USA > Missouri > Presbyterianism in the Ozarks : a history of the work of the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in Southwest Missouri, 1834-1907 > Part 41
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6. A sixth principle in the Presbyterian mode of govern- ment is that the power of government is limited by a constitu- tion. A constitution defines what may be done; and it pre- scribes what shall not be done by the very fact that the author- ity to do a certain thing is NOT found there. The fact that there is a constitution is of the nature of a compact between the church and all who enter it. It is a public pledge that no power shall be exercised which is not specified in this constitution; and that no one's opinions, faith, or conduct shall be affected in any way except under the well-considered and clearly-defined processes arranged in the constitution. An arbitrary sovereign has no limit except that of will or caprice ; a mob has no rule of action, nor can any interests intrusted to it have a basis of security. A constitution defines and limits rights, constitutes security, makes established principles permanent, encourages labor, diffuses con- tentment and intelligence, the just administration of law and pro- motes peace. The idea of constitutional government is incor- porated in Presbyterianism more prominently than in any other mode of church goverment.
And now let us notice some of the affinities of this system of government.
The first and most remarkable is its affinity for the Cal- vinistic system of doctrine. In fact the Presbyterian form of government and the Calvinistic system of doctrine have been so intimately associated that they constitute one system in the gen- eral estimation of men, and the name Presbyterianism is.now commonly so used as to designate the result of this amalgama- tion.
There are no permanent Arminian, Pelagian or Socinian Presbyteries, Synods, General Assemblies on the earth. There are no permanent instances where these forms of belief or un- belief take on the Presbyterian form. Arminianism combines freely and naturally with Methodism, with Prelacy, with the Papacy. Pelagianism, Sabellianism, Socinianism combine freely with Independency. There was doubtless some reason why Dr.
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Priestly and Dr. Channing were NOT Presbyterians; there was a reason why Calvin, Knox, Chalmers, Witherspoon WERE.
The reasons may be satisfactorily stated.
(a) Calvinism in doctrine and Presbyterianism in church government spring essentially from the same idea-the idea of government, regularity, order; the idea that God rules. Cal- vinism, though it seems to be, and though it is often represented as a mere system of doctrine, having no valuable practical bear- ing is in fact a method and form in which the Divine Power is represented as put forth in the administration of the affairs of the universe. It is based on the idea that God rules; that he has a plan; that that plan is stable and may be depended upon. It supposes that God has a right to exercise dominion; and that the exercise of that right is for the well-being of the universe, Its essential idea is that of authority, regularity. order, law; and hence it naturally combines with that form of government where the fixed principles of a constitution prevail.
(b) Each naturally draws to itself the same class of minds. There is in the world, in all countries and communities a class that characteristically loves order, law, fixed principles of jus- tice and liberty ; that aims to carry fixed principles into the fam- ily administration, into the intercourse of man with man, into civil institutions ; that endeavors to remove government as far as possible from the sway of passions; which seeks to conserve all that has been secured of value in the past.
Presbyterianism in its fixedness, order, love or law, well represents that idea. Calvinism as a system of doctrine begins with an eternal plan on the part of God, regards the universe as governed by settled purpose and law and has an affinity for the same class of minds.
(c) Each, therefore-Presbyterianism as a scheme of gov- ernment and Calvinism as a system of doctrine-contemplates the same RESULTS. That they may exist separately I do not deny. That the Presbyterian mode of government has been found in a few instances originally combined with other forms of doctrine, or that in some instances the form of Presbyterian government has been retained after the churches have mater- ially departed from the original faith which bound the two. sys- tems together, is not to be denied. Nor is it to be denied that the Calvinistic doctrine may be found under other modes of ec- clesiastical government. But the historical fact is that the two seek alliance and that they have such a natural affinity as to justify the popular use of the term Presbyterianism as denoting a peculiar mode of church government combined with Calvin- istic doctrines. Proceeding now with this idea of Presbyterian-
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ism as the union of a certain form of government with certain doctrines, notice some of the affinities of this system:
The most obvious perhaps, is its affinity for a simple mode of worship. Presbyterianism historically and naturally is out of tune with imposing rites and ceremonies, a liturgy; splendid vestments, or the idea of grace communicated by official. sanc- tity in a priesthood. It has built no cathedrals and would not know what to do with them if it had them. In the very form of the Gothic Edifice there is a manifest incongruity between the structure and the modes of worship preferred by Presbyterians ; and the idea which strikes the mind where such a structure is reared is that, as it was originally adapted to a mode of wor- ship materially unlike the Presbyterian view of the design of devotion, so it will be forever impossible to combine the two.
So deeply has this principle been imbedded in the very na- ture of Presbyterianism, that it has been impossible to retain in connection with it, or to revive permanently, even those rem- nants of pomp and show in the worship of God which some of the Reformers adopted under Presbyterian organizations.
It is known that some of the Reformed churches with Pres- byterian organization adopted in a modified way Liturgical forms of worship. And when these have died away attempts have been made to revive them. Yet history demonstrates the fact that there is a repellancy between Presbyterianism and Liturgical forms. It is not difficult to account for this fact. Presbyterian- ism gives such prominence to the great doctrine of Justification of faith, and gnards that bulwark of the faith with such anxious care, that it looks with a jealous eye on all those forms and cere- monies which would tend to render this cardinal doctrine ob- scure.
In the view of all Presbyterians the merit of our salvation is wholly in the Redeemer-in the sacrifice which He made for mankind on the Cross. That doctrine is to stand alone in the matter of man's salvation; nothing else is to enter into a sin- ner's justification ; no human merit can be urged as a ground of man's acceptance with God.
Some forms of worship are, indeed indispensable, but Pres- byterianism insists that they shall be simple and dignified : that they shall be such that the mind shall not be in danger on the subject ; that they shall have no tendency to turn the mind from the doctrine of Justification by faith; that they shall not en- courage such a view of the sacredness of the administrator as that there shall be any idea that he has power to forgive sin, and that there shall be no such view of the sacraments, as hav- ing an efficacy derived from the form or the administrator, to
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regenerate the soul. The mind of man is so constituted thiat ela- borate forms of religion tend to the idea of human merit and obscure the doctrine of Justification by faith.
The next thing which I notice in regard to Presbyterianism it is affinity for a certain class of minds.
The same thing might be said of other denominations with as much truth and propriety.
There is a class in every community which will find more in accord with their views of religion, and which will be more edified and more useful in the Presbyterian church than in any other; I believe also that there is a class of minds in every com- munity which will find more that accords with their views of religion, and with the structure of their own minds, and which will be more happy and more useful in the Episcopal church, in the Methodist church or in the Salvation Army than they would be in the Presbyterian church. No man who has any just view of the human mind can doubt that men, equally honest, will take different views on a subject so important and so diffi- cult as religion. These views are influenced or moulded by their training, their standpoint in religion, their habits of life, their temperaments and their associations.
Human nature as it is, is such, that harmony and peace can be better promoted by persons entertaining particular views be- ing associated in one organization, than would be the case if they were associated with those of a different temperament.
It may be readily granted that Christianity is divided into too many organizations: that the unity for which Christ prayed can not be realized in perfection until there is an organic unity of the evangelical denominations. But denominationalism is not all bad.
Here are four typical men : No. 1 is moved to devout medi- tation and reverence by splendid vestments, elaborate rituals and display of authority.
No. 2 would have nothing ornate, elaborate or sensuous come between him and a straightforward appeal to his reason and conscience ; No. 3 is listless until his emotions are touched ; and No. 4 is aroused by the blare of tambourines and drum. Put these four men in one organization. If the principles of No. 1 prevailed, 2, 3 and 4 would grow formal and spiritually dead. If the principles of 2 prevailed, 1, 3 and 4 would find them too commonplace, too cold. or too uninteresting. If the principles of 3 or 4 prevailed, 1 and 2 would be repelled or disgusted.
There are men whose characteristics of mind and heart in- eline them to the Calvinistic view of religion.
They are the men who look first to God: to government, to
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order, to law, to stability. These men naturally regard all things as the result of the carrying out of a fixed plan. They find no security or peace in the idea of chance, or in the results which would follow from making the human will, human wis- dom or human freedom the center or the standpoint in the con- templation of the universe. Such men, when their minds are turned to religion, will be Calvinists and not Arminians. Per- haps it is not too much to say that there are minds which sooner than embrace the Arminian views of religion with all the ap- peals which Christianity under that form could present to them, would rather not embrace religion in any form. For them the choice is not between a Calvinistic religion and an Arminian re- ligion but between a Calvinistic religion and no religion at all. It is certain that Jonathan Edwards could never have been any- thing but a Calvinist.
These men are calm and sober in their views; firm in prin- ciple; not easily swayed by passion; rigid in adherance to the truth ; friendly to just government, order and law.
(c) Again. There are persons who by the very manner of their conversion become Calvinists, and who can never be any- thing else. In their conversion their sense of sin is so deep; their conviction of the native obduracy of the heart, and the perversion of the will, is so entire; they are made so conscious of their utter helplessness; they are led by their own experience to attach so significant a meaning to the statement that men are "dead in sin;" the manner in which their attention was arrest- ed, and in which they were convicted of sin, was so clearly a matter of sovereignty-so entirely without any agency or pur- pose of their own, so absolutely and unequivocally the work of God that they can never doubt the doctrine of the divine agency in conversion-the doctrine of the divine purposes-the doc- trine of the preserverance of the Saints as constituting the only ground of their hopes that they will ever reach eternal life.
(c) Again. Much of the educated minds in this country and in other lands, will be likely to be Calvinistic. Calvinism builds colleges rather than cathedrals. The first college in this land, and the second, and the third and the fourth were founded by Calvinists, and no small part of those which have been since founded were organized and controlled by those of the same faith. These indeed are not sectarian institutions. They are not designed primarily to give instruction in the Calvinistic views. But in the nature of the case it is invitable that those views shall give shape and form to the philosophy taught in those institutions; and that the first impressions of religion will be derived from those views.
(d). The history of our country has been such that this
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class of minds is widely deffused. The Puritan mind is essentially Calvinistic. The civil institutions they formed have had an enduring influence on our country. Their churches were Calvin- istic ; their colleges were based no less on the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly than on the spelling book, Euclid and Homer. The Puritan mind is still a leading mind in religion, education. in civil and military affairs.
The Huguenot mind. one of the most noble, liberal, large warm hearted, and courteous, in all the classes of mind that have moulded our institutions is essentially Calvanistic, and naturally developes itself in the form of Presbyterianism. The Scotch mind is essentially Presbyterian. So also is the Scotch-Irish.
These classes of mind have some peculiar characteristics. They are firm, resolute, decided; they act more from principle than from impulse. They are friendly to order and law; they are the friends to sound learning and science ; they will be reliable at a'l times when great principles are at stake, and they will not be far off when the spirit of martyrdom is demanded. In trying times that class of mind displays a rugged grandeur, it may ap- pear harsh, rigid. possibly blunt, uncourteous, and rough, but it regards great principles as more important than the manner in which they are defended. The question in regard to this class of minds is not mainly whether it shall be Calvanistie or Ar- minian; not whether it shall be Trinitarian or Socinian; not whether it shall be Presbyterian or Prelatical, Presbyterian or Methodist. Episcopalian or Catholic. it is whether it shall be Christian or infidel. whether it shall embrace the principles of Knox and Chalmers. or those of Hume and Kames. No men make better Christians, and no men make as dangerous sceptics. and there is no more important work in our country than that which seems properly to pertain to the Presbyterian church, to see that this class of mind shall be saved from infidelity, and shall be trained to believe and embrace the gospel.
Hitherto I have gone on the theory that this class of mind exists apart from any consideration of theology. Did time per- mit it would not be difficult to show that Calvinism has been one of the most potent though perhaps unconscious factors in the production thereof.
"The two great springs of which men are moved are senti- ment and idea ; or, to use other terms, feeling and conviction." "The man of sentiment, of feeling, is the man of instability; the man of idea, of conviction, is the man of stability; he can not be changed until his conscience first be changed. Cal- vanism produces men of conviction. It finds them in the quag- mire of sin and takes them out. It will not leave them dirty and ignorant and shiftless. It puts a new aspiration in the
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hearts and traits of character that make men successful in the social and economic spheres. Men criticise the church be- cause it apparently reaches so few outside of the ranks of the fairly prosperous in business and labor; forgetting that Christi- anity in general and the Calvinistic forms thereof in particu- lar encourage just those characteristics that make the laborer, the artisan, the merchant successful. And men who are swayed by sentiment, whose religion is largely moulded by appeals to the sensuous or the spectacular complain that Calvinism is cold, hard, unreasonable. Many years ago a pioneer minister started east to be treated for a cancer. In Springfield he fell among thieves who robbed him of all he had. News of this fact reached a religious gathering in another country. Someone suggested : "Let us pray." "Uncle Billy Orr"-that staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian was never heard to pray aloud, but he instantly sprang to his feet, laid a $10 bill on the table, saying, there's my prayer." Calvinism does not flow away in tears, does not wear its heart on its sleeve, does not slobber over people, but let it never be said that a system of doctrine that has produced more martyrs to Christianity and more great evangelists than all other systems combined is cold or unfeeling.
The next thing which I notice in regard to this system of re- ligion is its affinity for the doctrine of human rights, and the prin- ciples of liberty. Its great principle which lies at the foundation of all our notions of liberty and the rights of man is stated in the twentieth chapter of the Westminster Confession: "God alone is Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to His word or beside it, in matters of faith and worship." With their ingrained ideas of the rights of man and their detestation of tyranny Macaulay says the Puritans were prostrate in the dust be- fore their Maker, but put their feet on the neck of their king. The principles of civil and religious liberty are nourished and sustained by a veneration for the Bible, as a Divine revelation, as the source of law, as the fountain of doctrine, as containing a true history of man in his creation, fall and redemption. These great principles have been incorporated into all Presbyterian Confes- sions of Faith, and in no other branch of the church has there been a more stern regard for liberty and the rights of man, and a more firm resistance to tyranny and oppression.
We may begin at Geneva-abused and slandered Geneva- and move among the Huguenots, and pass to Holland, and recall the scenes in England in the time of Charles and in the Common- wealth, and retrace the bloody history of Scotland, and bring to our recollection the history of the Presbyterian Church in our own country, and we shall trace all along a close connection between
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the principles which we hold as Presbyterians and the spread of the doctrines of civil liberty, and we may challenge the world for a record of more honorable struggles in behalf of freedom and the rights of man. The principle which we hold in regard to the right of self-government in the church, or of power emanating, under God, from the people, is a principle which as applied to civil af- fairs constitutes the foundation of liberty in the state. The fund- amental principles that have made Presbyterianism the historic champion of civil and religious liberty, now place it in the van- guard of those who are endeavoring to bridge the chasm said to exist between the church and the laboring man on the one hand, and the twentieth century forward movement in the evangeliza- tion of the world on the other. The former finds a fitting illus- tration in the Department of Church and Labor, conducted under the auspices of the Board of Home Missions. The cordiality with which labor organizations have received the advances of this de- partment, and the results it has already achieved are simply mar- vellous and characterize it as one of the most important undertak- ings of the church for a generation or more. As to the latter the Omaha and Philadelphia conventions in the interest of foreign missions only emphasize the well-known fact that by virtue of its very being and principles the Presbyterian Church is a missionary society, deeply conscious of the responsibility imposed by the risen Lord on His church to preach the Gospel to every creature. These movements, under the auspices respectively of the great Boards of Home and Foreign Missions, are more than fads or passing sentiments. They are founded in the very constitution of the church. They are the natural, if not inevitable, expression of its dife. For consider our precious doctrines we hold with stead- fast tenacity that pledge us to champion the rights of the toiling masses, and dispel the spiritual darkness that broods over a large portion of the habitable world.
(a) The race, we hold, is one. "God hath made of one blood all the nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." This doctrine we embrace in the strictest sense. Our faith in the Bible is incompatible with a conception of man as made up of dif- ferent races of independent origin. The true conception of the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God leaps beyond the boundaries of social distinctions or stations in life; beyond the changes of elimatic conditions, or environment; and is a wonder- ful leveler, and a promoter of equity and humanity.
(b) Again. As in the creation, so in the fall of man the race is one. We regard Adam as the federal head of our race, and in some way, whether it be by mediate or immediate imputa- tion, his act involved our race in ruin. All his posterity descend- ing from him by ordinary generation is born with a fallen nature,
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with corrupt hearts. That fall was the source of death-the rea- son why any human being would ever die, and why all human be- ings must die. Each one, no matter what his station or nation, is a brother to every other one in human form, alike in creation and in ruin.
(c) The same thing is true in the doctrine which we hold in respect to redemption. In the views which we entertain on that subject we regard men in all the walks of life, and all the races of men, as on a level. All are ransomed by the same blood. "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Christ met every requirement of violated law and made an atonement sufficient for all, adapted to all and to be offered freely to all.
(d) The same idea is suggested by our doctrine of election. This is a cardinal doctrine; a doctrine to which we trace all our personal hopes of salvation and all our expectations of the suc- cess of the Gospel in the world. But the division of the human race which the doctrine of election contemplates in reference to the church on earth and the final condition of the race in the fu- ture world is not a division by any imagined upper and lower strata in society; it is not a division of geography, climate, na- tional peculiarities. What it is, we may not be able with our wis- dom to determine. We only know it is not this. That multitude which no man can number is to be gathered out of every nation, tribe and tongue : every condition and station in life. Man as he is regarded by the Creator on His throne, the Redeemer on the cross, the Holy Ghost in His "office work" in converting and sanctifying the soul, rises above all the distinctions of wealth and poverty, of position and occupation, of intelligence and ignorance, of civilization and barbarism. "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable with Him."
(e) Finally our ideas of loyalty to Christ enforce us to de- fend the weak, to bear one another's burdens, to share the Gospel with every creature.
The sum of all doctrines is to bring men back to allegiance to the laws and the government of our Maker. With their innate - love of law and order, Presbyterians have been steadfast in their recognition of just authoriity in church and state. Recognizing Christ as the Great Head of the church, we take our orders from Him and bow in loving submission to His mandate to carry the Gospel to every creature. The tendency of Presbyterianism in the very nature of the case is to loyalty. Above the siren songs that proclaim the religions of the non-Christian lands as good
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enough for them it hears the majestic voice of the Son of God saying : "Go ye." And it answers: "Yes, Lord, in Thy name we will go."
PULPIT AND PEW IN PERSPECTIVE.
(A Home Missionary Address Prepared For the Spring Meeting of Ozark Presbytery, 1909, But Not Delivered Because the Writer Was Called Home.)
The earliest Presbyterian ministers in Southwest Missouri were energetic and untiring in their labors. They spent hours in the saddle, rode through forests and over prairies, preached in groves, school houses, private homes, held camp meetings, organ- ized churches, visited scattered homes, taught school or farmed.
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