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 Presented by Mr Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
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THE DEACONSHIP: 
 
 TREATISE ON THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS REVIVAL 
 
 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN G. LORIMER, 
 
 MINISTER OF ST DAVID's PARISH, GLASGOW, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HISTORICAI. SKETCH OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF FRANCE,' 
 
 " MANUAL OF PRESBYTER V," ETC. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 JOHN JOHNSTONE, HUNTER SQUARE, 
 
 LONDON : R. GROOMBRIDGE. 
 
 MDCCCXLII. 
 
ENTERED IN STATIONERS HALL. 
 
 Printed by John Johnstone, High Street, Eiliiiburgh 
 
CONTENT 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 REVIVAL OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON IX THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Remarkable State of Society and of the World at the present moment— The 
 Trial of Evangelical Religion — Growing Pressure of the Question con- 
 nected with the Poor — What light the Scriptures throw on the Subject— 
 The Office of Deacon expressly intended for the Management— Perver- 
 sion of it in some Churches — Non-application in others — Its Revival 
 peculiarly called for at the present day, . . . Page 5-10. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON IN THE 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Mistakes of the Church of Rome and the Church of England in regard to the 
 Office — Solely concerns the Ecclesiastico- Secular Interests of the Church 
 — Such an Office might have been looked for- Would naturally Rise out 
 of the Progress of the Church— Called for, for the Kehef of the Christian 
 Ministry from Secular Cares — Desirable as a Shield against Mercenary 
 Imputations — Remarkable Delicacy of the Apostles in regard to Money 
 Matters— The Office Permanent in its Nature— Reasons for this more 
 Powerful now than in Primitive Times, . . Fage U-\6. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 OF THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 Christianity naturally Tends to the Acquisition of Wealth, but, for wise Rea- 
 sons, there are always to be Poor in the Christian Church — The Gospel in 
 its own nature makes Provision for them, by Creating a Spirit of Libe- 
 rality—Earnestly calls Attention to the Teniporal Wants of the Poor- 
 Identifies Regard for the Pious Poor with Regard for Christ— The Office 
 needed to Prevent the Misdirection of the Wealth whicli True Religion 
 Creates— Early and Corrupting Application of Money in the Christian 
 Church— The Special Care of tlie Poor is Conducive to the Credit of 
 Christianity— Claims of the World in regard to the Poor imperatively 
 require that the (.'huicli should prove herself their warm Friend, 
 
 Pcfge 17-26. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OP THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 Founded on Scripture Authority— 6th Chapter of the Acts, 1st Chapterof Phi- 
 lippians,and.3dof 1st Timothy — But has no connection with the Preaching 
 of the Gospel or Administering Ordinances — This Proved by the Origin 
 of the Office and the Qnalificat ions which are Demanded in the Word- 
 Circumstances out of which the Institution Sprung — Female Deacon- 
 esses Establish the Secular Nature of the Office— The Cases of Philip 
 and Stephen lend no Countenance to the Idea that the Office is Spiri- 
 tual, Page 27-34. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY TO THE 
 OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 Down to A.D. 250— The Notices of History Favourable to the Scriptural Nature 
 of the Office — Even the Testimonies of Tertullian and Cyprian Hostile 
 to a Deacon Administering Baptism—" The Apostolic Constitutions "— 
 
 Jerome — Sixth General Council of Constantinople, &c., iScc Point in 
 
 the same Direction — Sentiments of Neander— Explanation of the Un- 
 warranted Change in the Office in the Third Centurv— Concession by 
 Bishop Croft, P^/^-'' 35-41. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 THE REFORMERS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Waldenses hold the Scriptural View of the Office— Also, Wickliffe— 
 Tyndal — Lambert— Ursinus—BudEeus— The Lutheran Church— Genevan 
 Church— Calvin— The Swiss Churches— The French Protestant Church— 
 Belgic — Dutch, Ancient and Modern— Nonconformists of New England 
 — On this Subject Presbyterians and Congregationalists are agreed, 
 
 Page 42-52, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, AND MODE OF 
 APPOINTMENT. 
 
 Besides a Common Education, they require to be, 1. Of Honest Report— 2. 
 Full of the Holy Ghost— 3. Of \\ isdom— In addition to these, there are 
 the Qualifications detailed in 1st Timothy, 3d Chapter— Deacons must be, 
 1. Grave— 2. Not Double-tongued— 3. Temperate— 4. Free from Avarice 
 —5. Acquainted with the Doctrines of the Gospel— G. Must hold the 
 Mystery of the Faith in a Pure Conscience— 7. IMust be Proved— 8- Must 
 be the Husband of One Wife— 9. Must Rule well their own Family. 
 
 MODE OF APPOINTMENT. 
 
 Plainly Taught— Elected, not by the Apostles, but by the Members of the 
 Christian Church, who judged of Spiritual Qualifications— Chose excel- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 lently— Objection Answered— Churches of the Reformation Differed as to 
 the Mode of Appointment to the Deaconship— The Church of Scotland 
 held Free Election — The Ordination not in the hands of the People, but 
 of the Church Courts— Extract from Rev. Dr Dick's Lectures, 
 
 Page 53-65. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 His chief Care the Poor — Whether merely the Christian or the General 
 Poor ? — Reasons for Including both Classes— The Original Institution of 
 the Office not inconsistent with this— In regard to the Mode in which the 
 Deacon should Attend the Poor— 1. He should Visit them and give his 
 Charity in their own Houses— 2. He should Encourage all Plans, Moral 
 and Economical, for the Prevention of Poverty — Friendly Societies- 
 Savings' Bank on the Aggressive Principle, as at Manchester — The Loan 
 Fund, as Conducted in Ireland— The Spirit in which the Deacon should 
 Discharge his Duties — His other Duties connected with the Financial 
 Affairs of the Church or Congregation, . . Page 66-77. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 THE OFFICE OF DEACON AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 Paganism Despises, Popery Injures the Poor — Evangelical Protestantism 
 their best Friend— The Office of Deacon recognised and acted upon 
 in the very Dawn of the Reformation in Scotland— Approved by the 
 Church of England at the same period — Foreign Congregations in Lon- 
 don — Views of the First Book of Discipline of the Church of Scotland 
 (1560) — Deacons in John'Knox's Church in Edinburgh — Views of the 
 Second Book of Discipline (1578)— Of Alexander Henderson's celebrated 
 Treatise on the " Government and Order of the Church of Scotland" 
 (1641)— Of Guthrie the Martyr's Treatise of Elders and Deacons at a 
 later date — Large number of Deacons in Glasgow— Dunfermline and 
 Country Parishes in the 17th Century — Anderson's Testimony to the 
 State of the Deacorship in 1714 — Act of General Assembly in 1719— State 
 of the Deaconship since— General Decline— Proof of this— Indications of 
 Modern Revival, ...... Page 78-94, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL OF THE OFFICE 
 OF DEACON, AND THE SPECIAL CALL TO IT AT THE PRE- 
 SENT DAY. 
 
 1. The Revival would be highly Useful to the Eldership— It would supply 
 more Men, and of higher Qualification, and it would prove an excellent 
 Training School— 2. It would be Beneficial to the Minister— 3. It would 
 Interest a large body of Men in the Poor, and reflexly do Good to the 
 Deacon himself— 4. The Poor would receive increased Attention, in a 
 variety of ways— 5. The Church would be Strengthened in her General 
 Character and Claims as the Friend of the Poor— These Recommenda- 
 tions particularly Important at the present day, from the State of the 
 Poor and of Society— No serious Obstacles in the way of the Revival of 
 the Office can be apprehended, .... Page 95-103. 
 
•^ / ^ CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NO. I. TESTIMONY OP AN ENGLISH PRELATE TO PRESBY- 
 TERIAN VIEWS OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 Statement of Dr Croft, Bishop of Hereford — The Deacon not a Spiritual 
 Order— The First Departure from Scripture Views of the Office in the 
 Second Centurj'— Even this was limited— Refutation of the Alleged 
 Testimony of Ignatius— Reply to Petavius— Origin of the Perversion— 
 Chrysostom— The Office of Deacon in the Church of Rome— In the 
 Church of England, ..... Pw^^e 107-110. 
 
 NO. II. REVIVAL OF THE ORDER OF DEACONS STRONGLY 
 
 AND IMMEDIATELY RECOMMENDED BY MINISTERS AND 
 
 1841. 
 
 Associations in Edinburgh and Glasgow for improving the Character and 
 Condition of the Poor — " Statement of the Edinburgh Committee," re- 
 commend Revival of the Office of Deacon— Prevailing Social Evils to be 
 met — A Moral Agency might be drawn from Christian Congregations — 
 The Charge should be limited to a very small number of Families — The 
 Practical Objects which should be aimed at— The Means to be employed 
 — The Desirableness of such a Moral Agency — A Caution against E.k.- 
 aggerated Expectations from its Labours— Inferiority to the full applica- 
 tion of the Parochial Sj'stem — Facts in this Connection, Page 110-117. 
 
 NO. III. PRACTICAL EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE WORKING 
 
 OF THE DEACONSHIP EVEN IN A LARGE TOWN. 
 
 Testimony of a Deacon of 18 years' standing, . . Po^-e 118-121. 
 
 NO. IV. savings' BANKS IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
 
 DEACONSHIP. 
 
 The Aggressive Principle acted upon at Manchester with success, 
 
 Prt^e 121-122. 
 
 NO. V. EXAGGERATED VIEWS OF THE CRIME OF GLAS- 
 GOW AND SCOTLAND — THE SUCCESS OF RELIGIOUS AND 
 EDUCATIONAL MEANS IN REPRESSING IT. 
 
 Injurious Effects of exaggerating Crime— The Statement of Mr Sheriff Ali- 
 son in regard to the Consumption of Ardent Spirits in Glasgow— In regard 
 to Weekly Intoxication— In regard to Female Profligacy in the Mills- 
 Considered and Answered — Crime of Scotland— To what its Increase is 
 Owing — Increase of Population — Large proportion of the Offenders Irish 
 —The Efiectof the New System of County Police in swelling the apparent 
 number of Criminals— The last Illustrated by the Returns from East Lo- 
 thian—The Necessity of Classification in Criminal Returns— Misleading 
 Efiect in aggregate numbers- Illustrated in Glasgow and Calton— Dimi- 
 nution of Crime in both — Testimony of Captain Miller, of the Glasgow 
 Police, to the Efficacy of Moral, Educational, and Religious Means in 
 Diminishing Crime— Of Mr Kutherglen, oneof the Magistrates of Calton, 
 and of Mr M'Laren, Superintendent of the Barony Poor to the same 
 Purpose— <yOniparison of the Crime of Scotland with that of England 
 and Wales, and with that of Ireland, even in the most favourable Pro- 
 vince of the latter— Conclusion from the whole Facts, I'nge 122-131. 
 

 & 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 REVIVAL OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON IN THE 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 From a variety of causes, one is apt to attach an undue 
 importance to the events of the period in which he hap- 
 pens to live ; but there seems to be no question, whether 
 we contemplate the state of the Church or the world at 
 home or abroad — the discussion of great principles — the 
 dissatisfaction with the present, the aspiration after a 
 better state of things — general depression trying the faith 
 and patience of large bodies of men — the efforts made 
 for the propagation of the Gospel — and the remarkable 
 facilities of intercourse among the nations of the earth, 
 that our lot has been cast in extraordinary times. It 
 may be that some great prophetic period is at hand, if it 
 has not already arrived. One striking feature in the 
 picture seems to be the trial which is about to be made of 
 true Christianity in various forms. It cannot be doubt- 
 ed that evangelical religion has made immense progress 
 throughout Protestant Christendom, and particularly in 
 
6 REVIVAL OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON 
 
 Britain and the United States of America, during the 
 last 30 years. The influence of this progress is manifest 
 in Christian missions to the heathen — the enlargement 
 of the Church, and the encouragement of scriptural 
 education at home. It may be marked, too, in the vast 
 circulation of works of sound practical Christianity — in 
 the improved feeling, in many quarters, in regard to 
 the Sabbath — and the general force with which religious 
 questions have, of late years, told upon politics and pub- 
 lic opinion. Not a great many years ago the Christian 
 Church and the world Avere, comparatively speaking, 
 asleep upon these and kindred subjects. 
 
 Not a few might have imagined that evangelical religion, 
 having started in a new career, would be allowed to move 
 on in peace, that the fruits of its blessed operation would 
 be every where visible, and recommend it to general fa- 
 vour ; but this is not God's way with his truth and cau?e. 
 He seldom allows them any considerable advancement, 
 without speedily trying them. This evokes their princi- 
 ples and proves their character, and so establishes them 
 the more. Indeed, evangelical religion, when it rises 
 to a particular prominency in society, almost necessarily 
 provokes such opposition as serves to try it. Hence, at 
 the present day, it is in the course of trial by old Popery 
 revived, and also by what may be called new Popery 
 among Protestants. In another quarter it is tried by 
 the interference of the civil arm — by divisions among 
 brethren on important doctrine — by infidelity widely 
 diffused in general knowledge and society — on particular 
 parts of God's law, such as the Fourth Commandment. 
 In the meantime, the spread of its principles of justice 
 and benevolence is correcting various abuses — is call- 
 
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 7 
 
 ing public attention, with effect, to human suffering, 
 whether in the form of slavery or excessive labour, 
 disease, or poverty. It is in connection with the last 
 that the following tract is written. The progress of 
 true religion would have created a deeper interest in 
 behalf of the poor, as soon as theu' indigence was known. 
 Indeed, it would have searched them out in any circum- 
 stances ; but particular events have brought forth and 
 proclaimed the evil to the public unexpectedly, and with 
 great force. The melancholy truth is now beginning to 
 be known, that, in the large, and even smaller towns, 
 and manufacturing villages, there is a vast amount of 
 temporal destitution — that the evil has been growing for 
 years — that it is now reaching a crisis — and that there 
 is no prospect of speedy or permanent relief. In these 
 circumstances, the concern and sympathy of all, and 
 particularly of Christians, are deeply awakened. Vari- 
 ous remedies are suggested — some of them, to say the 
 least, of dubious efficacy, and at best temporary allevia- 
 tion. In these cbcumstances, the friends of religion 
 naturally tm-n to the Scriptures. They ask themselves, 
 whether the Word of God throws any light on the treat- 
 ment of poverty ? and they find that Christians are not 
 only called upon to feel for, and reheve the indigent, 
 but that express provision is made for this in the consti- 
 tution of the Christian Church. They find that there is 
 a distinct order of office-bearers — the deacon — divinely 
 appointed for the care of the poor. The natural inquiry, 
 then, arises, whether this order may not be so revived as 
 to render, at least, substantial aid in meeting prevailing 
 indigence. It is plain that there is no prospect of that 
 indigence so speedily passing away as to render a per- 
 
8 REVIVAL OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON 
 
 manent provision unnecessary ; and even though the 
 worst were, ere long, to disappear, it is desirable to have 
 that full organization of the Christian Church which 
 its Divine Founder intended. It is when carrying His 
 plans into operation, that the choicest blessing may be 
 expected both on the temporal and spiritual interests of 
 society. To many it may seem singular, that when 
 evangelical religion is so much tried with error and oppo- 
 sition of various kinds, a new, and difficult, and absorb- 
 ing question should arise, demanding the sympathy and 
 exertion of all its friends. This, so to speak, is an aggra- 
 vation of the trial. But it is not an unusual course with 
 God. While it is evangelical religion which gives in- 
 creased feeling and interest in behalf of the poor — if the 
 present wide-spread distress be the means of leading the 
 Christian Church generally, in all its branches, to recur 
 to scriptural views of the office of deacon, and to com- 
 plete its organization where it has been defective, or to 
 correct it where it has been erroneous, an immense ser- 
 vice will be rendered to Christianity, and through it, as 
 well as by means still more direct, to the interests of the 
 poor. It is well known that some Christian Churches 
 have perverted the office of deacon altogether, have 
 withdrawn it from the care of the poor, and have turned 
 it into an office for preaching and baptizing ; Avhile 
 others, though admitting its scriptural character, and 
 distinctly recognising it in their standards, have either 
 not acted upon it, or have devolved its duty upon a 
 separate office-bearer. The duty, in the great majority 
 of cases, may be creditably attended to in the Church of 
 Scotland. Indeed, the ruling elder may often act fully 
 as much as a deacon as in his more appropriate calling. 
 
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 9 
 
 But this blending is injurious in a variety of ways. It 
 confounds what is desirable should be distinct, and what 
 is distinct in Scripture. It impairs the spiritual char- 
 acter of the office of ruling elder, and greatly diminishes 
 the number of persons whose services might be obtained 
 for the office of deacon. The poor generally receive 
 the aid only of men who are supposed to be qualified for 
 the office of ruling elder, while they ought to be blessed 
 with the service of the far larger body who may possess 
 the qualifications, and have no objections to exercise 
 those as deacons. The benefit which is derived from 
 the services of deacons, where they are numerous, 
 shows the importance of being conformed as much 
 as possible to the apostolic model. Indeed, no small 
 part of the success of Dr Chalmers' experiment in 
 St John's, in this city, was owing to them. In the 
 Church of England, where the office of deacon, in its 
 scriptural character and object, is unknown, the Church, 
 as a Church, takes no charge of the poor, but leaves 
 them to the care of overseers — an office entirely se- 
 cular — administered by officers who may, or may not, 
 have any religious profession whatever. The revival of 
 the office of deacon, then, at all times important, is 
 peculiarly called for at the present day. If God intends 
 to try the strength of that evangelical religion which has 
 been growing of late years, it is well that the Christian 
 Church should be complete in its organization, and pre- 
 pared at every point for the conflict. The poor have 
 usually been the friends of the Gospel — friends when 
 higher parties have been hostile. It is one of its peculi- 
 arities, too, distinguishing it from all other religious 
 systems, that " it is preached to the poor;" and who can 
 
10 REVIVAL OP THE OFFICE OF DEACON 
 
 tell what service they, by their prayers, as well as by 
 other means, may render to the Evangelical Church, in 
 return for her growing attention at once to their tem- 
 poral and spiritual wants. Apart from the blessing 
 which waits upon the faithful discharge of duty, they 
 may prove a source of direct strength and support. 
 
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON IN 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 As it is proposed, in the following pages, to advocate the 
 revival of the office of deacon, it is desirable to have 
 clear and distinct views of its nature. Though nothing 
 can be plainer or more certain, taking the Word of 
 God for our guide, yet there have been various misap- 
 prehensions in regard to it. The Church of Rome and 
 the Church of England have considered the deaconship 
 as an order — the first and the lowest in the priesthood ; 
 and some Congregationalists have considered it as syno- 
 nymous with presbyter ; and, therefore, so far spiritual 
 in its nature. But there is no foundation for either idea. 
 The office solely regards what may be termed the eccle- 
 siastico-secular interests of the Christian Church. It is 
 expressly distinguished from the spiritual, properly so 
 called ; and was originally instituted to set the spiritual 
 free from secular occupation. There may be diversity of 
 opinion about some offices in the Christian Church — such 
 as that of the rulinsf elder — thouofh even as to that, Pres- 
 byterians may wonder that other Christians can have any 
 hesitation ; but there is no scope for diffijrence of judg- 
 ment in regard to the deacon. The fact that there is any 
 such difference is a striking illustration of the power of 
 
12 ON THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON 
 
 party and interested prejudice. It is not unnatural to 
 suppose that, as Christianity, though spiritual in itself, 
 deals with men still in the body, and affects^ -while it is 
 SO far dependent for its propagation upon, temporal in- 
 terests, so that there should be some office in connection 
 Avith it to take charge of its secular concerns ; and this, 
 accordingly, is precisely the design of the office of deacon. 
 There would have been an obvious defect — at least an 
 unnecessary, and, it may be, injurious blending of the 
 secular and the sacred — had there been no such office. 
 
 Though the original institution rose out of a particular 
 emergency — a murmuring as to the provision made for 
 the Hellenist as distinguished from the Hebrew widow 
 at Jerusalem, yet it is plain, though this case had not 
 occurred, there would have been others which would 
 soon have rendered such an appointment indispensable. 
 The progress of Christianity would have demanded it. 
 It was more accordant, however, with the free and 
 unsystematic character of the early Christian Church, to 
 create the office, when it was plainly needed, than to set 
 out with an original formal platform comprehending it. 
 This also commended the institution the more to the 
 acceptance of the humble followers of the Cross. 
 
 The original institution, I have said, was designed 
 to meet the case of a particular class of widows ; but 
 the office was not created to meet this or all classes 
 of widows exclusively, or even of the whole Christian 
 poor alone. It contemplated a wider sphere — even the 
 separation of the spiritual office of the apostleship and 
 ministry from all unnecessary secular occupation. The 
 care of poor widows came first, but there would soon 
 have been the care of the general poor; and even though 
 
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 13 
 
 these might have been otherwise provided for, yet the 
 collection of means for the maintenance of the ministry 
 and places of worship, and to defray the expenses of the 
 administration of ordinances, would have required such 
 an order of office-bearers as the deacon. The principle 
 which governed the appointment w^as : — " It is not 
 fit, it is not proper or becoming for the ministers of 
 the Gospel to leave the Word of God, and to serve 
 tables :" whether the tables be those of the poor, or for 
 receiving and paying away money for any cause con- 
 nected with the Christian Church — such as Christian 
 missions — still they involve work more or less secular, 
 which others can attend to, and from which it is most 
 desirable that the ministers of religion should be set 
 free. Besides unnecessary occupation, there is another 
 reason. The Spirit of God foreseeing how mercenary 
 the Christian Church would one day become, and hoAv 
 injurious this would prove to its character, manifested 
 a remarkable delicacy in regard to all money matters 
 in connection with the Ininistry. Hence, under His 
 teaching, the care of the apostles to avoid every thing 
 which savoured of the mercenary, or exposed to its 
 temptations and imputations. Doubtless it was from 
 this cause that Paul would receive no provision from 
 some of the Churches among which he laboured, and 
 preferred to earn his bread by tent-making, — probably 
 working at this employment over night, after preaching 
 during the day, rather than be indebted to those who 
 would misapprehend his standing upon his undoubted 
 rights as a minister. It was doubtless for the same 
 reason that, in sending the contributions of the Church 
 of Corinth to the poor saints in Judea, the apostle would 
 
14 ON THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON 
 
 not go alone, nor take charge of the collection himself; 
 but stated to the Corinthians, " When I come, whom- 
 soever j/e shall approve hy your letters, them will I send 
 to bring your liberality to Jerusalem ; and if it be meet 
 that I go also, they shall go ivith me!' (1 Cor. xvi. 1-4.) 
 Here was delicacy, one would say almost to excess, but 
 the apostle acted upon it to the full. Accordingly 
 Titus, the evangelist, was sent with the collection, or 
 rather he offered his services on the occasion. And Paul 
 adds, " and we have sent m ith him the brother whose 
 praise is in the Gospel through all the Churches ; and 
 not only so, but who was also chosen of the Churches to 
 travel with us with this gift, which is administered by us 
 to the glory of the same Lord." And then Paul adds, 
 showing the source of his extreme caution, " Avoiding 
 this, that no man should blame us in this abundance, 
 which is ministered by us ; providing for honest things, 
 not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of 
 men" (2 Cor. viii. 18-21.) We cannot doubt that it 
 was from the same fine delicacy — the gift of the Spirit 
 — that while the bishop or minister of each congrega- 
 tion was one, the deacons were numerous ; at least were 
 more than one. In the Church at Jerusalem, even at 
 the outset, there were seven. The duties of deacons 
 being often private, almost confidential, hid from gene- 
 ral publicity, it was the more necessary that the trust 
 should not be committed to a single individual. It 
 was chiefly by having a board or court of officers that 
 the Church could have confidence that the funds would 
 be properly applied. 
 
 As the oflice of deacon was restricted to the temporal 
 interests of the Church, so it was permanent in its nature. 
 
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 15 
 
 It was designed to form a part of the constitution of the 
 Church in all countries and in all ages. Some of the 
 offices, such as those of apostle, evangelist, prophet, 
 &c., were obviously extraordinary — intended to last, like 
 the miraculous spiritual gifts, but for a season, till the 
 Church was brought into a condition to sustain itself, 
 with God's blessing, on the use of outward and ordinary 
 means. But it was otherwise with the office of deacon. 
 Designed as it was to separate what was secular from 
 what was spiritual, and to relieve the spiritual from what- 
 ever was suspicious, as well as provide for the poor, it is 
 manifest that this was equally essential in all times and 
 places. If the office of deacon was a good thing at Jeru- 
 salem in the first century, it must, on the same ground, 
 be not less important in Scotland in the nineteenth 
 century. Indeed, the reasons which prevail now for 
 having such an office, are superior to those which existed 
 in the first age of Christianity. The temptations to 
 secularity, in connection with the management of the 
 affairs of the Church, have increased, while the high 
 spiritual tone of the infancy of the Gospel has declined. 
 AYhat a rebuke does this anxiety of the apostles to be 
 relieved from even the care of widows, administer to 
 those of their professed successors, who leave the Word 
 of God, and unnecessarily and systematically involve 
 themselves in matters tenfold more secular? If the 
 management of the provision for widows is to be aban- 
 doned to a separate and secular officer — a provision 
 which, in some respects, may be called religious — what 
 would they have thought of the almost entire occupation 
 of their time with the mere government of the Church, 
 apart from the grand objects of a Church, or the conduct 
 
16 ON THE NATURE OP THE OFFICE OF DEACON, ETC. 
 
 of the civil affairs of the State, or the cultivation of a 
 taste for the classics of ancient heathenism ? Assuredly 
 no apostle could look upon such a state of things with 
 approbation. It appears, then, that the office of deacon 
 in the Christian Church is a permanent one, and that it 
 is intended so to draw off and exhaust the secular, in 
 its different forms, as to leave the other offices — those of 
 the pastor and ruling elder — free to their appropriate 
 spiritual duties. The same reasons which call for the 
 abandonment of a part of the secular, call for the aban- 
 donment of the whole; and the same reasons which 
 demanded the separation between the secular and directly 
 rehgious in the first age, demand it with enlarged force 
 in the artificial and mercenary age in which we live. 
 So much for the nature of the office. In the Appendix 
 the reader will find an account of the office, as perverted 
 by the Church of England and the Church of Rome. 
 We can scarcely conceive any thing more different from, 
 nay, at more utter variance with the requirements of 
 God's Word. 
 
ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE, ETC. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE OF 
 DEACON. 
 
 The fact that there is such an office as that of der.coii in 
 the Christian Church, is a sufficient proof of its neces- 
 sity. God does not act without reason ; but when we 
 can discover the grounds of the appointment, the result 
 is more satisfactory and convincing. Even though we 
 could not have discovered these, our duty would not 
 have been affected in the least degree. 
 
 It might have been thought that, as true religion 
 quickens industry and frugality, by converting them into 
 sacred virtues, as well as by improving the mind — as it 
 saves men from many expensive vanities and vices to 
 which others are exposed — so it would have led to 
 large accumulations of Avealth. It certainly operates in 
 this way. The countries where true religion is most 
 prevalent, are also the countries where proportionally 
 there is the largest amount of national resources. In- 
 deed, some outlet is needful, such as in the propagation 
 of the Gospel, for the accumulations which Christianity, 
 by the improvement of the spirit and habits of its ad- 
 herents, naturally creates. But with all this, it is part of 
 the arrangement of the Great Head of the Church, that 
 in every age, down to the last, there shall be poor. We 
 
18 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 are to have the poor with us always, to try the liberality 
 of the rich, to exercise the patience of the indigent — 
 at once to teach gratitude, and humility, and dependence 
 — the sovereignty of God — and that there is no social 
 perfectibihty upon earth by an equality of rank and 
 fortune, as infidel philosophers have vainly dreamed. 
 These, and other important ends, are answered by the 
 presence of the poor in the Christian Chui'ch. They are 
 also to be regarded as the representatives of Christ upon 
 earth, who chose the deepest poverty, and who wished 
 his people to understand that, in doing a kindness to his 
 poor members, they are conferring a favour upon himr 
 self — such is the intimacy of their union. Nor are there 
 only to be the poor in the Christian Church. As there 
 are poor in the world at large, there is to be more than 
 a usual share of poverty. The pride of wealth naturally 
 estranges from true religion, while Christ has ever drawn 
 the largest number of his followers from tlie humbler 
 walks of life. That persecution too, to which all faith- 
 ful Christians are exposed, tends to impoverish ; hence 
 the necessity of some permanent provision for the poor 
 in the Christian Church. And as the circumstances of so 
 large a body of Christians call for this, so Christianity 
 itself supplies the provision. It is one of the grand 
 points of distinction between true religion and false, 
 or what is substantially the same thing, corruption 
 of the true religion — that the one is essentially liberal 
 — carries us out of ourselves toward others; where- 
 as the other centres all the regards of the mind and 
 heart upon one's self; in other words, is intensely selfish ; 
 and, with the exception of some cases, which admit of 
 explanation, makes the unhappy man more and more 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 19 
 
 selfish the longer he lives. Besides this general ten- 
 dency of true religion, whether under the Old or Xew 
 Testament form, to liberalise the heart, there are other 
 considerations in connection with Christianity which 
 tend to the same result. Our blessed Lord does not, 
 like some of his professed followers, make light of tem- 
 poral wants. He does not, in the magnitude of spiritual 
 necessities, and the urgent duty of providing for them, 
 overlook the ills of poverty. On the contrary, he ten- 
 derly cares for and expressly provides for man's temporal 
 necessities. He himself knew, from experience, what 
 poverty is. He calls upon his people continually to 
 pray, " Give us this day our daily bread," before present- 
 ing any petition for blessing directl}^ personal or spiritual. 
 And instead of absolving his people from any contribu- 
 tions except to moral and religious objects, such as the 
 propagation of the Gospel, he calls upon them to be as 
 liberal, and more liberal than we can suppose the most 
 humane men of the world, from instinctive impulse, even 
 to become. He knows that the wealth which true 
 Christianity is the mean of creating, well directed, is 
 sufficient to meet all legitimate wants, whether temporal 
 or spiritual. 
 
 It is not necessary to say any thing of the tenderness 
 with which the Word of God speaks of the poor — its 
 imperative commands to care for and befriend them — 
 the blessing which is promised to those who consider 
 their case — the curse which is denounced against those 
 who neglect or oppress them ; let it only be remem- 
 bered that Christ calls upon his followers to regard the 
 pious poor as brethren and sisters, by a stronger tie 
 than that of a common nature and common liability to 
 
20 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 suffering, as children of the same Father, objects of the 
 same eternal and electing love, and that the awards of 
 the great day of judgment are to turn upon the mode on 
 which men treat the poor members of His body. What 
 can be more fitted to draw forth in a Christian heart the 
 most intense and unwearied sympathy to a poor man, 
 than the thought that, all indigent as he is, and out- 
 wardly wretched, he has been chosen of God from 
 eternity to salvation, and that he may be in heaven, at 
 the right hand of the Lamb, before his benefactor? 
 What, at once, more solemnizing and more fitted to 
 open the heart in the warmest benevolence, than to 
 think of the words of the Judge, " Yerily I say unto 
 you. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least 
 of these, Qiiy brethren, ye have done it unto me?" It 
 is plain, then, there is a call for such an office as that of 
 deacon, in as much as we are assured, on the highest 
 authority, that there shall be poor needing its kind office 
 in all ages, and in as much as Christianity provides, in 
 its spirit and principles, for liberality to the poor. 
 
 I have, now, farther to remark, that such an office is 
 required, that the liberality which true religion creates 
 may be directed aright, and guarded against becom- 
 ing a source of evil. This applies not only to the 
 management of the funds for the poor, but to the general 
 pecuniary revenues of the Church. I do not here refer 
 to the dangers of wealth in the hands of superstition — 
 to the mendicancy which the Church of Rome, in a 
 variety of ways, creates — spreading hosts of beggars, 
 clerical and lay, over the richest countries of the earth ; 
 and to the means which she then takes to supply the 
 indigence which she has called into existence — ways 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACOX. 21 
 
 which ever tend to aggrandise the priesthood, and to 
 add to the power of the Church. Xor do I refer to her 
 prodigious accumulations of property for the support and 
 extension of her system of superstition, idolatry, and 
 despotism, to the ends of the world. Men may doubt 
 whether she deserves the name of Christian, and whe- 
 ther, in writing of the officers of the Christian Church, 
 her character and history should not be thrown out of 
 the reckoning. But it is well to remember that, before 
 the days of the Church of Rome, at least before she had 
 risen to dangerous supremacy, in the pure and peaceful 
 times, as they are accounted, of primitive Christianity, 
 the most serious evils arose in the Christian Church, from 
 the ill-regulated accumulation of wealth. Milton some- 
 where justly remarks, that the Church w^as corrupted by 
 money before she was corrupted by power. TVTiere it is 
 necessary that wealth, whether for the support of the 
 poor, or the maintenance of the ministry, or the general 
 extension of the Church, shall be collected together, and 
 employed by Christians, it is almost essential that there 
 be a body of men, whose distinct office and care it shall 
 be to administer the funds, and who shall be responsible 
 to the Church. If there be no regulation of so important 
 a matter — if large and ever-growing sums be committed 
 to individuals, or to the pastor burdened with other du- 
 ties, or to volunteer and almost irresponsible managers, 
 or to ill-defined associations, it is evident, let the Church 
 be as Christian as it may, sound in doctrine and public 
 ordinances, it will not long remain so, — that, constituted 
 as human nature is, corruption in a variety of forms, 
 some of them, at the outset, quite innocent, will cer- 
 tainly and speedily enter ; and that a mercenary spirit 
 
22 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OP 
 
 and corrupt administration will, ere long, vitiate doctrine, 
 and mould it to their own purposes. 
 
 What the nature of things, even among Christians, 
 would thus lead us to expect, the history of the Christian 
 Church amply estahlishcs. Without meaning to antici- 
 pate, it may be mentioned that, in the second century, not 
 a great many years after the apostle John had closed his 
 eyes upon the world, the Christian Church at Rome, the 
 metropolis of the world, was so overflowing in wealth, 
 that she not only supported her own clergy and poor, 
 but largely aided other churches, subsisted multitudes 
 of Christian captives in several provinces, and even the 
 Christian prisoners condemned to labour and perish in 
 the mines. The impression which then prevailed, and 
 which many Fathers afterwards diligently propagated, 
 that the end of the world was at hand, conduced to this 
 excessive liberality. When men, who were persecuted 
 for their fiiith, believed that, at all events, the present 
 state of things would not survive two or three years, it 
 is not wonderful they Avillingly, nay lavishly, parted with 
 their worldly treasures. Indeed, in the third century, 
 such were the pecuniary resources of the Christian 
 Church, that they tempted the avarice or necessities of 
 the imperial power. Now, though there were peculia- 
 rities in the case referred to, yet it plainly shows the 
 absolute necessity of regulating the wealth of the Church, 
 and that by a court of officers forming a constitutional 
 part of the Church itself. There may, indeed there 
 were scriptural deacons in the second century, but ere 
 long, in the third, their office was seriously changed. 
 They were distracted in their appropriate duties, by 
 having part of the ministry of the Word and Sacraments 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 23 
 
 devolved on them, while the office of Ruling elder — un- 
 popular because a restraint upon corruption, and which, 
 as held by a large body of intelligent men, would have 
 operated as an indirect check upon mismanagement on 
 the part of the deacon — began to disappear. As time 
 rolled on, and the wealth of the Church accumulated, 
 the traces of the scriptural deacon, though sufficiently 
 clear to mark the original office, became more and more 
 indistinct, till, absorbed into an order of priesthood, its 
 wealth and power at last centred in the bishop, or the 
 bishop of bishops — the Pope. 
 
 It appears, then, that the very liberality which Chris- 
 tianity recommends and creates, needs to be well regu- 
 lated by suitable church- officers ; that, apart from this, it 
 is liable to, and soon degenerates into serious corruption. 
 Surely this is a strong reason for maintaining the order of 
 deacons in its exclusively scriptural functions. Doubtless 
 the Great Head of the Church foresaw and meant to pro- 
 vide against the dangers of unregulated wealth by the 
 creation of such a class of office-bearers. Were it neces- 
 sary to say any thing more in behalf of the deacon, it 
 would be found in the circumstance, that the special care 
 of the poor, in an official form, is conducive to the credit 
 of Christianity. It is well knoA\ai how much the men of 
 the world pride themselves upon their charities, and how 
 often they charge religious men, very falsely it is true, 
 but still charge them with being indifferent to the tem- 
 poral wants of the poor. That men of the world some 
 times do very generous things, and occasionally leave 
 considerable sums, by testamentary bequest, to charitable 
 objects, may be true. When one expects the salvation 
 of his soul in consequence of alms-deeds, it is not won- 
 
24 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE 
 
 derful that he should be generous. The Mahommedan, 
 who is taught by the Koran that charity opens the gates 
 of heaven, is frequently eminent for his donations to 
 men of the same faith and nation with himself; so is 
 the unbelieving Jew. But whatever may be the influ- 
 ence of instinctive feeling or self-righteous hope, it is 
 unquestionable that the Christian, notwithstanding the 
 large demands which are made upon him for religious 
 objects — objects with which the men of the world do not 
 intermeddle, yet proportionally contributes far more 
 liberally to the temporal necessities of his fellow-men and 
 fellow- Christians, than others. The very habit of giving 
 encourages it, and the constraining love of Christ is not 
 inconsistent with instinctive sympathy, but may act in 
 the same direction. Though these things may be 
 known by all who take the pains to consider them, the 
 world still professes itself to be the friend of the poor 
 man, to the disparagement of the Christian. It holds 
 that it deals in substantial kindness, while the other 
 contents himself with faith, as distinguished from mora- 
 lity. To meet this common charge it is most desirable, 
 for the honour of Christianity and the Christian Church, 
 that they be seen in their true character as the patrons 
 of the poor, especially the pious poor ; and how can this 
 be better done than when it appears that a court of 
 olficers, to watch over the interests of the poor, in the 
 spirit of Christianity, is an essential part of the consti- 
 tution of the Christian Church ? So long as the Church 
 cannot point to these officers in living operation under 
 her authority, she wants the full answer which she may 
 and ought to have it in her power to retm-n to the 
 charges and insinuations, whether of worldliness, or su- 
 
OP THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 25 
 
 perstition, or infidelity. It is not enough to say that Chris- 
 tians are charitable — far more charitable than others, 
 unless it can be shown that the poor are so important in 
 their eyes, and dear to their hearts, that they have a regu- 
 lar official provision in the very structure of the Christian 
 Church for attending to their wants, and that men are 
 failing in Christian duty where this, in one form or an- 
 other, is wanting. Let, however, the Christian Church 
 be fully equipped with a large staff of laborious tender- 
 hearted deacons, w^atching over the poor from week to 
 week and year to year, ministering to their wants out of 
 the donations of the Church, and treating them with the 
 kindness of brethren and sisters ; and what is there in 
 any occasional charitable bequest, any regular and ex- 
 traordinary deed of benevolence, on the part of the men 
 of the world, which could bear any comparison with 
 such friendship ? Tried by this test, Christianity would 
 not only be acquitted of indifference — its genuine libe- 
 rality w^ould be established and rendered conspicuous. 
 "We can conceive few things more dishonourable to Pro- 
 testant Christianity, or more fitted to impair its progress, 
 than to be able to say, with apparent truth, that it is 
 careless of the interests of the poor — more careless than 
 the men who make less pretension. And, on the other 
 hand, we can conceive few things more fitted to propi- 
 tiate the good-will of the world, which, at all events, 
 admires benevolence, than to be able, in a way which 
 does not admit of cavil, to show that the same religious 
 system which alone can provide for the welfare of eter- 
 nity, is the most active and unwearied guardian of the 
 poor man's interest in time. This is an argument which 
 must always be powerful, but particularly in such a day 
 
26 ON THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 as the present, -when it is to be feared irreligion and 
 infidelity prevail to a considerable extent among the 
 humbler classes of society — classes which were once 
 happily strangers to the poison, and which are naturally 
 led, from their very circumstances, to make comparisons 
 of men and systems in connection with their care for the 
 poor, and to consider this as almost the exclusive stan- 
 dard of character. 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE OFFICE OF 
 DEACON. 
 
 Though the "vvord deacon means a servant in general, 
 and is in Scripture applied to the servants of God, 
 whether in a more public or private capacity, — to the 
 ministry of the Gospel, the civil magistrate, and even to 
 our Lord himself, who is called " a servant or minister 
 of the circumcision," because a Jew, as regarded his 
 human nature, he confined his ministry to the children 
 of Israel, — yet it is the name also of a distinct ecclesias- 
 tical office. There is no question about this. It is 
 too clear to be disputed. In the Book of the Acts we 
 have a detailed account of the institution. The epistle 
 to the Church at Philippi is specially sent to the deacons 
 and ministers of the Gospel in that city ; and the same 
 writer, in his First Epistle to Timothy, after describing 
 the character and qualifications of a faithful minister, 
 describes not less clearly those of the deacon ; evidently 
 showing that the ofiices were not only distinct, but per- 
 manent in the Christian Church. The office of deacon 
 was to be as lasting as that of minister, and hence the 
 counsels which are given to Timothy in regard to it ; 
 the nature of the office is as well marked as the office 
 itself. It has no concern with the preaching of the 
 
28 OP THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OP 
 
 Gospel, or the administration of sacraments. There is 
 not the slightest authority for this in the Word of God ; 
 nay, it is directly hostile to its teaching. The deacon was 
 appointed (see the sixth of the Acts), not because there 
 was not a sufficient number of ministers of the Gospel, 
 but because it was indispensable to make provision for the 
 temporal wants of the poorer Christians, on a different 
 plan than had hitherto been pursued. The same reasons 
 which called for the institution of such an office at Jeru- 
 salem, rendered it necessary in other quarters. Hence 
 the apostle Paul addresses the deacons as well as the 
 bishops of Philippi.* — (Phil. i. 1.) In the account, 
 agaiuj of the qualifications of deacons, in his first letter 
 to Timothy, there is not the slightest allusion to the 
 preaching of the Gospel and the dispensation of the sacra- 
 ments. It is not said of the deacon, as it is of the bishop 
 or pastor, that he is to be " apt to teach ;" nor is it said 
 that he is to " care for," by ruling the Church of God. 
 These belong to the bishop or minister. The deacon's 
 qualifications are summed up in those things most appro- 
 priate to the office of one who has the charge of the poor 
 and the secular affairs of the Church generally : " Like- 
 wise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, 
 not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre ; 
 holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 
 And let them also first be proved, then let them use the 
 office of a deacon, being found blameless. Let the deacons 
 be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and 
 their own houses well. For they that have used the office 
 
 * This is a proof, by the way, that the bishops in apostolic times were but 
 ministers of the Gospel, of whom, it would seem, there were more than one 
 at Philippi. It would be absurd to suppose, that in the sense of modern 
 Episcopacy, there were several diocesan bishops in one town, and that in the 
 beginning of the Gospel times. 
 
THE OFFICE OP DEACON. 29 
 
 of a deacon well, purcliase to themselves a good degree, 
 and great boldness in tlae faith which is in Christ Jesus." 
 From these words several important points are ap- 
 parent. It is obvious that though the calling of the 
 deacon, comparatively speaking, be secular, yet that 
 he must be a man of intelligent piety, and generally 
 esteemed; that he has nothing to do with the teach- 
 ing or government of the Church, or administration 
 of ordinances, otherwise such important duties would 
 not have been overlooked. The caution against being 
 double-tongued and given to wine, and the love of 
 gain; and the exhortation to proved fidelity, are all 
 peculiarly appropriate to one invested with the charge 
 of public funds. Nor is there any thing inconsistent 
 with propriety in the deacon, having served his office 
 well, being raised to that of the ruling elder, and, with 
 suitable education, even to the ministry of the Gospel. 
 Such cases are not unfrequent in the Church of Scotland. 
 It may be worthy of notice, that while the counsels given 
 regarding the bishop are in the singular number, imply- 
 ing that the Church has one pastor, the deacons are 
 spoken of in the plural number, intimating that there 
 were several in each Church. This harmonizes with the 
 idea that the deacon is the guardian of the interests of 
 the poor, which need several. It is inconsistent with the 
 notion that he is a preacher and dispenser of baptism. 
 Other passages might be referred to, such as the 12th of 
 the Romans, where " he that giveth" — evidently mark- 
 ing the deacon — is called upon to give "with simplicity;" 
 and the 12th of 1st Corinthians, which, under the terra 
 " helps," describes the same class of office-bearers ; but 
 we prefer to direct the reader's attention to the original 
 
30 OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF 
 
 institution. It is too plain, and is given with too much 
 detail, to admit of any misunderstanding. 
 
 It would seem that at a very early period in the history 
 of the Christian Church, before Peter had set out on his 
 first evangelistic journey, or Saul had been converted, it 
 was necessary to make some permanent arrangement for 
 the support of the poor Christians. Under the remarkable 
 influence of the Gospel, a self-denial and generosity had 
 been manifested by the members of the Christian Church 
 generally, which was perhaps unparalleled in the history 
 of the world. Men parted with all that they had, sell- 
 ing even estates, and placing the proceeds at the disposal 
 of the apostles. While this showed the most ample 
 confidence in the teachers, it necessarily exposed the 
 apostles to a great deal of trouble and delicate manage- 
 ment. They must, from the outset, one w^ould think, 
 have appointed some of the converts to assist them, but 
 it soon became manifest that a permanent arrangement 
 was indispensable. Either from mere oversight, or from 
 the converted Jews of Judea preponderating in number, 
 so it was that suspicions and murmurs soon got up among 
 the converted Jews from foreign parts, who spoke the 
 Greek language, that their widows were neglected in the 
 daily ministration. In all probability the charge was 
 an unfounded one; but to provide against it and all 
 similar surmises, so injurious to the cause of Christianity, 
 and fitted so quickly to destroy the spirit of pre-eminent 
 harmony and love wdiich characterised the first Chris- 
 tians, the apostles considered it proper that officers 
 should be appointed for the express purpose of taking 
 charge of the poor and the general finance of the Church. 
 x\s a thing right in itself, and to give the people the 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACOX. 31 
 
 greater confidence in the deacons, the people were called 
 upon to elect. Having been informed by the apostles 
 of what were the necessary qualifications, they selected 
 seven ; and so well did the people choose, that Stephen, 
 the first, and one of the noblest of Christian martp's, 
 was in the number. The better to reassure the com- 
 plaining Hellenists, the disciples seem generally to 
 have voted for persons belonging to their party, and 
 hence the names are Greek names. Nothing can be 
 clearer than these statements. The origin of the office 
 explains its nature. We have not the slightest hint of 
 preaching or baptizing. Traces of these may appear, in 
 connection with the office of deacon, in Ecclesiastical 
 history, but they must be found in the Word of God 
 ere any weight can be attached to them. 
 
 Dr Neander does not think, that from the expression 
 " serving tables," it can be certainly inferred that the 
 apostles alluded only to the distribution oi food among 
 the poor widoAvs. He considers this merely one of the 
 tables of service which they performed, and that it is men- 
 tioned to mark more pointedly the distinction between 
 the oversight of spiritual and that of secular concerns. 
 
 It is plain, fi'om Scripture, that the whole work of the 
 deacon regarded the secular affiiirs of the Church, chiefly 
 the care of the poor. This is, if possible, made more 
 manifest by the circumstance that there seem to have 
 been female deacons, or deaconesses, in the early Church. 
 Paul, in the 16'th of Romans, ver. 1, commands Phoebe, 
 a deaconess, to the attention of the Christians at Rome. 
 tier office, v»'e may believe, would correspond to that of 
 the deacon, and as she is expressly forbidden, on reasons 
 assigned, to teach publicly in the Church, the inference 
 
32 OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF 
 
 is obvious, that he was equally unauthorised to undertake 
 this duty,'and if not permitted to preach the Word, much 
 less, may we believe, would he be permitted to admi- 
 nister baptism or the Lord's supper. We have very little 
 knowledge of the female deacon in Scripture, the passage 
 in Romans being the only one where it is distinctly 
 stated, but its very existence implies a corresponding 
 office among male members of the Church. Probably 
 it was intended to meet the peculiar circumstances of 
 some Gentile Church, in which, as in the East generally, 
 strong jealousies prevailed in connection with the female 
 sex. It is well known how anxious the heathen were 
 to disparage the claims of Christianity, by misrepresent- 
 ing the character of its professors. The discharge of 
 the duty of a deacon, in giving money to poor females, 
 might, in such circumstances, be open to misrepresenta- 
 tion, and hence the wisdom and delicacy of appointing 
 females to minister to their relief. 
 
 The only thing which is or can be alleged from 
 Scripture in behalf of the deacon being a preacher and 
 administrator of ordinances, is the fact that Philip, one 
 of the seven original deacons at Jerusalem, preached the 
 Gospel in Samaria, and baptized the eunuch of Ethiopia. 
 But the question is, did he preach or baptize in the 
 character of deacon ? Did preaching or baptizing form 
 any part of the original institution of the deaconship ? 
 It is not unknown among the offices of the New Testa- 
 ment, that a man should hold two, and sometimes act 
 in the character of the one, and sometimes in that of the 
 other. Thus, both Peter and John, who were apostles, 
 and so possessed an extraordinary office, which could 
 not be transmitted to others, were at the same time, as 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 33 
 
 they themselves inform us, " elders" or presbyters, 
 — pastors — ordinary ministers — in which capacity they 
 could have successors, and transmit powers to all faith- 
 ful ministers lawfully called, to preach the same Gospel 
 ^ruth. Though Philip, then, was a deacon, this did not 
 preclude him holding tmother office, and what that is, 
 we are informed in Acts xxi. 8, where he is expressly 
 called an Evangelist, an extraordinary office, which con- 
 stituted him who bore it the companion and assistant of 
 apostles, able to confer miraculous gifts on others, &c. 
 It was as evangelist, then, not as deacon, that Philip 
 preached and baptized; and this is the more certain, 
 when it is remembered that the office of deacon was, 
 as might have been expected, regarded as the humblest 
 in the Christian Church, and, where its duties were well 
 discharged, opened the way to a higher office. The 
 Apostle Paul, when treating of the subject, expressly 
 says, " They that have used the office of a deacon well, 
 purchase to themselves a good degree." There can be 
 little question then, that Philip, having acquitted him- 
 self excellently as a deacon at Jerusalem, when the 
 persecution arose with the death of Stephen, was clothed 
 with the higher office of Evangelist. It is certain that we 
 find him travelling about as a missionary in Samaria, 
 during which time he could not be acting the part of a 
 deacon, attending to the wants of the poor widows at 
 Jerusalem. When we next meet with him, at the 
 distance of 20 years, he is resident at Cesarea, and 
 bears the name of an Evangelist — a residence which 
 would equally unfit him for the deaconship to which he 
 had been originally appointed. In connection with 
 Philip's being denominated an evangelist, it may be 
 
34 OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF 
 
 noticed that, in Paul's summary of offices, " for the 
 perfecting of the saints," &c., there is no mention of 
 the deacon, ^vhich might have been expected had that 
 office embraced preaching and baptizing, with the care 
 of the poor. It is said, " And he," viz., the Lord Jesus, 
 " gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, 
 evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers" — evidently 
 including the ordinary as well as the extraordinary offices 
 — " for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
 ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." 'There 
 is no reference to a preaching or baptizing deacon. 
 
 The case of Stephen, another of the seven, is some- 
 times appealed to. It is said that his address was 
 uttered as a preacher ; but there is not the slightest 
 evidence of this. He defended himself at the bar of 
 his enemies as any other good man, as any humble 
 female might have done in the same circumstances. 
 Nothing of a public official character appears. Indeed, 
 it would be the duty of all private Christians to lift up 
 a similar testimony for Christ at the present day, were 
 they persecuted in the same way. If the discourse of 
 Stephen constitutes him an ordained preacher of the 
 Word, and administrator of its ordinances, then all the 
 martyrs of Scotland, and of every other land, male and 
 female, have, in the same sense, been clothed with the 
 pastoral office. Few pretences can be more absurd than 
 that the deaconship involved more than, the care of 
 secular interests. Well may we conclude with Thomas 
 Scott, the commentator on the Scriptures, and a minister 
 of the Church of England, that the office of deacon was 
 evidently intended to take care of the propertij^ not of 
 the pastoral carc^ of the Church. 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACOX. 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 PART I. 
 With regard to the primitive Cliiirch, there seeras no 
 reason to doubt that, in its earliest and purest times, the 
 scriptural office of deacon was recognised and maintained 
 in its purity. Whether it was so or not, is of little con- 
 sequence as a matter of evidence, in as much as, Avith 
 all sound Protestants, where the testimony of Scrip- 
 ture is clear, the question is at an end, whatever may 
 have been the views or the practice of a fallible church 
 and fallible men in after ages. It is obvious, from the 
 inspired record, that the Christians in apostohc times 
 W'Cre called upon to lay by a portion of their pro- 
 perty on the first day of the week, as God had pros- 
 pered them, for the service of the Church and of the 
 poor. This, as a fixed practice in the Church, of which 
 every Sabbath, as well as the wants of their Christian 
 brethren and sisters, reminded them, was not likely soon 
 to be forgotten. Accordingly, down to the age of the 
 emperor Julian, the apostate, in the middle of the fourth 
 century (a.d. 3o0), it appears that the practice was uni- 
 versal. It was this which led the heathen to exclaim, 
 " Behold how these Christians love one another /' and 
 it was this which led Julian to say, " It is a shame that, 
 
36 TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 when the impious Galileans relieve not only their own 
 people, but ours also, our poor should be neglected by 
 US." And again, " Beginning with their love-feasts and 
 the necessity of tables (for not only the name, but the 
 thing is common among them), they have drawn away 
 the faithful to impiety" — that is, heathens to Christianity. 
 No testimony could be more unexceptionable to a no- 
 torious fact. So systematic a procedure points to an 
 appropriate office. 
 
 To descend to more specific testimonies which name 
 the office of deacon : there is not only nothing said (so 
 far as I have been able to discover) in the strongest 
 passages bearing on the constitution of the Christian 
 Church, for the first 200 years after Christ, inconsist- 
 ent with the scriptural views of the office, but the allu- 
 sions of Clemens Romanus, Hermes, Polycarp, Ignatius, 
 Justin Martyr, and Clemens Alexandrinus, the primitive 
 writers of that period, are all in strict accordance with 
 the ecclesiastico-secular nature of the deaconship. No 
 candid man reading their testimonies, or rather allu- 
 sions, would ever dream of a preaching and baptizing 
 deacon. Even in Ignatius, supposing the epistles at- 
 tributed to him trustworthy, there are certainly three 
 offices spoken of. The three Presbyterian offices of 
 pastor, ruling elder, and deacon, however, are as na- 
 tural an explanation as any other. An unwarrantable 
 change in the nature of the office took place about the 
 middle of the third century (a. d. 250); but before, at, 
 and after that date, testimonies can be quoted indicating 
 how the office was contemplated by the apostolic Church. 
 Though few men, who have even partially explored 
 antiquity, and who are acquainted with the corruptions 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 37 
 
 of the third century, will care much for authorities after 
 the A.D. 200; yet we may subjoin one or two notices. 
 The traces of incipient error will become the more ap- 
 parent. Tertulhan, a.d. 200, writing of baptism, says, 
 " The right of giving this ordinance belongs to the high- 
 est priest, who is the bishop, then to elders and dea- 
 cons^ yet not without the authority of the bishop, for 
 the sake of the honour of the Church." This being 
 secured, peace is secured, otherwise even the laity have 
 the right. This plainly shows that, in the time of Ter- 
 tullian, the deacon did not baptize as the deacon in 
 the Church of England now does, as a right belonging 
 to his office — that it was merely a permission from the 
 bishop or minister in cases of necessity, cases of such 
 necessity that even private Christians might baptize. 
 This indirectly proves that the deacon's office was still 
 confined to the serving of tables. 
 
 Cyprian, a.d. 250, in his 73d Epistle, says, " Whence 
 we understand that it is lawful for none but the presi- 
 dents of the Church (that is the pastors) to baptize and 
 grant remission of sins." Of course, this excludes the 
 baptizing deacon ; while the passage incidentally shows 
 that Cyprian's bishop or president of the Church is just 
 the parochial pastor. None will contend that the 
 diocesan bishop alone can baptize. Firmilian, a con- 
 temporary of Cyprian, in the 7oth Epistle of the latter, 
 could be quoted to the same effect. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Riddle, a minister of the Church of Eng- 
 land, in his " Ecclesiastical Chronology," under date a.d. 
 286, says, " The apostolic constitutions and canons are 
 generally supposed to be a forgery of about this date." 
 They probably contain remnants of earlier compositions, 
 but the work as a whole, although attributed to Clement 
 
38 TESTLMONY OF ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 of Rome, appears to have been compiled towards the 
 close of this century, with a view to support the fictitious 
 pretensions of bishops, and to assist the growth of Epis- 
 copal power. Many Episcopal writers found much 
 upon this w^ork ; and no wonder, since it smiles upon 
 their favourite views. Yet such notices of the office of 
 deacon occur as the following : — " The deacon must 
 give nothing to any poor man without the bishop's 
 knowledge and consent ;" evidently intimating that his 
 business lay with the distribution of charity. " If any 
 be found sitting out of his own place, let the deacon 
 reprove him, and let him be conducted to a proper 
 place. Let the deacons take care that none whisper, 
 sleep, laugh, nod, &c. After the catechumens and 
 penitents have retired, let the deacons prepare for the 
 celebration of the Eucharist." Here the deacons are 
 represented, not as an order of priesthood presiding, but 
 rather as taking a subordinate charge of the external 
 order and decorum of the Church — such as would com- 
 port with a secular office. 
 
 Jerome, a.d. 360, one of the most pious and learned 
 of the Fathers, asks, in his letter to Evragius, when 
 condemning a person who had raised deacons above 
 presbyters, " Who can endure it, that a minister of 
 tables and of widows should proudly exalt himself 
 above those at whose prayers the body and blood of 
 Christ is made?" plainly excluding deacons from being 
 an order of the clergy. I might refer to various ad- 
 ditional testimonies quoted by Rutherford, in his " Due 
 Right of Presbytery" — such as Sozomen's, that the 
 office of the deacon was to keep the Church's goods ; 
 Eusebius, that the care of the poor, and the keeping of 
 the Church and its vessels, were committed to the 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. ;39 
 
 deacons ; Ruffinus, that when there ivas no presbyter^ 
 that is elder ^ present^ the deacons might distribute the 
 elements of the Lord's Supper ; but it is unnecessary. 
 I may merely state, that the sixth General Council of 
 Constantinople, a.d. 692, acknowledged '•''the Scripture 
 deacojis to be no other than overseers of the poo7\ and 
 that this wasthe ojjinion of the ancient fathers" — (Canon 
 16.) What a change, then, must notoriously have taken 
 place by this time on the original constitution of the 
 Christian Church! Neander, the celebrated German 
 professor of Church History, in his " History of the 
 Christian Church," p. 40, says, " Though many other 
 secular employments were added to the original one, 
 yet the fundamental principle (the relief of the poor), as 
 well as the name of the office remained. In later times 
 (referring to Cyprian and Origen), we still find traces of 
 the distribution of alms being considered as the peculiar 
 employment of deacons." 
 
 Do any, after all, wonder how an office plainly secular 
 should, so early as the middle of the third century, be 
 changed in its nature into the spiritual. We beg to 
 assure them that, to one acquainted mth the general 
 state of the early Chm'ch, there is nothing in this cir- 
 cumstance to awaken incredulity. By this time, apart 
 from doctrine, serious corruptions had been introduced 
 into the practice of the Church. In the third century, 
 Cyprian speaks of the administration of the Lord's Sup- 
 per to infants as a common practice ; while, within 50 
 years from the apostles, water was mixed with the w4ne 
 used in the Supper, and ere long this was contended for 
 as a divine institution ! Before the close of the second 
 century, subdeacons, acolythes, exorcists, and other lower 
 officers, quite unknown in the apostolic Church, had 
 
40 TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 been introduced; while shortly after, other orders of 
 metropolitans — patriarchs, archbishops — all inconsistent 
 with the equality of bishops, and condemned by intel- 
 ligent Episcopalians as human inventions, appeared in 
 the higher circles of the Church. In the fourth century 
 the clerical imparity was established. In such circum- 
 stances, is it wonderful that the office of deacon should 
 be early corrupted from its simple original design ? 
 
 It is easy to see how, in the progress of degeneracy, the 
 office should be perverted from its original use. When 
 the pastor had become careless and slothful, and the 
 office of ruling elder unpopular, because calling for the 
 exercise of discipline had disappeared, it was natural 
 to devolve preaching and the administration of the 
 sacraments on the deacon ; while the bishop occupied 
 himself with the government of the Church, as at 
 once more easy and congenial. In the meantime, in 
 the progress of ambition the deacon would be nothing 
 loath to rise to a higher step, and assume what would 
 be considered more honourable functions. Possessing, 
 however, the key of the Church's chest, the office could 
 never be despised, in periods when the mercenary be- 
 came a marked feature in the Church's history. Hence 
 we find, that in the progress of decline the deacons were 
 converted into archdeacons, and, in a.d. 400, they were 
 next in influence to bishops, and so superior to many 
 pasters of the period. Their power rose as the Church 
 decayed in character. Riddle, in his "Ecclesiastical 
 Chronology," under A.D. 1072, says, "Archdeacons, as 
 representatives and commissioners of the bishops, were 
 guilty of many flagrant abuses of their station and in- 
 fluence, — an evil which subsequently led to the abridg- 
 ment of their authority, and the appointment of bishop's 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 41 
 
 officials or vicars." TVhat a change was this from the 
 humble deacon of apostolic times — the meek dispenser 
 of alms to the poor turned into the representative and 
 commissioner of lordly bishops, who ruled the clergy of 
 a province with a rod of iron ! As the religious houses 
 were multiplied, and at once created and fed crowds of 
 beggars, the office of deacon, in its scriptural meaning, 
 would naturally perish. 
 
 I cannot do better, in concluding this part of the sub- 
 ject, than quote the words of a prelate of the Church 
 of England. The bishop (Croft), in his work entitled, 
 " Naked Truth," p. 49, says, " Whether this of deacon- 
 ship be properly called an order or an office, but certainly 
 no spiritual order ; for their office was to serve tables, as 
 the Scripture phrases, which, in plain English, is nothing 
 else but overseers of the poor, to distribute justly and 
 discreetly the alms of the faithful, which the apostles 
 would not trouble themselves withal, lest it should hin- 
 der them in the ministration of the word and prayer. 
 But as most matters of this world, in process of time, 
 deflect much from the original constitution, so it fell 
 out in this business ; for the bishops, who pretended to 
 be the successors to the apostles, by little and little, took 
 to themselves the dispensation of alms, — first, by way of 
 inspection over the deacons, but at length the total 
 management; and the deacons, who were mere lay 
 officers, by degrees crept into the Church ministration, 
 and became a reputed spiritual order, and a necessary 
 degree and step to the priesthood, of which I can find 
 nothing in Scripture and the original institution, nor a 
 word relating to any thing but the ordering of alms for 
 the poor." For additional extracts from this rare trea- 
 tise, vide Appendix. 
 
42 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 PART II. CHURCHES OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 When the Reformation of the 16th century dawned, 
 and men, abandoning human traditions, reverted to the 
 "Word of God as the exclusive standard, they clearly saw 
 the wisdom and obhgation of the office of deacon, as a 
 permanent institution of the Christian Church, and 
 proceeded forthwith to revive it in the Churches which 
 they were honoured to rear. Indeed, ages before the 
 Reformation, strictly so called, the AYaldenses bore 
 testimony to the office of deacon. They reach up 
 almost to apostolic times ; and yet Gillis, one of their 
 historians and pastors, gives us the confession of their 
 ancient as well as modem faith, from which these 
 words are an extract : — Art. 31, " It is necessary for the 
 Church to have pastors esteemed sufficiently learned and 
 exemplary in their conduct, as well to preach God's 
 "Word as to administer the sacraments, and watch over 
 the sheep of Jesus Christ ; together with the elders and 
 deacons^ according to the rules of good and holy Church 
 discipline, and the practice of the primitive Church." 
 There is not a word here of preaching and baptizing 
 deacons. On the contrary, this usurpation is excluded. 
 "Wickliffe, *' the Morning Star of the Refonnation," its 
 
THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 43 
 
 precursor by nearly 200 years, held that there are but 
 two orders of clergy — the priest and the deacon — and 
 disclaims the bishops, ^\-ith the many other varieties of 
 imparity. It is probable that, by orders of clergy here, 
 he meant to be popularly understood as speaking of 
 office-bearers in the Church. 
 
 Tyndal, a.d. 1526, the first translator of the Scrip- 
 tures into Enghsh, and very appropriately a martyr for 
 his work, after speaking of the bishop or presbyter in 
 the primitive Church, says, '* Another officer they chose, 
 and called him deacon, after the Greek — a minister in 
 Enghsh — to minister alms to the poor." Lambert, a 
 martyr of the same reign, could be appealed to to the 
 same purpose ; and so might Archbishop Cranmer, and 
 many of his prelatic brethren, in " The Institution of 
 a Christian Man," which they approved and pubhshed 
 in 1537, and which maintains that there are only two 
 orders, deacons and presbyters. From the view which 
 is given of the pastoral and ministerial ftmctions of the 
 presbyter, it is plain that the other office points to a 
 different class of duties. Turning from Britain to the 
 Continent, we find Ursinus in Germany, the learned 
 contemporary of Luther and Melancthon, accurately de- 
 scribe the different office-bearers of the Church as a 
 Presbvterian would do, and conclude bv describinor the 
 deacons '• as ministers (or servants) elected by the 
 Church to take care of the poor and distribute alms." 
 Buddceus, another Lutheran, and eminent professor of 
 divinity at Leipsic, giving an account of the government 
 of his own church, mentions the office of deacon, and 
 asserts that it had been perverted, in process of time, 
 from the guardianship of the poor., to which it had 
 
44 TESTIMONY OP MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 been expressly devoted by the apostles. In accordance 
 with these views, the Lutheran Church, after all the 
 decline which it has experienced, adheres to the office of 
 deacon, not as an order of clergy, but as a guardian of 
 the poor, and, at the present day, administers their 
 aifairs through deacons in every congregation. So little 
 foundation is there for the idea of a clerical order of 
 deacons, that, if I am not misinformed, even the modern 
 Swedish Church, which is practically Episcopalian in its 
 government, disclaims the notion of deacons as an order 
 of ministers. 
 
 If we now pass to the Genevan and Swiss Churches, 
 Ave shall be at no loss to ascertain their sentiments on the 
 subject of the deaconship. Calvin, the great reformer, 
 to whom these and all the Churches of the Reformation 
 were deeply indebted, expresses himself with his usual 
 clearness and decision. In his celebrated " Institutes," 
 published in 1536, he says (Book iv. chap. 3), in speak- 
 ing of the permanent offices of the Church, — 
 
 " The care of the poor is committed to the deacons. 
 Although the word deacon has a more extensive mean- 
 ing, yet the Scriptures expressly call them deacons to 
 whom the Church has given in charge the distribution of 
 alms and the care of the poor ; and hath appointed them, 
 as it were, stewards of the common treasury of the poor, 
 whose origin, institution, and office, are described by 
 Luke, in Acts vi., &c., &c. Behold what manner of 
 deacons the apostolic Church had, and what manner of 
 deacons it becomes us to have, in conformity to their 
 example." Again (Book iv. chap. 5), there is the fol- 
 loM'ing passage, in which he condemns the unscriptural 
 views of the office entertained by Prelatic churches : — 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 45 
 
 " Now let the deacons come forth, and that holy dis- 
 tribution which they have of the Church's goods : 
 although they by no means, at present, create their 
 deacons for that purpose, for they (viz., the Roman 
 Catholics) enjoin upon them nothing else but to minister 
 at the altar, to read or sing the gospels, and to perform, 
 I know not what, trifles. Nothing of the alms^ nothing 
 of the care of the poor, nothing of the whole function 
 which in former times they executed. I speak of the 
 very institution ; for if we have a respect to what they 
 do, it is not in itself an oflice, but only a step towards 
 the priesthood. Therefore^ they mock the Church ivith 
 this lying deaconiy. Truly therein they have nothing 
 like either the institution of the apostles or ancient 
 usage." 
 
 In accordance with these views, we find that the 
 Second Confession of the Helvetic (Swiss) Churches, 
 published in 1566, strongly condemns unauthorised 
 offices in the Church, in these terms : — " In process of 
 time there were many more ministers brought into 
 the Church. For some were created patriarchs, others 
 archbishops, others suffragans, others metropolitans, 
 archpriests, deacons, subdeacons, acolythes, exorcists, 
 queristers, pastors, and I know not what a rabble be- 
 sides. Cardinals, provosts, and priors ; abbots, greater 
 and lesser ; governors, higher and lower ; but touching 
 all these, we pass not a rush what they have been in 
 time past, or what they are now. It is not sufficient 
 for us. Forasmuch as concerneth ministers, we have the 
 doctrine of the apostles." — Harmony of Confessions, 
 chap, xviii., p. 235 ; London, 1 643. The same admir- 
 able document, in reference to the point more immedi- 
 
46 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 ately before us, under the head of the " Goods of the 
 Church," has these sentences : — " The true use of the 
 Church goods was, and now is, to maintain learning in 
 schools and in holy assemblies, with all the service, 
 rites, and buildings of the Church ; finally, to maintain 
 teachers, scholars, and ministers, with other necessary 
 things ; and chiefiy for the succour and relief of the 
 poor. But for the lawful dispensing of these ecclesias- 
 tical goods, let men he chosen that fear God, wise men, 
 and such as are of good report for government of their 
 families. But if the goods of the Church, by injury of 
 the time, and the boldness, ignorance, or covetousness of 
 some, be turned to any abuse, let them be restored again, 
 by godly and wise men, unto their holy use, for they 
 must not wink at so impious an abuse. Therefore we 
 teach, that schools and colleges wherein corruption is 
 crept in doctrine, in the service of God, and in manners, 
 must be reformed — that there must order he taken 
 godlily, faithfully, and wisely, for the relief of the 
 poor." — (Cap. xxviii. p. 355-6.) It is plain, from the 
 Scripture qualifications referred to, that the men spoken 
 of in the above paragraphs are the deacons ; indeed, 
 they are elsewhere denominated " the overseers and 
 watchmen of the Church, who did distribute food and 
 other necessaries of the Church." It may be noticed, 
 in passing, that there was a peculiar call for such an 
 office as that of deacon at the period of the Reforma- 
 tion, and for many years after. Independently of 
 Scripture obligation, and the care of the poor, it was 
 urgently necessary to guard the general patrimony of 
 the Church against neglect, and also to prevent dila- 
 pidation and alienations. This duty could not be well 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACOX. 47 
 
 attended to by tlie ministers and elders without injury 
 to their spiritual office, and hence the propriety of com- 
 mitting it to the deacon. To give the greater weight 
 to the views of the Helvetic Confession, it may be 
 stated that it was approved and subscribed, not only by 
 the Tigurines (inhabitants of Zm-ich) themselves, and 
 their confederates of Berne, Scaphusia, Sangallia, Rhetia, 
 Milan, and Bienna, but Geneva, Savoy, Poland, and 
 likewise the Churches of Hungary and Scotland. 
 
 If from Switzerland we pass to France, and ask what 
 were the views of its illustrious Protestant Church on 
 the subject of the deacon — a Church which produced 
 many of the most able and learned ministers to whom 
 the Reformation gave birth — we find its sentiments con- 
 tained in these words : — Art. 29, " We believe that the 
 true Church ought to be governed by that regiment or 
 discipline which our Lord Jesus hath established, to 
 wit, so that there be in it pastors, elders, and deacons, 
 that the purity of the doctrines may be retained — vices 
 repressed — the poor^ and others that he in misery^ ac- 
 cording to their necessity^ may he provided for — and 
 that there may be holy meetings for the edifying both of 
 small and great." — [Harmony ^^. 253.) It is well known 
 that there is fearful mendicancy, especially in particular 
 districts of France, — not an occasional but constant evil. 
 There can be Httle question that it is the Popery of the 
 land, and not any thing in the character of the people 
 or constitution of the country, which lies at the root of 
 it. Few men M'ere ever more noted for their industry 
 and skill than the French Protestants. Some of the 
 most honoured names in the United States, whither they 
 were driven by persecution, belong to the number. Most 
 
48 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 of the countries of Europe, too, have heen indebted to 
 their perseverance and ingenuity. The French Church 
 seems to have made extensive use of the office of deacon. 
 In the account of " the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the 
 Reformed Churches in France" (London, 1642), there 
 are two chapters devoted to an exposition of their duties ; 
 a number of important points also, connected with the 
 administration of the office, are authoritatively deter- 
 mined. We are informed that " the office and duty of 
 the deacons is to receive, gather, and distribute, by the 
 advice of the consistory, the monies of the poor, the pri- 
 soners, and the sick ; and to visit and take care of them. 
 The office of deacon is not to preach the Word of God 
 nor to administer the sacraments; yet, nevertheless, 
 yor the necessity of the time^ may the consistory elect 
 and choose both some elders and deacons, to catechise 
 in the households ; they are forbid, however, to catechise 
 publicly ; are exhorted to exercise the office as long as 
 they can ; and are guarded against pretending to any 
 supremacy or domination over one another." 
 
 The spirit and language of the Confession of the Bel- 
 gic Churches, formed in 1566, are similar to those of 
 their French brethren. The Confession was revised and 
 approved by the Dutch Synod of Dort, in 1618 and 
 1619. " We believe," say the Protestant Presbyterians 
 of Belgium, " that this true Church ought to be governed 
 by that spiritual regiment which our Lord hath taught us 
 in his Word, viz., that there be ministers or pastors to 
 preach God's Word and to administer the sacraments ; 
 that there be also elders and deacons, who, together with 
 the pastors, might make up, as it were, an ecclesiastical 
 senate ; that by these means true religion might be pre- 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 49 
 
 served, and true doctrine propagated every where ; that 
 offenders be censured and restrained in a spiritual way ; 
 that likewise the poor and affiicted be relieved with aid 
 and comfort, according to the several necessities of every 
 one ; so that all things in the Church be done decently 
 and in order, when faithful men shall be chosen accord- 
 ing to the rule prescribed by Paul in the Epistle to 
 Timothy." — Ecclesiastical Discipline, p. 62. 
 
 The Dutch Church is not less clear. Junius, one of its 
 earliest and most learned professors of divinity, a contem- 
 porary of the first reformers, writes fully on the subject 
 of Church government. He maintains that pastors, 
 ruling elders, and deacons, are the only three scriptural 
 orders of Church officers, that they are set forth in the 
 Word of God, and existed in the primitive Church. 
 Of deacons he says, that they " are appointed to collect 
 and distribute the alms of the Church." At a later 
 day, three eminent professors of theology, Polyander, 
 Thysius, and Walseus, in a joint work (" Synopsis 
 Theologige Disputat." 42), maintain the same doctrine. 
 They contend that the deacon is of apostolic institution — 
 that he is intrusted with the Church's treasure — that it 
 is his duty to take care of the poor. They expressly 
 declare that they considered the Church of Holland, in 
 retaining these officers, as following the example of the 
 Apostolic Church. 
 
 Passing from the testimony of individuals to more 
 authoritative documents, we find that the Synod of Dort, 
 composed of some of the most learned divines who were 
 ever assembled, several from foreign countries, solemnly 
 declaring that the true Church must be governed by that 
 spiritual policy which our Lord hath taught in his Word, 
 
50 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 and that it comprehends " elders and deacons^ who, to- 
 gether with the pastor, form the council of the Church." 
 — Netherlands Confession, Art. 30. And still farther, 
 in the "Corpus Disciplina3" of the Dutch Churches (Lon- 
 don, 1 645, pp. 8,4), there is a section devoted to deacons. 
 The foUoAving are some of the points : — " Their office is 
 diligently to collect and preserve the alms and other 
 means belonging to the poor ; they are to distribute the 
 same, faithfully and discreetly, according to the need of 
 such as are in want, whether inhabitants or strangers, 
 by common consent and plurality of voices ; to visit and 
 comfort the needy, and to look that the alms be not 
 misemployed." The form for ordaining elders and 
 deacons is given in four pages (37-41). The same 
 " discipline" is observed by the Dutch Churches in Bri- 
 tain, as well as in their native country. 
 
 In harmony with these things, it appears from Dr 
 Stevens' " Brief View of the Dutch Ecclesiastical Esta- 
 blishment," 1838, that the office of deacon is in vigorous 
 operation in the Dutch Church at the present day. 
 Those who hold it in larger towns, have a court of meet- 
 ing of their own, and so important is the office deemed, 
 that in conjunction with the elders, the deacons have the 
 appointment of the ministry. It is doubtless in part 
 owing to the importance attached to the office, and its 
 excellent services, that the poor of Holland are, it is 
 generally understood, among the best attended to in 
 Europe. 
 
 It is unnecessary to refer to the testimony of other 
 Reformed Churches. That of Scotland will be consi- 
 dered separately. It may simply be mentioned, that the 
 Puritan or Presbyterian Church of England of the 1 7th 
 
TO THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 51 
 
 century, entered into the same views of the office of 
 deacon as the earher Churches of the Reformation. The 
 form of Church government agreed upon at Westmin- 
 ster, and adopted by the General Assembly of the Church 
 of Scotland in 1 645, is an ample proof of this ; as also 
 the writings of the Presbyterian ministers of London, 
 who always contended for the office of deacon as distinct 
 from others, and permanent in the Christian Church. — 
 Vide Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastics. London, 
 1646, pp. ]60, 161. 
 
 In concluding this part of the subject, and in connec- 
 tion with the above, it may be noticed that the Non- 
 conformists of New England did not differ from their 
 brethren in this country. On some points of Church 
 government there may have been diversity of opinion, 
 but here they were at one. In the platform of Church 
 government agreed upon at Cambridge, in 1649, the 
 deacon is spoken of in these terms : — " The office and 
 work of a deacon is to receive the offerings of the 
 Church, gifts given to the Church, and to keep the 
 treasury of the Church, and therewith to serve the tables 
 which the Church is to provide for, as the Lord's table, 
 the table of the ministers, and of such as are in neces- 
 sity, to whom they are to distribute in simplicity. The 
 office, therefore, being limited unto the care of the tem- 
 poral good things of the Church, it extends not to the 
 attendance upon and administration of the spiritual 
 things thereof, as the word, the sacraments, and the 
 like." — (Cap. viii.) Under the title of " Heads of agree- 
 ment assented to by the United Ministers, formerly 
 called Presbyterian and Congregational," we find, that 
 upon the office of deacon they are entirely at one. 
 
52 TESTIMONY OF MODERN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 It may be added that, with mconsiderable exceptions, 
 the Congregational Churches, both of this country and 
 of the United States, have in all ages agreed with the 
 Presbyterian Church throughout the Avorld in regard to 
 the deacon. In many cases, from particular circum- 
 stances, the power of the deacon may have been, and 
 may be, too extensive as compared with pastors, and lie 
 may be admitted to the function of teaching and ex- 
 horting ; but in this case, it is not as deacon^ but as 
 Christian brother, that he teaches. In almost every 
 case, the principle is, that the office of deacon is a secu- 
 lar office, and has no connection with the preaching 
 of the word or the administration of the sacraments. 
 This, we maintain, is the indubitable doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture on the point. Hence it appears that the whole 
 Presbyterian and Congregational Churches of the world, 
 forming a vast proportion of the entire Protestant com- 
 munion, though diffi-ring upon other points, are here 
 unanimous. Surely this is no small testimony in behalf 
 of the office as a scriptural office, the more especially 
 when taken in connection with the views of the Churches 
 of the Reformation from the earliest periods. On the 
 other hand, surely it is little to say of any Protestant 
 Church, that, looking through Christendom, she can 
 find none but the Church of Rome to countenance her 
 in her views of an important office in the Church of 
 Christ, — an office, upon the correct administration of 
 which, the most important results are suspended. 
 Whether is it the more likely that the harmony is the 
 harmony of the truth, or the harmony of error ? 
 
ON THE (*rALIPICATI0N3 OF DEACONS, ETC. 53 
 
 CHAPTEE VL 
 
 ON THE QUALIPICATIOyS OF DEACONS, AND MODE 
 OF APPOINTMENT. 
 
 Clearly as the Divine authority of the office of deacon 
 may be made out, a most important inq^uiry remains. — 
 what are the quaHfications for the discharge of the dnries 
 of the office ? Without these the office degenerates into 
 a mere name. Happily we can be at no loss to know. 
 .Scripture is yery ftdl on the subject, and we cannot do 
 better, in the following observations, than make a few 
 remarks on its requirements. The simple circumstance, 
 that so many of the qualifications which the inspired 
 volume demands in the deacon, it also demands for the 
 bishop or pastor, is a plain proof of the high use and 
 estimation of the office. Stirely it cannot be proper for 
 us, or for any Christian Church, to neglect what the 
 "^Vord of God so strongly recommends : so much in- 
 spired writing was not intended to be in vain 1 Super- 
 natural gifts, in primitive times, doubtless made up for 
 some qualities which now must be obtained by ordinary 
 means, — such as a fair education fitting for the usual 
 busine^ of life. It is taken for granted that deacons 
 possess this measure of knowledge and its instruments. 
 Without them they would be obviously unfit for the 
 management of the business of the poor, and of the 
 
 D 
 
54 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 Church. These, to allude to nothing higher, demand 
 arithmetic. It may be added, that it is not enough to 
 possess some of the qualities in considerable force ; it is 
 necessary that the individual enjoy a fair share of them 
 all. Apart from this, he cannot be a good deacon, 
 whether in town or in country parishes. 
 
 Let us now advert to the qualifications which Scrip- 
 ture has detailed. At the original institution three 
 were mentioned. The seven deacons were required to 
 be men, 1*^, of honest report; 2f?, full of the Holy 
 Ghost ; 3rf, of wisdom. In a case on which the peace 
 of the Church, and the welfare of its private members 
 w^ere obviously suspended, superior character was essen- 
 tial. It was necessary, first of all, that the deacons be 
 men of tried integrity, of an honesty which was above all 
 suspicion. Money and other delicate interests were to be 
 committed to them — interests as to which their fellow- 
 men were peculiarly jealous; hence, it was necessary 
 not only that they be honest, but of honest report, that 
 they should bear a good reputation among the members 
 of the Church, and in society generally. Though a 
 man be of the strictest integrity in heart and conduct, 
 yet if he do not sustain a blameless reputation with 
 others, he is not fit for the deaconship. Next, they 
 were to be men of the Holy Ghost, men of decided 
 piety, under the teaching and sanctifying grace of the 
 Spirit. This is essential to animate with that activity, 
 love, fidelity, zeal, and perseverance which the duties of 
 the office demand. It is only true piety which, during 
 a long succession of years, will sustain the heart in ten- 
 derness to the poor amid trials and difficulties, and 
 which will uphold the deacon in the unwearied, and 
 
AND MODE OF APPOIXTMENT. 55 
 
 sometimes unrequited care of the house of God. And, 
 lastly, he is to be a man of wisdom, a man of discern- 
 ment and prudence, not carried away by the impulse 
 of his feelings ; but one able intelligently to judge be- 
 tween real and unreal cases of indigence, the proportion 
 and manner in which charity should be dispensed, the 
 best advice which the circumstances, not only of the 
 poor, but of the Church generally, in perplexing seasons 
 may require. Such were the comprehensive qualifica- 
 tions for which the apostles called, and they did not call 
 in vain. Seven men were immediately found who bore 
 them all. In Stephen and Philip, the only persons of 
 whom we have any farther notice, the developement of 
 spiritual character and usefulness is deeply interesting. 
 Their names are suf&cient to honour the new order of 
 deacons. 
 
 But from the earliest let us turn to a later statement 
 of qualifications, detailed by Paul in the 3d chapter of 
 1 st Timothy. They are more minutely given, but there 
 is no inconsistency with the former. 
 
 1. The deacons were to be grave, not austere or 
 morose, but of dignified gravity. Few things are more 
 injurious to Christian influence, or more unsuitable for 
 one whose business it is to deal in cases of distress 
 and Christian distress, than levity, or even excessive 
 pleasantry and lightheartedness. All instinctively feel 
 that this is unbecoming. It never recommends the 
 Gospel or the Christian Church to the favour of any. 
 
 2. They must not be double-tongued, — in other words, 
 they must be sincere. A deacon, to be relieved from 
 the annoyances sometimes connected with the discharge 
 of his duties, is tempted to put the poor off with in- 
 
56 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 sincere words — to say one thing to one man, and an 
 opposite to another. He is in danger also, perhaps, of 
 promising to the pastor, and not fulfilling. This is justly- 
 fatal to character and to usefulness. It prevents confi- 
 dence and creates contempt. The deacon, then, must be 
 sincere. 
 
 3. It is not less essential that he be temperate. 
 Fresh from the corruptions of Heathenism, not a few 
 of the primitive Christians were exposed to tempta- 
 tions, which we would scarcely expect to find asso- 
 ciated with the name of office-bearers in the Church. 
 The deacon must not be given to too much wine. His 
 office m9,y sometimes carry him into social meetings, 
 but he must shun every tendency to excess. Intemper- 
 ance not only destroys credit, and unfits for the dis- 
 charge of official duty ; it mars religious character ; it 
 unfits for devotion, and lays the man open to a multi- 
 tude of other sins. Who can conceive any thing more 
 incongruous than a drunkard to be a distributor of alms 
 to the pious poor, and a leading manager in the external 
 affiiirs of the house of God, paying the minister, &c, ? 
 
 4. He must be free from avarice, — not greedy of 
 filthy lucre. Considerable sums pass through the dea- 
 con's hands for the use of the poor and of the Church. 
 He will, if he seeks them, find opportunities for mis- 
 appropriation and embezzlement ; hence the importance 
 of being superior to the temptations of avarice, both for 
 his own sake, and to encourage the Church members 
 to give liberally. I need say nothing of the incongruity 
 of a hard-hearted, narrow-fisted deacon, starving the 
 poor, keeping the minister in pecimiary anxieties, and 
 all the while secretly enriching himself. "What charac- 
 
AND MODE OF APPOINTMENT. 57 
 
 ter can be more detestable ? what spirit more fatal to 
 every thing which deserves the name of religion ? 
 
 5. He must be well acquainted with the doctrines of 
 the Gospel. This is the meaning of " holding the mystery 
 of the faith." His previous qualifications imply a know- 
 ledge of divine truth ; but his knowledge must be supe- 
 rior. He must be familiarly acquainted with the gospel 
 of salvation, so that he may be able to speak of it, and 
 to commend it to others, especially when dealing out 
 among them the donations of charity. A pious intelli- 
 gent deacon may, in giving, make his alms preach. 
 He may, from the bread which perisheth, mount 
 up to the true bread which came down from heaven, 
 and bestow upon the indigent better gifts than money. 
 But, 
 
 6. The knowledge of the Gospel is not enough. 
 The Christian Church is apt to err in regard to the 
 spiritual character of deacons. Drawing a just distinc- 
 tion between their office and that of the ruling elder, 
 she may sometimes be tempted to speak as if good 
 moral character, apart from piety, would suffice for the 
 deaconship ; but this is a serious mistake. While the 
 office of elder demands superior Christian excellence, 
 every office in the Church requires, and should possess 
 decided piety. Not only is this indispensable for the 
 deaconship itself, but because the office may be a step to 
 a higher. Hence the apostolic counsel and quahfica- 
 tion. The well qualified deacon must hold the mystery 
 of the faith " in a pure conscience." He must be 
 strongly and conscientiously attached to it. He must 
 be prepared to make sacrifices for it. He must not 
 abandon it for the world, — in short, he must be con- 
 
58 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 scientious and resolute. What a comfort to a faithful 
 pastor, to feel himself surrounded by such deacons. 
 While the poor do not suffer, what a strengthening 
 does an office -hearer of this character impart to the 
 Church, and to those associated in the same labours 
 with him. How must the deep and unalterable im- 
 pression of gospel truth, too, upon the heart sustain 
 under difficulties and perplexities, and encourage him 
 to persevere in his work. 
 
 7. The deacon must be proved previously to entering 
 on his labours. The office is highly important and res- 
 ponsible. Every one is not qualified for its duties, 
 and yet his unfitness may not be immediately obvious. 
 Hence the advantage of an antecedent trial. The very 
 fact of resorting to it proclaims the seriousness of the 
 duties, while it provides that the Church shall always 
 enjoy the services of the most able officers. It seems 
 to be intended that the deacon shall be a young man 
 as compared with the elder. Hence, by Mosheim and 
 others, nonfat, young men is interpreted of deacons. 
 This renders any invidiousness connected with a preli- 
 minary probation less felt. 
 
 8. The deacon must be the husband of one wife. 
 Not that he must always be married (though a man 
 who knows from experience what family ties are, will 
 better sympathize in the family distresses of the poor), 
 but that when he is married he must have but one wife. 
 It may seem singular to us, that such an exhortation 
 should be necessary in connection with any office-bearer 
 of the Church, but we must remember that the great 
 body of the early Christians consisted of those who had 
 recently been Heathens. In these circumstances, there 
 
AND MODE OF APPOINTMENT, 59 
 
 was no small danger even of renewed men retaining, or 
 thinking lightly of Pagan customs most discreditable to 
 Christianity. Hence the qualification before us. It is 
 scarcely necessary to add, that the great original law of 
 marriage, binding in all ages, is one wife to one husband, 
 — that there is no approval of polygamy in the Word of 
 God, — that most of those who practised it in Old Testa- 
 ment times suffered for it — that there is only one case 
 recorded for the first 2000 years of the world's history, 
 and that apparently associated with crime and the Di- 
 vine displeasure. Even were the practice lawful, it is 
 plain, that in a deacon it would be most unwarrantable, 
 and occupy time and attention which should be devoted 
 to the interests of the poor and of the Church. Be- 
 sides, apart from other things, it would draw many seri- 
 ous evils along with it. 
 
 9. The last qualification of character which is de- 
 manded of the deacon, is ruling well his own family — 
 " Ruling their children and their own houses well." 
 This may seem a small matter in a public servant of the 
 Church, but both as indicative of character and con- 
 ducing to usefulness, it is most important. The deacon 
 is, to a certain extent, a ruler ; and it is the principle of 
 God's providence to prepare men for a higher govern- 
 ment by previous success in a lower. Those who acquit 
 themselves well in the humbler, will be found the best 
 qualified for the higher relations of life. Hence the im- 
 portance of deacons ruling their own houses well. It 
 will train them for public usefulness. And more than 
 this. There are few things which, in the estimation of 
 the world, discredit the head of a house more than hav- 
 ing no authority at home, and bringing up a disorderly 
 
60 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 and disliked family of children. The men of the world 
 often boast, in this respect, of their good management, 
 and have no patience for slovenliness and unruliness on 
 the part of professed Christians, and especially Church 
 office-bearers. Few things recommend religion and its 
 friends more than excellence in the relative duties of 
 life. No wonder, then, that Paul sums up the qualifi- 
 cations of the deacon in ruling his own family well. 
 
 Such are the scriptural (jualifications for the office of 
 deacon; and, combined together, what an interesting 
 and estimable character do they form ! how important 
 and useful to the Church and to society ! Though nu- 
 merous, they are not rare or inaccessible in the Christian 
 Church. Sound piety, intelligence, a talent for business, 
 tenderness for the poor, and good management at home, 
 embrace the leading points. Let these in any fair mea- 
 sure be present, and no one who is called to the office 
 should hesitate to accept. Let none despise the office. 
 The apostle Paul evidently regards it as of high value ; 
 and important as it is, he teaches the deacon to aspire after 
 a sphere of more extensive usefulness. He calls upon 
 deacons, by their diligence, intelligence, zeal, perseverance, 
 and other good qualities, to approve themselves meet for 
 the higher and more spiritual offices of the Church — 
 those of the ruling elder and the pastor. He would have 
 them thus to " purchase for themselves a good degree." 
 Surely it is to the honour of the office of deacon that it 
 is not only good in itself, but is a step and a prepara- 
 tion for higher good. 
 
 Connected with the qualifications, we may shortly 
 notice the mode op appointment to the office. These 
 
AND MODE OF APPOINTMEIsT. 61 
 
 go together. One of the reasons why the quahfications 
 are so fully unfolded in Scripture, is, not only that the 
 deacon may he instructed in his duties, but that the 
 Christian Church may he taught what sort of men she 
 should call to the office. Happily nothing can be more 
 clear than the testimony of Scriptm-e as to the mode of 
 appointment. There may be diversity of opinion as to 
 other offices, but there can be none in regard to the 
 deacon ; and many will judge that it sets forth the prin- 
 ciple on which all appointments to permanent Church 
 offices should be made so conspicuously, that no differ- 
 ence of opinion ought to remain respecting any of them. 
 When it was necessary to institute the deaconship, 
 how did the gi'eat Head of the Church proceed ? The 
 inspired apostles were present, and could, in virtue of 
 their spiritual gifts, among which, the discernment of 
 spirits was one, have easily pointed out the men of best 
 qualification. Was this the mode pursued ? No. The 
 apostles called upon the Church members, the commu- 
 nicants, to elect ; and that though they had been so 
 recently formed into a church, that they could scarcely 
 be supposed to know much of each other. Then it is 
 worthy of remembrance, that they were called upon to 
 judge, not as to common-place qualifications — the mere 
 honesty and general decency of the parties, but of spiri- 
 tual quali^cations — whether they were men of the Holy 
 Ghost, and of divine wisdom, and of honest report. 
 Here, then, the members of the Christian Church, in the 
 presence of the apostles, though but partially acquainted 
 with each other, were required to judge of spiritual 
 qualifications. What can better teach us the mode in 
 which the Spirit of God would have men elected to the 
 
62 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 deaconship ? Does not this recognise, and that in un- 
 favourable circumstances, the abihty of the Christian 
 people to judge of spiritual character ? — and if so, why 
 should this principle he excluded in any case ? The 
 apostles not only did not themselves nominate, they did 
 not call upon the elders or the more known and influen- 
 tial Christians to elect — they threw the choice entirely 
 upon the members of the Christian Church, however 
 humble and poor ; and in doing so were they disap- 
 pointed in the result ? Did the people fall into factions, 
 divisions, confusion ? Did they choose unsuitable men — 
 men so obviously unfit for the duties, that the apostles 
 found it necessary to interpose their authority and pre- 
 vent the appointment being completed ? No, Their 
 choice was marked by the greatest wisdom. We have 
 no reason to believe that the apostles could have im- 
 proved it. Philip, w^ho conducted himself with such 
 propriety that he afterwards rose to the high distinction 
 of being an Evangelist — an extraordinary office-bearer 
 in the Church — the companion and assistant of apostles, 
 was one of the number ; and Stephen, the first, and we 
 may say the most illustrious of martyrs — at once meek 
 and heroic and divinely acknowledged, was another. 
 See, then, how admirably the Christian people chose ; 
 and if the same parties are judged not qualified to elect 
 deacons now, is it not plain that either Christians are 
 not now wliat the primitive Christians were, or that 
 they are maligned ? Whichever be the case, there is no 
 authority for the Church withholding from them a pri- 
 vilege which tbe Spirit of God bestowed, and which 
 experience and history prove them amply able to exer- 
 cise aright. 
 
AND MODE OP APP0INT3IENT. 63 
 
 It is to misapprehend the case to say that men may 
 be safely intrusted with elections which concern pro- 
 perty^ but that they are not trustworthy in calling to a 
 spiritual office. Here it is taken for granted that men s 
 love of money will prevent them from making an impro- 
 per choice — such a choice as would run any hazard of 
 endangering it. But it is forgotten that the property in 
 the case before us was not the property of individuals but 
 of the Church — a large body ; and experience can attest 
 whether appointments to this sort of trust be always scru- 
 pulous and exact. Besides, the qualifications in regard 
 to which the apostles required the Christian people to 
 judge were not mere financial business, property qualifi- 
 cations, but moral and spiritual qualities. 
 
 Though there can be little doubt that the appointment 
 to the office of deacon, so long as its scriptural character 
 was retained, was like those of the pastor or bishop in pri- 
 mitive times, the popular call of the Church, yet this order 
 does not seem to have been observed in all the churches of 
 the Reformation. From the " Discipline" of the French 
 and Dutch Churches, about the middle of the 17th 
 century, it would appear that at the first institution of 
 deacons, the Christian people were to nominate, but that 
 afterwards the order might be kept up by the appointment 
 of the consistory, subject to the approval of the congrega- 
 tion. In other Churches the practice w^as different. The 
 First Book of Discipline of the Church of Scotland (1 560) 
 contemplated the fi-ee election of the Christian people, 
 and the Belgic (1566) followed the same order. " We 
 believe," says the Belgic Confession, " that the ministers, 
 elders, and deacons ought to be called to those their 
 functions, and, by the lawful election of the Church, 
 
64 ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS, 
 
 to be advanced into those offices — earnest prayer being 
 made unto God, and after the order and manner which 
 is set down to us in the "Word of God. This especially 
 every one ought to take dihgent heed of, that he do not 
 by unlawful means thrust himself into those offices; 
 for every one must wait until he be called of God him- 
 self, that he may have a certain testimony of his vocation, 
 and may know that it is from the Lord." — Harmony of 
 Confessions, sect. 11. 
 
 However the popular call was exercised, whether more 
 or less fully, 'the separation and ordination to the office 
 were solely in the hands of the regular Church courts. 
 So it was in apostolic times. The people chose the dea- 
 cons, and set them before the apostles, but they went no 
 farther. They did not ordain the seven. This was left 
 to the apostles and their successors in the ministry as 
 their appropriate work. The following remarks on this 
 point, by the late Rev. Dr Dick, professor of theology to 
 tlie United Secession Church, are just and seasonable : — 
 
 " The right of the people extended no farther than the 
 election of the deacons. They had no power to exercise 
 in their appointment to office. Their separation to it, their 
 investiture with authority to perform its duties, was the 
 province of the apostles. ' Look ye out seven men whom 
 ive may appoint over the business.' It is the ordinance 
 of Christ that to those who sustain any office in the 
 Church, authority shall be transmitted from himself, its 
 original source, by the medium of its ministers and rulers. 
 The exclusion of the private members from any share 
 in the transmission, is clearly marked in the passage 
 before us. The limits are distinctly drawn — the people 
 elected^ and the apostles appointed. We never read in 
 
AND MODE OF APPOINTMENT. 65 
 
 the Scriptures that there is a power lodged in the Church 
 at large to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments, 
 and govern itself. This power was committed to apostles, 
 prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, whom Jesus 
 Christ has given to the Church, as an absolute sovereign 
 delegates his authority to certain persons, bearing such 
 titles and exercising such functions as he is pleased to 
 confer upon them. — Eph. iv. 12; iCor. xii. 28. When 
 a voluntary society is to be formed, the members first 
 meet and determine what shall be the form of govern- 
 ment, and who shall be the governors ; but in the case 
 of the Church the governors were before the society. 
 The Christian Church did not exist when the apostles 
 received their commission, and those who at present bear 
 rule in it are their successors in eveiy thing pertaining to 
 their office which was not extraordinary. It is manifest, 
 therefore, that their power does not flow from the people, 
 unless an express law^ can be produced, altering the origi- 
 nal constitution, and ordaining, that though the apostles 
 received "the keys of the kingdom" immediately from 
 Christ, and the first office-bearers derived their power 
 from the apostles, it should be afterwards communicated 
 to the Church in its collective capacity." — Lectures on 
 the Acts of the Apostles, p. 138. 
 
66 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE DUTIES OP DEACON. 
 
 We now come to the consideration of the duties of the 
 deaconship. These have, in part, been already indirectly- 
 noticed. The nature and importance of the office imply 
 some acquaintance with its duties, but they deserve a 
 separate reference. The leading duty of the office is ob- 
 viously the care of the poor. Here a question, however, 
 arises : What poor ? Is it the general poor of the com- 
 munity, whether religious or irreligious, or is the office 
 intended only for the Christian poor ? This is a very 
 important inquiry. There can be no doubt that the 
 poor members of the congregation are the peculiar ob- 
 jects of the deacon s care, and are, it may be, entitled 
 to a higher provision ; but the question is — Is the dea- 
 con to exclude all other poor from his special regard ? 
 Some have contended that this is the proper mode of 
 management — that there is no authority in the New 
 Testament for the deacon watching over any poor but 
 the Christian poor ; and cases are appealed to where 
 the limitation of his attention, or that of the elder (who 
 usually takes the charge of the poor in Scotland), to this 
 class, has been attended with the best results, relieving 
 the elder from many distracting duties, and leaving him 
 free for the discharge of his more appropriate spiritual 
 calling. There may be plausibility in this view, but it 
 
ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 67 
 
 is apprehended nothing more. The circumstances of the 
 Christian Church, in apostolic and in present times, are 
 ev-identlj yerj different. In the former case, she stood, 
 except in Judea, in the heart of heathenism, and every 
 where unrecognised by the State. It could not be ex- 
 pected that her humble members were to take charge of 
 all the pagan poor who surrounded them in multitudes. 
 This, in the nature of things, was impossible, and hence 
 there is no scriptural example of it. There could be no 
 such example, and it is unreasonable to demand it. At 
 the same time, the Church required her members to do 
 good to all^ especially to such as were of the household 
 of faith. The circumstances of the Christian Church at 
 the present day are widely different. Besides her own 
 poor, she is surrounded with many poor who do not 
 belong, by living membership, to her communion, but 
 w^ho make a profession of Christianity ; most of whom 
 have received Christian baptism ; many of whom have 
 but temporally fallen away from Christian ordinances, 
 owing to the pressure of circumstances, and may, ere 
 long, be restored. There is no authority in Scripture 
 for restricting the donations of the deacon to poor com- 
 municants; and unless this be made a test (on other 
 grounds undesirable), there is no very well-defined 
 principle by which poor, professing Christianity, can 
 in one party be received, and another party be denied 
 the good offices of the deacon. Besides, the nation not 
 only recognises Christianity, but has territorially di- 
 vided the country, and given the charge of its moral 
 and religious interests (into which the management of 
 the poor seriously enters) to the Church of Scotland. 
 It is obvious, then, that there is a very marked distinction 
 
68 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 between the circumstances of the Christian Church in 
 primitive and in present times — so marked, that it would 
 be unfair and inconclusive to draw serious inferences from 
 the one to the other, especially if the inferences be on 
 the side of restricting the duty of the office-bearers of the 
 Church. 
 
 It may be true, that such a mode of management as 
 that refeiTcd to may, to take the illustration from a large 
 town, where above 700 poor were parcelled out among 80 
 or 40 elders, have been a greater improvement. This may, 
 in the nature of things, have been demanded. No elders 
 could be expected to bear such a burden for a succession 
 of years ; but the question is — Was the change a wise 
 one ? Was it in the right direction ? It may have re- 
 lieved the elders, and not only reduced the charge of 
 700 to a charge of 150, but made the work among 
 them much more pleasant. To deal with 150 poor 
 communicants must be a much more agreeable employ- 
 ment to a Christian mind, than dealing with indiscri- 
 minate poor, many of whom have no tie to the Christian 
 Church. The change may have improved the eldership 
 both in numbers and quality ; but the question recurs 
 — Was it good for the poor ? Would it be advanta- 
 geous to roll over the care of the far larger body of the 
 poor on overseers who have no religious qualifications of 
 character — who may be Christians, or who may be Infi- 
 dels. It appears, from the Reports of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners in England, that very many of the over- 
 seers were eminently illiterate, ignorant, and inefficient, 
 before the recent change. Would it be desirable to 
 commit to the tender mercies of such persons, the care 
 of multitudes of poor, many of them religiously edu- 
 
ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 69 
 
 cated, who have fallen into poverty, but who now can- 
 not claim any connection with a Christian Church? 
 Would this tend to soften their day of adversity, or to 
 improve their character, and aid their restoration ? The 
 true remedy for such cases as those referred to, is not to 
 relieve the deacon or elder at the expense of the poor, 
 but, by the multiplication of deacons, to make the labour 
 of all manageable. Let them be sufficiently numerous, 
 and then no one will be burdened ; while the poor will 
 enjoy the services of Chnstian men, and of an office 
 which the Great Head of the Church has himself insti- 
 tuted, and which it may be expected, therefore. He vdll 
 especially bless. We conclude, then, that in a country 
 professing Christianity, and where the Church occupies 
 such a position as that of the Church of Scotland, her 
 deacons should attend to the wants of all the poor. 
 With the exception of the larger towns, the great mass 
 of these poor make some sort of profession of Chris- 
 tianity — a profession which it is not desirable to cast 
 aside or despise. Besides, it is an honourable light in 
 which Christianity is presented, when she appears as 
 the friend of the poor, even those who do not make a 
 profession of religion. It is fitted to recommend her to 
 general favour, while it supplies office-bearers of the 
 Church with excellent opportunities of doing good to 
 the soul when attending to the wants of the body. It 
 Avould not be creditable to the Christian Church, to 
 say that a large number whom she had baptized she 
 cast aside, so far as her official care was concerned, to 
 perish. This would surely not recommend her claims to 
 the irreligious or the infidel, the more especially, if it 
 appeared that there was a sufficient number of persons, 
 
70 ON THE DITTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 in most congregations, to act as intelligent deacons. 
 Where such office-bearers cannot be obtained, of course 
 this alters the case ; but it is a conclusion at which no 
 parish or congregation should hastily arrive. So much 
 for the poor who fall under the superintendence of the 
 deacon ; and now let us shortly advert to the mode in 
 which he should treat them. 
 
 First of all, he should visit them in their own houses. 
 It is believed that deacons, and elders who act as deacons, 
 often, if not generally, content themselves, after they are 
 satisfied with the circumstances of their poor, with giving 
 the donations at the deacon's house. This may often 
 be done with perfect safety and propriety; but it seems 
 very desirable, for the sake of moral and religious influ- 
 ence, that the deacon should occasionally, if not fre- 
 quently, give the charity in the houses of the poor. This 
 would give an opportunity of knowing the real character 
 and condition of the parties — it would tend to prevent 
 deception — it would be well taken by the poor, and draw 
 forth their regards for the deacon. It would also afford 
 an opportunity for mingling prayers with alms, which, 
 from the case of Cornelius recorded in Scripture, seems 
 to have been not only a beautiful but an efficacious com- 
 bination. There would be greater scope, too, for con- 
 sultation and advice as to themselves and their families, 
 than can be had when a number of poor are assembled 
 together like so many mendicants. 
 
 And, secondly, the deacon should feel it to be his duty, 
 not only to minister to the actual wants of the poor, but 
 to give that counsel and open up those facilities in his dis- 
 trict which may prevent poverty, or tend to restore those 
 who have fallen to decay. Happily much may be done 
 
ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 71 
 
 in this way in the age in which we live. In most towns 
 there are a variety of institutions for the relief of disease, 
 such as dispensaries, infirmaries, &c. To meet particular 
 wants at certain seasons of the year, there are societies for 
 clothing and fuel. There are-also friendly societies and 
 provident institutions for accumulating the savings, not, 
 perhaps, of the poor,butof classes which may become poor. 
 There are schools, too, for the education of children — the 
 Sabbath and week-day school for ail — the evening class 
 for those whose education has been neglected. By mak- 
 ing himself master of all the means of humane, literary, 
 economical, and religious good in his district or town, and 
 becoming acquainted also with the respective managers, 
 an intelligent deacon may do much to prevent poverty 
 and suffering, and greatly mitigate them where they exist. 
 He may likewise open up many channels of communica- 
 tion between different ranks in society, — and, by finding 
 situations and emplo}Tnent for those who have no occu- 
 pation, and acquainting the working classes with means 
 of improving their condition, and strongly recommending 
 the savings' bank when they are in circumstances to save, 
 and discouraging to the uttermost whatever is fitted to 
 waste the means and resources of the people — the spirit 
 shop and the pawnbroking establishment, &c., — he may 
 not only win the confidence of the families of his district, 
 but really enrich them to an extent which silver and gold 
 cannot estimate. As an illustration of what may be 
 done to prevent poverty, I beg to refer the reader to the 
 working of an association at Manchester, to which there 
 is reference in the Appendix. It is plain that what is 
 here done by volunteers might be done most appropri- 
 ately by deacons, and that, being office-bearers in the 
 
72 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 Christian Church, they would fulfil the duty with greater 
 effect. 
 
 It may be desirable to be a little more particular. I 
 have said that one very important way in which deacons 
 might promote the welfare of the humbler classes, would 
 be by assisting them to husband their own resources, and 
 directing them to the best means of doing so. This may 
 be accomplished in various forms, particularly by the 
 Friendly Society, the Savings' Bank, and the Loan Fund : 
 each possesses its appropriate recommendation. Men in 
 the middle and higher ranks of life enjoy the benefit of 
 all these institutions, where they choose to avail them- 
 selves of them. Why should not the poor man have the 
 same ? TJie friendly society corresponds to the in- 
 surance company. It presents many advantages to the 
 poorer classes, and they have, to a large extent, availed 
 themselves of them ; but much more might be done in 
 this way than has yet been attempted. As there have 
 not unfrequently been disappointments, owing to such 
 societies being founded on insufficient principles, the 
 counsel of an intelhgent deacon might be highly useful 
 in directing to safe institutions, and guarding against the 
 insecure. Though the security which a friendly society 
 supplies is most important to all, especially to the family 
 of a poor working man, some may not be able always to 
 command the periodical payment which is required, or 
 they may grudge to pay into its funds for many years, 
 without having any certainty that they will need the 
 benefits Avhich it holds out. To this numerous class the 
 savings' bank presents superior attractions. There the 
 parties are always certain of enjoying the advantage of 
 their self-denial and providence, with an addition of in- 
 
ON THE DUTIES OP DEACON. 73 
 
 terest, and the payments may be made at any season, as 
 best suits their convenience. It is pleasing to see the 
 progress which such institutions have made, especially of 
 late years ; but much may be done by the kind Christian 
 deacon to extend their advantages yet more. He may 
 throw out the suggestion and supply the necessary infor- 
 mation, and afford facilities for enrolling the poor man 
 and his family as contributors to the provident bank. 
 There can be little question that the higher proportion 
 of female servants abo ve other classes, which avail them- 
 selves of the advantages of such institutions, is OAving to 
 the advice of intelligent and well-disposed masters and 
 mistresses. Let the deacon occupy their place in regard 
 to the great mass, who have no such considerate guardi- 
 ans. Xay more, let the deacons, in reference to the 
 savmgs' bank, act upon the aggressive j^rinciple. Let 
 him not content himself with mere advice ; let it be part 
 of his office regularly, from wxek to week, or month to 
 month, to collect the savings of the working classes of 
 his charge, especially where belonging to the same Chris- 
 tian congregation, and pay them into the bank. Let 
 him, so to speak, become their agent and collector, and 
 no one can tell the amount of good which, at a small but 
 regular sacrifice of time and trouble, may be "wrought out. 
 This plan has been pursued at Manchester with the best 
 advantage. — Vide Appendix. But even this does not ex- 
 haust the devices of a w^ise and benevolent deacon. "Why 
 should not the deaconship of every congregation have a 
 LOAN FUND, from which, on suitable recommendation 
 and security, they might lend to the poorer classes ? In 
 cases of protracted sickness, or when there is any im- 
 portant object for which a little extra money is needed, 
 
74 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 such an institution "would be of the highest advantage, 
 often not only saving the poor man and his family from 
 beggary, but putting them in a way of making themselves 
 independent. The middle and higher classes have the 
 advantage of credit, founded upon character. If they 
 need money on any emergency, they go to a banker and 
 receive it. But the poor man, who often needs it more 
 than others, cannot do so. He has no resource but the 
 pawnbroker, who, in effect, becomes his banker, and a 
 most expensive and miserable banker he is. When the 
 poor man's savings at the bank are exhausted, too often 
 his course is, and necessity compels him, to part with one 
 article after another, till his house and family are literally 
 robbed — till his own Sabbath clothes, perhaps, are for- 
 feited, and ere he can replace them the Sabbath taste 
 and habits are also gone, and nothing remains but beggary 
 and woe, — without God, and without hope, in which, 
 alas ! his wife and children unhappily share. What is 
 the remedy for this too frequent state of things ? It is 
 for the deaconship to have a Loan Fund, on the prin- 
 ciple of the Mont de Piete in Ireland. According to 
 this system, I understand that a working man wishing 
 a loan must bring security for the amount, from two de- 
 cent people in his own class, with a recommender besides, 
 who also becomes a security that the borrower shall 
 repay the loan by regular instalments. The only danger 
 here seems to be, that the money will not be repaid, and 
 that henceforward none will be willing to become sureties. 
 Experience proves the very reverse to be the truth. So 
 far from the parties borrowing failing in their engage- 
 ment, the Loan Fund, at Powerscourt, the other year, 
 had £250 of surplus profit, which the managers ex- 
 
ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 75 
 
 pended in clothing, &c., for the poor. "Whether there 
 should he such a thing as profit at all, in connection 
 with loan funds, may admit of question ; hut, at least, 
 the result proves that there is no danger the lenders 
 will not receive again the money which they have 
 lent. Besides the accommodation which such institu- 
 tions afford to the industrious classes — the preservation 
 from the ruinous sacrifices of the pa^^^lbroker which 
 they secure — the ability to purchase articles at the 
 greatest advantage, and to avail themselves of favour- 
 able openings — the independence and family comfort to 
 which they lead ; — in addition to all these, what is 
 scarcely less important, the poor man is taught the value 
 of character, and the different ranks of society are, 
 through means of this tie, interlaced one with another. 
 At present, he has little pecuniary advantage from cha- 
 racter, and this becomes an argument against caring 
 much about it. It would be otherwise under the pro- 
 posed loan system. Then he would feel that his station, 
 and convenience, and advancement, all depended upon 
 character, — that it was only where he was a reputable 
 man, associating with reputable parties, that he could 
 hope to share in those advantages by which he saw 
 friends and acquaintances around him get on in the 
 world. Where deacons were the administrators of such 
 funds, not only would the worth of character, and Chris- 
 tian character, come to be more understood, but the 
 attention of the higher and more opulent members of a 
 congregation would come to be fixed upon industrious 
 and deserving families, and sons and daughters from the 
 midst of them would be promoted to creditable places. 
 
76 ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 
 
 The loan system would form a good introduction among 
 families. 
 
 I need say nothing of the spirit in which deacons 
 should discharge their duties to the poor — that is suffi- 
 ciently obvious from the very nature of the case, and 
 especially from the qualification of character which Scrip- 
 ture demands. Animated by the spirit of his office, 
 and acting out the character which the counsels of 
 the Word imply, he will not be haughty, or harsh, or 
 suspicious ; he will not be cold, and formal, and repul- 
 sive, discharging his work as if it were a burden ; he 
 will be frank and easy in his intercourse with the poor ; 
 take an interest in their avocations, their health, and 
 welfare ; kind, and tender, and sympathizing, especially 
 when in sickness ; but withal firm, and not easily per- 
 suaded to what his judgment does not approve. He 
 will also have a deep conviction of the insufficiency of all 
 his effiDrts to benefit the poor of his charge without the 
 blessing of God, and hence he will not fail to seek that 
 blessing in the exercise of diligent and persevering prayer 
 for the Holy Spirit. 
 
 With regard to the duties which more directly con- 
 cern the finance of the Church, the faithful deacon will 
 administer the sums drawn, whether by collections or 
 otherwise, with integrity and wisdom, in the spirit at 
 once of justice and benevolence. He will remember the 
 claims of the pastor, and encourage him, so far as cir- 
 cumstances will allow, by the liberality of his arrange- 
 ments. And he will see that all other funds, such as 
 school funds. Sabbath and week days', are properly at- 
 tended to, regularly collected, and made available for the 
 
ON THE DUTIES OF DEACON. 77 
 
 ends for which they are raised, and that nothing be allowed 
 to fall behind. In short, he will labour to introduce into 
 the financial management of the house of God all the 
 skill, promptitude, and accuracy which mark a well 
 conducted worldly business. This is the leading duty of 
 the deacon in this connection, and, if well done, it will 
 redound to his honour, and add in no small degree to 
 the comfort and success with which the affairs of congre- 
 gations and churches are managed. There can be little 
 question that the absence of an intelligent body of dea- 
 cons has often led to confusion and disorder in carrying 
 forward the different moral and religious schemes of 
 parishes. Funds have not been raised at the proper 
 time ; there is consequent embarrassment and crippling, 
 if not hindrance of the whole plans of public usefulness. 
 Few things are more discouraging than an exhausted or 
 irregularly supplied exchequer. It will be the great care 
 of the enlightened deacon to provide against this, and 
 to keep the wheels well oiled. 
 
78 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE OFFICE OF DEACON AS IT APPEARS IN THE 
 STANDARDS AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Heathenism neglects and despises the poor when 
 aged and infirm — sometimes violently despatches them. 
 Popery creates poor, cherishes the abject spirit of men- 
 dicancy, and turns almsgiving into a passport to heaven. 
 Protestant Christianity alone treats the poor aright — 
 providing for them either from the resources of the 
 nation, or the donations of the Christian Church ; the 
 latter given from right motives, and administered by a 
 class of office-bearers appointed for the express purpose 
 of watching over their interests. It would have been 
 a great reproach to Christianity, and a stumblingblock 
 in the way of the world, had the Evangelical Church 
 not cared for the poor, and specially provided for them. 
 If we survey the state of the poor over Christendom, it 
 will be found, speaking generally, that the Popish coun- 
 tries are overspread with the worst forms of mendicancy, 
 though abounding with natural resources of wealth, 
 and that the poor are worst cared for ; while Protestant 
 countries, in one form or another, by civil or ecclesias- 
 tical arrangement, make an incomparably better provi- 
 sion for the infirm and the indigent, and that though 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 79 
 
 naturally poorer in point of natural resources. It is 
 much to the honour of Scotland, that at the period 
 of the Reformation, one of the most rugged and un- 
 cultivated of countries — proverbially poor — she, in the 
 Protestant and Presbyterian system -which she set up, 
 deepl}^ and unAveariedly interested herself in the right 
 and scriptural management of the poor. Though the 
 country was overrun -v^dth the mendicancy of Popery, 
 and a change was at hand from the feudal to the mo- 
 dem system of societj^ which could not fail seriously to 
 affect the labouring classes ; yet she prepared as vigor- 
 ously to provide for the poor, as if the care of them had 
 devolved upon her in the most favourable circumstances. 
 Her grand aim was to learn what was the mind of God 
 on the subject, and to follow his counsel. Doing so, 
 she was at once secured against many errors, and had 
 the pleasing conviction that sooner or later she would 
 be successful. 
 
 About 1556, a number of private Christians, who 
 had been brought to the knowledge of the truth, under 
 the labours of the Reformers, met together for religious 
 conference, the reading of the Scriptures, and prayer. 
 This might be said to be the beginning of the Evangeli- 
 cal Church in Scotland. As at this time they had no 
 ministers, the sacraments were not dispensed. " Con- 
 vinced," says Dr M'Crie {Life of Knox^ 2d edit. vol. i. 
 p. 229), " of the necessity of order and discipline in 
 their societies, and desirous to have them organized, so 
 far as within their power, agreeably to the institution 
 of Christ, they proceeded to choose elders for the in- 
 spection of their manners, to whom they promised sub- 
 jection, and deacons for the collection and distribution 
 
80 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 of alms to the poor." Edinhurgli was the first place in 
 which this order was established, — Dundee the first 
 town in which a reformed Church was completely or- 
 ganized, provided with a regular minister, and favoured 
 with the dispensation of the sacraments. The historian 
 states that this took place in the end of 1556 or the 
 beginning of 1557, and gives the names of the first five 
 ruling elders in the Church of Edinburgh. The order 
 of deacons was not a new thing in the history of the 
 Christian Church ; we have already seen that it was re- 
 cognised and in operation in the Protestant Churches 
 of the Continent ; but more than this, it was introduced 
 into Episcopal England at the same pei'iod in which it 
 appeared in Scotland. Edward VI., who died in 1 5oS^ 
 had given great encouragement to John A'Lasco, origi- 
 nally a Polish nobleman, who had become a Protestant, 
 to come over to this country, and to take the charge of 
 the foreign congregations then in London. His object 
 appears to have been to present these congregations as 
 a model in their constitution for the Church of Eng- 
 land, which, owing to various adverse influences, had not 
 been permitted to assume so reformed a shape as the 
 king and her best friends earnestly longed for. A few 
 congregations in the metropolrs, formed on the rule 
 of Scripture, and after the example of the Reformed 
 Churches abroad, it was naturally thought would have 
 no inconsiderable influence in gradually encouraging the 
 faithful men of England to adopt the same constitution. 
 Now, the constitution of the foreign Churches in Lon_ 
 don, composed of Germans, French, and Italians, em- 
 braced pastors, ruling elders, and deacons. This appears 
 from the account of it which A'Lasco himself published. 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 81 
 
 Dr M'Crie says, speaking of these congregations, " The 
 affairs of each congregation were managed by a minis- 
 ter, ruling elders, and deacons, and each of these were 
 viewed as di%duely ordained {Appendix, toI. i. p. 392), 
 and yet Cranmer and the king warmly patronized 
 A'Lasco ; and the latter, in the charter which he 
 granted to the congregation of foreigners, speaks of it 
 as truly Christian and apostolical in doctrines and rites," 
 and as " administered according to the Word of God 
 and apostolic otservances." Well, we may safely say, 
 would it have been for England had the same system 
 been universally approved and acted on, — much of the 
 wide-spread religious ignorance which prevails would 
 have been spared, and the management of the poor would 
 not for ages have been allowed to remain in such dis- 
 order, as to prove the parent of extensive social evils. 
 
 In 1560, the Church of Scotland was fully organized 
 as a Christian Church, and, as might have been ex- 
 pected, soon found it necessary to draw up some formal 
 public system for the guidance of the many congregations 
 which were now^ rising up all over the land. Hitherto 
 the Common Order used in tbe English Church at 
 Geneva had been followed, but this proving inadequate 
 with the extension of the Church, a few of the leading 
 ministers, at the invitation of the Privy Council, drew 
 out a Book of Policy or Disciphne. So matured were 
 their views, and so directly drawn from Scripture in 
 principle, that the work was completed in a few weeks, 
 and was approved by the Church and the great body of 
 the Privy Council. It begins in these interesting terms : 
 — " To the Gneat Council of Scotland, now admitted to 
 the regiment (government), by the providence of God, 
 
82 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 and by the common consent of the Estates thereof, your 
 honours' humble servitors and ministers of Jesus Christ 
 within the same, wish grace, mercy, and peace from 
 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the 
 perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit." In the tOth 
 chapter, speaking of the office and election of elders and 
 deacons, this wonderful document, still a standard of 
 the Church of Scotland, has these sentences regarding 
 the deaconship : — 
 
 " The office of deacon is to receive the rents and 
 gather the alms of the kirk, to keep and distribute the 
 same, as by the minister and kirk shall be appointed. 
 They may also assist in judgment Avith the minister and 
 elders, and may be admitted to read in assembly, if they 
 be required, and be able thereto." This last provision 
 is in harmony with those of foreign Churches, that, in 
 the absence of other office-bearers, and in cases of ne- 
 cessity, the deacon may publicly read the Word of God, 
 so that the people may not be deprived of the privilege 
 of divine worship. 
 
 The qualifications of Christian character, on the part 
 of the deacon, are next stated, and the course which is 
 to be pursued in the event of censure being needed. 
 The general qualifications for the office and mode of 
 election, applicable to elders as well as deacons, are 
 stated in these words : — " Men of best knowledge in 
 God's Word and cleanest life — men faithful and of most 
 honest conversation, that can be found in the kirk, must 
 be nominated to be in election, and their names must 
 be publicly read to the whole kirk, by the minister giving 
 them advertisement, that from amongst 4hem must be 
 chosen elders and deacons. If any of these nominated 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CIIURCn OF SCOTLAND. 83 
 
 be noted with public infamy, he ought to be repelled ; 
 for it is not seemly that the servant of corruption should 
 have authority to judge in the Kirk of God. If any 
 man know others of better qualities within the kirk than 
 those that be nominated, let them be put in election 
 with them, that the kirk may have the choice." It was 
 contemplated that the office, or rather its active duties, 
 should last only for a year ; at the same time, the dea- 
 con might be re-elected. No pecuniary provision was 
 made for him, as the labour was meant to continue but 
 for a year, and was not so absorbing as to unfit for 
 attending upon his usual calling. 
 
 The high importance which the founders of the Church 
 of Scotland attached to the office of the deacon, may be 
 gathered from the circumstance, that if the minister was 
 of light conversation, it was deemed right that the elders 
 and deacons should admonish him. This seems to have 
 been in a friendly way ; for in serious cases they were to 
 complain to the adjacent ministers — in other words, the 
 Presbytery, which had not, at the date of the First Book 
 of Discipline, been formally organized. 
 
 The views entertained by the Church regarding the 
 office of deacon, did not consist of mere speculations; 
 she forthwith proceeded to put them into active opera- 
 tion. In St Giles', Edinburgh, the church of John Knox, 
 which contained 3000 hearers, there were 12 elders, and 
 
 not less than 16 deacons Dunlops Confessions^ vol. ii. 
 
 p. 638. It cannot be questioned that the congregations 
 throughout the country were similarly appointed. 
 
 The next important date, in tracing the history of the 
 office of deacon in the Church, is 1578 — the date when 
 the Second Book of Discipline was agreed on by the 
 
84 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 General Assembly. This Avas 18 years subsequent to 
 the First, but there v/as no change of sentiment in regard 
 to the office. There had been anxious discussion on 
 questions of Church government, but the deacon retained 
 his place and all his former importance in the Church. 
 In the period which elapsed between the two Books of 
 Discipline, there were various effi)rts made by the Church 
 to obtain from the tithes and " chaplainries " a better ^ 
 and more stable provision for the poor, than she could 
 collect from private sources in the troublous times through 
 which she passed ; but generally speaking, the covetous- 
 ness of the parties into whose hands the Church lands 
 had fallen, was too strong for her good intentions. She 
 thus, however, showed her spirit of tenderness for the 
 poor, and acquitted herself of an important duty. 
 
 The eighth chapter of the Second Book of Discipline 
 treats " of deacons and their office, the last ordinary 
 function in the Kirk," and runs in these terms : — 
 
 " 1. The word Aiaxovos sometimes is largely taken, 
 comprehending all those who bear office in the ministry 
 and perpetual function in the Kirk. 
 
 " 2. But now as we speak it is taken only for those 
 to whom the collection and distribution of the alms of the 
 faithful and ecclesiastical goods do appertain. 
 
 '' 3. The office of the deacon is taken as an ordinary 
 and perpetual ecclesiastical function in the Kirk of Christ. 
 
 " 4. Of what properties and duties he ought to be 
 who is called to this function, we remit to the manifest 
 Scriptures. 
 
 " 5. The deacon ought to be called and elected as the 
 rest of the spiritual officers, of tke which election was 
 spoken before. 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 85 
 
 " 6. Their office and power is to receive and dis- 
 tribute the whole ecclesiastical goods to them to whom 
 they are appointed. 
 
 " 7. This they ought to do according to the judgment 
 and appointment of the presbyteries or the elderships 
 (of the which the deacons are not), that the patrimony 
 of the Kirk and poor be not converted to private men's 
 use, nor wrongfully distributed." 
 
 Such are the views of the Second Book of Discipline, 
 a leading standard of the Church at the present day; and 
 surely they are sufficiently clear and explicit. We do not 
 read much of the office or its operations for many years. 
 So far as we can discover, no acts of Assembly bearing 
 upon it Avere passed. The office is in its own nature 
 quiet and unobtrusive. Of this only we are assured, that 
 the Church continued, with undiminished zeal, to labour 
 for the suitable sustentation of the poor. 
 
 In the interesting little treatise of the celebrated Alex- 
 ander Henderson, on " The Government and Order of 
 the Chm-ch of Scotland," published in 1641, we have a 
 section " Of the Deacons and their Office." The most 
 important parts are contained in these sentences: — 
 " Their main duty is to collect, receive, and distribute, 
 not only the alms for the poor, but the whole ecclesiasti- 
 cal goods which are not assigned and appointed for the 
 maintenance of particular persons. These duties they 
 must perform at the discretion and by the appointment 
 of the pastor and elders ; for which cause, and not for 
 government, they are to be present at the ordinary meet- 
 ings of the eldership. The means for the maintenance 
 of the poor are collected by the deacons, the first day of 
 the week, or the Lord's day, and other days of the public 
 
 F 
 
8G THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 assembling of the people to the worship of God, at the 
 eutry of the church ; and if this prove not a competency, 
 then do the people either bring in their charity on such 
 days as are appointed by the eldership, or are willing to 
 be taxed according as they shall be judged to be able. 
 In some cities and parishes where this order has been 
 carefidly observed^ none have been suffered to beg, and 
 none have lacked." 
 
 A little later, about the middle of the 17th century, 
 "A Treatise of the Ruling Elders and Deacons" was 
 published by a minister of the Church of Scotland. By 
 some the tract is attributed to the celebrated George 
 Gillespie, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and a 
 commissioner to the Westminster Assembly; but the 
 prevailing, and apparently well founded persuasion is, 
 that it proceeded from the pen of James Guthrie, minis- 
 ter of Stirling — one of the noble martyrs of the Church 
 of Scotland. It is often bound up with the writings 
 of his kinsman, William Guthrie of FeuAvick ; and 
 Stewart of Pardovan, in his " Collections," published 
 at the end of the century, expressly ascribes it to him, 
 and extracts a whole chapter on Deacons from the 
 treatise almost verbatim. Whoever was the author, not 
 only is it admirable in itself, but it bears to have been 
 " revised and published by order of the General Meeting 
 of the Ministers and Elders of the Church, 1699." Its 
 authority, then, is high and unquestionable;* and what 
 are its views of the office of deacon ? They are precisely 
 those of the standards of the Church. From what may 
 be called two cautions introduced into the second chap- 
 
 * This HtUe treatise I have lately republished in " The Eldership of the 
 Church of Scotland," &c., 1841. 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OP SCOTLAND. 87 
 
 ter on tlie deacon, one may gather that at the period in 
 which Guthrie wrote the office was in some congi'ega- 
 tions — it is not said in many, far less all, — but in some 
 blended with that of the ruling elder, and that some 
 were tempted to think lightly of the office of deacon. In 
 its scriptural simplicity he guards against both errors, 
 in these excellent terms : — 
 
 " From the divine institution of deacons we gather — 
 \st. That the deacon is a distinct officer from the elder.'^ 
 It is a defect and fault in some congregations that they 
 put no difference betwixt these two, but so confound 
 and mingle them together, as if they were both one, 
 either appointing none for the office of deacon, but leav- 
 ing that charge also upon the elders, or else giving the 
 deacons the same power and employment with the elders. 
 It is true whatsoever the deacon may do by virtue of his 
 office, that same may be done by an elder, as whatsoever 
 is done by an elder may be done by a minister ; because 
 the higher and more eminent officers in the Church in- 
 clude the powers of the lower. It is also true that the 
 deacons may assist in judgment with the ministers and 
 elders, t and be helping to them in those things that con- 
 cern the oversight of the congregations by information 
 and advice ; yet it is necessary that congi-egations should 
 so far regard the ordinances and reverence the wisdom 
 of God in appointing these officers, as to have both elders 
 and deacons, and to preserve them distinct in their 
 actings and operations, not giving to the deacons or 
 suffering them to assume the elder's office. 2f/, That 
 deacons are not to count light of this employment, or 
 any others to esteem lightly of them, because they are 
 
 * First Book of Discipline, chap. ii. p, 74. t Ibid., chap. ii. p. 57. 
 
88 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 called thereunto and do exercise the same ; but that they 
 themselves and all others ought to look upon it as one of 
 those holy and honourable employments Avhich the wis- 
 dom of God hath thought fit to appoint in his house for 
 supplying the necessities of the saints. The Lord Jesus 
 himself did not disdain to wash his disciples' feet ; angels 
 are all of them ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
 for their sakes who are appointed to be heirs of salvation. 
 Why, then, should any think it below them to serve the 
 Church of Christ, and to minister to the saints in this 
 employment ? " 
 
 The reader may wish to see the remainder of Guthrie's 
 views, and those of his brethren, on the office. They 
 are embraced under the following heads : — 
 
 " On the Calling of Deacons. — None is to step into 
 this office but he that is lawfully called thereto. * Unto 
 their calling it is needful — 1*^, That they have abilities 
 and gifts fit for the charge, together with an honest pur- 
 pose of heart to serve the Lord faithfully in the discharge 
 of the same, by seeking his honour and the good of the 
 Church. 2f?, That they be chosen by the congregation 
 in which they are to serve, which choice is to be made 
 after the same manner as that of a ruling elder. 3</, 
 that trial be taken by the minister and elders concerning 
 their conversation, that it be blameless and holy ; and 
 concerning their gifts, that they have that tenderness, 
 discretion, dexterity, and prudence that is fit for that 
 employment, and that they be admitted to their charge 
 with prayer, and supplication, and opening of the Word, 
 
 * Second Book of Discipline, chap. viii. 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 89 
 
 concerning their duty, publicly in the congregation, 
 where they are solemnly to engage themselves to be 
 faithful to the charge committed to them of God. * 
 
 " Of their Duty — First^ of their Conversation. — 
 Their duty is either that which concerns their conversa- 
 tion, or their office and calling. For their conversation, 
 the apostle shows what it must be.t 1*^, They must 
 not be double-tongued, nor liars, nor dissemblers, nor 
 deceivers. 2c?, They must not be given to much wine, 
 nor tipplers, nor drunkards, nor lovers, nor followers of 
 strong drink. 3c?, They must not be greedy of filthy 
 lucre, nor such as are covetous, and whose hearts run 
 after the things of the world. 4t^, They must be grave 
 men, of a posed and staid carriage, and not of a light 
 and vain behaviour. 5th^ They must be such as hold 
 fast the mystery of faith in a pure conscience, that is, 
 who do not only know the doctrine of the Gospel, but do 
 hold fast the faith thereof without wavering, and study 
 to have a good conscience in walking answerably thereto. 
 Qth^ They must be the husband of one wife, such as ab- 
 stain from all unlawful lusts, satisfying themselves with 
 the remedy allowed of God. 7^^, They must be such 
 as rule their own houses and their children well ; such 
 as command and instruct their children and household 
 to keep the way of the Lord, going before them in the 
 practice of piety and godliness, and all holy and reli- 
 gious duties. 
 
 " Of the Duties of their Calling. — The duties that 
 deacons are bound to perform in their calling may be 
 reduced to these heads:}: 1^^, That they be careful to 
 take exact notice of such as are poor in the congrega- 
 
 *Acts vi. 3, 5. 6 ; 1 Tim. iii. 10. 1 1 Tim. ill. 8-12, 
 
 X Second Book of Discipline, chap. viii. 
 
90 TUE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 tion, and have not wherewith to maintain themselves. 
 2f/, That they be careful, from time to time, to collect and 
 receive from the several members of the congregation, 
 and strangers that come among them, what the Lord shall 
 incline their hearts to give for a supply of the necessities 
 of the poor ; and, in a seasonable and Christian way, to 
 stir up and exhort to charity and liberality, that the 
 more may be given. 3c?, That what is received and 
 collected by them be faithfully delivered, that it may be 
 put into the treasury of the congregation. 4iA, That 
 they do tiraeously make known the several conditions 
 and necessities of the several poor within the congrega- 
 tion to the church session, that provision may be ap- 
 pointed accordingly for each of them, that so the poor 
 may not be put to begging, to the grief of their spirits 
 and the reproach of the Gospel. 5th, That they be care- 
 ful, honestly and in simplicity, without respect of persons, 
 to distribute and deliver to the poor what is appointed 
 for supply of their necessities ; and if they be orphans 
 and young ones, or such who have no knowledge nor 
 understanding, nor ability to dispose and order the things 
 that concern their food and raiment, that the deacons 
 honestly employ and bestow what is given for their use, 
 that they may be supplied in these things. 6th, That 
 they be careful that what belongs to the poor be not 
 dilapidated nor applied to any other use ; and if there be 
 any stock in the Church treasure, it be improved to the 
 best advantage for the benefit and use of the poor. Yet 
 so that the poor be rather always supplied than money 
 treasured up for a vain show. 7fh, That they be careful 
 to take notice of those that are sick, that they may 
 acquaint the ministers and elders therewith for visiting 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 91 
 
 them, and if they he poor, that their necessities may he 
 supplied. 
 
 " That deacons maiy the more conveniently discharge 
 their duty, it is fit that some part of the congregation be 
 assigned to every one of them, for the better inspection of 
 the poor thereof, and that the diets of collecting for the 
 poor be divided amongst them. 
 
 " The number of deacons in every congregation is to 
 be according to the proportion of the congregation and 
 of the poor therein; and though there be no necessity of 
 an equal number of elders and deacons, yet it is fit that 
 each elder have some deacon to be assisting to him in the 
 bounds of which he hath more peculiar inspection, that 
 so both the one and the other may discharge their duty 
 with the greater facility to themselves, and with the 
 greater benefit and advantage to the congregation." 
 
 In the 1 7th century, the office of deacon seems to 
 have been in very general, if not universal operation. 
 Those who held it appear to have been numerous. In 
 Glasgow, in 1657, there were five quarters, to each of 
 which there were 1 8 deacons and as many elders attached 
 — making 90 deacons and as many elders. The fact of 
 the deacons bearing so high a proportion to the elders, is 
 a proof of the importance of the office. In 1659, there 
 were 16 deacons and 23 elders in the parish of Dunferm- 
 line. In 1649, the Presbytery of Dunfermline ordered 
 a new and enlarged election of elders and deacons to be 
 made in all the parishes of the Presbytery, 14 in number, 
 and which, with one or two exceptions, are all rural 
 parishes. The proportions in which they recommend 
 the elections to be made are: — 12 deacons and 18 elders 
 in the largest population; 8 deacons and 10 elders in 
 
92 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS 
 
 the less numerous, and 4 deacons and 6 elders in the 
 smallest. At this period, in Torryburn, a small coun- 
 try parish, but pretty populous, there seems to have 
 been 1 1 deacons ; and if in this parish they were so 
 numerous, in other parishes they must have formed a 
 large body. Anderson, in his " Defence of Presby- 
 terian Church Government," 60 years later (1714), in 
 answering an objection that deacons were rare in the 
 parishes of Scotland, states that " they were in every 
 congregation where they could be had — to my certain 
 knowledge in the lesser as well as larger towns — yea^ 
 in many country congregations. Every minister is 
 posed upon it by the Presbytery twice a-year, whether 
 his session be constituted with deacons as well as elders. 
 Possibly some congregations may have little or no stock 
 (money to distribute), and perhaps as few people that 
 want it." — P. 212. He then goes on to show that the 
 office is not essential to the existence of a Christian 
 Church — that the Church existed before the institution 
 of deacons. This is true. Still the office is a permanent 
 as well as most important one in the Christian Church, 
 and should be maintained in every congregation, even 
 the smallest. In all there will be found some poor call- 
 ing for the aid of the deacon ; and though there were 
 none such, yet, as we have seen, there are other duties 
 connected with what may be called the finance of the 
 Church — Christian missions, &c., to which the deacon 
 may most appropriately attend. 
 
 In 1719, an act of Assembly was passed bearing dis- 
 tinctly on the office of deacon. It runs in these terms : 
 — " The General Assembly recommends to all the minis- 
 ters of this Church, to take care that deacons, as well 
 
AND HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 93 
 
 as elders, be ordained in such congregations where dea- 
 cons are wanting : But declares, That deacons, as such, 
 shall have no decisive voice in calling of ministers, or in 
 the exercise of Church discipline." 
 
 From the above period down, comparatively speaking, 
 to modern days, the office of deacon, as a distinct office 
 in the Church of Scotland, has, to a great extent, been in 
 abeyance,* and that its leading duties in the care of the 
 poor have been neglected ; far from it. They have been 
 excellently discharged — on.ly blended with those of the 
 elder. Forty thousand pounds, it appears from official 
 documents, are yearly raised by the free-will contributions 
 of the Church, and, with a larger sum, are dispensed by 
 7000 unpaid office-bearers of the Church of Scotland, 
 elders and deacons. Perhaps no Christian Church can 
 point to so honourable a donation. Still, among the 
 number of office-bearers, the deacons form but a small 
 part. They have, as a body, been allowed to fall into the 
 shade. No better proof of this can be afforded than in 
 the fact, that no tract or treatise, however small, so far 
 as I know, has been published on the subject. I had, 
 in a previous publication, occasion to regret that so little 
 has been written or published on the office of ruling 
 elder. I have still more reason to regret the neglect with 
 which the office of deacon has been too often treated. 
 With the exception of an admirable chapter of Dr 
 
 * There have still been deacons in particular congregations, such as in the 
 Barony, Glasgow, also St John's, St Enoch's, St David's, &c., of the same 
 city. There have also been similar office-bearers, I understand, in some 
 country parishes, as in Mid-Calder and Whitburn, more recently in Killin and 
 Comrie. I rejoice to learn that in some quarters traces of revival are alreadv 
 apparent— that deacons have lately been elected in St John's, Edinburgh, and 
 that the subject is under the consideration of the Session of the High Church 
 parish of the same city. It is also interesting to learn, that in the Presbyterian 
 Church of Ireland, from which the otfice had in a great measure disappeared, 
 not a few congregations are now calling men to the discharge of its duties. 
 
94 THE OFFICE AS IT APPEARS IN THE STANDARDS, ETC. 
 
 Chalmers', in his " Christian and Economic Polity of a 
 Nation," in which lie points out, as he did many years 
 ago, with a rare sagacity which always cames him far 
 ahead of the age, the importance of devolving the tem- 
 poral ministrations of a Church on a separate order of 
 office-bearers — with this exception, in which he success- 
 fully argues for the separation of the offices of elder and 
 deacon, I am not aware that any thing has been written 
 on the deaconship in modern times, at least in this coun- 
 try.* The Acts of the General Assembly are entirely 
 silent, and so are the writings of the friends of the 
 Church. Surely this, though by no means conclusive 
 as to the non-operation of the office, is an unfavourable 
 sign of the interest and zeal of the Church in its behalf. 
 Of late years, with the growing attention of the public 
 mind to the constitution of the Christian Church, and 
 the pressure of the question of Scottish pauperism, there 
 has been increasing inquiry into the deaconship, and a 
 growing desire to revive and extend the operations of 
 the office. I trust that this spirit will enlarge yet more 
 and more, satisfied as I am that, under God, the right 
 management of the poor depends in a great degree upon 
 the universal revival of the office, and the universal com- 
 pliance with the mind of the great Head of the Church. 
 There can be little question that it might be easily and 
 at once revived in every parish of Scotland. There are 
 the materials, let the Church authoritatively call them 
 into operation. The advantages are great, obvious, im- 
 mediate, permanent. The notice of a few of these will 
 naturally belong to the next chapter. 
 
 * Dr Dwight of America has a good discourse on it in his *' Theology ;'* and 
 Dr Gill has a few pages in his "Body of Divinity," vol. iii. 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL, ETC. 95 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL OF THE 
 OFFICE OF DEACON, AND THE SPECIAL CALL TO 
 IT AT THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 1. A GENERAL revival of the office of deacon would be 
 highly useful to the eldership. I need say nothing of 
 the importance of this spiritual office in the Church of 
 Christ, or of the immense benefits which the discharge 
 of its duties has rendered to the Church and to society. 
 At the same time, as at present administered, it admits 
 of decided enlargement and improvement. The revival 
 of the office of deacon would conduce to both, and that 
 in a variety of wjays. It cannot be doubted that one 
 reason, especially in large towns, why many excellent 
 men, when asked to join the eldership, decline to do so, 
 is the troublesome and oppressive charge of the poor, as 
 they apprehend it, in which they would thereby involve 
 themselves. They have no time for this, especially if they 
 belong to the humbler classes of society, and have little 
 taste or tact for it if in the higher ; hence the services of 
 many are lost to the eldership. I am informed, that in 
 a town where there were but 50 elders to the charge of 
 above 700 poor, there was no obtaining elders till re- 
 lieved of the charge of the general, as distinguished 
 from the poor in communion with the Church. The 
 
06 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL 
 
 number ^vas reduced to 150. Since this arrangement 
 has been made — not a correct one, as we have shown, 
 in point of principle, so far as the poor are concerned, 
 however proper in regard to the elder — there has been 
 no difficulty in obtaining the aid of men excellently 
 qualified for the discharge of spiritual duties. Had the 
 elder no charge of the poor whatever, it may be believed 
 that, for the same reason, the facilities for obtaining men 
 of suitable qualifications, in all ranks, would be greatly 
 multiplied. 
 
 But the revival of the office of deacon would not only 
 add to the number of the eldership — itself an immense 
 advantage — but it would improve the character and 
 influence of those who hold the office of elder. Their 
 appropriate spiritual calling is apt to suffer, from being 
 mixed up with the management of temporalities. These 
 are ready to absorb, and the poor are apt to carry preju- 
 dices — it may be unreasonable ones, created by the one 
 administration against the other, and higher. This is 
 finely expounded by Dr Chalmers, in a part of his works 
 to which reference has been already made. The more 
 that a man holding a spiritual office can be separated 
 from mere secular matters, the better. The apostles 
 evidently acted upon this principle in instituting the 
 office of deacon. At the same time, it is not so absolute 
 as to preclude a union of offices where there are not men 
 to fill both departments. It is plain that the apostles 
 must themselves have managed the affairs of the poor 
 previously to the appointment of deacons ; and if so, it 
 cannot, in cases of necessity, be unlawful for ruling elders 
 to discharge the same duty. "Where possible, however, 
 this should be avoided, and in the vast majority of cases, 
 
OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 97 
 
 it may be easily and safely done. It may be noticed, 
 that if the present discussion on the management of the 
 poor in Scotland terminate in any thing like a nearer 
 approximation to the English poor law system, it will be 
 doubly necessary for the integrity of the office of elder to 
 have a large body of deacons. Apart from this, there will 
 be great danger of the office being seriously secularized, 
 and that just at the very time it is rising in its spiritual 
 character. A faithful deacon ship would, by keeping up 
 the habits of the people, often render a compulsory 
 assessment unnecessary; while, where it existed, their 
 services would be peculiarly needed to shield the elder's 
 office from injury. 
 
 In addition to the advantage of making the elder more 
 free for the exercise of his spiritual calling, and giving 
 him to feel that he really is invested with an important 
 spiritual office, which demands special attention, there is 
 another advantage in this connection, and that is, that the 
 deaconship would prove an excellent nursery for the elder- 
 ship. Men having been tried in the one office, would, 
 where otherwise qualified, enter with great eftect upon the 
 other. The apostle Paul evidently contemplated the dea- 
 con being a younger man than the elder, and, after being 
 proved in the deaconship, rising to a higher office in the 
 Church ; nor where the election to the office of elder is 
 popular, is there any thing difficult or invidious in the 
 advancement. If the appointment rested with the minis- 
 ter and elders there might be difficulty. They might be 
 satisfied in their own minds, that one who made an 
 excellent deacon wanted the qualities to render him an 
 equally excellent elder, and could not, therefore, propose 
 him to the congregation ; while they would feel it to be 
 
95 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL 
 
 painfully invidious to pass over one who had served the 
 deaconship well for many years, and to put younger 
 men over his head. This invidiousness is prevented 
 where the congregation elect to the eldership. We may 
 be sure that they will not unnecessarily pass over a 
 deacon who has been known or useful among them; 
 and, supposing that a deacon is not so called, he will be 
 much more easily reconciled to retain his deaconship, 
 and discharge its duties, in which he excels, when it is 
 the voice, not of an individual, but of the congregation, 
 which decides. The deaconship, as affording an oppor- 
 tunity of knowing men's character and qualifications, 
 and proving their graces in various ways, is exceedingly 
 valuable as a preparation for the eldership. It will 
 secure a far larger number of efficient elders, particularly 
 in considerable towns, where imperfect acquaintance of 
 the members of the congregation one with another is 
 one of the grand hindrances to a well-appointed staff of 
 elders. A friend, who had 1 6 deacons in his congregation, 
 four of whom were lately called to the office of elder by 
 the votes of the Christian people, remarks on the advan- 
 tage to which I at present refer in these terms : — " The 
 early bringing in of men too young for the eldership to 
 the habit of active usefulness, and if they approve them- 
 selves in the inferior office, preparing and pointing them 
 out to the session and congregation as fit persons for the 
 higher, — this I find a i-eal advantage, and do not doubt 
 that it might be carried to a great extent and to the best 
 results." So much for the influence of a revived deacon- 
 ship on the eldership. 
 
 2. The change would be beneficial to the minister. It 
 would at once relieve, and strengthen, and encourage 
 
OF THE OFFICE OP DEACON. 99 
 
 him. Even as matters stand, with all the aid which he 
 derives from elders, there are many matters devolved 
 upon him of a secular nature, which he would rather 
 wish to commit to the hands of deacons, as appropriate 
 to them ; and, besides this, it is comforting and ani- 
 mating for a pastor to be surrounded by a large body 
 of intelligent men, interested in the poor and the finan- 
 cial aftairs of the Church. He feels, that amid all his 
 own difficulties and discouragements, he is not standing 
 alone — that others are alive to his circumstances, and 
 sympathize with him, and are forward to aid him — 
 and that he can have their advice and co-operation in 
 many matters, which are otherwise fitted to distract and 
 to burden. This is a source of comfort and strength, 
 even though he may not, as pastor, have frequent occa- 
 sion to call for their assistance. 
 
 3. Next, a revival of the office of deacon would interest 
 a large body of men in the poor, and reflexly do good to 
 the deacon himself. It is a common and melancholy 
 saying, that one half of society do not know what the 
 other half are doing, or how they subsist. This is not like 
 the sympathy and benevolence of brothers — the children 
 of the same Father. Nor is it good for the community. 
 It creates a most injurious separation of ranks, which 
 soon comes to be filled up with jealousies, alienations, 
 and enmities, ready to break out on the first favourable 
 opportunity. The office of deacon tends to amalgamate 
 ranks, to soften diffigrences, to prevent or correct perni- 
 cious misapprehensions. Besides this, to labour among 
 the poor is to do good to one's self. It teaches depend- 
 ence upon God's sovereignty, which maketh us to difi*er 
 — calls forth gratitude to the kindness of Providence — 
 
1 00 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF A REVIVAL 
 
 awakens sympathy and regard for our suffering fellow- 
 men — and is fitted to make one humble and denied to 
 the world. It affords scope, too, for active Christian 
 benevolence — a benevolence which it is not desirable 
 should remain without an object, ever addressed from 
 the pulpit, but never called into living operation in the 
 world. AVhen it is considered that deacons may gene- 
 rally be young men, the advantage of early bringing 
 them into contact with the indigent, and preventing the 
 growth of selfishness and worldliness, and exaggerated 
 views of life, in an age peculiarly addicted to such evils, 
 is the more important. 
 
 4. A fourth advantage of the revival of the office of 
 deacon, would be the increased attention which the poor 
 would receive, not only in the supply of their actual wants, 
 but in other ways. Much of this cannot be expected at 
 the hands of paid agents, generally appointed because they 
 are stern to the poor, and will keep down pauperism, and 
 appointed, too, independent of religious character. Such 
 persons would naturally treat the poor either with great 
 coldness and harshness, or would minister to their wants 
 with a prodigality which would be very injurious. There 
 is no sort of moral or religious security that they would 
 act a different part. On the other hand, though private 
 Christians may, and ought to do much more for the 
 welfare of the poor, by personal exertions, than they 
 usually attempt, yet these do not supersede the attentions 
 of the deacon. Having no official or responsible public 
 character, private individuals may care for the poor or not, 
 by fits and starts, just as they please, and as suits their 
 convenience. This is not satisfactory to the poor, nor is 
 it fitted to gain the object in view. The grand thing is 
 
OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 101 
 
 to join the advantages of both — the advantage of official 
 responsibility and persevering application, with the in- 
 telligent sympathizing kindness of the private Christian; 
 and in the character and office of the Christian deacon 
 these unite. It is evidently a matter of high moment 
 and serious obligation, to do more for the poor, particu- 
 larly in the large to\^^lS, and remote Highland and Island 
 parishes, than is usually done, to enlarge, if necessary, the 
 existing pecuniary provision ; but above all, to take steps 
 for raising their character, and with it their condition. 
 Humanly speaking, it would be impossible to create, at 
 once, a large body of men over the whole country, possess- 
 ed of the character and position of the Christian deacon, 
 without doing an immense service, directly or indirectly, 
 to the families of the poor. The raising up of several 
 thousand men, all interested in their indigent fellow-men 
 and fellow-parishioners, could not fail to be immediately 
 felt. It would prevent intemperance, and promote edu- 
 cation, and economical habits, and domestic comfort ; 
 and, in short, render services of good, which at present 
 we can scarcely conceive. 
 
 It is right to add, that a peculiar class of poor, who 
 have special claims upon the attention of the Christian 
 deacon, would naturally and greatly share in the advan- 
 tages of a revival of the office — I mean the poor saints. 
 They should be cared for, not merely as ordinary poor, 
 receiving a few shillings now and then : they should, so 
 to speak, be watched over. The congregation, through 
 the deacon, should see to it, that none of their members 
 are in want of food or clothing, and so prevented from 
 attending on the services of the sanctuary. Some hesitate 
 about a revival of the office of deacon, in the apprehen- 
 
102 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OP A REVIVAL 
 
 sion that, with the eldership in active operation, there 
 would be no work for the deacon. But let this impor- 
 tant branch of Church duty be properly attended to, and 
 there will be no want of pleasant and useful labour, even 
 though the more general duties of the office were fewer 
 than they are. 
 
 5. As a consequence of the whole, the Church would 
 be strengthened in the affections of the people, and so 
 jStted for growing usefulness. She would be surrounded by 
 many thousand additional office-bearers, while the offices 
 of minister and elder would, at the same time, be raised 
 in efficiency, — in short, the Church should do more 
 work and the work would be better done ; and, in these 
 days, such a course is the grand condition of public 
 favour and stability. Besides, the Church would receive 
 the blessing of the poor man, which is of no small price ; 
 and yet better, she would be crowned with the approba- 
 tion of her 'exalted Head. Not only seeking to do good, 
 but to do good in the way of His appointment, His special 
 smile would rest upon her labours. 
 
 These are strong recommendations for reviving the 
 office of deacon at any time, but they are particularly 
 important at the present day. After making every al- 
 lowance for the danger to which even sagacious men are 
 exposed, of exaggerating the social evils which may 
 happen to prevail at a particular season, there seems 
 every reason to conclude, that the combination of evils 
 which at present presses upon society is not transitory. 
 The increasing application of machinery to manufac- 
 tures, and the improved methods of agriculture, are 
 evidently forcing multitudes, who have not the means of 
 emigration, into the ranks of poverty. However society 
 
OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 103 
 
 may ultimately right itself, this is the present result, and 
 there seems no probability that it will quickly disappear. 
 In these circumstances, it is plain that some great effort 
 must be made to meet the wants of society. The country 
 seems to be driving to one of those grand crisises which 
 form epochs in history, and which can be encountered 
 only by some simultaneous exertion of corresponding ex- 
 tent and power. To prevent, however, the reader being 
 misled by exaggerated views, I have corrected, in the 
 Appendix, some of the greatly over-coloured statements, 
 in regard to the social condition of Glasgow and Scot- 
 land, which from time to time have been made. Still 
 the evils are alarming, and all intelligent, and espe- 
 cially Christian men, must look them stedfastly in the 
 face. Whether a revival of the full duties of the Chris- 
 tian Church in regard to the poor, and that in the way 
 of Christ's appointment, by a large staff of deacons, 
 however equal to meet the ordinary calls of indigence, 
 would be adequate in such an emergency as the present, 
 the fruit of the accumulating evils of years — may be 
 doubtful. Still it is plainly a movement in the right direc- 
 tion ; and it is unquestionable that, in this way at least, 
 very much good would be accomplished. In a crisis so 
 serious there is always danger that the hope of immediate 
 relief may betray men into plans, not only defective, but 
 ultimately injurious. There is peculiar hazard of this 
 where personal and family suffering are involved. Be- 
 nevolent men are willing even to sacrifice their specu- 
 lative principles, or to hold them in abeyance, for the 
 sake of supplying the wants of their destitute fellow- 
 men. All this enhances the value of charity, in the 
 scriptural way proposed, so much the more. Seeking 
 
104 THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES OP A REVIVAL 
 
 out the old paths of the Word of God, and standing in 
 them, we can never do mischief. We may not be able 
 to accomplish at once all the good which is desirable or 
 necessary, but we are in the right way, and must be 
 ultimately successful. 
 
 Many, then, and peculiar are the advantages of reviv- 
 ing the office of deacon. Our present social disorders 
 may have been intended, in the providence of God, in 
 part, to call the attention of the Christian Church to 
 this part of its duty. It is true that most Christian 
 Churches do something for their poor, but they do not, 
 in this respect, discharge their whole duty to all the 
 poor, in the way or to the extent in which Christ re- 
 quires it. Let the Christian Church listen to the voice 
 of Providence, and be faithful to her trust and to the 
 rule of Scripture. A high honour and distinguished re- 
 ward await her if true to herself and to the poor. Dis- 
 credit and reproach will attend her footsteps if, in such 
 a crisis, the irreligious and the infidel can say, with 
 truth, that the Christian Church did no more than the 
 w^orld, and that, in extraordinary circumstances, she felt 
 and acted as if there were nothing peculiar. 
 
 I cannot suppose that any parties will be so unreason- 
 able or infatuated as wilfully to throw obstacles in the 
 way of the revival of the office of deacon. There may 
 at first be a little jealousy in some quarters. In rural 
 parishes some heritors may fear that, sympathizing too 
 strongly with the poor, or bringing out their wants more 
 fully than before, deacons may add to the parochial 
 burdens in seeking to relieve them; and some elders 
 may fear that their office will be superseded when that of 
 the deacon comes into vigorous play ; but the jealousies 
 
OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 105 
 
 are equally unfounded. The deacon will ultimately, and 
 that at no great distance of time, prevent pauperism ; 
 and instead of superseding, will improve the office of 
 elder, and make it more efficient for its appropriate 
 duties. These things are in accordance with experience. 
 I happen to know a case where, on the revival of the 
 office of deacon, a few years ago, there was a little un- 
 pleasant feeling at first among the parties referred to, 
 from not correctly imderstanding the nature and opera- 
 tion of the deaconship ; but soon a leading heritor made 
 the deacon his private almoner, so satisfied was he with 
 the change, and speedily the services of the deacon were 
 appreciated by the elders, and w^ere most valued by the 
 most diligent and prayerful of the number. If any douht 
 exists as to the precise extent of the power of the deacon 
 in the legal management of the poor, it might be desir- 
 able that it should be ascertained and established. It is 
 not likely that in such a case any parties, however un- 
 reasonable, would long hold out. The congregation have 
 an effectual check upon such jealousies as would seri- 
 ously interfere vnth. the proper parochial organization 
 of the Christian Church, and it is right that it should 
 be so. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 TESTIMONy OF AN ENGLISH PRELATE TO PRESBYTERIAN 
 VIEWS OF THE OFFICE OF DEACON. 
 
 Dr Croft, Bishop of Hereford, published in 1675, under 
 the title of " A Humble Moderator," a treatise on the " True 
 State of the Primitive Church," in which, among many other 
 concessions, the following just sentiments occur " Concerning 
 deacons :" — 
 
 " Whether this of deaconship be properly called an order 
 or an office I will not dispute — but certainly no spiritual 
 order; for their office was to serve tables, as the Scrip- 
 ture phrases it, which, in plain English, is nothing else but 
 overseers of the poor, to distribute justly and discreetly the 
 alms of the faithful, which the apostles would not trouble 
 themselves withal, lest it should hinder them in the minis- 
 tration of the word and prayer. But as most matters of 
 this world, in process of time, deflect much from the original 
 constitution, so it fell out in this business ; for the bishops, 
 who pretend to be successors to the apostles, by little and 
 little, took to themselves the dispensation of alms, first by 
 way of inspection over the deacons, but at length the total 
 management ; and the deacons, who were mere lay-officers, 
 by degrees crept into the Church ministration, and became a 
 reputed spiritual order, and a necessary degree and step to 
 the priesthood, of which I can find nothing in Scripture and 
 the original institution, nor a word relating to any thing but 
 the ordering of alms for the poor. And the first I find 
 of these officiating in spiritual matters, is in Justin Martyr, 
 who lived in the second century. He relates, that when the 
 bishop had consecrated the bread and wine for the Lord's 
 Supper, the deacons took it from him, and delivered it to 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 the lay-communicauts there present, and carried it also to the 
 faithful that were absent — hindered, I guess, from coming 
 by sickness or some other good excusing cause. . . But it 
 is evident this was not yet come to be the general practice in 
 all Churches, but only in Greece, where Justin Martyr lived ; 
 for Tertullian, who lived in Africa some years after Justin, 
 declares, that the custom there was to receive the blessed 
 sacrament from the hands of the bishop only, whom he calls 
 the jiresident, that is, whosoever was chief in the assembly, 
 whether bishop or presbyter. But yet, I confess, that this 
 custom of the deacons delivering the blessed sacrament, or 
 at least one part of it, viz., the chalice, by degrees became 
 the custom in most Churches in after ages ; and so, passing 
 from one thing to another, in time they came to administer 
 the sacrament of baptism, and at last to the ministration of 
 the Word, the business which the apostles peculiarly re- 
 served for themselves, and which the bishops also, for a long 
 
 time, reserved entirely to themselves 
 
 Thus, you see, in process of time, how strangely things alter 
 from the original institution. The bishops omit preaching, 
 and become servants of tables ; and the deacons, from ser- 
 ving of tables, step up into the pulpit and become preachers. 
 But Petavius takes upon him to prove deaconship a spiritual 
 order, and brings us a more early author for it than Justin, 
 that noble martyr Ignatius, who, in his ejjistle to the Tral- 
 lians, calls deacons (as Petavius conceives) ministers of the 
 mysteries of Christ. Here I find that which I often lament, 
 learned men to go in a track, one after another ; and some 
 through inadvertency, some through partiality, take many 
 passages of ancient authors quite different from their mean- 
 ing, as here, all following the first erroneous interpreter of 
 Ignatius. Sure this fancy of deacons ran much in his head, 
 otherwise he could never have found them here ; for it is evi- 
 dent the word deaconus in this place relates to the presbyter 
 newly before mentioned, telling the people they ought to be 
 obedient to the presbyters as to the apostles ; (then follows) 
 ' You must, therefore, please them in all things, being minis- 
 ters of the mysteries of Christ.' 
 
 He (Petavius) tells us out of the Acts that Philip and Ste- 
 phen, both deacons, were preachers of the Word — that is, a 
 spiritual work, therefore belongs to a spiritual order. I would 
 gladly know who informed Peta%'ius that Philip, who preached 
 to the eunuch, and afterwards went about preaching to others, 
 was Philip the deacon, and not rather Philip the apostle, as 
 seems to me far more probable ; for Philip the deacon was, 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 by his office, to reside at Jerusalem, and take care of the 
 poor. Thither the alms of the faithful were sent to relieve 
 the saints at Jerusalem. But you farther urge, ' Surely 
 Stephen was a deacon,' and let Philip also, if you please, it 
 signifies little to the purpose. Sure I can show out of Scrip- 
 ture preachers that were in no spiritual order — neither 
 presbyters, nor deacons neither, as Aquila and Priscilla, his 
 wife too, and Apollos likewise, to whom they both preached, 
 and instructed him more fully. Sure they did not ordain 
 Apollos a deacon ; nor can I believe any of the apostles 
 ordained him deacon, and sent him forth to preach before 
 he was well catechised in the Word. He was not so much 
 as baptized in Christ, but knew only the baptism of John. 
 If not baptized, surely not ordained deacon ; yet he prevailed, 
 
 and mightily convinced the Jews It is 
 
 evident, then, from Scripture, that the first institution of 
 deacons was a mere lay office — I will not say a profane office 
 (as some too grossly and irreverently have termed it), but a 
 pious and honourable office in the Church of God, to serve 
 tables, to take care of God's poor ; but, as I have showed, in 
 process of time, it became quite another thing, and so differ- 
 ent from the original institution, that it made Chrysostom 
 and divers others great and good men, doubt whether the 
 apostles did not constitute two sorts of deacons — some for 
 the lay office, some for spiritual offices. Had Chrysostom 
 consulted only Scripture, he would never have doubted nor 
 dreamed of two sorts of deacons, there being no mention at 
 all but of one ; but he seeing the practice of the Church, 
 which he was unwilling to condemn, so different from that 
 one apostolical institution of deacons, this so confounded the 
 good man that he knew not well what to make of it, and 
 willing to piece Scripture and the present practice together, 
 to put a new patch upon an old gai*meut, made the rent 
 the wider, rending the deaconship in two pieces, which of 
 old was but one, only to serve tables ; which office, he that 
 used well, purchased to himself a good degree, a good esteem ; 
 and so it might be a recommendation to the degree of priest- 
 hood, though no necessary step to it." — P. 52. 
 
 After perusing these extracts, the reader will not wonder 
 at the strange applications which have been made of the 
 office of deacon in the course of ecclesiastical history, and 
 which are made still in the Church of Rome. Part of the 
 office, after it had lost its original design, was to direct the 
 people, in their Church devotions, where each part began, 
 they being too ignorant to know themselves. Hence the 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 deacons were called " holy criers." By license from the 
 bishop they had authority to preach, to restore penitents, and 
 grant absolution, and to represent the bishops in general 
 councils — functions which involve the leading duties of the 
 ministerial office. In the Church of Rome it is the deacon's 
 office to incense the officiating priest or prelate — to lay the 
 corporal on the altar — to receive the patten or cup from the 
 subdeacon, and to present it to the person officiating — to 
 incense the choir — to receive the pix from the officiating 
 prelate, and carry it to the subdeacon ; and at the pontifical 
 mass, when the bishop gives the blessing, to put the mitre 
 on his head, and to take off the archbishop's pall and lay it on 
 the altar ! — Vide Encyclopcedia Britannica, 7th edit.. Deacon. 
 According to the ordination of deacon in the Church of Eng- 
 land, he is to assist in the dispensation of the communion, 
 but he is limited to the administration of the wine ! 
 
 No. II. 
 
 REVIVAL OF THE ORDER OF DEACONS STRONGLY AND IM- 
 MEDIATELY RECOMMENDED BY MINISTERS AND ELDERS 
 OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN EDINBURGH, 1841. 
 
 It may not be unknown to the reader, that during the last 
 winter the state of the poor, in connection with remedial 
 measures, has been matter of full and anxious considera- 
 tion by ministers and elders of the Established Church, both 
 in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the latter an Association 
 was formed, which regularly met once a fortnight. Under 
 its auspices a very interesting course of lectures was de- 
 livered, which has since been re-delivered in Edinburgh, and 
 is now in the course of publication. Among many sugges- 
 tions which have been thrown out for the improvement of the 
 physical, intellectual, moral, and religious condition of the 
 poor, especially in large towns, the subject of the revival 
 of the deaconship was frequently noticed, and though no for- 
 mal resolution was passed in Glasgow, I may safely say that 
 the proposal was uniformly and unanimously approved as 
 highly important, and fitted, where realized, to be useful in 
 a variety of ways. 
 
 In Edinburgh the idea has been embodied in an interest- 
 ing document, entitled " Statement by a Committee appointed 
 at a Meeting of certain Ministers and Elders of the City 
 Churches to Consider and Report upon the best Means of 
 Promoting the Efficiency of our Parochial Administration," 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 Among various plans, that of a re\'ival of the deaconship is 
 represented as essential and required to be first and im- 
 mediately adopted. 
 
 " With reference, again, to the kind of agency which should 
 be employed, the Committee are unanimously of opinion, that, 
 without superseding the assistance of other Adsitors, who may 
 be willing to co-operate with them, in discharging the duties 
 which every private Christian may lawfully undertake, with a 
 view to the comfort, improvement, and instruction of his 
 fellow-men, the first measure that should be adopted, is the 
 restoration in all our parishes of the order of deacons, — an order 
 of office-bearers, the institution of which is expressly recorded 
 in the Holy Scriptures (Acts vi.), and recognised by the con- 
 stitution and standards of the Church of Scotland,* — * The 
 Scripture doth hold out deacons as distinct officers in the 
 Church — whose office is perpetual ; to whose office it belongs, 
 not to preach the word or administer the sacraments, but 
 to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the 
 poor.' t 
 
 " Without entering into a detailed description of the duties 
 of deacons and the relation of their office to that of elders, 
 it may suffice to say, in general, that, while much of the 
 benefit which we expect from their being restored in our city 
 churches, will arise from the discharge of duties which are 
 common to them with other office-bearers and even private 
 members of the Church, it is their peculiar and distinctive 
 function to provide for the necessities of the poor, and * espe- 
 cially of those who belong to the household of faith.' The 
 Church is Christ's almoner ; and every congregation is bound, 
 and should deem it a privilege, to supply the wants of its poorer 
 members. And this obligation cannot be said to be dis- 
 charged when the whole poor of a city are thrown, without 
 distinction of character or condition, on the funds of a work- 
 house, and no other relief provided for the pious and exem- 
 plary, than what is equally given to the profligate 
 
 . . . It cannot be reasonably doubted that their appoint- 
 ment would be attended with the most beneficial effects, 
 inasmuch as many private Christians would most gladly con- 
 tribute to carry on a system of efficient parochial superinten- 
 dence, and the wholesome influence of such agency would be 
 felt in a thousand ways, even though the deacons had com- 
 paratively little to give in the shape of alms. 
 
 * Dunlop's Parochial Law. Pardovan's Collection. 
 
 t Form of Church Government, 520. See also, First Book of Discipline, 
 c. 108 ; Second Book, c. 8. 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 "The whole subject is most earnestly recommended to the 
 serious and prayerful consideration of the ministers and elders 
 of the Church;' 
 
 Believing that the reader will be desirous to see the other 
 remedial suggestions of the same report, and that they may 
 be useful in different and distant quarters, I take the liberty 
 to subjoin the remainder of the " Statement." I have only 
 to add, that it bears the much respected names of the Rev. 
 Messrs Buchanan, C. J. Brown, Guthrie, Sym, and Alexander 
 Dunlop, Esq., elder, 
 
 " It is universally admitted, that, in the present condition 
 of the city parishes, there are many lamentable evils — spiri- 
 tual, moral, and economical — which demand the serious 
 attention of every office-bearer in the Church, and loudly call 
 for some prompt and practical remedy. 
 
 " The habitual non-attendance of multitudes at any place 
 of public worship — the indifference which prevails to a wide 
 extent as to the privilege of communion — the neglect of 
 family worship and instruction — the intemperance and profli- 
 gacy of some— the imprudent habits of others — the abject 
 poverty of one class — the precarious and ill-remunerated 
 employment of another — the perpetual struggle which many 
 an industrious family must wage with want ; and the immi- 
 nent hazard to which they are exposed of sinking, on any 
 occasion of domestic affliction or stagnation of trade, which 
 forces them to have recourse to the pawnbroker, into utter 
 and hopeless indigence : — these may be enumerated as a few 
 of the many evils which requii-e to be redressed. 
 
 " While there are materials in every parish which may 
 ultimately be made subservient for its internal improvement, 
 in most cases the parishioners must be acted on, in the first 
 instance, ab extra ; as, from their practical exclusion from the 
 parish church, they cannot be stimulated by the ordinary 
 means of pastoral influence or public instruction. 
 
 " There exists, however, in every congregation, a vast fund 
 of moral influence, capable of being made to bear with pro- 
 digious and most beneficial effect on the parish ; an influence 
 which at present may be said, in a great measure, to be 
 dormant, or to lie waste ; and which only requires to be 
 concentrated and directed into the right channels, to accom- 
 plish, under the blessing of God, the desired reformation. 
 The exertion of this influence would be ' twice bless'd ;' it 
 would be a blessing to the parishioners, and not less to the 
 members of the congregation itself. * If thou draw out thy 
 soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 THY light rise in obscurity, and th v darkness shall be as the 
 noonday.' — Isa. Iviii, 10. 
 
 " It was long since observed, that ' if any eflfectual impres- 
 sion is to be made in the moral condition of a parish, it must 
 be by means of a more extensice agency, by which single families 
 may be brought under a course of moral inspection and dis- 
 cipline ;' and ' that what bids defiance to individual exertion, 
 may be accomplished by extensive co-operation.'' * 
 
 " On this sound and enlightened principle, and with a view 
 to a thorough and pervading system of Christian influence, a 
 large number of ofl&ce-bearers or agents is required ; so that 
 a district might be assigned to each, containing not more than 
 ten or twelve contiguous families. There is reason to believe 
 that many eminent Christians would deem it a privilege to 
 be engaged in this way in their Master's seriice, and to 
 minister to the temporal and spiritual welfare of those of 
 whom He said, * Forasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least 
 of these my brethren, ye did it unto me.' They would feel 
 it to be a relief to them to have their attention directed to 
 a specified field of Christian exertion, instead of being, as 
 they are, embarrassed and distracted by applications from all 
 quarters, which they can neither altogether refuse, nor yet 
 thoroughly investigate ; and if once engaged in this humble 
 but most beneficent enterprise, it is not possible that, with 
 the ordinary feelings of human nature, they should fail to 
 take a deep, and tender, and permanent interest in all the 
 members of those families which have thus been committed 
 to their care. At present, the elders have the same feeling 
 in regard to their districts, of which every faithful minister 
 is conscious in regard to his parish, — that they are too large 
 to be thoroughly pervaded by any moral influence which they 
 can exert ; and hence, from the utter hopelessness of doing 
 what is really impracticable, much that might be accom- 
 plished by a subdivision of labour is left undone. But with 
 a more extensive agency, and more complete organization, 
 every difficulty may be surmounted, and the highest hopes of 
 Christian philanthropy fulfilled. 
 
 " The practical objects to which such an agency should attend, 
 are such as these : — 
 
 " 1. The office-bearer or agent of a Christian Church should 
 make himself thoroughly acquainted with every family in- 
 trusted to his care, and gain their confidence and affection, 
 as a friend, in whose kindness they can confide, and from 
 whom they may expect counsel and advice when required. 
 * Dr Abercrombie. 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 " 2. Another object is to see that every family be suitably 
 supplied with Bibles. 
 
 " 3. To see that * every boy in the district be taught to read 
 and write, and every girl to read and sew.' * 
 
 " 4. To see that the children go regularly to school, and both 
 parents and children to some place of public worship. 
 
 " 5. To see that they be suitably accommodated with seats, 
 if they wish them, in their parish church. 
 
 " 6. To aid, by advice and influence, in procuring or direct- 
 ing to employment, where it is needed, and especially in pro- 
 curing situations for girls when they leave school, and are fit 
 for service. 
 
 " 7. To prevent and counteract, as far as possible, the perni- 
 cious effects of dependence on public charities — by stimulating 
 their own industry — by procuring temporary private relief 
 when it is absolutely necessary, and especially in the case of 
 industrious families, when they have been visited with do- 
 mestic affliction, which often reduces them so low, that unless 
 they are relieved promptly and liberally, they can never 
 afterwards recover themselves — and above all, by encourag- 
 ing habits of economy and saving, so as to provide against 
 the evil day. 
 
 " The means by which such an agency might accomplish 
 these beneficent objects, are alike simple and efficient. It 
 might be recommended, 
 
 *' 1. To visit every family in the district as often as possible, 
 and not less frequently than once a-month. In a district 
 containing twelve families, this might be accomplished at the 
 expense of half an hour a- week. 
 
 " 2. To spend an ' hour on Sabbath in one or other of the 
 houses (perhaps the better way would be to go round them 
 in rotation), where the children might be assembled for reli- 
 gious instniction in little domestic Sabbath schools, and thus 
 the habit of family instruction and worship might be gradu- 
 ally introduced, especially if the parents were reminded of 
 their duty in this respect, and furnished with some simple 
 manual, expository and devotional. 
 
 " 3. To collect into a deposit fund such small sums as the 
 parents or children might wish to save, and pay them over 
 to the Savings' Bank. This noble institution, to be exten- 
 sively available for the benefit of the working-classes, must 
 be worked on the aggressive principle, — as in Liverpool, where 
 agents go round the districts every week, to collect the sav- 
 ings of the poor, and transfer them to the bank, and have in 
 * Dr Chalmer*. 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 this way accumulated sums to the amoimt of six thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 " 4. To report cases of sickness to the minister and elders ; 
 and when any difficulty occurs, or any case requiring peculiar 
 treatment, to bring it under the notice of the elder in the 
 first instance, who may, if necessary, consult with other 
 elders or the minister ; and to report generally on the state 
 of the whole district, at a meeting of the agents, with the 
 elders and minister, to be held at stated periods, say once 
 a-quarter. 
 
 " 5. To keep a roll or book of district statistics, containing 
 the names, ages, and occupations of all the members of the 
 various families, to be revised and re-written once a-year, 
 after the term in May, and the old ones preserved for the 
 purpose of comparison. 
 
 *' Many other methods of practical usefulness will readily 
 suggest themselves to a Christian agent, whose heart is in 
 the work ; such as the promoting of cleanliness, sufficient 
 ventilation, and many more too minute to be specified, but 
 which, in the aggregate, would confer a general and perma- 
 nent blessing on every little locality. 
 
 " That the establishment of some such agency is highly de- 
 sirable, and loudly called for, in the present circumstances 
 of society, cannot be doubted by any one who is at all 
 conversant with the actual state of our city parishes ; and 
 whether it be regarded with reference to the diffusion of 
 saving spiritual instruction, or to the secondary, but still 
 important object of increasing the means of temporal comfort 
 among our parishioners, its value cannot be too highly esti- 
 mated. It would seem to be the likeliest means, under the 
 Divine blessing, of renewing that friendly intercourse be- 
 twixt the different classes of society, which once existed, 
 but which has been too much interrupted by the habits 
 of modern life, and of reviving those reciprocal feelings of 
 kindliness which cannot be allowed to decay without being 
 supplanted by jealousies, which threaten the destruction of 
 all that is bland, and peaceful, and happy in a weU-condi- 
 tioned community. It might exert a prodigious power, in 
 the way of checking intemperance, preventing or curing 
 poverty, and arrest the degeneracy of those who, yielding to 
 the pressure of circumstances, are ready to sink into the most 
 abject debasement. It might save many from the prison and 
 penitentiary, many more from the charity work-house, and 
 more stiU from the ruinous habit of resorting on every emer- 
 gency to the pawnbroker's shop. 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 " If the establishment of such an agency be a desirable 
 object, the only questions which require to be considered 
 are. Is it practicable ? and, if it be, What kind of agency 
 should be employed ? and, What means can be placed at 
 their disposal ? 
 
 " That the establishment of such an agency is practicable, 
 appears not only from the experience of St John's parish 
 in Glasgow, and St John's parish in Edinburgh, as well as 
 others which might be mentioned ; but from the declared 
 willingness of many Christian men to lend their aid in pro- 
 moting these great objects of Christian philanthropy." * 
 
 While there can be no question that much may be done 
 in this way to ameliorate the whole character and condition, 
 especially of the humbler classes in society, — while partial 
 success can be appealed to in a case known to the writer of 
 several years' duration ; it is right, at the same time, to bear 
 in mind, in order to prevent disappointment and the waste 
 of resources on impracticable or doubtful expedients, that it 
 is only an approximation which after all is attainable, — that 
 it must be extremely difficult to work machinery of such im- 
 mense magnitude, — that there is great fluctuation among the 
 agents, and no small danger of their getting wearied and 
 falling away in the course of time. Not at all in the spirit of 
 discouragement, but rather to prevent exaggerated hopes, 
 which are always injurious, I beg to subjoin the following 
 facts, which go far to show that the visitations and sviperinten- 
 dence of private Christians, however important in their own 
 place, cannot be depended on as a substitute for the regular 
 and appropriate parochial machinery of the Established 
 Church. It must only be employed as a help and a supple- 
 ment ; so contemplated, it is highly useful and may experi- 
 mentally convince not a few who now hang back from bearing 
 office in the Christian Church (though soUcited in the Pro- 
 vidence of God to do so), that there is nothing so very for- 
 midable in the moral and religious charge of a limited number 
 of families, as should discourage them from undertaking it. 
 Still the only security for a permanent and trustworthy pro- 
 vision, is the extensive subdivision of parishes, and the ap- 
 pointment of tinily evangelical pastors, elders, and deacons, 
 to a manageable population. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Gibson of Glasgow, whose services to the 
 Established Church in various ways, and in connection with 
 
 * In St John's, Edinburgh, I understand that there 80 persons who, whether 
 as office-bearers or as priyate Christians, devote their moral and religious 
 care to the parish. 
 
APPENDIX. 117 
 
 the Inquiries of the Religious Instruction Commissioners 
 among others, are well kno^Ti and appreciated, proved 
 before the Board, from unquestionable authority, that a 
 single successful parochial church in Glasgow exceeded, in 
 point of moral and religious result, the attainments of ex- 
 tensive associations of Evangelical Dissenters, numbering 
 many visitors : such are the fluctuations and uncertainties 
 which belong to the operations of a visiting society of 
 private Christians, however estimable. The facts are un- 
 deniable, resting chiefly on the acknowledgment of intel- 
 ligent Dissenters themselves. One minister had in his 
 congregation 30 agents at the time he gave his evidence ; at 
 the time of the report of the association, two months suljse- 
 quently, they had fallen to 14 ; by the time of the printing 
 of the report again, they had risen to 22. Another minister 
 in a single year lost 10 agents and 6 meetings ; and then, 
 with regard to the success of the scheme in drawing out the 
 people to receive religious instruction, a society with 50 agents 
 and 11 stations had an attendance of from 15 to 75 persons 
 each. Taking 30 as a fair average, we have here 330, while 
 a single new church has been the means of drawing to the 
 worship of God between 200 and 300 who had not been in 
 the habit of attending any place of worship before, indepen- 
 dently of a large general congregation : this was stated in 
 evidence. It may be added, that the labour of the diff'erent 
 Instruction societies and City missions have not been instru- 
 mental in raising a single place of worship. These facts are 
 stated, not for the purpose of disparaging the labours of 
 private Christians, or of the modes of instruction which 
 Evangelical Dissenters in some of the large towns pursue, — 
 far from it ; it is believed that much good is, with the Divine 
 blessing, wrought out by such channels, — good, for which it 
 becomes every Christian to be thankful, even had it been 
 much less than it reaUy is. But in comparing diff'erent means 
 of good, it is well to know which is the more successful, and 
 to be guarded against exaggerated expectations from what 
 at first sight seems fair. It is always matter of regret where 
 superior instrumentality is neglected or not applied, in con- 
 sequence of a preference for what is supposed to be as good, 
 while experience has proved its inferiority. In this way, 
 both time and resources are relatively lost, and faithful men 
 are discouraged. At the same time, in the absence of the best, 
 every intelligent Christian will of course choose the next 
 best, — any thing is better than utter sloth and indifference to 
 the spiritual welfare of our fellow-men. 
 H 
 
1 1 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 PRACTICAL EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE WORKING OF THE 
 DEACONSIIIP EVEN IN A LARGE TOWN. 
 
 One of the deacons of St John's, Glasgow, of well known 
 intelligence, happening to be a fi-iend, I submitted to hira the 
 following queries, and received from him the accompanying 
 answers. Though this parish was upon a peculiar system, 
 and, in cases where it is knoAvn that there is a fixed legal 
 provision for the poor, deacons have not the same motives 
 for strict investigation of cases, still the information is valu- 
 able, and so far applicable to all parishes, whether under 
 legal or voluntary management. I am sure the reader will 
 thank me for the statement. It shows what might be done 
 in more favourable circumstances. The length of time over 
 which the testimony extends renders it the more valuable : — 
 
 Q. 1. How long were you a deacon of St John's ? 
 
 A. Eighteen years,— from 1819 to 1837. 
 
 Q. 2. What was the size of your district ; how many fami- 
 lies ? 
 
 A . At my first survey the district contained 99 families of 
 476 individuals. Next year several additional deacons were 
 appointed, and my proportion was reduced to 56 families of 
 nearly 300 members. In 1831 some new houses were built, 
 increasing the families to 81 — 359 members, and so on from 
 year to year, till the population amounted to 117 families of 
 570 members. 
 
 Q. 3. What time did the charge occupy ; did you easily 
 overtake the management ? 
 
 A. With 56 families, in ordinary circumstances, very little 
 of my time was occupied, and my ofiice was by no means 
 irksome ; but when the families increased to 80, 100, and 
 upwards, I found it more difficult to keep up my acquaint- 
 ance in the district, so that I had less comfort in going 
 amongst them, and whilst my visits were in reality more 
 requisite, they became less frequent. It is easy to keep up 
 a pleasant familiar knowledge of a small number of families, 
 which creates such interest as to carry one readily back to 
 the district. 
 
 Q. 4. What were the general principles on which you acted 
 in the management of the poor ? 
 
 A. My first aim was to become acquainted with all the 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 famiEes, and when any person applied for relief, I visited 
 and made a strict investigation, then gave in a report of the 
 case at our first monthly meeting. If it was considered that 
 farther inquiry was requisite, or to relieve me of the odium 
 of a refusal, if such was thought proper, another deacon was 
 appointed to visit along with me. 
 
 Q. 5. What was the mode in which you sought to carry 
 your principles into effect ? 
 
 A. If the applicant was out of work, or had children able 
 for work, we used such means as were within our reach to 
 get employment for them ; or if they had any friends or rela- 
 tives able to assist them, or were members of any Dissenting 
 congregation, we were required to apply to any or all of these 
 quarters before granting any allowance ? 
 
 Q. 6, How often were you in the habit of visiting your 
 district ? 
 
 A. The year 1819-20 was one of great depression and great 
 hardship, and my visits were of course very frequent and 
 very trying, as the operatives were almost in a state of rebel- 
 lion, and many of them scowled upon me in defiance ; but by 
 steady perseverance I was enabled to overcome that feeling, 
 and gained a knowledge of the people at that time, which 
 made frequent visits less needful for years to come. 
 
 Q. 7. What topics did you find for conversation ? 
 
 A. Education, week-day and Sabbath schools, were fruitful 
 topics on my part, and poverty and distress never failing ones 
 on the part of the people. 
 
 Q. 8. Were you well received ? 
 
 A. Yes, with few exceptions ; and in many cases most 
 cordially welcomed, and much pressed to repeat my visit 
 soon. 
 
 Q. 9. Had you any difficulty in ascertaining the exact 
 truth ? What means did you employ to reach it ? 
 
 A. Where the people thought they had any interest in con- 
 cealing it, or if they did not understand the object of my in- 
 quiries, I found it very difl&cult to get at the exact truth, and 
 frequently have come away with a wrong impression ; how- 
 ever, this helped to shai'pen my ingenuity, though often baffled 
 after all. 
 
 Q. 10. Do you remember particular cases of good being 
 done, and of the expression of gratitude for your services ? 
 
 A. I can recollect but a very few cases in which the relief 
 afibrded called forth any expression of gratitude, and that 
 came from industrious well-doing folks, who were anxious to 
 help themselves, and who had received from me some little 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 acts of kindness besides the parish aid. Of course much real 
 good was done. 
 
 Q. 11. Did you use means to prevent poverty; such as by 
 encouraging education, church attendance, the savings' bank, 
 circulating Bibles, finding employment for those out of work ? 
 
 A. The means stated in this query were used on various 
 occasions, but none of them except the last when a person 
 applied for parish aid ; the others would not have gone well 
 down with a starving family. The deacons were often very 
 useful in finding work for the people. 
 
 Q. 12. In what would you say that the mainspring of your 
 management consisted ? 
 
 A. Kindness, prompt attention to every application, whether 
 deser\ang or not ; never administering help in ignorance to 
 save myself the trouble of a visit ; rigid investigation, &c. 
 See answer to query 4th. 
 
 Q. 13. When the people got accustomed to the St John's 
 management, did they like it as well as that of other sessions ? 
 
 A. For some years at fii'st there was a strong prejudice 
 against St John's management, — alleging that they were de- 
 prived of the Town's hospital ; and this was strengthened by 
 parties from other parishes that ought to have known better ; 
 but, latterly, I had no complaints on that score, and our im- 
 ports from other parishes in town were always greater than 
 our exports. 
 
 Q. 14. Was it as liberal in cases of real distress ? 
 
 A. We were furnished with a Ust of the allowances made 
 by the Town's hospital for cases beyond the sessional, and we 
 were regulated by it ; but, in some cases, such as palsy, &c., 
 we were constrained to give a very liberal aliment. 
 
 Q. 15. Did you live near the district, or do you attach any 
 importance to this ? 
 
 A. I did not live in my district, but (though many of my 
 brethren held a different opinion) I think it of very great im- 
 portance that the deacon should do so, as it tends to save 
 much of his time, and give him greater facilities in acquiring 
 a knowledge of his district, as well as a benefit to the appli- 
 cants themselves. 
 
 Q. 16. Are there any suggestions which occur to you as 
 important in connection with the management, such as regular 
 attendance on the court of deacons, &c. 
 
 A. I consider regular attendance at the deacons' meetings 
 of the utmost importance ; it keeps up his interest, adds to 
 his knowledge and experience, and strengthens the hands of 
 his fellow-labourers. During my 18 years I declined all 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 engagements which would interfere with those meetings, and 
 was absent on only six or eight occasions, owing either to 
 sickness or being necessarily from home. I think, also, the 
 minister of the parish should be as often present as possible, 
 and ought to make himself well acquainted with the working 
 of the system, as his opinion will naturally have much weight 
 with inexperienced hands. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 savings' banks in connection with the deaconship. 
 
 I HAVE adverted to the important ser^dce which Deacons, 
 in the exercise of their appropriate calling, might render 
 to the humbler classes, by the encouragement of provident 
 institutions. The prevention of poverty surely falls as dis- 
 tinctly within the range of their duties as its relief? In 
 Manchester I understand that there is a society of young 
 men, who may be said to act as pioneers and assistants to 
 the Savings' Bank. They weekly go through theu' districts, 
 and collect from the families what they can spare, how- 
 ever small, and deposit it in their name in the bank. In 
 this way a kind interest is shown by a higher in behalf of a 
 humbler class of the community, money is saved which 
 might have been squandered or lost, and habits of fore- 
 thought are formed. In short, the parochial principle is 
 applied to the savings' bank. The facilities which are afforded 
 in a kind way for directing their resources, encourage fami- 
 lies to become depositors in the savings' bank, who would 
 never otherwise have dreamed of it themselves ; and where 
 good habits are created, the parties are soon able to walk 
 alone. I am persuaded that deacons in the Christian Church, 
 consisting chiefly of young men of an active turn of mind, 
 of intelligence and religious character, and whose very office, 
 with its responsibilities, points to the care and welfare of 
 the poor, would often, and that with the greatest ease and 
 advantage, discharge the duties which are accomplished by a 
 general association at Manchester. It is probable that the 
 agents of the Association only contribute in part to the success 
 of the " INIanchester and Salford Bank for Savings," but the 
 prosperity of the institution should form an argument for 
 calling in the aid of such Christian agents in other cases. It 
 appears, from the last report, that there are about 15,000 de- 
 positors, — that the whole sum due them is about L.400,000, — 
 that from the commencement, in 1818, to the present time, 
 
1 22 APPENDIX. 
 
 the deposits under L.5, indicating the poorer classes, have 
 amounted to about 200,000, — and that last year they consti- 
 tuted three-fourths of the entire deposits, the gi-eatest number 
 of them being between os. and 10s. 6d. It is interesting to 
 notice among the depositors 1280 widows, and 5540 minors, 
 which in many cases is probably another name for orphans. 
 How could a faithful deacon more usefully occupy himself 
 than as the encourager of such excellent institutions, whether 
 as in some districts himself a receiver, or in others as an 
 active agent, diffusing information and collecting sums ? 
 
 No. V. 
 
 EXAGGERATED VIEWS OF THE CRIME OF GLASGOW, SCOT- 
 LAND, &C., — THE SUCCESS OF RELIGIOUS AND EDUCA- 
 TIONAL MEANS IN REPRESSING IT. 
 
 Some may be disposed to ask what connection this topic has 
 with the revival of the order of deacon. There is an impor- 
 tant connection. In addition to regard for primitive Church 
 order, one of the leading reasons for attempting the revival 
 of the deaconship is, to ameliorate the condition of the hum- 
 bler classes of society, especially in the large towns. But, 
 in order to this, it is desirable to have just views of the real 
 nature of that condition. Now, I trust I am, in some tolera- 
 ble measure, alive to the degradation and wretchedness of a 
 large body of the community, and of not a few even in rural 
 districts. But, on that very account, I lament that exag- 
 gerated views of the evil with which the nation has to con- 
 tend, particularly in reference to crime, or the moral condition 
 of the himibler classes, should be entertained and propagated. 
 The evils are sufficiently great in themselves, and amply 
 notorious, without needing exaggeration. To overcolour 
 moral evils, to exaggerate crimes, if this be done to any seri- 
 ous extent, is always very injurious. It disheartens the good 
 from using any exertions to correct what seems so hopeless, 
 and it corrupts the wicked yet more : they look upon crime 
 as a sort of necessity springing out of an unhappy state of 
 society — they come to think of it lightly ; and thus the very 
 prevalence of sin tends to propagate it. Besides, exaggerated 
 statements in regard to crime are first misunderstood and 
 then perverted, to the disparagement, it may be, of the cha- 
 racter and best institutions of our land, among foreigners. 
 How greedily does the Papist of the Continent devour the 
 
APPENDIX. 1 23 
 
 grossly over-coloured representations of Scottish crime, and 
 turn these to the disadvantage of our Protestant Christianity ; 
 perhaps alleging, with truth, that his alleged error is more 
 favourable to morality than our boasted truth. In this way, 
 general and serious prejudices are fostered against the Word 
 and Church of God in their purest forms — and all for what I 
 The gratification of an idle wonder, perhaps unenquii'ing cre- 
 didity, which delights in the terrible. It brings no counter- 
 balancing good. Nay, it is a just moral retribution on exag- 
 geration, that he who deals in it comes to be disbelieved 
 even where he is trustworthy. 
 
 To take a few illustrations of the exaggeration to which I 
 refer, Mr Alison, the Sheriif of Glasgow, in his work " On 
 Population," vol. ii. p. 80, states the sum annually expended 
 in this city on whisky as at least £1,200,000, in other words, 
 nearly one and a-quarter million sterling ; of which he gives 
 the million to the working- classes. Now, appalling and most 
 lamentable as the intemperance of Glasgow may be, I am 
 satisfied, on the best evidence of which the case admits, that 
 there is vast exaggeration here. JMr Collins, when Presi- 
 dent of the Temperance Society ten years ago, a gentle- 
 man of noted intelligence and candour, after great and 
 anxious consideration, estimated the whole Glasgow con- 
 sumption — and it is enormous — at £482,000 ; and his calcula- 
 tion was generally allowed to be just and reasonable. The 
 population at that time was above 200,000, and though it has 
 grown largely within the last 10 years, yet the increase has 
 not been such as to lend the slightest countenance to the 
 swelling figures of the Sheriff at the time they were published, 
 or even now. To show the extreme exaggeration which has 
 been indulged in, it is only necessary to remind the reader, 
 that were Mr AUson's statement correct, every family in 
 Glasgow must spend £20 a- year on spirits alone, while very 
 many of them never taste spirits at all, and multitudes have 
 not above r2s. a- week, or £26, for their whole annual sub- 
 sistence. Does every labourer spend £20 out of his £26 on 
 spirits ? Let families even in the higher ranks of life con- 
 sider whether their spirit account alone amounts yearly to 
 £20. Surely every one must at once see the extravagance 
 of the assertion : and yet the official name of the Sheriff 
 gives currency to such sad and injurious representations. 
 Of course, if some families do not consume spirits at all, or 
 consume less than £20 worth yearly, the greater amount must 
 be divided among those who do. 
 
 Parallel to the above is another in the same work, that 
 
1 24 APPENDIX. 
 
 *•' nearly 30,000 persons are every Saturday niglit in a state 
 of brutal intoxication." If the consumption was so enormous 
 as icas alleged, it would not be wonderful that the intoxica- 
 tion should correspond. It may be hoped that when the one 
 disappears the other will also vanish. What possible e\'i- 
 dence can be referred to in proof of 30,000 weekly intoxica- 
 tions, the vast body of them, if they exist at all, secret ; and 
 unless they can be established, is. it right in itself, or fair to 
 the character of the city, or patriotic, to deal in such hateful 
 charges ? The whole number of " drunk and disorderly," 
 as appears from the records of the police-office — and they are 
 decreasing, while the popidation is increasing — were, in the 
 last three years : — 
 
 1839, . . 3864 
 
 1840, . . . 3746 
 
 1841, . . 3642 
 
 These numbers mark the cases which are amenable to the 
 police in a population of 175,000, not every Saturday night, 
 but in the course of a whole year ; and though there are very 
 many cases of intoxication which never come within the 
 cognisance of the police-office, and the above do not em- 
 brace the whole police cases of Glasgow, yet surely the 
 returns of little more than 3000 in a year, in the police of 
 the city, pour utter ridicule upon the extravagance of 30,000 
 every week ? 
 
 There is a still more abominable charge, and that, too, given 
 on parliamentary evidence. It is to the effect that the 
 factory girls, who constitute so important a part of the popu- 
 lation of Glasgow, are abandoned to the worst species of 
 profligacy. It is part of the cruelty involved in such charges, 
 that they do not admit of proof or disproof, save by a trial of 
 one's moral delicacy. I have thought it due to the character 
 of a large body of workers, not a few unbefriended orphans, to 
 make inquiry in quarters where the truth is most likely to 
 be known, and I am satisfied that the charge is utterly base- 
 less. Factory females are not worse in point of character 
 than females of the same station of life in other departments. 
 The late Rev. Dr M'Gill, the Professor of Theology in the Col- 
 lege, who took a lively interest in institutions for reclaiming 
 offenders, and who was a man of sound observation, rated 
 young women working in the factory, not in his 1st, but in 
 his 4th class of offenders ; and the returns of the Lock Hos- 
 pital — I have it on the testimony of the medical officer who 
 has attended for many years — is in harmony with Dr M'Gill's 
 conclusions. These returns show, 
 
APPENDIX. 1 25 
 
 ^lad been connected 
 
 100D n^e X- ^ X r 1- 1 im ! with the mills. These 
 1838, 265 patients, out of which 101 ^. ^n ., ^ ^^^. „,^^, 
 1 s^Q 97^ ^ ' j out of the vast num- 
 
 Jc^A iin " " ^H 1 bers working in the 
 
 1840, 236 „ „ 64 .„ ® „ 
 
 ' " " I milLs are a small 
 
 [_ proportion. 
 An intelligent Christian who was for six years connected 
 with a mill, as a teacher, states, that out of 400 females 
 there was only one visible departure from moral propriety in 
 three years, and that the seducer was a person of superior 
 station, who married the person whom he injured. The same 
 witness testifies what I have learned of other mills, that the 
 very suspicion of any impropriety in a single instance was 
 resented, — that it was considered as bringing a stain on the 
 character of the factory, and that the guilty party or parties 
 felt their position so uncomfortable, that they might be said 
 to be hunted out of the employment. Another gentleman, 
 who, in the character of a missionary and Sabbath school 
 teacher, was for four years a Christian labourer among a mill 
 population, concurs in the same testimony, and his powers of 
 observation are remarkably shrewd. Other evidence, such 
 as that of the intelligent managers of mills, could be ap- 
 pealed to to the same purpose ; but it is unnecessary. I may 
 merely add, that it appears from the New Statistical Account 
 of one of the parishes of Renfrewshire, drawn up by an ex- 
 cellent minister, that in a parish where there are two large 
 cotton mills, the proportion of young women gi^dng evidence 
 of piety, and making a profession of Christianity by be- 
 coming communicants, is as high as young females of the 
 same class engaged in agricultural employments, in the same 
 parish. Nothing, then, can be more reckless than the state- 
 ments which have been made. There may be particular 
 mills whose character is low; but it is unfair, in the teeth of 
 facts, to convert these into a universal experience, and that 
 of the worst possible description. How would we ourselves, 
 — how would the middling or the higher classes of society 
 like sweeping charges to be brought against their general 
 character or occupation ; and is not character as dear and 
 as important to the humbler as to the more opulent members 
 of society ? It is due to many members of the Church of 
 Christ to defend their character from these most unjust 
 aspersions, and to call upon their accusers to establish their 
 charges, or retract them. It is to be feared that nothing 
 better than theoretical notions of modem society lie at the 
 root of the general accusation against character, and that 
 facts are assumed to help out fond but feeble conclusions. 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 Turning, however, from the particular case of Glasgow, 
 let us advert to the condition of Scotland generally under the 
 same aspect — that of crime. That there is a decided in- 
 crease of crime throughout Scotland is a lamentable truth, 
 which calls for humiliation, and the most active application 
 of appropriate means to check and prevent it. With the 
 inadequate moral and religious machinery in operation, it is 
 not wonderful ; but it is not less certain, that here, too, there 
 is gross exaggeration, or at least that explanations (seldom 
 if ever given) are indispensable, to prevent the most serious 
 misapprehensions and manifold false inferences. 
 
 It appears from official returns, that in Scotland in 
 1832, there were 2431 commitments for crime. 
 1836, „ 2922 „ 
 
 1840, „ 3872 „ 
 
 I take these years because they are recent, and form an 
 equal division of time. Certainly, under whatever aspect 
 the progress can be viewed, it is serious and affecting. In 
 eight years there have been 1442 additional cases ; but we 
 have to remember, 
 
 1st, The increase of the population, which has been, as 
 appears from the recent census, 11 per cent, in Scotland 
 during the last ten years. 
 
 2d, The influx of Irish into the large towns ; and as rail- 
 way labourers, &c., of late into more rural districts. 
 
 Sd, The growing establishment of county police, which, as a 
 new and zealous force, brings upon record every offence which 
 is committed, however inconsiderable, and which, by new re- 
 gulations, multiplies, especially at first, the chances of offence. 
 
 With regard to the first — the increase of population — this, 
 though often overlooked, is a very important element. For 
 instance, it appears that over Great Britain and Ireland, in 
 the last ten years, it is equal to an increase of three millions 
 — a number more than the whole population of Scotland. It is 
 plain, that in the natural course of things, without any special 
 blame attributable to any parties, a proportional increase of 
 crime is to be looked for, and from that increase it is not to 
 be expected that Scotland should be exempted. 
 
 The recent and growing influx of Irish, chiefly members of 
 the Church of Rome, is well known ; but their connection 
 with the increase of crime in Scotland is less understood than 
 it ought to be. From a variety of sources of proof, it is ma- 
 nifest that that connection is a very important one. 
 
 In the year 1840, of the offenders brought before the Magis- 
 trates of Glasgow, 791, constituting one-fourth of the whole 
 
APPENDIX. 1 27 
 
 number, were Irish — (dde Capt. Miller's " State of Crime " 
 for 1840) — while the Irish population do not constitute 
 70,000, or one-fourth of the pojDulation, but a much smaller 
 proportion, probably a ninth or a tenth. Of the 205 oft'enders 
 sent to Calton Bridewell in 1839, considerably above one- 
 third were Irish. So, of the 83 boys received into the House 
 of Refuge for Repressing Juvenile Delinquency, in 1839, not 
 less than 24 were the children of an Irish fatlier, 18 of an 
 Irish mother — in other words, one-half were of Irish parent- 
 age. Though almost all the youths may have been bom in 
 this country, yet they inherited the low moral standard and 
 social condition of their parents. — {Vide Second Annual Re- 
 port.) Of the patients in the Lock Hospital, one-sixth were 
 born in Ireland. If tried by the test of parentage, the num- 
 bers Avould have been far greater. Of 1038 destitute families 
 exposed to the temptations of crime, relieved by extraordi- 
 nary charity, in 1838, about one-third (310) were Irish ; and 
 let it not be thought that this state of things is peculiar to 
 Glasgow. Other large towns have their share ; nay, it is felt 
 in rural districts. Of the " strangers " convicted for crime 
 in the county and burghs of East Lothian, in 1841, not less 
 than one-fifth were Irish, though this is an agricultural county, 
 on the east coast of Scotland, and therefore removed from 
 the western influx, and without any work calling particulai-ly 
 for Irish labour. 
 
 I do not mention these things as reflecting upon the Irish 
 nation, or as intimating that those belonging to it who settle 
 in Scotland are not suitable objects of all the care which 
 faithful pastors, elders, and deacons can bestow, but simply 
 as correcting false impressions regarding crime in Scotland 
 — ^impressions fitted to paralyze good men from making any 
 attempt at the moral improvement of their country. 
 
 The remaining point, viz., the establishment of County 
 police, however important and useful, and really in the end 
 preventive of crime, tends in the meantime to swell the 
 ajyjMrent amount, and so to mislead those who are not at the 
 pains to inquire. That this new force, which has already 
 been introduced into several counties, and is, I believe, in 
 the course of being introduced into all, has a very marked 
 effect in adding to the apparent increase of crime, is abun- 
 dantly ob\aous. It is cleai-, from a comparison of the annual 
 official returns of crime by the Lord Advocate, that within 
 the last four or five years there has been a great proportional 
 increase of offences. Previous to that date, the increase was 
 about a hundred offences a-year, which might in a great de- 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 gree be accounted for by the progress of the population ; but 
 latterly the increase has been 200, 300, 400, additional cases 
 in a year. A remarkable illustration of this is furnished by 
 the county of East Lothian, or Haddingtonshire. So lately 
 as 1837, its criminal offenders are stated at 23 ; whereas, 
 under the county police, in 1840, the convictions rise up to 
 275, and in 1841 to not less than 611. Now, no one who is 
 acquainted with that peaceful rural county, can imagine that 
 it is really advancing in so frightful a ratio of crime, and all 
 the while without attracting any attention from the country, 
 and without alarming those who are living in the midst of it. 
 A glance at the county returns goes far to explain the case. 
 It appears, that of the offences of 1841, nearly one-third are 
 what are called " road offences," such as carters not attend- 
 ing to their horses, clothes drying on the road hedges, animals 
 grazing on the road-side, &c., &c., — offences surely which 
 scarcely deserve the name of crimes. Then a great many 
 others are most trifling, — so much so, that out of the 61 1, only 
 two were so serious as to need to be tried by the High Court 
 of Justiciary. " About two-thirds,^' the superintendent reports, 
 ** of the jyersons convicted were detected by the j^olice when in the act 
 of committing the offence for which they were punished^' — an indi- 
 cation at once of the zeal of the police, and the comparatively 
 trifling character of the offences. Were the offences more 
 serious, the parties, we may well believe, w^ould have been 
 more on their guard. If, under the new rural police, all the 
 other counties of Scotland make up similar criminal returns, 
 it is plain that Scotland will soon be made to appear a very 
 nursery and home of criminals ; and all at a distance, and 
 those who are on the spot, but are not at the pains to inquire, 
 must be most injuriously misled and deceived. It is possible 
 that all who appear in the county police lists are not included 
 in the Lord Advocate's official returns (though there is the 
 same division of courts before which offenders are tried), but 
 there can be no question that the operation of such a force 
 must tend greatly to swell the general returns. 
 
 As an evidence of the necessity of classification in criminal 
 returns, and of the propriety of excluding such offences as 
 " Road offences " from the catalogue of crimes, it may be 
 stated, that " Contraventions of police regulations " come 
 under the same head in the large towns ; and nothing would 
 be more unfair or misleading than to reckon them among 
 moral offences. I am happy to be able to refer to the testi- 
 mony of Capt. Miller of the Glasgow Police upon this point. 
 After stating, in answer to a number of queries which I put 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 to him on the state of crime, and which he kindly answered, 
 that in the general aggregate of offences in Glasgow, not less 
 than 2562 in the year 1840, and 2559 in 1841, were « con- 
 traventions of police regulations," he adds : — " Although the 
 number of convictions for contraventions of the poKce regula- 
 tions, during the last tw^o years, has been larger than formerly, 
 it is no evidence of crime. On the contrary, even the num- 
 ber of such offences has been falling off ; and the difference 
 arises from the more strict enforcement of the police regula- 
 tions. This class of offences^ hotceter, is distinct from criminal 
 matters, and their increase or decrease affords no data for fixing the 
 state of crime." The whole number of offences, as brought 
 under Capt. ^Miller's returns in 1841, is 8727. This, under 
 any circumstances, is an appalling number ; but to those 
 who do not analyse it, it must seem to indicate a much worse 
 state of things than really exists. Deducting the " drunk 
 and disorderly, and the contraventions of police rules," the 
 number is reduced to 2546 for crime, strictly so called — a 
 number which, in itself, and particularly when the increase 
 of population is taken into account, shows a decided diminu- 
 tion from former years. The same point is indicated by the 
 number of trials at the Glasgow Circuit Courts, which em- 
 brace cases from the counties of Lanark, Dumbarton, and 
 Renfrew, though Glasgow siipplies the largest proportion. 
 In 1839 there were 206 ; in 1840, 152 ; and in 1841, 172. 
 The increase of the population, in the meantime, and the 
 growing want of employment, must always be remembered 
 in forming a general estimate. 
 
 In harmony wdth the above, it appears from an interesting 
 report of Mr Rutherglen, one of the magistrates of the Cal- 
 ton, read before the " British Association," when in Glas- 
 gow a few years ago, that the crime in Calton, with a popu- 
 lation of nearly 30,000, was, in 
 
 1836, 3451. Deducting drunk, &c., and pohce contraven- 
 tions, crime proper is reduced to 837 
 1839, 2601. Do., do., do., 766 
 
 thus showing a decrease of crime, while the population was 
 increasing, and the outward circumstances of the peojDle not 
 impro%'ing, but the reverse. With reference to the last year 
 named (1839), the same gentleman states, — " On a careful 
 examination of the whole cases, it is gratifying to be able to 
 state, that the offences were of so light a description during 
 the year, as on some occasions not to have furnished even 
 one sufficiently serious to be brought before the Justiciary 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 Court during its sittings." He adds, — " The criminal popu- 
 lation is less by o«e-/ia(^"tlian it was in 1835-6 ; and although 
 in 1839 there were 2601 charged, and 1799 convicted, yet it 
 is proper to mention, that the same person has been charged 
 and convicted as often as three times with petty thefts, and 
 with other crimes and offences twenty times in the course of 
 the year ; and it is not in one, but in many cases that this has 
 occurred." !Mr Rutherglen farther states, that a large pro- 
 portion of the crime which exists is committed by " the float- 
 ing population ;" in other words, the parties which are least 
 accessible to moral and religious means. But for them the 
 actual crime would be small indeed. 
 
 So far from the crime of the city increasing in such a ratio 
 as to paralyze Christian men from any attempt at the ame- 
 lioration of society, — so far from its proclaiming, as some 
 hastily imagine, that all the late schemes and efforts of Chris- 
 tian Churches are vain and hopeless, I rejoice to have it in 
 my power again to refer to the testimony of the Captain of 
 Police. 
 
 Though the crime of the city and suburbs had beenAdsibly 
 and enormously increasing, instead, as we have seen, of pro- 
 portionally decidedly diminishing, it would not by any means 
 show that the enlai-ged moral and religious appliances of late 
 years, by additional schools and churches, &c., had been in- 
 efl&cacious. The highest good may be doing in some quarters 
 while evil is doing in others, and, as a whole, the progress of 
 the latter is strongly and conspicuously onward. But it is 
 encouraging to be able, not only to point to diminished crime, 
 but crime diminislied hy moral means. 
 
 The following qxiestion was put to Capt. ililler : — " Q. From 
 any thing which has passed under Capt. Miller's observation, 
 is he disposed to attribute a share of the diminution of crime 
 (supposing that there is a decrease) to the moral and educa- 
 tional means put into operation of late years — such as week-day 
 and Sabbath schools, additional places of worship, &c. ? A. 
 The answer is, " From Capt. Miller's own experience, and from 
 particular inquiries he has made on this subject, he is decidedly of 
 opinion, that the moral and educational means lately put 
 into operation, taken in connection with the improved habits 
 of many of the lower classes, who are members of Temperance 
 and total abstinence societies, Jiare done much to improve the 
 moral condition of the pitopile, cmd of course to diminish crime," 
 The testimony of the Rev. Dr Black, who, as minister of the 
 Barony parish, has had his attention particularly called to 
 the operation of the new churches connected with the Estab- 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 lishment, could be appealed to to a similar effect. He has 
 repeatedly and publicly testified to the success of more than 
 one of the new churches in diminishing pauperism and im- 
 proving the social condition of the locality where they have 
 been planted. Mr Rutherglen, who is a resident in, as well 
 as a magistrate of, Calton, and who states that his attention 
 has been particularly called to the operation of additional 
 schools in connection with one church (St Luke's) in that 
 locality, still adheres to the statement which he made before 
 the British Association in 1840, which was to this effect, that 
 the new church, besides occupying the site of 60 houses which 
 were the haunts of wretchedness and crime, and so physically 
 removing a great moral nuisance, had, through the exertions 
 of the minister and his elders, coupled with the establisliing 
 of 20 Sabbath schools in the parish, tended greatly both to 
 reduce crime, and to improve the morals of that part of the 
 burgh.* 
 
 The testimony of Mr ^I'Laren, who has for above ten years 
 been the Superintendent of the poor of the Barony parish, is 
 in full harmony with the al)ove representation. He states, 
 in answer to some queries which I also put to him, that, ten 
 years ago, in one district of the same parish, he required to 
 pay the poor £13, 7s. ; the same district now requires only 
 £2 : 19 :6d. Another requh-ed £11 : : 6d. ; at the present 
 date it requires £6, 5s. He shows, at the same time, that the 
 change has not been owing to a less liberal provision for the 
 poor ; that, on the contrary, the numbers of the poor generally 
 through the parish have considerably increased, and that the 
 allowances have been rising in amount ; the change he attri- 
 butes to moral causes. In answer to one of the queries which 
 were put to him, he says, — " I have paid considerable atten- 
 tion to the operation of the new churches and schools, and 
 am fully of opinion, that the establishing of these has contri- 
 buted greatly to the diminution of both pauperism and crime. 
 I might instance several of the quoad sacra parishes, such as 
 St Stephen's, St Mark's, Bridgeton (all in the Barony); but 
 I point out St Luke's as one of the poorest localities of the 
 parish, where the greatest improvement has taken place." It 
 
 * There had been five Sabbath schools in the parish prior to 1837, when the 
 church was opened, but no week-day school. Now there is a week-day 
 school, partly supported by the General Assembly's Educational Fund, at- 
 tended by between 200 and 300 children, besides evening classes. There are 
 also 25 Sabbath schools, attended by 600 children. Besides the labours of the 
 minister, the parish enjoys the services of 10 elders, who have appropriate dis- 
 tricts. The population at last census was 3500. I may add, that it has been 
 remarked by some landlords, that their rents are better paid since the moral 
 ■and religious means were pu' into operation. 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 is well for the reader to bear in mind, that while moral im- 
 provement has been going on, external circumstances have 
 been adverse ; the population has been increasing, and the 
 depression among the people, chiefly hand-loom weavers, has 
 been great. The records of the Church Extension Scheme 
 prove the same points as the schools and churches referred 
 to, in regard to more rural districts. Indeed, there the result 
 is more visible than it can be expected to be in large towns. 
 To prevent Scottish Christians, owing to the loose state- 
 ments which have been made of the unexampled progress of 
 crime in this country, being disheartened in their labours, 
 I may subjoin a comparative view of the state of crime in 
 England and Wales. We have seen that the commitments 
 for crime in Scotland, 
 
 In the years 1832, were 2431 
 1836, „ 2922 
 1840, „ 3872 
 In the same years, the crime of England and Wales was, — 
 In 1832, 20,829 persons committed. 
 
 1836, 20,984 
 
 1840, 27,187 
 Now, it appears from the late census, that the population of 
 Scotland is about one-sixth of that of England and Wales. 
 Were its crime in the same proportion, the Scottish criminals 
 should, at the respective dates, have been 3471, 3497, 4531 ; 
 instead of which they were what has been stated — in other 
 words, Scotland had less proportional crime than England by 
 1040, 575, and 659, in the years referred to, and that though 
 Scotland be a poorer country, and is a stranger to the English 
 poor law system, which by many is alleged to be a defence 
 against crime, and though, probably, the influx of Irish is 
 proportionally greater into Scotland than into England, 
 
 It would scarcely be fair to compare Scotland with Ireland 
 — a Protestant with a Popish country. I may merely men- 
 tion the numbers without expatiating on them. For instance, 
 in Ireland, 
 
 In 1832 there were 16,056 commitments. 
 1836 „ 23,891 „ 
 
 1840 „ 23,822 „ 
 
 Scotland is nearly one-third of the population of Ireland ; were 
 her criminals proportional in numbers they should have been 
 5352 and 7963, instead of 2431 and 2922. In other words, 
 Ireland had proportionaUrj for these years, 2921 and 5041 more 
 criminals than Scotland. But perhaps the most striking fact 
 is, that in 1837, the province of Ulster — the most Protestant 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 territory of Ireland — (stili one-half the population is Roman 
 Catholic) with a population somewhat less than Scotland, had 
 not less than 5605 criminal commitments. In the same year 
 Scotland had 3126 commitments for crime ; in other words, 
 p-oi^ortionally 2479 fewer criminals than the most Protestant 
 part of the sister country ! 
 
 It is right, however, to state, that, while Ulster suffers in 
 a comparison with Scotland, doubtless from its large Roman 
 Catholic population, it gains immensely on comparison with 
 any other part of Ireland. Thus, the one county of Tipper- 
 ary in 1837 (population 402,563) had 4239 crimes, while the 
 whole of the ten counties of Ulster (population 2,314,104) had, 
 at the same lime as we have seen, 5G05 ; and while in the 
 Tipperary crimes there were 124 homicides, many of those of 
 Ulster were comparatively trifling. A few years before, too, 
 the military expense of Ulster was only one-twelfth of the 
 general military cost ; and of twenty-five regiments in Ire- 
 land, only two were stationed in that province, while its 
 population was nearly a third of the whole population of the 
 country. 
 
 From these important facts, resting chiefly on ofiicial re- 
 turns, I humbly think it is sufficiently obvious, that, most 
 melancholy as is the amount of crime in our country, it is often 
 very unnecessarily and mischievously exaggerated ; and that, 
 sad as are its aspects in Scotland, there is nothing in it to 
 discourage the efforts of faithful pastors, elders and deacons, 
 in seeking the amelioration and moral and religious renovation 
 of the people. The reader will readily believe that the state- 
 ments which have been made (and which have run to far 
 greater length than was originally intended) are not designed 
 to convey light views of, far less to apologise for crime, nor 
 to discourage the application of preventive force in rural 
 parishes as well as large towns, nor to slacken the zeal of 
 those who are labouring against the tide of prevailing ungod- 
 liness, as if their diligence w^ere unnecessary ; but solely to 
 correct exaggerated views, which are at once injurious to the 
 character of our common country, and disheartening to those 
 who have devoted, and are desirous to devote themselves yet 
 more and more to the religious improvement of their fellow- 
 men. As a Scotchman and a Christian, deeply interested in 
 the success of all the plans of moral good which of late years 
 have been put into operation, especially by the National 
 Church, it is impossible not to regi'et the exaggerated state- 
 ments in regard to crime which are often unwittingly propa- 
 gated, — statements which seem to pour contempt on all the 
 I 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 prayers and labours of the Christian Church, and to abandon 
 a large body of men as hopeless both in character and condi- 
 tion. It is the more to be regretted, when good men, without 
 thought, give currency to the same representations, and are 
 relaxed by what should rather move them to new dihgence 
 and zeal. 
 
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