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A TRACT FOR THE TIMES. 
 
 THE 
 
 ANXIOUS BENCH, 
 
 PR0FE33OR OF THEOLOGY IN THE SEMINARY OF" THE GER. RE*'. CIVJR': 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 Tkkel. — Daniel v. 27. 
 
 CHAMBERSBURG, Pa» 
 
 PRINTED A.T THE PUBLICATION OFFICE O? THE GERMAN REF. CaW.C&., 
 
 1844. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In coming before the public with a Second edition 
 of the Anxious Bench, it seems proper to introduce 
 it with a short Preface. 
 
 The publication, as was to be expected, has pro- 
 duced considerable excitement. At least half a dozen 
 of replies to it, shorter or longer, have been announced 
 in different quarters, proceeding from no less than five 
 different religious denominations. Various assaults, in 
 addition to this, have been made upon ii, from the pul- 
 pit ; to say nothing of the innumerable reproaches it 
 has been required to suffer, in a more private way. 
 
 All this however, calls for no very special notice, 
 in return. I am sorry to say, that of all the publish- 
 ed replies to the tract, which have come under my 
 observation, not one is entitled to any respect, as an 
 honest and intelligent argument on the other side. In 
 no case, has the question at issue been fairly accept- 
 ed and candidly met. I do not feel myself required 
 at all then, to enter into a formal vindication of the 
 tract, as assailed in those publications. I consider it 
 to be in itself, a full and triumphant answer to all 
 they contaiti against it, in the way of objection or re- 
 proach. If permitted to speak for itself, by being se- 
 riously and attentively read, it may safely be left to 
 plead its own cause. In such circumstances, it would 
 be idle to enter into a controversial review of the man- 
 ifold misrepresentations, to which it has been subject- 
 ed. The only proper reply to them, is a republica- 
 tion of the tract itself. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 With the reproaches that have been showei^d upon 
 me personally, indifferent quarters, I have not slU ^ 
 lowed myself to be much disturbed. I had looked for 
 it all beforehand ; knowing well the spirit of the sys- 
 tem, with which I was called to deal. I knew of 
 course, that I should be calumniated as an enemy to 
 revivals, and an opposer of vital godliness. But 1 
 felt satisfied at the same time, that the calumny would 
 in due season correct itself, and recoil with disgrace 
 on the heads of those from whom it ml^t proceed. 
 It has begun to do so already, and will jfeontinue to 
 do so, no doubt, more and more. 
 
 Some have wondered, that I did nc^^ take more 
 pains to define my position with regard fo revivals, 
 by writing a chapter on the subject, so,^ io cut off 
 occasion for the reproach now mentioned* But this 
 would have been, in some measure to jus^fy and in- 
 vite the wrong, which it was proposed "to prevent. 
 There is gross insolence in the assumption, that a 
 man should at all need to vindicate himself in this 
 way, in venturing to speak against the system of 
 New Measures. And then, it is not by formal pro- 
 testations, when all is di^ne, that the point, in any such 
 case, can be fully settled. A chapter on revivals would 
 be of little account in my tract, if my own character, 
 and the whole spirit of the tract itself, were not such 
 as to show an honest zeal in favor of serious religion. 
 The publications which have come out in reply to it, 
 all affect an extraordinary interest in the subject of 
 revivals, exhibited often with a very blustering air; but 
 in the case of some of them, this pretension is utterly 
 belied, to all who have the least amount of Spiritual 
 discernment, by the tone of feeling with which they 
 are characterised throughout. They carry in them 
 no savor at all of the wisdom, thatcometh from above. 
 
PREFACE;. V 
 
 whatever with the mind of Jesus Christ. 
 The remark is made of some of these publications, not 
 of the whole of them indiscriminately. 
 
 Nor would any special protestation in favor of re- 
 vivals be of much account, to guard the tract from 
 being perversely used, by those who are in fact op- 
 posed to this precious interest. The only true and 
 pfoper provision against such abuse must be found, 
 ifit exist at all, in the general spirit of the tract itself. 
 Let this be right, and it must be considered enough. 
 It may be perverted still ; but men can pervert the 
 bible too, if they please. 
 
 Fears have been expressed, that in the present po- 
 sition of the German Churches particularly, the pub- 
 lication may operate disastrously upon the interests of 
 vital godliness. But in my own view, there is no 
 good re^ason for any such fears, I believe its opera- 
 tion has been salutary already, and trust it will be 
 found more salutary still, in time to come. It has 
 engaged attention extensively to the subject of which 
 it treats, and is likely to go farther than anything that 
 has appeared before, in correcting the confusion and 
 mystification, in which it has been so unhappily in- 
 volved, in certain parts of the country, to the great 
 prejudice of religion. It may be hoped now, that the 
 subject of New Measures will be so examined and un- 
 derstood, that all shall come to make a proper dis- 
 tinction, between the system of the Anxious Bench, 
 and the power of evangelical godliness, working in its 
 true forms. In the case of the German Churches, 
 this would be a result of the very highest consequence. 
 If the present tract may open the way for its accom- 
 plishment, its mission will be one in which all the 
 friends of true religion in these Churches will have 
 occasion to rejoice. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Bat instead of lending their help to secure tfiis most 
 desirable object, the friends of the Anxious Bench 
 seem concerned, to maintain as long as possible the 
 very mystification, that stands in its way. They tell 
 us, we must not speak against New Measures, be- 
 cause this term is made to include, in some parts of 
 the country, revivals and other kindred interests : 
 and then, when we propose to correct this gross mis- 
 take, by proper instruction, they set themselves with 
 all their might to counteract the attempt, and insist 
 that the people shall be suffered to confound these dif- 
 ferent forms of religion as before. Those who act 
 thus^ are themselves enemies in fact to the cause of 
 revivals. From no other quarter, has it been made to 
 suffer so seriously. Its greatest misfortune is, that it * 
 should lie at the mercy of such hands. 
 
 It is with a very bad grace, that reference is made 
 occasionally by some, to the idea of a foreign spirit 
 in the tract, as related to the German Churches. It ^ 
 is in full sympathy with the true life of these Church- 
 es,* as it stood in the beginning. The charge of seek- 
 ing to force a foreign spirit on them, lies with clear 
 right against the other side. The system of New 
 Measures has no affinity whatever, with the life of the 
 Reformation, as embodied in the Augshurgh Confes- 
 sion and the Heidelhergh Catechism* It could not 
 have found any favor in the eyes of Zuingli or Calvin. . 
 Luther would have denounced it, in the most unmer- 
 ciful terms. His soul was too largo, too deep, too 
 free, to hold communion with a style of religion so 
 mechanical and shallow. Those who are actively 
 laboring to bring the Church of Luther, in this coun- ' 
 try, into subjection to the system, cannot be said to 
 be true to his memory or name. The challenge, 
 Why are you a Lutheran ? is one which they would 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 do weii* seriously to consider. It is most certain,^, 
 that ihe interest they are pushing forward, in this 
 view, is not Lutheranisrn, in any sense that agrees 
 with the true historical life of the Church. It involves a 
 diiierent theory of religion, that stands in no fellow- 
 ship with the views, either of the fathers and founders 
 of the Church, or of its most evangelical representatives 
 in modern Germany. It is another element altogether 
 that surrounds us, in the writings of such men as 
 Olshausen, Tholuck, Sartorius, and Neander. The 
 system in question, is in its principle and soul neither 
 Calvinism nor Lutheranisrn, but Wesleyan Metho.- 
 dism. Those who are urging it upon the old German 
 Churches, are in fact doing as much as they can, to 
 turn them over into the arms of Methodism. This 
 may be done, without any change of denominational 
 name. Already the life of Methodism, in this coun- 
 try, is actively at work among other sects, which 
 own no fellowship with it in form. So in the present 
 case, names may continue to stand as before ; but 
 they will be only as the garnished sepulchres of a 
 glory, that belonged to other days. 
 
 But is. not Methodism., Christianity ? And is it not 
 better that the German Churches should rise in this, 
 form, than not rise at ail ? Most certainly so, I re-, 
 ply, if that be the only alternative. But that is not 
 the only alternative. Their resurrection may just as 
 well take place, in the type of their own true, origi- 
 nal, glorious life, as it is still to be found enshrined 
 in their symbolical books. And whatever there may 
 be that is good in Methodism, this life of the Refor- 
 mation I affirm to be immeasurably more excellent 
 and sound. Wesley was a small man as compar- 
 ed with Melancthon. Olshausen, with all his mysti- 
 cism, i§ a commentator of the inmost sanctuary in 
 
vni 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 comparison with Adam Clark. If the original, dis- 
 tinctive life of the Churches of the Reformation, he 
 not the object to be reached^after, in the efforts that 
 are made to build up the interests of German Chris- 
 tianity, in this country, it were belter to say so at 
 once openly and plainly. If we must have Methodism, 
 let us have it, under its own proper title, and in its 
 own proper shape. Why keep up the walls of de- 
 nominational partition, in such a case, with no dis- 
 tinctive spiritual being to uphold or protect ? A sect 
 without a soul, has no right to live. Zeal for a sepa- 
 rate denominational name, that utters no separate re- 
 ligious idea^ is the very essence of sectarian bigotry 
 and schism. 
 
 In opposing the Anxious Bench, I mean no disre- 
 spect of course to the many excellent men, in different 
 Churches, who have given it their countenance. This 
 has been done by some of the best ministers in the 
 land, for whom I entertain the very highest regard. 
 Not a few are to be found, who themselves condemn 
 their own former judgment, in so doing ; which does 
 not imply surely any want of proper self-respect. 
 The system of the Anxious Bench, in its full develop- 
 ment, is one which these persons have always disap- 
 proved ; only they have not considered this particular 
 measure to be a part of the system. That this should 
 be the case need not seem strange ; for in the view of 
 the measure here taken, it is supposed to be in its 
 simple form, on the bright side of this system, and 
 close upon the boundary that separates it from the ter- 
 ritory of truth. The tract exhibits the measure in 
 this view, not as the origin of the system historically, 
 not as necessarily conducting in all cases to worse 
 things that lie beyond ; but as constitutionally, involv- 
 ing the principle of those worse things, under the 
 
PREPACEc 
 
 ix 
 
 least startling form, and legitimately opening the way 
 for their introduction, if circumstances should permit. 
 ^ It would seem to show the correctness of this view, 
 that while the answers to the tract protest against it, 
 as a false and arbitrary classification, they all conform 
 to it notwithstanding, in spite of themselves, in a 
 praetical way. They defend the use of the bench as 
 the Thermopylae of New Measures; and their argument, 
 such as it is, has just as much force to justify the sys- 
 tem in full, as it has to justify this measure in partic- 
 ular. An effort is made indeed to mystify the subject, 
 by dragging into connection with it interests of a dif- 
 ferent order altogether ; but still it is plain enough, 
 that this is done with violence, and the controversy 
 falls back always in the end, to its proper limits. 
 
 The abuse of a thing, it is said, is no argument 
 against its proper use ; and therefore the object, in the 
 present case, should be to reform and regulate, rather 
 than to abolish. To this I reply, the whole system 
 contemplated in the tract is an abuse, from which it 
 is of the utmost importance that the worship of the 
 sanctuary, and the cause of revivals, should be res- 
 cued. Belonging as it does to this system, then, and 
 contributing to its support, the Anxious Bench is a 
 nuisance, that can never be fully abated except by 
 its entire removal. Its tendencies, as shown in the 
 tract, are decidedly bad, without any compensation of 
 a solid kind. It may be used with moderation ; but 
 it will stand still in the same relation to the system it 
 represents, that moderate drinking holds to intem- 
 perance in its more advanced forms. Popery started, 
 in the beginning, under forms apparently the most in- 
 nocent and safe. What might seem to be, for in- 
 stance, more rational and becoming than the sign of 
 the cross^ as used by christians, on all occasions, in 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the early Church 7 And yet, when thq corruptions 
 of Rome were thrown off by the proteslant world, 
 in the 16th century, this and other similar forms 
 were required to pass away with the geiieral rpass. 
 And why is it that the sign of the cross, as once used, 
 is now counted a dangerous superstition, not to be 
 permitted among prptestants ? Simply, because it 
 falls naturally over to that vast system of abuses, of, 
 which it forms a part in the Romish Church. Thus 
 it represents that system, and furnishes a specimen 
 of it constitutionally, under the most plausible shape. 
 Such is the position of the Anxious Bench, as a par- 
 ticular measure, in the general case now under con-^ 
 sideration. It is just as easy to conceive of a judicious 
 and salutary use of the sign of the cross, as it is to 
 conceive of a judicious and salutary use of the anxious 
 bench ; and I have no doubt at all, but that the first 
 has been owned and blessed of God full as extensive- 
 ly, to say the least, as this has ever been the case 
 with the last. 
 
 J. W. N. 
 
 Mercersburg, Jan» 1844. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Design of the Tract — Occasion for inquiry, — Importance 
 and solemnity of the suhjecf. 
 
 It is proposed to institute a free inquiry into 
 the merits of the Anxious Bench, as it has been 
 enUsted extensively of late years in the service 
 of rehgion. My object will be to show, that the 
 measure is adapted to obstruct rather than to pro- 
 mote the progress of true godliness, and that it 
 deserves to be discouraged on this account. 
 
 No one needs to be informed what is meant 
 by the Anxious Bench, Its nature and design 
 have come to be as familiar to' most people, as 
 the nature and design of the Pulpit itself Even 
 among those who dislike it, there are few per- 
 hapSj who have not had the opportunity, at one 
 time or another, of witnessing its operation^ 
 while all are well acquainted with it at least in 
 the way of description and report. 
 
 It will be understood, that the Anxious Bench 
 is made to stand, in this case, as the type and 
 representative of the entire system of what are 
 technically denominated in our day, ''New Mea- 
 siires,^^ It is not meant by this, of course, that 
 it is so bound to the system, as never to be sepa- 
 
12 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 rated from other parts of it, in actual practice. 
 It may be in use where no new measures besides 
 are tolerated ; and it is possible, on the other 
 hand, that it may not be employed by some, 
 who in other respects are wholly in this interest. 
 But still, it may very fairly be exhibited, as a 
 type of the system at large. These measures 
 form properly a system ; and it is only in this 
 view, that it is possible to estimate rightly their 
 nature and character. It is not uncommon, to 
 class with them things of a different nature alto- 
 gether ; and then advantage is taken of the con- 
 fusion thus produced, to evade the point of ob- 
 jections urged against new measures in the pro- 
 per sense. This however, is sophistry, of a 
 very shallow order. The idea of New Measures ^ 
 is just as well defined in itself, and as generally 
 intelligible, in the American Church, as the idea 
 of popery, methodism, presbyterianism, or al- 
 most anything else of the same general charac- 
 ter that might be named. It is only by a gross 
 and palpable abuse, that some wish to make it 
 include the best things in the Church. New 
 measures, in the technical modern sense, form 
 a particular system, involving a certain theory 
 of religious action, and characterised by a dis- 
 tinctive life, which is by no means difficult to 
 understand. Of this system the Anxious Bench 
 is a proper representative. It opens the way 
 naturally to other forms of aberration, in the 
 same direction, and may be regarded in this 
 view, as the threshhold of all that is found to 
 follow, quite out to the extreme verge of fanati- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 13 
 
 eism and rant. The measure belongs to the sys- 
 tem, not in name simply, but in its life and spirit. 
 At the same time, it is the most favorable aspect, 
 in which the cause of New Measures can be pre- 
 sented to our view. The simple Anxious Bench, 
 as it is often used in a sober way, is the most 
 moderate and plausible shape the system can 
 well take. If this then be found unworthy of 
 confidence, the whole system will be shorn of 
 its title to confidence, at the same time. If the 
 Anxious Bench can claim no indulgence, it must 
 be idle to put in a plea for its kindred measures. 
 All beyond this is only something worse. 
 
 It is well too, that we can thus deal with our 
 subject. If there be no room, as some pretend, 
 for treating it in a clear and satisfactory way, 
 under the title of New Measures, by reason of 
 the confusion with which that term is used, it is 
 so much the more important that we should substi- 
 tute the particular for the general ; and we have 
 reason to congratulate ourselves, on finding a 
 single, well known form of action, that can be 
 taken fairly as the representative of the whole 
 system. In this way, our argument will not be 
 abstract and vague, but pointed and clear. 
 Whatever dust it might be contrived to raise, 
 with regard to the proper sense of the term. New 
 Measures^ all know at least the meaning of the 
 Jinxious Bench. Here then we have a tangi- 
 ble, concrete subject, with which to deal. Let 
 it serve as a specimen of the system to which it 
 belongs. In this way, the system is character- 
 ised and distinguished. It includes things of the 
 
14 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 same general constitution and spirit^ with thfe 
 Anxious Bench. In trying the merits of this, 
 we try at the same time all these kindred prac- 
 tices and nothing more.* If any choose to in- 
 corporate with their idea of New Measures, 
 things of a different constitution and spirit en- 
 tirely, it cannot be helped. But they can have 
 no right to force any view of this sort upon the 
 present argument. Our business is with New 
 Measures, in the proper sense \ and that we 
 may not seem to run uncertainly, or beat the air, 
 we characterise the sytem by one of its most 
 familiar exhibitions. It stands before us in the 
 type of the Anxious Bench. 
 
 Here too is the proper point, for grappling 
 with the heresy of New Measures. It can an- 
 swer no purpose to discountenance the system in 
 general, if we lend our influence, theoretically 
 or practically to uphold a measure, forming like 
 this a legitimate stepping stone to all the system 
 is found to embrace. No satisfactory line can 
 be drawn between this and the more advanced 
 forms of extravagance, for which it prepares the 
 way. They will be found to involve, in the end, 
 
 * "How can the import of this measure exhibit the charat- 
 ter of protracted meetings, both which in many German 
 churches are well known to be included in their idea of New 
 Measures?" Luih. Obs. Nov. 17, 1843. Of a truth, it may 
 be replied, not very well ; and for this reason precisely, it 
 is made to stand here as the representative of the system to 
 which it of right belongs, that every body may be able at once 
 to see and understand that prayer meetings, protracted meet- 
 ings, and other interests of the same tjomplexion, come not 
 in any sense within the scope of the present inquiry. 
 
I 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 15 
 
 the same principle. That is a false position 
 therefore, by which some excellent men allow 
 themselves to speak freely against noise and dis- 
 order and bodily exercises in public worship, 
 under other forms, while at the same time the 
 Anxious Bench is not only spared, but treated 
 with honor and confidence, as though it had 
 come to form part of the accredited and regular 
 service of God^s House. Men who occupy this 
 position, may preach or write an abundance of 
 wholesome advice on the subject of false excite- 
 ment in religion ; but their advice is not likely to 
 carry much weight with it in the end, as not go- 
 ing after all to the ground of the error against 
 which it is directed. If we would utter an intel- 
 ligible and consistent testimony against New 
 Measures, we must make no exception, openly 
 or tacitly, in favor of the Anxious Bench. Here 
 precisely is the proper point, at which to grapple 
 with the whole system. 
 
 There is occasion for the inquiry here propos- 
 ed. It is true indeed, that throughout a large 
 portion of the country the Anxious Bench, after 
 having enjoyed a brief reputation, has fallen in- 
 to discredit. It has been tried, and found want- 
 ing ; and it might have been trusted that this ex- 
 periment would be sufficient to drive it complete- 
 ly out of use. But unfortunately this has not 
 been the case. Over a wide section of the land, 
 we find it still holding its ground, without any 
 regard to the disgrace with which it has been 
 overtaken in the North and East. Peculiar cir- 
 
16 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 cumstances have conspired to promote its credit, 
 on this field. 
 
 It is within the range particularly of the Ger- 
 man Churches, that a new life may be said to 
 have been communicated latterly to the system 
 of New Measures. No field is more interesting 
 at this time, than that which is comprehended 
 within these limits. A vast moral change is go- 
 ing forward upon it, involving consequences 
 that no man can properly calculate. From vari- 
 ous causes, a new feeling is at work everywhere 
 on the subject of religion. As usual, the old 
 struggles to maintain itself in opposition to the 
 new, and a strong tendency to become extreme 
 is created on both sides. The general mind un- 
 happily has not been furnished thus far with pro- 
 per protection and guidance, in the way of full 
 religious teaching ; and the result is that in these 
 interesting circumstances it has become exposed 
 more or less, at almost every point, to those wild 
 fanatical influences, which in this country are 
 sure to come in like a desolating flood wherever 
 they can find room. Upstart sects have set 
 themselves to take possession if possible of the 
 entire field in this way, on the principle that the 
 old organizations are corrupt and deserve to be 
 destroyed. Their reliance of course in tl^is work 
 of reformation, is placed largely on New Meas- 
 ures ! Thus a whole Babel of extravagance 
 has been let loose upon the community, far and 
 wide, in the name of religion, one sect vieing 
 with another in the measure of its irregularities. 
 In these circumstances, it has not been easy for 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 17 
 
 the friends of earnest piety always in the regular 
 churches, to abide by the ancient landmarks of 
 truth and order. The temptation has been 
 strong to fall in, at least to some extent, with 
 the tide of fanaticism, as the only way of mak- 
 ing war successfully on the dead formality that 
 stared them in the face in one direction, and the 
 only way of counteracting the proselyting zeal 
 of these noisy sects in the other. 
 
 This and other considerations have had the ef- 
 fect of opening the way for the use of New Mea- 
 sures, to some extent in the German Reformed 
 Church, and to a much greater in the Lutheran. 
 It is well known that a large division of this last 
 denomination, has identified itself openly and 
 zealously with the system, both in doctrine and 
 practice. The Lutheran Observer , which has 
 a wide circulation and great influence, has lent 
 all its authority to recommend and support the 
 Anxious Bench with its accompaniments, tak- 
 ing every occasion to speak in its favor and 
 making continually the most of its results. The 
 "revivals'^ of the Church latterly have been very 
 generally carried forward with the use of New 
 Measures, as may be perceived from the reports 
 of them published from time to time in the Ob- 
 server. *The great awakening of last winter, 
 pronounced by the editor of that paper to have 
 been probably the greatest since the days of the 
 Apostles, seems almost everywhere to have in- 
 volved the free use of this method. Thus min- 
 isters and congregations have become extensive- 
 ly committed in its favor ; so that with many 
 2 
 
18 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 the use of the Anxious Bench, and a zeal for evan- 
 gehcal godUness, are considered to be very much 
 the same thing. It might seem indeed as though 
 all the interests ofrehgion, in the case of the 
 German community, were to the view of a large 
 class, suspended on the triumphant progress of 
 New Measures.* These are with them emphat- 
 ically the "great power of God/' which may be 
 expected to turn and overturn, till old things 
 shall fairly pass away and all things become 
 new. And it must be acknowledged, that the 
 system bids fair at present to go on conquering 
 and to conquer, in its own style, within the 
 limits at least of this widely extended and vene- 
 rable denomination. It seems to bear doAvn, 
 more and more, all opposition. It has become 
 an interest too strong, to be resisted or controled. 
 What are to be its ultimate issues and results, 
 time only can reveal. 
 
 All this is within the reach of the most com- 
 mon observation. And no one reflecting on the 
 
 * "And let me teil you, Sir, that whatever Prof* Nevin 
 may, (in the abstraction of his study,) have v^'ritten to the 
 contrary, I am nevertheless strong;ly convinced, as a pastor, 
 that the so-called 'anxious bench' is the lever of Archimedes, 
 VFhich by the blessing of God can mise our German Churches 
 to that deq^ree of respectability and prosperity in the religious 
 world, which they ought to enjoy. Correspondence of the 
 LuVu Dbs. Nov. 17. 1843. 
 
 *'Such measures are usually inseparable from great revivals, 
 and if the great luminaries in the Church set themselves up 
 against them, why they must be content to abide the conse- 
 quences. By the judicious use of such measures, the mil- 
 lenium must be accelerated and introduced; &c.'' — Luih^ 
 Obs. Jan. 26, 1844. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 19 
 
 actual state of things at this time, on the field 
 occupied by the German Churches, can well 
 fail to perceive, that there is full occasion for 
 calling attention to the subject which it is here 
 proposed to consider. An inquiry into the mer- 
 its of the Anxious Bench, and the system to 
 which it belongs, is not only seasonable and fit 
 in the circumstances of the time, but loudly cal- 
 led for on every side. It is no small question, 
 that is involved in the case. The bearing of it 
 upon the interests of religion in the German 
 Churches, is of fundamental and vital importance. 
 A crisis has evidently been reached in the histo- 
 ry of these Churches ; and one of the most seri- 
 ous points involved in it, is precisely this ques- 
 tion of New Measures. Let this system prcA^ail 
 and rule with permanent sway, and the result 
 of the religious movement which is now in pro- 
 gress, will be something widely different from 
 what it would have been under other auspices. 
 The old regular organizations, if they continue 
 to exist at all, will not be the same Churches. 
 Their entire complexion and history, in time to 
 come, will be shaped by the course of things 
 with regard to this point. In this view, the" 
 march of New Measures at the present time, 
 may well challenge our anxious and solemn re- 
 gard. It is an interest of no common magnitude, 
 portentous in its aspect, and pregnant with con- 
 sequences of vast account. The system is mov- 
 ing forward in full strength, and putting forth 
 its pretensions in the boldest style on all sides. 
 Surely we have a right, and may well feel it a 
 
20 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 duty, in such a case, to institute an examination 
 into its merits. 
 
 Nor is it any reason for silence in the case, 
 that we may have suffered as yet comparatively 
 little in our own denomination, from the use of 
 New Measures. We may congratulate ourselves 
 that we have been thus favored, and that the 
 impression seems to be steadily growing that 
 they ought not to be encouraged in our commu- 
 nion. Still, hnked together as the German 
 Churches are throughout the land, we have rea- 
 son to be jealous here of influences, that must in 
 the nature of the case act upon us from without. 
 In such circumstances there is occasion, and at 
 the same time room, for consideration. It might 
 answer little purpose to interpose remonstrance 
 or inquiry, if the rage for New Measures were 
 fairly let loose, as a sweeping wind, within our 
 borders. It were idle to bespeak attention from 
 the rolling whirlwind. But with the whirlwind 
 in full view, we may be exhorted reasonably 
 to consider and stand back from its destructive 
 path. We are not yet committed to the cause 
 of New Measures, in any respect. We are still 
 free to reject or embrace them, as the interests 
 of the Church, on calm reflection, may be found 
 to require. In such circumstances precisely, may 
 it be counted in all respects proper to subject the 
 system to a serious examination. 
 
 It has been sometimes intimated, that it is not 
 safe to oppose and condemn the use of New 
 Measures, because of their connections and pur- 
 pose. Their relation to the cause of revivals, is 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 supposed to invest them with a sort of sacred 
 character, which the friends of reUgion should 
 at least respect, even if they may not be able in 
 all cases, to approve. The system has taken 
 hold of the "horns of the altar,^^ and it seems to 
 some like sacrilege to fall upon it there, or to 
 force it away for the purposes of justice to any 
 other place. It is a serious thing, we are told, 
 to find fault with any movement, that claims to 
 be animated by the Spirit of God. By so doing, 
 we render it questionable whether we have our- 
 selves any proper sympathy with revivals, and 
 furnish occasion to the world also to blaspheme 
 and oppose everything of the kind. But this is 
 tyrannical enough, to take for granted the main 
 point in dispute, and then employ it as a consid- 
 ation to repress inquiry or to silence objection. 
 If New Neasures can be shown to proceed from 
 the Holy Ghost, or to be identified in any view 
 with the cause of revivals, they may well de- 
 mand our reverence and respect. If they can 
 be shown even to be of adiaphorous^ character 
 with regard to religion, harmless at least if not 
 positively helpfui to the Spirit's work, they may 
 then put in a reasonable plea to be tolerated in 
 silence, if not absolutely approved. But neither 
 the one nor the other of these positions can be 
 successfully maintained. It is a mere trick un- 
 worthy of the gospel, for any one to confound 
 with the sacred idea of a revival, things that do 
 not belong to it in truth at all, for the purpose 
 of compelling a judgment in their favor. The 
 very design of the inquiry now proposed, is to 
 
22 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 show that the Anxious Bench, and the system 
 to which it belongs, have no claim to be consid- 
 ered either salutary or safe, in the service of re- 
 ligion. It is believed, that instead of promoting 
 the cause of true vital godliness, they are adapt- 
 ed to hinder its progress. The whole system is 
 considered to be full of peril, for the most pre- 
 cious interests of the Church. And why then 
 should there be any reserve, in treating the sub- 
 ject with such freedom as it may seem to require ? 
 We may well feel indeed that the subject is so- 
 lemn. All that relates to the interests of revi- 
 vals, and the welfare of souls, is solemn; and it 
 becomes us to approach it in a serious way. 
 But this is no reason, why we should close our 
 eyes against the truth, or refuse to call things 
 by their proper names. This would be to trifle 
 with sacred things truly. 
 
 And it should be borne in mind, that the dan- 
 ger against which we need to be warned in this 
 case, is not confined by any means to one side. 
 It is a serious thing to profane the worship of 
 ^ God, by offering upon his altar strange fire. 
 Those who recommend and practice New Meas- 
 ures, should see well to it, that they be not 
 themselves chargeable with the very sin, which 
 they are too prone to charge upon such as with- 
 stand their views. It is surely not a case, in 
 which men can be justified in taking up a judg- 
 ment lightly, and with little or no reflection. 
 Mighty interests are concerned in the question, 
 whether such means should be employed in the 
 service of God's sanctuary or not. A great re- 
 
THE ANXIO :S BENCH. 23 
 
 sponsibility is involved in urging the system upon 
 a congregation, or in trying to give it currency 
 and authority in a reUgious community. If it 
 should be found after all, to be not the wisdom 
 and power of God unto salvation, but the fruit- 
 ful source of error and confusion in religion, an 
 occasion of reproach to the gospel and of ruin to 
 the souls of men, it would be a heavy account 
 surely, to answer for any part taken in its 
 favor. 
 
 It is truly strange, how onesided the patrons 
 of this system show themselves, as a general 
 thing, in their views and feelings with regard to 
 the point now presented. They atfect an extra- 
 ordinary interest in the cause of revivals, and 
 seem to have a pious dread of sinning against it 
 in any way. But the danger of doing so, is all, 
 to their view, in one direction. The idea of op- 
 posing the work of God, is terrible. Whatever 
 claims to be his work then, must be respected 
 and reverenced. No matter what irregularities 
 are attached to it, so long as it stands before us 
 in the holy garb of a revival, it is counted un- 
 safe to call it to account. The maxim. Prove 
 all things, must be discarded, as well as the 
 •caution. Believe not every spirit. No room 
 must be allowed to criticism, where the object 
 proposed is to rescue souls from hell. To stand 
 upon points of order in such a case, is to clog 
 the chariot wheels of salvation. Meanwhile the 
 disastrous consequences of false excitement, in 
 the name of religion, are entirely overlooked. 
 No account is made comparatively, of the dan- 
 
24 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 ger of bringing both the truth and power of God 
 into discredit, by countenancing pretensions ta 
 the name of a revival where the thing itself is 
 not present. The danger itself is by no means 
 imaginary. Spurious excitements are natural 
 and common. Gross irregularity and extrava- 
 gance, carried often to the point of downright 
 profanity, are actually at work, in connection 
 with such excitements, on all sides. The whole 
 interest of revivals is endangered, by the assump- 
 tion impudently put forward, that these revolt- 
 ing excesses belong to the system. False and 
 ruinous views of religion, are widely dissemina- 
 ted. Thousands of souls are deceived into a 
 false hope. Vast obstructions are thrown in the 
 way of true godliness. But of all this, no ac- 
 count is made by those who are so sensitively 
 jealous of danger on the other side. The only 
 alternative they seem to see, is jlction or No^ 
 action. But the difference between right action^ 
 and wrong action, one would think, is full as 
 important, to say the least, as the difference be- 
 tween action and no action. 
 
 We are told however, that the term "New 
 Measures'^ is. vague, covering in the view of 
 some more than it covers in the view of others ; 
 so that there is danger of encouraging prejudice, 
 and opposition against tbe best things, as well 
 as the worst, in venturing to criticise and cen- 
 sure the general system. In the German com- 
 munity in particular, it is well known that great 
 confusion prevails with regard to the subject, in 
 this view. With many, all active efforts in fa- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 25 
 
 vor of serious evangelical piety, are branded 
 with the reproach of new measures. Protracted 
 meetings, prayer meetings, the doctrine of the 
 new birth, special efforts for the salvation of sin- 
 ners, revivals in the true and proper sense, tract 
 societies, missionary societies, andbenevolentope- 
 rations, generally, all are regarded with suspicion, 
 or it may be actually opposed, as belonging to the 
 same system of extravagance, that includes the 
 Anxious Bench and its natural connections. To 
 oppose the latter then, we are told is virtually 
 to oppose the former. People will not distin- 
 guish. By exposing the nakedness of the Anx- 
 ious Bench, we must expect to strengthen the 
 hands of those who cry out against all active re- 
 ligion. Better to be silent, than to incur so hea- 
 vy a responsibility. Especially at this juncture 
 should we observe such sacred caution, it is in- 
 timated, when the German Churches are wak- 
 ing from the sleep of years, and passing the 
 crisis of a great spiritual revolution, whose con- 
 sequences no one can measure. 
 
 Most certainly, in such circumstances, caution 
 does become us all. We should tremble, to touch 
 the ark of God with unhallowed hand. It were 
 only to be wished, that this might be seriously 
 laid to heart, by the champions of the A nxious 
 Bench themselves, as well as by others. 
 
 It has been already stated, that the Anxious 
 Bench is made the direct object of regard in this 
 tract, rather than New Measures in general, for 
 the very purpose of cutting off occasion, as much 
 as may be, from those who. seek occasion, for 
 
26 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 confounding in this way things that are entirely 
 distinct. The particular is made to stand for 
 the general, in the way of specimen or type, so 
 as to exclude all that is not of the same complex- 
 ion and spirit. If any choose notwithstanding to 
 take the idea of New Measures in a wider sense, 
 they have a right to please themselves in so do- 
 ing, if they see proper ; but they can have no 
 right surely to obtrude their own arbitrary view 
 on the present discussion. There is a broad dif- 
 ference between New Measures in the one sense, 
 and New Measures in the other sense. It is 
 overbearing impudence to pretend, that a 
 protracted meeting, or a meeting for social 
 prayer, is of the same character with the anxious 
 bench, or the various devices for theatrical ef- 
 fect with which this is so frequently linked. 
 Such meetings lie in the very conception of 
 Christian worship, and are as old as the Church. 
 The assertion sometimes heard, that the idea of 
 protracted meetings, now so familiar and so 
 generally approved, is one of recent origin, for 
 which we are indebted to the system of New 
 Measures, serves only to expose the ignorance 
 of those by whom it is made. It is no less an 
 abuse of terms, as well as of common sense, to 
 include in this system tract societies, the cause 
 of missions, and the benevolent agencies in gen- 
 eral, by which the Church is endeavoring to dif- 
 fuse the knowledge of the truth throughout the 
 world. All these things are natural, direct ut- 
 terances of the spirit of Christianity itself, and 
 have no affinity whatever with the order of ac- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 tion represented by the Anxious Bench. The 
 same thing may be said of revivals. They are 
 as old as the gospel itself. Special effusions of 
 the Spirit, the Church has a right to expect in 
 every age, in proportion as she is found faithful 
 to God's covenant; and where such effusions 
 take place, an extraordinary use of the ordinary 
 means of grace will appear, as a matter of course. 
 But still a revival is one thing, and a Phrygian 
 dance another ; even though the Phrygian dance \ 
 should be baptized into Christian Montanism. 
 Life implies action, but all action is not life. It 
 is sheer impudence to say, that new measures 
 and revival measures are the same thing. 
 
 And there is good reason to believe, that the 
 confusion which is said to prevail with regard to 
 the whole subject, is much less in fact than is 
 sometimes represented. As a general thing, peo- 
 ple know very well that there is no affinity or 
 connection, betv\^een the system represented by 
 the Anxious Bench, and such evangelical inter- 
 ests as have now been mentioned. Even in 
 those sections, where it has been found conven- 
 ient to stretch the idea of New Measures over 
 this hallowed territory, there is a better knowl- 
 edge of the true state of the case probably than 
 is often supposed. 
 
 But allowing the confusion to be as complete, 
 among the German Churches, as it is represent- 
 ed, shall no effort be made to correct it, and put 
 things in their proper light ? Admit that the 
 best practices, and most important interests, are 
 in the eyes of many identified with the system 
 
28 THE ANXICUS BENCH. 
 
 of New Measures, in the proper sense, so that 
 to assault the latter is considered an assault at 
 the same time upon the former; still is that a 
 reason for sparing and sheltering the system, un- 
 der its own bad form ? Is there no help for the 
 German Churches, in this predicament ? Must 
 they have revivals, in the way of the Anxious 
 Bench, or no revivals at all ? Must it be with 
 ^hem Finneyism, Methodism, Winebrennerism, 
 or open war with serious religion, and the spirit 
 of missions, under every form ? Is the necessa- 
 ry alternative, in their case, quackery or death ? 
 Rather, in these circumstances, it becomes a 
 solemn duty to take the difficulty by the horns, 
 and reduce it to its proper posture. We owe it 
 to the German Churches, not to suffer things so 
 different, in a case of such vast moment, to be 
 so deplorably confounded. The case is one that 
 calls loudly for light, and it is high time that 
 light should be extended to it without reserve. 
 If it be a reigning error, to involve light and 
 darkness in this way, under a common term, in 
 the same sweeping censure, that is not a reason 
 surely why we should try to uphold the dark- 
 ness for the sake of the light, but a sacred re- 
 quisition upon us rather, to insist on a clear, full 
 discrimination of the one element from the other. 
 If Finneyism and Winebrennerism, the anxious 
 I)ench, revival machinery, solemn tricks for ef- 
 fect, decision displays at the bidding of the 
 preacher, genuflections and prostrations in the 
 aisle or around the altar, noise and disorder, ex- 
 travagance and rant, mechanical conversions^. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 29 
 
 justification by feeling rather than faith, and en- 
 couragement Hiinistered to all fanatical impres- 
 sions ; if these things, and things in the same 
 line indefinitely, have no connection in fact with 
 true serious religion and the cause of revivals, 
 but tend only lo bring them into discredit, let 
 the fact be openly proclaimed. Only in this 
 way, may it be hoped that the reproach put up- 
 on revivals and other evangelical interests by 
 some, under cover of their pretended connection 
 with this system of New Measures in the true 
 sense, will be in due time fairly rolled away. 
 
 The fact, that a crisis has come in the history 
 of the German Churches, and that they are wak- 
 ing to the consciousness of a new life with regard 
 to religion, only makes it the more important, 
 that this subject should not be suffered to rest in 
 vague confusion. It is a popish maxim, by 
 which ignorance is made to be the mother of de- 
 votion. We say rather. Let there be light. 
 The cause of the Reformation was more endan- 
 gered by its own carricature, in the wild fanati- 
 cism of the Annabaptists, than by all the opposi- 
 tion of Rome. Luther saved it, not by truckling 
 compromise, but by boldly facing and unmask- 
 ing the false spirit, so that all the world might 
 see, that Lutheran Christianity was one thing, 
 and wild Phrygian Montanism, with its pretend- 
 ed inspiration, quite another. So in the present 
 crisis, the salvation of the old German Churches 
 in this country is to be accomplished, not by en- 
 couraging them to "believe every spirit,'^ but 
 by engaging them, if possible, to "try the spir- 
 
30 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 its, whether they be of God." Let things that 
 are wrong be called by their right names, and 
 separated from things that are right. 
 
 A heavy responsibility, in this case, rests up- 
 on the friends of New Measures. The circula- 
 tion of spurious coin, in the name of money, 
 brings the genuine currency into discredit. So 
 also the surest way to create and cherish preju- 
 dice against true piety, is to identify it with 
 counterfeit pretences to its name. Popery, in 
 popish countries, is the fruitful source of infidel- 
 ity.' So in the case before us, it is sufficiently 
 clear, that the zeal which the sticklers for the 
 system of the Anxious Bench display, in pres- 
 sing their irregularities on the Church as a ne- 
 cessary part of the life and power of Christiani- 
 ty, is doing more at present than any other 
 cause, to promote the unhappy prejudice that is^ 
 found to prevail, in certain quarters, against 
 this interest in its true form. Many are led hon- 
 estly to confound the one order of things with 
 the other ; and still more, no doubt, willingly 
 accept the opportunity thus furnished, to strength- 
 en themselves in their opposition to evangelical 
 interests, under a plausible plea, against their 
 own better knowledge. In either case, we see 
 the mischievous force of the false issue, which the 
 question of New Measures has been made to in- 
 volve. The Anxious Bench, and its kindred 
 extravagances, may beheld justly responsible for 
 a vast amount of evil, in this view. As a carri- 
 cature always wrongs the original it is made 
 falsely to represent, so has this spurious system,. 
 
31 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 officiously usurping a name and place not pro-- 
 perly its own, contributed in no small degree to 
 bring serious religion itself into discredit, obscu- 
 ring its true form, and inviting towards it pre- 
 judices that might otherwise have had no place. 
 It has much to answer for, in the occasion it has 
 given, and is giving still, for the name of God 
 to be blasphemed, and the sacred cause of revi- 
 vals to be vilified and opposed,. ^ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 TAe merits of the Anxious Bench not to he measured by Us 
 popularity; nor by its seeming success, — Circumstan^ 
 ces in which it is found to prevail. — No spiritual force 
 required to give it effect. 
 
 The Popularity o{ the Anxious Bench proves 
 nothing in its favor.* We find it, to be sure, 
 extensively in vogue, and with a large portion 
 of the community in high honor. There are 
 whole sects that seem to have no conception of 
 any thing like a vigorous life in the Church, 
 
 * "It proves nothing against it," we are told from the other 
 side. The lemarkis most true ; but most foreign at the same 
 time from the point, so far as the position of the tract is con- 
 cerned. The object of this chapter is, not to present any pos- 
 itive argument against the Bench, but simply to undermine 
 certain presumptions in its favor, which are known to stand 
 in the way of a calm and dispassionate consideration of its 
 merits, as afterwards examined. The argument here isnega* 
 tivey not positive. The patrons of the system, it is plain, 
 make much account of its popularity, of the success with 
 which it seems to be attended, and of the power it is supposed 
 to manifest on the part of those who can use it with effect. 
 In the present chapter, it is attempted to showsimply, that 
 popularity and apparent success prove nothing, and that the 
 measure is of such a character as to call for no particular mor- 
 al force to ^^,ive it effect. In the following chapter, the argu- 
 ment becomes positivey showing that there is actual weakness 
 and quackery at the bottom of the whole system. 
 
TllE ANXIOUS BENCft. 33 
 
 Without its presence. And beyond the range of 
 these, scores of ministers and congregations are 
 found, who glory in it as the very "gate of hea- 
 ven/^ and consider it no less essential than the 
 pulpit itself to the progress of any considerable 
 revival. During the last winter, as already 
 mentioned, there were places, where the spirit 
 of the Anxious Bench might be said to carry all 
 before it ; and it is likely it will be so again, dur- 
 ing the winter that is to come. 
 
 But all who are at all acquainted with the 
 world, know, that the worst things may thus 
 run for a season and be glorified, in the popular 
 mind. And especially is this the case, where 
 they hold their existence in the element of ex- 
 citement, and connect themselves with religion, 
 the deepest and most universal of all human in- 
 terests. No weight of fashion enlisted in favor 
 of the Anxious Bench can deserve to be much 
 respected, in such a trial of its merits as we are 
 here called to make. 
 
 It should be remembered however, that this 
 popularity, such as it is, is in a certain sense but 
 the echo of a sound which has already ceased to 
 be heard. Whatever may be the pretensions of 
 the Anxious Bench, on the field we are now 
 contemplating, it is after all a stale interest, so far 
 as the Church at large is concerned. Not many 
 years since, it stood in very considerable credit 
 in different parts of the Presbyterian Church, 
 and over a large portion of New England. But 
 on this ground, the thing has fairly exploded. 
 It has been tried and found wanting. Here and 
 3 
 
M THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 there, it may still be held in honor. But in a 
 general view, even those who were formerly its 
 friends have come to look upon it with distrust, 
 and are no longer willing, to give it their counte- 
 nance. As with general consent, throughout 
 New England and New York, the Congrega- 
 tional and Presbyterian Churches have abandon- 
 ed the use of the Anxious Bench for "a more 
 excellent way."* With all its popularity then 
 where it now prevails, it is after all a stale in- 
 terest, worn threadbare and flung aside, in a 
 different quarter of the religious world. In these 
 circumstances, no> great ajccount is to be made of 
 its present credit, in any view. 
 
 Nothing can be argued again in favor of the 
 
 * This has been contradicted; with more courage however, 
 than wisdom. It is notorious to all who know anything about 
 the subject, that the system of New Measures, in the sense 
 of the present tract, as represented some years since in the 
 North by such men as Blarichard and Finney, has latterly 
 fallen into discredit and general disuse, throughout the Congre- 
 gational and Presbyterian Churches. They still cherish oi' 
 course prayer meetings, protracted meetings, and revivals ; 
 and it is quite possible that a number of ministers may still 
 have recourse to the anxious bench, as a particular measure, 
 at certain times ; but the system, to which this- measure of 
 Fight belongs,, is no longer in vogue. By general consent, 
 the churches have fallen back upon the evangelical method, 
 to which the use of the anxious bench can adhere only as an 
 accident, if it adhere at all. The revivals of last winter, in the 
 North, according to the testiTiony furnished concerning them 
 in the New York Observer, were of a wholly different stamp, 
 from those of Mr. Finney's school, in former years. These 
 last had strength ; but it was such as a wasting fever imparts^ 
 to a sick man, opening the way for a long prostration after- 
 wards. The revivals of the past winter, it may be trusted ^ 
 have been the first fruits only of the quiet and enduring vigor, 
 that springs from renovated health. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 35 
 
 Anxious Bench, from the Success, with which 
 it may appear to be employed in the service of 
 reUgion. This is often appealed to for this pur- 
 pose. We are referred triumphantly to the ac- 
 tual results of the system^ as tried in different 
 places. We are told of hundreds awakened and 
 converted in connection with its use. God, it is 
 said, has owned it, and impressed his seal upon 
 it, by working through it mightily as a means of 
 salvation; and if he choose to honor it in this way, 
 who are we that we should find fault or con- 
 demn We should rejoice to see souls brought 
 into the kingdom, in any way. We should be 
 willing to make room, in such a case, for the 
 manifold grace of God, allowing it to have free 
 course in any channel through which it is found 
 to flow, and not seeking to force it into conform- 
 ity with our own narrow views. All this car- 
 ries with it a plausible sound. But after all, the 
 representatian is entitled to no respect. 
 
 In the first place, to draw an argument for 
 the Anxious Bench from its immediate visible 
 effects, is to take for granted that these are worth 
 all they claim to be worth. We are pointed to- 
 powerful awakenings, of which it is considered 
 to> be the very soul. We are referred to scores 
 and hundreds of conversions, effected directly or 
 
 * " Who can behold a congregation of christians wrestling 
 for an altar-full of penitent, anxious sinners, and witness the 
 success of such instrumentality, and say, this is ignorance or 
 fanaticism ? God blesses only one way, which is the right 
 way ; he has blessed this way, therefore it is the right way.** 
 —Correspondence of the Luth' Observer , Feb. 17, 1843, 
 
3S THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 indirectly by its means. But who shall assure 
 us, that all this deserves to be regarded with 
 confidence, as the genuine fruit of religion ? It 
 is marvellous credulity, to take every excitement 
 in the name of religion, for the work of God^s 
 Spirit. It is an enormous demand on our charity, 
 when we are asked to accept in mass, as true 
 and solid, the wholesale conversions that are 
 made in this way. It will soon be made to ap- 
 pear, that there is the greatest reason for cau- 
 tion and distrust, with regard to this point. No 
 doubt the use of the Anxious Bench may be 
 found associated, in certain cases, with revivals, 
 the fruits of which are worthy of all confidence. 
 But this character they will have, through the 
 force of a different system, that would have been 
 just as complete without any such accompani- 
 ment. In such cases, the revival may be said 
 to prevail, in spite of the new measures with which 
 it is encumbered. On the other hand, in pro- 
 portion as the spirit of such measures is found to 
 animate and rule the occasion, there will be rea- 
 son to regard the whole course of things with 
 doubt. One thing is most certain. Spurious re- 
 vivals are common, and as the fruit of them, 
 false conversions lamentably abound. An Anx- 
 ious Bench may be crowded, where no divine 
 influence whatever is felt. A whole congrega- 
 tion may be moved with excitement, and yet be 
 losing at the very time more than is gained in a 
 religious point of view. Hundreds may be car- 
 ried /Arot/^A the process of anxious bench con- 
 version, and yet their last sfate may be worse 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 37 
 
 than the first. It will not do to point us to im- 
 mediate visible effects, to appearances on the 
 spot, or to glowing reports struck off from some 
 heated imagination immediately after. Piles of 
 copper, fresh from the mint, are after all some- 
 thing very different from piles of gold. 
 
 Again, it does not follow by any means that 
 a thing is right and good, because it may be 
 made subservient occasionally, in the hands of 
 God, to a good end. Allow that the system re- 
 presented by the Anxious Bench, has often had 
 the effect of bringing souls by a true and saving 
 change to Christ, and still it may deserve to be 
 opposed and banished from the Church. God 
 can cause the wrath and folly of man both to 
 praise him, in such ways as to himself may seem 
 best. And so, under the influence af his Spirit, 
 he can make almost any occasion subservient to 
 the awakening and conversian of a soul. But 
 it would be wretched logic, to infer from this 
 the propriety of employing every such occasion, 
 with preparation and design, as a part of the 
 regular work of the gospel. It is sometimes 
 said indeed, that if only some souls are saved 
 by the use of new measures, we ought thankful- 
 ly to own their power, and give them our coun- 
 tenance ; since even one soul is worth more than 
 a world. But it should be remembered, that 
 the salvation of a sinner may notwithstanding 
 cost too much ! If truth and righteousnefs are 
 made to suffer for the purpose, more is lost than 
 won by the result. We must not do wrongs 
 even to gain a soul for heaven. And if for one 
 
38 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 thus gained, ten should be virtually destroyed, 
 by the very process employed to reach the point, 
 who will say that such a method of promoting 
 Christianity would deserve to be approved? 
 There may be movements in the name of reh- 
 gion, and under the form of religion, and yield- 
 ing to some extent the fruits of religion, which 
 after all come from beneath and not from above. 
 The history of the Church is full of instances, 
 illustrating the truth of this remark. 
 
 Simeon, the Stylite, distinguished himself, in 
 the fifth century, by taking his station on the 
 top of a pillar, for the glory of God and the ben- 
 efit of his own soul. This whimsical discipline 
 he continued to observe for thirty seven years. 
 Meanwhile he became an object of wide-spread 
 veneration. Vast crowds came from a distance 
 to gaze upon him, and hear him preach. The 
 measure took with the people wonderfully. 
 Thousands of heathen were converted, and bap- 
 tized by his hand. Among these, it may be 
 charitably trusted were some, whose conversion 
 was inward and solid. God made use of Sime- 
 on^s Pillar, to bring them to himself The seal 
 of his approbation might seem to have rested 
 upon it, to an extraordinary extent. No wonder 
 the device became popular. The quackery of 
 the Pillar took possession of the Eastern world, 
 and stood for centuries a monument of the folly 
 that gave it birth. We laugh at it now ; and 
 yet it seemed a good thing in its time, and car- 
 ried with it a weight of popularity such as no 
 New Measure can boast of in the present day. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 39 
 
 But why speak of Stylitism in particular ? 
 "The whole system of monkery may be taken as 
 an example, of the same force, on a larger scale. 
 What a world of abominations has it not been 
 found to embrace ? And yet, under what plau- 
 sible pretences, it sought the confidence of the 
 Church, in the beginning ! There were not 
 wanting powerful reasons, to give it recommen- 
 dation. The whole Christian world in fact fell 
 into the snare. The interest became a torrent, 
 before which no man was found able to stand. 
 Most assuredly too, there was the life and pow- 
 er of reUgion, to some extent, at woi*k in the 
 movement. Monkery was to many in fact the 
 means of conversion and salvation. And to this 
 hour an argument might be framed in its favor, 
 under this view, not less plausible, to say the 
 least, than any that can be presented for the 
 'Use of the Anxious Bench. 
 
 The Romish Church has always delighted in 
 arrangements and services, animated with the 
 same false spirit. In her penitential system, all 
 pains have been taken to produce effect by 
 means of outward postures and dress, till in the 
 <3nd, amid the solemn mummery, no' room has 
 been left for genuine penitence at all. Yet not 
 a ceremony was ever introduced into the system, 
 that did not seem to be recommended by some 
 sound religious reason at the time. The same 
 thing may be said of the Services of that Church 
 generally. 
 
 In another sphere, look at Millerism, The 
 error, as it has been zealously preached within 
 
4Q> THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 the past year, has no doubt had an awakening 
 effect on the, minds of many ; and some it may 
 be trusted, have been actually conducted by 
 means of it into the kingdom of God. But will 
 a,ny pretend to say that it deserves to be encour-. 
 aged on this account ? It is said indeed, that such 
 an idea has been occasionally thrown out. Only, 
 however, where the judgment had been in some 
 measure corrupted by the spirit of quackery pre- 
 viously at work. No m,orally sane mind could 
 be willing for a moment, to- patronize such a 
 lie, on account of any apparen,tly salutary effects, 
 it might be found to have in particular cases. 
 
 Let us not be told then, that the Anxiou^; 
 Bench is a godly interest, because naany seem 
 to be convicted by its n^eans, and some are con- 
 verted in fact. AH this naay be, and the gener- 
 al operation of the system remain notwithstand- 
 ing intrinsically and perm,anently bad. 
 
 As a general thing, the mtovement af coming 
 to the Anxious Bench, gives no proper repre-. 
 sentatian of the religious feeling that may be ac- 
 tually at work in the congregation, at the time. 
 It is always more or less theatrical, and aften^ 
 has no other character whatever. A sernion 
 usually goes before. But frequently this has no. 
 felt relation at all to the subsequent excitement,, 
 so far as its actual cantents are concerned. The 
 writer was present, not a great while ago, as a 
 stranger, in a church, where a preacher of some 
 little note in coimection with the subject of revi- 
 vals, had been introduced, under the expecta-. 
 t^ioA and hope, that something of the kind might 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 41 
 
 be secured, at the time, by his instmmentaUty . 
 The congregation had but little appearance of 
 life at the beginning, and still less as the sermon 
 drew tpwards a close. The truth is, it was a 
 very dull discourse, at the best. The preach- 
 er was not well, and altogether he failed 
 to make the least impression on the great body . 
 of his audience. A number were fairly asleep, 
 and others were bordering on the same state. 
 The preacher saw and felt, that he had preach- 
 ed without effect ; and took occasion, after the 
 sermon was properly ended, to express his re« 
 gret in view of the fact, and to add a few vale- 
 dictory remarks in the prospect of his leaving 
 the place the next day, without any thought evi- 
 dently of calling out the anxious, where not a 
 trace of feeling had been discerned. But the 
 new strain adapted at the close, served to rouse 
 attention and create interest. The congregation 
 put on a moxe wakeful aspect, and something 
 like entation could be perceived in the counte- 
 nances of a few. The preacher took courage, and 
 after a few minutes dared to try the Anxious 
 Bench. As usual, the hymn was started. Come 
 humble sinner , <5'c._^ and carried through, with 
 pauses, in which siimers present were urged 
 and pressed to seek their salvation by coming 
 forward. Soon a female was. seen going to 
 the place, then another, and another ; till at 
 last a whole seat was filled. One old lady rose, 
 and moved around, trying to induce others to 
 go forward. At the close of the meeting, I re- 
 tired, wondering within myself that educated 
 
4*2 THE Al^XIOTJS BENCH. 
 
 men, as were both the preacher in this case and 
 the pastor at his side, could so impose upon 
 themselves, as to attach any importance to such 
 a demonstration, in such circumstances. " It was 
 atternpted to caxry forward the work, by an ap- 
 pointment for the next evening. But on coming 
 together at the time, it was found that it loould 
 not go forward, and so it was dropped altogeth- 
 er. 
 
 Commonly indeed, those who deal in the anx- 
 ious seat, rely far less upon the presentation of 
 truth to the understanding, than they do upon 
 other influences, to bring persons forward. 
 § Pains are taken rather to raise the imagination, 
 and confound the judgment. Exciting appeals 
 are made to the principle of fear. Advantage is 
 taken in every way of the senses and nerves. 
 Especially the mysterious force of sympathy is 
 enlisted in support of the measure, and made to 
 tell in many cases with immense effect. 
 
 As might be expected accordingly, the most 
 favorable subjects for the operation of the sys- 
 tem, are persons in whom feelings prevail over 
 judgment, and who are swayed by impulse 
 more than reflection. In an enlightened, well in- 
 structed congregation, the anxious bench can 
 never be generally popular. Where it is in full 
 favor, a large proportion of those who are 
 brought out by it, are females and persons who 
 are quite young.* It often happens that the 
 
 * "Females and persons who are quite .youn^ have souls to 
 ibe saved, as well as males and persons who are advanced in 
 
THE AKXIOtJS BENCH. 43 
 
 "*»bench^^ is filled altogether with such cases, the 
 greater part of them perhaps mere girls and boys. 
 So where a community is characterisedby a gener- 
 al ignorance with regard to the nature of true re- 
 ligion, the measure is frequently applied with 
 great eifect ; and those precisely who are the 
 most rude and uncultivated, are the most likely 
 in such circumstances to come under its power. 
 
 It requires then no spiritual power to use the 
 Anxious Bench with effect. To preach the 
 truth effectually, a man must have a certain 
 spiritual force in himself, which others are made 
 to feel. But nothing of this sort is needed, to se- 
 cure success here. The object sought is a mere 
 outward demonstration on the subject of religion, 
 which may be gained by other forms of influ- 
 ence, just as well. It shows no inward power 
 whatever, to be able to move a congregation in 
 this way. It can be done without eloquence, 
 and calls for no particular earnestness or depth 
 
 life; nay *merf» ^irls and boys' have an eternal interest pend^ 
 ing/'—Luih. Obs. Dec. 29, 1843. 
 
 "And was not woman last at the cross, and first at the tomb 
 of the Son of God V— Davis' Plea. p. 45. 
 *'Low and jejune indeed must be the conception of a religion, 
 which can allow a divine to atteinpt to destroy a "measure," 
 through which ^'females, girls and hoys,'' run to, as a means 
 to enable them to flee the wrath to come." — Denig's Stric- 
 tures ^ p. 26. 
 
 What a coincidence of judgment, among the critics of the 
 tract, at this point ! And what shall we say of the relevancy 
 and honesty of the criticism itselt, in view of the passage thus 
 censured, as it actually stands, and taken in its plain sense? 
 This is a fair specimen however, of a large part of all that has 
 bfien argued against the tract, in these publications. 
 
44 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 of thought. It is truly wonderful iiideedj with 
 how little qualification of intellect and soul a man; 
 may be fitted to carry all before him at certain, 
 times, and to show himself ofi" to the eyes of a 
 bewitched multitude as "the great power of 
 God/' by having recourse to new measures. 
 He may be vulgar, coarse and dull, and so 
 pointless and sapless in his ordinary pulpit servi- 
 ces, that it will be a weariness to hear him ; and 
 yet you shall find him, from time to time, throw- 
 ing a whole community into excitement, gather- 
 ing around him crowded houses night after night, 
 and exercising as it might seem, for the space of 
 three or four weeks, an irresistible sway, in 
 favor of religion. Such cases are by no means 
 uncommon. Some of the most successful prac- 
 titioners in the art of the Anxious Bench show 
 themselves lamentably defective in the power of 
 serious godliness, as well as in mental cultiva- 
 tion generally. The general habit of their lives 
 is worldly and vain, and their religion, apart 
 from the occasional whirlwinds of excitement in 
 which they are allowed to figure in their favorite 
 way, may be said to be characteristically super- 
 ficial and cold. Nay, the evidence may be pal- 
 pable, that religion has nothing at all to do with 
 the system, in cases where it is employed with 
 the greatest apparent effect. Nothing is more 
 common, than for those even who glory in the 
 power of the Anxious Bench, as employed with- 
 in their own communion, to look with entire 
 distrust on its results as exhibited in the practice 
 of other sects. What is trumpeted in the one case 
 
ITHE AKXIOtJS BENCa. 
 
 46 
 
 -as a glorious revival, is allowed to pass in the 
 other without notice as at best a questionable 
 excitement. In this way it is practically ac- 
 knowledged, that the system does not necessari- 
 ly involve spiritual power. It can be made to 
 work as well in connection with error, as in con- 
 nection with truth. It is as fully at the service 
 of quackery and imposture, as it can be available 
 in the cause of genuine religion. It is well 
 adapted indeed to become the sport of quacks, 
 under every name. All wild and fanatical sects 
 employ it, with equal success. OampbelUtes, 
 Winebrennerians, and Universalists, show the 
 same power, when necessary, in producing re- 
 vivals under this form. Millerism and Mor- 
 monism, it may be added, are just as capable 
 of doing wonders in the same way ; though the 
 last has declared itself not favorable to the Anx- 
 ious Bench, as interfering with regular and ra- 
 tional worship. 
 
 Nothing can be more precarious then, than 
 the argument for this system, as drawn from its 
 apparent effects and results. In the sphere of 
 religion, as indeed in the world of hfe generally, 
 the outward can have no value, except as it 
 stands continually in the power of the inward. 
 To estimate the force of appearances, we must 
 try their moral constitution ; and this always in- 
 volves a reference to the source, from which 
 they spring. A miracle, in the true sense, is 
 not simply a prodigy, nakedly and separately 
 considered. It must include a certain moral 
 character. Especially there must be inward 
 
46 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 freedom and divine strength in the persony 
 from whom it proceeds. No wonder-worMs 
 could authenticate the mission of a man pre- 
 tending to come from God, who should display- 
 in all his movements an inward habit at war 
 with the idea of religion. And just as little are 
 we bound to respect, ia the present case, the 
 mere show of force, without regard to the agen- 
 cy by which it is exhibited. Those who deal 
 in the Anxious Bench are accustomed to please 
 themselves with the idea, that it is an argument 
 of power on the part of their ministry, to be 
 able in this way to produce a great outward efr 
 feet.* This is considered sufficient, it might 
 seem, apart from the personality of the preacher 
 altogether, to authenticate his strength. But no 
 judgment can be more superficial. The person- 
 ality of the preacher, must ever condition and 
 determine the character of his work. It were 
 easy to give a score of living examples, in which 
 the semblance of success on a large scale, in the 
 use of this system at the present time, is at once 
 belied by palpable defect here. The men are of 
 such a spirit, that it is not possible to confide in- 
 
 ♦ "Who ever dreamed, that a single invitation to penitents 
 to come forward, and a personal conversation wrth them orr 
 their spiritual condition and duties- demanded uncommon' in- 
 ward spiritual force?" Thus the editor of the Luth. Obs. 
 Nov. 17, 1848, mystifying the point as usual. His colleague 
 of Pittsburg however, comes up boldly to the mark. **A 
 quack may preach a sermon and make a long prayer," he 
 tells us ; ^'but it takes something more than a Quack,- so to 
 preach the truth that sinners immediately come forward' 
 to the anx'ous bench."— Davis' P/ea, p. 32. Right braveljf 
 spoken ; but the very dialect of Quackdom itself. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCK, 
 
 47 
 
 telligently in any results it may seem to reach,, 
 by tlieir ministry. We are authorised before 
 all examination, to pronounce them valueless 
 and vain. So utterly weak, in this argument, 
 is the appeal to facts^ as managed frequently 
 by superficial thinkers. In every view of the 
 ease, the fruits of the Anxious Bench must be 
 received with great caution, while to a great 
 extent they are entitled to no confidence what- 
 ever. 
 
CHAPTER ill. 
 
 Jsfature of Quackery^ — To rely on forms Or measiires skotus 
 inward weakness, — «iVeu> Measures^* a substitute for 
 true strength,—- Where they are in honor y ample space is 
 found for novices and quacks. 
 
 It has been shown, that the successful use of 
 the Anxious Bench calls for no spiritual power. 
 It is within the reach of fanaticism and error, to 
 be employed in their service, with as much fa- 
 cility as it may be enlisted in the service of truth. 
 It is no argument of strength, as is often imagin- 
 ed, that a preacher is able to use such an agen^ 
 icy with effect. I now go a step farther and pro^ 
 nounce it an argument of spiritual weakness, 
 that he should find it either necessary or desira^ 
 ble to call in such help. There is a measure of 
 quackery in the expedient, which always im-^ 
 plies the want of strength, so far as it may be 
 relied on at all, as being of material account, in 
 carrying on the work ot God.* 
 
 * It has been found convenient with some, it would seem, 
 to misunderstand what is said of spiritual weakness and spir- 
 itual strength, in this part of Uie tract. They affect to take 
 it as having respect to intellect, learning, eloquence, &c. ; 
 as though it implied^ that men of ordinary or small abilities 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 49 
 
 Quackery consists in pretension to an inward 
 virtue or power, which is not possessed in fact, 
 on the ground of a mere show of the strength 
 which such power or virtue is supposed to in- 
 ckide. The self-styled physician, who without 
 any knowledge of the human frame, undertakes 
 to cure diseases by a sovereign panacea, in the 
 shape of fluid, powder, or pill, is a quack ; and 
 there is no doubt abundance of quackery in the 
 medical profession, under more professional 
 forms, where practice is conducted without any 
 true professional insight and power. Such prac- 
 tice may at times seem eminently successful, and 
 yet it is quackery notwithstanding. The same 
 false show of power may, of course, come into 
 view in every department of life. It makes up 
 in fact a large part of the action and business of 
 
 are entitled to no respect in the Church ; and so we are re- 
 ferred to Paul's ^'Not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
 mighty, &c. 1 Cor. i. 26-28, as a scriptural rebuke upon 
 every such judgment. Thus also the editor of the Lutheran 
 Observer, Jan. 5, 1844, lugs in, by the neck, a passage to 
 the same purpose from President Edwards, to show that this 
 "great master-spirit did nt)t look upon the inward weakness of 
 his co-workers as a matter ot reproach." At the close of it, 
 he gravely adds : "This quotation needs no comment irom us; 
 it speaks for itself. All we ask is to compare it with Dr. N's 
 labored effort about the oft-repeated "inward weakness" of 
 revival pieachers in the present day." JVow if there be any- 
 thing plain in the whole tract, it is that the inward weakness 
 attributed by it, not to revival preachers, but to such as glory 
 in the system of the Bench, is that of the *'flesh" mainly as 
 opposed to the strength which is from God's Spirit. When I 
 am weak, says Paul, then am I strong. Quackery affects to 
 be strong, but is weak in fact. Its weakness does not stand 
 in the measure of its own resources fo much, as in its separa* 
 tion from the ground of all strength in God. 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 the world. Quack lawyers, quack statesmen^ 
 quack scholars, quack teachers, quack gentle- 
 men, quacks in a word of every name and shape, 
 meet us plentifully in every direction. We need 
 not be surprised then to find the evil fully at 
 home also in the sphere of religion. Indeed it 
 might seem to be more at home here, than any 
 where else. Here especially the heart of man, 
 "deceitful above all things and desperately wick- 
 ed,'' has shown itself most ingenious in all ages, 
 in substituting the shadow for the reality, the 
 form for the substance, the outward for the in- 
 ward. The religion of the world has always 
 been, for the most part, arrant quackery. Pa- 
 ganism can exist mider no other form. The 
 mummery of Rome, as aping powers of a high- 
 er order, is the most stupendous system of quack- 
 ery the world has ever witnessed. But quack- 
 ery in the Church, is not confined of course to 
 Rome. Christianity, in its very nature, must 
 ever act on the corrupt nature of man as a pow- 
 erful stimulus to the evil. No system embraces 
 such powers, inward, deep and everlasting. 
 These, man would fain appropriate and make 
 his own, in an external way, without relinquish- 
 ing himself, and entering soul and body that 
 sphere of the Spirit, in which alone they can 
 be understood and felt. So Simon Magus 
 dreamed of purchasing the gift of God, ajid 
 clothing himself with it in the way of outward 
 possession. He was a quack ; the prototype 
 and prince of evangelical quacks. The second 
 Century shows us the whole Christian world 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 51 
 
 brilliantly illuminated with rival systems of 
 quackery, under the name of Gnosticism, which 
 for a time seemed to darken the sun of truth it- 
 self by their false but powerful glare. After- 
 wards, under a less idealistic garb, the evil fair- 
 ly enthroned itself in the Church. The Refor- 
 I mation was the resurrection of the Truth once 
 more, in its genuine and original life. Luther 
 was no quack. But Protestantism itself soon 
 had its quacks again, in plentiful profusion, and 
 has them alTthe world over at the present day. 
 Christianity, as of old, serves to call the false 
 spirit continually into action. Some whole sects 
 stand only in the element of quackery. And 
 among all sects, it is easy to find the same ele- 
 ment to some extent actively at work ; some- 
 times under one form, and sometimes under an- 
 other ; but always exalting the outward at the 
 cost of the inward, and promising in the power 
 of the flesh what can never be accomphshed ex- 
 cept in the power of the spirit. 
 
 Wherever ybr/Ti^ in religion are taken to be — 
 we will not say the spiritual realities themselves 
 with which the soul is concerned, for the error 
 in that shape would be too gross — but the power 
 and force at least by which these realities are to 
 be apprehended, without regard to their own in- 
 visible virtue, there we have quackery in the 
 full sense of the term. Religion must have forms , 
 as well as an inward living force. But these 
 can have no value, no proper reality, except as 
 they spring perpetually from the presence of that 
 living force itself. The inward must be the 
 
52 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 bearer of the outward. Quackery however re* 
 verses the case. The outward is made to bear 
 the inward. The shrine, consecrated with the 
 proper ceremonies, must become a shechinah. 
 Forms have a virtue in them, to bind and rule 
 the force of things. Such forms may be exhibi- 
 ted in a ritual, or in a creed, or in a scheme of 
 a religious experience mechanically apj)rehend- ^ 
 ed ; but in the end, the case is substantially the 
 same. It is quackery in the garb of religion, 
 without its inward life and power. 
 
 That old forms are liable to be thus abused, 
 and have been extensively thus abused in fact, 
 is easily admitted. But it is not always recol- 
 lected, that new forms furnish precisely the same 
 opportunity for the same error. It is marvel- 
 lous indeed how far this seems to be overlooked, 
 by the zealous advocates of the system of New 
 Measures, in our own day. They propose to 
 rouse the Church from its dead formalism. And 
 to do this effectually, they strike off from the 
 old ways of worship, and bring in new and 
 strange practices, that are adapted to excite at- 
 tention. These naturally produce a theatrical 
 effect, and this is taken at once for an evidence 
 of waking life in the congregation. One meas- 
 ure, losing its power in proportion as it becomes 
 familiar, leads to the introduction of another. A 
 few years since a sermon was preached and pub- 
 lished by a somewhat distinguished revivalist, 
 in which the ground was openly taken that there 
 must be a constant succession of new measures 
 in the Chvuch, to keep it alive and awake 5 since 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 53 
 
 only in this way could we hope to counteract 
 permanently the force of that spiritual gravita- 
 tion^ by which the minds of men are so prone 
 continually to sink towards the earth in the 
 sphere of rehgion. The philosophy this pre- 
 cisely, by which the Church of Rome, from the 
 fourth Century downward, was actuated in all 
 her innovations. Her worship was designed to 
 make up through the flesh, what was wanting 
 in the spirit. The friends of new measures af- 
 fect to be more free than others, from the au- 
 thority of mere forms. They wish not to be fet- 
 tered and cramped by ordinary methods. And 
 yet none make more account in fact of forms. 
 They discard old forms, only to trust the more 
 blindly in such as are new. Their methods are 
 are held to be all sufficient, for awakening sin- 
 ners and efiecting their conversion ! They have 
 no faith in ordinary pastoral ministrations, com- 
 paratively speaking ; no faith in the Catechism. 
 Converts made in this way are regarded with 
 suspicion. But they have great faith in the 
 Anxious Bench and its accompaniments. Old 
 measures they hold to be in their very nature 
 unfriendly to the spirit of revivals ; they are the 
 "letter that killeth.^^ But new measures "make 
 alive.'^ And yet they are measures^ when all 
 is done ; and it is only by losing sight of the in- 
 ward power of truth, that any can be led to at- 
 tach to them any such importance. 
 
 To rely upon the Anxious Bench, to be un- 
 der the necessity of having recourse to new 
 measures of any sort to enlist attention or pro- 
 
64 THE ANnoUS BENCH. 
 
 duce effect, in the work of the gospel, shows a 
 want of inward spiritual force. If it be true that 
 old forms are dead and poAverless in a minister's 
 hands, the fault is not in the forms, but in the 
 minister himself ; and it is the very impotence 
 of quackery, to think of mending the case essen- 
 tially by the introduction of new forms. The 
 man who had no power to make himself felt in 
 the catechetical class, is deceived most assured- 
 ly and deceives others, when he seems to be 
 strong in the use of the anxious bench. Let the 
 power of religion be present in the soul of him 
 who is called to serve at the altar, and no strange 
 fire will be needed to kindle the sacrifice. He 
 will require no new measures. His strength 
 will appear rather in resuscitating, and clothing 
 with their ancient force, the institutions and ser- 
 vices already established for his use. The 
 freshness of a divine life, always young and al- 
 ways new, will stand forth to view in forms 
 that before seemed sapless and dead. Attention 
 will be engaged ; interest excited ; souls drawn 
 to the sanctuary. Sinners will be awakened, 
 and born into the family of God. Christians 
 will be builded up m faith, and made meet for 
 the inheritance of the saints in light. Religion 
 will grow and prosper. This is the true idea of 
 evangelical power. But let a preacher be in- 
 wardly Aveak, though ambitious at the same 
 time of making an impression in the name of re- 
 hgion, and he will find it necessary to go to 
 work in a different way. Old forms must needs 
 be dull and spiritless, in his hands. His sermons 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 55 
 
 have neither edge nor point. The services of 
 the sanctuary are lean and barren. He can 
 throw no interest into the catechism. He has 
 no heart for family visitation, and no skill to 
 make it of any account. Still he desires to be 
 doing something in his spiritual vocati'On, to con- 
 vince others, and to satisfy himself, that he is 
 not without strength. What then is to be done? 
 He must resort to quackery ; not with clear con- 
 sciousness, of course ; but instinctively, as it 
 were, by the pressure of inward want. He will 
 seek to do by the flesh, what he finds himself 
 too weak to effect by the spirit. Thus it be- 
 comes possible for him to make himself felt. 
 New measures fall in exactly with his taste, and 
 are turned to fruitful account by his zeal. He 
 becomes theatrical ; has recourse to solemn tricks; 
 cries aloud ; takes strange attitudes ; tells ex-" 
 citing stories ; calls out the anxious ; &c. In 
 this way possibly he comes to be known as a 
 revivalist, and is counted among those who 
 preach the gospel "with the demonstration of 
 the Spirit and with power.'^ . And yet when all 
 is done, he remains as before without true spirit- 
 ual strength. New measures are the refuge of 
 weakness. 
 
 There may be cases indeed, in which genuine 
 power will express itself in new forms. But 
 when this occurs, it will always be without os- 
 tentation or eff'ort. Miracles are ever natural, 
 as distinguished from mere wonder-works and 
 feats of legerdemain. The form is the simple 
 product of the power it represents, growing forth 
 
56 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 from it, and filled with it at every point. Where 
 this is the case, what is new is at the same time 
 free, and entitled to our respect. But such in- 
 stances can never authorize imitation, where 
 the same inward power is not present. Such im- 
 itation is quackery and an argument of weakness. 
 Paul had power to wield the name of Jesus with 
 etfect for the expulsion of demons ; but when 
 the sons of Sceva, the Jew, undertook to exor- 
 cise in the same way, the demoniac fell upon 
 them, and drove them naked and wounded from 
 the house. They were quacks. Ezekiel proph- 
 esied in the valley of dry bones, and there was 
 a noise and great shaking ; but when a preacher, 
 with nothing of EzekiePs strength, lays himself 
 out to excite noise and bodily action, as though 
 this must certainly include the breath of life, 
 the whole business sinks into a solemn farce. 
 The Spirit of God, on the day of Pentecost, 
 came like a mighty rushing wind on the disci- 
 ples in Jerusalem, causing them to speak with 
 tongues ; but when a religious meeting is turned 
 into a babel, to make it pentecostal, it deserves 
 to be reprobated as savoring more of hell than 
 heaven. Life is always beautiful in its place ; 
 but hideous and ghastly are the muscular actings 
 of a galvanised corpse. An apostrophe from the 
 hps of Whitfield might thrill, like an electric 
 shock, through a whole congregation, and yet 
 be no better than a vulgar mountebank trick, as 
 imitated by an ordinary revivalist, afi*ecting ta 
 walk in his steps. An Edwards might so preach 
 the truth as to force his hearers from their seats,. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 57 
 
 and yet be no pattern whatever for those, who 
 with design and calculation call in the device of 
 "decision acts/^ as they are termed^ to create a 
 similar show of power. Whitfield and Edwards 
 needed no new measures, to make themselves 
 felt.* They were genuine men of God, who 
 had strength from heaven in themselves. They 
 were no quacks. 
 
 The system of New Measures then is to be 
 deprecated, as famishing a refuge for weakness 
 and sloth in the Avork of the ministry, and in 
 this way holding out a temptation, which, so 
 far as it prevails, leads ministers to undervalue 
 and neglect the cultivation of that true inward 
 strength, without which no measures can be at 
 last of much account. This is a great evil. 
 
 * Whitefield and Edwards ! exclaim the champions of the 
 JBench ; they were both thorough going New Measure men, 
 and it is a slander upon their names, to speak of them as be- 
 longing to the opposite interest. Now' it is not said here, 
 that they tolerated no new things in the worship of God ; but 
 only that they needed nothing of this sort, to make themselves 
 felt. What was new, in their case, was not sought ; it came 
 of itself, the free natural result of the power it represented. 
 Whitefield had recourse to new methods himself, to some ex- 
 tent, and Edwards carried his toleration of such things far, in 
 favor of others ; but in neither instance could it be said, that 
 any value was attached to what was thus out of the common 
 way, for its own sake, or as something to be aimed at with 
 care and design beforehand. The judgment of Edwards in 
 this case moreover, it should be remembered, as given in his 
 Thoughts on the revival in New England, had respect to the 
 particular things it sanctions, not in a general way, but as 
 related to an extraordinary work of God, of great extent and 
 long continuance, most amply authenticated on o/^er grounds. 
 It is a widely different case, when we are required to accept 
 such things, on their own credit, as the evidence of a revival, 
 or as the power by which it is to be secured. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 It is a vastly more easy thing to carry forward 
 the work of religion in this way, than it is to be 
 steadily and diligently true to the details of min- 
 isterial duty, as prescribed by the apostle PauL 
 To be "vigilant, sober and of good behavior^' — 
 "not self willed, not soon angry' ^ — "j^st, holy, 
 temperate'' — "one that ruleth well his ownhouse, 
 having his children in subjection with all gravi- 
 ty" — holding fast the faithful word, in such sort 
 "that he may be able by sound doctrine both to 
 exhort and convince the gainsay ers ;" to "fol- 
 low after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, 
 patience, meekness," so as to be "an example 
 of the believers in word, in conversation, in 
 charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity;" to be 
 "gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in 
 meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
 selves ;" to meditate on divine things, and to 
 be wholly given to them, so as to be continually 
 profiting in the view of all ; to "endure hardness 
 as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ;" to be a scribe 
 well instructed in the laAV, a workman that need 
 not to be ashamed, able to bring forth from the 
 treasury of God's word things new and old, as 
 they may be wanted; to preach week after 
 week, so as to instruct and edify the souls of 
 men; to be earnest, faithful, pungent, in the 
 lecture room and catechetical class ; to be known 
 in the family visitation, in the sick chamber, in 
 the dwelling places of poverty and sorrow, as 
 the faithful pastor, "watching for souls," whose 
 very presence serves to remind men of holiness 
 and heaven, not at certain seasons only, but 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 59 
 
 from month to month, from one year always to 
 another ; all this is something great and difficult, 
 and not to be compassed without a large amount 
 of inward spiritual strength. But it calls for 
 comparatively little power, for a man to distin- 
 guish himself as a leader in periodical religious 
 excitements, where zeal has room for outward 
 display, and wholesale action is employed to 
 discharge within a month the claims of a year. 
 It is not asserted that a minister must be desti- 
 tute of the qualifications that are required to 
 make a regularly faithful and efficient pastor, in 
 order that he may be fitted to make himself con- 
 spicuous in this way ; but most assuredly such 
 may be the case. A man may be mighty in 
 the use of new measures, preaching every day 
 if need be for three weeks to crowded congrega- 
 tions, excited all the time ; he may have the 
 anxious bench filled at the close of each service, 
 and the whole house thrown into disorder ; he 
 may have groaning, shouting, clapping, scream- 
 ing, a very bedlam of passion, all around the 
 altar ; and as the result of all, he may be able 
 to report a hundred converts or more, translated 
 by the process, according to his own account, 
 from darkness into God^s marvellous light. He 
 may be able to act the same part in similar scenes, 
 at different places, in the course of a winter ; 
 and, for the time bemg, his name may be famil- 
 iar to the lips of men, as a revivalist, whose 
 citizenship might be supposed to hold in the 
 third heavens. All this may be, where to an 
 attentive observer it shall soon be painfully evi- 
 
60 THE ANXIOtJS BENCH. 
 
 dent, at the same time, that the true and proper 
 strength of a man of God is wholly wanting. 
 A man may so distinguish himself, and yet have 
 no power to study, think or teach. He may be 
 crude, chaotic, without cultivation or discipline. 
 He may be too lazy to read or write. There 
 may be^ no power whatever in his ordinary 
 walk or conversation, to enforce the claims of re- 
 ligion. Meet him in common secular connec- 
 tions, and you find him in a great measure un- 
 felt, in the stream of worldliness with which he 
 is surrounded. Often he is covetous ; often vain; 
 often without a particle of humility or meekness. 
 His zeal too seems to exhaust itself in each spas- 
 modic "awakening,^ ^ through which it is called 
 to pass. The man who appeared to be all on 
 fire for the salvation of souls, and ready to storm 
 even the common proprieties of life for the sake 
 of the gospel, sIioavs himself noAV marvellously 
 apathetic towards the whole interest. He has 
 no heart to seize common opportunities, in the 
 house or by the way, to say a word in favor of 
 religion. It is well indeed if he be not found re- 
 laxing altogether his ministerial activity, both 
 in the pulpit and from house to house. The 
 truth is, he has no capacity, no inward suffi- 
 ciency, for the ordinary processes of evangelical 
 labor. Much is required to be a faithful minister 
 of the New Testament ; whilst small resources 
 in comparison are needed for that semblance 
 of power, to which a man may attain by the 
 successful use of the system now in view. 
 
 Here then is a strong temptation presented to 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 61 
 
 ministers. They are in danger of being seduced, 
 by the appeals which this system makes to their 
 selfishness and sloth. It offers to their view, a 
 "short method of doing God^s great work, and a 
 sort of "royal road/^ at the same time, to min- 
 isterial reputation. How easy, in these circum- 
 stances, for even a good man, to have his judg- 
 ment warped and his practice disturbed. And 
 how natural, that weakness, under every form, 
 should rejoice to take refuge, in the shelter thus 
 brought within its reach. 
 
 It should be considered a calamity in any com- 
 munity, or in any religious denomination, to 
 have this system in fashionable and popular use. 
 Let the idea prevail, that those who employ new 
 measures in the gospel work, are the friends pre- 
 eminently of serious heart religion, and of all 
 evangelical interests ; whilst such as frown upon 
 them are to be regarded with suspicion, as at 
 best but half awake in the service of Christ. 
 Let it be counted enough to authenticate the pow- 
 er of a pastor^s ministrations, that he shall be 
 able to furnish, from winter to winter, a flaming 
 report of some three weeks' awakening in his 
 charge, in the course of which scores of sinners 
 have been drawn to the anxious bench, and im- 
 mediately afterwards hurried to the Lord's ta- 
 ble. Let some religious paper, known as the 
 organ of the Church, herald these reports^ from 
 week to week, without inquiry or discrimina- 
 tion, as "revival intelligence," proclaiming them 
 worthy of all confidence, and glorifying both 
 the measures and the men concerned in the tri- 
 
62 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 iimphs they record. Let those who are counted 
 ^'pillars in the church^^ give their sanction to the 
 same judgment, openly honoring the new sys- 
 tem, or quietly conniving at what they may not 
 entirely approve, so as by their very cautions 
 and exceptions to forward the whole interest in. 
 fact. Let the sentiment be industriously cherish- 
 ed, that with this interest is identified in truth 
 the cause of revivals itself, and that lukewarm- 
 ness, and dead orthodoxy, and indifference, if 
 not absolute hostility, towards prayer-meetings, 
 missionary efforts, and all good things, charac- 
 terise as a matter of course all who refuse to do 
 it homage. Let this state of things hold with 
 respect to the subject, and it needs no great dis- 
 cernment to see that it is likely to work disas- 
 trously upon the character and fortunes of the 
 Church so circumstanced. The attention of min- 
 isters will be turned away from more important, 
 but less ostentatious, methods of promoting re- 
 ligion. Preaching will become shallow. The 
 catechism may be possibly still treated with pro- 
 fessed respect, but practically it will be shorn of 
 iits honor and force. Education may be consid- 
 ered to some extent necessary for the work of 
 the ministry, but in fact no great care will be 
 felt to have it either thorough or complete. Ig- 
 norance, sciolism, and quackery, will lift up the 
 head on all sides, and show themselves off as 
 the "great power of God.^' Novices will abound, 
 "puffed up with pride,^' each wiser in his own 
 conceit than seven men that can render a reason. 
 Young men, candidates for the sacred office^ 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 63 
 
 will be encouraged to try their hand at the new 
 system, before they have well commenced their 
 studies, and finding that they have power to 
 make themselves felt in this way, will yield 
 their unfledged judgment captive to its charms, 
 so as to make no account afterwards of any 
 higher form af strength. Study, and the retired 
 cultivation of personal holiness, will seem to 
 their zeal an irksome restraint ; and making 
 their lazy, heartless course of preparation as 
 short as possible, they will go out with the rep- 
 utation of educated ministers, blind leaders of 
 the blind,, to bring the ministry into contempt, 
 and fall themselves into the condemnation of 
 the devil. Whatever arrangements may exist 
 in favor of a sound and solid system of religion, 
 their operation will be to a great extent frustra- 
 ted and defeated, by the predominant influence 
 of a sentiment, practically adverse to the very 
 object they are designed to reach. 
 
 Thus will the ministry be put, more or less, 
 out of joint, by the force of the wrong judgment 
 involved in the system of New Measu.res, where 
 it has come to be fashionable and popular. The 
 Chm'ch must suffer corresponding harm, of 
 course, in all her interests. The old landmarks 
 grow dim. Latitudinarian views gain ground. 
 Fanatical tendencies gather strength. The ec- 
 clesiastical body is swelled with heterogenous 
 elements, loosely brought together, and actuated 
 by no common life, except sectarian bigotry 
 may be entitled to such name. False views of 
 religion abound. Conversion is everything. 
 
64 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 sanctification nothing. Religion is not regarded 
 as the hfe of God in the soul, that must be culti- 
 vated in order that it may grow, but rather as a 
 transient excitement to be renewed from time 
 to time by suitable stimulants presented to the 
 imagination. A taste for noise and rant super- 
 sedes all desire for solid knowledge. The sus- 
 ceptibility of the people for religious instruction 
 is lost on the one side, along with the capacity 
 of the ministry to impart religious instruction on 
 the other. The details of christian duty are but 
 little understood or regarded. Apart from its 
 seasons of excitement, no particular church is 
 expected to have much power. Family piety, 
 and the religious training of the young, are apt 
 to be neglected. 
 
 It is a calamity then, in the general view of 
 the case now taken, for a community to be drawn 
 into the vortex of this system, as a reigning fash- 
 ion. The occasional use of it might be compar- 
 tively safe ; in some hands, perhaps^ without 
 harm altogether. But let it be in credit and rep- 
 utation, for a short time, on a given field, and 
 its action will be found to be just as mischievous 
 as has now been described. It will prove the 
 refuge of weakness and the resort of quacks. 
 It will be a "wide and effectual door'^ to let in 
 fanaticism and error. It will be as a worm at 
 the root of the ministry, silently consuming its 
 strength ; and as a mildew on the face of con- 
 gregations and churches, beneath whose blight- 
 ing presence no fruit can be brought to perfection^ 
 
t 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Action of the Bench. — It creates a false issue for the co?!- 
 science* — Unsettles true seriousness, — Usurps the place 
 of the Cross, — Results in widespread, lasting spiritual 
 mischief. 
 
 Let US now fix our attention on th€ action of 
 the new system, directly and immediately con- 
 sidered. Without regard to its more remote con- 
 nections and consequences, let us inquire what 
 its merits may be in fact, as it respects the in* 
 terest it proposes to promote, namely, the con- 
 version of souls. Is it the wisdom of God and 
 the power of God, as its friends would fain have 
 us believe, for convincing careless sinners, and 
 bringing them to the foot of the Cross ? Let the 
 Anxious Bench, in this case, be taken as the 
 representative of the entire system. No part of 
 it carries a more plausible aspect. If it be found 
 wanting and unworthy of confidence here, we 
 may safely pronounce it to be unworthy of con- 
 fidence at every other point. 
 
 As usually applied, in seasons of religious ex- 
 citement, I hold the measure to be spiritually 
 dangerous ; requiring great skill and mi^ch cau- 
 tion, to be used without harm in any case, and 
 .5 ' \ 
 
66 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 as managed by quacks and novices, (who are 
 most ready to be taken with it,) more suited ta 
 ruin souls than to bring them to heaven. This 
 view is estabUshed by the following positions. 
 
 1. The Anxious Benchj in the case of an 
 awakened sinner^ creates a false issue for the 
 conscience. God has a controversy with the 
 impenitent. He calls upon them to acknowledge 
 their guilt and misery, with true repentance, 
 and to submit themselves by faith to the righte- 
 ousness of the gospel. It is their condemnation, 
 that they refuse to do this. When any sinner 
 begins to be sensible in any measure of his actual 
 position in this view, he is so far awakened and 
 under conviction. Now in these circumstances, 
 what does his case mainly require ? Clearly, 
 that he should be made to see more and more 
 the true nature of the controversy in which he 
 is involved, till he finds himself inwardly enga- 
 ged to lay down the weapons of his rebellion, 
 and cast himself upon the mercy of God in Jesus 
 Christ. He needs to have his eyes fastened and 
 fixed on his own relations, spiritually consider- 
 ed, to the High and Holy One, with whom he 
 is called to make his peace. The question is, 
 will he repent and yield his heart to God, or not? 
 This is the true issue to be met and settled ; 
 and it is all important that he should be so shut 
 up to this in his thoughts, that he may have no 
 power to escape the force of the challenge which 
 it involves. That spiritual treatment must be 
 considered best in his case, which serves most 
 fully to bring this issue into view, and holds him 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 67 
 
 most effectually confronted with it in his con- 
 science, beneath the clear light of the Bible. 
 But let the sinner in this state be called to come 
 forward to a particular seat, in token of his 
 anxiety. He finds himself at once under the 
 force of a different challenge. The question is 
 not, will he repent and yield his heart to God, 
 but will he go to the anxious bench ; which is 
 something different altogether. Thus a new is- 
 sue is raised, by which the other is obscured or 
 thrust out of sight. It is a false issue too ; be- 
 cause it seems to present the real point in con- 
 troversy, when in fact it does not do so at all,, 
 but only distracts and bewilders the judgment 
 so far as this is concerned. While the awaken- 
 ed person is balancing the question of going to 
 the anxious bench, his mind is turned away from 
 the contemplation of the immediate matter of 
 quarrel between himself and God. The higher 
 question is merged, for the time, in one that is 
 lower. A new case is created for the conscience, 
 of artificial, arbitrary form, and ambiguous au- 
 thority. Can it be wise thus to shift the ground 
 of debate, exchanging a strong position with re- 
 gard to the sinner for one that is weak ? Sup- 
 pose it were made a point with awakened per- 
 sons, that they should rise up and confess be- 
 fore the congregation all their leading sins, in 
 detail and by name, to break their pride, show 
 their desire to be saved, excite prayer in their 
 behalf, &c. ; would not this requirement, inter- 
 posed as a preliminary to the main point of con- 
 version itself, and enforced by no proper sane- 
 
68 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 tion for the conscience, serve only to turn away 
 the attention of such persons from the object 
 with , which it should be employed, thwarting 
 the very interest it might affect to promote ? 
 And is there not room for objection to the Anx- 
 ious Bench, on the very same ground ? It is 
 certainly a little strange, that the class of persons 
 precisely who claim to be the most strenuous, 
 in insisting upon unconditional, immediate sub- 
 mission to God, scarcely tolerating that a sinner 
 should be urged to pray or read the bible, lest 
 his attention should be diverted from that one 
 point, are as a general thing nevertheless quite 
 ready to interpose this measure in his way to 
 the foot of the cross, as though it included in fact 
 the very thing itself And yet a pilgrimage to 
 the Anxious Bench, is in its own nature ^s much 
 collateral to the duty of coming to Christ, as a 
 pikrimage to Jerusalem. In either case a false 
 issue is presented to the anxious soul, by which 
 for the time a true sight of its circumstances is 
 hindered rather than promoted. 
 
 It may be thought indeed, that the movement 
 of going to the Anxious Bench is so easily per- 
 formed, as not to be properly open to this excep- 
 tion. It may be considered a mere circiim- 
 stanccj that can have no weight practically in 
 the view now presented. But we shall see that 
 this is not the case. However small the point 
 involved may seem, it is not only of account, as 
 producing for the moment a factitious case of 
 conscience, open to "doubtful disputation,^' but 
 it includes also actual difficulty that cannot fail 
 
THE ANXIOTJS BENCH. 
 
 69 
 
 to be felt. Whether the challenge be refused or 
 accepted, it becomes in most cases more than a 
 circumstance, and is of no small force in fact in 
 the way of embarrassing the proper exercises of 
 an awakened soul 
 
 2. The tdnxioits Bench, in the case of those 
 who come to it, is adapted by its circumstan- 
 ces to disturb and distract the thoughts of the 
 truly serious, and thus to obstruct the action 
 of truth in their minds. It is no doubt quite a 
 common thing for persons to be carried into this 
 movement, who have little or no seriousness at 
 the time, urged forward by sympathy, or super- 
 stition, or a mere taste for distinction. There is 
 much reason in the remark of the Rev. Dr. Mil- 
 ler, when he tells us that he should expect, in 
 calhng out the anxious, to find the persons ris- 
 ing and presentmg themselves, to be, for the 
 most part, "the forward, the sanguine, the rash, 
 the self-confident and the self-righteous,^' while 
 many who kept their seats would prove to be 
 the modest, the humble, the brokenhearted, the 
 very depth of whose seriousness had restrained 
 them from coming forward in this way.* And 
 yet the measure may be expected to prevail of 
 course with many persons also, who are truly 
 under conviction, and whom nothing but the 
 fear of losing their souls could engage to thrust 
 themselves thus into view. In any case how- 
 ever, the genuine religious feeling that may ex- 
 ist, is likely to be in a great measure overwhelm- 
 
 * Appendix to Sprague on Kevivals, p, 38. 
 
70 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 ed by the excitement that must be involved in 
 the very act of coming to such a resolution, and 
 subsequently in carrying it into effect. The 
 truth of this remark will be more clear, when 
 we remember that young persons, and females 
 especially, form the main body commonly of 
 those who are drawn to the anxious bench. 
 Their susceptibility fits them to be wrought up- 
 on more readily than others, to the extent that 
 is necessary to secure this point. But the same 
 susceptibility renders it certain, that in circum- 
 stances so exciting it will be impossible for them, 
 to hold their thoughts or feelings in any such 
 balance, as the interest of religion requires. 
 They of all others would need to be sheltered 
 from stimulating impressions in this form, at 
 such a time, instead of being forced to face 
 them in their weakness. 
 
 Take a single case, in illustration of the way 
 in which the system may be expected to work. 
 Here is a gentle girl, sixteen or seventeen years 
 of age. She finds herself in the midst of a large 
 congregation, where at the close of the sermon, 
 the minister, encouraged by the general serious- 
 ness of the house, invites all who are concerned 
 for the salvation of their souls, to come forward 
 and place themselves on the anxious seat. She 
 has been perhaps a long time under some concern, 
 or it may be that God's truth has been felt for 
 the first time on this occasion ; not with great 
 force perhaps, but so at least as to bring her 
 spirit to a solemn stand in the presence of her 
 Maker. She hears the invitation, but shrinks 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 71 
 
 from the thought of doing what the minister de- 
 mands. The call however is reiterated, and 
 enforced by the most exciting appeals to the 
 imagination. After a few moments there is a 
 stir ; one is going forward to the bench, and then 
 another, and another. She is struck, moved, 
 agitated, A struggle has commenced in her bo- 
 som, which she herself is not prepared to under- 
 stand- May she not be fighting against God, 
 she asks herself, in refusing to go forward with 
 the rest ? May it not be in her case, at this mo- 
 ment, now or never ? All this is solemnly 
 crowded on her alarmed conscience by the 
 whole character of the occasion, in the way in 
 which it is managed by the minister. Already 
 her soul has passed from the element of convic- 
 tion iiito the element of excitement. The "still 
 small voice^^ of the Spirit is drowned amid the 
 tumult of her own conflicting thoughts. But 
 •see, she yields. With a desperate struggle, she 
 has thrown herself forth into the aisle. Tremb- 
 ling and agitated in every nerve, poor victim of 
 quackery, she makes her way, consciously in 
 the eye of that large watching assembly, from 
 one end of the house to the other, and sinks, 
 half fainting with the effort, into a corner of the 
 magic seat. And now, where is she, in spirit- 
 ual position? Are her tears the measure of her 
 sorrow for sin ? Alas, she is farther off" from 
 God, than she was before this struggle com- 
 menced in her father^s pew. Galm reflection is 
 departed. Her hold upon the inward has been 
 lost. Could any intelligent Christian parent, 
 
72 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 triily anxious for the salvation of his daughter^ 
 deliberately advise her in the circumstances 
 which have been supposed, to seek religion in 
 this way ? Can the pastor be wise, who is wil- 
 ling to subject the lambs of his flock to such a 
 process, with the view of bringing the good seed 
 of the word, to take toot, and vegetate in their 
 hearts ? 
 
 3. The Anxious Bench is adapted to create 
 and foster the ruinous imagination^ that there 
 is involved in the act of coming to it a real de- 
 cision in favor of religion. It is ^ell known, 
 how in the Church of Rome certain observances 
 are held to carry with them a sort of inward 
 merit in this way, as though by themselves they 
 had power to secure a spiritual blessing. There 
 is a constant tendency with men indeed, to in- 
 vest the outward under some form, with the vir- 
 tue that belongs only to the inward, so as if pos- 
 sible to ^^get religion,'' and hold it as property 
 or means for some other end, instead of entering 
 into it as the proper home of their own being. 
 It is not strange then that the Anxious Bench 
 should be liable to be so abused. It is only 
 strange that sensible persons should make so lit- 
 tle account of this danger, as is sometimes done. 
 We are gravely told, it is true, that coming to 
 the anxious bench is not considered to be the 
 same thing as coming to Christ.* The measure 
 
 * "Who ever pretended that going to the anxious bench is 
 conversion ?" lAith. Observer, Dec. 15, 1S43. And yet, in 
 the same article, it is said again, of one who yields to the 
 axeasure : "Does he not resolve no longer to resist the influ- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 73 
 
 is represented to be important, on other grounds, 
 and for other purposes. Certainly, it is not im- 
 agined for a moment, that any one in his senses 
 will be found ready to say tha,t coming to the 
 bench is itself religion. But still that some such 
 impression is liable to be created by the measure, 
 and is extensively created by it in fact as it is 
 commonly used, admits of no dispute. It is not 
 uncommon indeed for those who make use of it, 
 to throw in occasionally something like a word 
 of caution with regard to this point ; and in 
 some few instances, possibly, stich prudence 
 may be observed, as fully to guard against the 
 danger. But this is not common. As a gener- 
 al thing, even the cautioi^pj that are interposed 
 are in such a form, as to be almost immediately 
 neutralized and absorbed, by representations of 
 an opposite character. The whole matter is so 
 
 ences of divine ^race, and wage war against God, and the ef- 
 forts of his faithful minister?" Such submission is common- 
 ly taken to be conversion. — In another place, the editor finds 
 the principte of the Bench in John vii. 37, If any man thirsty 
 let him comeunto me and drinks and in Matt. xi. 28, Come un- 
 to me all ye thai labor and are heavy laden, &c. The parallel 
 is monstrous, and has a rank smell of pelagianisra. In like 
 strain, Mr. Davis of Pittsburg, calls the bench a "test," and 
 compares it with the '^device of the forbidden fruit" in the 
 garden of Eden, and the "anxious river" in which Naaman, 
 the Syrian was required to wash, 2 Kings v. 10-- 12, that he 
 might be cured of his leprosy. "If no test- questions are pre- 
 sented, how can men everacty ot determine whether they will 
 serve God or not ?" ^'Viewed as a means of bringing sinners 
 to an immediate decision on the subject of religion, no reason- 
 able objection can be brought against it." Plea for New 
 Measures, p. 23—30. Right bravely spoken again; but, 1 
 repeat it, the very dialect of Quackdom ! 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 managed, as practically to encourage the idea 
 that a veritable step towards Christ at least, if not 
 actually into his arms, is accomplished in the act 
 of coming to the anxious seat. I have had an op- 
 portunity of witnessing the use of the measure, 
 in different hands and on different occasions ; 
 but in every case, it has seemed to me that room 
 was given for this censure.* Indeed I do not 
 see well, how the measure could be employed 
 in any case with much effect, without the help 
 of some such representation. We find accord- 
 ingly that the whole process, as it were in spite 
 of itself, runs ordinarily into this form. Sinners 
 are exhorted to come to the anxious bench, as 
 for their life, by the ssupe considerations precise- 
 ly that should have fo *e to bring them to Christ, 
 and that could have no force at all in this case, 
 if it were not confounded more or less to their 
 perception with the other idea. The burden of 
 all is presented in the beautiful, but much pros- 
 tituted hymh, usually sung on such occasions, 
 Come, hurrAtle sinner. The whole of this is 
 
 *'He exhorted them to repent of their sins, and go to their 
 forsaken God. To aid them in their return, an anxious seat 
 was prepared on Sabbath evening ; &c." Corresp. Lxith. Obs 
 Dec. 16, 1842 "The anxious seat was introduced through 
 8ome^opposition--and at it the high and the low, the rich and the 
 poor, the old and young, the male and female bowed. They 
 were not ashamed "of that despised seajt, but presented them- 
 selves there with as much avidity as if they were certain of 
 getting a fortune tt\ere. And so "they did. There they re- 
 ceived a title to mansions in the skies, &c." Jan. 6, 1843, 
 ^'On Sunday night the anxious were invited to occupy the 
 front seats, for the ui|ual purposes, and O what a crowding 
 was there to the foot dl the cross I" June 8, 1843. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 75 
 
 ttiade to bear, with all the weight the preacher can 
 put into it, on the question of coming to the anxious 
 seat. Every effort is employed to shut up the 
 conscience of the sinner to this issue ; to make 
 him feel that he must come or lun the hazard 
 of losing his soul. Advantage is taken of his 
 hopes and fears, in every form of awakening 
 and stimulating appeal, to draw him from his 
 seat The call is so represented, as to make this 
 the test of penitence. Those who come are wel- 
 comed as returning prodigals, who have decided 
 to come out from the world and be on the Lord^s 
 side ; while all who refuse to come are treated 
 as showing just the opposite temper ; and it of- 
 ten happens that the preacher, in the warmth 
 of his zeal, charges upon their refusal in this 
 view the same guilt and madness and peril pre- 
 cisely, that lie upon the deliberate rejection of 
 Christ himself Now it is an easy thing to say, 
 in these circumstances, that after all the Anxious 
 Bench is not substituted for Christ. So the pu- 
 seyite and papist disclaim tlie idea of putting 
 into his place the Baptismal Font. But in both 
 cases it is perfectly plain, that Christ is serious- 
 ly wronged notwithstanding. In both cases the 
 error is practically countenanced and encour- 
 aged, that coming to Christ, and the use of an 
 outward form, are in whole, or at least to some 
 considerable extent, one and the same thing; 
 with the difference only, that the form in one 
 case is of divine prescription, while in the other 
 it is wholly of man^s device. 
 It is true indeed that the "mourners,'^ as they 
 
76 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 are sometimes termed, are still treated, after 
 coming to the bench or altar, as persons yet un- 
 converted. This should neutralize, it might 
 seem, the idea of any such saving virtue in the 
 measure, as is here supposed to be encouraged^ 
 in the usual style of calling out the anxious. 
 But this is not the case. The coming is not ac- 
 cepted at once as conversion, though exhibited 
 apparently as the same thing immediately be- 
 fore ; but still it is taken practically for something 
 closely bordering on conversion. The mourners 
 are counted nearer to the kingdom of heaven, 
 than they were before. They are exhorted now 
 to ^^go on," as having actually begun a divine 
 life. The process of c^pversion is commenced. 
 They have come to the birth ; and all that is 
 wanted to bring them fully into the new world 
 of grace, is the vigorous prosecution of the sys-^ 
 tem of deliverance, to which they have now 
 happily committed their souls. The Anxious 
 Bench is made still to be the laver of regenera- 
 tion, the gate of paradise, the womb of the New 
 Jerusalem. Conversion is represented to be far 
 easier here, than elsewhere. We find accord-- 
 ingly that this idea fairly carried out, leads cer- 
 tain sects of the full New Measure stamp, to 
 profess a peculiar tact and power in carrying the 
 process of spiritual delivery regularly out at once 
 to its proper issue. It is only for want of proper 
 treatment they say, and because ^^there is not 
 strength to bring forth," in other cases, that 
 souls are brought thus far, without being bom 
 at once into the kingdom. Their Anxious 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 77 
 
 Bench, or the altar where their mourners kneel 
 and roll, is commended to the world, as a more 
 perfect organ of conversion. Once fairly within 
 its grasp, the soul as a general thing is quickly- 
 set free ; often in the course of a few min- 
 utes, and very commonly before the close of the 
 meeting. The}^ know how to "get the anxious 
 through,''^ All this is sufficiently extravagant ; 
 but still it is only a gross expression of the feel- 
 ing, commonly encouraged by the use of the 
 Anxious Bench, with regard to its virtue as a 
 help to conversion. The whole measure is so 
 ordered, as to promote the delusion that the use 
 of it serves some purpose in the regeneration of 
 the soul. 
 
 4. Harm and loss to the souls of men flow 
 largely from the use of the Anxious Bench. It 
 is an injury, in the case of an awakened sinner, 
 to have his attention diverted, in the first place, 
 from the real issue before him to one that is false. 
 It is an injury farther, to have reflection arrested, 
 and the Avorkings of true conviction in part or 
 altogether overwhelmed, by the excitement of 
 obeying a call to come out in tiiis way. It is an 
 injury again, to be induced to lean upon such a 
 movement; as though it could have any eflScacy 
 at all to bring the soul near to God. But the 
 harm and loss occasioned by the system, reach 
 much farther than this. 
 
 The inward tumult resulting from the occasion, 
 is in a high degree unfavorable to genuine seri- 
 ousness, while it lasts, and is sure to be follow- 
 ed by a reaction, still more hurtful to the spirit^ 
 
78 
 
 THE AXXIOUS BE>'CH. 
 
 when the occasion is over. "All means and 
 measures/'' says the Rev. Dr. Alexander, in his 
 letter to Dr. Sprague, ^'-which produce a high 
 degree of excitement, or a great commotion of 
 the passions, should be avoided ; because reli- 
 gion does not consist in these violent emotions, 
 nor is it promoted by them : and when they sub- 
 side, a wretched state of deadness is sure to 
 succeed. 
 
 A most unhappy uifluence is often exerted on 
 those, who are di'awn to the anxious bench, 
 and afterwards fall back again openly to their 
 former careless state. They may have had but 
 very little comdction, perhaps none at all. But 
 their feelings have been excited, and without 
 knowledge or reflection, they have gone for- 
 ward among the professed mom'ners, vaguely 
 expecting to gain religion in this way. After- 
 wards they find themselves completely stripped 
 of all feelmg. They have too much miderstand- 
 mg to set any value on their experience, and 
 too much conscience to be willing that it should 
 pass for more than they know it to be worth in 
 fact ; or possibly they have swimg clear over 
 to the opposite quarter, and have no wish at all 
 to be, or to be considered rehgious. And yet 
 they have been on the anxious bench, and in 
 gi'eat distress apparently for their sins. They 
 have publicly connnitted themselves, in the case, 
 in a way that is not likel)^ soon to be forgotten. 
 All tliis works mjuriously on their mmds now. 
 Rash vaws are always hurtful. The postiure 
 with regard to rehgion is altogether worse than 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 79 
 
 it was before. Often disgust and irritation to- 
 wards the whole subject, are the unfortunate 
 consequence. 
 
 But in a vast multitude of instances, the ope- 
 ration of the measure is worse still. The slight- 
 ly convicted are full as likely to go forward in 
 the way of profession, as they are to go back. 
 Powerful considerations are at hand, besides 
 the interest of their own salvation, to hold them 
 to the course on which they have entered. They 
 are committed, and have no prospect of coming 
 honorably or comfortably out of their present 
 posture, except by getting through, on the side 
 towards the Church and not towards the world. 
 There is room too for the workings of ambition 
 and emulation; a desire to be noticed, and an impa- 
 tience ofbeing left behind by others, in the career of 
 spiritual experience. "It ought not to be forgot- 
 ten,'^ says Dr. Alexander, "that the heart is de- 
 ceitful above all things, and that strong excitement 
 does not prevent the risings of pride and vainglory. 
 Many become hypocrites, when they'find them- 
 selves the objects of much attention, and affect 
 feelings which are not real.''* And if all such 
 impure motives might be supposed to be out of 
 the way, there is still enough to render the dan- 
 ger of spurious conversion, in such circimistan- 
 ces, alarmingly great. The mourner strives of 
 course to feel faith. The spiritual helpers stand- 
 ing round are actively concerned, to see him 
 brought triumphantly through. Excitement 
 
 ♦ Sprague on Revivals. Appendix, p. 7. 
 
80 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 rules the hour. No room is found either for in- 
 struction or reflection. A sea of feeUng, bhnd, 
 dark and tempestuous, rolls on all sides. Is it 
 strange, that souls thus conditioned and sur- 
 rounded, should become the victims of spiritual 
 delusion ? All high wrought excitement must, 
 in its very nature, break, when it reaches a cer- 
 tain point. How natural that this relaxation, 
 carrying with it the sense of relief as compared 
 with the tension that had place before, should 
 be mistaken on such an occasion for the peace 
 of religion, that mysterious something w±ich it 
 is the object of all this process to fetch into the 
 mind. And how natural that the wearied sub- 
 ject of such experience, should be hurried into 
 a wild fit of joy by this imagination, and stand 
 prepared, if need be, to clap his hands and shout 
 hallelujah, over his fancied deliverance. Or 
 even without this mimic sensation, how natural 
 that the mourner, at a certain point, should allow 
 himself to be persuaded by his own wishes, or 
 by the authority of the minister perhaps, and 
 other friends, telling him how easy it is to be- 
 lieve and urging him at last to consider the thing 
 done ; so as to take to himself the comfort of the 
 new birth, as it were in spite of his own expe- 
 rience, and be counted among the converted. 
 Altogether the danger of delusion and mistake, 
 ^ where this style of advancing the cause of reli- 
 gion prevails, must be acknowledged to be very 
 great. The measure of the danger will vary of 
 <;ourse, with the extent to which the character- 
 istic spirit of the system is allowed to work. A 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 81 
 
 Winebrennerian camp meeting, surrendering it- 
 self to the full sway of this spirit, will carry with 
 it a more disastrous operation, than the simple 
 Anxious Bench in a respectable and orderly 
 Church. But in any form, the system is full of 
 peril, as opening the way to spurious conver- 
 sions, and encouraging sinners to rest in hopes 
 that are vain and false. 
 
 There need be no reserve, in speaking or wri- 
 ting on this subject. Neither charity nor delica- 
 cy require us to be silent, where the truth of 
 religion is itself so seriously concerned. To 
 countenance the supposition, that the souls which 
 are so plentifully "carried through'^ what is cal- 
 led the process of conversion under this system, 
 are generally converted in fact, would be to 
 wrong the Gospel. "Let God be true, though 
 every man should be a liar.'^ Of all the hund- 
 reds that are reported, from year to year, as 
 brought into the kingdom, among the Metho- 
 dists, United Brethren, Winebrennerians, and 
 others who work in the same style, under the 
 pressure of artificial excitement, how small a 
 proportion give evidence subsequently that they 
 have been truly regenerated. The Church at 
 large does not feel bound at all to accept as gen- 
 uine and v/orthy of confidence, the many cases 
 of conversion they are able to number, as 
 wrought with noise and tumult at camp meet- 
 ings and on other occasions. It is taken for 
 granted that a large part of them will not stand. 
 And so it turns out, in fact. In many cases, 
 the fruits of a ^reat revival are reduced almost 
 a 
 
m 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 to nothing, before the end of a single year. So 
 the system unfolds its own nakedness, in a prac- 
 tical way. And this nakedness comes to view, 
 in some measure, wherever much account is 
 made of the Anxious Bench. There may be 
 no methodistical extravagance, no falUng down 
 or rolling in the dust, no shouting, jumping or 
 clapping ; only the excitement and disorder ne- 
 cessarily belonging to the measure itself; still it 
 is found that conversions made in this way do 
 not as a general thing wear well. No one, 
 whose judgment has been taught by proper ob- 
 servation, will allow himself to confide in the 
 results of a revival, however loudly trumpeted, 
 in which the Anxious Bench is known to have 
 played a prominent part. He may trust chari- 
 tably that out of the fifty or a hundred converts 
 thus hurried into the Church, some will be found 
 "holding fast the beginning of their confidence 
 firm unto the end but he will stand prepared 
 to hear of a great falling away, in the case of 
 the accession as a whole, in the course of no con- 
 siderable time. Of some such revivals scarce a 
 monument is to be found, at the end of a few 
 months, unless it be in the spiritual atrophy 
 they have left behind. And it often happens 
 that churches instead of growing and gathering 
 strength by these triumphs of grace as they are 
 called, seem actually to loose ground in propor- 
 tion to their frequency and power. If any 
 weight is to be attached to observations, which 
 are on all sides within the reach of those who 
 choose to inquire, it must be evident that as this 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 83 
 
 system is in all respects suited to produce spuri- 
 ous conversions, so it is continually producing 
 them in fact, to a terrible extent. For the evil 
 is not to be measured of course simply by the 
 actual amount of open defection, that may take 
 place among those who are thus brought to 
 "embrace religion/' So many and so strong 
 are the considerations that must operate upon a 
 supposed convert, to hold fast at least the form 
 of godliness, after it has been once assumed, 
 though wholly ignorant of its power, that we 
 may well be surprised to find the actual falling 
 away, in the case of such ingatherings, so very 
 considerable as now represented. As it is, it be- 
 comes certain, in the very nature of the case, 
 that this apostacy forms only a part of the false 
 profession from which it springs. While some 
 fall back openly to the world, others remain in 
 the Church, with a name to live while they are 
 dead. This presumption is abundantly confirm- 
 ed by observation. Very many thus introduced 
 into the Church show too plainly, by their un- 
 hallowed tempers, and the general worldliness 
 of their walk and conversation, that they have 
 never known what religion means. They have 
 had their "experience,'^ centering in the Anx- 
 ious Bench, on which they continue to build 
 their profession and its hopes ; but farther than 
 this they give no signs of life. They have no 
 part nor lot in the Christian salvation. 
 
 Notoriously, no conversions are more preca- 
 rious and insecure than those of the Anxious 
 Bench. They take place under such circum- 
 
84 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 Stances precisely, as should make them the ob- 
 ject of earnest jealousy and distrust. The most 
 ample evidence of their vanity, is presented on 
 every side. And yet the patrons of the system 
 are generally ready to endorse them, as though 
 they carried the broad seal of heaven on their 
 face. Of conversions in any other form, they 
 can be sufficiently jealous. They think it well 
 for the Church to use great caution, in the case 
 of those who have been led quietly, under the 
 ordinary means of grace to indulge the Christian 
 hope. They shrink perhaps from the use of the 
 Catechism altogether, lest they might seem to 
 aim at a religion of merely human manufacture. 
 But let the power of the Anxious Bench appear, 
 and strange to tell, their caution is at once given 
 to the winds. This they proclaim to be the fin- 
 ger of God. Here the work of religion is pre- 
 sumed at once to authenticate itself With very 
 little instruction, and almost no examination, all 
 who can persuade themselves that they are con- 
 verted, are at once hailed as brethren and sis- 
 ters in Christ Jesus, and with as little delay as 
 possible gathered into the full communion of 
 the Church. And this is held to be building on 
 the true foundation gold, silver and precious 
 stones, while such as try to make christians in a 
 different way are regarded as working mainly, 
 almost as a matter of course, with wood, hay 
 and stubble. Wonderful infatuation ! Stupen- 
 dous inconsistency. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ITie Bench vindicated on insufficient grounds : — 1. As brings 
 ing the sinner to a decision ; — 2. As involving him in 
 a COMMITTAL ; — 3. As giving force to bis purpose ; — 
 4. Asa penitential DiscivLin^ ; — 5. As necessary for 
 the purposes o/ instruction ; — 6. As opening the way 
 for prater. 
 
 In view of such disastrous action as we have 
 now been called to ^contemplate, we ask on what 
 grounds the use of the Anxious Bench is vindi- 
 cated. These should be of great force, to coun- 
 terbalance the weight of mischief with which it 
 is attended. No divine appointment is pleaded 
 in its favor.* We could not suppose for a%io- 
 
 * A good deal has been said indeed of the principle of the 
 measure, as presented, according^ to its friends, in both the 
 Old and New Testaments. But Mr. Denig has just been a» 
 successful in vindicating woman-preaching, shouting, rolling, 
 &c., m this way, as the editor of the Lutheran Observer has 
 been in justifying the anxious bench. All fanatical sects are 
 able to muster something from the bible, which seems to co- 
 ver, in sound at least, ttie principle of their peculiarities. So 
 every abuse in the Church of Rome came in, under the sha- 
 dow of pretended scriptural precedent. Her fasts, her vigils, 
 her relics, her penances, &c., all found a show of support in 
 the word of God. The angelic institute of monkery was 
 abundantly commended, by the same authority. Was not 
 
86 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 ment indeed, that any appointment of God could 
 be associated with such bad influences and ten- 
 dencies, as are found to hold in connection with 
 this invention. But it is not pretended to make 
 it of scriptural authority. It is vindicated on 
 other grounds ; with variable argument to suit 
 the occasion. These hoAvever, are by no means 
 satisfactory. 
 
 1. It serves, we are told, to bring awakened 
 sinners to a decision. They are disposed to 
 avoid this. Thev halt between two opinions. 
 They should not be allowed to leave the sanctu- 
 ary in this state. The Gospel calls for a present 
 determination. It is well therefore to shut them 
 up to that point. This is done by the Anxious 
 Bench.* 
 
 This sounds well. But wfiat is it that the sin- 
 ner decides, when he rises and goes forward to 
 
 John the Baptist a monk ; and Elijah the Tishbite ; and Eli- 
 sha tJ^ Son of Shaphat ; and the sons of the prophets by Jor- 
 dan ^nd the Rechabites ; were they not examples in point, 
 80 far at least as the principle of the svstem was concerned ? 
 So argil -^d the fathers of the fourth century ; and it must be 
 confessed, with full as much reason on their side, as the 
 friends of New Measures have, when they appeal to the bible, 
 in like strain, for the support ot their favorite system. 
 
 * <'It presents the conscience with the true issue, and in- 
 vites the sinner, without delay, to manifest his choice of God, 
 by coming forward. The ^anxious bench' does not sufferthe 
 smnerto go away ? imply meditating upon what he has heird; 
 to go away in a state of rebellion, &c. But it calls upon him 
 at once to submit to God." "Coming to the ^anxious bench* 
 is a token ot submission, and is used as a means wholly to that 
 cad."— i>ai;?s' Plea, p, 56. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 87 
 
 the anxious seat ? He is encouraged to come, 
 singing, 
 
 "I'll go to Jesus, though my sin 
 
 Hath like a mountain rose ; 
 I know his courts, I'll enter in, 
 Whatever may oppose." 
 
 Is this the decision, which the movement really 
 involves ? Then it is the same thing with con- 
 version ; the resolution of the prodigal carried 
 into effect, when out of a deep sense of his pov- 
 erty and misery, he arose and went to his fath- 
 er. And so much as this the considerations by 
 which he is urged tfo come forward, would seem 
 to imply. But when the point is pressed, we 
 learn that no such extravagant supposition is 
 entertained. Coming to the anxious bench is 
 not coming to Christ. The sinner seated upon 
 it, is unconverted still ; hangs still between 
 Christ and the world ; and may still go away 
 halting between two opinions, as fully as if he 
 had not come out in this way at all. What shall 
 we say of such a decision ? A decision that de- 
 cides nothing? The apostles, we are told, insis- 
 ted on men's coming to the point at once in the 
 business of religion, and we should do the same 
 thing. So certainly we should. But is this such 
 a point, as the apostles were accustomed to 
 *|)ress ? When Peter found the multitude awak- 
 ened on the day of Pentecost, he called them to 
 an immediate decision. But what was the form, 
 in which this was to be done ? ^-Repent, and 
 be baptized every one of you in the name of 
 
88 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins/' cried 
 the preacher. "Come/' roars the modern revi- 
 val-monger, pleasing himself with the thought 
 of being like Peter, on the day of Pentecost, 
 "Come, humble sinner, in whose heart a thou- 
 sand thoughts revolve, come, come without de- 
 lay, this night, this moment, come — to the altar 
 or to the anxious bench.'' Alas, for the par- 
 allel!* If it &e conversion to come out in this 
 way, let the thing be openly affirmed at once ; 
 but if not, why mock us by calling it a decision, 
 and pretending to find precedents for it in the 
 Acts of the Apostles? 
 
 2. But the ground now is shifted ; sinners are 
 not brought exactly to a decision by the Anxious 
 Bench but they are brought at least to a com- 
 mittal ; and this is considered to be of great ac- 
 count. Let them go away from the house of 
 God without this, and there will be a reason to 
 fear that their seriousness may evaporate before 
 the next meeting. We should take advantage 
 of their feelings when they are excited, and en~ 
 gage them, if possible to take a step, by which 
 they shall feel themselves committed to the 
 world, as well as to their own consciences, in 
 
 * "We do not disparage baptism, by comparing it to the 
 anxions bench. By no means; we regjard it as a sacrament, 
 and intended for high purposes ; but it also involved the pre- 
 cise principle in that day, that the anxious bench does now. 
 It afforded an opportunity for a public manifestation, on the 
 part of those who submitted to it, of their determination to be 
 Christians. So also does the anxious bench." Luih. Obs. 
 Dec. 1. 1843. Alas, one may well be pardoned for whispet- 
 ing, *^Why are you a Lutheran ?" 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 89 
 
 favor of religion. This is done, when we get 
 them out to the anxious bench. They bind 
 themselves by this act, to seek the Lord. The 
 thing is known and talked about. They feel 
 themselves bound, and their shame and pride 
 come in to fortify the higher influences, by which 
 they are urged to go forward and not "draw back 
 unto perdition.^' 
 
 Low and jejune must be the conception of re- 
 ligion, which can allow such a view as this to 
 be entertained. It is well indeed that sinners 
 should bind themselves by an inward resolution, 
 to seek the Lord, while he is to be found ; and 
 it is right that they should be urged to do this, 
 on all suitable occasions. But such a resolution, 
 to be of any account, must proceed from intelli- 
 gent reflection and inward self-possession ; and 
 it can have no salutary force, except as enter- 
 tained in the consciousness of God's presence 
 and God's authority, to the exclusion compara- 
 tively of all inferior references. Nothing can be 
 more irrational, than to think of making the sin- 
 ner's feelings in this case a trap for his judgment, 
 and then holding him fast by the force of an 
 outward bond. The circumstances, in which 
 he is urged to put his soul thus under pledge, 
 are the very worst that could well be imagined 
 for the purpose. Volney, in the storm, at sea, 
 was not more fully at the mercy of an element 
 beyond himself Death-bed resolutions, notori- 
 ously hollow as they are, embrace just as much 
 rational freedom. The vows of a drunkard, in 
 ordinary cases, are but little respected. But 
 
W THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 here, where excitement, sympathy and passion 
 combine, to wrap all spirits in a moral tornado, 
 till the brain is found to reel with the bewilder- 
 ing, intoxicating element that surrounds it, the 
 greatest account is made of such engagements, 
 and every art is employed to secure them, even 
 from hysterical girls if need be,^ that they may 
 feel themselves bound subsequently to "follow 
 on to know the Lord/^ A large proportion of 
 such resolutions must necessarily be without in- 
 ward force ; and now the sense of the commit- 
 tal is indeed required to sustain the solemn step 
 which has been taken. But what is this, in such 
 circumstances, but the substitutionof low world- 
 ly references, as far as it prevails, for that con- 
 sciousness of the souPs relations to God, in which 
 alone, as we have already seen, any resolution 
 of this sort can truly stand. So far exactly as 
 the anxious person may be swayed by the 
 thought of consistency, credit, or any similar 
 interest, in continuing to seek rehgion, the true 
 posture of conviction is wanting altogether. 
 "How can ye believe," said Christ, "which re- 
 ceive honor one of another, and seek not the 
 honor that cometh from God only." A reigning 
 respect to the authority of the world, under any 
 form disqualifies the soul for transacting honest- 
 ly in the great interest of religion. 
 
 In a multitude of instances, these committals 
 are followed by a reaction, in the minds of those 
 
 * *'Have not hysterical girls souls to be saved ?" Luth. 
 Obs. Dec. 15, 1843. After due reflection, it seems necessa- 
 ry to answer this searching interrogation in the affirmative. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 91 
 
 who are drawn into them, of the most unhap- 
 py kmd. They fall back openly to the worlds 
 but not without a feeling of humiliation and 
 spite, in the recollection of their own weakness ; 
 and their state subsequently is worse than it was 
 before. In the case of many others, the commit- 
 tal has its force no doubt, in carrying them for- 
 ward, till they get fully into the Church ; and 
 their profession possibly may have the same 
 power, to hold them to the forms of religion af- 
 terwards, even to the end of life. But it is for 
 the most part a false hope, to which they are 
 thus conducted. The Church, in this way, is 
 filled with hypocrites, and not with true con- 
 verts. 
 
 3. But the ground may be slightly shifted 
 again, so as to present the measure, not in the 
 light exactly of a bond upon the sinner's soul, 
 but as a prop and support rather to his weak- 
 ness. A first step often costs more than a hun- 
 dred that follow. A world of hesitation, in cer- 
 tain circumstances, is surmounted by a single 
 eff'ort to move. The sinner, when first awaken- 
 ed, shrinks from making his case known, and 
 his concern, pent up in his own bosom, is not 
 hkely to be as strong and active, as it would be 
 if it could appear in an outward form. Let him 
 come then to the altar or the anxious bench. 
 The man who signs a temperance pledge, finds 
 his resolution to be sober supported by the act. 
 Hundreds of drunkards have been enabled in 
 this way to reform completely, who without this 
 help, would have had no power to rise. 
 
92 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 This is plausible ; but it will not bear exami- 
 nation. A first step is of great account in reli- 
 gion ; but only where it springs freely from the 
 will ; which it cannot do without reflection and 
 self-command. An outward engagement to seek 
 the Lord can be of no use, without a certain 
 measure of intelligent conviction at work within;, 
 and where this is present, it will not be difficult 
 to secure whatever may be proper or desirable 
 in the other form, without having recourse to 
 an expedient so full of danger. It is a part of 
 the spiritual policy of the Romish Church to en- 
 tice those who are serious, by means of vows, 
 into positions from which they cannot draw back, 
 with the view of thus establishing them in the 
 purpose of a religious life. But we all know 
 how little is gained in the Romish Church, by 
 this policy. It is true indeed, that a drunkard 
 may sign the temperance pledge, even when he 
 is drunk, and afterwards keep it. But there is 
 a vast diff'erence between the object of the tem- 
 perance pledge, and that which it is proposed 
 to reach by means of the Anxious Bench. The 
 one is fully within the compass of human will and 
 human strength ; the other is beyond it entire- 
 ly.* The one may be mastered in the flesh; 
 
 * Mr. Finney holds the pledgee in the one case, a fair exem- 
 plification of the advantas'e gained hy bringinar a sinner to the 
 bench, in the other. The idea is quoted also with approba- 
 tion, by the Lutheran Observer, Dec. 1. 1843 Mr. Davis 
 finds gross heresy, antinomianism, fatalism, &c., in the 
 statement of the tract, jtist at this point, Plea, p. 50 — 54. 
 He speaks forth boldly the error, that lies wrapped up in the 
 very heart and core of the system he represents. **Does the 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 93 
 
 the other cannot be approached or understood, 
 except in the spirit. In any case however, 
 vows and pledges that spring from excitement 
 rather than reflection, are to be considered fanat- 
 ical, and as such neither rational nor free ; and 
 though in certain cases, men may seem to be 
 strengthened and supported by them, in the 
 pro«ecution of good ends belonging to a lower 
 sphere, they are ever to be deprecated in the 
 sphere of rehgion, as tending only to delusion 
 and sin. 
 
 4. The measure is sometimes recommended 
 on the ground, that it is well suited to humble 
 and break the sinner^s pride. The carnal mind 
 is not willing to stoop to the shame of the cross, 
 in the view of a sinful world. It is ditiicult, at ^ ^ 
 the same time, to bjring it to a clear sight of 
 this- fact, in its ov/n case. But the anxious 
 bench reduces the question to a present point. 
 If unwilling to stoop to the self-denial involv- 
 ed in coming to this, how can the awakened 
 person be willing to do anything that religion 
 requires. Thus the pride and wickedness of 
 the heart, in relation to the gospel, are forced 
 home upon the individual's consciousness ; and 
 when at length, under the pressure of this con- 
 viction, he goes forward and joins himself openly 
 with the anxious, his pride is prostrated, and 
 
 sinner submit to God," it is asked with an air of triumph, **or 
 does the Holy Ghost ?" The only proper answer to such a 
 question is, The Holy Ghost in the sinner, or the sinner as 
 born of the Spirit in Christ, submits to God. Any view that 
 stops short of this is rotten as pelagianism itself. 
 
^ THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 he is no longer ashamed to appear earnestly con- 
 cerned for the salvation of his soul. 
 
 But it is easy to see, that on the same princi- 
 ciple any test which might be imagined, for the 
 same purpose, could be justified with equal 
 ease. The sinner might be required to sit at 
 the church door, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, 
 begging an interest in the piayers of all the, en- 
 tering worshippers ; or to travel through all the 
 aisles of the church itself, on his knees, in token 
 of his humiliation. If unwilling to bend to such 
 a requirement, how should he be counted truly 
 in earnest, with respect to the main point 1 In 
 this way, the whole system of Romish penance 
 might challenge our respect. In truth, however, 
 no account is to be made of any such outward 
 demonstration, as a test or token of the sinner^s 
 feelings, in the particular view now considered ! 
 Popish penances involve commonly no spiritual 
 mortification, and have no tendency whatever 
 to reconcile men to the reproach of Christ. The 
 sinner may be brought to lick the dust, if need 
 be, under the pressure of an alarmed conscience, 
 without a particle of that inward humiliation be- 
 fore God, which the idea of religion demands. 
 So it is possible, and no doubt exceedingly com- 
 mon, for persons to take their seat on the anxious 
 bench, with very little if any feeling at all, of 
 this sort. Where the idea prevails that there is 
 religion, to some extent, in the very act itself of 
 coming out in this way, hundreds may easily be 
 engaged to do so, just as under parallel circum- 
 stances they might be engaged to flagellate 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 95 
 
 themselves publicly through the streets, without 
 the least benefit in the way of a conquest over 
 their carnal pride. In some cases, the occupan- 
 cy of the bench may indeed be attended with 
 the wholesome discipline of humiUation, in the 
 way supposed, preparing the spirit to follow 
 Jesus "without the camp, bearing his reproach 
 but4t is just as certain, that the same result has 
 been secured, in some cases, by the penitential 
 castigations of the Church of Rome, or the wil- 
 ful self-inflictions of fanaticism, in its worst 
 forms. Where the soul is already prepared for 
 spiritual humiliation, either the scourge or the 
 bench, if duly accredited to the mourner's con- 
 science as the power of God for the purpose, 
 may serve as an occasion to promote this 
 end. This is no reason however, why we 
 should have recourse to one or the other, in seek- 
 ing to advance the interests of religion. There 
 is no direct adaptation in either, to produce 
 evangelical humiliation. They are suited rather, 
 as has been shown already in the case of the 
 bench, to blind the soul to the true natvire of 
 such humiliation, by fixing its attention unduly 
 on outward references and outward acts, and 
 challenging it to a vnJful more than to a willing 
 service. It were well to remember here, what 
 the apostle says most profoundly on the subject 
 of all such "will-worship,'' with its "show of 
 wisdom," at the close of the second chapter of 
 his epistle to the Colossians. 
 
 5. But again the use of the Anxious Bench is 
 vindicated, as affording an opportunity for meet* 
 
96 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH, 
 
 ing the case of awakened sinners with suitable 
 instruction. When they are called out in this 
 way, they become known. They can be ad- 
 dressed collectiveh^^ and conversed with indi- 
 vidually. What they need is particular instruc- 
 tion, suited to their particular states. It is not 
 by dashmg water in a large way over a congre- 
 gation of empty bottles, that a minister car! ex- 
 pect to get even a few of them filled ; if he 
 would labor to any purpose, he must comedown, 
 and take each bottle separately by the neck, and 
 pom' the water in according to the capacity of 
 its mouth. 
 
 But when we look a little into the matter, we 
 shall find this object of instruction reduced to 
 a perfect farce. There are two ways, in which 
 the occupants of an Anxious Bench may be ad- 
 dressed. What is said, may be spoken to all at 
 once, or they may be taken one by one in suc- 
 cession. If there are too many for the minister 
 to manage himself in this way, he may engage 
 others to take part with him in the work. This 
 must be considered the method most congenial 
 with the idea of the system. For the object, 
 we are told, is to make instruction particu- 
 lar and specific ; and how can this be accom- 
 plished so well as by taking each case separate- 
 ly ? It is customary accordingly, when the 
 anxious are fairly in their place, for the process 
 of instruction to commence in this way. The 
 minister comes to one, the first on the bench, and 
 benduig forward proceeds in a low voice to ask a 
 question or two with regard to the person's spir- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 97 
 
 itual condition. These are answered commonly 
 in the most general and confused way. Then 
 follows a short exhortation, for the most part, 
 in the same general strain. The whole confer- 
 ence may not last more than some three or four 
 minutes ; for there are a number to be conversed 
 with ; and regard must be had, at the same 
 time, to the patience of the congregation. So the 
 ceremony passes forward to a second, and then 
 to a third, and so on, till all have their turn. 
 And this is called spiritual instruction ! If a 
 physician were seen handling a dozen of pa- 
 tients in the same style, the spectacle might well 
 call for derision. But after all, it wbuld be no 
 Such mummery as we have here. One of the 
 most difficult and delicate functions a minister is 
 called to perform, js that of giving counsel to 
 awakened sinners.- None calls for more caution 
 and discrimination. It is hard to ascertain cor- 
 rectly the state of the spiritual patient, and hard 
 to suit the prescription wisely to his particular 
 wants. It is so, where there may be the fullest 
 opportunity for free, calm investigation, in the 
 family visit, or in a private interview. But 
 here, where all surrounding influences conspire 
 to complicate the difficulty to the greatest extent, 
 in the midst of commotion without and commo- 
 tion within, it is pretended to dispose 6{ a dozen 
 such cases perhaps in the course of half an hour. 
 And to make the matter worse, if theritimberof 
 the an xious be considerable, this, that, and the 
 other helper is called in, some crude exhorter 
 perhaps, some strippling student just starting on 
 7 
 
98 
 
 THE A^^XIOUS BENGH. 
 
 his way towards the ministry, or some forward' 
 novice, himself still in the swaddling clothes of 
 I the new birth, to take part in the solemn ghost- 
 \ ly work, under the same form. And is it pos- 
 I sible, that sensible men, in the fair use of their 
 senses, can fail to be struck with the absurdity' 
 of such a process ? The only fair parallel to it, 
 , in the medical sphere, would be the mockery ot 
 |! tiuree or four raw practitioners going the rounds 
 of a hospital, and administering to fifty cases of 
 diversified diseases, within the same time, as 
 I many doses of Thompson's mixture, Number 
 I Six, In the latter case, the thing would be 
 \ counted and called quackery of the first degree 
 and it is hard to see why it should go mider any 
 softer appellation in the former. The only dif-. 
 ference miglit seem to be, in the solemnity of 
 the interests involved in the two diflerent circles 
 of action. The Thompsoiiian tampers only witli 
 the life of the body, while the spiritual practi- 
 tioner plays blindly with the precious life of the 
 soul. 
 
 If '^'profitable for instruction'' at all then, the 
 Anxious Bench must be made subservient to^ 
 
 I' this end, in a different way. Considering the- 
 circumstances of the case, the only rational 
 course with. a company thus brought forward., 
 is to spend the few minutes that can be devoted 
 to them, in counsels and exhortations addres- 
 
 \ sed to them collectively. Let it not be said. 
 
 ' that such instructions must needs lack poiat. 
 The cases of the truly awakened are always suf- 
 ficiently near alike, to adroit of a large amount^ 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCm 99 
 
 of most pointed and pertinent direction in the 
 same form for all; and one who is truly a well 
 instructed scribe in the Gospel, will be able to 
 address an Anxious Bench to much more pur- 
 pose in this way, than it he were to pass round di- 
 recting a few remarks to each one separately. 
 But is it necessary to call them out from the^ 
 congregation, for this purpose ? The same 
 truths may just as well be presented to inquirers, 
 as included in the general audience, and it might, 
 reasonably be expected, in the case of the truly 
 serious, with much better effect. But is it not 
 desirable, we are asked, to have inquirers to^ 
 gether by themselves ! No doubt, there may 
 be an advantage in this. But let it be with fit- 
 ting time and place ; not under circumstances, 
 which can hardly fail to obstruct and defeat all 
 the purposes, that should be aimed at in the 
 case.* 
 
 The Anxious Bench is of no account, in any 
 view, as a help to instruction ; and it is not hard 
 
 * "Let it not be said, that inviting to "anxious seats" i& 
 the only effectual method of ascertaining, who are under seri- 
 ous impressions, and who are not. Why is it not quite as ef- 
 fectual to give a public invitation to all \^ ho are in any degree 
 seriously impressed, or anxious, to remain alter the congie- 
 gation is dismissed, or to meet their pastor the next evening, 
 an some convenient apartment, for the purpose of disclosing 
 their feelings, and of being made the subjects of instruction 
 and prayer. Nay, why is not the latter method very much 
 prelerable to the lormer? It sorely gives quite as good an 
 opportunity to ascertain numbers, and to distinguish person» 
 and cases. It affords a far better opportunity, to give distinct 
 and appropriate instruction to particular individuals." — J9y«\ 
 Miller. Letter t<iDr, Spragm. 
 
100 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 to perceive, that as a general thing, where it is 
 used, this does not form in reahty its main re- 
 commendation, in the eyes of its friends. It may 
 be convenient to advocate the use of the meas- 
 ure on this ground, and consistency will require 
 always some show of improving it accordingly. 
 The anxious, in one way or another, must be 
 instructed and directed after they have come out. 
 But just at this point, there is apt to appear a 
 sort of giving way in the general pressure of the 
 occasion, as though the main object of it had 
 been already reached, in the coming out itself. 
 It often happens, that a very short exhortation 
 is allowed to wind up the whole scene ; or it be- 
 comes evident that the conversation with the 
 anxious is protracted, amid the flagging interest 
 of the congregation, with mechanical rather than 
 with living force. This, where order and sobri- 
 ety still continue to assert their proper rights, in 
 the feelings of the people. Where that is not 
 the case, it will be contrived to keep up the ex- 
 citement still, in connection with the show of 
 instruction, in such way that this last shall come 
 but little into view, while all stress is laid upon 
 the first. The anxious then are encouraged to 
 weep aloud, cry out and wring their hands. 
 Now they are enveloped in the loud tones of 
 some stimulating spiritual song. Then there is 
 prayer, which soon becomes as loud; commenc- 
 ing perhaps with a single voice, but flowing 
 quickly into a sea of tumultuating sounds, irom 
 which no sense can be extracted even by tbe 
 keenest ear. The mourners besiege the "altar/' 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 101 
 
 pell-mell, kneeling, or it may be floimdering 
 fiat upon the floor, and all joining in the general 
 noise. Then may be heard perhaps the voice 
 of the preacher, shouting some commonplace 
 word of exhortation, which nobody hears or re- 
 gards ; while at different points, vague, crude 
 expostulations and directions are poured into the 
 ears of the struggling suppUants, by ^^brethren,^^ 
 now suddenly transformed into spiritual coun- 
 sellors, who might be at a loss themselves to 
 explain, at any other time, a single point in 
 religion. In due time, one and another are 
 brought through ; and thus new forms of dis- 
 order, shouting, clapping, &c., are brought into 
 play. In this way, the interest of the occasion, 
 such as it is, may be kept up till a late hour. 
 But who will pr^etend to say, that instruction 
 has been regarded or intended, as a leading ob- 
 ject in any part of the process ? 
 
 6. Lastly, it is said that the anxious should 
 be called out, in order that fhey may be made 
 the subjects of They need the prayers 
 
 of the Church ; and the church, it maj^^ be sup- 
 posed, has a heart to plead with God in their 
 behalf. But how shall this be, if they are not 
 known ? By the Anxious Bench they are 
 brought into view, piteously seeking an interest 
 in the prayers of God's people ; whose bowels 
 of compassion cannot fail to be stirred by the 
 spectacle. 
 
 This might seem to be the great object, in the 
 case of such methodistical displays as we have 
 jjUst had under observation. But scenes of this 
 
102 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 sort have no tendency to stimulate the spirit of 
 prayer. They form an element, unfriendly if 
 not absolutely fatal to the true idea of devotion. 
 This is evident generally, from a certain charac- 
 ter of irreverence, often grossly profane, that is 
 sure to put itself forward in such circumstances, 
 in proportion exactly to the strength of the reign- 
 ing excitement. And in any case, there is rea- 
 son to believe that more is lost than gained for 
 the anxious, as it regards this interest, by the com- 
 motion necessarily connected with their move- 
 ment to the anxious bench. It is a suspicious 
 kind of prayer at best that can be engaged, in 
 such circumstances, only by the sis^ht of its ob- 
 jects, theatrically paraded to produce effect, 
 without the power of a more general interest. 
 But it is not necessary that the awakened should 
 be unknown, in the church to which they be- 
 long. They may be discovered without the aid 
 of the Anxious Bench, and can be carried so up- 
 on the hearts of God's people, in the sanctuary 
 and in the closet, with an interest far more deep 
 and active, than any that is produced in the 
 other way. 
 
 I know of no other ground, than those which 
 have now been considered, on which the use of 
 the Anxious Bench can be vindicated with any 
 plausible defence. And as these separately taken 
 have no force, so neither can they be allowed 
 to weigh any thing collectively, against the con- 
 demnation, in which the system is properly in- 
 volved. 
 
The system of the bench tends to disorder, — Connects itself 
 readily with a vulgar and irreverent style in religion, — 
 Women praying in public, — Injiuence unfavorable to 
 deep, earnest piety. -**Relation of the system to that of 
 the Catechism. 
 
 The Anxious Bench tends naturally to disor- 
 'der. Where any considerable excitement pre- 
 vails, it is almost impossible for the measure to 
 be apphed, without confusion and commotion. 
 It is common indeed to have it said, in the ac- 
 counts given afterwards of such occasions, that 
 they were conducted in a quiet and orderly way. 
 Biit the true idea of quiet and order, is apt not 
 to be understood ; for it not unfrequently hap- 
 pens, that these accounts themselves, in close 
 connection with stich a statement, present evi- 
 dence sufficient to show it not strictly correct.* 
 
 * "In giving accounts of similar visitations of mfrcy in 
 other places, our correspondents sometimes take especial care 
 to let us know that all things were done "decently and in 
 order.'* It by this is meant that all was quiet, and conducted 
 with measured propriety and entire legard to the prejudice of 
 those who are opposed to religious excitements ; then we can- 
 not say so much of the revival in church. For there 
 
 was noise there not a little, meatured propriety not much, 
 
104 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 Some appear to think, that there is no disorder 
 at such tinxes, unless it comes to loud noise and 
 gross confusion, in the style of the Methodists. 
 But the proper order of the sanctuary may be 
 seriously unsettled, long before it has gone so 
 far as this. The measure involves irregularity 
 to some extent, in its very nature, and opens 
 the way for extravagance. It is always ready 
 accordingly to run into disorder. It leads natu- 
 rally, if encouraged, to more striking deviations 
 
 &c." Luth. Obs. Nov. 11, 1842.— "We had no confusion, 
 but considerable noise — and, dear br. how could it be other- 
 wise ? Fifty and sixty soais crying to God for mercy, some 
 finding peace and praising God, Christian? conversing with, 
 and praying for raourners, &c.'' Corresp. Liiih. Obs., ^pr. 
 14, 1843. — The following would seem to be quite orderly. 
 "On one occasion the whole church, that is the mass of pro- 
 fessors of religion who were present, came forward in a body, 
 including men and women, old and young, married, and un- 
 married, and prostrating themselves around the altar and in 
 the aisles, renewed tlieir covenant with God and solemnly 
 pledged themselves to increased etforts for the conversion ot 
 the impenitent." D^-c. 2, 1842. Also the following as report- 
 ed, ^pr. 7, 1843, by one who has written a book on revivalSo 
 Mr. S., a very moral and worthy man, "became awakened 
 and converted in his O An house, just the night before our 
 meeting commenced." The next evening, when the call was 
 given for the anxious to come forward, he passed up to the 
 altar, and asked leave to speak. This granted, he ciied, out* 
 "O my old companions and friends, who of you will now 
 come and take me by the hand, and go to heaven with me S 
 Last night at midnight, God blessed my soul, and 1 must now 
 tell you what he has done for me!" The effect was electric. 
 "Where are you my brethren who have covenanted with God?" 
 he asked asjain. ^'Instantly there was a general rush from 
 all parts of the house, and 1 suppose every male member in 
 the church came up to the altar to grasp our dear br. by the 
 hand, and covenanted to go to heaven together. O what a 
 scene ! We all wept together.— It happened the first night, 
 of our reeling, and a most glorious revival followed," 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 105 
 
 from the line of Christian sobriety. It forms 
 the threshhold properly to the whole system of 
 New Measures. We may pretend to draw a 
 line between it and other more noisy and disor- 
 derly ibrrns of action, but the line will be an ar- 
 bitrary one, separating things that after all are 
 inwardly related. The general principle of the 
 Anxious Bench, and its proper soul, are sub- 
 stantially the principle and soul of the entire sys- 
 tem to which it belongs. Let it be considered 
 orderly and edifying to call out the anxious in 
 this way, and why should they not be encoura- 
 ged as well to surround the altar on their knees, 
 or to lay themselves down in token of. their hu- 
 miliation in the dust ? If one measure of irreg- 
 ularity and noise may be allowed on the princi- 
 ple that we should gire room to the Spirit, why 
 should not a larger amount of the same be toler- 
 ated on the same plea ? "Should man enforce 
 ^decent^ silence^' — asks the Editor of the Luthe- 
 
 * "If I were to place myself on what i3 called an anxious 
 seat^ or should kneel down before a whole congregation To be 
 prayed for, I know that I should be stran-^ely agitated, bdt I 
 do not believe that it would be of any pernaanenl utility. But 
 if it should produce some good efject, am I at liberty to resort 
 to anything in the worship of God, which 1 think will bo use- 
 ful ? If such things are lawful and useful, why not add other 
 circumstances, to increase the effect ? Why not reqsjiiothe 
 penitent to appear in a white sheet, or to be clothed in sack 
 cloth, with ashes on his head? and, these, remember, are 
 Scriptural signs ot humiliation. And- q-n these principles, 
 who can reasonably object to hoiy water, ta incense, and the 
 use ot pictures or images in the worship cfj God ? All these 
 things came into the Church upon the samp principle, of de- 
 vising neio measures to do good." Thoughts on Religious Ex. 
 periencei by Dr. Alexander, Page 72. 
 
106 *rm: ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 ran Observer, in view of a scene where "cruslr-' 
 ed sinners/^ it is said, ^^prostrate upon their 
 knees, lay scattered around the altar, the females 
 in one group and the males in another,^' and 
 the united tones of all together, reminded him 
 of the noise of many waters-— "Should man en- 
 force ^decent' silence when God^s power had 
 produced ^strong crying and tears V Should we 
 prescribe limits to the workings of drvine grace, 
 and say to the swelling waves of overwhelming 
 contrition, thus far shall ye come and no fur- 
 ther The apology was intended to cover ot> 
 ly a certain measure of noise and confusion. 
 But it is of sufficient breadth plainly for any ex- 
 tent of extravagance, We may be pleased to 
 imagine. The most frantic disciple of Wine- 
 brenner could ask no more, to justify his greats 
 est outrages on common decency and common 
 sense. Screaming, shouting, jumping, tuml> 
 ling, and in one word, the whole wildfire of 
 fanaticism, including the "holy laugh,'^ and 
 ^the "holy grin,^^ might be vindicated in the 
 same way. Only let persons persuade them- 
 selves that the "power of God'' within them 
 y/it^^/ reveal itself in this style, and all becomes 
 at once rational and right. For there are diver- 
 sities of operations ; and it should be remem- 
 bered, that "rules of propriety are convention* 
 al and often very arbitrary things, and so is 
 taste ; what is thought decent in one community 
 may be deemed very disorderly in another 5 
 what is grating discord to one ear, may be 
 •charming concord to another/^ Even Mr. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 107 
 
 Winebrenner himself, when interrogated on the 
 subject of noise, only answers, "What is from 
 heaven I approve of, but what is from men I 
 ^disapprove of;'' though he goes on immediately 
 to sanction "loud groaning, crying, shouting, 
 •clapping of hands, jumping, falling 4own, &c.'' 
 as forms in which a divine influence maybe ex- 
 pected at times to work. Still he "has no incli- 
 nation to justify all sorts of noise and bodily ex- 
 ercises." The truth is, as already said, that no 
 satisfactory stopping place can be found, in the 
 system of New Measures. It has a life and 
 spirit of its own, that begin to be developed in 
 the simple Anxious Bench, and naturally flow 
 onward from that point, to the very worst ex- 
 cesses. Good men may try to hold the stream 
 in check, some at one point and some at anoth- 
 er ; but it will not consent to be held within the 
 limits imposed upon it by their sense of propri- 
 ety. It claims to have its origin in heaven, and 
 who in such case shall presume to say to it, 
 Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther, and 
 here shall thy proud waves be stayed ? 
 
 As the spirit of the Anxious Bench tends to 
 disorder, so it connects itself also naturally and 
 /readily with a certain vulgarism of feeling in 
 religion, that is always injurious to the worship 
 of God, and often shows itself absolutely irrev- 
 ^erent and profane. True religious feeling is in- 
 ward and deep ; shrinks from show ; forms the 
 I -mind to a subdued humble habit. "The language 
 of experience is," says one whose word should 
 have weight, "that tt is unsafe and unwise to bring 
 
 [ 
 
108 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 persons, who are under religious impressionsJ^ 
 too much into public view. The seed of tha 
 word, like the natural seed, does not vegetate 
 well in the sun.^' We may say then that there 
 is a measure of rudeness connected with this 
 particular style of action in. the Church, from th@, 
 very nature of the case. It is a wrong feeling in^ 
 this respect that makes it seem desirable at all,' 
 that awakened persons should be dragged thu!S| 
 theatrically into public view ; and the process 
 is well suited to generate wrong feelings, under 
 the same form, in those who are subjected to it% 
 rough operation. The circumstances of such ai]^ 
 occasion are by no means favorable to true mr\ 
 ward solemnity, such as causes the heart to exr< 
 claim. How awfai is this place ! High excite-, 
 ment always tends to destroy men's reverence* 
 for God and sacred things. And so this "high 
 pressure'" system, as it is sometimes called, in 
 proportion as it prevails, is always found to. 
 work. It gives rise to a stvle of preaching, 
 which is often rude and coarse, as well as un- 
 commonly vapid ; and creates an appetite for 
 such false aliment, with a corresponding want 
 of taste for true and solid instruction. All is 
 made to tell upon the one single object of effect.^ 
 The pulpit is transformed, more or less, into a 
 stage. Divine things are so popularized, as to. 
 be at last shorn of their dignity as well as their 
 mystery. Anecdotes and stories are plentifully-, 
 retailed, often in low, familiar, flippant stylev, 
 Roughness is substituted for strength, and para-c 
 do.x for point. The preacher feels himself^ and| 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 109 
 
 is bent on making himself felt also by the con- 
 gregation ; but God is not felt in the same pro- 
 portion. In many cases, self-will and mere 
 human passion, far more than faith or true zeal 
 for the conversion of souls, preside over the 
 whole occasion. Coarse personalities, and harsh 
 denunciations, and changes rung rudely on 
 terms the most sacred and things the most so- 
 lemn, all betray the wrong spirit that prevails* 
 But to see the character of the system, in the 
 aspect now considered, fully disclosed, we must 
 look at it again in its more advanced positions, 
 where the genius that animates it is permitted to 
 work with full scope. Here the so called awa- 
 kening, on the camp ground or at the quarterly 
 meeting, is often presented under a form that is 
 absolutely shocking to a truly serious mind. 
 Noise and confusion unite to overwhelm every 
 right sentiment in the soul. Decency and order 
 are given to the winds. A dozen perhaps are 
 heard praying at once, in all unseemly postures^ 
 and with the most violent gestures. And, then, 
 the form and spirit of these prayers, as far as 
 they can be heard ! What rude familiarity with 
 the High and Holy One ; what low belittling 
 and caricaturing of all that is grand in the Gos- 
 pel ; what gross profanity in the style of many 
 of the petitions, with which it is pretended to 
 storm the citadel of God's favors ! The atmos- 
 phere of such a meeting, may be exciting, in- 
 toxicating, bewildering ; but it has no power 
 whatever to dispose the mind to devotion. 
 There is nothing in the scene to impress those 
 
110 TBE mXimS BENCH. 
 
 who are present, with the sense of God's awful 
 heart-searching presence. Very frequently, while 
 such a chaos of prayer is going forward in full 
 strength at one end of the house, the lookers on 
 at the other show themselves as much at their 
 ease, and betray as little emotion, as though 
 they were sitting in a bar-room. They have 
 grown obtuse to the stirring show, and feel them- 
 selves in no connection with what is going for.- 
 ward, except as they find an opportunity, from 
 time to time, to fall in with the eatch of some 
 familiar revival-song, which they shout forth as:: 
 boisterously as any body else. Fanaticism ha^' 
 no power to make God's presence felt. It is 
 wild, presumptuous and profane, where it af- 
 fects to partake most largely of the power of 
 heaven. No wonder that the rehgion which 
 commenced and carried forward under such aui^- 
 pices, should show itself to be characteristically 
 coarse and gross. Wanting true reverence for 
 God, it will be without true charity also towards 
 men. li is likely to be narrow, intolerant, sin- 
 ister, and rabidly sectarian. All that is high 
 will become low, and all that is beautiful be 
 turned into vulgarity, in its hands.* 
 
 * ''Fanaticism often blazes with a glaring flame, and agi- 
 tates assemblies as with a hurricane or earthquake; but God 
 is not in the fire, or the wind, or the earthquake. His pre- 
 sence is more commonly with the still small voice. There 
 is no sounder characteristic of genuine devotion, than rever-**-^ 
 ence. Where this is banished, the fire may burn fiercely, but>' 
 it is unhallowed fire. Fanaticism, however much it may as- 
 sume the garb and language of piety, is its opposite ; for 
 while the latter is mild, and sweet, and disinterested, andi 
 
Tim AI^XIOUS BENCm 1:11, 
 
 One striking illustration of the coarseness of 
 this spirit, is found in the disposition it has 
 shown in all ages, to set aside the rule, which 
 forbids women to. speak publicly ui religious as- 
 semblies. Natiure itself may be said to teach us, 
 that woman cannot quit her sphere of relative 
 subordination with regard to man, without dis- 
 honoring herself, and losing her proper strength. 
 And it is no small argument for the divine ori- 
 gin of the gospel, that while it teaches the abso- 
 lute personal equality of the sexes as it had nev- 
 er been understood before, it still echoes, while 
 it rightly interprets, the voice of nature with re- 
 gard to this point. "I suffer not a woman to- 
 teach,^' says the apostle, "nor to usurp authorir 
 ty over the man, but to be in silence.^' And 
 again, "Let your women keep silence in the 
 churches ; for it is not permitted imto them to, 
 speak. — It is a shame for a women to speak in 
 the church,^^ True religion supports this judg- 
 ijGient. No female, with the Gospel in her hearty, 
 can wish to have it reversed. She would feel 
 her nature wronged rather, in being required, to. 
 appear, in the way here forbidden, before the 
 public. But of such delicacy, no account is 
 made, by the fanatical temper now under con- 
 sideration. It is coarse and vulgar, and would 
 fain show itself wiser, at this point, than Paul 
 himself. It encourages women to pray in pub- 
 lic, and to address promiscuous meetuigs, and 
 
 respectful, and affectionate, the former is proud, arrogant, 
 censorious, selfish, carnal, and when opposed, malignant.*'—* 
 J)r, Mexander's Letter to Dr, Sprague, 
 
112 THE ANXIOlGfS BENCH. 
 
 by the spirit it infuses makes them willing to un- 
 sex themselves in this way. There can be no 
 surer sign of grossness and coarseness in religiom 
 than a disposition to tolerate this monstrous per- 
 version, under any form. 
 
 The general system to which the Anxious 
 Bench belongs, it may be remarked again, is 
 unfavorable to deep, thorough and intelligent 
 piety. This must be the case of course, if there 
 be any truth in the observations already made 
 with regard to its character. A system that 
 leads to such a multitude of spurious conversions, 
 and that makes room so largely for that low, 
 gross, fanatical habit, which has just been des- 
 cribed, cannot possibly be associated to any ex- 
 tent with the power of godliness, in its deeper 
 and more earnest forms. The religion which it 
 may produce, so far as it can be counted genuine, 
 will be for the most part of a dwarfish size and 
 sickly complexion. The "experience'^ of the 
 Anxious Bench is commonly shallow. The 
 friends of the new method often please them- 
 selves, it is true, with the idea that their awak- 
 enings include a vast amount of power in this 
 way ; and they are not backward to insinuate, 
 that those who oppose their measures are ignor- 
 ant of what pertains to the "depths'^ of experi- 
 mental piety. Were such persons themselves 
 experimentally acquainted with the pangs of 
 the new birth, it is intimated, they would not 
 be so easily offended with the noise and disorder 
 of poor souls agonizing at the altar ; and if they 
 had ever themselves tasted the joys of pardoned 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 113 
 
 sin, they might be expected to have other ears 
 than they now have, for the shouts and hallelu- 
 jahs of the redeemed, suddenly translated in 
 these circumstances from the power of Satan in- 
 to the glorious liberty of the family of God. 
 But in fact no "experiences'^ are more superfi- 
 cial commonly, than those which belong to this 
 whirlwind process. The foundations of the in- 
 ward life are not reached and moved by it at all 
 All that would be wanted often to hush an "al- 
 tar-fulP^ of chaotic cries to solemn stillness, 
 would be that the hearts of the "agonizing'^ 
 mourners should be suddenly touched with some 
 real sense of the presence of God and their own 
 sins. "I have heard of Thee,'' says Job, "with 
 the hearing of the ear , but uow tTiine eye seeth 
 thee : wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in 
 dust and ashes." Alas, it is not the depth of 
 these anxious bench and camp-meeting conver- 
 sions, but their utter want of depth, that expo- 
 ses them to complaint. They involve little or 
 nothing of what the old divines call heart work. 
 They bring with them no self-knowledge. They 
 fill the Church with lean professors, who show 
 subsequently but little concern to grow in grace, 
 little capacity indeed to understand at all the 
 free, deep, full life of the "new man" in Christ 
 Jesus. Such converts, if they do not altogether 
 "fall from grace," are apt to continue at least 
 babes in the gospel, as long as they live. The 
 natural fruit of the system is a sickly Christian- 
 ity, that is sure to be defective or one-sided, 
 both in doctrine and practice. It proceeds upon 
 8 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 a wrong conception of religion from the starJ^ 
 and error and heresy, in the nature of the case, 
 are wrought plentifully into the very texture of 
 all that is reached by its operations. There is 
 involved in it a spirit of delusion, which cannot 
 fail to show its power disastrously, after a short 
 time, in any community in which it is suffered 
 to prevail. 
 
 Here is another most serious charge, demand- 
 ing our special attention. I have denominated 
 the system a heresy, not inconsiderately or for 
 rhetorical effect simply, but with sober calcula- 
 tion and design. In religion, as in life univer- 
 sally, theory and practice are always insepara- 
 bly intertwined, in the giound of the soul. Eve- 
 ry error is felt practically ; and wherever obli- 
 quity in conduct comes into view, it must be re- 
 ferred to some corresponding obliquity in 
 principle. It is not by accident then that the 
 system of New Measures is found produ- 
 cing so largely, the evil consequences whicli 
 have been thus far described. Error and here- 
 sy, I repeat it, are involved in the system itself, 
 and cannot fail sooner or later, where it is en- 
 couraged, to evolve themselves in the most mis- 
 chievous results. Finneyism is only Taylorism 
 reduced to practice, the speculative heresy of 
 New-Haven actualized in common life. A low, 
 shallow, pelagianizing theory of religion, runs 
 through it from beginning to end. The fact of 
 sin is acknowledged, but not in its true extent. 
 The idea of a new spiritual creation is admitted, 
 but not in its proper radical and comprehensive 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 115 
 
 form. The ground of the sinner's salvation is 
 made to he at last in his own separate person. 
 The deep import of the declaration, That which 
 is born of the flesh is fleshy is not fully appre- 
 hended ; and it is vainly imagined accordingly, 
 that the flesh as such may be so stinmlated and 
 exalted notwithstanding, as to prove the mother 
 of that spiritual nature, which we are solemnly 
 assured can be born only of the Spirit. Hence 
 all stress is laid upon the energy of the individ- 
 ual will, (the self-will of the flesh,) for the ac- 
 complishment of the great change in which re- 
 generation is supposed to consist. The case is 
 not remedied at all by the consideration, that 
 due account is made at the same time professed- 
 ly of the aids of God's Spirit, as indispensable 
 in the work of conversion. The heresy lies in- 
 volved in the system. This is so constructed as 
 naturally, and in time inevitably, to engender 
 false views of religion. Sometimes the mere 
 purpose to serve God, in the same form with a 
 resolution to sign a temperance pledge, is con- 
 sidered to be the ground of regeneration. At 
 other times, it is made to stand in a certain state 
 of feeling, supposed to be of supernatural origin, 
 but apprehended notwithstanding mechanically, 
 as the result of a spiritual process which begins 
 and ends with the sinner himself. The experi- 
 ence of the supposed supernatural in this case, 
 stands in the same relation to the actual power 
 of the new birth, that magic bears to the true 
 idea of a miracle. The higher force does not 
 strictly and properly take possession of the lower, 
 
116 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 but is presumed rather to have been reduced to 
 the possession and service of this last, to be used 
 by it for its own convenience. Religion does 
 not get the sinner, but it is the sinner who "gets 
 religion.'^ Justification is taken to be in fact by 
 feeling J not by faith ; and in this way falls back 
 as fully into the sphere of self-righteousness, as 
 though it were expected from works under any 
 other form. In both the views which have been 
 mentioned, as grounded either in a change of 
 purpose or a change of feeling, reUgion is found 
 to be in the end the product properly of the sin- 
 ner himself. It is wholly subjective, and there- 
 fore visionary and false. The life of the soul 
 must stand in something beyond itself Religion 
 involves the will ; but not as self-will, affecting 
 to be its own ground and centre. Religion in- 
 volves feeling ; but it is not comprehended in 
 this as its principle. Religion is subjective also^ 
 fills and rules the individual in whom it appears; 
 but it is not created in any sense by its subject 
 or from its subject. The life of the branch is in 
 the trunk. The theory we have been contem- 
 plating then, as included practically in the sys- 
 tem of New Measures, is a great and terrible 
 heresy ; which it is to be feared is operating, in 
 this connection, to deceive and destroy a vast 
 multitude of souls. 
 
 The proper fruits of Pelagianism, follow the 
 system invariably, in proportion exactly to the 
 extent, in which it may be suffered in any case 
 to prevail. A most ample field for instruction 
 with regard to this point, for all who care to re- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 117 
 
 ceive instruction, is presented in the history of 
 the great religious movement, over which Mr. 
 Finney presided some years ago, in certain parts 
 of this country. Years of faithful pastoral ser- 
 vice, on the part of a different order of ministers, 
 working in a wholly different style, have hard- 
 ly yet sufficed, in the Northern section of the 
 State of New York, to restore to something like 
 spiritual fruitfulness and beauty, the field, over 
 which this system then passed, as a wasting 
 fire, in the fulness of its strength. The perfec- 
 tionism of Oberlin, with its low conceptions of 
 the law of God, is but a natural development of 
 the false life, with which it is animated. The 
 wide West abounds, in every direction, with 
 illustrations of its mischievous action, under all 
 imaginable forms, in many places, a morbid 
 thirst for excitement, may be said to exhaust 
 the whole interest, that is felt in religion. The 
 worst errors stand in close juxta-position, with 
 the most bold pretensions to the highest order of 
 christian experience. All might seem to begin 
 in the Spirit, and yet all is perpetually ending in 
 the flesh. It were an easy thing too, to gather 
 exemplifications, supporting the same lesson, 
 from the past history of the Church. For the 
 system, properly speaking, is not new. The 
 same theory of religion has led, in all ages, to 
 substantially the same style of action, and this 
 has been followed by substantially the same bad 
 fruits. 
 
 The question of "New Measures^^ then, as it 
 claims at this time particularly the attention of 
 
118 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 the German Churches, is one of much greater 
 importance than some might be disposed to ima- 
 gine. The truth is, this system, as we have 
 said, has a hfe and spirit of its own. It may be 
 associated to some extent, in certain hands, with 
 the power of a more vigorous life derived from 
 a different quarter, so as to seem comparatively 
 sound and safe. But it ought not to be thought, 
 on this account, that it may be incorporated 
 practically with one order of thinking on the 
 subject of religion, as easily as with anothet. 
 It is not by accident only, that it is found connect- 
 ing itself with the faults and defects that have 
 now been mentioned. A false theory of reli- 
 gion is involved in it, which cannot fail to work 
 itself out and make itself felt, in many hurtful 
 results, wherever it gains footing in the Church. 
 No religious community can grow and prosper, 
 in a solid way, where it is allowed to have any 
 considerable authority ; because it will always 
 stand in the way of those deeper and more silent 
 forms of action, by which alone it is possible for 
 this end to be accomplished. It is a different 
 system altogether that is required, to build up 
 the interests of Christianity in a firm and sure 
 way. A ministry apt to teach ; sermons full of 
 unction and light; faithful, systematic instruc- 
 tion ; zeal for the interests of holiness ; pastoral 
 visitation ; catechetical training ; due attention 
 to order and discipline ; patient perseverance in 
 the details of the ministerial work ; these are 
 the agencies, by which alone the kingdom of 
 God may be expected to go steadily forward. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH.' 119 
 
 among any people. Where these are fully em- 
 ployed, there will be revivals ; but they will be 
 only as it were the natural fruit of the general 
 culture going before, without that spasmodic, 
 meteoric character, which too often distinguish- 
 es excitements under this name ; while the life 
 of religion will show itself abidingly at work, 
 in the reigning temper of the Church, at all oth- 
 er times. Happy the congregation, that may 
 be placed under such spiritual auspices ! Hap- 
 py for our German Zion, if such might be the 
 systemthat should prevail, to the exclusion of eve- 
 ry other, within her borders ! We may style it, 
 for distinction sake, the system of the Catechism. 
 It is another system wholly from that which we 
 have been contemplating in this tract. We find 
 the attempt made in some cases, it is true, to in- 
 corporate the power of the Catechism with the 
 use of new measures. But the union is unnatu- 
 ral, and can never be inward and complete. 
 The two systems involve at the bottom, two dif- 
 ferent theories of religion. The spirit of the 
 Anxious Bench is at war with the spirit of the 
 Catechism. Where it comes decidedly to pre- 
 vail, catechetical instruction, and the religious 
 training of the young generally, are not likely 
 to be maintained with much effect ; and it will 
 not be strange, if they should be openly slighted 
 even, and thrust out of the way as an incum- 
 brance to the Gospel, rather than a help.* What 
 
 * A graphic illustration of this point was furnished lately, 
 it is said, by a minister of the New Measure school, in this 
 neighborhood. On the morning of a sacramental sabbath, his 
 
120 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 is wrought in the way of the Catechism is con- 
 sidered to be of man, what is wrought by the 
 Bench is taken readily for the work of God. 
 And the reason of this is near at hand. The 
 Catechism is indeed weak in the hands of those 
 who have this judgment. They have no inward 
 power to make themselves felt, in this way. 
 But they seem to have power in the use of the 
 Bench ; and it is no wonder they should magni- 
 fy it accordingly. The systems are antagonis- 
 tic. Particular men, standing under one stand- 
 ard, may be to some extent entangled in views 
 and practices properly belonging to the other ; 
 but so far they must be inconsistent with them- 
 selves. Each system, as such, has its own life 
 and soul, in virtue of which it cannot truly coal- 
 esce with the other. They cannot flourish and 
 be in vigorous force together. The Bench is 
 against the Catechism, and the Catechism against 
 the Bench. I mean of course not the Catechism 
 as a mere dead form, in the way in which the 
 
 catechetical class was admitted, by profession of faith, to the 
 Lord's table and the full communion of the Church. On the 
 very same evening, they were drawn forward to the anxious 
 bench, for the purpose of conversion ! Towards the dose of 
 Ihe year 1S42, we find in the Lutheran Observer a glowing^ 
 report from this same workman of splendid results effected by 
 his ministry, on a different field, which he was obliged soon 
 after to leave. In a single protracted meeting, in one case, 
 he was able to muster "about one hundred and fifty" converts. 
 Since that lime, he has reported another revival, which came 
 and went so rapidly, that the community generally had no 
 knowledge of it till it v^'as all over. No wonder such a man 
 should put honor on the Bench and scorn on the Cate- 
 chism, and rail out from the pulpit against the present tracts 
 as though it were the "abomination of desolation" itself. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 121 
 
 original order of the Churchy has been too often 
 abused ; and it is silly, if not something worse^ 
 to insist upon this view of it, when the two sys- 
 tems are drawn into contrast, as though there 
 could be no other alternative to the Bench than 
 the Catechism without life. It is the living Cat- 
 echism, the Catechism awakened and active, 
 that is intended in this opposition. As such, it 
 stands the representative and symbol of a system, 
 embracing its own theory of religion, and inclu- 
 ding a wide circle of agencies, peculiar to itself, 
 for carrying this theory into effect. These agen- 
 cies, in the pulpit and out of it, will be under- 
 stood, and honored, and actively appUed, in 
 proportion exactly as the spirit of the system- 
 may prevail ; and in the same proportion the 
 Christianity of the Church may be expected to 
 show itself large, deep, full, vigorous and free. 
 Between such a Christianity and that v/hich is 
 the product of the Bench, there can be no com- 
 parison ; and it must be counted an immense 
 misfortune, in the case of an)^^ religious denomi- 
 nation, when the views, feelings, and forms of 
 action, that are represented by this, through the 
 force of a perverse judgment, gain such ground, 
 as to push the other system aside. It must be 
 ever a wretched choice, when the Bench is pre- 
 ferred to the Catechism. 
 
'it-'' 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 System of the Catechism. — lis theological ground and con- 
 stitution, — Its general methods and forms of action* — 
 Historical exemplification. 
 
 It seems to be due to the whole subject, that 
 the system of the Catechism, as here opposed 
 to the system of the Bench, should be a little 
 more fully described. This might well form the 
 theme of a separate tract. As a closing chapter 
 to the present publication, it can claim our at- 
 tention only in a very general way. 
 
 The Anxious Bench has stood before us as 
 the representative and type of a certain religious 
 system, having its own theory and its own prac- 
 tice, both replete with dangerous error. In the 
 same way, we exhibit the Catechism as the rep- 
 resentative and type of another system, inclu- 
 ding in like manner both theory and practice, 
 of an opposite character. It is not meant of 
 course, that the whole system originated in the 
 Catechism, or that it must stand or fall in every 
 instance with the use of the Catechism; but 
 simply that this belongs to it, in principle and 
 constitution, and is well fitted at the same time 
 to stand as a specimen of its general meaning 
 and force. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 123 
 
 The theory of religion in which the system of 
 the Catechism stands, is vastly more deep and 
 -comprehensive, and of course vastly more ear- 
 nest also, than that which lies at the foundation 
 of the other system. This last we have seen to 
 be characteristically pelagian, with narrow views 
 of the nature of sin, and confused apprehensions 
 of the difference between flesh and spirit ; in- 
 volving in the end the gross and radical error, 
 that conversion is to be considered, in one shape 
 or another, the product of the sinner's own will, 
 and not truly and strictly a new creation in 
 Christ Jesus by the power of God. This is an 
 old heresy, of which notice is taken by the apos- 
 tle Paul in the second chapter of his epistle to 
 the Church at Colosse, and which has been ac- 
 tively at work in the Christian world, under va- 
 rious forms and disguises, from that time to the 
 present. It has often put on the fairest appear- 
 ances, seeming even to go beyond the general 
 iife of the Church, in the measure of its zeal 
 and spirituality. It can easily affect also, de- 
 ceiving itself as much as others, to honor the 
 grace of God, and to derive all its life from a 
 source beyond itself. But still the imagination 
 remains, that this life is something that stands 
 in the mdividual separately taken, the property 
 of a particular self^ rather than a more general 
 power in which every such particular self is re- 
 quired to lose itself, that "old things may pass 
 away and all things beeomc new.'' The man 
 gets religion, and so stands over it and above it, 
 in his own fancy, as the owner of property in 
 
124 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 any other case. From such monstrous perver- 
 sion, the worst consequences may be expected 
 to flow. The system may generate action ; but 
 it will be morbid action, one-sided, spasmodic, 
 ever leaning towards fanaticism. In opposition 
 to this, the true theory of religion carries us con- 
 tinually beyond the individual, to the view of a 
 far deeper and more general form of existence in 
 which his particular life is represented to stand. 
 Thus sin is not simply the offspring of a par- 
 ticular will, putting itself forth in the form of 
 actual transgressions, but a wrong habit of hu- 
 manity itself, a general and universal force, 
 which includes and rules the entire existence of 
 the individual man, from the very start.* The 
 disease is organic, rooted in the race, and not to 
 be overcome in any case by a force less deep 
 and general than itself As well might we look 
 for the acorn to forsake in growing the type of 
 its proper species, and put forth the form of a 
 mountain ash or stately elm. "That which is 
 
 * This point is well maintained in a Defence of the Second 
 Article of the Augsburg Confession, (^'gegen alte und neue 
 Gegener/*) by Dr. Sartonus, one of the most distinguished 
 Lutheran divines of the present age. Had the treatise been 
 N^Titten expressly against the theory of sin brought iorward 
 some time since, in this country, by Dr. Taylor of New Ha- 
 ven, of whom probably the German theologian had never 
 heard, it could hardly have furnished a refutation of it more 
 thorough and complete. U is directed against the Rational- 
 ism of modern Germany, which only reiterates here the Pela- 
 gianism of the Romish Church, as we find it withstood in the 
 ever memorable Confession of Augsburg. This shallow theo- 
 ry, as exhibited by Dr. Taylor, constitutes as we have seen 
 the very soul of Finneyism, which is simply another name for 
 the system of the Anxious Bench. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 125 
 
 born of the flesh is flesh. So deep and broad 
 is the ruin, from which man is to be deUvered 
 by the gospel. And here again, the same depth 
 and breadth are presented to us also in the 
 Christian salvation itself. Man is the subject of 
 it, but not the author of it, in any sense. His 
 nature is restorable, but it can never restore it- 
 self. The restoration to be real, must begin 
 beyond the individual. In this case as in the 
 other, the general must go before the particular, 
 and support it as its proper ground. Thus hu- 
 manity, fallen in Adam, is made to undergo a 
 resurrection in Christ, and so restored, flows 
 over organically, as in the other case, to all in 
 whom its life appears. The sinner is saved then 
 by an inward living union with Christ, as real as 
 the bond by which he has been joined in the 
 first instance to Adam. This union is reached 
 and maintained, through the medium of the 
 Church, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It 
 constitutes a new life, the ground of which is 
 not in the particular subject of it at all, but in 
 Christ, the organic root of the Church. The 
 particular subject lives, not properly speaking in 
 the acts of his own will separately considered, 
 but in the power of a vast generic life, that lies 
 wholly beyond his will, and has now began to 
 manifest itself through him, as the law and type 
 of his will itself, as well as of his whole being. 
 As born of the Spirit, in contradistinction from 
 the flesh, he is himself spiritual, and capable of true 
 righteousness. Thus his salvation begins, and 
 thus it is carried forward, till it becomes com- 
 
126 
 
 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 plete in the resurrection of the great day. From 
 first to last, it is a power which he does not so 
 much apprehend, as he is apprehended by it, 
 and comprehended in it, and carried along with 
 it, as something infinitely more deep and vast 
 than himself. 
 
 Now as one or the other of the two opposite 
 ^theories of religion, thus briefly described, may 
 be found to reign, not in the written or oral 
 creed of those who take an interest in the sub- 
 ject, but in the inmost core of their Ufe, the re- 
 sult will appear, with characteristic difference, 
 in the whole tenor and bearing of their religion 
 itself, practically considered. And this differ- 
 ence will be substantially that of the two sys- 
 tems now compared, the religion of the Cate- 
 chism and the reUgion of the Bench. 
 
 It might seem indeed, at first view, that the 
 theory which sets the particular before the gen- 
 eral, in this case, would be found more favora- 
 ble than its opposite to earnest and vigorous re- 
 ligious action, in every direction. And so it is 
 often taken to be, in fact. The other scheme,^ 
 involving as it seems to do a helpless depend- 
 ence of the individual upon a generality deeper 
 and more comprehensive than himself, first as 
 it regards sin, and then again as it regards 
 righteousness, is held up to reproach, as a view 
 that cuts the sinews of moral action, and may be 
 expected, where it prevails, to lie like a para- 
 lysing incubus on all the energies of the Church. 
 But this idea is contradicted by universal expe- 
 rience, as well as by the true philosophy of life. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 127 
 
 To be moved deeply and strongly in any case^ 
 man must be wrought upon by a force, deeper 
 and more comprehensive than his separate self. 
 Great purposes and great efforts appear, only 
 when the sense of the general overpowers the 
 sense of the particular, and the last is constrain- 
 ed to become tributary to the tendencies and 
 purposes of the first. There may be a great 
 show of strength, where the man acts simply 
 from and for himself ; noise, agitation, passion, 
 reaching even to violence ; but it will be only a 
 display of imbecility when all is done. The 
 will acting in this way is very weakness itself ; 
 and all the blustering and violence it may put 
 on, serves but to expose the deficiency of 
 strength that prevails within. To acquire, in 
 any case, true force, it must fall back on a pow- 
 er more general than itself. And so it is found, 
 that in the sphere of religion particularly, the 
 pelagian theory is always vastly more impotent 
 for practical purposes, than that to which it 
 stands opposed. The action which it produces 
 may be noisy, fitful, violent ; but it can never 
 carry with it the depth, the force, the fullness, 
 that are found to characterise the life of the soul, 
 when set in motion by the other view. 
 
 Conviction of sin is never deep and thorough, 
 till it comes to a clear consciousness, with the 
 sinner, that his sinful life is rooted in a sinful 
 nature, older and broader than himself, which 
 he has no power to renovate or control. Nor is 
 the Christian salvation rightly understood, till it 
 is felt that it must be something more deep and 
 
128 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 comprehensive than the will of the individual 
 subject himself, in whom it is to appear. Such 
 experience carrying the man beyond himself, 
 and merging the consciousness of the particular 
 in the consciousness of the general, may be 
 much less ostentatious and much more quiet than 
 the experience generated by the other view ; but 
 it will be so only because it is far less superficial, 
 and far more full of truth. Religion in this form 
 becomes strictly a life, the life of God in the 
 soul. So far as this life prevails it is tranquil, 
 profound, and free. It overcomes the world ; 
 *^not by might and by power,'^ the unequal, rest- 
 less, fitful, and spasmodic efforts of the flesh, 
 ^'but by the Spirit of the Lord.'^ The believer 
 can do all things, standing in Christ. 
 
 And as this theory of religion is the ground 
 of all deep experience in the case of the individ* 
 ual Christian, so it gives rise to the most vigor- 
 ous and comprehensive action, on the part of 
 the Church, for carrying into effect the provis- 
 ions of the gospel for the salvation of men. In 
 proportion exactly as it is understood and felt, 
 will such action display itself in all its proper 
 forms ; and under no other circumstances can 
 any agency be employed for the same end, that 
 will be entitled at all to take its place. 
 
 From first to last, the action now mentioned 
 will go forward, under a due practical recogni- 
 tion of the truth, that both the ruin of man and 
 his recovery rest in a ground, which is beyond 
 himself as an individual. If saved at all, he is 
 to be saved by the torce of a spiritual constitu- 
 
TfiK AiNXIOtrS BENCH. 129 
 
 %ion, established by God for the purpose, the 
 provisions of which go far beyond the resources 
 of his own will, and are expected to reach him, 
 not so much through the measure of his own 
 particular life, as by the medium of a more gen- 
 eral life, with which he is to be filled and ani- 
 mated from without. This spiritual constitution 
 is brought to bear upon him in the Churchy by 
 means of institutions and agencies which God 
 has appointed, and clothed with power, ex- 
 pressly for this end. Hence where the system 
 of the Catechism prevails, great account is made 
 of the Church, and all reliance placed upon the 
 means of grace comprehended in its constitution, 
 as all sufficient under God for the accomplish- 
 ment of its own purposes. The means are felt 
 to be something more than mere devices of hu- 
 man ingenuity, and are honoured and diligently 
 used accordingly as the "Wisdom of God and 
 the power of God^' tmto salvation. Due regard 
 is had to the idea of the Church as something 
 more than a bare abstraction, the conception of 
 an aggregate of parts mechanically brought to- 
 gether. It is apprehended rather as an organic 
 life, springing perpetually from the same ground, 
 and identical with itself at every point. In this 
 view, the Church is truly the mother of all her 
 childreni They do not impart life to her, but 
 she imparts life to them. Here again the gener- 
 al is felt to go before the particular, and to con- 
 dition all its manifestations. The Church is in 
 no sense the product of individual Christianity^ 
 as though a number of persons should first re^ 
 9 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH; 
 
 ceive the heavenly fire in separate streams, and' 
 then come into such a spiritual connection com- 
 prising the whole ; but individual Christianity is 
 the product, always and entirely, of the Churchj 
 as existing previously, and only revealing its life 
 in this way. Christ lives in the Church, and 
 through the Church in its particular, members ; 
 just as Adam lives in the human race genericaU 
 ly considered, and through the race in every in- 
 dividual man. This view of the relation of the 
 Church to.the salvation of the individual, exerts, 
 an important influencQ, . in the case before us, 
 on the whole system of action, by which it is. 
 sought, to reach this object. 
 
 Where it prevails, a serious interest will be 
 taken in the ease of children, as proper subjects, 
 for the Christian salvation, from the earliest age. 
 Infants born in the Church, are regarded and; 
 treated as members of it from the beginning, 
 and this privilege is felt tp be something, more 
 than an empty shadow. The idea of infant con- 
 version is held in practical honor ; aud it is coun- 
 ted not only possible but altogether natural, that 
 children growing up in the bosom of the Church, 
 under the faithful application of the means of 
 grace, should be quickened into spiritual life in . 
 a comparatively quiet way, and spring up nu- 
 merously, "as willows by the water-courses,' ' 
 to- adorn the Christian profession, without being ^ 
 able at all to trace the process by wjiich the glo- 
 rious change has been eflfecte'd.* Where the 
 
 ♦ To cut off occasion, from such as itek occasion, for mis- 
 jeT)resentatioD, it may be well enough to remark, here, 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 131 
 
 Church has lost all faith in this method of con- 
 version, either not looking for it at all, or look- 
 ing for it only in rare and extraordinary instan- 
 ces, it is an evidence that she is under the force 
 ^f a wrong religious theory, and practically sub- 
 jected, at least in some measure, to the false 
 system Avhose symbol is the Bench. If conver- 
 sion is not expected nor sought in this way 
 among infants and children, it is not likely often 
 to occur. All is made to hang methodistically 
 on sudden and violent experiences, belonging to 
 the individual separately taken, and holding lit- 
 tle or no connection with his relations to the 
 Church previously. Then as a matter of course,, 
 baptism becomes a barren sign, and the children 
 
 (though in ordinary circumstances the remark might seem to 
 be wholly superfluous,) that the idea of such a comparativel}^ 
 silent process of conversion, as something to be desired and 
 sought in the case of infants and children, does not imply at all 
 that regeneration in any case is a gradual change. Nor is it 
 intended to throw discredit by any means, on all sudden con. 
 versions in later life, attended with experience more or less 
 violent and marked, in the case of those who have grown up 
 to some age in an impenitent state. Conversions of this sort 
 under proper circumstances, are entitled- to entire confidence, 
 and may be expected to occur frequently under faithful minis- 
 trations on the part of the Church. But the error is, in mak- 
 ing this the exclusive conception of the process. It is of im- 
 mense account to hold fa«t, with Luther and the other Re. 
 formers, to the other conception, at the same time. Regen- 
 eration is instantaneous, but as such not to be perceived di- 
 rectly in awy case by the subject. It can be perceived only 
 in its effects. But these belong to conversion, the change that 
 flows from regeneration. Regeneration may take place in 
 the womb, or in infancy, or in early childhood, or in adult 
 age. In every case, its symbol is the wind; "thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, butcaxist nottellwhen.ee it conieth, noa wbith-. 
 «r it go«th." 
 
132 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 of the Church are left to grow up like the child- 
 ren of the world, under general most heartless, 
 most disastrous neglect. The exemplifications 
 of such a connection between wrong theory and 
 wrong practice, in this case, are within the 
 reach of the most common observation. Only 
 where the system of the Catechism is in honor 
 and vigorous force, do we ever find a properly 
 earnest and comprehensive regard exhibited for 
 the salvation of the young ; a regard, that ope- 
 rates, not partially and occasionally only, but 
 follows its subjects with all-compassing interest, 
 like the air and light of heaven, from the first 
 breath of infancy onwards ; a regard, that can- 
 not be satisfied, in their behalf, with the spas- 
 modic experience of the anxious bench, but tra- 
 vails in birth for them continually, till Christ be 
 formed in their hearts the hope of glory. 
 
 Thus due regard is had to the family^ the do- 
 mestic constitution, as a vital and fundamental 
 force, in the general organization of the Church , 
 and all proper pains are taken to promote reli- 
 gion in families, as the indispensable condition 
 of its prosperity under all other forms. Parents 
 are engaged to pray for their children, and to 
 watch over them with true spiritual solicitude, 
 continually endeavoring to draw them to Christ. 
 With such feelings, they will have of course a 
 family altar, and daily sacrifices of praise and 
 prayer, in the midst of their house. They will 
 be careful too, to instil into the minds of their 
 children the great truths of rehgion, "in the 
 house and by the way/^ Catechetical instruc- 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 133 
 
 tion in particular, will be faithfully employed, 
 from the beginning. And to crown all, the 
 power of a pious and holy example will be 
 sought, as necessary to impart life to all other 
 forms of influence. All this belongs properly to 
 the system of the Catechism. 
 
 In close connection with this domestic train- 
 ing, the ministrations of the Church come in, 
 under a more public form, to carry forward the 
 same work. The Church feels herself bound to 
 watch over the children born in her bosom, and 
 to follow them with counsel and instruction and 
 prayer, from one year always on to another. They 
 are required to attend upon the services of the 
 sanctuary. Especially, the process of Catechet- 
 ical instruction is enlployed, with constancy and 
 patience, to cast if possible both the understand- 
 ing and the heart into the mould of evangelical 
 doctrine. 
 
 The regular administration of the word and 
 sacraments, forms of course an essential part of 
 the same system. The ordinances of the sanc- 
 tuary, being of divine institution, are regarded 
 as channels of a power higher than themselves ; 
 and are administered accordingly with such ear- 
 nestness and diligence as bespeak a proper con- 
 fidence in their virtue, under this view. 
 
 Then again, the system includes the wide 
 range of the proper pastoral work, as distinguish- 
 ed from that of the pulpit. The faithful minister 
 is found preaching the gospel from house to 
 house, as well as in a more public way ; visiting 
 the families that are under his care, expressly 
 
ISj: THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 for this purpose ; conversing with old and youngs 
 on the great subject of personal religion ; ming- 
 ling with the poor, in their humble dwellings^ 
 as well as with those in better circumstances; 
 ministering the instructions of religion, or its 
 consolations, at the bed-side of the sick or dying; 
 and in one word laying himself out in continual 
 labors of love towards all, as the servant of all 
 for Jesus' sake. The holiness of his own life 
 particularly becomes, in these circumstances, an 
 agency powerful beyond all others, to recom- 
 mend and enforce the gospel he is called to 
 preach. To all who know him, his very pres- 
 ence carries with it the weight of an impressive 
 testimony in favor of the truth. 
 
 The object in all these efforts, is not simply 
 to bring sinners in the first instance to repentance 
 and faith, but to build them up through the 
 kno wledge of the truth, in all righteousness, unto 
 everlasting life. The ministry, with all the re- 
 sources of the sanctuary, is made to look to 
 "the perfecting of the saints/' and "the edifying 
 of the body of Christ,'' as its main end. Indi- 
 vidual christians, and each congregation of be- 
 lievers as a whole, are to be established, 
 strengthened, and carried forward, with regular 
 and symmetrical growth, to the "measure of 
 the stature of the fulness of Christ." It is char- 
 acteristic of the opposite system, that it makes 
 conversion, in its own sense, to be the all in all 
 of the gospel economy, and the development of 
 the Christian life subsequently a mere secondary 
 interest ; as though by bending all efforts imme- 
 
THE ANXIOtJS BENCH. 13S 
 
 •diately towards the accomplishment of the firi^t 
 object, separately taken, the last might be safely 
 left, in a great measure, to take care of itself. 
 All this on the false principle again, that the 
 Church is to be enlarged by additions mechani- 
 cally brought into connection with it from with- 
 out, rather than by the extension of its own or- 
 ganic life from within. But in the gospel, all is 
 made to hang on the growth of the Church itself, 
 in grace and living power. This is the great 
 object to be reached after in the ministerial and 
 pastoral work ; and it is only as this is in some 
 good measure secured, that this work can be 
 brought to bear with proper efficiency on the 
 world beyond. Where the Church is in a livi^ig 
 and growing state, "fitly joined together and 
 compacted by that which every joint supplieth, 
 and according to the effectual working in the 
 measure of every part, making increase of the 
 body unto the edifying of herself, in love,^' she 
 becomes by this very process of growth itself, 
 the fountain of spiritual life to the dead mass 
 with which she is surrounded ; taking up the 
 element of humanity as "flesh,^^ and by the as- 
 similating force of her own vitality, changing it 
 into humanity as "spirit and life.^' In such cir- 
 cumstances, all the functions of the mystical bo- 
 dy, and that of the ministry of course among the 
 rest, will be carried forward through their pro- 
 per organs, with full power and effect. Where 
 this order is not maintained, there may be ex- 
 hibited often in the work of the gospel, vast ex^ 
 citement, and great show of strength, and what 
 
136 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 for the moment shall seem to be immense effect.;; 
 but it will be a manifestation of comparative 
 weakness in fact, by which only the surface of 
 lifers broad stream has been tossed into waves, 
 while its interior depths roll quietly forward as 
 before. "Not by might, nor by power, but by 
 my Spirit, saith the Lord.^' It is in the kingdom 
 of grace, as in the kingdom of nature ; the great- 
 est, deepest, most comprehensive and lasting 
 changes, are effected constantly, not by special, 
 sudden, vast explosions of power, but by process- 
 es that are gentle, and silent, and so minute and 
 common as hardly to attract the notice of the 
 world, which is so deeply affected by their action. 
 God is not with so much effect in the whirlwind,, 
 earthquake and tempest, as in the "still small 
 voice'^ of the falling dew or growing grass. 
 And so in the Church, the common and the con-* 
 stant are of vastly more account, than the spe- 
 cial and transient ; the noiseless and the unseen 
 of immensely greater force, than that "which 
 cometh with observation,^^ and fills the world 
 with the sound of its presence. 
 
 Such, in a general view, is the action genera- 
 ted by the system of the Catechism, for the great 
 purposes of the gospel, as compared with that 
 which flows legitimately from the system of the 
 Bench. 
 
 This system then gives no encouragement ta 
 religious torpor or sloth. That some take shel- 
 ter under its name, who are opposed to all that 
 is serious or earnest in religion, while they af- 
 fect to, magnify the Catechism, and the common. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH > 137 
 
 ministrations of the sanctuary, only shows that 
 they have no communion in fact with the system 
 in its true Hfe. They resemble the Jews of old^ 
 who trusted in the outward temple, while they 
 showed themselves false to all that made the 
 temple sacred. Dead churches and dead minis- 
 ters, that turn catechetical instruction into an 
 empty form, and make no account of inward 
 living piety, as a necessary qualification formem- 
 bership in the Church of Jesus Christ, have no 
 right most assuredly to identify themselves with 
 the system of the Catechism ; and it is a gross 
 wrong inflicted upon it by such as seek to bring 
 it into discredit, when such instances of ortho- 
 dox formality and deadness are taken to be pro- 
 per exemplifications of its character and power, 
 as though it had a natural tendency to beget 
 death in this way, rather than life. It produces 
 action and calls for strength, to a far greater ex- 
 tent than the system of the Bench. It is the 
 greatest and most difiicult work in the world, to 
 be a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, in the spir- 
 it of this system ; which might well constrain 
 even an apostle to exclaim, JVko is sufficient 
 for these things ? God forbid, that we should 
 countenance for a moment the dreadful suppo- 
 sition, that the work of the ministry calls for no 
 special zeal, no missionary devotion, no full and 
 entire consecration to Christ, no earnest concern 
 for the salvation of immortal souls ; or that a 
 church may be considered in a right state, where 
 the voice of prayer is silent, the tear of penitence 
 unknown, the hand of benevolence palsied, the 
 
138 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 'language of Canaan despised, and the power of 
 godliness treated as an idle dream. A church 
 without life is an abomination in the sight of 
 God. The ministry is horribly profaned, when 
 it is made a retreat for worldlings, drones, hire- 
 lings that care not for the flock but only for the 
 fleece. ''Instant^ in season and out of season^^ 
 is its proper watchword, the motto that floats on 
 its heaven-descended banner; and it is under 
 the system of the Catechism precisely, that the 
 power of this is fully understood and felt, and 
 may be expected to come, in a practical way, 
 broadly into view. 
 
 In this system, room is found naturally and 
 easily, of course, for all evangelical interests. It 
 is a prodigiavis abuse of terms, when some of 
 the most vital and prominent of these, are crowd- 
 -ed out of their proper place, and made to stand 
 in another connection entirely ; when social 
 prayer^meetings, for instance, and the various 
 missionary and benevolent operations of the 
 Church, are divorced in imagination from the 
 regular life of Christianity, and ranked in the 
 ^ame bad category with such tricks of human 
 device as the anxious bench. Family prayer, 
 and social prayer, belong as much as private 
 prayer itself, to the very nature of the Church. 
 The spirit of missions is identical with the spirit 
 of Christianity. For a church or a minister to 
 oppose prayer-meetings, or eff'orts to send the 
 gospel to the heathen, or efforts to raise up faith- 
 ful ministers, or to circulate bibles and tracts, 
 for the promotion of genuine godliness at home. 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 139 
 
 is to oppose Christ. We hear, it is true, of 
 churches and ministers that look upon all these 
 things as fanaticism, while they pretend to hon^ 
 or the good old way of the Catechism ; but such 
 ministers and churches, in the emphatic language 
 of the apostle, "lie and do not the truth.^' They 
 honor neither the Catechism, nor the bible, nor 
 Christ. And the evidence of this appears inva- 
 riably in the fact, that the same ministers and 
 churches hate all serious, earnest godliness, are 
 perfectly worldly in their temper, make no ac- 
 count of the new birth, and show no sense of 
 religion whatever, any farther than as it may be 
 supposed to consist in a decent morality, and an 
 outward use, to some extent, of its standing or- 
 dinances. 
 
 It is a most unfair view again of the system 
 of the Catechism, to think of it, or speak of it, as 
 unfriendly to all special and extraordinary forms 
 -of action, in the work of the gospel. The sys- 
 tem, it is true, makes more account of the regu- 
 lar, the ordinary, and the general, than it does 
 of the occasional and the special ; more account 
 of rills, and the perpetually flowing breezes of 
 heaven, than of mountain torrents, water-spouts, 
 and storms. But it does not by any means pre- 
 clude the presence of what is out of the usual way, 
 or refuse to suit itself to its requirements when it 
 comes. The extraordinary in this case however, 
 is found to stand in the ordinary, and grows 
 forth from it without violence, so as to bear the 
 same character of natural and free power. It is 
 not the water-spout, but the fruitful plentiful 
 
14J0 THE ANXIOUS BENCH, 
 
 shower, causing the fields to sing, and the trees 
 of the wood to clap their hands for joy. Such is 
 the true conception of a Revival, For such spe- 
 cial showers of grace, it is the privilege of the 
 Church to hope, and her duty to pray, at all 
 times. To call in question either the reality or 
 the desirableness of them, is a monstrous scepti- 
 cism, that may be said to border on the sin of 
 open infidelity itself. They are the natural pro- 
 duct of the proper life of the Church. Where- 
 ever the system of the Catechism is rightly un- 
 derstood, and faithfully applied, it may be ex- 
 pected to generate revivals in this form ; though 
 in proportion to the measure of this faithful use^ 
 it may be said, the ordinary and the extraordi- 
 nary as here distinguished will be found contin- 
 ually coming closer and closer together, till in 
 the end they may appear almost identical, and 
 the church shall seem to bask, as on the "Delec- 
 table Mountains,^' in the perpetual sun-hght of 
 heaven itself. This may be denominated of a truth, 
 her "best state," and we may add her most 
 true, proper and natural state. Churches that 
 hate revivals, may be said emphatically to "love 
 death." Every faithful pastor will be concern- 
 ed, to see his ministrations crowned with such 
 special effusions of God's Spirit ; and will stand 
 prepared at the same time to hail with joy the 
 first indications of their approach, and to put 
 forth special efforts for the purpose of turning 
 them to the largest account. These efforts how- 
 ever, will be in the general form of his ordinary 
 ministrations and services. If need be, however^ 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCB. 141 
 
 they may be allowed to involve, to some extent^ 
 modes of action entirely new ; it is not the mere 
 circumstance of novelty of course, that forms the 
 true ground of objection to "New Measures,'' 
 technically so called, but the spirit, life, princi- 
 ple, of a certain system rather, as old as Chris- 
 tianity itself, which the measures thus designa- 
 ted are found to embody and represent. A revi- 
 val, in the very nature of the case, so far as it 
 may be a special visitation, transcending the or- 
 dinary life of a particular church, must call forth 
 special action, on the part of both minister and 
 people. Meetings for prayer will naturally be 
 multiplied. The call for preaching will be in- 
 creased. Protracted meetings, as they are styled, 
 may be required. Visiting from house to house, 
 and direct personal conversation with sinners on 
 the state of their souls, are carried forward of 
 course with more diligence and vigor than be* 
 fore. Sermons and exhortations may be expect- 
 ed to become more earnest and pungent. A 
 greater amount of feeling will prevail in meet- 
 ings. It will become necessary to have special 
 conferences with the awakened. All this is a 
 simple extension of the processes, by which the 
 ordinary life of the Church is to be maintained, 
 made necessary by the special outpouring of 
 God's Spirit, and fairly comprehended, from 
 first to last, in the system of the Catechism as 
 distinguished from the system of the Bench. 
 
 It is true indeed that the spirit of the Bench 
 may take possession of these measures, and in- 
 fuse into them its own life and complexion. It 
 
1:42 THE ANXIOUS BENCH: 
 
 i3 not by merely mechanical and formal distinc- 
 tions, that we can hold ourselves always to the- 
 territory of one of these systems as distinguished 
 from the other. What we are most concerned 
 to understand, is the spirit or soul by which 
 each is animated. Thus it often happens that 
 all the processes by which a revival is carried 
 forward, show themselves to be in fact pervaded 
 with the false spirit of the Bench, at every point. 
 But so far as that is the case, the revival itself 
 ceases to be such, in the true sense of the term. 
 Ijt becomes a mere mock revival, a bastard im- 
 itation of the truth, the mushroom product of; 
 feeling and fancy, wrought into- a compost of 
 fanaticism, from which it shoots forth, as it were 
 in the course of a single night, without substance 
 or strength. In such case, the various forms of 
 action which have been^ mentioned, may be so 
 exhibited as to breathe throughout the spirit of 
 the system represented by the Bench ; and there 
 may be good reason for condemning the whole 
 as quackery and wildfire. And no doubt it is 
 owing to the frequent caricaturing to which re- 
 vival measures have been thus subjected, more 
 than to any other cause, that so strong a preju- 
 dice is found to prevail sometimes against every 
 thing of the sort. But still such measures as 
 have been mentioned are not, in their own na- 
 ture, of the same complexion with the Anxious 
 Bench. They spring from the very conception 
 of a revival ; and no abuse to which they may 
 happen to be subjected in the hands of revival- 
 manufacturers, . should be suffered to bring therrv^ 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 143* 
 
 ifito discredit, under their legitimate form. They 
 belong constitutionally to the system of the Gat-, 
 echism. 
 
 It was on this system emphatically the Re-- 
 formers of the 16th century relied, in carrying 
 forward the great work, for which they were 
 raised up by the Spirit of God. It might be de- 
 nominated indeed with great propriety, the sys- 
 tem of the Reformation. Luther, Ztiingh, Cal- 
 vin, were all, in the fullest sense, men of the ' 
 Catechism ; and> it was in this character pre-em- 
 inently, they showed themselves so mighty and 
 so successful, in laying the foundations, and 
 rearing the superstructure, of that vast spiritual 
 work whicb has since been associated with their 
 names. They had ample opportunity, if they 
 had seen proper to use it, for going to work by 
 the other method. The age was ripe for agita- 
 tion and commotion, in the name of rehgion, 
 t& any extent, Luther could have created a re- 
 vival in this form, that would have made all 
 Europe rock with whirlwind excitement. But 
 he left such work to the Anabaptists ; or rather 
 his giant strength was successfully opposed to it, 
 ia» their hands. The Anabaptists were the men 
 of the Bench, in that day. Luther belonged 
 wholly to another school. 
 
 I cannot perhaps close the subject better, than 
 by exhibiting a most interesting and instructive 
 exemplification of the true character and force 
 of the system now explained and recommended, 
 as furnished from the history of the century fol- 
 laMTing the Reformation in England, by the eel- 
 
144 THE AKXIOtJS BENCH. 
 
 ^brated Richard Baxter and his parish of ii^id- 
 derminster. Switzerland, Germany, Holland^ 
 and most of all, Scotland, present in their histo* ^ 
 ry innumerable attestations to the same point. W 
 But it is well to fix our attention for a moment, 
 on a single case, peculiarly striking in its char- 
 acter, and more than commonly prominent 
 through the world-wide reputation of the pastor, 
 
 Baxter, it is well known, lived in the most 
 stormy period of English history, during which) 
 for more than half a century, both Church and 
 State might be said to rock perpetually, as with 
 the earthquake throes of revolution. He was 
 intimately connected, at the same time, with 
 pubhc affairs and public men, and deeply con^ . 
 cerned in the political changes which were going 
 forward. He was moreover a scholar and a 
 writer, with such attachment to his books, and 
 such a zeal in the Use of his pen, as have char^^ 
 acterised but few ministers in any age. Add to 
 all this, he labored under such a complication of 
 bodily infirmities and ailments, that one can 
 hardly help wondering how he Was able to do 
 anything at all. It is distressing only to think 
 over the catalogue of his disagreeable maladies, 
 as they are presented in his life. 
 
 Kidderminster, when he began to preach there, 
 was a most neglected, unpromising charge, like 
 many others in England at that time. His pre- 
 decessor had been a common tippler and drunk^ 
 ard, without any fitness whatever for his work. 
 The congregation was large, but composed for 
 the most part of ignorant, careless rough man* 
 
THE ANXIOTJS BENCH. 
 
 14? 
 
 the Catechism, and then examined them about 
 the sense ; and lastly urged them with all possi- 
 ble engaging reason and vehemency, to answer- 
 able affection and practice. I spent about an 
 hour with each family, and admitted no others 
 to be present ; lest bashfulness should make it 
 burthensome, or any should talk of the weak- 
 ness of others. All the afternoons on Mondays 
 and Tuesdays, I'spent in this way.'' 
 
 Such was the general method of Baxter's 
 ministry. It was constant, regular, earnest; 
 not marked with noise and parade ; but like the 
 common processes of nature, silent rather, deep, 
 and full of invisible power. He was a man of 
 prayer, and his whole soul was in his work. 
 Thus his ministrations were clothed with uncom- 
 mon interest and force. Prejudice and opposi-.^? 
 tion gradually gave way. The pastor became 
 the centre of all hearts. In the end, the change 
 was complete. We hear of no sudden general 
 excitement, no pains taken to secure anything 
 of that sort ; no revival^ in the -ordinary accepta- 
 tion of the term, as denoting an occasional and 
 transient awakening ill the history of a church. 
 But the life of rehgion in the place was con- 
 stantly progressive, and the power of a quiet re- 
 vival might be said to reign at Kidderminster all 
 the time. The result was wonderful. ^^The 
 congregation," he says, ^^was usually full, so 
 that we were fain to i)uild about five galleries 
 after my coming thither ; the church itself being 
 very capacious, and the most commodious and 
 convenient that ever I was in. Our private 
 
148 THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 
 
 meetings also, were full. On the Lord's days 
 there was no disorder to be seen in the streets ; 
 but you might hear a hundred families singing 
 psalms and repeating sermons, as you passed 
 through them. In a word, when I came thith- 
 er first, there was about one family in a street 
 that worshipped God and called on his name ; 
 and when I came away, there were some streets 
 where there was not one poor family in the side 
 that did not so ; and that did not by professing 
 serious godliness, give us hopes of their sinceri- 
 ty. And in those families which were the 
 worst, being inns and ale-houses, usually some 
 persons in each house did seem to be religious.^^ 
 The church numbered six hundred communi- 
 cants ; ^^of whom there were not twelve,'^ says 
 Baxter, "that I had not good hopes of as to their 
 sincerity.'' 
 
 Most happy would it be for our Reformed Ger- 
 man Church, if all her pastors could be engaged 
 to lay to heart the weight of this great example. 
 Let no one think within himself, that his circum- 
 stances make it impossible for him to work and 
 prevail, in the same style. It would be hard to 
 find among all our charges, a field so rough and 
 unpromising as was the parish of Kidderminster, 
 when first subjected to the labors of Baxter. 
 And it is only the zeal and faithfulness of Baxter 
 that are needed, to transform the worst among 
 them, in the course of a few years, info the im- 
 age, at least in part, of what Kidderminster was, 
 when his ministry in the place was brought to a 
 close. He has himself drawn a most stirring 
 
THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 14^ 
 
 picture of what the pastor should be, in his small 
 work entitled, ^^Gildas Salvianus : The Re- 
 formed Pastor ; showing the nature of the pas- 
 toral work^ especially in private instructioii 
 andcatechising.^^ I considerit apriyilege toclose 
 the present work, with a pointed reference to this 
 most excellent publication. If any wish to see 
 the System of the Catechism explained and 
 enforced, as Avith a pencil dipped in heavenly 
 light, let them read Baxter's "Gildas Salvianus.'^ 
 One sentence of his own with regard to it should 
 never be forgotten. "If God would but reform 
 the ministry, and set them on their duties zeal- 
 ously and faithfully, the people would certainly 
 be reformed : all churches either rise or fall, as 
 the ministry doth rise or fall ; not in riches and 
 worldly grandeuf, but in knowledge, zeal, and 
 ability for the work.'' 
 
 "The Reformed Pastor^^ says the distinguish- 
 ed Dr. Doddridge, "is a most extraordinary per- 
 formance, and should be read by every young 
 minister before he takes a people under his stated 
 care ; and, I think, the practical part of it re- 
 viewed CA^ery three or four years. For nothing 
 would have a greater tendency to awaken the 
 spirit of a minister to that zeal in his work, for 
 want of which, many good men are but shadows 
 of what, by the blessing of God, they might be, 
 if the maxims and measures laid down in this 
 incomparable treatise were strenuously pur- 
 sued." 
 
4 
 
 ERftATtJMv— In tile note oti page 34 and 19th line ^rorjt 
 'ilie bottom* read Burchard instead of Blanchard, 
 
i