In the following passage, Thomas Chalmers writes of the secondary, ‘collateral’ benefits of an aggressive, national parish system in bringing the Gospel to the masses. The “moral distance” of estranged classes within society would tend to melt away, and so indirectly rejuvenate the outward social and political order of the nation:
“The more that this [moral] distance is alleviated by the subdivisions of locality, the more do the charities of common companionship mingle in the commotion, and exude an oil upon the waters that assuages their violence. They are the towns of an empire, which form the mighty organs of every great political overthrow, and if a right parochial system in towns would serve to check, or rather to soften, the turbulence that is in them, then ought the establishment of such a system to be regarded by our rulers as one of the best objects of patriotism” (Chalmers, Works, 14:388).
Not that we can revive a national establishment without a mass awakening and a groundswell of support both by people and princes. Yet, Chalmers contended, we can all engage in local parish mission at the grassroots level, seeking the regeneration of communities as we pray and wait for national repentance.
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