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What the results of their labors and opinions have been, we know. What they would have been, if their taste and opinions had been like those of this generation, we know not.

vigor and prosperity, yet some of them, even if they can boast of greater learning, can boast of no greater success, and of no greater influence than James Wilson.

After the separation, Mr. Wilson was left with twenty-eight members only, eight male and twenty female; and such was the poverty of the church that, for several years, he was compelled — and not an unusual thing in those times to teach a school, both public and private, for his support. But success attended his labors. In 1804-5, especially, there occurred a great and powerful revival of religion, in his charge, which added greatly to his numbers and strength, so that in 1809 the little wooden church which stood on the same spot, was superseded by the present large and spacious structure, which was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, January 1, 1810. Several of these "refreshings" occurred in the course of Mr. Wilson's long and successful ministry. And some other churches have, at least in part, been formed from this church, and it still rejoices in a membership of about five hundred souls. Since Mr. Wilson's death, twenty-five years ago, the church has had three other pastors; and although it retains its original Rev. Mark Tucker, D. D.

It is worthy of remark, that that "burning and shining light," President Manning, pastor of the First Baptist Church, was quenched in death, July 29th, 1691, but a few weeks after Mr. Wilson's arrival. The Rev. Stephen Gano was settled as his successor in 1791, and remained pastor until he was taken to his reward in 1828, a period of thirty-six years. The venerable Dr. N. B. Crocker was called at St. John's in 1805, and still survives - 1865 after a pastorate extended to the unusual length of sixty years. For twenty-two years, therefore, these three distinguished men, all leaders in their own churches and representatives of their several denominational interests and peculiarities, were cotemporaries. And to no three other men, who have ever resided in it since the time of its distinguished founder, are its moral and religious interests, now in such a prosperous state, so largely indebted as to them. Mr. Wilson died in Providence, Sept. 14, 1839, aged 79 years, and was succeeded by the

CHURCHES AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.

BY REV. D. BURT, WINONA, MINN.

IT is the object of this article to maintain the thesis that- All those, and only those, who give practical evidence that they have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, should become members and receive the sacraments in our Christian churches.

There are departures from this doctrine in two directions. The old Lutheran Church extends the sacraments

to all the congregation. The people, en masse, are the church. The apparent success of some missionaries to the Germans of the West, under the patronage of certain American Missionary Societies, results from the fact that they offer to baptize the children of all parents in the congregation, and allow those parents to consider themselves members of the church.

A form of this error, more convenient for American "free thinkers," is seen in the self-styled "Liberalism" of the last half century; and, recently, in the "Broad-church" policy. Men, brought into affinity by a common repulsion from evangelical doctrines, meet, perhaps in a bar-room, and vote that they are a society of liberal Christians. They secure a preacher, who rails at orthodoxy, ridicules creeds, and tells them what they should not believe. The so-called society has no expressed articles of faith, no covenant, no members subject to discipline, and the sacraments are not administered, that would be carrying the farce too far. This unorganized organization is called a church, a church of progressive Christians. Some, however, grant that the sacraments are proper for those who desire them; and those responding to a general invitation to receive them are deemed members, but are not amenable to the society for their religious views, nor liable to be called to an account for evil practices.

Another style of broad-churchmen state it thus: Let there be no covenant, only a general declaration of principles similar to the platforms of our political parties; no roll of members, but let all who are drawn to the society by the principles declared, be entitled to the privileges of the body and receive the sacraments if they wish. Others may be more strict as to the conditions of membership, yet their views are broader than the rule set forth in the gospel.

A departure from this rule in another direction, consists in the view that, although none but converted persons should belong to Christian churches, yet one who is regenerated into Christ need not unite with a visible church.

Persons holding this view, and some of them hoping that they are

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1. Those who in apostolic times received the doctrines of Christ were thus brought into a common spiritual state, the mutual affinities and social expressions of which resulted in the organization of visible local churches.

At the West, some churches have been gathered in a manner tending to divert us from the apostolic method. A zealous preacher concludes that it will redound to the prosperity of his sect, if a church of his order can be established in a certain community where there are already several churches. He concludes that if the Lord will have another church there, he must accept for members such persons as can be drawn into the enterprise. Hence, he collects together those who have no common experience and little unity of views, except on some outward matter from which a sect can grow, and imposes upon them the rules of his denomination, and calls them a church. They might be called a conglomerate of heterogeneous materials held in juxtaposition by the external force of material motives. Very different were the visible churches of the apostolic age. They grew necessarily and naturally out of the affinities and social wants of the Christian life. Where the disciples of Christ preached, their converts had a common experience, making them of one heart and one soul. The essential idea of a church

is, those who are called out of the world into a common religious state. A visible Christian church is not a body which converted men choose to organize when they could, if they pleased, live as such without it. It grows up spontaneously, because it is natural for those brought by regeneration into the same spiritual state to speak often to each other. The apostles did not carry some previously elaborated system of church polity to a community and gather as many as possible under it, and teach them how to work it, as one does a machine. Under the preaching of the apostles, the Spirit quickened men into a regenerate life, out of which grew religious sympathy, out of which grew religious society, out of which grew the visible local church.

2. The primitive churches had a clearly defined faith, and were held together by a common affinity for it and covenant in it.

The creed of the early Christians was brief and comprehensive. "Thou art Christ, the son of the living God," was Peter's creed. "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," was the creed of the eunuch. In some similar words Timothy made a "good profession" before many witnesses. The confession required by Paul was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." There was then no ambiguous meaning in this declaration of faith. One who made it, renounced all false religious systems of the age, and accepted the divine plan of salvation in all its parts. This formula included all the doctrines of the Christian system, as elaborated in Christian creeds of later times. It was the germ out of which they all grew. Why more elaborate creeds should now be used, and how they should be used, are questions not within the range of the present discussion. The fact to be noted is, that the primitive churches had a clearly defined confession of faith

to which every member assented. Out of a common affinity for this faith and a spontaneous fellowship under it, arose the covenant between members. This covenant may not have been written, but it was always implied. Written covenants in some modern churches are almost a dead letter. When members are received, the church promise to watch over them, to love them, and hold spiritual communion with them. This promise is broken because, at heart, there does not exist the spiritual state out of which covenant-keeping must grow. The substance of the covenant in the primitive churches was a common love leading all, whether verbally pledged to it or not, to meet together for Christian worship, to delight in communion, to maintain the ordinances of the gospel and the discipline of the church. It was this that made the primitive churches, brotherhoods, and families, that held them together under persecution, that made them the wonder of their enemies, and often the praise of the heathen world. I speak not against written covenants, I only affirm that where the affinities of regenerate experience do not exist, no such covenant can secure that fidelity, that kindly regard for each other, which characterized the primitive Christians. The difficulty is to be remedied, not by rejecting written creeds or covenants, but by a return to the piety of the apostolic age.

3. The primitive churches had definite rules for receiving and, when necessary, for excluding members.

Adult baptism was never administered except on condition of personal faith; household baptism, never unless at least one of the parents believed in Christ. Peter would baptize Cornelius and his friends because theyǝhad received the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Spirit preceded that of water on the day of Pentecost, and Philip required the eunuch to believe before he

would baptize him. It may be said that this baptism was not into any particular church. But it brought the individual into a relation to the visible churches such that he could enter one when other conditions were fulfilled. The baptism of Paul was a qualification for an introduction to the Christian body at Jerusalem. No one could become a real member of such a body without baptism. One must also manifest a sincerity that gained the confidence of the Christian body before he could be received. Saul, after his conversion and baptism, went to Jerusalem "and assayed to join himself to the disciples; but they were afraid of him." They assumed that he should not be received until he gave satisfactory evidence of conversion. The testimony of Barnabas settled this point; Paul was then with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.”

Faith was also a condition of membership. "Him that is weak in the faith," says Paul, "receive ye;" ""for we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." This implies that faith, as a condition of membership, was made so prominent that the church was in danger of refusing to receive one whose faith was weak.

Repentance was necessary to the restoration to membership of an offender 2 Cor. ii. 7. By parity of reason it was deemed a condition of membership. Paul says to the church at Corinth, "I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no, not to eat." "Therefore put away from among you that wicked person." "Withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly." Thus the primitive Christians had definite rules of membership, the sum of which is that one must give practical evidence of conversion from sin

before he has a right to a place in a Christian church.

There were cases of excommunication from the apostolical churches. In regard to an offender at Corinth, Paul says to the church, "When ye are gathered together," that is, in a churchmeeting," deliver such a one to Satan ;" that is, excommunicate him. This act was performed by a popular vote of the church, "of many." The church at Thyatira was blamed for suffering Jezebel to teach. Of course it could not absolutely silence her; hence it was required to prevent her from teaching as one of its members. This it could only do by terminating her membership. The method of excommunication provided in Mat. xviii. implies that the local church can, and should, exclude from itself all who, having trespassed, remain incorrigible. The point to be noted is that a local church could not perform all these functions without having a distinctly known membership, called by Paul "those within," and judging those within.

4. The primitive churches elected officers in a way implying a definite and well-known membership.

I need not adduce the evidence that this was done by a popular vote. This Quarterly has existed to little purpose if it has not yet proved this fact. Such a vote implies a known distinction between members and those not such. There was no wide and promiscuous parish voting in those days.

A church-meeting for the transaction of business was then composed of only the faithful, and they chose their own bishop.

5. The primitive churches confined the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to those who were members in the sense defined.

When Christ instituted this rite, no one but his disciples was present. He commanded all of them, and only them, to drink of the cup. It is the followers

of Christ who are to show forth his death in this way, until he come. Paul says, “let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Condemnation cometh on him that eateth and drinketh unworthily. The act is to be performed "discerning the Lord's body." This discernment is spiritual, and implies regeneration. The custom was to baptize at once those who believed, as in the case of the jailer, the eunuch, Lydia, Paul, and the three thousand. There is no proof that the Lord's Supper was received by any before baptism. The proof is strong that the reverse was the apostolic rule. One confessed the common faith, and had the spirit of the covenant in his heart, and therefore the conditions of membership, before he received the Eucharist. This act was deemed the highest privilege in the household of Christ. It was carefully restricted to the churches, and this custom continued down through subsequent centuries, under the regimen of secret worship.

6. The primitive churches included all who received Christ as their personal Saviour.

The explicit testimony of Luke is, "And all that believed were together, and had all things common." "The faithful" is a scriptural name of Christians, and that it implied a public profession of Christ, and a known connection with some local church, can be proved by the words of Christ himself. He says to the members of a church at Smyrna, "Be thou faithful unto death;" that is, to be worthy of the name faithful, they must sustain their profession as church-members, if it cost them their lives. To the members of a church at Pergamos he says, "Thou hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr." Christ here commended constancy in the members of a visible church. The primitive Chris

tians might have escaped martyrdom by pursuing the course of some in this age who secretly attempt to be Christians without joining any church, and, sometimes, without receiving baptism. But they understood the words of Christ in Matthew x. 32, 33, to require all that is now implied in churchmembership, to require that they "stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, being in nothing terrified by their adversaries." They had the spirit of Justin, who, at his martyrdom, A. D. 167, said, "We declare and profess openly we proclaim aloud that we worship God through Christ." We search in vain for evidence that, in the time of the apostles, there was a class of persons calling themselves Christians, but never connecting themselves with any visible church. Every person, accepting Christ unto salvation, assumed that if any one ought to belong to a visible church, he ought also to have such a connection.

We find, then, that the apostolical churches were local bodies, organized with a definite membership, a confession of faith, a covenant, officers, rules for receiving, disciplining, and excluding members; that each church managed its own affairs; that the sacraments were limited to the membership; and that all converts assumed that they should connect themselves with some local church. In view of these facts, it appears that to administer the sacraments on the principle of some of the old German churches, to all who are members of the congregation, is to offer them to those who do not discern the Lord's body. The American Home Missionary Society refuses to aid, on this plan, missionaries at the West. The decision is wise. The German missionary, who would convert his countrymen to Christ, cannot conform to their views in this matter, even under protest. He must insist on a

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