285.8 
 
 A^i79c 
 
 CONSTITUTION 
 
 .T 
 
 P. 
 
 s .. 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL 
 
 
 CHURCH AND SOCIETY 
 
 OF ALTON, ILL.; 
 
 WITH SOME EXPLANATORY REMA^RKS. 
 
 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.'’—1 Thess. v. 21. 
 
 UNlv iSlTYOF, 
 llUNOtS LlBRARVi 
 A1 UfitiANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 ALTON: 
 
 PRINIED AT THE TELEGRAPH BOOK AND JOB ROOMS, 
 
 1 855 . 
 
The Constitution of the First Congregational Society of Alton is in the 
 possession of the Secretary, Mr. B. F. Barry; and may be found at his place of 
 business, on the corner of State and Second streets. Persons wishing to become 
 members of the Society, can do so by calling upon the Secretary, and signing the 
 Constitution. Persons wishing to become members of the Church, as prescribed by 
 Art. VI, are requested to mention their desire to the Pastor. 
 
CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIOXAl CHURCn AA'D SOCIETY OF ALTON. 
 
 - - - - 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Sec. 1. This Society shall be called The First Congregational 
 Society of Alton, 
 
 Sec, 2. The First Congregational Society is an association 
 of Christians for the support of public worship, and for the 
 general purposes of religious improvement. 
 
 Sec. 3. Its form of Church government shall be Congrega¬ 
 tional, or Independent; that is, that it shall have within itself all 
 the rights and powers of self-government, both in its religious 
 and its secular concerns. 
 
 Sec. 4, It shall acknowledge no Creed, or Articles of Faith, 
 other than the Scriptures of the Old and New" Testament. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 Sec. 1. Until this Society has a house of wmrship for its 
 exclusive use, every one shall be considered as a member of the 
 Society, and entitled to all the privileges of membership, who 
 has contributed towards the erection of said house of worship, 
 or who has contributed towards defraying the regular expenses 
 of the Society; Provided^ that he shall haVe signed his name to 
 this Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 2. Whenever the said house of W"orship is completed, 
 and the Society has possession of the same, they only shall be 
 considered as members who are Pew-holders therein; and the 
 rights of membership shall be thus regulated: First, In all 
 questions of a religious nature, among W’hich shall be included 
 the electipn of Pastor, every Pew-holder who pays an annual 
 tax or contribution, shall have one vote. Second. But in ques¬ 
 tions relative to the disposition of the property, (real and per¬ 
 sonal,) of the Society, none but the owners of pews shall have 
 the right to vote. 
 
ARTICLE III. 
 
 Sec. 1. All meetings for the transaction of business shall 
 be called by public notice in at least one of the secular papers of 
 the city; and the constitutional proceedings of meetings so called 
 shall be binding in law upon the whole Society. 
 
 Sec. 2. Nine members shall constitute a quorum, for the 
 transaction of ordinary business; but for the election of a Pastor, 
 and for the sale or transfer of real estate, the concurrence of a 
 majority of all entitled to vote shall be required. 
 
 Sec. 3. Any member who is unable to attend personally any 
 meeting of the Society, may vote, by means of a written com¬ 
 munication addressed to the President, upon any specified 
 question, upon which he could vote if personally present. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 Sec. 1. The officers of this Society shall be a President, 
 Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Board of five Trustees, all of whom 
 shall be elected by ballot, at the first business meeting on or after 
 the fifteenth day of October in each year. 
 
 Sec. 2. All officers shall continue to discharge the duties of 
 their respective offices until such time as their successors shall 
 be duly chosen. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 Sec. 1. All real estate belonging to this Society, including 
 the house of worship and its furniture, shall be legally vested 
 in the Board of Trustees, to be by them held, sold, or transferred 
 for the benefit of the Society, and subject to its disposal. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 Sec. 1. Those who unite together regularly to break bread 
 in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall constitute the 
 Church as distinguished from the congregation of the Society. 
 
 Sec. 2. The church shall have the right and power of making 
 its own laws, electing its own officers, and regulating all its own 
 concerns : Provided^ that it shall not require of any person who 
 wishes to join with it, any other than a profession of faith in 
 Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and of the determination to obey 
 him; and that it shall not by any of its laws infringe upon the 
 rights of this Constitution, secured to other members of the 
 Society. 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 Sec. 3. In meetings of business, church members shall not 
 have, by virtue of their so being, any additional rights : except 
 that every church member shall have the right to vote in the 
 election of a Pastor, whether he is a Pew-holder or not. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 Sec. 1. This Constitution may be amended in any section of 
 any article, except in the four sections of the first article, which 
 shall not be capable of amendment or alteration; nor shall any 
 addition be made to the Constitution, by which the spirit of either 
 section of said article is infringed. 
 
 Sec. 2. All propositions to amend this Constitution must lie 
 upon the table at least two weeks before they are acted upon; 
 and the concurrence of a majority of all entitled to vote shall be 
 necessary to engraft an amendment upon the Constitution. 
 
 
 EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 
 
 It will be seen by the foregoing, that the aim of the First 
 Congregational Society of Alton is to build up an un-sec¬ 
 tarian church of Christ, upon a platform as broad and catholic as 
 his teachings; and inspired in all its parts by the divinest of his 
 pre-eminent characteristics—Love. To accomplish this purpose, 
 we do not permit any creed to be offered as authoritative, other 
 than the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; and make 
 the desire for righteousness of life, the test of fitness for mem¬ 
 bership, rather than run what we conceive are the fearful risks 
 attendant upon the demand for a profession of entire perfection, 
 either of life, or of opinion. If we are Unitarians or Trinita¬ 
 rians, therefore, it is as the result of personal investigation, and 
 individual decision; for the adoption of either view cannot, by 
 the Constitution, be made a test of our fellowship, provided it 
 comes as a result of a faithful and earnest searching of the 
 Scriptures, with the determinafion to find the Iruth. Let it be 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 understood, then, that^there is nothing in the platform of our 
 organization, to exclude an honest and conscientious Trinitarian, 
 nor any other Christian man or woman, whatever may be their 
 personal convictions of doctrinal matters. 
 
 For ourselves, we demand “the Bible and the right of private 
 judgment” as our birth-right. We are subjects of no hierarchy, 
 and fettered by no human creed. We will sacrifice freely for 
 our convictions; but we will not have anything in our midst that 
 can narrow our feelings towards one of God’s children, or chill 
 our sympathy with Holiness, Love, and Truth, wherever we 
 find them. We believe that there are objects more pressing, and 
 truths more vital, in the actual sins and needs of the race, than 
 are to be found in the dreams of speculatists; and that it is a 
 singular mistake to demand entire uniformity of opinion upon 
 the great truths and unsearchable 'themes of God and Christ, 
 and Human Nature, when the strictest and most literal of men 
 will look for a diversity of opinion upon the minor topics of 
 business and politics, as perfectly natural and right, and agreeable 
 to public harmony and well-being. 
 
 We have set out, accordingly, with the belief that where God 
 and Christ, and the Scriptures, are reverenced, and the soul is 
 engaged in an honest search for truth, then, in the language of 
 Colerida’e, “in the strictest sense of essential, this alone is 
 essential in Christianity, that the same spirit should be growing 
 in us which was in the fullness of all perfection in Christ Jesus.” 
 Our existence is a plea for Christian liberty; and our design a 
 two-fold one: to become exemplars of true “liberality;” and to 
 aid each other in cultivating the religious natures which our 
 Heavenly Father has bestowed alike upon all. We are not a 
 sect; and therefore we have no sectarian pettinesses of ambition 
 to serve. We are simply servants and followers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, reverently receiving and striving to practice the 
 teachings of his revelation, each one for himself. We respect 
 every man’s personality as sacred, and look upon his theories as 
 his personal property; and if they have become his as the results 
 of an honest search for truth, and exist in connection with a 
 devout Christian spirit, we deem him a member of the great 
 Catholic Christian church, to which we are also permitted to 
 
belong. We wish to demonstrate practically, that men of various 
 opinions may be of one spirit, and that the firmest and most 
 reliable bond of union, is that which is centred not in the brain, 
 but in the heart. 
 
 We take no pains to make proselytes, because we believe in the 
 eternity and Omnipotence of Truth; but if we can aid any one to 
 clearer perceptions of Divine truth, or to higher attainments in 
 character, or to deeper religious convictions, we rejoice to do 
 it; and would have all the earnest and liberty-loving and devout 
 to join us. We desire to make the church the bond of philan¬ 
 thropy: and while not expecting to gain heaven by our poor 
 services to humanity, we should at least be ashamed to enter 
 there without having endeavored to work in our day and genera¬ 
 tion. We need and are glad to have, the co-operation of all who 
 can find an union sufficiently strong for them in the Bible, the 
 Christian Religion, Liberty of Conscience, and Work. 
 
 Misunderstood and misrepresented we have been, (though we 
 hope not intentionally,) but w^e have set our duty before us, and 
 God helping, we will discharge it. We cherish no antagonistic 
 spirit toward our fellow Christians; and if we have erred in 
 believing that perfection has never been attained by the church 
 militant, we have at least only fallen in the same mistake -with 
 that godly man, Robinson, who, when blessing the departing 
 Pilgrim Fathers at Delft Haven, gave them that memorable 
 charge, which has resulted in the present ecclesiastical and doc¬ 
 trinal freedom of the first church in Plymouth, in which he ut¬ 
 tered his conviction that “God had yet more light to let intoThe 
 world.” To the earnest—the sincere—the lovers of God and 
 of man, we .offer the invitation: “Come thou with us, and we 
 will do thee good.” 
 
J5 0 0 K S . 
 
 Service Books may be obtained, in every'style of binding, at the store of Metcalf 
 & Hibbard: who also keep on hand a large assortment of the literature of Liberal 
 Christianity, among which are the following : 
 
 CHANNINQ’S WORKS. 
 
 CHANNING’S MEMOIR. 
 
 LIVERMORE’S COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 ELIOT’S LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 ELIOT'S LECTURES TO YOUNG WOMEN. 
 
 ELIOT’S DISCOURSES ON THE UNITY OF GOD. 
 
 WORKS OF HENRY WARE, Jun. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF MARY L. WARE. 
 
 DEWEY’S WORKS. 
 
 NOYES’^TRANSLATIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 CLARK ON PRAYER. 
 
 CLARK ON FORGIVENESS. 
 
 BIBLE NEWS, BY NOAH WORCESTER. 
 
 SEARS ON REGENERATION. 
 
 WARE’S FORMATION AND PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 CHANNING’S THOUGHTS. 
 
 FARR’S PRAYERS. 
 
 ALSO-A new book by Rev. W. D. Haley : WORDS FOR THE WORKERS— 
 price Fifty Cents.