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Archive for the ‘Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls’ Category

Shepherding families by shepherding fathers

Posted in Care for the Youth, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Richard Baxter on February 23, 2011| 1 Comment »

Richard Baxter, celebrated author of The Reformed Pastor, realized the strategic importance of shepherding heads of households.  If men are won to the Gospel and growing in it, then the work of a pastor is multiplied exponentially.  But if we neglect this high calling, then the church will hemhorrage its children, no matter how many hip twenty-something youth pastors we use to stanch the flow.

We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all. What are we like to do ourselves to the reforming of a congregation, if all the work be cast on us alone; and masters of families neglect that necessary duty of their own, by which they are bound to help us?  If any good be begun by the ministry in any soul, a careless, prayerless, worldly family is like to stifle it, or very much hinder it; whereas, if you could but get the rulers of families to do their duty, to take up the work where you left it, and help it on, what abundance of good might be done! I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion (Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p. 91).

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The planting of a territorial church: the Water of Leith story

Posted in Church of Scotland, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Missiology, Parish Theory & Practice, Thomas Chalmers, Vignettes from 19th Century District Visitation on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The following extract comes from Thomas Chalmers: A Biographical Study, by James Dodds (1870).  In it, he recounts a lesser known story from the career of Thomas Chalmers.  While not an effort on par with his earlier St. John’s and his later West Port Experiments (he was teaching divinity at the University of Edinburgh at this time) the Water of Leith story nonetheless exhibits his ardent commitment to territorial or parochial urban mission.  Not to mention his readiness to roll up his sleeves!

* * * *

HALMERS, in 1833-4, was residing in Forres Street, Edinburgh, not far from the line of the Great North Road by Queensferry.  In his walks out to the country in that direction, he would often cross the lofty and spacious Dean Bridge, then newly erected,—the latest wonder in Edinburgh, —spanning the ravine through which, far below, foams the Water of Leith, turbid and brawling, and laden with pollution.  From this elevation he would look down upon the village of the Water of Leith, — almost sunk out of sight and sound of the world, though within a few hundred paces of the metropolis, — antiquated and decayed; cooped within steep narrow precipices; with tall gaunt chimneys, untenanted and crumbling granaries, rough dirty streets, miserable hovels into which ‘every element of heaven may enter;’ with scarce any sign of life or action, except two or three lounging figures, the noise and froth of mill-wheels, the grunting of pigs, and the squalling of children without childhood.  This abject and neglected place had made itself very notorious, in the late visitation of cholera, by its extreme ignorance and violence.  Yet in many ways it had a quaint, old-fashioned, half-savage charm.  To the antiquarian, this village was a curious relic of the past, lying close to, yet with a kind of repulsion hiding itself from, the encroaching pomp of the New Town of Edinburgh.  To the painter or poet it had strange bits of ancient masonwork; and it had frothing pools, and steep banks clustered all over with wild vegetation, and aspects of a rude primitive life. Chalmers was not insensible to the associations of the past; for, was he not born and brought up amongst the old decayed towns of the East of Fife?  He had also the artist’s eye for quaint and out-of-the-way nooks, either of nature or of human habitation.  But these lighter moods, though neither scorned nor abjured, were in his mind always subordinated to the sentiment of Christian benevolence.  Looking, then, from the height of the Dean Bridge, he might feel, ‘How antique!  how it carries one back to the time when Mary Stuart rode her palfrey across that now toppling old bridge in her excursions to the Highlands!’  Or, ‘ How quaint and picturesque these straggling houses, in the deep ravine, with the babbling brook running through the midst!’  But his uppermost feeling would be, ‘What a spot, as if scooped out by nature, and thrown aside by man, to plant a Territorial Church, with all its reclaiming and purifying influences!’

And in the Water of Leith he resolved to show to the world a new model of that Territorial system, which he had begun in St. John’s of Glasgow.

On a survey, it was found that the inhabitants were 1356 in number, but of these only 143 had sittings in any place of worship.  There was a meeting-house of some denomination in or near the village, but only five of the inhabitants had sittings; it was attended almost entirely by persons coming from a distance, outside the territory of the Water of Leith.  Chalmers, assisted by the liberal friends who never failed him, determined to raise here a territorial church, specially devoted to the inhabitants of the Water of Leith.  A missionary began his labours amongst them in 1833.  He visited from house to house, made the acquaintance of the people, was courteously received by them, conversed with them, visited the sick, was with them in the hour of affliction and death, was their daily counsellor and friend.  He invited them to come to meetings, where he addressed them—in fact, preached to them.  His audience became more and more numerous; he had to seek out places of meeting larger and larger; at last he resorted to an old maltgranary, where, with great packing, some 400 people could attend.  A church was then erected by subscription, which was opened in May 1836. The sittings were about 1000, and at a moderate charge, and offered in preference to the inhabitants.  Soon after the opening, about 700 of the sittings were taken, and almost entirely by inhabitants. It was a true territorial church.

Chalmers officiated at the opening, and dwelt paternally upon the effect of its territorial character.

‘Instead of leaving this church to fill as it may from all parts of the town, we first hold out the seats that we have to dispose of, at such prices as we can afford, to its own parish families. . . . Our fond wish for Edinburgh and its environs is that, district after district, new churches may arise, and old ones be thrown open to their own parish families, till not one house remains which has not within its walls some stated worshipper in one or other of our Christian assemblies; and not one individual can be pointed to, however humble and unknown, who has not some man of God for his personal acquaintance, some Christian minister for his counsellor and friend.’

This new and eminently successful model of Territorialism, coupled with his long teachings, the private exertions at the very same time of his old Glasgow friends, and also the religious darkness and fearful profligacy especially of the large towns, were at length stirring the Church of Scotland from its culpable neglect. . . 

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Thomas Boston’s parish catechizing (2)

Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Evangelistic Catechesis, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Thomas Boston, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way on October 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

These selections from Boston’s Memoirs come from his ministry in the parish of Ettrick, having accepted that charge in 1707 after his labors in Simprin.  To read the previous post, click here.

Observe the rigors of Boston’s parish ministry.  The strains on his physical constitution in his commitment to parish catechesis remind one of David Brainerd’s hardships with the Delaware Indians.

We also note in these passages a strong sense of ministerial responsibility for the youth.  Several of these ‘diets’ of catechizing were especially for the youth.  Obviously, these were hardly ‘youth groups’ in the modern sense; yet they were gatherings of youth nonetheless.  Also in this pastoral vein we see how Boston’s catechesis often involved practical exhortations.  This wasn’t merely a discipline to inform minds, but to change hearts.

In one instance, Boston distinctly notes that he adjusted his particular practice by observing the useful method of a colleague in the ministry.  This ministerial duty ever needs reassessment and retooling for maximal usefulness, and we should not be ashamed to observe how others do it better than we.

Last, these diets of catechizing appear to have been set for places outside the parish kirk, as in his manse, or throughout the parish at suitable gathering-places.  The man of God, though ‘settled within his bounds,’ is ever itinerant.  He must “preach publicly and from house to house.”   The churchly calling of catechesis engages the mind; but it is worth noting that it first goes to the minds that need engaging!

* * * *

1709

“Twice a-year I catechised the parish, having no diet but one at the church; and once a-year I visited their families. The former was usually begun about the end of October, the latter about the end of April, or beginning of May. This was my ordinary course all along, save that of some few late years; through my wife’s extraordinary sickness in the spring, and the decay of my own strength, I have not got the visiting of families performed as before; neither have I hope of it any more, though I still aim at something of that kind yearly.  But I bless God, that when I had ability, I was helped to lay it out that way. Thus the winter-season was the time wherein I did most of my work in the parish.  Meanwhile that also was the season wherein I did most in my closet.  Being twelve miles distant from the presbytery-seat, I attended it not in the winter; but when I attended it, I ordinarily went away and returned the same day, being loath to lose two or three days on it” (227-28).

1729

“On Tuesday, 11th November, I finished the memorial concerning personal and family fasting, begun 5th August, and consisting of 149 pages; and laid it before the Lord for acceptance through Jesus Christ, and a blessing thereupon.  Having had a severe cold these two days, and been in a sweat Tuesday’s night, I was in doubt whether to keep the appointed diet of catechising at Calcrabank on the Wednesday, or not: but I was determined to go, through one’s coming to me that morning from the parish of Yarrow, with a line, to get his child baptized there.  So I went off, and my cold was no worse.  But being come home again that night, I was seized with a severe fit of the gravel; in which, vomiting up at length some blackish matter, I was deeply impressed with a view of the loathsomeness of this body, bearing the image of the earthly first Adam, and what it must come to by means of death, till it be reduced to dust again; out of which it is to be reformed after the image of the heavenly man, the second Adam, far removed for ever from that corrupt constitution.  The day had been very bad; and this season I have not hitherto had one good day on that occasion; but I have had a sort of pleasure and satisfaction in enduring these little hardships, for my Master and His work’s sake” (426-27).

“3rd January.—I found myself fail mightily, in managing the diets of catechising this season; especially the two last diets. Considering the loss sustained by the people, through my inability to speak, and apply to it, it has been very heavy to me.  But this day the Lord pitied, and helped me therein again; the which is the more welcome, that now I begin this work also, the catechising of those of the younger sort, which is carried on together with the public catechising of the parish; not daring as yet to ease myself of that accessory piece of my work” (435-36).

1730

“It had been my manner of a long time, besides the catechising of the parish already mentioned, to have diets of catechising those of the younger sort; and they met in the kirk, sometimes in my house. What time I began this course I do not remember, but I think it has been early; for I learnt it from Mr. Charles Gordon minister of Askirk, whom I found so employed in his house when I went at a time to visit him; and he died, at furthest, in the year 1710.  By this course I got several young people of both sexes, trained up to a good measure of knowledge; some of whom unto this day are solid and knowing Christians; but it suffered some interruptions. The time I found fittest for it on their part, was from January to the beginning of May; and the whole youth of the parish, who were disposed, and had access to wait on, came together and were welcome; as were others also, who inclined to hear. The intimation of their first diet was made from the pulpit; and then from time to time I set and signified to them their next diet; ordinarily they met once a fourtnight; sometimes once in 20 days only; sometimes once a week, as occasion required.  Several times these meetings were closed with warm exhortation to practical religion; the which I sometime used also in the diets of catechising the parish.  Thus this accessory work fell in the time when ordinarily I was weakest; and of late years that my frailty notably increased, I wanted not inclination sometimes to give it over.  But that I might the better comport with it, I did some years ago cause make a portable iron grate, in which I had a fire in the kirk to sit at on these occasions.  This year, after I had once and again found my self fail mightily in diets for the parish, thro’ bodily inability, the time of beginning this course was returning; and the Lord pitied and helped again in another diet for the parish.  So I was encouraged, and began that course again at the ordinary time, not daring as yet to give it over; and thro’ the mercy of God, it was got carried on as usual.

“This winter I did more at night than of a long time before, having ordinarily written something, for a while, after six o’clock at night. And on the 17th day of March, I had completed the catechising of the parish for the second time. This was a kind disposal of Providence: for about the same time began a breach of my health, which made me the heaviest spring I had ever felt” (437-38).

1731

“It pleased the Lord, for my trial, to make the entry on that work difficult; and the progress has, through several interruptions, been small to the writing hereof; whatever He minds to do about it. On the morrow I catechised at Buccleugh. I continued about three hours in that exercise without my spirits or strength failing ; which is the more sweet, and filled my heart with thankfulness, that in the morning I had, in consideration of my weakness, prayed for pity. I was minded next day to have spent some time in prayer for assistance in the aforesaid work: but being called out of my bed that night, to visit a sick person supposed to be a-dying, I found in the morning that I was not in case for it. So I applied myself to writing of letters, which at length I was obliged also to give over. Being seized with a colic, I behoved to take my bed that night: and rising on the Friday, I was obliged to take bed again, where I was fixed till the Saturday morning. Then the pain was removed; but I was unfit for business, save writing of letters. But though the Lord’s day was so bad that few came to church, it was a good day to me, in delivering the Lord’s word, weak and crazy as I was. I admired the indulgence of my gracious Master, in timing the trial so as not to mar my public work; and in that I had as much studied the preceding week, as fully served that Sabbath; so that as I was not able, so I did not need to study. He is a good Master to me: and I kissed that rod” (452).

“On Tuesday, 1st December, I spent some time in prayer, with fasting, chiefly for two causes—1. The work on the Hebrew text; and therein I found a pinching sense of need carrying me to that exercise, my hope of success being in the Lord alone; 2. For my younger son, who the day before had gone towards Edinburgh, to attend the school of divinity only. I reviewed my whole life, made confession, and renewed my acceptance of the covenant, as that time twelve months before: and then I made my supplications on these accounts and some other, particularly the affair at London as to the MSS., concerning which there was still a deep silence; and came away with hope, rolling them on the Lord. On the morrow I catechised at Calcrabank. I had a singular satisfaction in that little journey, while I observed how Providence taught me, trying me and delivering me. It being a very hard frost, it was dangerous riding; and my horses being both away to Edinburgh with my son, I was mounted on a beast that would hardly stir under me. At the second ford above Hopehouse, I was quite stopped, the ford being frozen, and the horse not able to make the brae where the water was open.  Alighting therefore to take the hillside, the bridle slipped off, and my horse got away homeward, and I pursued.  But kind Providence had a well-inclined lad coming down on the other side of the water, who coming through to my help, catched unhorse, led him on, and I walked on foot once and again.  Coming home, I was cast under night; but the lad staid, and came along with me, and led my horse again, while I walked with some uneasiness, by means of my boots, and otherwise.  Meanwhile it was some moonlight: and I had a pleasure in that trial, beholding how my God took notice of me, even in my little matters, and how He balanced them for me!  ‘Lord, what is man that Thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that Thou makest account of him!’ After all, having only got two falls, perfectly harmless, while walking, I came home safe; and found not the least ill effect of this adventure, save some weariness in my legs on the morrow after.  And I got what I could spend of the next day, on the beloved study: but still Providence kept me on trial, as to time for it” (453).

“But holy Providence had designed a piece of new trial for me that I was not aware of.  When I came home from Maxton, I was told one had advised blistering, and putting a pea in my leg, for my sore knee, and had left me a blistering plaister for that end.  The plaister was applied on the Friday’s night.  On the Sabbath night the pea was put in; and thro’ pain I slept none that night.  The pain continuing, the pea was taken out again on the Tuesday; and on the morrow after, I had my first diet of catechising at Chapplehop. After taking away the pea the hole quickly closed; but there grew upon it a hard callous substance and withal the leg was inflamed. This created thoughts of heart, and the sore knee was forgotten.  On the Monday after I wrote for a surgeon; who returned me answer, he apprehended no danger and sent me an ointment to apply.  Expecting some benefit by the ointment, I wrote him on the morrow, he needed not to come till again called.  But finding the ointment quite ineffectual as to the substance aforesaid, I was sorry I had prevented his coming up…”

“Meanwhile the catechising of the parish was interrupted  and I sat in the pulpit when I preached.  But my soul rejoiced to observe, how my gracious God and Master still timed the hardest of my trouble, so as it had been designed, that it should be over before the Sabbath should return.  But with this trouble of my leg there was joined sore eyes, occasioned by my sitting in the bed writing, in the sunlight, on the Tuesday before the surgeon came: so that, for some nights, leg and eyes were to be buckled up with their respective applications at once; and one night a dint of the toothache joined them.  The callous substance was got away by degrees; and on 7th November at night, what day I had intimated from the pulpit a diet of catechising again, the sore appeared closed” (469-71).

“I observed the diet of catechising aforesaid: but the day was so very bad that few came to it, being at Kirkhop.  The week following I had another at Buccleugh. Considering my frailty, the season, and how Providence had, by the above-mentioned trial, carried me by the time I thought fittest for the utmost corners of the parish, I laid the matter before the Lord.  And rising early in the morning, I got a good seasonable day, visited a sick man by the way, had a full allowance of strength for my work of catechising, without failing of my spirits, and got home again with daylight. This merciful conduct of Providence was big in my eyes” (472).

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Chalmers’ parish visitation notes (Kilmany, 1813-1815)

Posted in Catechesis, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Thomas Chalmers, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way, Visitation Evangelism, Visitation Journaling on August 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The following is an extract from Thomas Chalmers’ personal notes from house to house visitation in his first parish of Kilmany, with comment by William Hanna, editor of his Memoirs.  It well illustrates the Scottish Reformed legacy of the spiritual care for all souls in a defined geographical area as well as the ancillary custom of pastoral journaling.  Here are the records of a true, spiritual physician.

A few specifics are worthy of special observation.  Note the frequent entreaties raised to the Lord, reminiscent of another memoir-writer, Nehemiah (Neh. 2:4, 5:19, 6:14, 13:14, 22, 29, 31).  Here is one devoting himself to the ministry of the Word and prayer.  We also should observe amid these ‘ejaculatory’ prayers an ongoing willingness to engage in self-criticism.  May we too rest in the Lord for whom we labor, and not in our labors themselves.  They are fraught with sin and imperfection – “but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5). 

Last, Hanna includes an overview of Chalmers’ practice of catechizing, in the well-worn path of the old Church of Scotland practice.  His method was evidently very gracious and dialogical, yet it clearly honored the high authority vested in the Catechism’s biblical doctrines.  Firmness in confession, pastoral finesse in method.  A delicate balance indeed!

* * * *

“February 15th, 1813.—Visited Mrs. B., who is unwell, and prayed. Let me preach Christ in all simplicity, and let me have a peculiar eye on others. I spoke of looking unto Jesus, and deriving thence all our delight and confidence. O God, give me wisdom and truth in this household part of my duty.

“February 21st.— Visited at Dalyell Lodge. They are in great affliction for the death of a child. I prayed with them. O God, make me wise and faithful, and withal affectionate in my management of these cases. I fear that something of the sternness of systematic orthodoxy adheres to me. Let me give up all sternness; but let me never give up the only name by which men can be saved, or the necessity of forsaking all to follow Him, whether as a Saviour or a Prince.

“March 25th.— Visited a young man in consumption. The call not very pleasant; but this is of no consequence. O my God, direct me how to do him good.

“June 2d.— Mr. ——— sent for me in prospect of death; a man of profligate and profane habits, who resents my calling him an unworthy sinner, and who spoke in loud and confident strains of his faith in Christ, and that it would save him. O God, give me wisdom in these matters to declare the whole of thy counsel for the salvation of men. I represented to him the necessity of being born again, of being humbled under a sense of his sins, of repenting and turning from them. O may I turn it to my own case. If faith in Christ is so unsuitable from his mouth because he still loves sin, and is unhumbled because of it, should not the conviction be forced upon me that I labor myself under the same unsuitableness?  O my God, give me a walk suitable to my profession, and may the power of Christ rest upon me.

“June 4th.— Visited Mr  — again. Found him worse, but displeased at my method of administering to his spiritual wants. He said that it was most unfortunate that he had sent for me; talked of my having inspired him with gloomy images, but seemed quite determined to buoy himself up in Antinomian security.  He did not ask me to pray. I said a little to him, and told him that I should be ready to attend him whenever he sent for me.

“August 9th.— Miss — under religious concern. O my God, send her help from Thy sanctuary. Give me wisdom for these cases.  Let me not heal the wound slightly; and, oh, while I administer comfort in Christ, may it be a comfort according to godliness. She complains of the prevalence of sin. Let me not abate her sense of its sinful ness. Let me preach Christ in all his entireness, as one that came to atone for the guilt of sin, and to redeem from its power.

“March 15th, 1814.—Poor Mr. Bonthron, I think, is dying. I saw him and prayed, after a good deal of false delicacy. O my God, give me to be pure of his blood, and to bear with effect upon his conscience. Work faith in him with power. I have little to record in the way of encouragement. He does not seem alarmed himself about the state of his health, and, I fear, has not a sufficient alarm upon more serious grounds. It is a difficult and heavy task for me; and when I think of my having to give an account of the souls committed to me, well may I say, Who is sufficient for these things?

“March 23d.— Mr. Bonthron was able to be out, and drank tea with us. I broke the subject of eternity with him. He acquiesces; you carry his assent always along with you, but you feel as if you have no point of resistance, and are making no impression.

“March 26th and 27th.—Prayed each of these days with Mr. Bonthron. I did not feel that any thing like deep or saving impression was made. O Lord, enable me to be faithful!

“April 3d.—Visited John Bonthron.

“April 5th.—Prayed with more enlargement with John than usual. I see no agitations of remorse; but should this prevent me from preaching Christ in His freeness?  The whole truth is the way to prevent abuses.

“April 6th and 8th Visited Mr. Bonthron.

“April 9th.—Read and commented on a passage of the Bible to John. This I find a very practicable, and I trust effectual way of bringing home the truth to him.”

The next day was the Sabbath, on the morning of which a message was brought to the manse that Mr. Bonthron was worse. While the people were assembling for worship, Mr. Chalmers went to see him once more, and, surrounded by as many as the room could admit, he prayed fervently at his bedside. No trace remains of another visit.

Prosecuting his earlier practice of visiting and examining in alternate years, he commenced a visitation of his parish in 1813, which, instead of being finished in a fortnight, was spread over the whole year. As many families as could conveniently be assembled in one apartment were in the first instance visited in their own dwellings, where, without any religious exercise, a free and cordial conversation, longer or shorter as the case required, informed him as to the condition of the different households. When they afterward met together, he read the Scriptures, prayed, and exhorted, making at times the most familiar remarks, using very simple yet memorable illustrations. “I have a very lively recollection,” says Mr. Robert Edie, “of the intense earnestness of his addresses on occasions of visitation in my father’s house, when he would unconsciously move forward on his chair to the very margin of it, in his anxiety to impart to the family and servants the impressions of eternal things that so filled his own soul.”  “It would take a great book,” said he, beginning his address to one of these household congregations, “to contain the names of all the individuals that have ever lived, from the days of Adam down to the present hour; but there is one name that takes in the whole of them—that name is sinner: and here is a message from God to every one that bears that name, ‘ The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.'” Wishing to tell them what kind of faith God would have them to cherish, and what kind of fear, and how it was that, instead of hindering each other, the right fear and the right faith worked into each other’s hands, he said, “It is just as if you threw out a rope to a drowning man. Faith is the hold he takes of it. It is fear which makes him grasp it with all his might; and the greater his fear, the firmer his hold.” Again, to illustrate what the Spirit did with the Word: “This book, the Bible, is like a wide and beautiful landscape, seen afar off, dim and confused; but a good telescope will bring it near, and spread out all its rocks, and trees, and flowers, and verdant fields, and winding rivers at one’s very feet. That telescope is the Spirit’s teaching.”

His own records of one or two of these visitations are instructive:

“February 18th, 1813.—Visited at Bogtown, Hawkhill, and East Kinneir. No distinct observation of any of them being impressed with what I said. At East Kinneir I gave intimation that if any labored under difficulties, or were anxious for advice upon spiritual and divine subjects, I am at all times in readiness to help them. Neglected this intimation at Hawkhill, but let me observe this ever after.

” February 16th.— A diet of visitation at ——. Had intimate conversation only with M. W. I thought the —— a little impressed with my exhortation about family worship, and the care of watching over the souls of their children. I should like to understand if —— has family worship.

” March 9th.—Visited at ——. The children present.  This I think highly proper, and let me study a suitable and impressive address to them in all time coming.

“May 19th.— Visited at ——. I am not sure if Icould perceive any thing like salutary impression among them; but I do not know, and perhaps I am too apt to be discouraged. C. S. and J. P. the most promising. O my God, give me to grow in the knowledge and observation of the fruits of the Spirit and of His work upon the hearts of sinners.

“August 9th—Visited at Hill Cairney. Resigned myself to the suggestions of the moment, at least did not adhere to the plan of discourse that I had hitherto adopted. I perceived an influence to go along with it. O my God, may this influence increase more and more. I commit the success to Thee.”

In examining his parish he divided it into districts, arranging it so that the inhabitants of each district could be accommodated in some neighboring barn or school-house. On the preceding Sabbath all were summoned to attend, when it was frequently announced that the lecture then delivered would form the subject of remark and catechizing. Generally, however, the Shorter Catechism was used as the basis of the examination. Old and young, male and female, were required to stand up in their turn, and not only to give the answer as it stood in the Catechism, but to show, by their replies to other questions, whether they fully understood that answer. What in many hands might have been a formidable operation, was made light by the manner of the examiner. When no reply was given, he hastened to take all the blame upon himself. “I am sure,” he would say, “I have been most unfortunate in putting the question in that particular way,” and then would change its form.  He was never satisfied till an answer of some kind or other was obtained. The attendance on these examinations was universal, and the interest taken in them very great. They informed the minister of the amount of religious knowledge possessed by his people, and he could often use them as convenient opportunities of exposing any bad practice which had been introduced, or was prevailing in any particular part of his parish. Examining thus at a farm-house, one of the plowmen was called up. The question in order was, “Which is the eighth commandment?”  ” But what is stealing?”  “Taking what belongs to another, and using it as if it were your own.”  “Would it be stealing, then, in you to take your master’s oats or hay, contrary to his orders, and give it to his horses?”  This was one of the many ways in which he sought to instill into the minds of his people a high sense of justice and truth, even in the minutest transactions of life.

“November 30, 1813.—Examined at . J. W. and B. T. both in tears.  The former came out to me agitated and under impression.

“January 20th, 1814.—Had a day of examination, and felt more of the presence and unction of the Spirit than usual.

“January 21st—Had a day of examination. Made a simple commitment of myself to God in Christ before entering into the house.

“February 8th—Examined, and have to bless God for force and freeness.  D. absenting himself from all ordinances. Let me be fearless at least in my general address, and give me prudence and resolution, O Lord, in the business of particularly addressing individuals.  I pray that God may send home the message with power to the people’s hearts.

“February 23d.—Examined ——. A very general seriousness and attention. B. and his wife still, I fear, very much behind.

“April 5th.—Examined at P.  I can see something like a general seriousness, but no decided marks in any individual.

“March 8th.— Examined at S.   The man P. B. deficient in knowledge, and even incapable of reading; the father of a family too.  I receive a good account of ——. Oh! that they may be added to the number of such as shall be saved.

“July 2d.—Examined with more enlargement and seriousness.  I feel as if there was an intelligence and good spirit among the people. O God, satisfy me with success; but I commit all to Thee.

“July 27th—Examined at ——. The family afraid of examination, I think, and they sent me into a room by myself among the servants. This I liked not; but, O God, keep me from all personal feeling on the occasion. I brought it on myself by my own accommodating speeches. I have too much of the fear of man about me. Never felt more dull and barren. I feel my dependence on God. I pray for a more earnest desire after the Christianity of my parish, and, oh may that desire be accomplished. O God, fit a poor, dark, ignorant, and wandering creature for being a minister of Thy word!  Uphold me by Thy free Spirit, and then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.”

The family here referred to was that of a farmer recently settled in the parish, and who, unfamiliar with the practice of examination, felt at the first a not unnatural reluctance to be subjected to it. On his return to the manse, Mr. Chalmers jotted down the preceding impressive notice of his reception and its result. In the afternoon of the same day he went back to the family; told them that, as they had not come to him in the morning, he had just come to them in the evening to go over the exercise with themselves. The frank and open kindness of the act won their instant compliance, and brought its own reward.

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The secularization of the ministry

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, The Sacred Ministry, Thomas Chalmers on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), one of the greatest 19th century preachers, began his ministry in the rural parish of Kilmany in Fife, Scotland.  He began that ministry, strangely enough, as an unconverted man.  Under the sway of Moderatism, Chalmers approached the ministry as a country gentlemen.  To him, it was a cushy job with ample liesure to pursue his real passion – mathematics.

When, however, the Lord converted him, his whole paradigm of ministry shifted.  His charge in Kilmany was no longer a sinecure, but a full-time commission from the Most High.  At that point, he threw himself into his labors with a weighty sense of pastoral obligation.  “Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel!”

The following quote, in a letter from Chalmers to a correspondent, reflects his high view of the ordained ministry.  For context, it comes at a time when a larger field of usefulness was opening up to him at the Tron Church in Glasgow.  In this letter, Chalmers explains that he would only consider the post if it was eventually shorn of all those administrative duties that were typically laid on city preachers in those days.  He would not go if his spiritual office was thus to be ‘secularised.’

The secular employment laid upon your clergy to the degree mentioned by you, will not restrain me from accepting it. But I will not oblige myself to any portion of such employment, however small. I may find it prudent to take a share; but in its least degree, I count it a corrupt encroachment on the time and occupations of a minister: see Acts, vi., 4. And I shall only add, that I know of instances where a clergyman has been called from the country to town for his talent at preaching; and when he got there, they so belabored him with the drudgery of their institutions, that they smothered and extinguished the very talent for which they had adopted him. The purity and independence of the clerical office are not sufficiently respected in great towns. He comes among them a clergyman, and they make a mere churchwarden of him. I have much to say upon this subject; and I do not despair, if we shall have the felicity of living together, of obtaining your concurrence in this sentiment. It shall be my unceasing endeavor to get all this work shifted upon the laymen; and did I not hope to succeed in some measure, I would be induced to set my face against the whole arrangement at this moment. I shall only say of my own dear parishioners, that they have expressed their value for me on no other ground than pure ministerial services; and it is hard to leave such a people for another, who may not be satisfied unless I add to my own proper work a labor which does not belong to me (Memoirs 1:337).

Two obserations.  First, Chalmers was not against ministerial administration.  But that administration was largely a service of delegation, so that it could be free to do what it was designed to do – pray and preach!   Moreover, most of the supervision had to be delegated as well, or the minister would fill up his time with managing human resources.  Little better, really, than “waiting on tables” (Acts 6:2)!

On that score, it does seem that Chalmers’ talk of shifting administrative duties to ‘laymen’ needs a bit of context.  If I am not mistaken, Chalmers had first in mind ruling elders, those presbyters devoted not to the regular ministry of the Word but to the government of the Church alongside teaching elders.  He probably also meant deacons beneath the elders of the kirk session.   So his terminology might mislead some of us.  While he did seem to entertain a higher view of the ministry of the unordained believer – what others might more customarily call a ‘lay person’ – yet, ‘shifting’ all the work on the laymen in the first place meant utilizing those in the ruling and diaconal offices to their full capacity.  That as an aside.

But the second observation is that in Chalmers’ day, you had a higher view of the ministry across the board within evangelicalism.  Evangelical ministers in many cases – especially in the established Church – often resigned to the reality of civil responsbilities that took them away from their study and closet.  Chalmers stood out as a minister who would not cave in.  What we often have today in American evangelicalism is this same secularization, this distraction of the ministry of the Word and prayer to the administration of temporal matters.  But the difference, as I see it, is that most do not even ‘cave in.’  They willingly sign up for the managerial ministry!  This is not the seclarization of the office from without, but from within.  We are our own worst enemy.

May the Lord raise up a new army of ministers who will not yield to secularization of the ministry, or sell its birthright for a bowl of lentils.  May He purge it, purify it, and spread it far and wide for the good of souls, and to the honor of the Lord Christ.

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A ‘diet of catechizing’ in the rough & tumble Highlands

Posted in Catechesis, Diets of Catechizing, Evangelistic Catechesis, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Gospel Tactics, Highlands & Islands, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way on July 23, 2010| 1 Comment »

If you’re Reformed, passionate about evangelism, and not such a ‘frozen chosen’ that you can indulge in a good laugh, then you really need to read about Aeneas Sage.  Sage was a Presbyterian minister in the 18th century Scottish Highlands, then a very rough and Roman Catholic region.  Sage was a Samsonesque figure, somewhat larger than life.  The following is a delightful vignette from his heroic ministry, taken from The Scot of the eighteenth century: his religion and his life, by John Watson (1907).  I’m not sure if it is apocryphal – but it sure is enjoyable!

(more…)

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The parish system – ‘worth the risk’

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Parish Theory & Practice on June 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here’s an interesting piece on the advantages of the parish system from an evangelical in the Church of England.  As Chalmers articulated it, the Church should be a Church for all people and consequently should not be subjected to the laws of the marketplace.  “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.”  The author of this piece argues that principle well.

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Of words & wards

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Parish in American Context, Parish Theory & Practice on May 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Being an armchair philologist, words fascinate me.  I am often allured by the suggestive hints from other cognate languages.  “Hmm. Could this word be related to that?  And if so, how?”   Soon I’m at the dictionary, probing unknown etymologies and discovering family relationships.  New shades of significance of even the most familiar of words give me an inward satisfaction.

But I really sit up and take notice when they are words that tap into domains of personal interest. So after several years of nursing a respect for Reformed parochial mission theory a la Thomas Chalmers, I’ve become really interested in expanding my grasp of related terminology and its significance.

One of the new words under personal review is ward.  I owe this one to Dr. Francis Wayland (1796-1865), the fourth President of Brown University and a strong American admirer of Thomas Chalmers.  In his biographical tribute to the great Scotsman, he mentions the word to explain Chalmers’ advocacy of the parish as a unit of evangelism.  “So far as I understand, the city of Glasgow is divided into parishes, as our cities are divided into wards” (p. 88).  Really, it was just an incidental statement in a larger explanation.  But this attempt to translate a somewhat foreign state of affairs for an American audience made me pause.  “Now if the British parish is analogous to the American ward (or district, precinct, borough), then what is its precise meaning?  And how could it be appropriated ecclesiastically?”

Well, the word as a noun basically means “the act or condition of guarding” or “being in a state of custody.”   Germanic in origin, the word developed through Old and Middle English to the current ward and related variants.  In the same family are beware, wary, guard, and warden.

The following seems to be central to its essence.  The ward is an authoritatively fixed responsibility assigned to some person or persons to regard, protect, and otherwise care for certain ones under their charge.  Usually a ward is not alone, but several wards are distributed throughout a general area, combining for the overall protection and provision of a larger body.  So, then, the ward is an organizational expedient for a broad charge.  In light of all this, we get a clearer insight into the significance both of city and hospital wards.

Turning to the ecclesiastical application, the Lord Jesus Christ has been invested with “all authority in heaven and on earth.”  He, however, chooses to send the Twelve throughout the nations with the keys of the kingdom.  Whatever they “bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” while “whatever they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  He that hears them hears the Son, and whoever hears Him hears the Father.

The entirety of the nations are to be taught, baptized, and consequently further taught “in all things whatsoever [Jesus has] commanded them.”  The nations, then, are under the Church’s custody.  No doubt “the heathen rage” and attempt to throw off these “bands” and “cords.”  Yet, none of their mad fury alters in the slightest the dominion of God’s Christ or the authority entrusted to the Church as steward.  The world is Christ’s ward.

Yet the Church under Christ can only fulfill its charge by (in the words of Thomas Chalmers) an intelligent economy. Only by division can the whole be conquered.  So the Church, seeing herself as Christ’s city steward or the spiritual hospital’s administrator, divides and subdivides its sacred charge.  We may call these units any number things.  But given the ancient and contemporary significance of the ward, this offers itself as a great word for the Church’s missionary vocabulary.  And for that matter, it ought to be more than idea – but an abiding mandate.  The Church ought not so much to create wards as to realize and begin to take charge of them!

Perhaps these ideas seem Roman Catholic.  I would contend, however, that the Reformation Church – wearing the mantle of the true catholicism – affirmed them wholeheartedly.  It threw out the vain traditions of men, but not this theology of the Church’s spiritual stewardship over the nations.  And that is why the Reformation Churches kept establishments and the parochial system.  They were viewed as wise expedients to fulfill its sacred responsibility.

Nevermind the blight of secularism, with its contempt of all churchly restraints.  Let us not be browbeaten by the re-paganizing of the West.  It remains, as well as the East – and for that matter, the North and South too! – the territory of the Lord Christ.  It is His domain, as the rightful Heir of all things.  That means the nations are His, the states are His, the cities are His – with all its wards.  Let the Church assume its responsibility over them.  And in so doing, it will one day receive that cheering commendation, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

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Concerning the True Care of Souls (review)

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls on March 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

Concerning the True Care of Souls, by Martin Bucer. Published by the Banner of Truth Trust.  Hardcover, 258 pages.

* * *

Martin Bucer is one of those lesser known Reformers who is only undeservedly overlooked in the contemporary Reformed world.  Yet, from his center of labor in Strasbourg, Germany, he profoundly influenced the direction of the Reformation.  And one has only to weigh his heavy influence on John Calvin who lived for a time in Strasbourg and imported its ideals to Geneva.  Further, at the invitation of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, he moved to England in 1548, where he spent the last few years of his life as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge.  In England, he advised the powers that be in how Reformation ought to be advanced on the island kingdom.  And according to one scholar, he planted the seeds of a pastoral model that was later to emerge in Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor. 

Thanks to Peter Beale and the folks at the Banner of Truth, we now have Bucer’s great contribution to Pastoral Theology, Concerning the True Care of Souls.  This book is a must-read for all men in and aspiring to the ministry.  Permit me to highlight several features I found helpful and challenging.

First, and not surprisingly given the source, Bucer put a very high premium on the Visible Church and its ordinances.  The pastoral ministry is a major component of that grand institution which Jesus founded on the rock.  The Word, the sacraments, and discipline are the staples of the true Christian life, and consequently the pastoral ministry is the sine qua non of the rise and progress of our spirituality.  Bucer writes,

God sent an angel to Cornelius to declare his grace to him, but he still had to be properly taught and given new birth through St Peter [Acts 10].  Christ himself converted Paul from heaven, but he still had to be taught more fully through Ananias and washed and purified from his sins through baptism [Acts 9:1-19; 22:3-16].  So the Lord simply wants to maintain this order whereby he performs the work of conversion, redemption and the whole of salvation in us through his ministers….

This is why all pious Christians should use the texts we have set out to guard themselves against the wholly pernicious error which despises the church’s ministry of word and sacrament as a superficial and unnecessary thing, and would have everything given and received from Christ in heaven without using the means which the Lord himself desires to employ (p. 23).

And later he picks up the same thread:

And because we are all too fond of ourselves, we are not able to recognize or judge our own deeds properly.  Therefore, if we do not have a good and high opinion of those whom the Lord has placed over us, and who are to instruct, exhort, admonish and correct us on his behalf, and do not immediately receive their words and teaching with all fear and trembling as the Lord’s own words and teaching, then we will get nowhere and will not progress in the pursuit of godliness, as is our current and daily practice (p. 203).

We as men of God must ever remind ourselves and our people of these great realities, in a day when so many are pro-Jesus but anti-‘institutional religion.’  Extra ecclesiam nulla salus!  (Ordinarily, that is.)

Second, Martin Bucer makes several points worth noting about ministerial prerequisites.  Not just anyone can serve in this office.  A holy office is for holy men.  This theme recurs over and over, and we should have this drummed into our ears.  The following quote reveals how deeply concerned he was about this principle.  In referring to the moral qualities required of elders in 1 Timothy 3, he writes,

By saying this we do not mean that these qualities are not called for in all Christians, and these failings should not be abhorred by all; but it should be known that these qualities should characterize and be seen in ministers more than in others, and there should be absolutely no hint of these failings in them.  For the rest, we have to put up with there still in part being these failings in the church, although it is a sad thing and something to be fought against.  For it is often to be found that some have too much pleasure in wine and other things of the flesh; some still have too much affection for money and gain; some are too prone to anger and quarrelling – but you cannot on this account drive these people out of the church, because these failings of their cause themselves sorrow, they accept discipline and desire to reform their ways; but because they are in such a weak state and the ministry of teaching and building up the church requires the greatest strength and perfection in all good things, such people should not be appointed to the office of bishop or elder, although they may freely remain as ordinary Christians.  In just the same way you cannot place just anyone in the council and government of a town, although he would be quite acceptable among the ordinary citizens (pp. 53-54).

Incidentally, I think this also serves as a preventative against an overbearing and discipline-happy ministry.  If we make a distinction between those lesser faults which are to be tolerated in the faithful but not in the leaders, we go a long way keeping the church a welcoming hospital and not an elitist club for those who have “already attained.” 

Bucer also introduces prerequisites that we may not typically think of, but are necessary for the efficiency of the ministry and the good of the people.  For example, he firmly argued that only those men who had spent time gaining the confidence of the flock should be considered for office.  Precisely because “people are weak and discipline and punishment are unpleasant, it is necessary that these ministers should as much as possible be trusted and respected by the believers among whom they are to serve the Lord” (p. 41).  “They must have the greatest respect and confidence of the whole congregation, be most thoroughly known for their godly activity . . .” (p. 55).  It is necessary “to have the consensus of the whole church, because ministers are not only to be blameless in the eyes of the Lord’s people, but also well trust and loved by them” (p. 63).  Bucer cites Augustine’s appointment of his successor, Eradius, to exhibit this wisdom.  “Now this Eradius was so well known to the people that St Augustine had no doubt that the people wanted him to be bishop just as much as Augustine himself did in announcing this before the people” (p. 65).  Interestingly, Bucer goes so far as to assert that one should never ascend to a higher office without having proved himself in a lower (p. 62).   The thrust is pretty obvious, it seems to me.  Win the hearts, not by politics, but by sustained and consistent godliness, and the people should gladly submit to you (p. 197). 

Next, it is noteworthy that Bucer majors on discipline.  Yet far from treating it as draconian, discipline is rather a pastoral business, an affair of nothing less that pure Christian love.  If pastors are truly ‘carers of souls,’ then they will not withhold medicine when medicine is due (p. 98ff). 

Consequently, Bucer bemoans how the Church by neglecting discipline forfeits that authority which the Lord has given it for the edification – and reclamation – of men.  For Bucer, its neglect is a kind of self-emasculation.  One wonders whether the modern Church’s loss in social status is largely due to its laxity in discipline.  Children don’t respect a father who is weak and effeminate.

Fourth – and somewhat to my surprise – Bucer holds out quite a holistic view of the church and its ministry.  Though much of what he writes is for those in the pastoral office, yet he is quick to point out that the brotherhood has a duty to care for souls as well.  “Wounded sheep are to be given treatment by all Christians, but particularly by the carers of souls” (p. 98).  This is also demonstrated, I think, in what we mentioned earlier about leaders first winning the confidence of God’s people. 

I won’t say much here about Bucer’s arguments for the role of the state in supporting the church – except to say, three cheers for Bucer!  And I find his discussion of Reformed ‘penance’ compelling, though I must admit it is somewhat mystifying.  I thought I had understood the Protestant attack on penance in the Romanist sacramental system, but there must have been some nuances in the Reformed camp, given Bucer’s position.  Someone please enlighten me.   

The last thing I would want to say in commending this book is the conspicuous place of the Holy Spirit throughout. The Third Person of the Godhead was obviously front and center in Bucer’s mind, leaving one to speculate on another aspect of influence on his protégé, John Calvin.  I stopped counting after 16 direct references to the Spirit’s activity in the pastoral ministry.  But should this come as any surprise?  It was by the Spirit of Jesus that the apostles were empowered and vested with the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Jn. 20:21-23).  It was the Holy Ghost who made us overseers for our appointed flocks (Acts 20:28).  And it is the Spirit and the Bride that say, ‘Come’ (Rev. 22:17)!

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Domestic visitation – the talismanic key to hearts

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, The Romance of Locality, Thomas Chalmers, Visitation Evangelism on January 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The following is a delightful quote in the preface of the 1840 edition of Thomas Chalmers’ Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation:

We confess no small gratification in finding, at the end of twenty years, that our promulgations, held at the time to be altogether Utopian, of the great charm and efficiency which lie in the household ministrations of clergymen, are now repeated in the most popular, and at the same time, the most able and authoritative of our daily journals. The Times newspaper of a few days back recommends with great force and eloquence, and in the following terms, “the still further prosecution of an earnest and indefatigable system of parochial domiciliary visiting throughout all the parishes of the land. This, depend upon it, is the only patent and talismanic key to English hearts, whether of Churchmen, Papists, or Dissenters. Disinterested and persevering kindness, brought habitually to a man’s home under all sorts of discouragement, is what no human being can long or rudely resist. With that elevated determination and singleheartedness, which, in the absence of all impertinent intrusions or officious curiosity, manifestly seeks to engage mankind in a devout concern for their immortal interests, let every family in every city, town, or hamlet, be regularly and affectionately visited, no matter what denomination they may belong to. The established clergy, accredited, commissioned, and upheld by the law of this realm, are the clergy of the whole nation. Every fireside in their parish is a part of their allotted charge. They have an official as well as a moral right, subject, of course, to discreet limitations, to seek admittance into every door, ‘ whether men will hear or whether they will forbear.’  Painful repulses will occasionally, though not often, occur; but these, compensated by a consciousness of dutiful exertion and by cordial welcomes in other cases, will sooner or later be overcome hy meek and patient endurance. Only let all the families of England be regularly invited to the dispensation of a free gospel in a free church ; and eventually the very universality of this hahit of parochial visiting will establish it as a part of our social system; and cause it to work with the uniform beneficence of nature’s general laws.”

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