THE COLLEGE CONFERENCE PAPERS. No. V. On the Importance of drawing into the Ministry pious and devoted Ir is suggested, that two opinions or impressions may be found extensively prevailing among the members of Congregational churches and the adherents to Congregational principles, touching the entrance of candidates, selected from affluent and elevated families, into the Congregational ministry. 1. That it is not to be expected, however desirable; that it lies not within any hopeful contingence,-any advised, reasonable probability. 2. That it is not desirable, however it may be expected; that it would not be a good; that it could not subsist with the true working of our organisation, nor with the healthy spirit of our system. It is suggested, that, before the question be argued, the case,-that which is thus assumed,-what may be called the premiss,-must be properly stated, or every conclusion will fall wide of the truth we seek. It is suggested, that any form of placing such inquiry before us, What would be the influence of young men of a higher social status, if they entered our pastoracy, upon the well-being of religion and its New Testament order?-involves an assumption which needs to be proved, or which ought to be limited. It is suggested, that many candidates of secular respectability have not been wanting during the two hundred years in which we can more clearly trace the profession and action of our distinguishing views. Those who could command the highest educational means, who could have won the richest prizes and distinctions of this passing world, have cheerfully abided by our type and calling, even when the lot was to be chosen not of disadvantages but of perils. The same proportion may still exist. It is suggested, that the estimate must be relative. It can only be decided on comparative grounds. What is the style of rank, or the standard of opulence, among us? We can conceive, for we are surrounded by the evidence, of far greater things. It is suggested, that a light reflected from other communities and administrations may serve to guide us in this adjustment. We might ask, What is the ratio of poorer or richer, of more privileged or more humble, aspirants to the sacred office in the Established Church of this country?-bearing always in recollection, the undisputed fact of the numbers, the wealth, and the aristocracy, of that church when set against our lowly side. It is suggested, that with these precautions and qualifications, the moot-point may now be discussed. It is suggested, that the course of the objections ought to be the course of the argument. This will be pertinent, equitable, and courageously antagonistic. Is the accession of the more early instructed, the more bountifully provided, youth of our churches to the Christian ministry among us to be expected? It is suggested, that though there be sacrifices which these young men must endure, all of these are not placed beyond certain curative influences; some may be only incidental, and it is probable that they shall shortly cease. Others are essential, but then they are founded on principles which we deem wholly excellent. They who live at ease, though our more favoured members are generally producers still, are disposed to settle their sons in the avocations which are more lettered and more esteemed, to which preferment is attached, and by which honour can be accumulated,-which are commonly known as professions. It is suggested, that the Congregational ministry, though most properly alienated from trade, though an appointment held apart from the businesses of life, is in no sense a profession. To be true to our great tenets, we should neither seek nor accept any professional benefit from our ministry. If the courtesy of society offer us respect and concede us deference, we should not lay it to the account of a spiritual function. Should it be felt that our character deserves it, or our influence challenges it, we may be content. No exemption from civil duty, no remission of civil impost, should we crave or boast, just because the equalities of social men or citizens are so far disturbed, every such exemption leaving to others more to do, namely, our part, -and every such remission leaving to others more to pay, namely, our share. It is suggested, that the ministers of our creed and discipline do not of themselves constitute an order. They are not a corporation, nor can they be incorporated. Though they are "workers together," and may well cherish the bonds of a special fraternisation, they want not, nor could they admit any act of society, or of the state, which would so recognise them. They only claim the rights which are due to all other citizens. Any special consideration, or enrolment in any special caste or fellowship, they regard not only as an injustice to others, but a false position for themselves. It is suggested, that these two facts, the obliteration of the professional character, and the absence of a corporate order, from our ministry, will be found to present the chief points of dislike that may be taken to it, by young men of superior standing and property. They know that by conforming to the Established Church, and by entering its ministry, they will find themselves in a profession which gives precedence and estimation, which invests them with a title that opens every access to station and influence, which may carry them beyond the ducal coronet in their career of promotion. They know that henceforth they are attached to an association far more powerful, compact, and endowed, than the ordinary classifications of social man: that it has its own spirit and self-bias: that it rests upon its own selfcircling interests and rights. Here would be found the principal sacrifices, the immense foregoing forfeiture of worldly respectability. It is suggested, that the indisposition to join our ministry would not so commonly be of a grosser covetousness. Some who embrace the conditions of the hierarchy are splendidly beneficed; yet there are many who have sought no gain. The advowson yields them an incompetent return for its purchase. There are nobles who hold but patrimonial livings. Curacies of the meanest income are in request. If the postulant for the ministry coveted silver, and gold, and apparel, he might occasionally secure a larger share in withdrawing from the parliamentary church than in adhering to it; but to a youthful mind, elate and ambitious, it must bring no light self-denial, to be cut off from liberal profession and corporate rank. It is suggested, that these tests may most fitly prove the spiritual men we want. If they cannot withstand these temptations, if these be abandonments to which they cannot consent, they are not adapted to us. We need not judge them. If their conscience approve of a professional and corporate ministry, they will not surely come to us, among whom they can never find it; if their conscience disapprove, and yet they court it, we may rejoice to have escaped so inconsistent an alliance. We shall never hail them who do not look for sacrifices among us, and who are not prepared to make them. It is suggested, that though there is much to deter such a class of persons, yet that, being spiritual, they will own to many inducements. The joy of escape from all mental reservation will be theirs. To prevaricate with words which we have sworn to understand and teach in their proper and obvious meaning, in the meaning with which all who hear them accept them,-to construct a theory, which is felt and allowed to be unpractical, for their explanation and warrant,—to take one or other of two opposite exponents, and to bend it as the wish may be,—is a heavy yoke. It has been wreathed upon the neck of many. Our opinions are not loose. Denominationally they are fixed. But we know not the "jurare in verba." Every man utters his convictions in his own words. This is a privilege which we can scarcely appreciate he who, day by day, must justify to himself the use of language and the course of conduct which approach the double-minded and the collusive, can alone, by the contrast, truly estimate what must be the gladness of a clear spirit and a single heart. It will be scarcely an inferior satisfaction to minister to a people who will sustain all evangelic statement and holy faithfulness. We may often suspect our legitimate motive. Are we precise in our exposition of doctrine, earnest in our rebuke of sin? Are we searching in our appeal? This is what our people desire. We may give into it as pleasing man. It may be a snare and art of popularity. But there are they who have been surrounded with different temptations. Worldly neighbours, ecclesiastical governors, have wondered, sneered, and interdicted. What a new atmosphere of liberty would it have been to have stood in our pulpit, to have received the response which our fullest enlargements of truth and zeal commonly awaken! Though our ministry be supposed to lie under many restrictions from the popular elements of our system, we would assure them who, from their gentle condition, might most dislike the scriptural rule, "Consider one another," who might most shrink from the possible collision of such a pure democracy,-that the actual liberty which they can otherwise verify, will be greatly shorn in comparison with this. The nobleman's pew, the rector's brow, the prelate's Dionysian ear, are discouragements to liberty with which no coarse remark, no blunt behaviour, of our poorest of "the Lord's freemen," could be brought into rivalry. Malapert conceit may be easily set down. To doubt that young men will desire our ministry, young men of consideration and family, seems a discrediting of our principles, and to breathe a despair of their victory. We believe them to be the rules and safeguards of the Messiah's kingdom. We contend that they must never be altered to suit any state of civil society. We cheerfully and solemnly confide in them and their ultimate universality. We are assured that the theory of raising religion by its artificial dignities, placing the mitred heads of its ministers in courts and parliaments for the purpose of recommending it, is wholly baseless and wrong. When the rich among the people shall entreat the favour of Him who is Head over all to his church, they will not be wanting in perfect loyalty to him and in ready acceptance of his service. We think, also, that the amount of mind and of religious information to be found among our churches, will prove to them who have a larger command of general advantages, literary as well as common, a very powerful lure. None but the pious episcopalian clergyman can understand the distance between himself and a parochial congregation. There are few common grounds, there is scarcely sympathy. Could he come at once into one of our communities!-could he hear our people converse with the Bible in their hand!-could he hear them pray-what pleasure would he find in dwelling among a congregation which could spiritually discern him, value him, understand him, sustain him! The very character of our stipend, though viewed by them of whom we speak with special grudge, will be seen as falling under the express letter of New Testament law. In the comfort of its working, it will surely be found equal to any satisfaction that can be felt in compulsory assessments. It is now felt by those who look truly at the matter, that no support can be so honourable, can be so pleasantly agreeable, to a delicate mind, as the free-will levy of esteem and confidence. "The Lord hath ordained it:" it is therefore as fit as it is binding. If we might venture to name another ground of expectation, (though as it rests upon what we have yet to prove, the desirableness of this event,—it has in the present argument no logical place,) it would be this; that the growing state of our denomination requires this addition. He who "called the righteous man from the east," He whose quiver is full of arrows, will not withhold from us "the polished" at our need. Proper instruments always have been prepared, and at the right conjunctures always may be expected. He who giveth pastors after his heart, to feed his people with knowledge and understanding, will bestow their qualifications and prepare their way. The harsh measures of ecclesiastical tyranny now prevailing in the Established Church, the teasing interferences with conscience, the magnifying of little things, until, as impositions, they have become the more grievous for being little, may lead some, whose bias might be other, to seek quiet and refuge, unhampered labour and unharassed peace, in our secession. It may be a Pella, whither many may fly from a Jerusalem in bondage with her children. Patience has long been tried, indignation long stifled, self-conquest has ceased to be virtuous, as self-vindication would cease to be schismatic. No little favour may be shown to us, as our principles are understood, and are partially adopted by other bodies,-no small preference may be indicated, -the very tide may be with us, when it shall be known that these principles are not new, struck out in the heats of controversy and revolution, but those which we have retained for ages, unequivocally and unblenchingly, to which has been added the witnessing consistency of the confessor's exile, and the martyr's crown. It may be soon thought that there is no opprobrium in taking part with us. Every advance of public opinion must be favourable to our principles. They have no stay nor stand in fading tyrannies and superstitions. They hold necessary alliance with the progressions of society in information and liberty. Other systems may be left behind; ours cannot be carried forward to a blaze of knowledge too bright, or to a pitch of liberty too popular! |