Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

“ If, in this age of societies, we should think it wise to recommend another institution for the propagation of Christianity, it would be one the members of which should be pledged to assist and animate one another in living according to the Sermon on the Mount. How far such a measure would be effectual we venture not to predict; but of one thing we are sure, that, should it prosper, it would do more for spreading the gospel than all other associations which are now receiving the patronage of the Christian world. ”

“ We may not close this review of our year's work and attendant suggestions without remembrance of our indebtedness to the American Bible Society, for its grant of Bibles; to the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society for the help given to our struggling churches and Sunday-schools in its grant of books and lesson helps. We rejoice in the unity of our societies, which make all one in the blending of the parts for the great common purpose of redeeming the lost and gathering them into the family of Christ. ”

“ The opponents of our present Membership say that the outward and visible Church consists of persons who are voluntarily induced, by the Holy Spirit, to unite, on the basis without any attempt to " gauge " spiritual experience, or to " compare themselves among themselves " of a profession of Faith in Christ as the Son of God, in a Society for their mutual encourage- ment to walk in this evil world as becometh the Gospel of Christ, and for the great purposes of propa- gating this Gospel and building each other up in their most holy faith. ”

“ We are glad to find it to be the distinct aim of the Society to press its work of evangelization to its consummation in Christian churches, and that while its educational and industrial work must from the nature of the case be general in its character, the obligation is recognized to gather up the result, so far and as fast as opportunity affords, in a more specific and permanent form. ”

“ IX. That this Society, relying upon the all-sufficiency of the Church's Head; and, through his grace, looking with an eye of confidence to the generous liberality of the sincere friends of genuine Christianity; holds itself engaged to afford a competent support to such ministers as the Lord may graciously dispose to assist, at the request, and by invitation of the Society, in promoting a pure evangelical reformation, by the simple preaching of the everlasting Gospel, and the administration of its ordinances in an exact conformity to the Divine standard as aforesaid ”

“ The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and is a power unto salvation, temporal and spiritual. A man who complies in every respect therewith has everything that any society can {136} offer, with countless truths and consolations added: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." The Church is divinely organized, and in that organization there is provision for the development and practice of every virtue known, every charity revealed. ”

“ Put thus on the defensive, it may be well to recur to first principles, in order to satisfy ourselves that the church is the unit idea in all Christian labor. And to unfold that idea in the conversion of men, and to make it potential in society, through the preaching of the Gospel and the sanctified lives of believers, is the end of the family, of the school, and of all the forces which go to civilize and uplift communities. ”

“ Here we see a glorious field for the far-reaching benevolence of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Nowhere, we believe, will the sending forth of pious and devoted priests produce fruits comparable to those of which the past gives promise to the future in this part of the United States. ”

“ Small as our numbers are, compared with the bulk of the community among whom we live, I believe, that if we are faithful to God, we have an important part to act as a distinct religious Society. It is therefore my fervent desire, that, accepting the whole truth of the Gospel, and walking in accordance therewith, as it is set forth by the Evangelists and Apostles—that, living in love and charity towards all men, we may all, younger and older, unitedly labour for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. ”

“ It seemed to two young New Englanders who traversed the vast region from the Western Reserve to New Orleans in 1813, in the interests of missionary societies, that the people were wrapped in spiritual darkness, "being ignorant, often vicious, and utterly destitute of Bibles and religious literature." The General Bible Society of the United States was founded in 1816 to dispel this irreligious gloom. Within five years this organization and its numerous auxiliaries had distributed one hundred and forty thousand Bibles and Testaments through the new States. ”

“ But, in the providence of God, this society is called upon to prosecute this fourfold work. It cannot abandon a single field and must not be asked to. It can do in the next five years a work for Christianity and for Congregationalism in the South and West which will tell on the coming century. ”

“ The gospel should be made without charge to those to whom it is first preached. Those who know it not cannot be expected to value it; churches and Christian patriots ought to concur to support the propagation of holy religion in the pagan countries; public spirits should concur according to their several capacities; those who are freely communicative of Christ's gospel should be assisted by those who are communicative of their purses. 2. We ought therefore to receive such, that we may be fellow-helpers to the truth, to true religion. The institution of Christ is the true religion ”

“ There had been scattered in the country 103 young persons, who had received assistance from this Society, without which they could not have been introduced to spheres of active usefulness. Persons of various Dissenting denominations, and members of the Established Church, had taken advantage of the Institution, and had manifested in their conduct towards each other that unity which bound all Christians together in the love and service of their divine Master. ”

“ Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.
Art. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments, [A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member ”

“ We do not define the church as a body of “baptized believers,” because baptism is but one of “Christ's laws,” in accordance with which believers unite themselves. Since these laws are the laws of church-organization contained in the New Testament, no Sunday School, Temperance Society, or Young Men's Christian Association, is properly a church. These organizations 1. lack the transcendent element—they are instituted and managed by man only; 2. they are not confined to the regenerate, or to those alone who give credible evidence of regeneration ”

“ It was quite natural, too, that the apostles should recognise all these communities as being in reality one community for fellowship of faith and love; it was the ecclesia, or assembly, or society of Jesus, the beginning of the church of Christ, as it soon came to be called. There was no elaborate organisation; nothing could have been simpler. Every Christian seems to have thought that as it would not be long before the Master came again, the wise and right thing to do was for His followers to hold together and witness Him to the world, until that great event took place. ”

“ Those who originated the parent Association, and those who formed this, believed in the doctrines of the Universal Church of Christ--in the loss of the soul and its redemption only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; nor could they be satisfied with any work for young men which did not at least aim at conversion. ”

“ The men who were the backbone of the anti-slavery movement, who were nursing fathers to the Bible Society, and established the Church Missionary Society, were not narrow-minded bigots, but held the true Catholic Faith concerning the kingdom of God. ”

“ The Saints, under the organization of the Church of Christ, as it existed anciently, with Apostles and Prophets, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Bishops, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, Helps, Governments, etc., are establishing a purer and better order of society than exists anywhere else on the earth. They are progressing, by the application of measures for the benefit of the whole people, to that unity that will prepare them {199} to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, whose coming we declare to be near at hand. ”

“ It is, to us, a pleasing consideration that all the Churches of Christ which mutually acknowledge each other as such, are not only agreed in the great doctrines of faith and holiness, but are also materially agreed as to the positive ordinances of the Gospel institution; so that our differences, at most, are about the things in which the kingdom of God does not consist, that is, about matters of private opinion or human invention. ”

“ Every Evangelical denomination would be inter-denominational in the truest sense, and be one wholly in their Crucified, Risen, coming Lord. A love for the poor fallen world, such as has never been since our Lord spent Himself in service, would be the order of the day, and not the vision of a few. Every missionary society would have more men and women and money than they actually needed.
“But, even as I pen this millennium-like picture, I know, from the Word of God, that it cannot be before Christ comes. But I seek to arouse every Christian to God’s call to them on this matter. ”

“ If this Gospel goes to the uttermost parts of the earth and fulfils its destiny as predicted by the Prophets, by Jesus and by the Apostles, it will eventually swallow up all the good there is on the earth; it will take every honest, truthful and virtuous man and woman and every good person and gather them into the fold of this kingdom, and this society will enlarge, spread abroad and multiply, and will increase in knowledge until the members composing it know enough to lengthen out their days and man's longevity returns, and they begin to live as men did anciently. ”

“ There is not another society or community professing to believe the Bible, embracing it in their faith, would consent, for one moment, to sell or give away all they have and travel half-way over the earth for the sake of assembling together. ”

“ Obligations to the particular home field that the individual church to which we belong cultivates, absolve us not from the obligations we owe to the world-field into which the kingdom of God is coming by the extension of the church universal. This large view of our personal relation to Christ’s kingdom as a whole, this faith that sees in every man a brother for whom Christ died, compel us to an interest in missions. The triumphs of the gospel in the South and at the West and in foreign lands, will be just as precious to us as the triumphs of the gospel in our own community. ”

“ Those entering by primary obedience are received on their own terms. Such organizations, not daring to stress loyalty to Christ and the New Testament, must find an outlet for their religion in social service. Deeper than this they can not go. They cease to be churches of Christ, and, at best, are nothing but altruistic clubs.
We hear of one such church that has Jews, Mormons and Catholics in its membership. ”

“ In the earlier part of the eighteenth century there were very many men worthy to be spoken of with the utmost honour, both in the High and Low Church parties. A great deal of active Christian work was set on foot about this time. Thus the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded, and gathered round the table of its committee-room men of very different opinions, but all filled with the same earnest desire to promote God's glory, and to make an earnest effort to stem the irreligion of the times. ”

“ It has brought the Church to a new place of prominence in Christian thought. Men realize their indebtedness for their own spiritual life to the collective religious experience of the past, represented in the Church; their need of its fellowship for their growth in faith and usefulness; and the necessity of organized religious effort, if society is to be leavened with the Spirit of Christ. Church membership becomes a duty for every socially minded Christian. And the social purpose renders Church unity a pressing task for the existing Christian communions. ”

“ We have advocated the aims of the Catholic Publication Society at greater length than we at first intended, but feel that in consideration of their importance we have not said too much. It is impossible to over-estimate the good this society may, with God's blessing, be made to accomplish. To make it effective, its organization throughout the United States should be co-extensive with the church itself. Our work in this country is getting ahead of us. The religious needs of our people are rapidly increasing. ”

“ It must also be recognized that until the two great branches of the Christian Church—Catholicism and Protestantism—learn to cooperate in their service to the community, the religious forces of America cannot present a united front in rendering the service that belongs peculiarly to them. ”

“ But oh the pity! that money given by godly men to provide preachers of the gospel should be devoted to undermining the Christian cause!
What is the effect of this method of interpretation upon the churches of our denomination? It is to cut the tap-root of their strength, and to imperil their very existence. Baptist churches are founded upon Scripture. Their doctrine of regenerate church-membership, and of church ordinances as belonging only to believers, presupposes an authoritative rule of faith and practice in the New Testament. ”