An earnest appeal to the Free Church of Scotland on the subjects of its economics

Contents

Page

Introduction to the American Edition, 5

Preface, 15

Section I. On the Contributions for the Support of the Free Church,. • • 19

II. On the Financial Committee, 27

III. IV. On the Distribution of the Sustentation Fund 31

V. On Church Extension, 41

VI. General View of the Schemes and Objects of the Church, 44

VII. General Considerations, 47

Affendix.

No. I. On the Importance op the Free Church Ministers giving their Testimony and their Countenance in behalf of the Association. See. I. § 2 49

II. On the Possibility of supporting a Church, even of National Magnitude and Extent, by the Contributions of the Middle and Lower Classes, Stc. I. § 5, ^ 50

III. On the Offerings of the Common People, Sec. I. § 6 52

IV. The Stability of our Means lies more in the Smaller Contri-

butions OF the many, than in the Larger Contributions of

the few. Sec. I. § 8, 53

V. On certain requisite Modifications by which our present System OF AN equal Dividend might be improved. Sec. III. and

VI. On the Character and Prospects of a Church indifferent to the Moral and Religious State of the Outfield Population. Sec. III. and IV., § 7, 56

VII. On Scales of Distribution. Sec. III. and IV., § 15, 56

VIII. Fear lest the Work of Church Extension should be misman

aged or neglected,

IX, On the Prospects of Voluntaryis.m Sec VII. § 2 ... • • 61

X. Conclusion — The Author's View of what should be the State of the Church's outward Business for the following twelvemonth,

ADYEETISEMENT.

The Board of Publication believe that tliey are performing an important service for tlie Pre'sbyterian Clmrcli in re-pub lisliing this pamphlet. The topics Dr. Chalmers here discusses with his characteristic ability and energy, are, mutatis mutandis^ of no less moment to our Church than they are to the Free Church of Scotland. This will be sufficiently evident to every candid reader of the able and interesting Introduction prefixed to the present edition.

A copy of the pamphlet will be sent, through the liberality of a friend, to each of the ministers in our connexion. The Board are unwilling to believe that such seed is to be scattered through the Church in vain. They are convinced that ♦the subjects here presented, demand the most serious attention of our ministers and people, and that they should be discussed until some measures shall be devised and adopted at once to augment the liberality, zeal, and efficiency of our Church, and to promote the comfort and usefulness of her ministers.

The manaofement of the Economics of the Church is vested in its Judicatories. With their functions this Board has no wish to interfere. It is not its province even to suggest specific modifications of existing plans. Its office simply is to diffuse light, leaving it to the Church herself, under

ADVERTISEMENT.

the guidance of God's Providence and Spirit, to use the light thus disseminated as she may see fit.

It is taken for granted that many of those into whose hands this Appeal may fall, will be disposed to examine its facts and reasonings in their application to our own affairs, and to lay their views before the churches. If in any instances individuals should choose to send their communications to this Board, the Board will with pleasure receive them, and dispose of them in such a manner as may in their judgment be best adapted to promote the ends contemplated in the circulation of this pamphlet.

Introduction

TO THE

AMERICAN EDITION

The disruption of the Ciiurcli of Scotland, the simultaneous secession of four hundred and seventy of her ministers, and of a still larger proportion of her members; the sacrifice by the clergy of an abundant and secure income; the cheerful assumption by the people of the burden of sustaining their own Church, and of creating all the necessary appliances for that purpose, presented an example of fidelity, of self-denial, and of energy, which has few parallels in history. This spectacle has fixed the attention of the Protestant world, and is exerting an influence, the results of which it is difficult to foresee or estimate.

When the Free Church withdrew from the Establishment, it had. every thing to do, and to do at once. 1. Churches were to be erected in every parish. 2. Provision was to be made for the support of the ministry. 3. All the missionary and other benevolent operations of the Church were to be taken up and carried on, 4. Parochial schools were to be established. 5. Manses were to be provided for the pastors. 6. A college was to be organized and sustained.

Some of these objects demanded a strenuous effort once for all, and they were taken up and disposed of in order. First, collections were made for the building of churches. This work was prosecuted with so much vigour that within three years and a half after the disruption not less than £400,000 sterling, or ^1,800,000 have been expended in erecting from five to seven hundred churches. Then ^250,000 were raised for parochial schools. Then, in the space of eight months, ^500,000 were collected for building manses. Then, or even before, ^100,000 were obtained for a college, designed principally as a theological seminary. 2

6 INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

Important as were these several objects, they were still secondary to those which made a permanent demand on the Cinirch. Of these tlie most pressing was the support of the ministry. The principle adopted was, that every minister who left the Establishment, should receive an equal sum from a common fund, which sum the congregation to which he ministered might increase by voluntary contributions, at discretion. In some places the amount received from the common fund would be adequate to the support of the pastor; in other places it would be entirely insufficient. Every congregation, therefore, after contributing to the general fund, was left at liberty to do what they saw fit for the support of their own minister. To carry out this plan, associations were organized in every parish. The business of these associations is to make collections for the sustentalion fund. This is done by districting the parish, and appointing a collector in each district, whose duty it is to apply to every member within his bounds for his weekly or monthly contribution. The proceeds of these collections are remitted to Edinburgh, and twice a year a dividend is declared. To supplement these salaries, collections are made every Sabbath at the door of the churches, the proceeds of which are given to the pastor. The result has been that every pastor has received from the general fund a salary varying from £100, to £140.

It will be seen from the following pamphlet, that Dr. Chalmers is alarmed at the operation of this plan of equal distribution, which he says fosters the spirit of giving as little, and getting as much as possible. He insists strenuously that the rule should be adopted of the congregations •' getting as they give." One proposition is, that every pastor shall receive from the sustentation fund, one and a half limes as much as his congregational association contributes to that fund. If the association contributes £50, the pastor receives £75; if it contributes £60, he receives £90; and so on until the stipend amounts to £150, beyond which nothing is to be given from the general fund. The reasons for this modification will be found in the pamphlet.

After providing for the support of her own ministers, the next most pressing duty of the Free Church, was the prosecution of her benevolent operations. As all the missionaries connected with the Established Church, took part with the seceding portion, on that portion was devolved at once the burden of sustaining all the enterprises in which the v/hole Church had been engaged. These benevolent operations are divided into several departments, called schemes, each having its own committee of superintendence and management. These are, Educatiou, Foreign Missions, Domestic Missions, Conversion of the Jews, Colonial Churches. The general plan of raising funds for these several schemes, is to assign a particular day lor each, on which the collection is to be made simultaneously throughout the whole Cliurch. The plan or mode of making this collection seems to be left to the discretion of each congregation. There is a schedule in use in some congregations, which seems so simple and so well adapted to the purpose, that it may without impropriety be transfer-

Introduction To The American Edition. 7

red from Appendix No II. to this place, to render it more prominent as a model.

Rates of Contribntiou to the

Fund.

SCALE.

PER WEEK.

PER

MONTH.

PER QUARTER.

d.

S.

d.

s.

d.

Rale, No. 1 n

G

*

On considering the above rates, I agree to give to the the sum specified in

Rate No. — , for the year commencing at Martinmas, 1844, and request the Deacon or Collector to call for it each (Signature)

* Rate No. 1 is left blank, to suit parties who may find that even the Rate, No. 2 is above their ability; and Rate No. 12 is also left blank, to suit parties whose circumstances may enable them to give a higher Rate than any put down in the scale. Some members of the Free Church also give .£1 a week, some £2, some £4, and a few even more, to the fund.

In proof of the efficiency of these plans and of the energy with which they are prosecuted, it is enough to say that the Free Church has raised in three years a million sterling, by annual contributions of upward of ^6300,000. It assumed at birth all the functions and responsibilities of a mature establishment. Six and thirty months have sufficed to form a society with all the appliances of self-support, instruction, and extension. A body whose existence dates no further back than 1S43, pays ^672,000 to its appointed ministers, provides for its widows and orphans, expends £9000 a year on its home missions, and twice as much in building churches. It has a college with scholarships for poor students, with professors and tutors receiving salaries amounting to £4000 a year. It has its normal and general schools, probationers, catechists and travellers. It has six missions in India, six stations in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor for the conversion of the Jews. It has made grants amounting to near £2000 to the Evangelical Societies of Switzerland and Belgium, and the Bible Society of Toulouse and the Gustavus Adolphus Society of Germany. It provides for the temporary support of Hebrew converts in Hungary, and for Hindoo converts in Calcutta; supports missionaries with insured lives in South Africa, and has despatched a philosophical apparatus to the Great Fish River.*

It is obvious that other churches must have much to learn from such a body. Our own church from its various points of contact and affinity with the Free Church of Scotland, may especially be

* Condensed from no very friendly article in the London Times, September, 1846.

g INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

expected to take an interest in her operations, and to be disposed to profit by her example. We have the same standards of doctrine and order. Our people have been trained under the same system of truth. We too are a self-sustaining and self-extending church. We have the same kind of work to perform both at home and abroad. What, therefore, a man so eminent and so long experienced in practical matters, as Dr. Chalmers, has to say in his parting counsels to the Free Church, may well be expected to find attentive readers in this country. The republication of this pamphlet is to be referred to the conviction, that the principles here advocated are the very principles upon which we must act, if we would in any measure fulfil our destiny, or emulate the usefulness of a body much smaller in numbers, and much more limited in its resources than our own. There is indeed much in this pamphlet which has reference to the peculiar circumstances of the Free Church, but there is also much which as intimately concerns us as it does them.

I. There are certain general principles which pervade all the practical counsels of Dr. Chalmers, as they do the whole Bible. One is the universal brotherhood of believers; another is, the obligation which lies on every individual and every community to meet as far as possible, its own necessities. From the one principle flows the duty of bearing one another's burdens, of making the abundance of one a supply for the deficiency of others. 2 Cor. viii. 13, 14. From the other, flows the duty of self-support as far as it may be practicable. It is on the due adjustment of these two principles, the proper relative discharge of these two duties, that the well being of every community depends. If, on the one hand, the rich keep their abundance to themselves, multitudes of their brethren must perish. If, on the other, the poor rely upon the rich, without adequate exertion on their own part, the rich will soon weary of a liberality which they see to be productive of evil, or resources which ought to flow out to those who really need them, will be absorbed by those who would be better without such assistance.

Dr. Chalmers makes a twofold application of these principles. First, he shows the impropriety of the poorer members of the Church devolving the duty of giving on their richer brethren. This is unreasonable, because it is as much the duty of the poor to give according to their ability, as it is that of the rich to give accordmg to theirs. It is unwise, because the numerous small contributions of the poor, in all societies, amount to more than the large contributions of the rich. It is injurious, because it is doing the poor a great good, it is cultivating self-respect, self-denial, gratitude to God, and love to men, to call upon them to take their part in the great work of Christian benevolence. In the second place, he applies these principles to congregations. There always will be aid-giving and aid-receiving churches. There is a tendency in the one class to be backward or parsimonious in giving; and a tendency in the other, to rely upon aid from abroad, without making due exertion at iiome. lioth these evils are to be counteracted; the one by impressing on the stronger churches the duty of aiding their brethren; and the other, by urging

Introduction To The American Edition. 9

on weak churches the duty of doing all they can for themselves. Hence the earnestness with which our author argues that all the benevolent operations of the Church should be conducted with the aim of increasing the number of the aid-giving, and of decreasing that of the aid-receiving congregations; making it the interest of the latter to assist themselves, by proportioning the amount received from abroad, to the sum raised at home.

There is another general principle on which Dr, Chalmers very properly insists, and that is, the perfect consistency of real unity in the Church, both as to feeling and operation, without uniformity. All may be united, though all are not alike. There may be a general building fund, though all the churches are not of the same pattern. There may be a general fund for sustaining the ministry, though all salaries are not equal. It seems in Scotland many suppose that unity implies uniformity, and parity equality, not only in constitutional rights, but in external circumstances. Hence the attempt was made to prohibit the richer congregations building churches more expensive than a prescribed model; and to do away with the right of a congregation adding any thing to the salary its pastor received from the common fund. This our author argues betrays great ignorance of human nature. The money spent in ornamenting a church, is not money taken from the building fund, but money which would never have found its way into the treasury of the Church. Money given to supplement the salary of a pastor, is not so much subtracted from the sustentation fund, but so much added to the comfort of the pastor, which would not otherwise have been given. In some congregations it was the custom to charge pewrents. These in some cases were abolished, under the impression that the amount paid as rent, would be added in the form of increased contributions to the sustentation fund. The result was, the rents were lost, but the sustentation fund was not increased. The reason is plain. The rents were paid from one motive, and contributions were made to the sustentation fund from another motive. Taking off the pew rent had no more tendency to increase the contributions of the congregation, than a fall in the rent of houses. There is surely wisdom in all this, and it shows that the attempt to reduce every thing to a dead level in the Church or out of it, is just as impracticable as to reduce all men to the same age, or to one uniform stature. There must be free scope left to the people to indulge all right feelings, while they are made to bear in mind that the Church is one, so that if one member sutler, all the members should suffer with it.

II. The principles inculcated in this pamphlet bearing on the best method of raising funds, will be found as applicable to us, as to the Church in Scotland. The most obvious and important of these principles are the following:

1. The necessity of thorough organization. Every portion of the territory of the Free Church is brought within the limits of some association. These associations, organized by church officers, divide every parish into geographical districts, in each of which a collector

*10_ INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

is appointed, whose duty it is to go over the ground at stated periods. This is so essential a part of the whole system, that Dr. Chalmers asks, Where should we have been, but for our associations?

2. The necessity of personal application to every member of the Church. Reliance is not placed on general collections in the Church. The name of every member in each district is obtained ; and the question is deliberately laid before his heart and conscience, What can you give to promote the cause of Christ?

3. The necessity of ministerial supervision and agency. Dr. Chalmers records it as the result of his experience, that wherever the pastor takes an interest in these associations, and exerts himself to secure their efficiency, there the work is done; and he avows it as his conviction that wherever the plan has failed or languished, there the fault lies with the minister, and not with the people.

4. The necessity of a central committee to give uniformity and efficiency to the financial operations of the Church. This committee should consist mainly of men of business, that is, of men familiar with accounts, rather than of professional men. With this must be connected a system of paid agencies. " There is," says Dr. Chalmers, " a prejudice, I had almost said a low-minded suspicion, on this subject, most grievously adverse to the enlargement of the church's resources and means. The sum of £2000 or £3000 a year, and perhaps more, rightly expended on the right men, would be remunerated more than fifty fold by the impulse thus given to the mechanism of our associations." If this is the testimony of experience in such a country as Scotland, any part of which can be reached in two days from the centre of operations, how much more necessary must be an efficient agency in our country, where every thing is so dispersed, that it is impossible thus easily to transmit an impulse or to secure co-operation.

III. The support of the clergy. This is one of the most difficult and complicated practical questions which can engage the attention of the church. In this country we seem to think we have solved the problem, by making every pastor dependent on his own immediate flock. This however is a very questionable matter. Our system, though it has its advantages, has its serious disadvantages. A system which secures the exclusive devotion of every minister to his official duties, is surely better than one which forces a large portion of the ministry to resort to some secular employment as a means of support. A system which secures to every man devoted to his work, an income adequate to his necessities, is certainly better than one which provides with lavish abundance for a few, and loaves the many to struggle with penury. The plan adopted in the Free Church has these advantages; ours labours obviously and to a lamentable extent under these disadvantages. This pamphlet brings up this subject. It will lead the reader to ask, whether nothing can be done to correct the evils under which our system labours. This is not the place to discuss this question, nor to follow out into its details any plan for meeting these difficulties. Ikit as the subject will suggest itself to every reader, it may not be improper to say what follows.

Introduction To The American Edition. 11

If the church is one, it is just as much the duty of our wealthy congregations, to see that men preaching the gospel in Wisconsin or Iowa are supported, as that their own pastors are duly sustained. And if the Lord has ordained that they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel, — if the principle that the labourer is worthy of his hire, be of general and not of very restricted application, then does justice demand that every minister devoted to his work should be adequately supported.

These are the two principles, viz. the unity of the church, and the "divine right" (i. e. a right founded on a divine ordinance) of every minister to a support, on which this whole subject rests, and according to which it ought to be adjusted.

Nothing so chimerical as an equalization of salaries is of course intended. This would be both unjust and impracticable. Unjust, because an equal sum from a common fund would be a most unequal compensation, owing to the great diflerence of the expense of living in different places, and to the demands to which different ministers are subject. It would be impracticable, because if all ministers received the same salary from a common source, the people would still possess and exercise the right of adding to it what they pleased. All that is here asserted is, first, that every minister devoted to his work has a right to an adequate support; and second, that the obligation to provide that support rests on the whole church, and not exclusively upon that portion of the church to whom the preacher ministers.

If it be asked how these principles are to be carried out so as to accomplish the end in view, it may be answered that a great good will be obtained if the principles themselves be recognized as just, and the obligation to act in obedience to them be acknowledged. The best method of giving them effect may well call for the deliberate consideration of the wisest men of the church.

The following suggestions are made in hopes of calling attention to the subject, and of ultimately leading to the adoption of some plan which may meet with general approbation.

1. Let the principle be adopted, that every man who devotes himself to the work of the ministry, shall receive an adequate support. We act on this principle with regard to our foreign missionaries, why should we not do it with regard to those who preach the gospel at home?

2. Let the church appoint a " Sustentation Committee," to be composed principally of men of business, whose duty it shall be to raise funds for the support of the ministry, and to distribute them according to rules to be prescribed by the General Assembly. This committee ought perhaps to be estabhshed in New York, as the business centre of the country.

3. Let a maximum be fixed, beyond which no contribution shall be received from the Sustentation Fund. In the Free Church that maximum is £150. If ^500 be assumed as the limit here, then it may be determined that no pastor who receives ^500 or more from his congregation, shall receive anything from the Sustentation Fund.

li INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

He and his people would then belong to the aid-giving and not to the aid-receiving class of churches.

4. All money raised within the churches, connected with the fund for the support of the ministry, should be remitted to the Sustentaiion Committee or carried to its credit. If this plan were adopted the pastors could more freely urge their people to give, than when pleading for themselves.

5. Let a minimum be fixed to entitle any congregation to be taken into connexion with the fund. The salary then paid to the pastor may be determined, according to some regular scale, in proportion to the amount received from his congregation. For example, if a congregation contribute SlOO, the pastor's .salary may be fixed at {5400; if the congregation contribute ^200, the pastor may receive $500. Or it may be found best to adopt the plan of fixing the pastor's salary at one and a half the sum, or at double the sum, received from his congregation.

6. Those places whence nothing is received for the general fund, or an amount less than the sum determined as the minimum, must be considered as missionary stations to be supplied by young unmarried men, until they are able to contribute the amount necessary to entitle them to be received on the Sustentation Fund.

Instead of appointing a " Sustentation Committee," it may be deemed expedient to commit this whole subject to the Board of Missions, and to modify the plan of that Board in such a manner as to accomplish the end contemplated.

It may be said that any such scheme as that above referred to, would be liable to great abuse. Men might be received on the fund, who were still engaged in secular pursuits, or were indolent, or inefficient, or unacceptable. This is undoubtedly true. But it is true of any conceivable plan of doing good, that it is liable to be abused. In carrying out such a plan, our reliance, under God, must be on the piety of the men introduced into the ministry, the supervision of the Presbyteries, and on the regular reports of the incumbents on the fund, as to the amount and results of their labours.

If it be asked, where the money is to come from to carry out such a plan, it may be asked in reply, Where does it come from in Scotland? The Free Church raises annually about S350,000 for its sustentation fund. We are far more numerous, and have far more wealth than they. Our people are as liberal, piety is the same thing here, that it is there, we have as great a work to do, and as strong motives for doing it well. The great difterence lies in the difference of our plans, and consequently in the objects which we present to the people. If you propose to any congregation the support of their own pastor, or to send a number of missionaries to the west, with a hundred dollars each, they will give accordingly. But if you propose to them the larger object of providing for the adequate support of every faithful minister in our Church, they will awake to new views, and to larger conceptions of their duty and privileges.

It is not expected that these suggestions will meet with general or immediate acceptance. They are to be regarded as mere hints, to

Introduction To The American Edition. 18

be modified indefinitelv, as the wisdom or experience of the Church may determine.

The following remarks, however, seem to deserve consideration, in favour of some such plan.

1. It will be a compliance, on the part of our Church, with the law of Christ, tliat they who preach the gospel, shall live by the gospel.

2. It will enable our pastors to devote themselves to their ministerial work, instead of giving, as in a multitude of cases is now unavoidable, a large portion of their time to some secular employment, for the support of their families.

3. It will in a measure do away with the undue and unjust disparity in the salaries of our ministers. It has ever been justly considered a great reproach on the Church of England, that while one portion of her clergy have the income of princes, so large a part of her laborious ministers have from £30 to £50 a year.

4. As such a plan presupposes the unity of the Church, and can be successfully prosecuted only under the influence of a recognition of that unity, its adoption and successful prosecution must promote brotherly love. And if it have that effect, the blessing of God \vi\[ descend upon us as the dew on Hermon.

5. The plan is essentially, (to borrow the language of Dr. Chalmers,) aggressive. It presses the Church continually forward, sustaining the gospel in places, where from the fewness, the indifference, or poverty of the people it could not otherwise be supported.

6. It leaves untouched the intimate relation between the pastor and the people, and the reciprocation of benefits between them, while the minister is not made entirely dependent on his own immediate congregation for his support. A large portion of his salary however must ever come from them, and on their confidence and. kindness he must ever be dependent for many of his comforts.

There are many other lessons besides those above indicated to be derived from this pamphlet. But enough has probably been said to explain the reason of its republication in this country. It cannot be denied that we fall short of the example set us by the Free Church of Scotland. The principles on which they act are those on which we must act if we would be equally useful as a church. We must feel that we are one body; that the weakest and the strongest are equally bound to do what they can for the common cause. We must become more systematic in our operations, and devise some plan by which personal application shall be made to all our members for their contributions. Ministers must feel that the chief responsibility in every good work devolves on them. They are the leaders of the flock; if they go forward the people will follow.