTON:
XICHOLS AXD XOTES.
1806.
THE
POWER OF PRAYER
BY
REV. E. N. KIRK, D.D.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress,- in the year 1SG6, by
NICHOLS AND N O Y E S,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAM BRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
THE POWER OF PRAYER.
IN nothing is the world more opposed to Christ
than in His revelation of mysteries to be believed
and acted 011 in daily life. And when a worldly
person embraces His religion in name merely,
as is frequently done, the very first step is to
strip it of mysteries and reduce it to a philoso-
phy or a science, to something that can be seen
by the eyes, or demonstrated to the understand-
ing, and thus relieve him of the inconvenience of
appearing unreasonable to other worldly per-
sons. Faith, or the belief of that which " eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered
into the heart of man " by invention or discovery,
the world utterly discards.
Prominent among the mysteries of the Gospel
is Prayer ; not so much when considered as
adoration, confession, thanksgiving, or even sup-
plication ; not at all, when considered as a direct
[31
4 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
means of refining our own hearts; but as a
POWER, a power over God ; that is the mystery in
which faith believes.
Considered as a privilege, prayer is wonderful;
but as a force, it transcends all our earthly wis-
dom, and can be recognized by Faith alone. We
see, for instance, the man Moses staying the
arm of Omnipotence just uplifted to strike down
a guilty race, as described in Numbers xiv. 11.
Was it science, or statesmanship, or military
prowess, poetic talent or eloquence, that saved
that people ? No, it was the power of prayer.
" And the Lord said, I have pardoned accord-
ing to thy word"
We see Abraham pleading for the people of
Sodom, and reducing, step by step, the condi-
tions of their salvation to narrower and easier
terms.
We see Elijah, a man like ourselves, shutting
the windows of heaven for more than three years ;
then, bowed on Carmel, controlling the forces of
nature simply by the power of prayer, and bring-
ing down the rain that saved a nation from de-
struction.
Read the record of David's experience, in his
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 5
Psalms. Hearken to that voice of pleading which
comes down to us from the early ages, and
observe the soul putting forth the energy of
faith successfully; "Make haste to help me : in-
numerable evils have compassed me : be pleased,
Lord ! to deliver me ; Be not silent to me, lest
1 become like them that go down to the pit."
Indeed, the Psalms very frequently are a record
of prayer for personal deliverance ; almost uni-
formly ending with a grateful record of the answer
given to each petition. They are monuments of
the power of prayer. Nay, it is remarkable
that there is scarcely one definite prayer record-
ed, the answer to which is not equally regis-
tered.
Esther, Daniel, Gideon, Samuel, Nehemiah,
Hezekiah, and many others, are described as hav-
ing, like Jacob, " power with God."
This view of prayer was frequently presented
by our Saviour in His instructions. Notice these
words in Luke xi. 9, " Ask," " seek," " knock," in
their connection, and you see that they are cli-
mactic ; indicating increasing earnestness and im-
portunity. The hour is late : the family are in
bed. The man does not rise for a simple request
6 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
from his friend. He even presents reasons
against rising. But, at length, the Lord says,
it is "importunity" that makes him yield. The
same object He had in view in the parable of
the widow; the judge yielded to nothing but
her importunity : " He spake a parable unto
them to this end, that men ought always to pray
and not faint." And what is it makes them
tend to faint, but God's long delay, and that re-
sistance by which He tests their faith? Jacob
was resisted. The woman of Syrophenicia was
resisted : the widow before the judge was resist-
ed : the friend was at first refused, and reasons
were given for not granting his request. The
faithful student of Scripture cannot fail to mark
that these are illustrations of one kind or degree
of prayer.
The immediate measure introducing the Chris-
tian dispensation was, by the Lord's direct orders,
a protracted prayer-meeting.
Peter was released from prison by the prayers
of the Church. James declared that the prayer
of faith should save the sick.
These instances are sufficient to show that the
Scriptures reveal the power of prayer ; declar-
THE POWER OF PRAYER. T
_,
ing that man by believing prayer has power over
the weather, over the angels, over diseases, over
God Himself, within defined limits.
But many refuse to believe this principle on
either of the two grounds, God's testimony or
man's experience. They require what is to them
more authoritative and conclusive, a philosophi-
cal explanation why and hoiv God is moved by
prayer. This, however, is to abandon the sphere
of faith and the supernatural. Semi-rationalists
admit that prayer benefits the suppliant directly,
but its power over God they deny. Supposing
themselves to be believers, they have only the
faith of science ; not that of either ordinary life
or religion. They adopt the false principle in
this matter, of believing only what they can ex-
plain ; which should make them atheists, for
they do not know how or why God exists. We
may perplex our minds with a host of objections
and difficulties about an unoriginated, infinite life
and personality ; still, faith believes there is such
a life and personality. Pure rationalism must be
atheistic.
He that waits to pray until he can discover
reasons and explanations full and satisfactory
8 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
why and how man has power with his Creator
will probably never exercise that power. He that
counts for nothing the teachings, testimony, and
promises of God's word cannot pray in faith or
" in the Holy Ghost." (Jude 20.)
This is a vital point in the Christian religion.
If the strong men of prayer, like Moses, Elijah,
David, Daniel, and Paul, especially if the woman
of Syropheiiicia, had withheld their belief in the
efficacy of prayer until they had made a logical
argument proving it, we should never have had
the history of their glorious achievements. The
roll of honor, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews,
had never been written, if the illustrious men it
commends had been rationalists.
If any one insists that God is unchangeable in
such a sense that our suffering and supplication
do not affect both His sensibilities and His will,
we refer them to the earthly life of Him who, as
Son of man, took our places and undertook our
cause.
There they may discover in His redemptive
work the most conclusive and most impressive
exhibition of importunity and its power with God,
the most complete overthrowing of the objections
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 9
to importunate prayer. Two branches of it had
"power with God" even more than with men,
the Atonement and Prayer. Why could not God
forgive us, as a kind Father, without the inter-
vention of the humiliating incarnation of His
Son ; the life of the " Man of sorrows ; " the scenes
of the garden, and the hill of Golgotha? Proud
Reason, take off thy shoes here, for the ground is
holy. The sacrifice of Jesus is the indispensable
medium of our salvation. Why did the Father
exact it ? Whether we can answer it or not, the
fact remains, "He spared not His Son," even
for His " crying."
Then turn to His praying. He surely found it
necessary to be importunate. Sweating as it were
great drops of blood, thrice He fell upon His face,
crying for release from the cup of anguish. " He
offered up prayer and supplication with strong
crying and tears." " And, being in an agony,
He prayed more earnestly. ' Why may not the
same necessity be laid on them who are made one
with Him, called to bear His cross, and drink His
cup, and follow Him, "filling up what is behind
of the sufferings of Christ" ?
Why may not there be in the Divine nature a
1*
10 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
demand for more than mere desire on the part
of him who would secure the exercise of Divine
mercy toward sinners ? No one can intelligently
affirm that there is not.
Brethren, believe the word of God when it
declares, "Ask, and ye shall receive." If you
can discover ivJiy you shall receive, it is very well.
But do not wait for that. " Believe ; for all
things are possible to him that believeth."
Guard against that spirit which saturates the
very atmosphere of this metropolis, the spirit
that demands stronger reasons for believing any
proposition than that it is founded upon the
testimony of the Bible. The moment you yield
to it, you have crossed over the line that sepa-
rates the kingdom of Christ from the world.
Take your position either as an unbeliever, and
say, " I believe only what I can prove ; ' or as a
believer, and say, " I believe the words of Christ
as recorded in the Scriptures."
If any one affirms that prayer, and especially
importunate prayer, is dictating to God, tell him
it is no more so than planting grain ; for He
has ordained both to be the immediate means of
securing certain desired results. If any one asks
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 11
you whether any person can obtain any thing he
wants by praying for it, reply to him, that this is
not implied in the Scriptural view of prayer, or
any Scriptural promise. There are limitations
and conditions and relations of prevailing prayer
which guard it against such an absurdity.
If any one inquires how we can reconcile the
promises of answer to the prayer of faith, with the
fact that the children of believing parents have
died in impenitence, we certainly have a right to
reply, You do not know that those parents ever
prayed according to God's requirements.
" But," it may then be replied, " this makes it
always uncertain to any person, because he is not
sure he has complied with all the conditions of
the promises." To this we answer, The case is
exactly parallel with that of salvation itself. To
low degrees of faith, uncertainty of the result is
always attached. Faith, in its higher exercise,
alone can bring certainty.
Others have asked, if the warnings against
using " vain repetitions' 1 do not meet this case.
By no means. Vain repetitions are words used
as charms, of which so many specimens may
be found in the various superstitions of the world.
12 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
Others find a difficulty in this passage, " Your
heavenly Father knoweth of what things ye have
need before ye ask." " Wh} T , then, pray and im-
portune ? ' ' they say. Our first reply is, that wheth-
er we can answer this inquiry or not, we can
safely affirm, that it was not designed to discour-
age, but to encourage prayer. Our second reply
is, in the language of another, " Superstition
places the reason of the hearing of prayer not in
the grace of God, but in its own godless work.
Unbelief deduces the uselessness of prayer from
the omniscience of God, in Whom it does not
itself believe. Faith rests its poor prayer pre-
cisely on this holy, gracious, Divine knowledge.
Thus our Lord teaches us to pray in faith because
God knows, before the petition, what we need ;
and, consequently, can Himself prompt the accept-
able prayer, and fulfil it accordingly. These
words of the Saviour are to be taken as the reason
which prevents the Christian from praying after
the heathen manner." (Olshausen in loc.~) If
God were not acquainted with all our wants,
He could not command our adoration or confi-
dence.
What, then, are
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 13
i
THE ELEMENTS OF PREVAILING PRAYER?
1. Faith. " He that cometh to God must be-
i
lieve " two propositions: ".that God is, and that
He is the Rewarder of them who diligently
seek Him."
In other words, he must believe in the power of
prayer ; that if he diligently and properly seeks
of God a certain blessing, he will get it, so far
as that blessing lies within the scope of express
promise. Look at the Syrophenician woman's
wonderful prayer : she definitely expected to
be answered. Nothing daunted or discouraged
her, though her faith was put to the severest
tests. Yet this woman had nothing but the prom-
ise furnished by the Saviour's character and dis-
position, for it was understood in her day that
His personal mission was to the Jews alone.
We have what she knew nothing of, the name
of Christ as our plea. We know that 'He has
removed every barrier from our way to the mercy-
seat. And we know that the promises of God to
us are all "in Him, yea and amen," promises
covering every point of human necessity. Some
of these are unconditional and general. We say
14 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
>*
" unconditional," and yet not one of them will be
fulfilled but in answer to prayer, not even that
which declares that Christ will subdue the world
to Himself. There are other promises directly
and wholly conditioned on prayer. When, there-
fore, we have prayed for the objects they contain,
we must expect them. Some are limited by other
conditions. Expectation of their fulfilment, in
cases where such conditions are not complied
with, is not faith, but presumption ; like the ex-
pectations of those who look for heaven without
meeting the requirements of the Gospel. Then
again, we must not fix a time or a mode of
answering a prayer where God has not ; but
" hope against hope," and place promises against
providences.
But God is honored by a faith that expects
His actions ultimately, whatever He may be doing
at present, to be as good and gracious as His
word, and a fulfilment of them ; a faith which
believes He is able, willing, and desirous to do all
He has promised to do.
2. Intense desire is an element of the higher
grade of prayer. This the Saviour indicated
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 15
when He remarked concerning demons, that His
disciples had not faith to exorcise them, " this
kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer."
Ordinary desire is here not sufficiently strong.
Ordinary prayer is here unavailing. That woman
of Canaan had probably endured a long trial
with her daughter. Night and day, the child's
agony had racked her spirit. And now she
comes to pour out the grief of months, per-
haps of years, in one gushing prayer. And she
could afford to spend that precious moment on
nothing else, " Lord, my daughter is grievously
vexed with a devil."
Some good men have been averse to the repre-
sentation of prayer as an expression of intense
desire, even to agony. But they surely have
overlooked the history of Jacob, of Hannah, of
Mordecai, of Hezekiah, of Paul, nay, of the Lord
Himself, who offered up prayer " with strong cry-
ing and tears." Do these brethren deny that we
are permitted in this very matter to " fill up what
is behind of the sufferings of Christ" ? If He is
not our pattern in praying, in what respects are
we to imitate Him ?
And, if we come down from this height, we
16 THE POWER OP PRAYER.
shall find that, in every subsequent age, the
most eminent of His servants have been distin-
guished for intense desires for His glory, and
for their own spiritual good, and the salvation
of others.
This importunate prayer makes the crisis in
the history of almost every converted soul. To
cite thousands of instances would be easy. Au-
gustine, Brainerd, Whitfield, came into the king-
dom of God in the agony of prayer. Then, every
great revival of religion that has blessed our
world, every great stage in the advance of the
kingdom of Christ, has been preceded, not by
gentle requests merely, but by what has prop-
erly been called the agony of prayer. Such
was the case when the captive Church was
released and returned to Palestine, in answer
to the prayer of Daniel and Nehemiah. It was
so in the Reformation that blessed our world in
the sixteenth century.
Of the many modern specimens of the power
of prayer, I present one instance in which the
challenge was made by scepticism to faith. The
Rev. A. B. Earle was preaching in Oneonta,
N.Y., about the year 1850. He had insisted
THE POWER OF PEAYER. 17
strongly in his discourse, one day, on the efficacy
of earnest, determined, persevering prayer in se-
curing the conversion of men. At the close of
the sermon, Mr. Otis a lawyer, a notorious
sceptic, who had confirmed many in his own
views arose, and addressed the preacher with
this remark, " Mr. Earle, I do not believe a word
of the doctrine you have been asserting. Now,
if you wish to try it on a hard case, try it on
me." The preacher replied, " Mr. Otis, come
forward here, and present yourself as asking
the prayers of God's people." He refused to
come.
The preacher then requested all the Church to
retire to their closets at a specified hour, and
begged him to remember the hour, in which
they should pray specially for his conversion. In
the course of the third day from that, he arose
in the midst of the congregation, and said, " I
may as well break the ice now as at any time ;
I wish somebody to pray for me." Mr. Earle
then said, " Will you come to this front seat that
we may pray for you ? ' He replied, " Any where,
if some one will pray for me." He came for-
ward : and, kneeling, he filled the house with his
18 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
sobs. To-day he is preaching, in the ranks of
the Methodist ministry, that Gospel he once de-
spised.
If the full history of the recent Rebellion
could be written, we cannot entertain a doubt,
that the world would see that, even more glo-
riously than the patriotism and skill and mate-
rial resources of the government and people, the
pow*er of prayer is set forth by it. If ever a Pres-
ident was remembered in prayer, Mr. Lincoln
was. If ever earnest, intense prayer ascended
to heaven, it was from April, 1861, to April,
1865, for the life of this nation.
3. Patient importunity is another characteristic
of powerful or prevailing prayer. It is remark-
able that a man of such gigantic intellect as
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, misled by the specula-
tions of German philosophers, should yet have
had such views of the grandeur, solemnity, "and
power of earnest prayer as at once bringing
the greatest blessings to the earth, and most
profoundly taxing the sensibilities of the heart.
He once made this remark to De Quincey :
" Prayer with the whole soul is the highest
THE POWER OF PRATER. 19
energy of which the human heart is capable ; and
therefore the great mass of worldly men are
absolutely incapable of prayer."
Long afterward he said to his nephew : " I
have no difficulty in [believing in] forgiveness.
Neither do I find or reckon most solemn faith
in God, as a real object, the most arduous act of
reason and will. Oh no ! it is to pray, to pray as
God would have us : this is what at times makes
me turn cold to my soul. Believe me, to pray
with all your heart and strength, with the reason
and the will ; to believe vividly that God will
listen to your voice through Christ, and verily
do the thing He pleaseth thereupon, this is the
last, the greatest achievement of a Christian's
warfare on earth." And then, bursting into
tears, he begged his nephew to pray for him.
Yes, brethren, this is the great truth the
Church needs now to comprehend to achieve her
final victory. " This kind goeth not out but by
fasting and prayer ;" there are demons command-
ing the strongholds of the world that can be cast
out only by the highest kind of prayer.
We have not outlived the Old Testament.
There we have, among others, this striking exhi-
20 THE. POWER OF PRAYER.
bition of the power of importunate prayer. There
we see that God sometimes offers resistance to
the suppliant, and yet yields to importunity, as in
the case of Abraham's grandson whose birth-name
was Jacob, afterward changed to Israel. There
certainly has been too little made of his remark-
able experience, and of that name by which he
was finally known, by which the ancient people
of God were known, and which has been trans-
ferred to the Church of the new dispensation.
Let us recall the meaning of that new title ;
and the circumstances in view of which it was
conferred. Israel is a Heaven-chosen, Heaven-
imparted name. The man who bore it was at
his birth called Jacob, from the prophetic action
he then performed of seizing his twin-brother by
the heel ; and the name in the Hebrew tongue
is equivalent to Supplanter.
Out of his basely supplanting Esau came the
miseries of his youth and early manhood. But
out of the wonderful faith he manifested when
those miseries were culminating at the ford Jab-
bok, came the new name Israel.
Returning from the north with his large family,
his flocks and herds, he was informed, as he
THE POWER OP PRAYER. 21
approached the Jordan, that the outraged Esau
was coming to meet him.
Weak, from the sense of his own unfairness
toward his brother, aware of his inability to
make a military defence, he adopted the only
two measures left to him : a judicious attempt
to appease his brother, and an appeal to the God
of Abraham. Of the first we need not now
speak, as our attention is here turned to the
most mysterious feature of prayer ; that is, its
power as exhibited in this man.
And we must first be assured that this mys-
terious wrestling with the angel was prayer ; of
which we are made sure by several statements
in the Scriptures. The first is, that Jacob was
seeking a blessing. His language, " Deliver me,
I pray Thee, from my brother," " I will not let
Thee go, except Thou bless me," expresses his
object in struggling. And again, " The angel,"
it is said, " blessed him there." And then again,
the prophet Hosea (xii. 3, 4) distinctly states
that " he made supplication unto " God.
The question then arises, Was the angel the
Son of God, the Jehovah of the Old Testament ?
This is equally determined by the Word of God.
22 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
Jacob would not have asked a mere angel to
change Esau's- vengeful heart; for that was
manifestly the blessing he sought and obtained.
Again, he is said to have had " power with God'
in this contest. And he declares he had seen
God face to face in it. Then Hosea makes the
angel and God identical : " He had power with
God ; yea, he had power over the angel, and
prevailed."
The next point of interest in this wonderful
story is, that God resisted Jacob. That was
the intention of His assuming the attitude of a
wrestler, holding Jacob all night in the contest,
laming his thigh, and at length asking to be
released from his grasp.
On this point we must dwell a moment, for
the sake of those who are averse to this view of
prayer.
Their reasoning, like much other, contradicts
the Scriptures, and the experience of the most
eminent children of God. It contradicts the
word of God. Jacob did not get the blessing
for simply asking : he wrestled all night. And
God, so far from censuring him for it, gave
him the blessing because of his importunity ; He
THE POWER OP PRAYER, 23
removed the old name " Supplanter," and gave
him a new name, Prince of God. And that
name Israel has now become the permanent
title of the Church of God. We are not Jacob-
ites, but Israelites ; not supplanters, but a race
having " power with God and men ' by the
importunity of believing prayer. The prayer of
Hannah was a long-continued, weeping prayer.
The prayer of the prophet Jonah was a prayer
of anguish uttered, as he expressed it, out of
" the belly of hell : ' "I cried by reason of my
affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me."
4. Humility. As we see it illustrated in the
woman of Syrophenicia. At first the Lord ap-
peared to neglect her. Then He reasoned with
the disciples against her petitions. Then He rea-
soned more directly to her against it, and added
to this a wound through her national feelings.
But all the time her soul was poised and col-
lected in the strength of meekness. She mani-
fested none of the impatience, the sensitiveness,
or the exacting spirit, of pride. She recognized
herself to be purely a suppliant, and the Sav-
iour to be the Master of His own power and
24 THE POWER OF PRATER.
possessions. He might choose His own time and
way of bestowing His gifts. This agrees with
intense earnestness, and is indispensable to pre-
vailing with God.
5. Obedience. The spirit of entire submission
to God's will ; the determination to do whatever
He makes it manifest He would have us do. If
we ask for a revival of religion, and have not
given up our choice and determination of the
way in which it shall come, and the kind and
amount of labor we are to perform, we cannot
reasonably expect to prevail with God. " Obedi-
ence is better than sacrifice " in His sight. We
may omit the words in importunate prayer, but
we must never omit the sentiment and purpose
they express : " Thy will be done."
If you are seeking the conversion of your
children, you must give up your will about their
worldly interests, and the way in which God
shall convert them, saying, " Not my will, but
Thine be done."
Brethren, our work is before us ; the most
important portion of which is prayer. If we
want power with God like Jacob, we must pray
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 25
like him. If we want spiritual power with men,
we must pray like him. The language of our
hearts must be, " I will not let Thee go except
Thou bless me." There are tithes of importu-
nate prayer yet to be brought into the Lord's
storehouse, before He will " open the windows
of heaven, and pour out a blessing that there
shall not be room enough to receive it."
Who are Israel's descendants ? They are the
Princes of God, who have " power with God and
\
with man," and have " prevailed ' in prayer.
As such they will be known in heaven.
And for what have we come to such a time
as this, if not to call forth that mightiest of
human agencies, to exert the power of prayer to
its utmost extent? Our city calls for it. Our
country calls for it. Prayer can reconstruct
this country ; not without statesmanship, but
by making it wise and efficient, by subduing
passion and prejudice, and attaching the hearts
of the entire people to the government, and to
one another.
The Church demands it: perishing souls de-
mand it. Let us pray " the prayer of faith,"
" the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous
2
26 THE POWER OF PRAYER.
man, that availeth much," that has power with
God and with men. For our own sakes let us
covet the blessedness of partaking with our bless-
ed Lord, in so far as it be assigned to us, of
those sufferings " which are behind." Surely they
must live the nearest to Him who most fully
share the sympathy that brought Him to this
earth, and the burden-bearing that culminated
on the cross.
Let us pray the prayer of faith for the imme-
diate coming of the Lord, not in His body, but by
His Holy Spirit, to raise the human race to a
higher level, and to bring to pass the saying that
is written : " Behold the tabernacle of God is
with men, and He will dwell with them."
to Cteb Members
^j Q v_>
r.Y THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Boston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY
STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF
THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
No. 9. THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
The remaining Addresses will follow at intervals of about one
week ; viz :
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER.
THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE SAVING OF
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev.
Dr. ADAMS.
o. 1O. Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
THE
POWER AND OFFICE
OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
KY
REV. X. ADAMS, D.D.
BOSTON:
X I C H L S A X D X O Y E S.
1866.
THE
POWER AND OFFICE
OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
BY
REV. N. ADAMS, D.D.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NOTES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
\ v
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PKINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT.
DURING those tender and endearing moments
when the Saviour was preparing the disciples
for his own departure, He promised them " an-
other Comforter," who should abide with them
for ever. This implies that He himself had been
a Comforter. And what a Comforter Jesus is,
let the experience of the eleven disciples, and the
sorrowing hearts of eighteen centuries, testify.
No one epithet can express the fulness of Christ
or of the Holy Spirit ; yet, of all the words in
our tongue proposed as the rendering of this
designation of the Holy Spirit by the Saviour,
none is more beautiful, more comprehensive, and,
on the whole, more just to the original, than the
word " Comforter."
" Another Comforter." Progress is the law in
the works of God. Another Comforter, there-
[3J
4 THE POWER AND OFFICE
fore, we may be sure would cause the disciples no
painful perception of inferiority, or sense of loss.
Not many days after, they found themselves,
unlearned and ignorant men, addressing
people in strange languages. Words spoken by
them made converts by thousands, in one day, to
the crucified One. Yet this by no means consti-
tuted their chief joy. That which happens to
one's own soul has an interest for him beyond all
outward phenomena. The Great Teacher seems
to imply this when He says, " Notwithstanding,
in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject
unto you ; but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven." These disciples came,
in one hour, to a consciousness of wonderful
enlargement in their spiritual perceptions. The
whole life of Jesus, especially words and actions
of his till then comparatively obscure, were as
when the flames of many gas-burners are raised
at once by a single motion. Suddenly these men
were in a new spiritual world ; and the light of
it was He of whom, in relation to heaven, it is
said, " the Lamb is the light thereof."
Happy, happy men! conscious of a new spir-
itual state surpassing in value the mere gift of
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 5
tongues and influence over a multitude ! " They
were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
Had the gift of tongues been the chief part of
the Holy Spirit's work in the apostles, there
would be ground for the apprehension that the
excellent greatness in this gift of another Com-
forter was confined to the early Church. But
no ; miracles were the least part of His inten-
tion, a mere alphabet in his communications
to the objects of his grace.
Not to the first disciples alone, therefore, did
the gift of the Comforter appertain. For said
Jesus, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through
their word." You, dear Christian friend, are in
all respects as truly included in the gift of the
Comforter as were the eleven disciples. These
pages are designed to assist you in your concep-
tions of Him. May He guide us into all truth !
WHO is IT, who must He be, that is capable of
taking up the work of the GOD-MAN and carrying
it on to perfection ?
To make atonement for sin, chief as it is
6 THE POWER AND OFFICE
among the works of God, does not bring into
view the same executive attributes which are
employed in dealing with human minds, one by
one ; in adapting the method of recovery to the
peculiarities of each ; and in carrying on the
work of grace through the vicissitudes of per-
sonal history. Who must He be that creates
successive dispensations of thought among men;
controls the wonderful tides of religious feeling ;
brings on those seasons of wide-spread, irresist-
ible impression concerning things spiritual and
eternal ; and, at the same time, is conversant
with every mood of private thought and feeling
in every awakening sinner and in every saint ?
It is He, it can only be He of whom it is said,
" For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God."
PERSONALITY AND DEITY OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT.
All the attributes of personality are manifest
in Him. He is a Divine Person. We are bap-
tized in His name ; in his name we are blessed,
as in the name of the Father and of the Son.
The only sin which is unpardonable is committed
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 7
against Him. He is not therefore " Divine influ-
ence." Christ would not need to go away that
"Divine influence" might come. It is noticeable
that the Bible never speaks as we do of " the
influences of the Holy Spirit," but always refers
to Him as a Person. " I will send Him unto
you."
His POWER ILLUSTRATED.
One illustration of the power with which the
Holy Spirit works in human hearts, is seen in
the rapid advancement of the first converts to
Christianity. It is wonderful that the Epistles
of the New Testament, which were to be the
sufficient source of instruction for the Church of
God in all times, should have been addressed to
people so newly lifted out of heathenism. No
such progress is made under the influence of
letters as these converts from idolatrv must have
it
made, who were competent so soon to understand,
for example, the Epistles to thd Romans and to
the Galatians. Such is the scale on which the
Holy Spirit sets forward the human mind and
heart. Creation only affords a parallel : " God
who commanded the light to shine out of dark-
ness hath sinned in our hearts." We have all
8 THE POWER AND OFFICE
been struck with the sudden improvement in the
minds, as well as characters, of people newly
converted, their good sense, their just percep-
tions. " The entrance of thy words giveth light ;
it giveth understanding unto the simple."
The infinite ease of the Holy Spirit's operation
is full of encouragement. He does with one
gentle thought, one secret, silent impression,
that which reasoning and persuasion had utterly
failed to accomplish. Often we expect a diffi-
cult work with a stubborn soul, but find it done.
Laboring with great pains for a revival of reli-
gion in a Church and congregation, and meeting
seemingly insuperable obstacles in the characters
and conduct of many, all at once you find your
utmost hopes surpassed, and praise breaks forth
" unto Him that is able to do exceeding abund-
antly above all that we ask or think, according to
the power that worketh in us." We should begin
every effort for the spiritual good of. others with
a calm sense of entire dependence upon the Holy
Spirit, and of his almighty power, and saying,
" So then neither is he that planteth, any thing,
neither he that watereth." Thus we should pray
and labor. Then we can continue; our efforts
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 9
will be healthful ; the excitement ministered by
success will be the excitement of bracing air ;
and the joy of the Lord will be our strength. To
the Holy Spirit belong all the appliances to be
used in the conversion of the world.
The Holy Spirit is appointed to be the author
of our whole spiritual experience. It is the
Holy Spirit who makes the Saviour all that He
is to us. What did we know of Christ till the
Holy Spirit fulfilled that promise, "He shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you"?
Repentance and faith, with all the exercises
of our renewed nature, are, from first to last,-
the work of the Holy Spirit. No more directly
dependent are we on Christ for atoning blood
than upon the Spirit for religious experience.
Sanctification is from Him as peculiarly as justi-
fication is by Christ. And as " the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son," so the Father and the Son have com
mitted the entire work of " communion ' to the
Holy Spirit, this " communion ?: including even
our fellowship with the Father and the Son; for
as " no man knoweth who the Father is but the
Son and he to whom the Son will reveal Him,"
l*
10 THE POWER AND OFFICE
so every act of love on our part toward God and
Christ is by the Holy Spirit. Blessed Spirit!
how little do we thank and love Thee! Beau-
tiful, yea, how touching, is thy humility, so
willing to be subordinate, so little recognized
by many of thine own ! Like the parables, thy
comparatively hidden nature may be intended
to excite our faith, and draw us on to further
knowledge. It is with Thee as it was with Him
preceding Thee, who "came unto his own and
his own received Him not." Thou " seven
Spirits which are before his throne ! ' Thou
multiplicity, variety, and infinitude of spiritual
powers and offices ! it is only when we are
spiritually-minded that we appreciate Thee !
Silent, unseen, thy subordination also prevents
us in a measure from thinking of Thee as we
do of the Father and of the Son ; and yet are
we not baptized in thy name also ? and in thy
name we are blessed !
Nothing hinders us from believing that it was
the third Person in the Godhead who is spoken
of in Gen. i. 2 : " And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." Incubating upon
chaos, if then and there He deposited the seeds of
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 11
things in the new elements, and created the
original models of all forms in nature, organi-
zing life in its endless manifestations, it was in
beautiful correspondence with his work, which
is still greater, in the moral creation, ^is the
author of regeneration, and of every thing which
accompanies and flows from it. We see his
work in the religious emotions experienced by the
people of God, from the patriarch to the lisping
child, from the first pang in conviction of sin,
through the day-break of the new-born soul with
its penitence, faith, and hope, its conflicts, its
victories, its discoveries, its spirit of adoption,
its growing likeness to Christ. All this is his
immediate work. Creator Spirit! to be a born
of" Thee, to be " led by " Thee, to be " sanctified
by' : Thee, to have intercession made in us by
Thee, and to be "sealed' by Thee to the day
of redemption, is worthy to be, as it is, the pur-
chase and the gift even of the incarnation and
the cross!
HE MADE THE BlBLE.
j
The Bible is the work of the Holy Spirit as
distinctively as the cross pertains to Christ. It
was proposed to make a book for the human
12 THE POWER AND OFFICE
t
race. Was there ever a more difficult under-
taking? It is finished. Its plan, its details,
none but infinite wisdom could arrange. Who
should write it ; what its contents should be ; how
^
much of history, and what histories ; how much of
legislation, of biography, prophecy, maxim, song ;
and in what ages, what countries, amid what
manners and customs it should be composed ; what
length of time it should cover ; and, no less diffi-
cult than all, what should be left out of it ; in a
word, how it should be, on the whole, best adap-
ted to the use of all peoples and languages in
every condition and stage of life, all this was
solved by Him to whom we owe the Bible. He
devised the narrative of Joseph. He prepared
the books of Esther and Ruth. He indited the
Apocalypse. He taught Moses, inspired Daniel,
inflamed Isaiah, breathed upon John. Some-
times we see a man doing a difficult work with
an ingenious instrument devised and shaped
by himself. The Holy Spirit made the Bible as
the great instrument in his work. He made it
for you, foreseeing your necessities ; He helps you
in reading it.
Descending from the contemplation of it as a
OP THE HOLY SPIEIT. 13
masterpiece of infinite wisdom, select one of its
writers, and think what the communion of the
Holy Ghost must have been with him, for exam-
ple, David. " Now these be the last words of Da-
vid. David, the son of Jesse, said, and the man
that was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel,
said, ' The Spirit of God spake by me and his
word was in my tongue.' This was his most
grateful recollection when reviewing life. In the
progress of divine tuition, shall we not each of us,
fellow-heirs of life! have received from the same
Holy Spirit, who " dwelleth with " us " and shall
be in " us, as much of communion, and as many
great, ennobling, rapturous, and peace-inspiring
thoughts as fell to the lot of David? One pur-
pose of God in raising him up and endowing
him, seems to have been to show us what He
will hereafter do in spiritual things to all who
love Him. " I will give you," says He, " the
sure mercies of David."
THE INTERCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
His connection with our private, spiritual life
is brought to view when it is said, " Likewise the
14 THE POWER AND OFFICE
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but
the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that
searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession in
the saints according to the will of God."
The meaning of this passage is not that the
Holy Spirit intercedes in heaven for us. " For
there is one God, and one mediator between God
and men, the Man Christ Jesus." The Holy
Spirit makes intercession " for us," by filling us
with spiritual emotions so deep and strong that
we cannot utter them except in "groanings."
They are not unintelligible to God. He discerns
their meaning more clearly than the laboring
soul itself can either express or comprehend
the object of the Holy Spirit when filling us
with these earnest desires ; and God regards
these desires, because the Holy Spirit excites
them. It seems, indeed, a singular way of help-
ing our infirmities, to make us feel them all the
more, and until we groan ; yet this is the divine
method, for, " when I am weak, then am I
strong. " When our Christian feelings are such
OP THE HOLY SPIRIT. 15
that words seem weak, the Holy Spirit is making
intercession for us, by working in us.
What encouragement there is in having the
apostle Paul say, " We know not what we should
pray for as we ought ! ' and in perceiving that
lie had the same spiritual " infirmities," and the
same need of the Comforter, as we.
His PRESENCE WITH A CHURCH.
The chief desire and effort of every Christian
Church should be to secure his constant presence.
Every thing which tends to disturb harmony, and
to make alienation and contention, is quenched
by his indwelling in the hearts of Christians.
Long-standing griefs and seemingly insuperable
difficulties melt away at his coming. In honor
"preferring one another," and bearing one an-
other's burdens, there are no jealousies and envy-
ings ; mutual love prevails over every tendency to
alienation. Weaknesses and faults in others culti-
vate the Christian graces of each. There is noth-
ing, perhaps, in effect, so much like heaven as this.
Our Congregational Church-organization offers pe-
culiar opportunities for such experience ; for the
government not being vested in one man, or in a
16 THE POWER AND OFFICE
select body, the whole brotherhood have opportu-
nities in their frequent intercourse to manifest
those graces of the Spirit which Christian commu-
nion is fitted to develop. On the other hand, the
liberty and equality conferred on all expose us to
peculiar temptations ; and, unless the Holy Spirit
rules in our hearts, scenes may be enacted which
will remind you that " there was war in heaven."
But praying and laboring with one heart and
one mind for the constant presence of the Holy
Spirit, and being -led by Him, the members of a
Church become " a holy temple in the Lord ; '
to which others are brought, and are " builded
together ' with them " for an habitation of God
through the Spirit."
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT REACHES
THROUGH TIME.
The work of redemption is to be finished by
the Holy Spirit. Some ascribe the termination
of efforts for the world's conversion to the inter-
position of Christ in person. We cannot prop-
erly enter here upon the consideration of this
subject, but we may be sure that the third Per-
son in the Godhead will not fail of his worthy
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 17
share in the plan of salvation. The ministration
of the Spirit is spoken of (2 Cor. iii.), in an-
tithesis to the old dispensation, as though it
would be the complement of the great redemp-
tive work. Compared with the former dispen-
sation it is to be " the rather glorious." The
conception is sublime of this unseen Spirit
carrying on, by his mysterious agency, and in
perfect consistency with the free agency of men,
good and bad, the stupendous work of subduing
the world to Christ.
So He fulfils the Saviour's comparison of Him
to the wind, which breathes on the softly-bending
corn, or stirs the differing murmurs in the
leaves of different trees, or comes as the trade-
wind of commerce, or moves, at one and the
same moment, all ships on every sea and ocean,
from whatever quarter, and to whatever point
they sail. Surely his name, also, shall be called
" Wonderful." The very close of the Bible and
of prophecy echoes his voice : " And the Spirit
and the bride say, Come ; ' for the honor due to
his name requires that his work in redemption
continue to the end, and be commensurate with
that of the Father and the Son.
18 THE POWER AND OFFICE
HE is "THE ETERNAL SPIRIT."
The future relation of the Holy Spirit to the
redeemed in heaven is a pleasing subject of con-
templation. Never can your love to your Re-
deemer fail of vast accessions through the ages
of your heavenly experience ; it cannot be sup-
planted ; on the contrary, the love which the
Holy Spirit will receive from you will spring
from sources which must enhance the love which
you will feel toward the Father and the Son. But
when we come to know, in full, the personal con-
nection which the Holy Spirit had with us, then
Bethlehem, Gethsemane and Calvary will, per-
haps, have their counterparts in places, sea-
sons, and events of spiritual history, identified
with the work of the Holy Spirit. " Now I be-
seech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake and for the love of the Spirit," says Paul.
Indeed, He must be a loving Spirit who does such
acts of loving-kindness, so patiently, so gently,
so tenderly, that the affection excited by our
misdeeds and perverseness is not wrath but
grief, because it is said, " And grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 19
unto the day of redemption." Of course, the
third Person in the Godhead does not merely
accomplish an earthly mission for our souls ;
He will have a relation, no doubt, to our
whole spiritual existence for ever. If conver-
sion, if repentance, and faith, and the fruits of
the Spirit, in our imperfect state be so wonder-
ful, viewed as mental experiences, what must
our experiences in heaven be, with the author of
these present experiences still in some specific
relation to us corresponding to his work, here as
Comforter ! There we shall begin aright ; all our
mistakes and follies, prejudices and antipathies,
will be removed ; we shall have no bias to evil,
no law in our members warring against the law
of our mind. It will be the Holy Spirit Who
will have set us right. Personal indebtedness
to those who taught us useful knowledge here,
who fornted our opinions, led us into the path of
discovery, and stimulated our powers, is a faint
representation of our love and gratitude to Him
who, we shall then see, was, in all the history of
our minds and hearts, and in every sense of the
word, our " Comforter."
Every Christian has implanted in him now the
20 THE POWER AND OFFICE
x
germ of each perfection which he will have in
heaven. Hence the Holy Spirit is said to be
" the earnest of our inheritance, the pledge of the
purchased possession ; ' and, when we believed,
we are said to have been " sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise," like the wine which receives
the vintner's seal and is left to develop itself,
only that there is in the soul a constant presence
and agency of the Comforter. Regenerated per-
sons, therefore, are " a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a peculiar people." Poor, ignorant,
lowly, though some of them may be, they are
higher than the kings of the earth who are yet
in their sins. Leading others to be of this
" chosen generation ' is the work in which we
aid when we bring a soul to God. " For we are
laborers together with God." Of such and of
their labors, the Saviour said, " And he that reap-
eth receiveth wages, and gathereth ffuit unto
life eternal."
THE WORLD DOES NOT KNOW HIM.
"Whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." Infinite
loss, never to know Him ! " The natural man
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 21
receivetli not the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he
know them, for they are spiritually discerned."
Such were we. None can express or estimate
the difference made in us by regeneration. This
work of the Holy Spirit in us is likened to
the creation of light; more than once it is
ascribed to the same power which raised up
Jesus from the dead. Have you had this new
birth ? Then God has done the greatest work
in you which He ever accomplishes in the soul
of man. What if God should visibly make an
angel of some one whom we know and love !
Let Him regenerate your soul, and hereafter you
will have no occasion to covet an angel's nature,
or his bliss. But in further contrast to the
world's ignorance, the Holy Spirit imparts to min-
isters and Christians that indescribable gift called
" unction." In preaching, in praying, in conver-
sation, in spirit, in manner, in one's whole influ-
ence upon others, this indefinable gift does more
than genius, or talent, or learning, or zeal. It can-
not be affected ; the possessor is unconscious of it ;
the observer cannot tell what it is ; but the Holy
Spirit bestows it upon all in whom He specially
22 THE POWER AND OFFICE
loves to dwell. But the soul which never re-
ceives the Holy Ghost, will be in endless chaos.
Disorder and darkness will possess it. For if we
are born but once, we shall die twice ; and if we
are born twice, we shall die but once. " On such
the second death hath no power."
SUBORDINATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
To the regenerate it may be useful to say, that
subordination on the part of the Holy Spirit,
so plainly declared, is a beautiful and powerful
example of the same thing among Christians.
Subordination in Christ is used by the apostle for
the same purpose. " Let the same mind be in
you which Was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputa-
tion, and took upon Him the form of a servant."
This was suggested by the exhortation, " Look
not every man on his own things, but every man
also on the things of others." With our Re-
deemer making himself of no reputation, but
humbling himself; with our Sanctifier subordi-
nating himself, surely we should ever be gentle
and kind, seeking not our own, " but every man
another's wealth."
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 23
UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit is the only gift which is un-
conditionally promised. We may pray for life
or health or any other blessing, and it may not
be consistent for God to grant our prayer. But
such are the arrangements of Divine providence
and grace, that sincere desires for the Holy Spirit
can no more be disregarded than the desire of a
child for food. To disregard our desires for the
Holy Spirit is compared by Christ to the act of
putting a stone into the hand of a child beseeching
for bread ; or imposing upon his ignorance by
giving him, instead of a fish, a scorpion, which he
would not know enough to distinguish from a fish.
Such is the blessed Redeemer's assurance to every
soul who reads these lines, that a true desire for
the greatest and best gift which God can impart
can never be preferred in vain.
Those words of Christ, "The wind bloweth
where it listeth ; so is every one that is born
of the Spirit," are not limited to conversion.
Every one that is born of the Spirit will enjoy
through life this mysterious agency of the Spirit.
This should comfort and encourage those who
24 THE POWER AND OFFICE
are afraid, that, if they become Christians, they
shall not persevere. Is not the atonement for
your sins a divine work, and a full, complete
provision for your justification ? The Holy Spirit
will complete his work, as surely as Christ has
completed his. Only do with regard to Him as
you have done in believing in Christ ; that is,
place your entire dependence, for continuance
and progress, upon the Holy Spirit ; and you
" shall never fall." God will " go before thee,
and be thy rearward."
What a stupendous plan of redemption this is,
dear Christian friends, in which we believe !
You are the subjects of that plan. It is worthy
to be considered that the mode of the divine
existence is disclosed to us only in connection
with the development of redemption. The reve-
lation, that Christ " was in the beginning with
God and was God," seems to be made because a
knowledge of the way of salvation rendered it
necessary that this should appear. We learn the
deity of the Holy Spirit chiefly in connection with
his work in our souls. Let us consider what
it is to be a member of the race whose history
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 25
thus brings to view the mystery of the Godhead ;
and what it is to be one of that chosen number
to whom alone this stupendous work is applied.
Consider, too, that such a scheme of salvation, in
which the Godhead is thus occupied, must have
a counterpart of perdition corresponding to this
salvation. What exaggeration, what superfluity
of effort, what unnecessary endeavor, there would
seem to be here, if all men can after all be saved
by discipline !
To have been an object of this redemption, but
to fail of being redeemed, and for ever to be sink-
ing as low as, by redemption, you would have
been exalted, will be intolerable, more so,
even, than the experience of those who fell from
heaven and had no Redeemer.
If you who read these lines are not a partaker
of the grace which the Holy Spirit imparts, you
still may be. He has not withdrawn from you,
for a subject like this would not attract and
hold your attention, and awaken desire, were you
given up to hardness of heart. Even you can be
born again. With infinite ease, the Comforter
can make you a new creature. Were there noth-
ing supernatural in conversion, Christ would not
2
26 THE POWER AND OFFICE
have thrown such a mystery about a religious
change as He does in his comparison of it to the
wind. He calls it, also, being " born again."
There is a divine, supernatural element, in con-
version^ and it is the best part of it. If God
creates you anew, that new creation is as indes-
tructible as the soul itself. Let me beg of you to
pause just here, wherever you are, close your
eyes, and address a prayer to the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter. It is He who will have put it into
your heart thus to pray ; therefore, He is waiting
to seal you to the day of redemption. Your views
and feelings, your temper, disposition, frames of
mind, tones of voice, in short, your whole con-
sciousness, will be under his direction. He is
so essential, that Christ left the world in order
that the Holy Spirit might come. He has long
striven with you, patiently, and with great for-
bearance. If the only sin which is unpardonable
is a sin against Him, all sins against Him, it
would seem, must have peculiar heinousness.
For He is the ultimate remedy ; the cross itself is
in vain without Him. Let Him prevail with you.
He will be to you all that Christ was to the disci-
ples. He is " the earnest of heaven in our hearts.' 5
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 27
The Man Christ Jesus owed every thing to Him.
So will you, present grace, and, in its largest
sense, " communion' here ; and, " He will show
you things to come."
COME, tli on HOLY SPIRIT! come,
And, from thine eternal home,
Shed the ray of light divine:
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come, thou Source of all our store,
Come, within our bosoms shine.
Thou, of comforters the best ;
Thou, the soul's most welcome guest 5
Sweet refreshment here below !
In our labor, rest most sweet ;
Grateful shadow from the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most hle^cd Light divine !
Shine within these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill :
If thou take thy grace away.
Nothing pure in man wiil stay;
All our good is turned to iil.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew,
On our dryness pour thy dew,
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Henri (ho stubborn heart and will.
lUelt the frozen, warm the chill.
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful who adore
And confess thee, evermore,
In thy sevenfold gifts descend:
Give them virtue's sure reward;
'jive them thy salvation. LORD;
Give them joys that never end.
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN.
presses to Ckitb
**~~^
BY THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Hoston- Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and reach/ fur delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 8. THE WORLDLINESS or NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
AVITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY
STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF
THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
No. 9. THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
No. 10. THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
By Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
Tin- ro/iuiiiin/t Addresses trill fo/loic at intervals of afionf one.
tir-ek : riz :
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER
THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE SAVING OF
SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
11. Published hi/ direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
THE
DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
TO LABOR FOK THH
SALVATION OF SOULS.
BY
REV. J. S. BINGHAM.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
THE
DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
TO LABOR FOR THE
SALVATION OF SOULS.
BY
REV. J. S. BINGHAM.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOTES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND NO YES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
THE
DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO LABOR FOR
THE SALVATION OF SOULS.
IT will be taken for granted in the work now in
hand, that souls still in the bondage of sin need
to be saved. We shall assume, that, if Jesus
came to seek and save the lost, there were lost
to be sought and saved. We are not to attempt
to prove the urgency of a work which has no
existence. Souls which have not been renewed
by the regenerating power of the grace of God
are in a state of condemnation and death, and
must be rescued ; or that condition will prove an
eternal one. We shall assume the importance of
the work on earth, from the nature of the case,
and the teachings of Christ. The only point now
before us is, On whom is the responsibility de-
volved of laboring to secure the result ? Here is
a work to be done : who is to do it ? Is the duty
13]
4 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
resting on a set-apart and ordained few, or on
the redeemed and consecrated many ? We be-
lieve every Christian to be under the highest
obligations to labor for the rescue of those still
unsaved. With these assumptions and qualifica-
tions, we may, perhaps, with profit, consider
some reasons, why it is the duty of Christians to
labor for the salvation of souls.
1. And we shall discover the first reason in
the fact, that the Christian has struck the same
law of action that actuates the Divine mind,
which law is : what can be wisely done for the sal-
vation of souls ought to be done.
So deep is the love of God, so pure is His
compassion, and so determined His opposition to
sin, that truthfulness to His own nature requires
Him to do all He can wisely do to arrest its
progress ; and save those who have thrown them-
selves into its power, and subjected themselves
to its fearful results. For " sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death, " death to man-
hood, death to human affection, death to son-
ship with God, and all its present and eternal
rewards and privileges. It did not seem right
THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 5
to the Divine mind to allow the sinner to remain
in this state of moral and spiritual ruin into
which he had voluntarily plunged himself. Not
that the law was unholy or unreasonable ; not
that the retributions for its breach were not or-
dained in infinite wisdom, love, and righteous-
ness ; but that, if any thing could be done in
harmony with the eternal principles of Divine
economy in moral and spiritual relations, it
ought to be done. God could not be true to
Himself, true to His own ideas of redemption,
which ideas are as fundamental as those of the
creation of moral beings, and leave the sinner
to perish without His intervention, Sis working
to save him. Hence Jesus " was slain, from the
foundation of the world." This could be done.
The law could not be changed ; its retributions
could not be annulled, for these were in their
nature immutable ; but Jesus could come and
receive the consequences of the sinner's guilt
upon His own heart, and send back a current of
life from that heart to regenerate and redeem
the sinner. This He could do, and not move a
single line in the infinite survey of Divine econo-
my. And because He could do it, He was
6 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
impelled by the law of dutifulness to Himself to
say, u Lo! I come." Hence He says, " Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to
enter into His glory ? ' as much as to say, It
was needful for Christ to endure what He has
for the sinner, in order to unfold the true glory
of the Divine nature, and -satisfy its yearning
love.
But the Christian, by virtue of his regenera-
tion and consecration, has received the same
spirit, and become permeated with the same
ideas and principles. The same mind which was
in Christ is in him. The same law of action,
the same law of sacrifice, moves him. If Jesus
felt that truthfulness to the Divine nature in
Him required Him to do what He has done to
save the sinner ; if, in this sense, He felt He
must do what could and, therefore, ought to be
done, the same spirit and principle will actuate
and energize the Christian, every Christian.
If Christ came to seek and to save the lost, be-
cause He was constrained by the yearning of
His own eternal love, the same love must and
will constrain His disciple.
Here then is the foundation of Christian
THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. 7
duty in this regard. It rests on this principle :
it is not right, is not consistent with the na-
ture and character of " our Father ' to permit
the sinner to live and perish in his sins without
doing all that can be wisely done for his redemp-
tion. We say wisely, because it is manifest that
what cannot be wisely done, in moral relations,
cannot be done at all. This is the ground of
God's action. It must be the ground of duty
for the Christian. He cannot be true to God ;
true to his own nature, now renewed, and
sanctified ; true to the needs of his fellow-men,
without going to the extreme boundary of his
capacity in laboring for the salvation of souls.
This, if we mistake not, is the highest idea of
duty. It fuses sympathy and love with un-
changeable righteousness. It declares, it is not
right to permit our neighbor to commit moral
suicide. It is not right to allow our children to
perish in the flames, although they are very
wicked children ; and have disobeyed our kind,
but positive, instructions, and set the house on
fire over their heads. It demands of us to rush
into the flames, and pluck men as brands from
the burning. It charges us to hedge up the
8 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
ruinous way of the sinner with every possible
means of grace, with Bibles and sermons, with
expostulations and arguments, with entreaties
and prayers, with floods of tears, and the gushing
blood of agony, if so be he may be arrested
in his mad career of death, and turned back
into the wav of holiness and life. It bids us
V
plead, "Father, forgive them: they know not
what they do." It bids us stand between
the living and the dead, and stay the sweeping
malady. If men are so far gone as to be utterly
indifferent to the claims of God, and completely
reckless in regard to their own eternal interests,
we must be all the more in earnest. Out into
the highways and hedges of the country, the
streets and lanes of the city, must we urge our
way ; and compel the most thoughtless to think,
the most hardened to feel, and the most stubborn
to yield. As God did not wait for perishing
sinners to apply for His redemption in saving
grace, so Christians must not wait for awakened
sinners to ask to be guided to the fountain of
salvation. We must go, unasked ; we must
persevere, although resisted. We have thrown
ourselves into the current of infinite love, demand-
THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 9
ing, as a duty, the utmost that can be done to
save the sinner. And this principle presses upon,
and springs up within, every Christian, without
exception. It conquers all reluctance and tim-
idity, all reserve and natural frigidness. It
bursts forth, like a blazing Hecla, amid gathering
icebergs and snow-capped mountains. So deep
and mighty is the vital force, so perfectly is the
life united to, and " hidden with, Christ in God,"
that it must have utterance. It is a law of duty
springing from the heart, as well as the wisdom,
of God ; inspiring every heart which has ever felt
the regenerating power of saving grace.
2 But we may see another reason for this in
the fact, that Christians are now the body of
Christ on earth.
"While Jesus our Lord was here in person,
" He possessed a body in which he went about
doing good." In this, He manifested God in the
flesh. In this, He glorified, unfolded, brought
out to view, the nature and thoughts of God. In
this, He developed the power of Divinity working
through the agency of humanity, a Divine soul
revealing itself as united with, and exercising
l*
10 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
complete control over, a human soul and body.
But that soul, and that body spiritualized, Christ
has taken with Him to heaven. In the place of
this humanity, in the place of this human soul
and body, He has placed His believers. Every
Christian is now the humanity, the body, the
objectiveness, the manifestation of Christ in the
flesh, in the place where in the providence of
God he may be located. Christians are now
His willing feet, His outstretched hands, His
persuasive lips, His tremulous voice, His weep-
ing eyes. His yearning, redeeming, agonizing
love is now to be manifested through the life and
preaching and prayers of His disciples. His
Spirit uses Philip as His earthly humanity to
guide the inquiring eunuch to the Saviour he
sought; He uses Peter as His body at Jerusa-
lem and Cesar ea ; Paul, at Damascus, Ephesus,
Athens, and Rome ; and His disciples, everywhere
" scattered abroad," " preaching the word." His
Spirit enters into His disciples, and inspires them
as preachers, writers, publishers, teachers, and la-
borers in every department of work for the relief
of human woe, and the salvation of ruined souls.
In His name, in His power, and in His stead,
THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 11
they go forth ; and, if they abide in Him, whatso-
ever they shall ask shall be done for them. If
His Spirit strives within them in " groanings
which cannot be uttered," how speedily will He
answer them !
If then Christians are faithful, and really con-
secrated to their work, His work, Christ will
have as many souls and bodies, through which to
seek the lost, as there are believers in Him. This
has been adopted as the best and closing dispen-
sation in God's kingdom on earth. It has seemed
best thus to blend Divinity with human thought,
sympathy, love, and faith, in the work of saving
souls. It was expedient for Christ in person to
go away in order that the Holy Ghost, whom He
would send in his name, might be conferred upon
the whole Church ; and the gospel be more uni-
versally preached to every creature. For as,
in the physical world God can most wisely
erect temples, construct ships, and build rail-
roads through the agency of the skill and
workmanship of man, while He carves out the
continents and lifts up the mountains without
such agency ; so can He, in the spiritual world,
best redeem and save sinners through the co-
12 THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS.
operation of those already rescued. Having
chosen this plan as the best, as His choosing it
proves, the duty is imperative upon every one
who has been reached and quickened by the
power of God, most earnestly and faithfully to
manifest His love in every appointed way. If
Christians are true temples of the Holy Ghost ;
if He abides with them continually, and is ever
struggling in their souls to be uttered ; if He
strives to make the humanity in which He lives
speak His words, obey His guidance, and breathe
His petitions ; if God is stretching out His hands
of compassion to the perishing through those who
have covenanted with Him, as much as in them
lies, to represent and make effectual His unceas-
ing love and pardoning grace, can there be any
question respecting duty ? If Christians are to
be so many editions of the life of Christ ; so
many living commentaries on His teachings ;
so many illustrations of the meaning of " regen-
eration, sanctincation, and redemption ; " so many
wills, repeating all along the whole line of hu-
manity, the commands, the warnings, and the
invitations of God, is there still any ground
for debate concerning duty ? There is no avoid-
THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. 13
ing the obligation save in renouncing allegi-
ance to God, separating ourselves from Christ,
and refusing to be the temples of the Holy Ghost.
If we are not laboring for the salvation of souls,
we are not the body of Christ, and we do not
bear the fruit of His heart. We are only nomi-
inal branches ; and must, sooner or later, be re-
moved.
3. We shall discover another reason for this duty
in the peculiar efficiency of its earnest discharge.
If God has made any thing clear in these days,
it is the amazing power of the people. The idea
of the Divine right of a few to govern the many is
exploded. The governing and redeeming power
of the people is most signally owned of God
as His own appointment. When He has secured
in the hearts of the people " a mind to work,"
His great designs of human salvation and eleva-
tion are rapidly achieved. When this marvel-
lous latent energy can be aroused, quickened,
and brought out into wise and earnest work,
the most glorious results are witnessed. We see
this in times of revival. Christians as a body
are then at work, as they ought to be all the
14 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
time, " every one over against his own house,"
and in his place of business, with his neighbors,
in the "people's meeting" for conference and
prayer. The masses of impenitent persons are
moved because the Spirit of God in the masses
of Christians has utterance. Many souls are
saved because many are working and praying
to that end. It is not the minister and a few
" leading members ' only who are now at work
manifesting the love of Christ, but the demo-
cratic element of power is now in active opera-
tion. The constitution of the human heart is
the same as before ; the truth is the same ; God
is the same; His readiness to hear and answer
prayer, and reward labor, is only the same : but
the people are changed. They are now personally
laboring directly to save souls ; and so long as
they continue in that work will the revival
continue, whether it be for weeks, months, or
years. There will be greater manifestations of
the Spirit's presence at some times than at oth-
ers, but the real work will go on continually.
It is the perpetual, personal labor of every Chris-
tian which occasions the leaven rapidly to leaven
the whole lump. The leavened works on that
THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 15
portion of the unleavened with which it conies
in contact. Christians are scattered through the
whole community, in which the gospel has at-
tained a good measure of success ; and the Spirit
of God has thus a humanity, through which to
work in every department of society.
Sinners will cavil over the Bible, give away
preaching, and question the printed page ; but
the consistent, earnest, warm-hearted Christian,
who personally cares for their souls, gains access
to the heart, and leads them into the kingdom of
God. Bibles and well-selected libraries are price-
less treasures on shipboard, but a skilful, resolute,
courageous, Christian sailor, who lives and talks
the Bible, and converses with his shipmates
concerning the eternal interests of their souls,
will accomplish more than they all. What then
shall we say concerning his duty? What shall
we say of the duty of every Christian who has
any mode of personal access to men ? What
shall we say of the duty of Christians scattered
abroad, and daily coming in contact with those
who never visit the sanctuary, or come within
the reach of any other means of grace? The
press and the pulpit can do much, but the
16 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
working people can do immeasurably more. They
can make every house and work-shop, every
market-place and highway, a place of " speaking
for Jesus." Instead of leaving their avocations
because they are converted, they make the fact,
that men must meet them on business in these
avocations, an occasion for doing something for
the salvation o their souls. Men are shy of
those who make it their profession to save souls,
but feel at home with their daily associates ; and
a few words from these will often have more
power over them than the most elaborate ser-
mons.
And men are never too much in a hurry to
speak or hear a word in this direction, if that is
made the engrossing topic. When we were
struggling to save the nation, we were never too
much in haste to say, " Good news to-day ; '
" Glorious victory, that !' "God is helping us."
So when Christians make the salvation of souls
the great business of life, and all transactions in
the things needful for the body only its inciden-
tals, they always will find time to say, " Come to
Jesus ; " "I hope you love the Saviour." If
Christians will surrender themselves to be used
THE DUTY OP CHRISTIANS. 17
by the Spirit of God, and permit Christ to speak
through them at all times and in all places, we
shall see the kingdom of God coming with power
and glory. If every individual Christian will
reduce this, his chief business, to system, throw-
ing his inventive power into it to discover the
best means he can use ; if he will throw his
entire human force, sanctified and permeated by
the Divine, into this work, the will of God will
soon be done on earth as in heaven. Should
every Christian, like a man of business, carry his
pocket-memorandum with its list of " persons to
be seen ; ' " individuals to be conversed with to-
day ; ' " subjects for this week's prayers ; " " cases
of conversion ascertained ; ' " urgent, present de-
mands ; ' " persons not to be unduly urged ; '
there can be no estimate of the results. There
can be no more question of success in this
matter than in any other in which men rightly
and earnestly engage. God has determined to
bless persevering work ; He always has crowned
it; He will He does, now. It is in harmony
with His own action, and the laws of the human
mind. It imparts life and vigor to the laborer.
It intensifies his consecration, and hastens his
18 THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.
sanctification. It gives directness in effort, and
peculiar power and prevalence in prayer. He
has an object in his will, a burden upon his heart,
and a glorious result in his faith. He has struck
the idea of Jesus, when He pleads, " I pray not
that Thou shouldst take them out of the world."
There is work to be done ; souls to be saved ;
Divine love to be carried to the perishing ;
Christ's work on earth to be perpetuated, and
advanced to complete triumph through human
forces. With every Christian thus laboring,
praying, and trusting in God, there is no more
doubt, that every Christian Church in the world
can double its numbers each successive year,
than there can be doubt in the promises and
faithfulness of God. This is bringing in " all
the tithes," this is doing all we know how to
do ; and the windows of heaven will surely be
opened over us, and a blessing poured out which
there shall not be room to receive. Is there
then any question of duty ? We, the people,
possess the most effective power through which
the Holy Spirit can bring the truth to bear upon
the heart of unregenerate men. We possess
human sympathy, and human experience, the
THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS. 19
experience of being once lost, but now found ;
once wrecked, but now rescued ; once " starv-
ing prisoners," but now at home, amid its
peace and plenty and unspeakable joy. And
shall we forget the lost, still wandering ; the
wrecked, still tossing amid the breakers ; the
prisoners, still starving ? Shall we smother all
this force, and " quench the Spirit" who would
use it to save souls ? Oh ! it is time to act.
It is time to " do with our might." It is time
to do, because we can. It is time to avoid the
curse of not doing. We cannot always live on
Icing forgiven. We must some time find our
meat in doing the will of our Father in heaven.
Shall we begin now ? Let us do it, and we shall
soon receive the Saviour's forgiving " Come, ye
blessed," and His approving " Well done."
presses to Cjmttjj
BY THE
CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
RECOMMENDED BY THE
Boston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery :
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E.
K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OP NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By
Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of ShaAvmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME
CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE
WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By
Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY
STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. MANNING.
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. TODD.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN ITS RELATION TO
HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF
THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
No. 9. THE POWER OF PRAYER. By Rev. Dr. KIRK.
No. 10. THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
By Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
No. 11. THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO WORK FOR THE
SAVING OF SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
The last Number, completing the Series, will be published next
week; viz:
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE CITY AMONG THE
POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVI-
CES OF THE SABBATH. By Rev. Dr. DEXTER..
12. Published bij direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
THE
SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL
IN THE CITY,
AMONG THE POOR WHO HABITUALLY
NEGLECT THE SANCTUARY.
BY
REV. H. M. DEXTER, D.D.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
- ;
THE
SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL
IN THE CITY,
AMONG THE POOR WHO HABITUALLY
NEGLECT THE SANCTUARY.
BY
REV. H. M. DEXTER, D.D.
BOSTON:
NICHOLS AND NOYES.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
NICHOLS AND N O Y E S,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN AVILSON AND SONS.
HOW SHALL THE GOSPEL BE SPREAD ABROAD
IN THE CITY AMONG THE POOR WHO HA-
BITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVICES OF THE
SANCTUARY?
THE following propositions may safely be assumed
as the foundation of all just answer to this ques-
tion ; viz. :
1st, Every man needs the Gospel ; needs it for
the well-being of this life scarcely less than for
that of the life to come.
2d, Of all men, those who are contemplated in
this question need the Gospel most, if any
such comparative estimate might be tolerated.
3d, The Gospel was Divinely shaped, and has
been put in operation on the earth, for every
man ; with special fitnesses for the needy and
neglected.
4th, God desires that every man should have
it ; and designs, when His purposes have taken
time enough to ultimate themselves consistently
with human free agency, that every man shall
have it.
[3]
4 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
5th, His plan, for spreading it abroad, is to
use human instrumentality ; animated, guided,
guarded, and supplemented by the Divine Spirit.
6th, That plan centres in the working of His
Church ; which, in one aspect, it would be right
to name a human society, Divinely organized and
endowed for the conversion of the world.
7th, Influence passes by contact ; therefore
the Gospel influence, which is in the Church for
the salvation of the needy and the neglected,
must be put into contact with them before it can
bless them.
8th, As, by the supposition of the question,
they will not come to the Gospel, the Gospel must
go to them ; and, since it cannot go except men
carry it, it must be carried to them; and, since
God has instituted the Church for just that ser-
vice, it must be carried by the Church.
The real inquiry then before us is simply
this : How shall the Churches of Christ, in this
community, carry the Gospel effectively to the
poor, who, by their habitual neglect of the Sab-
bath and the sanctuary, demonstrate at once the
greatness of their need, and the difficulty of its
supply ?
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 5
I. It will be obviously safe to answer, nega-
tively, that the work cannot be done without
some action reaching out further than, and differ-
ing from, what are ordinarily called the " means
of grace." Every Church may have its round of
customary Sabbath and week-day services faith-
fully performed, while yet, almost within the daily
sweep of the shadow of the spire of its meeting-
house, men and women and children may be liv-
ing and dying in a practical heathenism ; as
effectual, if not as obvious, as that of India or
Japan. And this may be equally true, whether
that meeting-house be habitually thronged, because
of the magnetism of sanctified eloquence in its
pulpit ; or the reverse. The effect of the " means
of grace " is upon those who are reached by them.
Sabbath worship and prayer meetings are essen-
tial to instruct and edify and save those who at-
tend upon them, and to fit them and prompt
them to undertake to evangelize the masses ; but
they will not evangelize the masses.
II. Nor will the work be done by deputation,
the Churches associating to establish and endow
some society to undertake what they vaguely feel
to be their work, which they are conscious of fail-
6 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
ing to perform by their ordinary processes, and
to which those processes seem inadequate, and
indeed unfitted. Something can be done thus :
something ought to be done thus. Our own City
Missionary Society, with its twenty-one mission-
aries, sustained during the past year at an aver-
age cost of some thirteen hundred dollars to each
of the ten contributing Churches, has accom-
plished, and is accomplishing, a good that would
apparently be unmixed, if the very fact that it
seems to too many of, and in, the Churches to be
doing their duty in this thing for them, to the
degree of making them easy, as if all were doing
which Christ expects, were not a counterpoising
evil which it is easier to observe than to estimate.
Where many Churches share one field, and con-
sequently divide its responsibility, there are some
things of a spiritual nature, and more of the na-
ture of that temporal relief which must always
accompany (when it does not go before) the en-
deavor to carry the Gospel to the destitute, which
can best be done by organized, associate labor.
So that it is in all respects probable, that every
wisely planned eleemosynary institution which
now has existence, possibly with a very few addi-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 7
tions to their number, will be needed and be
pushed, with a constant increase of energy and
efficiency, on to, and into, the millenium. But
as these societies have not yet evangelized the
masses, indeed, with all the blessing that has
been in them, have accomplished very little in
that direction, it does not need long reflection
to settle it, that, from the nature of the case,
much as they are needed in the absence of some
better agency, they alone cannot do it. The work
is too mighty for them, on the one hand ; while
they lack elements essential to success in doing
it, on the other. The one hundred thousand
farmers of Illinois might better depute the till-
age of their acres to a society that should em-
ploy a few hundred of the best available agri-
cultural laborers : because many of them have
land that, by the stroke of a hoe, will burden
itself with a harvest from one generation to an-
other by its own richness, without the addition
of an ounce of compost ; while these moral fields
are waste places, very Saharas of sterility, if
indeed they are not jungles matted with thistles,
and all manner of noxious and inveterate weeds.
Twenty-one city missionaries what are they
8 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
among so many ! Those now laboring in Bos-
ton are faithful and industrious and devoted men
and women, as all who know them and their
work will testify, but the best they could do
last year was to reach with their salutary effi-
ciency some nine thousand different families, a
fact, the mere mention of which, when one re-
calls the character of our great and fast enlarg-
ing population, is demonstration that the effect
of their toil, beneficent* as it is, can scarcely
be expected to do more than check the down-
ward drift of a great city, leaving us each year,
perhaps, to thank God that as a community we
are no worse than we were the year before ; but
failing utterly to grapple successfully with the
problem of bringing the multitudes to the cross.
The Rebellion never could have been crushed
on the theory that the regiments composing
our grand armies were at liberty to club together,
and delegate the hard work of their campaigns to
a selected few, in the proportion, say of twenty-
one to every five thousand, which is about that
between the Boston city-missionaries and the
Church-members who support them. And the
Gospel never can include the masses of our popu-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 9
latioii among its conquests, until we see and feel
that such a course is as absurd in the tactics
of grace as it would have been in those of pa-
triotism.
And even if any such delegated labor could be
made broad enough to cover the ground, it would
still lack some of the best elements of fitness for
the needful work. It is official, and so presents
itself always at a disadvantage at the poor man's
door. A neighbor, who drops in of an evening,
evidently out of the kind impulse of a pious heart,
will necessarily gain a readier access to his sym-
pathies and his convictions than the best person
whom he understands to be salaried for that pur-
pose, and who comes because it is " so nominated
in the bond." Such functional visitation will
also be too infrequent for success, where, pre-emi-
nently, " precept must be upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line;
here a little, and there a little." And, chiefly, it
fails to conform itself to the Divine plan ; which,
we might be sure from inference, as we must be
sure from observation of the facts, was exactly
fitted to the necessities of the human nature for
whose- redemption it was shaped, because Christ
1*
10 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
proposed and enjoined upon His redeemed ones
SL personal ministration of the Gospel to every
creature in all the world ; not an official one, by
which certain individuals, either for themselves
as individuals, or as the delegates or servants of
the body, should undertake it. So far as what
we technically know as " preaching the Gospel '
is concerned, which is a service of instruction
and influence lying behind, prompting, and sha-
ping all Church agencies, it is appointed to a
selected few. But. so far as telling the good news
of the cross to all men, and striving "by all
means " to make all men disciples of Christ, is
concerned, which is precisely the duty which
our Lord, in His last command, laid upon His
friends and servants, it is, in no sense, more
the heritage or the privilege or the obligation
of one disciple than of another ; of the pastor,
whose part in doing it may be chiefly to stand in
the pulpit, than of the people, whose share per-
mits them on the Sabbath-day to sit in pews and
hear the Word. Christ has so arranged it, on
the one hand, that the spiritual health and growth
of every Christian shall require that daily exer-
cise which will be furnished best by some benevo-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 11
lent contact with the needy and the neglected, in
the endeavor to do them good ; and, on the other,
that such needy and neglected ones shall take
Christian influence in a more kindly and effec-
tual manner from such personal contact with
individual, private Christians than in any other
way. And so, by fitting the demand to the sup-
ply, and the supply to the demand, the great
Head of the Church has made it clear that the
chemistry of grace works best, as does the chem-
istry of nature, by a diffusive, molecular .force,
operating as it were through a succession of sin-
gle combats, in which each atom of salt gets the
better of each atom tending to decay ; by which
each atom of leaven lifts each atom of meal until
the whole be sweetened and leavened.
This Divine plan, then, while it welcomes any
and all wise expedients to assist in the great
labor, and that, more especially, so long as it
remains unable to bring up its array of individual
forces intelligently and efficiently to the work,
most clearly relies for victory upon the Churches
themselves in all their membership, and not upon
any workers selected from, or delegated by, them.
III. But, if the work of carrying the Gospel to
12 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
the poor who neglect the sanctuary is to be done
by the Churches, yet is not to be accomplished by
them without some putting forth of force and in-
fluence over, and outside of, the ordinary Church
processes of the Sabbath and of the week, while
that force and influence cannot be in any satis-
factory measure made to do their work through
deputation to the hands of the City Missionary, or
any other society or organization or force whatso-
ever, it follows that the Churches must evangel-
ize the masses by working in their own proper
capacity as Churches upon them ; yet, by the use
of some system of Church agency, differing from,
and going beyond, any thing ordinarily supposed
to be included in the " means of grace." The
following principles suggest all which needs to be
said by way of indicating what this agency should
be, in itself and in its processes of development.
1. Every Church should feel that the condition
of the poor in this city who neglect the sanc-
tuary and profane the Sabbath is a standing re-
buke to every one of its members, and a perpet-
ual reproach to its fair fame ; that the Gospel,
faithfully applied, may reasonably expect God's
seconding to the extent of removing that re-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
proach ; that it is its duty to apply it, trusmg
in God for success ; and therefore that notlyng
can excuse its neglect to undertake such faithful
application.
2. Every Church should feel that this d^y of
thoroughly Christianizing the community ; while
in some respects and for some purposes resting
upon the Church as a body, in other respects, and
for the main purpose of WORK, rests u^on every
member. It should feel, that, while a member who
is " apt to teach" may most usefully discharge,
perhaps, the main part of his portion/ of personal
responsibility by teaching, and one that can ex-
hort well may perform a portion of his share of
labor by exhortation, and one who can give may
do a good deal of his part never the whole
by giving, God and Christ release nobody ; and
that, in every way, " unto whomsoever much [of
any and all kinds of gift, force, and influence] is
given, of him shall be much required." It should
feel therefore, that, with a scale exactly just,
graduated in remembrance of gifts differing ac-
cording to the grace that is given, " the great
Head of the Church expects every Christian to do
his duty, and relies, without exception, upon ALL
as workers together with Him."
14 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
3. Every Church should feel that this work of
evangelizing the masses, whatever else it may
be, and whatever else may need to be done in
the Church or out of it to secure success to its
one [reat aim, must be, pre-eminently, one of
direct-personal contact between the Gospel in its
possestors, and the sin and wretchedness to be
remove!. And this contact since, as was said
before, tie classes needing especially to be reached
will not ?,ome to the Gospel must necessarily
be effected by the Church-mem.bers, travelling out
of their Church-home and surroundings to the
abiding places of the need and vice which they
would relieve and transform. Nothing short of
this will secure that contact between the balm in
Gilead and the Physician there, and the wretched
and the lost, by which alone their spiritual health
may be recovered. EVERY CHRISTIAN, A HOME
MISSIONARY is then the brief formula out of
which evolves itself the true answer to the ques-
tion before us.
In carrying out the general work indicated by
these three principles, the following suggestions
may be helpful :
(1.) Let every Church accept this duty, not
blindly nor impulsively, but with a deliberate
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 15
conception of, and assent to, the care, the toil, the
self-denial which must of necessity be involved
in it ; expecting to be always repelled by much
of the distasteful work which must be done, to be
often discouraged, and sometimes well-nigh dis-
heartened ; ye determined to lay aside every
weight, and n , with patience the race that is set
before it, looking unto Jesus, the author and fin-
isher of faith, who, for the joy that was set before
Him, endured the cross, despising the shame ;
and willing for His sake to crucify the flesh,
with the affections as well as the lusts.
(2.) Let every Church use its utmost exer-
tions, by wise instructions of the pulpit, and by
frequent, specific endeavors in the prayer and
conference meetings, so to quicken the Christian
vitality of every one of its members, that each
shall feel impelled to ask, " What wilt Thou have
me to do ? ' and to say when workers are called
for, " Here am I, send me" Let young converts
be indoctrinated with that benign, missionary
idea, that a sweet consciousness of humble, faith-
ful work, done for Christ, and not an ecstatic
feeling in the heart, is the truest and usefullest
Christian experience. Let suitable words apprise
16 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
every candidate for Church membership, that a
new working bee, and not another drone, is the
expectation of the hive concerning him. Let the
Church officers having supervision of the outgo-
ing labors of the Church take great pains to
assign work wisely to the special aptitudes of each
believer, so as to make that work as much a con-
genial employment of natural capacity as possi-
ble ; seeking thus to lighten every one's share by
making the yoke fit his neck, while at the same
time thus largely augmenting the general amount
of production. And let not the fact, that never
in this imperfect world will any Church be able to
bring all its members up to the point of seeing
and accepting and discharging their individual
responsibility to work for Christ, discourage or
delay its making assault, with all whom it can
muster, upon the kingdom of Satan. No regi-
ment fought through the Rebellion, but they ha*d
an " awkward squad " and some deserters.
(3.) Let every Church not only accept the
duty of carrying the Gospel to the needy and the
neglected, but let it most firmly believe, that that
work can be done, and that success is sure. Let
it feed itself on the strong meat of prophecy until
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 17
its eye of faith can see " houses of joy in the joy-
ous city ;" and the desert of pauperism blossoming
as the rose, yea, blossoming abundantly, and re-
joicing with joy and singing ; and the ransomed of
the Lord walking with songs and gladness where
now lurk the ravenous beasts of lust and riot, and
where the dragons of crime have their habitation-.
Let it inscribe in letters of cheering light upon
the walls of its Church-house, " He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."
Let them meditate upon the almightiness of God
and of His grace ; and consider what a price has
been paid for human redemption, and how much
is at stake in this conflict between the devil and
that Blessed One who " took part of the same,
that through death He might destroy him " and
deliver men ; and let them eagerly note how,
along all the ages of the Christian history, the
providence of God has seemed always to lie in
friendly wait for examples of individual and asso-
ciate fidelity in order to lavish upon them the
tokens of His loving appreciation, and make them
exultingly know that He is able to do " exceed-
ing abundantly above all- that we ask or think,"
until they feel that triumph is certain ; that, in
18 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
God, they too are almighty ; that it is His good
pleasure to give them the kingdom ; and until
every one of them can say, " I know hoth how
to he abased, and I know how to abound, and to
suffer need ; and I can do all things through
Christ, Which strengthened me."
. (4.) Accepting thus the duty, with all the
available strength of its individual membership,
and in that confidence in ultimate success which
is warranted by the purposes, the promises, and
providence of God, it would next be wise for the
Church to have conference with its sister evan-
gelical Churches for the purpose of deciding what
exact portion of the common, outlying field prop-
erly lies within its Christian oversight. Between
them, those Churches must necessarily be respon-
sible to God for every family and every soul ;
remotely, to the extent of general agencies, if
the disproportion between their strength and the
broadness of the field forbids more ; directly, with
all particular labor, if a fair division of the terri-
tory reduces the neglected population, for which
each Church is accountable, within a space which
it may reasonably undertake to cover with all
suitable ministrations of Christian activity and
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 19
influence. Only by some equitable and exact
division can it be made certain, on the one hand,
that the labors of different Churches shall not
overlap and interfere ; and, on the other, that no
portion of territory shall be overlooked and neg-
lected by all.
It may probably be assumed, that an equitable
division of the area of the city of Boston occupied
by the class to which our question refers, between
its evangelical Churches, in spaces proportioned
to the membership of each, would give to each
Church a territorial parish not always adjacent
to its house of worship which it would be en-
tirely reasonable for every such Church to accept
as a field which, with the proper interest and
eifort of its membership, it might hope to cul-
tivate for Christ with every reason to expect
success.
(5.) The next step might wisely be to divide
the territory thus assigned to, and accepted by,
the Church into a great number of smaller por-
tions, for assignment among the workers of the
body. Of right, there should be as many of these
subdivisions as there are Church-members, that
each home missionary may have his field. But,
20 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
probably, a subdivision into two or three hundred
districts would be as far as it might be wise to
go in this direction in any Church. On the one
hand, that number would probably bring the size
of the area assigned to each laborer down to
from five to ten families (not as many if they are
very hard cases), which are enough to tax the
time, strength, sympathy, and means of the vis-
itor ; while, on the other, even in a Church. of six
or eight hundred active, present members, there
will be so many who will be prevented by age or
infirmity, or an over-pressure of home duty, or
by some other good reason, to say nothing of
shirks and deserters, from such service, that
there will always be labor required to ke*ep that
number of sub-divisions manned up to their full
working-power. It may be better to leave a part
of the field temporarily unworked than to make
these sub-districts too large. A very few families,
who, living near together, can be called on, and
kept the run of, in an hour or two, will be apt to
be seen frequently enough to answer the best
purpose, as often perhaps as every week, cer-
tainly every fortnight. While a number so large
as to involve great weariness, and so much time
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 21
iii going the rounds that the best that can be
done is a hurried glance, and a tract thrown in
at the door, and even that, perhaps, scarcely on
the average once in a month, involves constant
discouragement and final failure ; for the same
reason that a farmer's crop will be a failure if he
have so much ground to go over that he does not
see any one field between seed time .and harvest
time. It will be all work, and no harvest. And
precisely this has been .the miscalculation which
has discouraged some Churches who have made
a fair beginning, and run well for a time, in this
species of effort.
(6.) Having thus prepared the way, the next
step will be to secure the wise, kind, patient,
prayerful working of these sub-divisions by the
individual members of the Church. It should be
the distinct understanding, on all hands, that to
take the care of one of these districts assigned
with a wisdom which tenderly marks and meets
the peculiar powers, fitnesses, and weaknesses, of
each laborer is the normal expectation which
the Church has in regard to each of its members,
unless good cause of release can be made out ; is
presumptively as much the duty of every one who
22 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
enters into covenant with Christ and with his
followers as it is to pray, to keep the Sabbath,
and to grow in grace ; as much his duty as it is
the duty of the enlisted soldier to fight the battles
of the nation. If the soldier be maimed or sick.
or detailed for guard duty or for some clerkly
service, he is thereby, for the time being, excused
from the field ; and if the Church-member be
sick or maimed, or detailed for some engrossing
home-duty, or for some collateral good work
which throws the barrier of an impossibility be-
tween him and this labor, he may be excused
from it; but in no other event. His unwilling-
ness indolent or otherwise cannot excuse
him from it; his distaste for it cannot excuse
him from it, for " even Christ pleased not Him-
self," and " it is enough for the disciple that he
be as his master, and the servant as his lord."
God bids him do it : " For the poor shall never
cease out of the land ; therefore I command thee,
saying, thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy
brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy
land ; " and He has declared that, before Him,
the visiting of the fatherless and widows in their
affliction shares the genuine essence of pure reli-
THE SPREAD OP THE GOSPEL. 23
gion and undefiled, with keeping one's self un-
spotted from the world. Christ expects it of him,
for He was anointed to preach the Gospel to the
poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to save the chil-
dren of the needy, to redeem their sonl from
deceit and violence, and to break in pieces the
oppressor ; and He says to us, " If any man serve
Me, let him follow Me. ... If ye love Me, keep
My commandments." He describes the purpose
which he has in calling us into His Church, and
so maintaining its existence on the earth, by say-
ing, " Ye are the light of the world." And, when
it is dark, men do not light a candle and shut it
up under a bushel ; but they lift it up on a candle-
stick, that it may give light unto all in the house :
and so we are driven to the inference that these
Churches of Christ in Boston are not well man-
aged, not grateful in His sight, when their light
is concentrated and secluded in their meeting-
houses and rooms for prayer, so that just only a
few feeble rays may stream out through the win-
dows, and the cracks of the doors, to illumine sur-
rounding darkness ; but their light ought to be
carried outside, so that the darkest corners may be
cheered and helped by it. When children are
24 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
lost, lantern-bearers are wanted as well as street
lights ; and the poor who habitually neglect the
Sabbath and the sanctuary are pre-eminently
" the lost ' whom Christ came to seek and to
save, and the seeking and saving of whom, He
has bequeathed as His legacy of service to them
and to all of them, without exception that
love and would follow Him in every age.
Unless, then, a man or a woman professing
Christianity is prepared to prove facts which
make his or her case a clear singularity, lying
outside of all the general rules of grace, he or she
must necessarily admit the duty of sharing with
others those habitual toils of Christian charity
which may be both most wisely and easily admin-
istered by falling into the system of sub-division
which has been advocated and explained.
The work to be done by each visitor, the golden
rule, interpreted by a clear head and a warm
heart, will always sufficiently suggest. Temporal
necessities must first be cared for, since those
who are in pain from hunger or neglect are not
apt listeners to moral and religious truth. Hun-
ger can be appeased, nakedness covered, and en-
forced idleness supplied with work ; if not from
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 25
the visitor's own resources, by his application to
individuals or organizations, who stand always
ready to meet such exigences as soon as they are
made known ; and there are good physicians who
never refuse to respond to a call for the sick
poor.
These most pressing wants supplied, the more
common duties of Christian friendliness begin : by
a stated yet never impertinent oversight, to
see that the children are washed, clothed, and get-
ting their share of that free instruction which the
city munificently gives during the week, and that
they find a place in some good Sabbath school
upon the Lord's day ; to win the confidence and
grateful friendship of all, and to make them feel
that it is Christ (not the visitor) whom they ought
to thank, because all is done for the love and plea-
sure, and in the service, of Christ ; and so, with
no rude shock to old prejudice or adverse creed,
gradually to make them " believe the works," and
then believe in the visitor's religion " for the very
work's sake," until, knowing these Church-mem-
bers by their works, and judging their faith by
its fruits, these cleansed and purified households
shall be won toward that interest in religion and
2
26 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
its ordinances which shall make them Sabbath-
keepers and sanctuary attendants ; and, by God's
blessing, eventually add them to the number of
the lost who are found.
The value of such working, Christian friendship
as this can scarcely be over-estimated. It revives
hope in the minds of those who, by so many dis-
comfitures in their hard battle of life, were getting
disheartened as well as weary ; it recalls self-
respect to breasts from which it had well-nigh
for ever flown ; it restrains from fresh excesses,
by the natural desire to stand well in the eyes of
a new and valuable acquaintance ; it awakens
confidence in the almost abandoned idea, that it
may be possible, if not to realize all the bright
visions of youth, yet to "do well ' ' in the world
still ; it sweetens all that sour and rancid misan-
thropy which had been cankering the spirit, and
brings back that sense of kindliness toward hu-
manity which is the first step in the path to con-
fidence in God. And thus, little by little,
sometimes with many pull-backs and wearisome
postponements, it mitigates the harshness of
poverty, disinfects the soul of those vices which
are so apt to claim poverty for their own, and so
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 27
prepares the way for Christ to enter into the swept
and garnished heart, and then for these prodigal
children to find a home in the courts of the Lord.
Happy the Church which can point to groups
of its own faithful members, and say, " And such
were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God " !
And happy the Christian who can feel, that,
by the cheap though sometimes seemingly very
dear assignment of perhaps one afternoon of
every week to such always arduous, often repel-
lant, sornetknes exceedingly self-denying, yet in-
variably rewarding labors, he has not only earned
his own honest, Christian self-respect, and kept
the pulses of spiritual life throbbing with more
of the vigor and joy of health in his own breast,
and made himself happy in the restored happi-
ness of others ; but has been permitted to give
aid to the gracious Master in the matter of His
great solicitude, " that His banished be not ex-
pelled from Him ; ' and earned the right humbly
to hope for that Divine approval at the judgment
which will welcome him who has been " faithful
over a few things ' to the everlasting joy of that
28 THE SPREAD OP THE GOSPEL.
Lord Who will say, " Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me ' !
(7.) It will almost necessarily happen, that
that Church which undertakes vigorously to carry
on such a home-missionary work as this will soon
find it needful to make provision for gathering in
the fruits of it, at least in some degree, upon the
field itself. It can hardly be long before a mis-
sion chapel will be demanded, for the shelter of
that mission school which Christian wisdom will
suggest, as the best agency for the Sabbath in-
struction of the little children of the poor. They
will be more at their ease there than they would
be, if merged in the multitude of the home school
of the Church. Local attachments will soon bind
them to it as their chapel. A style of dress and
behavior very natural, and quite pardonable
always, in such a school will excite no com-
ment there, which might breed a difficulty else-
where. While, as it is their chapel and their
school, and entirely theirs, the whole service can be
managed to interest and benefit them in all their
peculiarities, as it could not be, if other and
in some sense discordant claims upon considera-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 29
tion were perpetually crowding themselves upon
the thought of its superintendent. There, too,
some simple, stated, Sabbath worship, as a kind
of apprenticeship to the regular sanctuary ser-
vice perhaps, with lay preaching from some
missionary of the City Missionary Society, or other
competent person will be very likely soon to
be demanded and supplied ; which will gather in
many of the children of the mission school, with
their parents and other adults, who will be will-
ing to assemble there, when they are not yet
quite prepared, from considerations of dress, dis-
tance, or, it may be, prejudice, to " give thanks in
the great congregation," and praise God " among
much people." Led gradually along, thus, the
time will come when personally accepting Christ
as their Saviour, and desiring to own him before
men, they will look toward the Church which has
through these agencies stretched out its kind,
supporting arms to their relief, with a feeling of
affectionate gratitude and yearning desire which
will instinctively claim membership there, saying,
" Where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people
shall be my people ; and thy God, my God."
Thus the Church which wisely uses mission
2*
30 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
chapels in connection with its missionary work
will find constant re-action of strength from them ;
while through them, if distributed among the
waste places with that sagacity, and used with
that wisdom, which a general plan embracing all
may secure, the entire needy territory of the
city may be, at least in some degree, reformed
and permeated by a Sabbath-keeping influence.
Great good has already been realized from mis-
sion schools and mission chapels ; and those evils
which are now obvious in connection with them
by which their benefactions of clothing are
sometimes ill-applied ; by which some localities
are overworked by them, the same children at-
tending on the same day two or three different
schools, while other places are wholly overlooked
by their influence ; by which many children are
so occasional in their attendance as scarcely to be
relied on, except when some special, festive attrac-
tion invites would all be removed ; while their
efficiency would be indefinitely strengthened, by
bringing them out of their present sporadic as-
pects, and giving each one its symmetrical place
in a general plan covering the whole area of the
city, and, in a specific one, assigning it as the cen-
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 31
tre around which circle, and whither tend, the
daily home-missionary labors of the working
members of some one Christian Church.
(8.) The only remaining suggestion to which
space can here be afforded is, that this home-
missionary work of every Church should have a
recognized position among its public remem-
brances, counsellings, and prayers, correspondent
to that important place which of right it holds
among its labors. No undertaking of this de-
scription, involving the constant co-operation of
so many laborers, can habitually flourish without
recurrent revision ; and that frequent renewing
of popular interest in it, which shall keep crowd-
ing upon all who ought to be its participants, a
feeling of its import and the gravity of its neg-
lect. The enterprise of foreign missions is one of
the greatest works which God has laid upon the
conscience of the Church, and none could make
clearer or louder appeal to every sanctified na-
ture. Yet experience has shown, that, without
the vigorous a*id skilful use of the " Monthly Con-
cert " to awaken interest in all the details of the
labor, and to freshen before the Christian mind
the force of those motives of the Gospel which
32 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
look that way, it would be difficult to maintain
that general degree of constant and self-denying
desire for its success by which alone its opera-
tions can be financially sustained, and its constant
calls for laborers met. By parity of reasoning it
may be urged, that no Church can reasonably
expect to succeed in the endeavor to Christianize
thoroughly that territorial " parish," which con-
stitutes its fair share of the general work to be
done for Christ in the city, without a similar ar-
rangement of regular review and appeal. The
last Sabbath evening of every month has been
thus, in some cases, observed as the "Home Con-
cert," with a success which has been sufficient to
give assurance of the wisdom of the plan, and to
make it safe to refer to it, as essential to the
reasonably perfect development of the home-mis-
sionary work.
It should be managed so as to unite, at every
step, a review of the wants of the field, and an
accurate statistical account of what has been done
to supply them since the last Concert, with an ap-
peal, on the one hand, to the Christian principle
of the Church to supplement what is obviously
lacking ; and, on the other, to God to add His
THE SPREAD OP THE GOSPEL. 33
blessing. A good order of arrangement might
be this : Let the superintendent of the home
Sabbath-school tell the story of the month in
his department. Let the superintendents <)f the
mission schools for any faithful church which
honestly accepts this work must soon have more
than one follow, in their order. Then let the
deacon who superintends the systematic visitation
of the " parish " give his statistics for the month,
including the whole number of subdivisions for
which the Church is responsible ; the number of
such subdivisions (if any) remaining unassigned
to any worker ; the number of visits reported to
him as having actually been made during the
month ; the number of tracts distributed, of poor
children clothed, or gathered to the day, or Sun-
day, schools, of poor persons helped to employ-
ment, &c., &c., with all details and incidents,
either of past supply or of present need, which
may deepen the sympathy of the Church with the
work. Let there be, then, a report of chapel
services and of neighborhood prayer-meetings
which have been held. Let the officers of the
Church follow, with some account of their visits
to the sick and the afflicted ; and the pastor speak
34 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
last, with a similar report of his own labor for the
month, including the statistics of the Church,
the whole number of its present members, the ad-
ditions since the last report, the losses by dismis-
sion and death, adding some obituary notice of
members deceased (for surely Church members
ought not to be allowed to drop out of the frater-
nal circle into the grave, with no other " sign '
than the mortuary asterisk on the name list),
and adding such suggestions as may seem perti-
nent, by way of correcting any thing amiss, or
urging on the faithful toil. Let each previous
speaker be followed by some brother, who shall
implore the special blessing of the Lord upon that
portion of the general service to which the atten-
tion of all has just been turned, the pastor
closing by prayer, commending the whole work
to the Saviour's grace. Let any brother, at any
time, interject any earnest thought, which may
glance light from his mind upon any dark place.
And let every prayer be followed by the im-
promptu singing of a verse or two of some rous-
ing lyric. Let every report be brief; and let
every speaker avoid mere generalities as he
would the pestilence.
THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 35
Such a meeting, as the rule, will be a crowded
one, and full of interest. Many will say, " It is
the best meeting of the month." It will be the
" best," because it will do more than all things,
without it, can do to stimulate the people of God
to expect great things, and attempt great things,
in the desire of making the city of their habita-
tion as " the garden of God."
This, then, is the answer to our question : The
Churches of Christ must carry the Gospel to the
needy and the neglected of Boston. They can-
not do it simply by using the ordinary " means
of grace." They cannot do it by deputation to
the City Missionary, or any other society. They
can only do it by making every one of their own
members a home missionary, the very thing
which God commands, and Christ expects, and
for which the millennium waits ; the very thing
which the essential principles of Christianity so
require, that, to be excused from it, any believer
must prove himself an exception to all the com-
mon laws of grace.
Let every Church undertake this duty ; let it
believe that God will make success in the per-
36 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
formance of it, not only possible, but sure ; in
conference with its sister Churches, let it divide
with them the area for which all are jointly re-
sponsible, and accept its proper share ; let it
subdivide that share into two or three hundred
groups, averaging from five to ten families each ;
then let it fill those sub-divisions by volunteers
from its own number ; and let those volun-
teers enter upon, and patiently pursue, the labor
of intelligent, helpful, Christian friendship for the
families for which they become responsible ; and
let the wise patience of that friendship, after
brightening their earthly lot, gradually lead its
Beneficiaries to the mission chapel, the sanctuary,
the cross ; and let the work be animated and
energized at the Home Concert, month by month.
Let the Churches, at the very least, until
they can suggest some plan more impregnated
with the wisdom and power of the Gospel,
attempt this, and prove God, and see if he will
not save the poor and the vile u out of all their
dwelling-places wherein they have sinned ; and
cleanse them, and make them His people, and be
their God."
(Jtme, 1889, 20,000)
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