V^.tUrke ~- R 01. tt« '(a^ke DISCOURSE, , k j- &&RGE* SIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP, ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE, INSTALLATION OF REV. ERASTUS DICKINSON, COLCHESTER, CONN. * "r4 $l)e Hclt g ion t i) a t both, not profit. A DISCOURSE PREACHED AT THE INSTALLATION OF REV. ERASTUS DICKINSON, IN THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF COLCHESTER, CONN., OCTOBER 22, 1851. BY REV. WALTER CLARKE, PASTOll OF THE SECOND CONGKEGATIONAL CHURCH, HAETFOKD, CONN. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE CHARGE, RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP, AND ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. [published by request.] HARTFORD: niKSS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY. 1851. DISCOURSE. But my people have changed their glory, foe that which doth not profit. — Jeremiah 2: 11. The glory which the Israelites are here said to have put away, was that glorious Being whose presence irradiates all created things, the God of their fathers. And the poor, profitless substitute, welcomed in place of their God, was some idol or vanity of the heathen. Putting away the true God, or what is the same thing, putting away the true religion, and taking another in its place, is therefore the sin here described and cen sured. My people, God complains, have bartered the religion of their fathers, that religion which for centu ries has been the vigor and the glory of Israel, and accepted as an equivalent, the religion of the heathen, which is a mockery and a delusion. In every age of the world, the religion of Heaven has been haunted by a shadow and a counterfeit. And the sanctuary of the intruder has often stood, like Solomon's temple to Chemosh — confronting and disgracing the Zion of the saints. Nay, as in the case condemned by my text, the devotees, at the gates of the one, have often been fugitives from the fane of the other. Jeremiah is not the last minister of the church, who has seen stern occasion for rebuking a religion, novel, popular, and profitless ; the shadow only of a departed glory. In dications are not wanting, that this form of religion is prevalent among ourselves. I have therefore thought, that an occasion like the present might be well em ployed, in the effort to detect, define, and if possi ble, brand with public reprehension, that religion which my text describes when it calls it, the religion which doth not profit. The two religions of the text, are characterized and contrasted, in the terms by which they are respectively denominated. The He brew word, translated glory, embodies as one of its central conceptions, the idea of power ; — power to do whatever it attempts to do : and the word rendered profitless, or that which doth not profit, has as its rad ical conception, the idea of inanity and weakness. According to the text then, the religion which, de scending from Heaven, returns thither with its follow ers, is a religion of power ; while that phantom, which wearing the semblance of religion, descends with its devotees to the chambers of woe, is a scheme of de bility. That this is the uniform representation of Scripture, — that the pen of inspiration habitually por trays true religion as a religion of power, as indeed the instrument and vehicle of divine power, and stig matizes false religion as invariably and universally a decrepit and doting scheme, I need not take time to prove, in this assembly. The old, favorite epithet, mighty, with which the Scriptures so often hail the one religion, and that other, bitter, sarcastic, and tri umphant term, vanity, which the Bible flings at every specimen of false religion, are the sole reference which I need to make, to put the proof of my assertion in stantly before you. In order to identify this vapid and useless delusion, the religion that doth not profit, let us inquire, for what it is, that we in this world need a religion ? What -do we want it to do for us ? Religion is not a pastime, — is not one of the sports of men, under the skies. Neither is religion one of the pageants of earth ; no man wants it for mere purposes of parade and ceremony. Religion is not poetry, — the play thing ,of the imagination ; — is not music, — the Sabbath cadence of the thoughts. Religion, if it be any thing but a phantom, is an earnest and practical power, operating in mind. And we want religion, just as we want vital organs, and vital powers. Nay, we want religion just as we want mind, and will, and affec tions ; — just as we want hearts, and heads, and hands ; for the power that hides and works within them. Something needs to be done in this world ; — some thing needs to be done in human hearts, in human affairs, in institutions, in destinies, which can be done only by religion. And what we want of religion is to take its appointed place, diffuse its appointed energies, and do its appointed work. Or, to be more specific and particular, — we wTant religion, I. To. take supreme control of us, as persons, and be at all times, and in all respects, master ofthe man. If religion has any function to discharge within a man, it is manifestly a regal function. To take the guidance of a thousand wayward passions ; to hold the reins of an ever vagrant fancy ; to stand at the h-elm of veering thought; to sway the movement of a lordly will — to be master — to reign — this is the work and the sole work of religion, so far as regards its office within. A religion that is not superior to the man in whom it dwells ; that crouches in the heart, like a coward; that fawns upon lust; that cowers be fore will; — a religion that, stooping from authority, consents to negotiate with interest, and barter with affection, and compound with sloth ; — a religion which does anything less, or anything else, than just to grasp the reins and govern the man, is a burlesque and a deception. Every man feels that the work which true religion has to do in his heart, is the simple work of supremacy and government. What then is a reli gion that doth not profit 1 I answer : it is a religion which while professed and put to trial, does not hold supreme authority in the heart ; does not subdue the will, holding it in habitual subordination to duty; does not get the mastery of reason, piloting the thoughts on paths of truth ; does not take 'the guid ance of passion, filling the heart with devout affec tions and holy instincts ; does not possess and reno vate and control the man. The religion which does not inaugurate in the heart a divine and reignjng force, is manifestly a religion failing of its first use, and there fore a religion which does not profit. Returning to the question, For what do we want religion at all ? I reply : , II. Every man wants religion to endow him with power and inclination to overcome the world, s Naturally, men are in bondage to the world. Its opinions, usages and temper; its maxims, aims and dispositions, constitute the popular decalogue — our chosen code of laws. Having neither inclination, cour age, nor power of ourselves, to break away from this many-handed tyrant, we feel that we are the slaves, the abject and contented, but at the same time, abused and outraged slaves of society. And we are perfectly conscious, that it is the prerogative of religion to emancipate us into the liberty of the sons of God. We know instinctively, that religion alone can make us superior to the world ; that unless the religion of Heaven installs the God of Heaven in the subdued heart, earthly objects and earthly allurements over come the captive. Here then, is the second use which every man has for his religion: — to work in him habitual superiority to the world. When then is it proper to say of a man's religion, it is a failure, it doth not profit ? Why, whenever the world, in any one of its forms of seduction, assumption or authority, be comes an over-match for him and his religion together. If you see the world dragging him, religion notwith standing, into any department of unhallowed business; into any resort of unlicensed pleasure ; into any walk of sensualism, — beguiling him from duty ; stifling the graces; quenching spirituality ; extinguishing prayer; suspending progress ;— if the world be manifestly leavening and 'saturating his soul with its own spirit; if in conversation, in demeanor, in business, in religion itself, the mind of the worldling appears and reigns ; that man's religion is a delusion and an inanity. And that religion of impotence and emptiness, is the reli gion branded in my text with the stigma, that it doth not profit. Reverting again to the inquiry, What kind of religion can meet the wants of man ? I reply : III. We need a religion which shall make us supe rior to all ,the obstacles that would impede its propa gation. In every view of the case, we require in this world, a religion which has a self-diffusive and spreading 8 power. The Scriptures define the religion which man needs, when they speak of it, as a leaven, leavening and sanctifying whatever it touches. We need to diffuse religion, First, in our own hearts ; till it shall replenish every capacity, renovate every power, and subject the entire man to love and truth and duty. In every one of us there remaineth yet much land to be possessed ; much of the old, sterile soil of nature to be visited and invigorated by grace. And a religion that can not and will not spread in us, beyond present limits; — a religion that leaves great wastes of charac ter, uninvaded and uncaptured, is a cruelty, come to mock us, — is an oasis dropped upon the sand, smiling only to torment, green only to tantalize. We want religion to spread, Secondly, from us into our business, sanctifying our cares, fortunes!, plans and work. Reli gion is as much needed in men's pursuits without, as in their purposes within. It should fill our habitations, as well as our hearts. Money needs to be sanctified, as much as men ; trade as much as temper ; society as well as souls. And what we want of religion is, that like life and thought and will, it shall kfind its way to every thing which we touch or use, and reign in all that pertains to the man, as it reigns in all that constitutes 3 CHARGE, BY REV. ANSON S. ATWOOD, OF SOUTH MANSFIELD. My Dear Brother, — The altars where we have ministered and broken the bread of life, still stand. To-day the fires are burning on them in the home stead of our fathers. Memory lingers with endeared recollections of the past, when our fields of labor lay side by side, we heard, each other's Sabbath bell, " took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in company." And are those days past never to return ? They were happy ones, long and gratefully to be cherished, days when God honored his own word, filled the reaper's bosom with golden sheaves, and many were added to the Lord as the trophies of redeeming grace. There is the church, we have loved, and love still. As the organ of this Ecclesiastical Council, it would seem hardly necessary, to speak particularly of the duties, labors, responsibilities, joys or sorrows of the ministry, to one who has so long been familiar with them. It may not, however, be improper, as you are entering a new field and assuming new responsibili ties and duties, " that your pure mind should be stir red up by way of remembrance." 20 We meet to-day, my brother, on these walls of Zion; to honor truth,to do homage to the highest man ifestations of the Godhead, as revealed in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ, " which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed < unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit," "to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." The commission you have received by the Lord Jesus Christ, bids you " Preach the Word." Not something else. Not the traditions and command ments of men. Not philosophy. Not yourself, but the Word. This is your main business, your highest, noblest work. Labor to excel in it ; to be rich and various in matter, direct and intelligible in manner^ full of the Holy Ghost and faith, that you may be a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. To effect this object, you must declare the whole counsel ofthe Lord, and so declare it, that it shall be seen and felt that all gospel doctrines are founded in disinterested benevolence, and can not be properly ex plained and enforced, but as so many branches of holy lone. Your eye must rest steadily upon the fact, that the doctrines and the duties of the Gospel are insep arably connected, and are not to be preached in a de tached and isolated manner. These stand on the page of the Bible together, are written together in the hearts and lives of true Christians, in the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Yes, my brother, as you would win souls for Christ and see the work of the Lord prosper, forget not that truth, as it is, truth, in its simplicity, harmony and 21 proportions, is the mold in which God casts the char acter and spirit of his people, that they may resemble himself, in his own infinite excellence. If these walls of Zion are to rise, and become sal vation and her gates praise, if you would have a strong, stable, united, active, energetic church, salt in it, and itself the salt of the earth, you must give it that which makes salt — a discriminating Gospel. The great doctrines of grace must be held up, clearly, fully, in all the majesty and glory of truth, compre hending the divine attributes ; the moral power of God's government ; the remedial system ; the incar nation and atonement of Christ; justification by faith ; the law of God as perfect rule of obedience ; the free agency of man ; his depravity and his dependence on the Holy Ghost to make him willing to accept of offered mercy with the rewards of eternity, accord ing to the deeds done here in the body. What a blessed, glorious Gospel this is to our race ! Here are plans and purposes that embrace everlasting ages, and the eternal destiny of myriads of created beings. By the side of it, how insignificant are all things else ! I say to you then, with increased earnestness, " Preach the Word." In season and out of season, in the house and by the way, with all long suffering and doctrine. I exhort you, my brother, " Take heed to thyself" To your spirit and to your example, as well as your doctrine. Cultivate deep and ardent piety. Your office demands it; your happiness demands it; above all, God demands it. As this is now to be your future home, " Take the oversight of this church, not by constraint, not for 22 filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but ensamples to the flock, in doctrine, in faith, in charity." One more word pf exhortation ; and though last not the least; set your heart deeply upon it, that you must have a holy, praying church. It is the right hand of a minister's strength. The secret of his success is in it. Paul with his gifts, miracles and eloquence, felt that here was his power. Hence we so often hear him saying, " Brethren, pray for us." He was right. He knew its value. And if you would be clothed with salvation, that the saints of the Lord may be filled with joy ; if you would multiply your power in the pulpit, and wield the sword of the Spirit victoriously against every enemy ; if you would be carried above the world and the fear of man, find your labors easy and your burdens light, you must embody one common heart of sympathy, of deep and fervent prayer in the church, in your work. If successful here, you will be successful everywhere. Never, no never, has Israel's army lost a victory when the hands of prayer have been lifted up to Heaven. Set your heart upon it, my brother, that you must have a holy, praying church. And now, the God of Jacob bless you out of Zion ; give you peace and prosperity, " and make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever, Amen." THE RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP, BY REV. MYRON N. MORRIS OF NORTH STONINOTON. * My Dear Brother, — We greet you as a fellow laborer in the vineyard of our common Lord. The work in which we, as ministers of Christ, are engaged, is well fitted to give us a kindred spirit, and to unite our hearts in tenderest sympathy. It is a blessed work, one by which our Divine Saviour is gathering in his chosen ones, and preparing them to dwell forever, as members of his happy family, in his own glorious pres ence in Heaven. So far as we are successful in it, we cause that " power of God," of which we have just been hearing, to be felt on the hearts of men, subdu ing and controlling them, making them willingly obe dient to the divine will ; we extend the reign of peace and righteousness on earth, and fill Heaven with eter nal rejoicing. The Holy Ghost, my dear brother, has now made you the overseer of this flock. They will now look to you to feed them. Many precious souls here will henceforth wait on your ministry. Many, under that ministry, will be trained for immortal blessedness, or will sink to endless woe. O, if you could but hope to 24 lead them all to Christ, you might well rejoice in your prospect. But you are too familiar with the pastor's work, not to know that it involves cares and responsibilities, that sometimes oppress his heart with an almost insupport able burden. It is not a question as to the triumph or defeat of a party, or the loss or gain of a few thou sand dollars, but the eternal life or death of precious souls, that are almost as dear to him as his own. And he trembles at the thought, that he must of necessity be to them either a savor of death unto death, or of life unto life. Other things there are which severely try his faith and patience. How sweet then the promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end ofthe world." But our Blessed Master knew that his servants would need human sympathy and support. He him self needed it, and sought it, in the hour of his'agony in Gethsemane, though angels were ready to come to his relief. And when He sent forth his disciples, it was not alone, but " by two and two ;" and then on their return, He took them aside that they might rest awhile, and cheer and strengthen each other's hearts by mutual sympathy and fellowship. It was evidently his design, that his churches should have fellowship with one another, and that their' pastors should aid and sustain each other, and each other's work, by their mutual sympathy and counsel, and not stand aloof, each viewing his brethren with a jealous eye, solicitous only for his own interests. Accordingly, when Paul and Barnabas were about to set forth on their mission, their brethren, Peter, James and John, gave them the right hands of fellowship. And our 25 own churches have always acted on this same princi ple of associate interest. You, my brother, will find many warm and sympa thizing hearts among your own people. I speak not at random when I say, that if ever the cause of Zion here seems to languish, and difficulties thicken around you, and your strength is prostrate, and your heart sad and desponding, there are many here who will feel for you, and pray for you, and gather around you, and stay up your hands, and encourage your heart, — faithful friends, my brother,, on whom you may rely in any time of emergency. But we, your brethren in the ministry,— who well understand the peculiar feelings of a pastor's heart, and the churches under our care, — we will also sym pathize with you. We shall all feel an interest in you. We shall pray for your prosperity and rejoice in your success. In token of our fraternal regard, I give you, my dear brother, this right hand of fellowship, and in the name of this Ecclesiastical Council, and of the minis ters and churches in connection with us, welcome you among us as an ambassador of Christ, and a brother beloved. We welcome you as the pastor of this church and people, congratulating you and them on the endearing relation now formed between you, and praying for the divine blessing upon it. We welcome you to our pulpits, with full confidence that you will prove faithful to the interests of truth and righteous ness. We bid you welcome to our ministerial circles. and beg that you will not consider yourself a stranger among us, but as one of us, and that you will freely share in our responsibilities and toils, in our joys and hopes. We cordially welcome you to our homes and 4 26 our hearts, assuring you that we shall always be glad to see your face, and to know that we are regarded by you with confidence and affection. And now, my dear brother, the Lord bless you in your work, and long make you the happy pastor of this beloved people ; and when He shall call you to your reward, and take his children home, may all the dear ones for whom you labor and pray be there to re joice with you, and to be your joy and crown of ex ultation in the presenc&of our Lord Jesus Christ. 08867 8546 mtm0^-,'