USA > Kansas > Douglas County > Lawrence > Minutes of the General Association of Congregational Churches and Ministers of Kansas > Part 5
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*Dr. W. I. Budington's address at the dedication of the Congregational House, Boston.
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of the great Head of the church is "Go ye therefore and teach all nations," "Go ye into all the world, and herald the gospel to every creature." But ifa religious denomination cannot adapt itself wherever and to whomsoever the great commission of the Mister extends, it is so far forth defective and lacks the ele- ments of permanent success.
Tint our Congregational faith and polity,however,are eminent- ly suited to the people, may be shown.
1. From the fact, that the faith of our churches is, as we have seen, the faith of the Gospel.
2. Our polity is the scriptural polity.
3. This polity is in unison with the whole genius of republi- can institutions, and
4. The polity of our denomination is in the direct line of the present tendency of civil and religious liberty.
The principle which is to-day upheaving European dynasties is that of the right of the people to self government in church and state. This same principle is operative in our own country, in the line of freer privileges and larger equities for all classes of society. It asserts its claims in the modification of denomi- national usages. The introduction of lay representation into the annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church, the dis- cussion of the rotary term of eldership in the Presbyterian church and the agitation of the right of women to hold positions in the vestry of the Protestant Episcopal church, are but indica- tions of onward movements, converging more and more to the line of our own polity. In the progress, also, of civil and relig- ions liberty, "vestigia nulla retrocessum," no foot prints back- ward. These advancing movements will continue, until all the sacramental hosts of God come to the full acknowledgment of the sublime truth promulgated by the great Apostle, and funda- mental in our polity. "One is your Master, even, Christ and all ye are brethren."
If Congregationalism, then, does not adapt itself to men of all classes and conditions, is there not cause for serious inquiry, whether the fault may not be in its adherents and in our methods of working, rather than in the faith and polity of the denomina- tion. Wecannot escape the logical conviction that the faith and polity which Christ himself inculcated, must be adapted to all for whom Christ died . The great object of all that has been said, is to produce, if possible, a deeper sense of our obligation more efficiently to advance Christ's kingdom by a vigorous extension
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of the faith and polity entrusted to us.
We owe it to God, we owe it to our country, we owe it to our- selves, that we move unitedly and effectively in the work. . .
1. By clear enunciations of what Congregationalism 'is, its faith, its polity, its usages.
A great mistake is often made in taking it for granted that people are fully conversant with that of which they may be com- paratively ignorant. Many rest satisfied with the idea that the fundamental principles of our polity, being so obvious, must be perfectly understood by every one. Facts do not warrant such an inference. Not a few Congregationalists, of New England origin even, would be puzzled by no question more than by the interrogation, What is Congregationalism? If asked, why they are Congregationalists, the only answer which many could probably give would be for substance, the famous reply of Topsy "Spect I grow'd so." In a new State especially, settled by peo- ple from almost every section of our own and other lands, the need of clear statement from the pulpit, as to what we believe,as to our form of church government and usages in the adjustment of practical affairs. is imperative. The people should under- stand that our faith is not the porous fragments of human theories, but the solid faith of the gospel, that our polity is not indepen- dency alone, nor fellowship simply, but independency and fel- lowship combined, the blending of two great principles by which, both the rights of each local church and the doctrinal purity of all the churches, are secured, thus granting the largest freedom while applying the most effective safeguards. And above all must the great truth be impressed again and again that appropriate forms, being the products of life and spirit, our forms of polity however fair and beautiful will live only as God breathes into it the spirit of life. The enthusiasm must be first to save souls and then to organize them into a christian brother- hood endued by the Holy Ghost, whose presence alone can pre- vent spiritual death and disintegration. Thus, catching the watchword not of letter and form simply, but of the very spirit and life of Jesus, the next step in the prosecution of our work will be-
2. To take possession early of new central points.
This was the plan adopted by the apostles. They went out everywhere preaching the gospel. But they put forth special effort at the centers of commerce and civilization, at Jerusalem, at Ephesus, at Corinth and at Rome. Many of our churches in this state could never have occupied the positions of influence
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which they occupy to-day, if the Home Missionary Society had not sent out its missionaries at an early day to preach the gospel, in "pioneer boarding houses"as at Lawrence, in"store rooms" as at Leavenworth, in "log cabins," as at Topeka, and in "mud huts," as at Wabaunsee, followed by the timely aid of that kindred So- ciety, "The Congregational Union," in the erection of more ap- propriate sanctuaries. People become attached to a church that appears early on the ground and struggles with them through the trials incident more or less to all new communities.
In emphasizing the importance of thus taking possession early of new towns and cities, we would not wish to be understood as detracting at all from the claims of growing farming districts. Cities are constantly replenished from the country. It is said that nine-tenths of the successful business men now in Chicago were once poor boys and many of them poor country boys. The cen- tral points cannot long be held for Christ, unless surrounding communities become evangelized. Every church has a solemn responsibility not only with reference to the spiritually desti- tute in its own community, but also in respect to communities round about. We must go out with enlarged christian activi- ties, into the streets and alleys, into the highways and hedges and. "compel them to come in,"-into neighborhood prayer meetings, into sabbath schools, into chapels and sanctuaries. They will not come to us. They will not come to Jesus. We mustgo to them, with warm hearts, in their need, in their un- willingness, in their lost and perishing condition and break to them the bread of life. Hundreds of communities all over the state are waiting for the Gospel. The demand is accumulating.
According to the census reports for 1870 the gain in popula- tion of the several western and northwestern states during the the years from 1860 to 1870, was as follows :
Indiana a gain of 24 per cent.
Wisconsin
-35
Missouri
45
66 -
California
47 166
Illinois
48
Michigan
58
Oregon
73 -
Iowa ">. 77
Minnesota 158
The population of Kansas increased from 107,206 in 1860 to 364,399 in 1870, a gain of two hundred and forty per cent. Near- ly half of that period also was occupied by the war, during
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· which the population of the state remained somewhat stationary. Consequently this vast increase of population took place during the last four or five years of the decade. Should the same rate of increase continue during the present decade, and there is no apparent reason why it should not, the population of Kansas at the next census, seven years from now, will considerably exceed à million.
An interesting feature, also, of the present population of our state is that it is so largely an American population. From the recent census reports already alluded to, it appears that the per : cent of foreign population as compared with the whole number of inhabitants in several states, is as follows :
In Connecticut the foreign pop. is 21 per cent of the inhabitants.
66 66
In Massachusetts "
33
. In Wisconsin
6:
6
66
36
In Minnesota
66
66
37
In California 66
In Kansas only 13 per cent, or about half the ratio of popula- - tion as compared with Connecticut and Massachusetts, and not much over one-third the rate of foreign population as compared with California, Minnesota aud Wisconsin.
The rapidity, then, with which new settlements are springing up all along our lines of railways, and that, too, with an Ameri- 'can population, renders it of the utmost importance that no time should be lost, and that the most vigorous efforts should be made for the Evangelization of this seething population during the 'few formative years of the immediate future. To meet the de- mand there will be needed more missionary field labor, more means and the speedy preparation of young men in larger num- bers for the gospel ministry. This leads us to notice-
3 The absolute necessity of building up in connection with our churches a strong and vigorous Christian College.
When the great Head of the church was about to select agen- cies for the advancement of his glorious kingdom, he did not go at first to the seats of learning at Jerusalem, at Athens, or at · Rome. He went to the shores of the sea of Galilee and called fishermen from their boats and their nets to become his apostles, as if to say to all the ages of the future, "In the upbuilding of my kingdom I am not dependent on your institutions of learn- ing, your culture, your eloquence or your wealth. "For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- found the things which are mighty, and base things of the world
..
24
66
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and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things : which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." But when he needed an embas -. sador to herald the Gospel to the Gentiles, he called one"brought . up at the feet of Gamaliel" of ripest culture and impressive elo- . quence, as if to add, "For the furtherance and glory of the di- vine kingdom I have need of culture and acquirements and all that is excellent in human learning."
God usually employs the fittest agencies, and one of the instru- mentalities specially owned and blessed of Him has been the Christian College, "the best thing,"as Cotton Mather expressed . it, "which New England ever thought of." Convened as 'we are, under the eaves of a State University in which we all take a . just pride, we should be recreant to ourselves as citizens, did we . not bid it God speed in its noble work. A Christian College, under the auspices of our denomination, is not established as : any rival of State institutions, but as an agency that shall . accomplish for our churches what the state will not do, and does not feel itself called upon to do ; that is,to encourage and special-' " ly prepare the consecrated children of our churches to go forth as christian laborers in the new and destitute fields, which God is opening up, not only in our own state and in adjacent territo- ries, but, also, in heathen lands.
In 1638; only 18 years after the landing on Plymouth Rock, Harvard was founded with this motto, which is still on its official seal, -- "Christo et ecclesiae"-for Christ and the church. It was' that vital thought which led to the founding of Yale, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin and all those Christian institu ions of learn -: ing that are to-day doing valiant work for Christ in connection with our churches. If it were not for her Christian Colleges, New England never could have become the New England of to- day. The Congregational churches of New England never could have sustained themselves at home, never could have worked out into new states and territories, much less into . heathen lands, if it had not been for those Christian Colleges early established on religious foundations with the one great object that they might become special and effective agencies for . the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom.
Sceptical times also are now upon us, "when the question is : not,"as another has forcibly remarked, "whether Christ is Divine and Lord over all, but the other and higher question whether there be any Lord or Creator in the Universe." . In the Greek, heathen mythology even, the world was represented as "bound ..
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to the throne of Deity by a golden chain." Not a few of the so called scientists of the present are endeavoring to sever that golden chain-and professedly drifting in the current of a phi- tosophy whose key note is the possibility, nay, rather the proba- bility of the slow but certain genesis of all life from one prim- al and primeval cell, and that cell, too, not the product of any creative act, but the fortuitous result of some mysterious or acci- dental stirring of chemical forces. Thus changing the "glory of the uncorruptable God into an image" of some idolized figment of the imagination, they are found at last "worshipping" natu- ral laws and physical force "more than the Creator who is bless- ed for ever.". One great object of our Christian Colleges in the years that are to come, will be to counteract these sceptical ten- dencies, by showing without let or hindrance, the essential harmony between the testimony of Revelation and the "Testi- mony of the rocks," by holding up "the cross in nature and na- ture in the cross," and by impressing the fact that the soundest reasoning and the mightiest logic are on the side of the Christian religion, thus sending forth our youth to act their part on the arena of life, not with intellectual culture alone, but with conse- crated hearts and positive convictions of the truth of the religion of Christ.
The churches of our State cannot afford, then, to dispense with the agency of the Christian College. Let it be built with prayer and faith, and, if it must needs be with, sacrifices. Let it be made worthy of the Christian name. Let it develop as a blessing to all the schools and institutions of the State. Let it become a part of all our churches and of the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We close with one thought more. It is this,-the need of greater co-operation and enlarged fellowship in the prosecution of the work which God has entrusted to us. The great object of this Association as defined by its constitution is "to increase the efficiency of the churches by mutual fellowship and counsel, and to promote unity of feeling and concert of action in every good work." The very fact that our churches are independent in the management of their own affairs renders this co-operation and fellowship all the more necessary. Slight testimonials of kindly interest will often encourage brethren to persevere, when otherwise they would faint by the way. An occasional ex- change of pulpits will have a happy effect in this direction,-not an exchange of city churches with city churches, but of the strong with the weak. A country church will often be encour-
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aged by the presence of a city pastor in their pulpit and "city audiences will in turn be edified by the able and' refreshing sermons of country pastors." The timely donation of a few hun- dred dollars will frequently save a church, struggling against re- verses. In a new state especially, the work of our churches is® to a great extent in common. In an important sense the whole state is one parish and adjacent territories are but out stations. All are mutually dependent one upon the other. Each tree of the forest, having its own place, with roots and leaves minister- ing to its individual life, seems to be independent of its fellows. Imbedded in the rocks, with massive trunk and outspreading branches, it looks as if it could withstand alone the storms of centuries. But let the surrounding forests that swayed with it, and together broke the fury of the blast, be once removed and soon the solitary tree, be it cypress or mountain ash, or rugged oak,lies desolate on the ground. It is so in our churches, a lack of co-operation and fellowship is death. We are to bear "one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ."
This enlarged fellowship must exist not only as between mem- bers of our own denomination, it must extend to all who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The fact that we are attach- ed to the principles of our own faith and polity and earnest in the furtherance of these principles is no reason why we should not cordially fraternize with all who have the interests of Christ's kingdom at heart.
* To thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man."
There is room enough and work enough for all. It is as true now- as it was 1800 years ago when the Savior uttered it, that "The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few." And the prayer must still be that the "Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest," who, irrespective of name or denomi- nation, will see eye to eye and work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart for Jesus in the Evangelization of our State and nation and for the salvation of a lost world.
ANNUAL MEETINGS.
PLACE.
TIME.
MODERATOR.
PREACHER.
TEXT.
Apr. 25, 1857. C. F. Blood ..
J. U. Parsons
Manhattan. .
Oct. 8, 1858. S. Y. Lum.
L. Bodwell ...
Psalms 97 : 1. John 2. 35.
Leavenworth.
May 23, 1861,
J. W. Fox ...
S. D. Storrs .. P. Mc Vicar. .
Ephesians 5 : 23.
Burlingame ..
May 22, 1862, R. Cordley .. May 22, 1863, J. D. Ligget. May 19, 1864, R. D. Parker,J. Copeland.
J. D. Liggett Hebrews 6 : 4, 5.
Matthew 6 : 24.
Wyandotte.
May 17, 1866,
M. S. Adamıs.
H. Jones ..
1 Timothy 4 : 11.
Atchison
May 8, 1867,
J. H. Payne .. E A Harlow.
Romans 8 : 14.
Lawrence.
May 12, 1869,
M. S. Adams E A Harlow.
R D Parker .. E A Harlow. LB Wilson . .
2 Cor. 5 :
Emporia
May 10, 1871.
M. S. Adamıs.
Adts 8 : 4.
Fort Scott
May 8, 1872.1
P. McVicar .. W. Kincaid. Acts 16 : 30, 31.
Lawrence
June 11 1873. L B Wilson. P. McVicar.
Deuteronomy 4 .: 1.
attan.
Oct. 3, 1857. H. Jones.
Lawrence.
May 26, 1850. L. Bodwell .. R. D. Parker
Topeka.
May 24, 1860. S. D. Storrs ..
Phil. 3 : 23, 14.
Wabaunsee.
G. C. Morse. . |Jeremiah 33 : 29.
Grasshop'r Falls Topeka ...
May 18, 1865,
G. C. Morse.
H. D. Platt. . Neh. 8 : 10.
Manhattan
May 20, 1868. T D Thacher/ R. Cordley ...
1 Cor. 9 : 22.
Leavenworth
May 12, 1870.
Titus 1 : 3.
peka
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