USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > Huntingdon > The Historical memorial of the centennial anniversary of the Presbytery of Huntingdon : held in Huntingdon, Pa., April 9, 1895 : 1795-1895 > Part 9
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Presbyterianism from prelacy on the one side and independency on the other, and then follows the parity of the clergy, government by elders, and the unity of the church. We claim that we have the warrant for these characteristics in the apostolic church. Its divinely delegated power to the people, exercised by them through their own chosen repre- sentatives, with the checks of a written constitution and a system of appellate courts, bring it into thorough sympathy with a people whose civil government of the people by the people and for the people is just what Presbyterianism has for centuries illustrated, and which must com- mend itself to all as a system in which the largest measure of liberty is combined with the most orderly administration of law. While we hold that our polity is most agreeable to Scripture, we do not asperse other branches of the evangelical church as sects, nor question the va- lidity of their ministry or church ordinances. We hold that irregularity does not involve invalidity, so that without any sacrifice of principle we open our pulpits to all who preach the gospel of Christ, and our communion-table to all who own allegiance to our common Lord and Master.
We are also as distinguished for our faith as our polity. Like our Lord and Head, we were born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth. The truth to which we bear witness is the revelation which God has made in the Bible, and nothing but the Bible as the supreme judge of religious controversies. As witness-bearers we claim it to be our duty to declare the sense and meaning of the Bible. This is ex- pressed in our Confession of Faith. The Bible is the word of God to man; the Confession is the answer of man to God, and is of course sub- ordinate to his word. The Confession expresses what we hold to be the sense and meaning of the word. It is our public rule of doctrine derived from the Bible, hence we are eminently a doctrinal church. The charac- teristics of our doctrinal system is that we place the emphasis upon God, of whom, to whom, and through whom are all things, to whom be glory forever. We believe in divine sovereignty as well as human freedom. While our faith exalts God it humbles man. It recognizes our utter dependence upon divine mercy, that while God condemns no man, except for sin, he saves no man except out of mercy. We do not separate grace from the means of grace, nor God's free grace from man's free will. We hold that God is love, that love is self-sacrifice for others. Love being the actuating principle of his nature. To teach that God exists for his own glory is to teach, not that he is infinitely selfish,
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but that he is infinitely benevolent. For this faith, commonly called Calvinistic, because John Calvin was one of its most eminent defenders, men have faced sword and fagot. Virtue has gone out of it in every age.
Ranke says, "We may consider John Calvin as the founder of the free States of North America." Bancroft says, "He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows little of the origin of American liberty." Froude says, "It has been able to inspire the bravest efforts ever made by man to break the yoke of unjust authority." I submit if the church which the fathers have fostered and transmitted to us, and that holds to this matchless system of order and faith, and that continues unscathed after fourteen centuries of criticism, has not still a mission, not only to the unsaved world, but also to the other churches. In this age when dogmas and doctrines are widely discounted ; when the evolutionary hypothesis of natural development is strongly asserting that the world has outgrown the Bible; when the divine element in the giving of the Bible is so minified, and the human element is so magnified, as to decidedly weaken its authority; when we see on the one side the rapid strides of Romanism which exalts church authority to a level with the Bible, and on the other side the spread of rationalism which exalts the human understanding and consciousness even above the revealed word ; when we see the growth of socialism, communism, and anarchism, and the gigantic monetary corporations with their temptations to tyranny and corruption ; when we see spiritual religion sinking into mere moral- ity, and all the religions of the world to a common level ; in view of these things was there ever a time that so imperatively demanded for the safety of our institutions, civil and religious, such men as Froude declares to be the offspring of Calvinism ?- " Men of inflexible front to illusion and mendacity, preferring to be ground to powder like flint rather than bend before violence or melt under enervating temptation." The very tenacity with which Presbyterians hold to their convictions of truth exposes them to a danger against which they should guard. Our past history leaves us in no doubt of the danger. It is " that like hickory we split easily." A split is not the best thing, though it may be at times the best thing we are equal to, just as a child in learning to walk perfectly may walk awkwardly, staggering and falling often, but it is the best thing the child is equal to.
The time has come when we should put away childish things and strive to be equal to something better than repeating our divisions. If
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we would impinge with the greatest possible force upon the world we should maintain our solidarity as long as consistent with fidelity to the cardinal principles of the Calvinistic system as embodied in our stand- ards. "Broken lights distort the true image." Extreme parties are not apt to be the best exponents and truest promoters of our system. Lib- erals are too apt to let go the old, conservatives too apt to reject the new, and both too apt to be intolerant of each other. Whereas, both need each other to serve as mutual checks and secure a just balance between extremes, and to preserve the augmented strength of a consolidated body.
The rumbling sounds of the times calls for watchfulness, courage, and fidelity ; they also call for the exercise of patience and charity. Among the advantages which we have inherited, and which so augments our re- sponsibility to the future, is the grand equipment which under God the fathers have provided and placed in our hands. They began their work without a single one of the boards that now constitute our complete or- ganism for gospelizing the world. This, taken in connection with our vast membership and wealth, so competent to set our machinery in operation, and next the hand of God in history and providence going before to open the way to the fields of operation, a way that as clearly reveals the hand of God in preparing it as that hand was in preparing the way for the early Christians in the dispersion of believers, the su- premacy of the Roman power and the Greek tongue, who by steam, by electricity, by wars, revolutions, and commerce, has brought the ends of the earth into close neighborhood, and predisposed them to hear the gospel message which we are commanded to deliver,-in view of all this, what possibilities and dazzling hopes are ours! With our tried ecclesi- astical polity and faith, with our view of the visible church of God, its unity, its catholicity, and its spirituality, what may not the Presbyterian Church achieve for the kingdom of our Lord in the century to come if she is only baptized with the Holy Spirit as was the apostolic church !
True gratitude for the past inspires consecration to the future. "Freely ye have received, freely give."
True sympathy for the wise and good who have served and enriched us by their labors should impel us to pay over to the future in a grateful spirit and with interest what we have received. Let us on this centen- nial occasion seize as well as measure our opportunities. The propa- gation of the truth rather than the sharpening of its definition is the
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demand of the hour. We have been whetting our swords and trying their temper. Let us go forth and use them in winning victories for our King.
" We are living, we are dwelling In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling To be living is sublime."
THE OUTLOOK.
GENERAL JAMES A. BEAVER, LL.D.
FELLOW-PRESBYTERIANS,-We have taken a long and loving look backward to-day. With the preacher, we have walked about Zion and gone round about her and told the towers thereof and marked well her bulwarks and considered her palaces, and the result of it has been good. With the singers, --
" We've marked her goodly battlements, And her foundations strong, And joined within the gladsome notes Of her triumphant song."
This is well,-well for a day and well done as a record for the next generation. Reminiscence serves a good purpose if it incites to the discharge of present duty or points the way for future conduct.
In the life of our Master the transfiguration scene was glorious and doubtless in a way useful, but it lasted at the most but a few hours. The great confession of the great Apostle was doubtless confirmed and his faith more firmly anchored as he beheld the glory which was to be, as foreshadowed by the glory which was. The Master himself was doubt- less strengthened as he talked with Moses and Elijah of what he should accomplish at Jerusalem; but there was a demoniac boy at the foot of the hill whom the disciples were unable to heal, waiting for his healing touch, and the Master came down from the Mount to take up the every- day duties of healing and helping which were ready to hand. We would not like to miss the transfiguration scene from the story of our Lord's life. It gives us a glimpse of the glory which is to be revealed hereafter. We rejoice in its spiritual uplift, and, with Peter, are ready to say, "It is good for us to be here ;" but, after all, it was an aside, a sort of a soul's half-holiday, necessary, perhaps, for spiritual recuperation and for more
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perfect preparation for what was to come. Its glory, however, was but a search-light thrown forward upon the path of duty, and the high con- verse of the great characters gathered there was concerning what should be accomplished in the work of the world's redemption.
And so, as we gather here to-day to hold sweet converse as to what the fathers have accomplished in the past, and if, perchance, their glorified spirits gather unseen about us and join in the recall of high and holy achievement, let the retrospect be an incentive to emulate their sacrifice and service. Satisfying as have been all the joyous exercises of this day, surely they serve their best purpose when they call us to present duty, and their trumpet tones are not a recall from the conflict, but sound rather the advance of the church along every line of activity and service. As we stand upon this high summit of privilege and gather the inspira- tion which comes to us from the past, we say and can say truly, "It is good for us to be here ;" but we cannot stay here. The church cannot rest in congratulation. She must gird herself for conflict. The recall of to-day is, therefore, the call to present duty, and the light which we gather from the past is only useful as we cast it ahead upon the pathway of the future. Fathers and brethren, heed the call. Withdraw your earnest gaze from the past and look well to the front. Those who cele- brate the next Centennial will scarcely note what you say here. They will be concerned about what you do in carrying forward the work com- mitted to your keeping.
Our Committee of Arrangements bids me speak of "The Outlook." What is it? One of the impressive lessons of this day, pointing clearly to future obligation on the part of the Presbyterian Church, comes from the striking contrast between the place where the Presbytery of Hunting- don was organized on the second Tuesday of April, 1795, and that in which its Centennial is held on the second Tuesday of April, 1895. The Presbytery was organized in a country church. The phrase, " the country church," had not then been coined. They were the important churches of our denomination. They were the wealthy churches. Their mem- bers were the influential men of the community. Agriculture was the principal and most dignified pursuit of our people. The land-owners were the men of wealth and influence, and they lived for the most part upon their own land. The inhabitants of our villages were the trades-people and mechanics, whose barter and handicraft drew from the more thrifty farming population the trade upon which they relied for a livelihood. The last century has witnessed a great change in social and
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economic conditions among our people. The drift of population has followed trade. The development of manufacturing enterprises, furnish- ing employment to large bodies of men, has served to concentrate population to a still greater extent. The concentration of manufactures, trade, and commerce in the busy centres, which constitute one of the marked features of present-day civilization, has led to the relative depop- ulation of our rural districts. As a consequence, the churches of our larger towns have grown at the expense of the rural churches. The drift of population westward has largely contributed to the further deple- tion of the ranks of the membership of our country churches, and the inevitable result is one of the serious problems which confronts the Presbyterian Church of to-day,-What shall be done for the country church ? The church of one hundred years ago, the church in which this Presbytery was organized,-not the identical building, but a fine brick structure which took its place,-is practically deserted. Much of its membership has drifted to a near-by town and erected a new church building. The field covered by these churches, and at least one other locality which could be united with them, is without a pastor, and likely to remain so unless Presbytery exercise its prerogative and determine what can and should be done to re-establish our church in this field. I use this as an illustration to emphasize the problem which confronts the Presbytery of Huntingdon to-day,-How shall we resuscitate the country churches of the Presbytery ? I have not the time, nor is this the place, to enlarge upon the magnitude of this question. Every intelligent member of the Presbytery is impressed with its importance. It is not the question of allowing a church for which there is no demand to die out. It is not a question of denominational pride. It is a question of obedience to the command of the Master, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." There is just as much demand for the preaching of the gospel in our rural districts to-day as there was when these churches were organized. There is greater demand for the exercise of the highest pulpit and pastoral talents than there ever was. I hesitate to give advice to men who are wiser and older than I am, but you have bidden me speak of "The Outlook," and I am constrained to say that, so far as this Presbytery is concerned, the outlook for the numerous churches, strong, healthy, vigorous, helpful in the past, is most discouraging, unless the policy of the Presbytery in regard to them is reversed, and that quickly and radically. Under our form of government there is no bishop, no presiding elder, no superintendent, no one man
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who has the view of all the churches continually before him, and who is scheming and planning and laboring, and whose sole duty it is to scheme and plan and labor, for their welfare. The Presbytery is legislative, judicial, and executive. Its province is to plan and to execute. It is expected that this will be done at meetings of Presbytery practically twice each year, continuing scarcely more than two days each, and that the committees having the interests of these churches of which I speak in charge will steal sufficient time from the regular meetings of the Presbytery to lay wise plans and provide for the execution of them throughout seven counties of this great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The mere statement of this mode of oversight demonstrates its futility, and the melancholy result is "Ichabod" written over a number of our once prosperous and influential churches. President Harrison once said to a gentleman who was complaining about some alleged defect in his administration, " Yes, that is very well ; it is very easy to find fault ; now give us the remedy." That is hardly my province. If the criticism is correct, or if there be a grain of truth in the condition which to my mind very clearly confronts us, the remedy can be applied only through the exercise of the mature wisdom and prayerful consideration of the entire Presbytery. A suggestion or two may not be out of place :
First. We must come back to the fundamental idea of Presbyterial government. The Presbytery must be the governing factor within its legitimate and constitutional province. Presbyterial control must be exercised over all the churches of the Presbytery, and must mean Control with a capital C.
Second. Instead of individual supplies, consisting of different persons for each succeeding Sabbath's service, for these weak churches, would it not be well, through the agency of special committees, to visit the sev- eral fields within the Presbytery, spend the time necessary to ascertain the wants and the capacity of the field, endeavor to secure, if not a pastor, a regular stated supply, and
Third. Adopt the plan which has been found to work so satisfactorily in the Southern branch of our church,-secure the services of the best evangelical preacher to be had and let him labor, in connection with some one upon the ground if necessary, for several months at a time until the field is thoroughly cultivated and its capabilities fully demon- strated ? If it be found, after careful consideration and prayerful effort, that there is no constituency from which a Presbyterian church can be built up, then, finally, let the field be abandoned to other churches which
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can more satisfactorily and more fully meet the needs of the people of the respective communities in which these weak and struggling churches are situated. Do you know such a church ? The problem is a large one. It needs thorough discussion and radical treatment. I mention it as one of the pressing needs as we turn from the consideration of the century past and of the churches which have done the great work of this Presbytery in the past century, and face the needs of the present generation and the century which is opening before us.
It was not my intention, in the short time allotted me, to discuss questions of Presbyterial concern, but rather to emphasize certain char- acteristics of the individual Presbyterian which seem to me to be de- manded by the present condition of the church and which, if possessed by the individual Christian, will lead the church in the aggregate to a high plane of prosperity and usefulness. The question to which I have alluded was forced upon me by the conditions which confront us, and was not in my thought when I began considering the topic to which our Committee of Arrangements assigned me.
The first qualification of every Presbyterian, of course, is that he should be an earnest Christian; that, having sworn allegiance to the Captain of his salvation, he must follow his banner with unswerving devotion, and that the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit are essential to his Christian life. This is true of all Christians of every denomina- tion. Given these absolutely essential elements of Christian life, it seems to me that in our church we wish at the present time to emphasize the loyalty which is due to the church of our choice. It is essential to the welfare of every voluntary organization, whether of divine or human origin, that every member shall be bound by and respond obediently to every requirement of the law which governs it. It is not incumbent upon any person to join the Presbyterian Church rather than any other church unless its doctrinal standards and form of government best suit the mental characteristics and social peculiarities of the individual. When, however, these standards and this form of government appeal to the individual with such force as to require him to yield his assent to their truthfulness and to come within the scope of their operation, then common honesty requires complete and unswerving loyalty to their demands. This, of course, presupposes a knowledge on the part of those who come within the sphere of this voluntary organization of its doc- trines, of its laws, and of its form of government. What is true of the individual must also be true of any aggregation of individuals forming
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a corporate existence, whether it be the individual church or Presbytery or Synod, or whether it be any institution formed for and devoted to the advancement of the interests of the church, educational or otherwise. The same laws which govern the individual members of the church, the binding obligation of which they are bound to recognize, must govern and be recognized by every institution which the church controls, and especially those which assume to teach and have been intrusted with the duty of teaching those who are called to the duty of instructing the people in what constitutes Presbyterianism. This, of course, leads me into the very thick of one of the questions confronting the church at the present time. I do not attempt to discuss it. In my humble judgment it needs no discussion. The church, having seen one of the seminaries which for twenty-five years has held itself out to the world, under the compact of 1870, as being in sympathy with the doctrines and the form of government of the Presbyterian Church, as being under the control and direction of the church, and, by reason of such professed sympathy and allegiance, secured large contributions to its endowment funds from loyal Presbyterians, slip from its grasp through a legal technicality, is not likely to permit any further experiments in this line. The institution, therefore, that hesitates in declaring its loyal allegiance to the church by subscribing to the reasonable requirements of the General Assembly as formulated by the committee appointed at its last meeting, and that fails to secure by proper charter regulations the reasonable security which the church, through the Assembly, demands, had better once for all declare itself independent, and thereby certify to the world that it is no longer in sympathy with the church which created it, which supports it, and without which it cannot continue for a day its useful existence.
If the church of the future is to reach the results at which it aims and is to meet the requirements of the present generation, there must be a new and enlarged sense of obligation on the part of the individual members of it in the use of their means for the support of the gospel at home and the spread of its glad tidings throughout all the earth. The church machinery of the Presbyterian body is, I believe, the wisest in plan and the most efficient in execution of any similar organization in this or any other land. This we are bound to admit as loyal Presby- terians. Every one of its active agencies for carrying on the Lord's work in the world has been the outgrowth of pressing need, as it has manifested itself to the highest legislative body of the church. Not one of our agencies for carrying on the manifold operations of the church
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has been authorized or organized without the most careful scrutiny on the part of the General Assembly. When so authorized and organized, it becomes the duty of every individual member to show his loyalty to the church at large by his contributions to those several agencies, care- fully planned and wisely managed for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world. How far is this obligation met by the churches composed of these individual members in this Presbytery? Let the blanks in the columns devoted to the reports of the beneficent offerings in our churches in the minutes of our General Assembly answer. It is no sufficient answer to this to say that the times are hard and that the churches are poor and that it is difficult for them to maintain the stated means of grace at home. Of course it is difficult, and will become in- creasingly difficult just in proportion as the churches which regularly maintain these blanks continue to neglect a manifest duty. The pastor or stated supply who fails to bring to the attention of the congregation which he serves the claims and the demands of the several beneficent agencies of the church will inevitably pay for his neglect of duty in diminished support and in increasing difficulty in securing from the congregation what is necessary for his own personal well-being. All experience proves that the churches which gladly and loyally support the work of the church, through the various agencies which it has es- tablished for practical obedience to our Lord's command to " Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," are those which most easily, most generously, and most enthusiastically discharge their obligations at home, and that the pastor who most faithfully and lovingly preaches and practises the duty of giving to Christ's cause for Christ's sake is the one who has the least difficulty in securing from his people adequate and loyal support. Let me, therefore, beg of you, my brethren of the ministry, who do not often have the opportunity of listening to an exhortation from the pew, as you value your own com- fort, as you value the spiritual well-being of the members of your churches, as you value the cause which the great head of the church has so deeply at heart, not to hesitate to declare the whole counsel of God in regard to this neglected Christian grace. Satan will doubtless squirm. He always does when he is hurt, but you may be assured that, if criticism comes because of such preaching, it will come from those who are desirous of evading duty and who will be gladly content to rest satisfied in a one-sided development of Christian character. You know better than I that in this age of mammon worship the issue must be
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