Congregationalists in America; a popular history of their origin, belief, polity, growth and work

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Preface

This book is an attempt to tell the story of the rise of modern Congregationalism and its growth in America. It is prepared for busy pastors, Sunday-school teachers, Bible classes, Christian Endeavor societies and all others who wish to know what the Congregational denomination stands for, what it has done in this country, what it is fitted to do, and how it is related to the kingdom of God.

The chief difficulty in writing this book has been to condense into required limits the great amount of materialVhich belongs in such a history, and at the same time to preserve a popular narrative form. Many important events and movements have been described only in the briefest outlines, which would have accumulated interest in proportion to the space given to them. Many things which must seem to many readers w^orthy of a place in this volume have of necessity been omitted. I have endeavored to make a continuous story of the Congregationalism of three hundred years, and my rule of selection has been to include the things which seem most essential to the continuity of the history. I have not allowed myself to take the space or to burden the pages with references in detail to authorities, though the temptation to do so was great. But I have not aimed to discuss controverted questions with students. The majority of readers have not at hand the authorities which might have been cited, nor do they usually take the pains to search for them ; and this book is intended for popular use.

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I have, however, taken care to verify these statements, and in doubtful matters to compare authorities and to consult where possible the best informed living witnesses. Nearly the entire volume has been read to and reviewed by Rev. Dr. A. H. Quint, who has, I believe, as thoroughly studied the history and Avorking of Congregationalism as anyone now living. I should not have undertaken this work had he not felt compelled, after some months of consideration, to decline to do it, nor should I then have ventured on it but for the assurance of his co-operation. I am under great obligation to him for his valuable suggestions, and for his guidance to the best sources of information. I am glad also to express my obligations to many others whom I cannot name for lack of space, especially to presidents of colleges and secretaries of our benevolent societies. I cannot hope to have avoided all mistakes ; but I shall be grateful to any who may call my attention to such errors as remain, that they may be corrected should a future edition be called for.

The question of illustrations, especially of portraits, has been a perplexing one. It is unfortunate that no pictures are to be found of some of the greatest heroes of the early history of Congregationalism. Who would not rejoice to look on the face of John Robinson, of Thomas Hooker, or of John Eliot ? But they have left behind them no trace of lineaments or figure. A long list of worthies would seem to be entitled to place in the portrait gallery of this volume. But in the limitations which were found necessary, I have chosen those who have been conspicuous as pioneers in the advancing march of Congregationalism ; and I have not felt at liberty to insert the portraits of any who are still living.

The special chapters have been written by men who will be recognized as authorities on the topics which have been assigned to them. Dr. Roy has been an important part of the history of the Northwest and of the South for more than thirty

PREFACE. V

years as a superintendent of missions. I know no man living who has been present at a larger number of National and State meetings and other notable gatherings of Congregationalists than he. Under his nom de plume of " Pilgrim," which he has signed to more than seven hundred letters published in various papers, he is known throughout the denomination. Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark is, as he always has been, a Congregationalist, though the great movement which originated with him has spread through all Protestant denominations and through the world. Rev. H. A. Bridgman, the managing editor of the Congregationalist, has made special investigations of the beginning and growth of Congregational periodical literature. Dr. A. H. Quint, the moderator of the last National Council, has been a prominent factor in every one of these assemblies, and is unsurpassed in his familiarity with Congregational usages and with every aspect of ecclesiastical councils. Some repetition has been unavoidable, because the same period has been considered by different writers ; but not more, it is hoped, than the symmetry of each narrative required.

I have made no mention of doctrinal discussions which center around the higher criticism of the Bible, and which are rife in all denominations. Nor have I alluded to very recent controversies connected with the American Board and Andover Theological Seminary. It is quite uncertain as yet whether these matters will demand much space in the history of Congregationalism in the nineteenth century. At present no denomination is more harmonious than ours. May the Spirit of holiness, truth, peace and love always abide in it !

My reverence for the wisdom, faith, consecration and courage of the men and women who have labored in this branch of Christ's body for the advancement of His kingdom has constantly increased as I have further studied their characters and aims. In the noble company of many names, of those who have " through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous-

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PREFACE.

ness, obtained promises," Congregationalists hold an honorable place. All those who share their name ought to know something of their principles and deeds. Every Congregationalist surely should be informed concerning the important facts of the history of his denomination. If I have succeeded in making these facts more accessible and interesting, my labors will have been amply rewarded ; for by the truths which He taught, the redemption which He accomplished, and the companies of believers in whom He dwells by His Spirit, the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Boston, May 15, 1894.

Introduction

By the Rev. RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D., LL. D.

It is gratifying to know that the volume on Congregationalism has been prepared, and is to be published, to which the writer of these lines is asked to contribute a brief Introductory Note. A popular account of the principles and the history of Congregational churches should have its interest for all who know what such churches have done in the world, while it may naturally be expected to be specially welcome to those knowing more or less of the system, yet not fully informed as to Its characteristics or as to their development in the past.

The present writer is by no means a prejudiced partisan for particular forms of practice commonly associated with this scheme of church-order. On the other hand he sees certain excellences in various other methods and forms of action, and could no doubt adjust himself to them if occasion required. But he has lived and worked In the Congregational fellowship during all the years of his Christian life, as his fathers had done for two centuries before, and his attachment to what he conceives to be distinctive in its principles is naturally strong. Perhaps, too, his testimony concerning this may not be weakened In force by the fact that it has in it the suggestions of experience ; as one who has long lived In a house may fairly be sup-

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posed to know more of its internal arrangements and fitnesses for use than an outside observer, who has seen only its walls, windows, gables, and chimney-tops. So he gladly consents to say a few words commending this volume to the attention of those to whom his name may be known.

The two fundamental principles in the Congregational scheme of the relation of churches to each other are obvious and familiar : First, that any permanent congregation of disciples, accepting God's revelation of himself in the Scriptures, and personally consecrated to Christ the Head, associating themselves, with their households, for the worship of God and the administration of Christian ordinances, constitutes a church ; complete in itself, competent to elect and set apart its officers, to adopt its rules, to arrange its own forms of worship, and in general to manage its particular affairs in the way which shall seem to it best, under constant and reverent reference to the precept and guidance of the Heavenly King: Second, that every such church is bound to live in fellowship and communion, of faith, of spirit, and of work, with every other ; to give to others aid and counsel when these are needed, to seek their fraternal aid and counsel when important action is to be taken by itself, or when differences of judgment and feeling arise within it, and fraternally to co-operate with them in all good works.

These two principles — the independence and autonomy, under Christ, of the local church, and the obligation of fellowship with others always resting upon it — are what give to Congregationalism its name, and

INTRODUCTION. ix

what impart to it any virtue which belongs to it as a scheme of general church-order. They have been well described as the two foci of its ellipse. They are the two responsive and regulating forces in its organic system. It is not '' Independency," while it still looks askance on any comprehensive permanent organization in which the life of the local congregation is liable to be practically merged. Affiliated " churches " — not one all-embracing ''Church," least of all "The Church" — are what it finds in the New Testament, and what it seeks to reproduce wherever it prevails.

At the same time, in the relations to each other of the disciples associated in such churches it recognizes a normal equality of right and privilege, a real and effective brotherhood of believers, and estimates office as ministerial only, never as conveying endowment of prerogative. Character and wisdom are in its view the only proper conditions of influence, and the pastor himself is fitly a fellow-member with those of whom he should be also leader and guide. The notion of the dependence of church-life on any class of officers set over it, and supplying this life from superior heights, is as foreign to Congregationalism as would be the notion in society that household life and domestic harmony require to be conferred by official supervisors. From within outward, from beneath upward, is the law of the progress of life, in the spiritual as in the natural world. To try to reverse the process in churches is irrational in theory, and practically as dangerous, history shows, as an attempt to set the growing tree on its branches instead of its roots.

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The Christian life in individual souls, and thus in the permanent societies which these form, is recognized as ingenerated by the Spirit of God, through the ministry of the truth, as that is set before men in the Scriptures, and as it has been substantially accepted and illustriously verified in the experience of faithful disciples in all evangelical communions. Congregationalism has, accordingly, no universal creed-form. It is not limited as to statements of the Faith by any human confessions or catechisms, however careful, however venerable. It gets large light from such, now as in the past ; but it does not acknowledge in them any decisive and permanent law. The Bible is to it the living and perennial basis of the church ; and it holds itself bound only by the Scriptures, and by the supreme instruction of the Lord. Yet the truth, thus apprehended in its simplicity and superlative majesty, has for those who honor and maintain this form of church-order continuing authority, and an inestimable importance. It is supremely valued as the Divine means by which, in God's grace, men are to be led into personal, affectionate and self-consecrating faith, toward the Redeemer and King of the world. Congregationalism is evangelical and practical. It never recognizes orthodox belief as enough in itself, though valuing this, and seeking to cherish and to distribute it. It never seeks simpl}^ to educate men's minds, to add polish to their manners, or to train them in social amenities and eleo^ances. Its one aim is that throuofh the truth, under the influence of God's Spirit, men shall be brought, in glad surrender of heart and life.

INTRODUCTION. xi

into fellowship with Christ, to become true members first of His church on earth, and then, immortally, of His Church Triumphant.

Of this transformation the truth is the instrument. Believing disciples form the church. Preaching, teaching, and godly living, are therefore the vehicles on which the Divine influence moves ; and any theory of efficacious grace conveyed on sacraments, as the means of producing this interior essential life of the soul, is as remote from Congregationalism as would be a theory of vivifying star-dust to account for summer blooms and growths. The two Christian sacraments, of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are permanent and commanding in its churches ; but they are signs and seals of faith, means of cherishing and renewing, not of imparting, spiritual life. It has no possible use or room for mechanical mediations or manual impositions to initiate the faith which cometh by hearing, and by the Word of God, under the silent but mighty impression of the Divine Spirit.

Congregationalism has always insisted, therefore, as it now does, on an educated ministry ; a ministry rich in character, of course, fervent in zeal, of a believing temper, but also of instructed and trained power ; a ministry able clearly to apprehend the truth, and earnestly and effectively to set this forth to men. It has built and endowed great institutes of learning — academic, collegiate, theological — to secure such a ministry; and on its success in accomplishing this, not on any skill in formulating confessions or churchrules, it depends for the furtherance of the cause xii INTRODUCTION.

of the Master, so far as that is committed to its churches.

It is, as it always has been, constitutionally, a missionary system ; seeking not so much to form churches of a particular name or order, at home or abroad, as to propagate the Gospel, by books. Bibles, earnest preaching, in our own land and in others : where the frontiersman has pushed his way into the wilderness ; where the people of ancient lands want a light and hope which they do not find in ancestral philosophies or religions ; or where the brutal savage grovels in his inherited filth and vice. The first missionary societies in this country, for either the home or the foreign field, sprang up among its churches. This work has always been nobly sustained by them, and has been widely effective.

Congregationalism may fairly claim to be, by its nature, a catholic system, in a sense and to a degree in which none surpasses it. It recognizes all assemblies of disciples holding the Head and permanently associated for His service as true churches, whether or not wearing its denominational name. If some of these churches prefer to be organized in Presbyterian fashion, with lay-elders and under supervision of a permanent church-court, that is their privilege. There were such churches in the earlier time, as there have been since ; and their contributions have been vast to the culture and the progress of Christendom. If churches prefer to frame or to adopt a full liturgy for public worship, Congregationalism never questions their liberty to do so, though preferring in

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INTRODUCTION. xiii

its more immediate circles the freer forms which have for it ancestral commendation. If baptism by immersion, administered only to adult believers, seem to any the preferable way, nearest the New Testament pattern, the church-life continues in the congregations so ordered, and it is properly recognized as vigorous and useful. Even if congregations desire and elect Episcopal superintendence, it is according to the genius of this system that they should have it, though it must be hoped that their acceptance of it will not carry with it the conception of any peculiar Divine right in alleged successors of those Apostles whose very office, as Dean Alford emphatically said, *' precluded the idea of succession or renewal," and that it will not lead to denial or forgetfulness of the great truth energetically set forth by Bishop Lightfoot, that ''the only priests under the Gospel, designated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood," and that upon officers or ministers of the church ''the sacerdotal title is never once conferred."

It certainly seems to those trained in Congregational principles that in this allowance of liberty to all local churches, concerning forms of worship and methods of organization and government, it closely approaches the New Testament examples, while in seeking a true spiritual unity, with no required outward uniformity of rule and rite, it is helping to realize the ideal of the Master, for which He wrought, suffered, and prayed — " that they all may be one : as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be xiv INTRODUCTION.

one in us." No apparent difference could conceivably have been greater than between the man of Nazareth and the Infinite Father, while they were eternally one in inmost life. Thus, as we conceive, the true unit}^ of Christendom is finally to come : differences of administrations, diversities of operations, but the same Lord.

Of course, as all know, this particular scheme of church-order has from the first widely prevailed in New England. It seems germane to the liberal, practical, and truth-trusting spirit of the American people. Local self-control is with us a public policy. If democracy is legitimate anywhere it must be in the church. So churches and communicants of this order have been multiplied threefold in the recent half-century. A still more rapid visible progress may be expected in generations to come ; while the principles which are vital and organific in the system have gone more widely than its special name, and are to-day more extensively shown than ever before, in practice if not in theoretical declaration, in all Protestant communions. In a true and large sense these principles, we are confident, have the future for their own.

The present volume, by Dr. Albert E. Dunning, which traces the history of Congregationalism, and elucidates its principles, ought to have wide circulation among intelligent and thoughtful Christians, here and abroad. I trust that the blessing of the great Head of all the churches will rest upon it !

Brooklyn, N. Y., May lo, 1894.

INTRODUCTION

By Major-General OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, LL. D.

When a young man, the writer of this introductory letter, soon after his conversion, found himself associated with strong advocates of the Episcopacy. His friends were decided Christian men of extensive reading and research ; and for a time their arguments appeared to him to be strong and conclusive that ** the true Church" was indeed a small one which by ''apostolic succession " had come down to us through centuries without a break in the line of bishops. The writings of the Rev. Dr. Pusey and other like advocates were put into his hands. The impressions upon his mind and heart were so strong that not only did it seem for a while that bishops, priests and deacons were essential to the Church of Christ, but that other branches like the Presbyterians and Congregationalists were in error, and that their clergymen were not ordained ministers of Christ. Soon the arguments carried him on to the Roman Church, till he said to himself : " If the unbroken apostolic succession in the line of bishops is essential to the living Church, the Roman faith has precedence." Since then it has never seemed at all strange to him that so many of his friends who were high churchmen at last joined the Roman Catholic communion.

Further reading of the Scriptures, study and thought

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brought the writer back to his proper home in the Congregational household, and there he was admitted and confirmed with his family. This is perhaps too personal for general reading, yet it may chance to influence and help some other searcher for the fold of Christ. It is no way claimed that the Episcopal divisions of the grand army of the Lord are not good and wise, and in that sense under special divine favor, but the grander truth may dawn upon a man's heart that our Lord is in all His branches and that ''wisdom is justified of all her children." It takes all the instrumentalities to reach the nooks and corners of the world. But what would the writer not have given during his probation for such a historic compendium as this volume furnishes !

In these days an Ism Is not of great moment; it is but an indication of the division lines in the hosts of the Lord — the hosts who are now on the march or already battling with the foes of truth and righteousness. But organization is important, and a Christian wants to feel that he belongs to one that Is at least defensible. The author of this book, a review of all the divisions from the apostles' time till now, showing the origin of the Congregational polity in the earliest period, and following it through the ages without prolixity, with comprehensive clearness and with explicit and full statements of facts, p7^o and con, has done a great work. Perhaps a little sectarian spirit could be detected in some of his pages by some old-fashioned Christian — some follower of John Knox or John Wesley. He rather feels that our Ism is the real Church, and that the others have somehow departed from the original simplicity of organization

INTRODUCTION. xvii

and worship. Once a gentleman, member of a Congregational church out West, was walking to a Congregational house of worship with a lady, an ardent Episcopalian. She tried to show him the superiority of the Episcopal service to any other, and also how far short the other came of the true faith. The gentleman replied as they entered the vestibule : " All right ; perhaps yours is hetter than mine as you claim, but this one, dear madam, is mine ! Your home may be nicer than ours, yet ours is ours ! " So we detect little harm present or prospective in an author who clings with some fervor to a hearty description of his own household of work and worship, and who is able to trace the pedigree of his family connection to the very fountain-head. The readers of this book will particularly enjoy the history of the Congregational churches of New England, where the rigid and liberal interpreters of Holy Writ are all given a fair exhibit. The causes of the Pilgrim leaving England ; the sojourn in Holland ; his arrival in America ; his faith and purpose and trial on New England's shores — no descendant of his is ever averse to the story of these things, and here, though an old one, it is told concisely and well. It will hereafter become a text for the jovial and eloquent speakers at the yearly anniversaries of New England societies which gather in all our great towns from Boston to San Francisco.

Our youth cannot be made too familiar with the actual foundation of our civil government, arranged for on board the " Mayflower," but secured at Plymouth, Mass.; a government of the people, where the flag, an emblem of the people's sovereignty, forever ensures a free Church. The church that best assim-

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ilates that government of republican form and order Is very near and dear to patriotic hearts.

The chapter on growth and expansion, taking us to Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia, is of marked interest. Who does not want to know more about Roger Williams, John Eliot and the Indian missions ? An early Congregational church in Virginia, and its transference to Maryland, and what came of it ; the Virginia churches of our order can trace their regular succession after a lapse ; and Washington Congregationalists will take on new courage and vigor, and push on to extend their simple methods of formal ordination to cover unoccupied fields of the South. Baptists in the South, who at bottom are usually good Congregatlonallsts, will read with avidity a history which strengthens their claim in that region to divide with our Methodist brothers their call to all races of men.

One gets into the valleys and shadows of things when he sees " Halfway Covenants," troubles with Quakers, times of cleavage, religious declension, differences with Episcopalians, witchcraft delusion ; but if of '* Orthodox blood " he must have a degree of satisfaction to answer soberly the laughlngs of Oliver Wendell Holmes and other humoristic reformers. Here with some shiverings while in the bottom of the chasms he can pick up the facts ; one should want nothing better !

At Key West, Fla., the writer of this article recently found two plants that greatly interested him. One was an East Indian tree, called the banyan, and the other was a new Congregational church. To his mind there are in general many points of resemblance ;

INTRODUCTION. xix

there Is a center tree ; there are also other smaller trees, quite independent in their growth, which rise from the ground, and more little trees still that start from wide-spreading branches, and grow down till they touch the earth ; there they root themselves. All these up and down growths keep Increasing in number and size till they finally become one immense tree. There at Key West came the Congregational home missionary. He found a few Christians scattered about that place who wanted some fellowship and a house of worship. He explained to them the Congregational polity as he understood it, and showed them the ordinary expressions of faith that our people adopt. A church was founded, and by the help of the Home Missionary Society, a church was organized, and a house of worship erected. Outside were Independent growths, bands associated for prayer, Sunday schools, shoots thrown off from other churches from one cause and another. All these began to group around the original plant which the missionary had nourished. New converts then came from the church and its accessories. The apparently Independent growths coming from the ground were brought nearer and made more homogeneous by the converts who seemed to spring from branches and other growths, till they secured their own bases, filled up the spaces and made a strong central, yet wide-spreading tree.

It was a Banyan Church also that we planted at Washington In 1865. It was a worrisome and sometimes exasperating concern at first, in its make up. It took beggings and pleadings to secure money enough to build a meeting-house. It took ex-par te councils and general councils and much fostering care to get it

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well-rooted. Offshoots in time there were ; several in Washington and in the District of Columbia, and several more in the bordering States ! They were seeming rivals and wondrously independent. But by the common sap of God's Spirit the central trunk has become at last large and thriving, and all the rootlets are now united by a large annual conference where fellowship so prevails as to suggest the likeness of one great tree.

We cannot maintain very well that our order is the best of all. Our brethren of other communions see in us many weaknesses. The independence of the individual church every home-born and home-bred Congregational believer insists on as a sine qua non. How can heresy and schism be prevented where there is no authority beyond the individual church ? '* Look," they say, ** there went off from you the Baptists, then the Unitarians ! They all preserve your methods, so that now there are three bodies instead of one. You cannot even maintain a uniform creed !"

Are you sure, brethren, that it is necessary to Christ's kingdom to keep solidly to one trunk of opinions on all topics ? If so, Christ's Church is and ever will be a huge failure.

Again they aver that for the most part we have a double-headed system — a church and a society to take care of the individual church. Surely there is no harm in this arrangement where it is expedient to have a society for holding and managing property ; but this society is not essential to any church, Congregational or other, but merely a way of doing business through a competent agent, the society being the agent. Again the old proverb is quoted against our Congregational

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efficiency, namely : " What is everybody's business is nobody's business." This is. never fair to us, for all democratic bodies work through chosen committees or agents, so that very little work is done directly by the whole body. But we must not be betrayed into a prolonged discussion which is not at all profitable.

Any Christian church of any communion is efficient enough if its individual members have in their individual hearts the spirit of the Master, and by the spur of His presence do the best they can to live like Him and carry out His injunctions. The larger the individual liberty, in co-partnership with the Lord's Spirit, the better. The larger the liberty of the individual church in similar co-partnership, the better for its healthful and effective growth and undertakings.