'M\%:vf Ry 9178 .D87 P73 1876 Durait! William, 1847-1914. preaching to the poor "AN 'BsnscjAs *3"i soaa a« jiAVD /^/ «aNI913nHJWVd INnOWOlOHd PREACHING TO THE POOR; ^ Centennial ^tBt of iwsbglerianism. SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PRESBYTERY OF ALBANY ISth of June, 1876, Church of Eallston Centre. 1/ WTLLTAM DUHAT^T. PRINTED BY REQUEST ALBANY: WEED, FA US ON S AND COMPANY 187ti. OCT 23 1952 OCl )63 1952 PREACHING TO THE POOR: ^ €tnUnnml ^tst of irtsbgtmanism. SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PRESBYTERY OF ALBANY, 13th of June, 1876, Church of Ballston Centre. WILLIAM DURAJSTT, PRINTED BY REQUEST. ALBANY: WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY. 1876. 1/ COERESPONDEISrCE. Rev. Wm. Duhant: Dear Biiother — Having listened with interest to your Sermon at the opening of the last stated meeting of Albany Presbytery, and believing that the facts and arguments therein contained may be helpful in the future discussion of plans for Church work, we, the under- signed, would respectfully suggest the propriety of your offering a copy of the same for publication. Fraternally, Yours, JOHN JAMES, yy ^ T. G. DARLING, >/ PETER STRYKER, ^ J. N. CROCKER, y GEORGE ALEXANDER, V M. E. DUNHAM, Valex. S. HOYT, J. G. K. McCLURE, ^ V J. D. COUNTERMINE. The undersigned, unavoidably absent from the meeting of Presbytery at which this Sermon was preached, cordially unite with their brethren in requesting its publication. E. HALLEY, ^ HENRY DARLING, ^ J. McCLUSKY BLAYNEY, ^ ANSON J. UPSON. To the Revs. John James, D. D., George Alexa7ider, Henry Darling, D. D., and others : Dear Brethren, — I comply with your suggestion, gratified to learn that you think the Sermon of enough moment for review ; and hoping that, in spite of its defects, it may be to some degree helpful in the way you mention. Obediently, Yours, WILLIAM DURANT. PREACHING TO THE POOR: A CENTENNIAL TEST OE PKESBYTERIANISM. Matt. xr. 5, (last c7a«sc), — "The poor have the gospel preached TO them." Presbytkeianism, twin born with tlie ideas of ^yc'i^o nous civil liberty, reads its growth in the rise of the first cimrcn^ American Republic. puuie. Three years after Columbus went out of the 1506. world John Calvin came into it. In 1559, when 1509. the ships of Elizabeth had become familiar objects on our northern hshing banks, The Institutes received the author's latest changes, and that same 1559. year Knox returned from Geneva to begin the Scotch reformation. Only twelve years after the organisation of the first Presbytery, at Wands- 1573. worth, Raleigh, on the shores of Carolina, took i584. possession of this country for the Queen of Eng- land : from the one resulted our church ; from the other, our nation. As the sixteenth century ended Scotland intro- 1593. duced Presbyterianism " pure and simple ; " but ten years before Gosnold laid the foundation of leos. the first New England colony, by landing on Cape Cod, the first Englishman to set foot in that sec- tion. In March, 1641, the band of exiles, led by le^i. Roger Williams, unanimously agreed upon a 6 Historical "Democracie or popular government" for their December, island; wliile the December following saw two other events most important in church and state : Massachusetts adopting its first written "body of liberties," and the petition of Parliament to 1643. secure the Westminster Assembly. The act cre- june 13. ating that Assembly finally passed only five days after the last colony ratified the articles of New England confederation. But one month later, in the very year of the Solemn League and Covenant, Aug.Yi. Plymouth colony began "the representative sys- tem, and each town sent its committee to the gen- eral court." Memorable to us, as citizens and sectarians, is the brief period of six years between 1684 and 1690. On the former date appeared "the first 1684. tendency to a union of all our colonies"; North and South met at Albany in the persons of "the governors of Virginia and of New York, and the agent of Massachusetts," to treat with the Indians for "peace from the St. Croix to Albermarle ; " 1690. on the latter Presbyterianism obtained "perma- nent establishment in Scotland," while, in the i6tf4r-i69o. interval, Francis Makemie planted throughout Maryland and Virginia the first churches of the denomination in this land. When the Presbytery 1706. of Philadelphia organised, the common-sense philosophy of our political institutions rocked in Jan. 17. the cradle of a Boston infant, just at the time English newspapers, and " peojDle of all conditions and qualities," were bruiting the prediction that the colonists would, before long, " declare them- selves a free state." Half a century elapsed and Parallels. that babe become the man, Franklin, was present- ing his "finished plan of perpetual union," to be 1754. adopted by " the memorable congress of commis- "^ sioners from every colony north of th.e Potomac," and from Virginia south, assembled at Albany ; while the proposal of a "conference" between the Old and the New Side Presbyteries, made only two months previously by the Synod of Phila- May. delphia, was fast bringing about the union of the church. The former union waited another gener- ation for its establishment ; the latter, but four years, to occur during the same twelve months in 1758. which Washington led his pioneers over the Alle- ghanies and opened the "gateway of the west." July 4th, 1776, a lineal descendant of Knox, 1776. representing the Presbyterian ministry and church, the state and college of New Jersey, voted the Declaration of Independence. Hardly more than a decade later. Presbyteries and States, in the very same year, ratified the Constitutions which j^g^, gave to the one a General Assembly and to the other Congress : here the twin-birth appears a remarkable heredity to determine the climax of the development of the republican idea in these two offspring, ecclesiastical and political, each alike its youngest and strongest. Consistently, the Assembly marked its first session by voting a j^gg congratulatory address to Washington, who pre- ^^-v"^^- cisely three weeks before had been inaugurated ^.w^i so. first President of the United States. Among the interesting parallels of the present century time permits merely a hint at two coinci- dences: abolitionism manifesting its first organised 8 Growth of the Church, 1837. strength just as the cliurch falls asunder; while 1870 the Re-union follows close on the heels of a war of emancipation, which made the nation for the first time absolutely free and more securely effected its unity. One other significant event should not be for- gotten at this hour. As we gather in this ancient church for ecclesiastical affairs, but with anticipa- tion of the nation's centennial day so near at 1876. hand, two important bodies of English Presby- terians are completing, in Liverpool, an organic union which already gives promise of Presby- terian unity throughout all Great Britain and Ire- land. um growth "^^^'^^ remarkable synchronism prompts strongly to the observance of a Presby terial celebration alongside the National. If the Republic has good reason to glory over its advance, the stride of the church, reaching further, affords better reasons for jubilation. Imagination must help to appre- ciate the contrast which tlie facts present ; ex- pressed in percentage it appears fabulous. Dur- ing the century the population of the countr}^ has increased nearly eleven-fold : the Presbyterian church counts twenty members now for every one recorded only sixty years ago. T can find no record of membership previous to 1810; from the official number of churches and ministers one hundred years ago, a fair estimate makes the in- crease in members at least seventy-fold. In tlie same century our church has grown at a rate six times greater than the remarkable increase of the country's population. Far outstripping the ratio And the Impulse of it. 9 of national growth, the church also ranks third on the list of Christian denominations in the land now, in place of fourth then. This feature of numbers alone constrains us to exclaim with the Psalmist : " The Lord hath done great things for us ; whereof we are glad." Facts so remarkable compel attempt to account ,^^^^^'^j. for them. Through a period of three centuries the rapid growth. epochal events in the development of both Repub- licanism and Presbyterianism, occurring at inter- vals of one or more generations, have yet been almost simultaneous. Besides, Presbyterianism has made its greatest strides in a Republic. Only a common cause could produce these parallels. Christ's evidence to his divine mission formulates that cause : " the poor have the gospel preached to them." Seeking to give the same evidence of its faithfulness, Presbyterianism points to the re- publican door of its theology. To the Anglo- Saxon race, fitted by nature for political independ- ence, Calvinism gave the impulse and the educa- tion for the development of free institutions, by establishing a church in which all classes had equal rights and whose polity furnished a model for the state. In a word, because Presbyterian- ism founded a church for the people, the people would not be denied similar rights in political government. But gratulation over progress occupies a low Thepresent place in the emotions excited by the political com- considering memoration of the year. Added to the usual fit- ness of anniversary seasons for learning lessons for future betterment from past mistakes, outrage- 2 10 Faults Exposed hy Text. ous corruptions, exposed these jubilee days, turn thoughtful men to consider the causes and the remedies of the evils sloughing the fair face of the Republic. And the parallels in the history of the two make the time appropriate to attempt a similar task for Presbyterianism. This task I now desire to essay, because mediocrity can blame where genius fails to give discriminate praise. If the attempt should provoke attention so as to result in your independent, more able and more influential consideration of the flaws in modern Presbyterianism my object will have been gained. The text Tliose flaws prove sensitive to the probe fur- britids '■ ' fl^ut. ^'^ nished by the text : preaching to the poor gives, not a flattering, but an effective centennial test of Presbyterianism. Christ himself declares it the climax of evidence to the credibility of his claim to be the one sent from God ; it bears as impor- tant relation to the faithfulness of any churcli in its divine mission. Argument that Presbyterian- ism to-day fails before this test, would be waste of ink ; the fact stares us to shame. Judged by the fruit of preaching to the poor, the single church which evinces faithfulness is the Roman Catholic. vnfaitii- Although coming into view as the poor man's fulness to ^ ^ ^ modern^ sect, Presbyteriauism now hastens toward a comet's aphelion from him. Unlettered day- laborers, this age of steam, are better off for physical comforts and intellectual provender than the mass of those whose stubbornness for ideas and conscience and God drove the stakes of our church, three hundred years ago, in a martyr's Duty to tlie Poor. 11 fire at liome or in an exile's wilderness on these bleak coasts. The similar class to-day, if by dis- position independent, roam the streets or hills, uninvited by the Gospel ; if religiously depend- ent, they go to mass, yet almost equally strangers to the Good News. Presbyterianism having lifted the second generation above their fathers, in prosperity and intelligence, rises itself with each succeeding generation further from the igno- rance and dirt of real poverty ; or, rather, its swelling roots spread along just under the pushed- up surface, without striking downward. This sort of growth always topples in the storm. And yet the unreached poor otter to the church wMe me cixivy Oj Zihc a richer soil than prairie loam. For what is called pcarfin^' " the lower classes" seems to have no lowest. Asters, culture and religion raise one strata after another, a deeper remains ; and, unlike Harlequin's many coats, one cannot think of a last removed to show day-light on the other side. Stretch up one end of a rubber cord till the attenuated thread seems ready to snap in two, and still the end held fast to the ground keeps thick ; so the thickness of the poor, whose continued presence in the world the Saviour predicted, scarcely diminishes, ^^-amon.^' sides, society forces physical poverty into close companionship with moral poverty. To this as- sociation Jesus owed his title of " poor man's friend.' ' He mingled with the hungry and naked and silly, because he went to the bottom after degrading vice cute enough, to indulge greed and lust, making himself, according to the gospel of the Pharisees, "a friend of publicans and har- 12 Decline of Calmnism, lots," and "eating with sinners." Therefore, the special wards of the church are not merely the wretched poor, but the wicked poor. Prime cause of failure to reach tite poor: DECLINE OF CAL,- VINISM. On the one hand, its compensa- tion valu- able. The prime cause of the failure of Presbyterian- ism to reach these j^oor, is the decline of distinct- ive Calvinism in its puljjits. Evidence of this decline offers in plenty ; there is opportunity now simply to indicate its nature. As a rule, theo- logical writings of even the last century bristle with Calvin's " points ; " their absence mai-ks the similar works of to-day. Note, also, the surprise at the success of celebrated preachers, who still, like rare echoes from the past, make i)rominent the fundamental doctrines: Then question both pul- pits and 2:)ews to learn their mutual ignorance in the Shorter Catechism. I may appeal to jovlt own observation and practice : your ordination vows assented to the Calvinistic system, but how much do man's dei3ravity and God's sovereignty till your own thoughts and your people' s ears ? Gain in one direction, it is true, goes far to com- pensate for loss in another. Allopathic dogma has given place to sweetl}^ infinitesimal doctrine. The great Light that burst upon the world to re- veal escape from the horribleness of sin, which its glare made aiDjiarent, when turned off permits free use of artistic side-lights, to point the beau- ties of the shifting scenes in the heavenly vista. Eefrain from exposing the need of a Saviour, and, of course, there is more time to descant impor- tant but smoother things. No doubt historical and exegetical research ; analysis and comparison And the Bad Effects of it. 13 of creeds ; word painting of sacred localities and characters ; timely exposure of social evils and hot advocacy of popular reforms, aptly humor- ous or denunciatory, discoursed mainly to the people, serve a desired end in preparing them for the Gospel, both in belief and in life. No doubt Christ is preached more to-day as a person — a loving, helping, sympathising, divine-human Friend : here is incalculable gain. No doubt exhortation to accept his love is more frequent, because warning to Hee the wrath to come is omit- ted. Perhaps a need existed for holding out the universal offer of salvation, to the exclusion of the truth of man's inability to "ways that make for righteousness," which used to be so com- monly heard. A certain good has resulted from this labor over the twigs and flowers of theology, to the neglect of its roots. Evil, however, already appears. Many even now demand a new reading hut not i- i '' c adequate to of the old parable. They will have it that not ^^^ '^""^s. God but the sinner has been sinned against. AVith not a few, it is the father, who, feeding on the swine's husks, comes to himself and pleads for a servant's place in the home where the prodi gal riots at pleasure and by right. Nor can we blame them for the notion, since a perpetual and exclusive urging to accept the offer of God' s love makes him a beggar for men in sin, not from sin. Consequently, the skepticism of the age denies the fundamentals of faith — the sovereignty of God and the dependence of man ; while simple truth, elaborated into philosophy, invites the poor 14 Calmnisvi, tlie Basis of Religious man to a religious feast in vain, because lie lacks the requisite cultured hunger. On the This neglect of distinctive Calvinism destroys other hand, " ^ uunt^'the the motive of Presbyterianism to carry the Gos- dbey the pel to the poor. Ideas shape affairs. Equality came to view when the light of Genevan reform- ation displayed, without magnifying, God's ab- solute sovereignt}', man's total depravity. No one can be better than another, if all are "dead " because qu accouut of siu. Contemplating human hope- its"rel/S l*^ssness. except as the object of divine, unmer- opens^thl^' ited favor, discovered the rock of civil liberty. church to the poor: -jlie assertiou in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," draws its truth onl}^ from the dogma that "all are born under condemnation:" America' s glory is the fruit on proved by the graft of Calviu' s first point. The brotherhood its princi- ^ ^ pies, qJ mankind received emphatic recognition when The Institutes proclaimed to ready listeners the old Pauline truth, that infinite grace alone saves, and offers pardon on identical terms to both the Pharisee and " the chief of sinners," to Dives and to Lazarus. Predestination cut at the roots of feudal caste. Says Bancroft : " Did a proud aristocracy trace its lineage through generations of a high-born ancestry, the republican reformer, with a loftier pride, invaded the invisible world, and from the book of life brought down the record of the noblest enfranchisement, decreed from all eternity by the King of kings." Calvinism con- trasts man with God, Creator and Saviour ; every other system of religious philosophy, down through Pelagianism to heathen Pantheism and And Political Equality. 15 cultured Atheism, contrasts him with himself: under tlie former "there is no difference ;" under the latter, one has ability and merit more than another. The practical side of tliis truth appears in the hy its political remarkable fact that every church whose theology affinities, is not strictly Calvinistic has an anti-republican polity. Even mild Arminianism, whether seen predominant in the church of Wesley or of Henry YIII, clasps hands with an autocratic bishop or presiding elder. It is not surprising, then, that the Presbyterian and Calvinistic Bap- tist denominations should together number nearly one-half of all the church-going people in this republican country. And it was to be expected that the Baptists should draw ahead of the Pres- byterians in the last fifty years. For, more dem- ocratic in polity, their proportionately more rapid increase has naturally been coincident with the democratic impulse which in the same period suc- cessfull}^ revolted against tlie old Federalists, and procured changes in the constitution of nearly every state. With the political reaction toward more purely republican principles already set in, even brighter prospects open before Presbyterian- ism than glow in the reflecting clouds of the past. But in order to utilise our opportunities, we must, as a church and as individuals, drink energy at the old fount of Calvinism. The church must show itself to be in reality a church for the people. The spring that bubbles limpid and pure up through the bottom sands, clarifies the pool ; the clearest rill that only skims the surface lets 16 Exceptions Prove the Rule. slimy ooze collect below. To be true to its great doctrines, Presbyterianisra must offer not only a refuge, but a home, with equal rights, and not a patronising, but a brotherly, sympathy within it, to the unfortunate of the race. The glory of the early past is that our church recognised this responsibility both in dogma and in life. Preach- ing the Gospel of Him who has no respect of persons, it lifted the generations out of mediaeval ignorance and serfdom to the intelligence and freedom of citizens in such a Republic as our own. hMit^ex- It may be said, however, that the present strength of Romanism, Methodism, and Epis- copacy disproves the assertion that the republi- can door of its theology measures the capacity of a church to receive the people into its fold. But other distinctive features sufficiently account for these apparent exceptions. Rome's mummery attracts the superstitious, her priestly authority drags the ignorant in the net of tyranny : removal of superstition and ignorance has ever emanci- pated her religious serfs. Methodism, the apos- tle of a new departure, gains the majority of her converts by preaching the "theology of the feel- ings," to the neglect of that of Delft: Calvinism, meanwhile, emphasizing the doctrines of the "new birth through irresistible grace," and "the assurance of faith," provides better ground- work for a "theology of the feelings," if only her teachers were less enamored of mere intellect so as to use their advantage. Episcopacy feeds on the old carnal pride of caste ; frugality saved out Practical Result of Neglect. 17 of poverty the wealth which the descendants of Puritans, who now fill her pews, expend to gratify leisurely aesthetics, and dole in charities to the poor they socially ignore: this a degenerate Presbyterianism apes. Looking further, it be- comes evident that those churches which propa- gate alone the republican bud of Calvinism do not succeed in making it affect the mass below the point of grafting : Humanitarianism, whether expounded by a radical Frothingham or by a conservative Bellows, fosters an intellectual exclu- siveness, which leaves needy humanity in the cold outside their doors. On the other hand, the Baptists, with a Spurgeon as theologian for the people, attest the adaptability of distinctive Cal- vinism to all classes, and the equality which it engenders. Moody's career is evidence to the same point. Their success also exposes the neglect of that ana by the ^ " present system by the church which boasts it as her lineal oPauirge heritage. That neglect leaves our ministry igno- cliurcL rant of the solemn obligation to preach the " glad tidings" without respect to persons, and content to edify alone, not God's elect, but their own electors. Consequently, our membership, un- taught the poor sinner's divine right of equality with the rich in the matter of salvation, not only build churches which practically exclude the poor man, but refuse to treat him as a " neighbor," and to compel him come to the Gospel feast. In a word, Presbyterian preachers, having re- manded to dust-covered books those distinctive Calvinistic doctrines which recognise man's equal- 18 Laxity in Discipline. ity before God, the poor man finds no equality before tlieir pulpits. This year we glory over the intelligence and wealth represented by Presby- terianism : the truth in that boast should send the hot blood to our faces ; for when the church of Calvin can no longer be called the poor man' s home, it is failing to pronounce — if it is not renouncing — the ideas of Paul and the Gospel of Jesus. A Mcontj- ^ secondary cause of the faults in modern a?"j/ cause •' S^itorScft Pi'Gsby terianism, revealed by the test of preach- ing to the poor, is laxity in Presbj'terial order. LAXITY IN Prof. Diman shows* that denominational growth DISCIPLINE, " in our country during the century coincides with thoroughness of denominational discipline. Presbyterianism, indeed, stands well up on the list in this respect ; exceptional particulars alone evince its laxity in discipline. The weakness due to these, however, can be properly estimated only revecaed hy ^y comparisou. Methodism, from an insiiinifi- of results. ^^^^ organisation at the beginning of the century, now heads the list of religious denominations in the country. Romanism and Episcopacy have, of late, made pi-oportionatel}^ larger advances than Presbyterianism. In all three legitimate authority has been more strict than with us. menfsHf' Theoretically there is no allowance for this re- ourpMtlj] suit. We need concede to no church the posses- sion of an order of government more efficient and equable than our own; our practice has simply * North Amer. Kev., Jan., 1876. The Presbytery. 19 come short of our standards. For the element in Presbyterianism, which makes its polity just less c^mpost- than purely republican, after all gives a stability and an executive power to its order, of which Eng- land furnishes tlie best parallel among nations. A Presbytery consists of two parts, distinct in kind, acting as one body, like brain and brawn in man ; a ministerial oligarchy and a representa- tive eldership. The first factor, conservative be- cause perman(Mit, guards divine principles and tends to thorough execution ; the second factor, radical because changeable, guards popular inter- ests, and tends to practical measures : both in one combine the qualities and the means to benefi- cently effective discipline. Still further, a Pres- ana orm- vcd juris- bytery so composed is the fountain of power in presbytSy. the church. Calvin with most of the Reformers, it is true, maintained tlie validity of lay inaugu- ration of sacramental and ecclesiastical functions; but only in solitary exceptions, and as possibil- ities rather than probabilities. As in some plants, a new species, though originating in a solitary seed, can propagate its kind only by cuttings from the developed plant ; so Presbytery, once formed, contains the sole resources for further Presb3^ter- ial growth. This truth appears in the fa,ct tliat Presbytery alone may organise churches, license and ordain a ministry, move and effect changes in the constitutional system of doctrine or govern- ment. National and provincial as well as sec- tional courts are included in this system ; but the powers of the two former, far from being original. 20 Elements of Weakness. are delegated from the latter for the sake of con' venience and unity. Natural But as the republican idea revolves throusrh the ^^^ cycle of generations it continually suffers from a centrifugal force ; individual despotism limits the tangent in one direction, communistic anarchy in the other. Naturally, Presbyterianism shows the same divergent tendencies to disintegration ; the offshoots at the nearest points on opposite sides bear the harmless names of Episcopacy and Con- counter- gregationalism. Strictness of discipline affords ■watchful the only centripetal restraints on these inherent disci-pline ; elements of weakness; just as civil liberty is but the resultant of a wise application of checks on hence, pro- Corresponding forces in the state. That Presby- priety of expomig tery may be watchful to apply its constitutional present J J i x ./ faults. checks against the tendencies to prelacy and inde- pency there is need of boldly recognising the faults which weaken its discipline. Although at present such faults may seem so insignificant as to indicate a harmless laxity it is neither hyper- critical nor unwise to expose them. Magnifying little evils for the sake of great principles at stake has ushered in many a mighty reform and revolu- tion. The Londoner quietly paid four times the tax for which the colonist upset his tea into Boston harbor : the evolution of that mouse into the biggest sort of elephant justifies the mountain- ous labor at the birth. Hereaifo Here again preaching to the poor effectively vcxt tests o^weah- tests the weak sinews in our polity. The faults exposed may be considered as affecting the church Policy of Boards Tested. 21 lirst in its General and then in its Particular Grov- ernment. Without amplification it stands evident that the first, in General Government, throu^jh the administration govern- " MEJMT ; the, of its Boards and Committees, aims mainly to f/,e'Xfm- supply the poor with the Gospel. Two questions lioards and Corn- then obtrude themselves: what result does the '"'"<=«? tented by present method of carrying out this aim show ? ^^ """' and is that method constitutional ? No doubt grand results may be trumpeted; im- mense sums contributed, an army of preachers commissioned, scores of churches erected every month, and multitudes not only made listeners but also converts to the Gospel. But the boastful enumeration of these items establishes nothing for the value of the method until we hear also, on the one hand, how much the circumstances of the times have favored tliis result; and, on the other, whether other methods have done better under the same circumstances. As a fact the times liave hyfavor- been most favorable to the beneficent operations cumstan- ces, of the church. For more than half a century and down to within five years, the increase of the country in wealth has struck the world with as- tonishment. The worst method might win laurels in such a period. And yet it is also a fact that comparatively we have lost ground. The Metho- dists and Baptists and Roman Catholics, even the by com- Episcopalians, occupy many a field in these east- J^g/^g^g^'' ern states once cultivated alone or most efficiently by the Presbyterian church. On the frontier other denominations push their outposts further in advance, and establish them more securely 22 Unconstitutional than ours. The traveler west of the Mississippi needs but poor eyes to see the truth of this latter statement. For the former, our own Presbytery is more than a fair average to judge from. What by actual comparative advance for the church has our gen- condition . i. i t i of poor gj-al beneficent administration accomplished here ? hifteriSl^'i^ the country our churches close their doors or beg louder every year from the various Boards, because, forsooth, the wealtli of the farms flows into the cities ; while the poverty that takes its place gets the Gospel, if at all, from a church which administers its attairs more thoroughly. In the cities, the poor, wlien not equally neglected, are cared for by introducing a most pernicious policy of tlie fifth century. Tested by its main purpose, viewed under the liglit of favorable cir- i.sa)A cumstances, b}'' comparison with other methods, FAILURE. and by actual results, I do not hesitate to assert that tlie administration of our Boards and Com- mittees is a failure. That policy Tlie auswer to the second question proposed a is also (2\ ^ ^^i!^.ffl' moment ago accounts for this failure. Tlie method TUTIONAL, " is unconstitutional and subversive of discipline. ISTominall}^ acting through the Presbyteries, all the Boards and Committees are practically auto- cratic. Be it church or student, missionary, col- hecome in- porteur, or ministers' widow ; in Delaware or frinaing on Preshjite- Oregou or India, each is directly resDonsible, so 7'ial juris- diction far as dependent, to the respective Secretary. The Presbyterial relation is secondary if not ig- nored : and nominalism in philosophy, a shadow ; in character, hypocrisy ; in government is a dry rot. Methods. 23 Precedent, to be sure, may be found for this " Synodimi ' '' CO mm In- direct control of the church at large over the sub- fUlyprece- jects of Presbytery. But that precedent lodges cauz^e such j)ower in a high commission, possessing all the prerogatives of the body creating it, without review. This feature, I believe, is still prominent in the Scotch church ; it played an important part in the first half century of Presbyterianism in this country. A Sy nodical commission not only exercised all the functions of Synod during the intervals of regular meetings, but frequently began and ended proceedings against particular churches, thus usurping tlie prerogatives of Pres- bytery. The custom, however, was incongruous Mt t?iis finds no in American Presbyterianism, and did not sur- p/«c6wtfte •^ ' theorii of vive the adoption of the present constitution, cattf/mrc/i now. If in place anywhere now we might expect to find the commission in Presbytery ; but you know how every attempt to make use of it here, even for ordination and trial, is successfully re- sisted. For years the etfort has been strong in Assembly to erect a judicial commission, with full powers ; defeat, however, continues to be its fate. Only when both parties voluntarily consent can an appeal be adjudicated by commission without review ; but the element of mutual con- sent in these makes them not properly judicial, but extra arbitration cases. The Continental com- mission finds no legitimate place in the idea which shapes the American church : akin to the bureaucratic administration of a monarchy or empire, it disappeared from our Standards with 24 The Autocracy of the Boards the old teaching concerning the "civil magis- trates." Tet present But if the principle is outlawed the practice policy tends ^^r.^ should be outrooted : when the powers of a com- powers; missiou, coupled with the name, are denied, the e. g. jurisdiction without the name should not be tol- erated. And yet the reverse is fast becoming the status of the Assembly's Boards and Committees. A study of the growth of their powers reveals the drift. Created at first as auxiliaries to the weaker parts of the church, their subjection to Presbytery was carefully defined ; now, while as many words in their charters declare the same subjection, many more have extended their au- thority until the strongest Presbytery must go on its knees to them and beg for favors. For exam- BoARDOF pie, the Board of Education originally received TioN, from the churches, only (I quote from the Digest, page 354) "the surplus funds [of Presbyteries and Societies] which shall not be necessary for the accommodation of those immediately depend- ing on them for support," and acted as a general agent in raising money and reporting the work of education throughout the church. The early history of this cause is brilliant for the results accomplished : to-day, with the cause in disre- pute, Presbytery may obtain the privilege of pay- ing the bills of its own candidates only after much red-tape and as an unmerited favor. Requests Board of for this Same privilege from the Board of Home Home -.r- • Missions, Missions meet With nothing but flat refusal or polite snubbing. Yes, it has come to this, that a Presbytery may not apply the Home Mission overrides the Presbyteries. 25 funds, raised by its own clmrches, directly to its own needs. It is well known, also, that the For- board of FORMGN eign Board not only refuses to receive contribu- missions, tions for objects that have not its indorsement, although a foreign Presbytery may be unani- mously appealing for them, but it undertakes to order the members of Presbyteries from one place to another, without reference to the wishes of those Presbyteries. To the same piece of bureaucratic buu o/ " '- Assembly administration, as a logical corollary, belongs that specmT' resolution rushed through the Assembly of 1875, uom^ which forbade churches to report, except as mis- cellaneous, any sums for beneficence not sent to the Treasurers of the Boards. Whatever its in- tention and parentage, that rule was in effect a direct blow at Presbyterial work and authority, in the interest of enlarged powers for the Boards. These indications of the tendency to commis- ccntmiisa- . . tion at the sional government practically appearing in the root of this administration of the General Beneficence, show ^gl-^y that the same influences have been at work in the church as in the nation : centralisation has made alarming development. The monstrous evils in- herent in that policy warn us now to raise the cry of State Rights in the one, and Presbyterial Rights in the other. For in the church central- isation subverts discipline by gendering the nat- ural elements of weakness. One of these, the tendency to prelacy, appears in the almost abso- •^ ^ J T r-r fosters, on lute control which the perpetual Boards exercise fand^^e over the changing Assemblies. Besides the tendency to prelacy ; trained lobby interest brought to bear in their 26 Centralisation an Evil, favor, letters, sent "where they will do the most good," prevent the election of delegates counted inimical to the policy of the Boards. The Board of Publication, for instance, during several years has succeeded in staving off an investigation of its accounts. An audit by a committee of respect- able names after all may not be trustworthy ; one cannot forget the Astor & Co. indorsement of Controller Connolly' s Ring accounts. Then, too, objection made on principle to the policy of the Boards is hurled back as if it was a personal attack upon the Secretaries ; the clans gather to defend their personal integrity and industry, while the whip cracks all the sharper over those who dare to criticise. But must I always sail in a leaky boat, and never complain of the damp- ness, because the pilot pays for his washing and sleeps only five hours out of the twenty-four? Around this personal favoritism the power has historically centered that concealed dangers to both state and church, and, at last, carried Csesars and Csesar Borgias into autocratic office. On this side, then, centralisation creates powerful rings in the church, whicli gradually assume control of its general legislation, and treat per- sonal interests as of more importance than eccle- siastical principles. ontheother Ou the Other side, centralisation destroys hand, the '' Spend-"