What Congregationalism Is

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 553 the Lutheran Church has endeavored and does endeavor to do. We know that children, no less than persons of riper years, are included in the term "all nations;" therefore we baptize them according to Christ's command. But baptism is only one half of the command; therefore we also teach them to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded us. Therefore we teach them biblical history, that they may know what wonderful things God has done for his children through all generations, that they may learn from the pages of history, what the wages of sin is, and how great the mercy, loving kindness and grace of God is to those who fear him. We also teach them the principal doctrines set forth in the Bible. We teach them the law of God, that they may know what God wants them to do and avoid, and that they may learn to understand that they are sinners in need of a Saviour. We teach them the gospel, that they may know what to believe. We teach them how to pray, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, and through Christ have access to the throne of grace. We teach them that God, through the washing of regeneration, has made them his children and heirs of everlasting life, that they may know what covenant God has made with them, what promises he has given them, and what he has in store for them, if they remain faithful unto the end. And we teach them about the sacrament of the altar, that they may eat the body of Christ and drink his blood, so as to be strengthened in their faith. WHAT CONGREGATIONALISM IS. REV. SIMEON GILBERT, D. D. Congregationalism stands for a faith and a principle of church government. The faith is the evangelical belief; the church polity is that of a pure democracy, under the one Lord and Master. Historically, Congregationalism was the pure outcome of the Reformation, and was a return, straight and immediate, to the sole authority of the Word of God. In all 42

554 IMPROVEMENT ERA. matters of religious life and church control, its loyalty to Christ alone makes it disown "the authority of pope, prelate, presbyter, prince or parliament." It calls no man master; for one is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren. The acceptance of the supreme authority of God as revealed in his Word and in our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the fundamental thought. All doctrine, all motives, all rules of the Christian life are subject to this test. Congregationalism begins with the idea of a regenerate church membership. It would have no meaning without this as its basis, no justification or power. Moreover, the local church is constituted by a definite covenant, entered into by believers with God and with one another. Congregationalism, consistently and alike in both its faith and its polity, emphasizes the continual and indwelling pres- ence of Christ in his church according to his promise, "Lo, I am with you always." For the same reason, it keeps at the front its dependence upon the inward teaching and power of the Holy Spirit. But, along with this independence of the local church, Con- gregationalism holds to the idea of the fellowship of the churches. As to the fittest methods of church fellowship, on the basis of the freedom and spiritual equality of the several churches, there has been a good deal of experimentation. In this respect Congregationalism of to-day is the result of a long process of evolution and of re-adjustment to new conditions. If it took courage to dare to be free, it has required an equal degree of courage, while insisting upon freedom, to dare to enter upon terms of fellowship, mutual trust, council and co-operation. The present system of "councils," and of "associations," local, state and national, and at length international, came about only by degrees. The existing combination of the im- mediateness of each one's accountability to God, of the inde- pendency of each local church of all outside human authority, and with this an organized system of church-fellowship, has been an achievement, the victory of a long-growing "sancti- fied common sense." So that that which not long ago seemed to the fathers impossible has now come to appear axiomatic

RELIGIOUS FAllIIS. 555 and altogether natural. This at least is true in America, where Congregationalism is in certain respects greatly in ad- vance of that in Great Britain. The genesis of Congregationalism was in England; its first exodus to the New World was from Holland; and it was the Mayflower which bore to Plymouth Rock this choicest and fruitfulest seed-corn of all American immigration, religious, civil and educational. From the necessity of the case, Congregationalism has, from the first, always and everywhere, put paramount empha- sis upon education. The system which makes so much of the individual, of every individual member, is itself educative, and is constantly making demands for more and still more of personal culture. What may be termed the American educa- tional idea, from the founding of Harvard College and the origination of the common school of New England, owes more, far more, to Congregationalism than to any other single source. But no one can have any tolerably adequate conception of what modern Congregationalism is, unless he takes into large account two other great factors in its life. These are, on the one hand, its comprehensive and really majestic system of joint responsibility and joint enterprise in support of its varied missionary societies, home and foreign: and, on the other, its religious journalism—the "council" that waits on no "letters- missive" for its organization; the open parliament which never adjourns, and before which no questions of vital moment are ever out of order. These two great factors and forms of act- ualized fellowship do more than any other human agency to bind into a sweet and living and divinely forceful unity not only the scattered Congregational churches of a continent, but throughout all the world, and which makes it possible and proper to speak of an ecumenical Congregational Church. The Congregational denomination is not the most num- erous religious body in America, having only a little more than half a million communicants; but its power is not to be fairly estimated without taking into the account its influence hitherto toward congregationalizing all the other church or- ganizations.