Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 47:188 (Oct 1890)
Article: Voluntary Societies And Congregational Churches
Author: A. Hastings Ross

BSac 47:188 (Oct 1890) p. 529

Voluntary Societies And Congregational Churches

Rev. A. Hastings Ross

It may be a misfortune, but it is nevertheless inevitable, that the benevolent and missionary work of the American Congregationalists should be slowed up a little for the purpose of mending the machinery. In consequence, in part, of an unfavorable environment, the New England churches of our order adopted theories and formed alliances which were out of harmony with their polity, and which have compelled adjustments from time to time as the mistakes have appeared. We can say this and yet credit them with the honor of founding free institutions, which have given liberty here and elsewhere to the world. But they were not perfect. Their theory of the ministry—resting it in the pastoral relation—had first to be given up. Then the union of church and state, permitting only members of Congregational churches to vote and hold office in the leading colonies, had after a generation to be surrendered. Immediately out of this union there emerged the parish system, which made a church a mere appendage of a secular society holding all the property, even to the communion service, and compelling the church to nominate a candidate to the parish

BSac 47:188 (Oct 1890) p. 530

or society for it to elect as pastor. And what was worse, a church could not exist without a parish or ecclesiastical society other than itself to which it was attached.1 This unnatural connection, born of the union of church and state, has continued to the present time, and has been extended with Congregationalism, as an integral part of it, to all the regions beyond the Hudson. But now it is said: “An unmistakable drift toward the incorporation of churches is manifest not only in this commonwealth [Mass.], but throughout the country.” 2 This parish system is not found among Congregational churches in any other country; it is largely discarded by the Western Congregational churches. So, too, the system of councils, born of the union of church and state in New England, is slowly giving way before the better system of accountability of church and minister in associations of churches.

When, therefore, “voluntary societies” are defended as “the Congregational way,” no one acquainted with the facts will regard the appeal as conclusive. For while such societies are historically Congregational in America, they may not be normally Congregational. They may be an abnormal growth of Congregationalism, due to environment. The last National Council, the representative body of all American Congregationalists, seems to have regarded them as such, for without a dissentient vote it declared its “opinion ...