Cibrarjp oftU theological ^eminar;^ 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 A. G. Cameron, Ph^D, 
 5.18.11 
 
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 THOUGHTS 
 
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 ON THE SYSTEII OP 
 
 pluiif ilrpii^atwi^, 
 
 SUITED TO THE 
 
 KINGDOM OF CHRIST 
 
 BY 
 
 s/ 
 
 WILLIAM CROWELL 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 PRINTED BY EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 
 
 No. 26 Frankfort Street. 
 1859. 
 
[REQUEST 
 
 New York, April, 1859. 
 
 Eey. Wm. Crowell, D. D. : 
 
 Dear Sir : — You are well aware, no doubt, that for more 
 than a year past the public mind has been aroused to a con- 
 sideration of very important questions, relating to the Mission- 
 ary Organizations of the Baptist denomination in this country. 
 The existing system of evangelizing agencies has been made the 
 subject of a most searching discussion, and very diverse views 
 have been promulgated by means of pamphlets, newspapers, 
 letters, addresses, and the ordinary communications of social 
 intercourse. The general interest in the discussion seems to be 
 increasing, and also a desire for such a degree of unity of 
 opinion as may ensure unity of action on the part of our 
 churches throughout the land. 
 
 The undersigned, believing that you have devoted an un- 
 usual degree of attention to the study of the Baptist polity, to 
 the principles that underlie it, as well as to its varied practical 
 operations; believing, too, that you have observed their ap]'li- 
 cation and development from different points of view, both in 
 the east and the west, amid a great variety of circumstances, 
 desire to avail themselves of the opportunity furnished by your 
 visit to New York, to draw forth from you a free and full 
 exposition of your views in regard to these agitated topics. 
 
They •woiild be glad to receive this either in the form of a 
 public address, to be delivered at some convenient time and 
 place, or in the form of a communication from your pen, to be 
 printed and published. 
 
 WILLIAM HAGUE, 
 WILLIAM W. TODD, 
 BENJAMIN CLAPP, 
 GEORGE GAULT, 
 B. T. WELCH, 
 WILLIAM PHELPS, 
 NATHAN C. PLATT, 
 WILLIAM R. MARTIN, 
 PHARCELLUS CHURCH, 
 
 Z. RING, 
 
 A. DECKER, 
 
 WILLIAM JAMES TODD, 
 
 H. M. BALDWIN, 
 
 A. H. BURLINGHAM, 
 
 ROBERT COLBY, 
 
 LEVI HAYDEN, 
 
 R. W. MARTIN, 
 
 R. STOUT. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ox THE SYSTEM OP 
 
 EYANGELIZING ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 SUITED TO THE KINGDOM Of CHRIST. 
 
 To Rev. W. Hague, D. D., Col. W. \V. Todd, Benj. Clapp, Esq.. and others: 
 
 Brethren : — 
 
 It is true that I have paid some special attention 
 to the study and development of Baptist principles, be- 
 cause in them I found the true ideal of the kingdom of 
 Christ. If I am to take the Holy Scriptures as the com- 
 plete and only rule of faith, and the New Testament as 
 the only authority for the formation, ordinances and 
 government of the churches of Christ, then the aggregate 
 of churches so formed and governed is the true, and the 
 only true, organized kingdom of Christ on the earth. 
 
 The primary idea of that kingdom is set forth by our 
 Lord in His conversation with Nicodemus. If there be a 
 kingdom of Christ in this world at the present day, then 
 those who are described as begotten, or made anew by 
 the Spirit, are the only persons who can belong to it. 
 They are " born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God." This is the grand 
 distinction between that kingdom and the kingdom of 
 Israel. The members of the latter were born of blood, — 
 they were the children of Israel after the flesh ; the mem- 
 bers of the other are the sons of God by the Spirit. 
 Thus the kingdom of God on earth is called the king- 
 dom of Heaven, because it is the true type of that king- 
 dom which shall be perfected in hoHness and in glory. 
 
What the glorified kingdom will be, that on earth is 
 struo-srlinii; to realize and exhibit to the world. 
 
 Takino;, then, this solemn declaration of our Lord, that 
 none but the regenerate can be members of His king- 
 dom, on earth or in Heaven, I was led to inquire whether 
 the churches of Christ, the aggregate of which must 
 make up His kingdom on earth, ought to be formed of 
 the regenerate only. — I found the first historic mention of 
 a church as actually existing on earth — the church in 
 Jerusalem — to be in these words : "The Lord added to 
 the church daily such as should be saved." Doddridge 
 prefers to translate it, "such as were saved." But I 
 suppose it means, such as were in the course or process of 
 being saved ; that is, those who were born of the Spirit, 
 and were now working out their salvation, knowing that 
 God was working in them. I cannot conceive of a more 
 concise, comprehensive, definite, or exact description of a 
 church, in any form of words. Here, then, we have the 
 true idea of the first church, and, as I suppose, the 
 pattern of every true church to the end of time. Those 
 who joined it were such as " the Lord added." And we 
 are informed whom He added. Nor do I find the record 
 of a single deviation from this rule. When churches 
 were formed in Samaria and Galilee, and in the cities of 
 Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and Philippi, there is abun- 
 dant evidence that they were all made up like the first, of 
 " the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." I 
 am unable to find any evidence that the Apostles received 
 into the churches infants, or servants, or seekers, or any 
 persons except those who were believed to have "passed 
 from death unto life." 
 
 I found further, that those who gave evidence of this 
 saving change were baptized ; nor could I find the 
 slightest evidence that any others — exceut hvpocrites, who 
 
falsely professed to be such, — as Simon Magus, Ananias 
 and Sapphira — were baptized. I found that they were 
 baptized in token of the remission of sins already past ; 
 and of their death to sin, and resurrection to righteous- 
 ness, and that, ''tJienfore, we are buried with Hi in 
 (Christ) by baptism into death ; that like as Christ was 
 raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 so we also should walk in newness of life." I could not 
 find the record of a single baptism that did not conform 
 to this principle ; as it related to the subject of the ordi- 
 nance, its symbolic import, and its relation to the Church 
 and Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 jSTow, brethren, these are very simple ideas, and that 
 may be the reason why so many of the "wise and pru- 
 dent'' have failed to receive them. But if I have given 
 special attention to the study of Baptist principles, it is 
 because I find them in the word of God. I have not 
 gone to the Bible to find support for those principles, but 
 to find the truth. If Baptist principles present the true 
 outhne of the kingdom of our Redeemer, then I have not 
 studied them in vain. " Buy the truth and sell it not." 
 I recognize among you, brethren, those who have labored 
 many years by means of the pen, and of the living voice, 
 and by a liberal devotion of your substance, to promote 
 these principles, and extend them over the earth. Why 
 have you done it? Not, surely, to extend a denomination, 
 — a mere name, or a sect — but because you believe that 
 in these principles the Kingdom of your Lord and 
 Saviour is embodied and set forth before the world. 
 You would not lift a finger to extend these principles, if 
 you did not believe them to be identified with the King- 
 dom of Christ. 
 
 If this be not our view of the matter, brethren, then 
 w^^ have n^t made an honest profession of our faith. If 
 
8 
 
 it be, then we ought to desire to fill the world with our 
 doctrine. We cannot labor to extend the Gospel with- 
 out at the same time laboring to spread Baptist prin- 
 ciples. When we pray, " Thy kingdom come," what can 
 we mean but that all men should yield obedience to every 
 command of Christ? And can we honestly pray that 
 others may obey while we refuse to obey ? And, if we 
 believe that the Kingdom of our Lord is truly set forth 
 in these principles, we cannot, as honest men, desire that 
 any doctrines adverse to them should make progress in 
 the world. We may approve virtue and piety wherever 
 we find it — in Jew or G-entile ; we can rejoice that Chris- 
 tianity, even in a very defective form, is making progress; 
 we ought to be lovers of all good men, wherever found ; 
 but in our labors to extend our Master's Kingdom, we 
 must labor according to our honest convictions of what 
 that kingdom is. It is written, " the disciples were called 
 Christians first in Antioch.'' If they were on the earth 
 now, we suppose that they would also be called Baptists, 
 as we now are, because the existence of so many sects 
 would render some additional name necessary. It is an 
 ancient and honorable name, — more ancient even than 
 the name Christian ; and we ought not to be ashamed of 
 a name that connects us with "the beginning of the 
 Gospel," and with that ordinance by which we profess 
 "to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God, through 
 Jesus. Christ our Lord." 
 
 I take it for granted, brethren, that we have all re- 
 ceived and love Baptist principles for the simple reason 
 that they embody and set forth the kingdom of Christ, 
 according to the New Testament. And while we believe 
 that love to God and to men is the life of all true rehgion, 
 that without it the best professions and the strijctest adher- 
 ence to primitive order "is as sounding brass and a 
 
9 
 
 trnkling symbol," yet we insist on keeping the Church of 
 Christ pure from all human additions. For one, I desire 
 to have nothing to do with building up sects or denomina- 
 tions. " Let them alone : every plant which my Heaven- 
 ly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." If. in 
 spite of their errors, they do good, let them do it. But 
 let us build up the Kingdom of our Redeemer, just as we 
 have received it from the living oracles, not spending too 
 much time in opposing the sects around us, never copying 
 after any of their measures or policy. 
 
 The Baptists have become a numerous and a widely ex- 
 tended people. Our churches are found in every State 
 and Territory of the United States, in most of them in great 
 numbers. According to the Baptist Almanac for the 
 present year, there are eleven thousand six hundred 
 Baptist churches, containing near a million of members, 
 in the United States ; besides half as many more who 
 practice adult immersion as the only baptism. I look 
 upon these facts as among the marvels of modern history. 
 Those churches have received few accessions by immigration 
 from Europe ; they seem to be the spontaneous outgrowth 
 from a free Bible, a separation of Church and State, a free 
 pulpit and a free press, under the quickening power of 
 the Divine Spirit. Our churches multiply beyond all 
 possibility of supplying them with an educated ministry. 
 Can any reason be given why these principles have not 
 had a similar development in Europe, but because they 
 have been crushed under the iron heel of political power, 
 or overshadowed and choked by the thorns of govern- 
 mental religious establishments? Wherever the rigors 
 of persecution have been relaxed, Baptist churches "sprmg 
 up as the grass, and as willows by the water courses." 
 In France, in the various states and cities of Germany, in 
 Sweden, and Denmark, churches are multiplying. And 
 
10 
 
 although each of these churches is a distinct, independent 
 body, each complete in itself for all the purposes of gov- 
 ernment and discipline, yet all are one in spirit, in prin- 
 ciple, in aim, and effort, — all, when walking in the light, 
 guided by the indwelling spirit of Christ, ready to flow to- 
 gether in one great stream of holy beneficence. 
 
 Now, it seems to me, that a thoughtful study of the 
 lessons of Scripture and of history will show not only 
 that our principles make us "a peculiar people," but 
 that we are, at present, in a somewhat peculiar crisis. 
 Some of our churches are numerous and wealthy, others 
 small, scattered and poor. On all the vital points of 
 faith and duty, we are more nearly one body than any 
 other on the earth. But in our organizations for ex- 
 tending the Kingdom of Christ, it appears that we have 
 not fully settled on our plans of action. We acknowl- 
 edge the general duty of laboring to give practi- 
 cal effect to the first and greatest petition in our Lord's 
 Prayer, and to execute His farewell commission, yet we 
 are not agreed on modes of action. We admit the obliga- 
 tion of making known the Gospel to all the world, by 
 personal efforts, and by giving of our substance ; but we 
 differ respecting the manner of doing it. So that a feel- 
 ing, like that in the camp of Israel at the chilling reports 
 of the spies, seems to be coming over some of us ; and the 
 proposal, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into 
 Egypt," is likely to be greeted with no lack of candidates 
 for the office. But are Baptists willing to see our great 
 and rapidly increasing body turn back ? No, brethren ; 
 I hear the voice of God, in His glorious providence to- 
 wards us, sayhig, " Speak to the children of Israel that 
 they go forward." What if the mountains are on either 
 hand, and the host of the Egyptians behind, and the Red 
 Sea before us ! — let us go forward. 
 
11 
 
 The question is, what plan of operations will enlist the 
 whole Baptist body in the work of converting the world 
 to God ? Are our present organizations defective, and if 
 so, how can they be improved so as to meet the case ? I 
 believe that we shall succeed in our general organizations 
 only so far as they conform to our fundamental and dis- 
 tinctive principles. It is folly for us to imitate or institute 
 comparisons with the plans of " other denominations." 
 We always lose by it. Our general organizations should 
 be as truly the outgrowth of our principles as are our 
 churches or local associations. The days of our greatest 
 prosperity and usefulness have been those in which we 
 were most purely and thoroughly Baptists. The work to 
 be done consists of two kinds : first, that which can be 
 done by individuals, or by the churches directly ; second, 
 that which can only be done, or be best done, by a society, 
 or societies, intended to combine the efforts- of all the 
 churches. Our present business is with the latter class of 
 labor. 
 
 Is there, then, any one kind or department of labor for 
 the extension of the kingdom of Christ, which requires, 
 or favors, a union of all Baptists, and of all our cliurches, 
 in one general organization ? If so, what is it ? The 
 organization must be founded on a principle which we all 
 hold in common. Its object must be so simple, so defi- 
 nite, that every Baptist can understand it. There must 
 be no room for doubt that it is approved of God. The 
 principle must not be a doubtful one, nor of secondary 
 importance, or partial application ; it must be of para- 
 mount obligation to Baptists of all climes and ages; whose 
 authority is acknowledged semper, et ubique, et ab omnibm. 
 Have we such a principle on which we can organize for 
 such an object? If we have, it is that laid down in the 
 second sentence of this letter. It is the sufficiency of the 
 
12 
 
 Bible in the hands of the people ; it is the principle that 
 has always made Baptists the antipodes of Rome. We 
 have ever insisted on the claims of God's word to be the 
 first ; we have charged the corruptions of Christianity on 
 the error of giving priority to something else than the 
 Holy Scriptures. We have said, Place the Bible in the 
 hands of the people ; let the words which the Holy Ghost 
 teacheth be given to all nations, tribes and tongues ; let 
 it be the rule of faith to all churches ; let no one add to 
 or take from its teaching. 
 
 I suppose, therefore, that the dissemination of the Holy 
 Scriptures must always occupy the first place in the esti- 
 mation of Baptists. And they cannot give priority to any 
 other form of evangelical labor without a denial of their 
 own fundamental principle. They, of all men, should 
 lionor that life-giving word which God "hath magnified 
 above all His name." No other book, no preaching, how- 
 ever faithful, can be compared to that Holy Word, which 
 is " perfect, converting the soul;" which is " right, rejoic- 
 ing the heart ;" which is " pure, enlightening the eyes ;" 
 which is "clean, enduring forever ;" which is "true, and 
 righteous altogether ;" which is " more to be desired than 
 gold, yea, than much fine gold." Here, then, in our first 
 principle is our bond of universal union. Here we can 
 all be one. From north to south, from east to west, 
 "from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof," 
 we can all agree to give the word of God to the whole 
 world. 
 
 Xow let it be supposed that we had no existing or- 
 ganization at all for extending the Gospel, designed to 
 unite the whole Baptist family ; and suppose we were 
 considering wliat to fix upon, to unite us all in one work • 
 would we, ought we, to unite in the work of disseminating 
 the Bible ? 
 
13 
 
 A first answer is, If we did not, we should deny our 
 own first principle ; we should dishonor that word which 
 we profess to reverence above all things, by giving pre- 
 ference to the word or the works of man. While pro- 
 fessing to believe in the sufficiency of the Bible, we should 
 in works deny that profession. 
 
 A second answer is, We should throw away our strongest 
 and most vital bond of union ; the only one that can be 
 relied upon to unite all our churches. We have no eccle- 
 siastical bond, no canon law, but the living oracles ; we 
 have neither pope nor bench of bishops, neither con- 
 ference nor general assembly ; yet we need some bond of 
 union that shall make us one people. And what can so 
 surely, so beneficially do this, as a union for placing the 
 precious word of life, which has so cheered and blessed us, 
 in the hands of all our fellow men ? What can so unite 
 our multitude of independent churches in one great army, 
 as to give practical life and power to this, our only un- 
 faihng bond of union ? What watchword can touch the 
 universal Baptist heart, like that of giving the Bible to 
 the world ? Is there any other bond of union like this, 
 to run like an electric wire through every heart in all our 
 mighty host ? 
 
 A third answer is. That if we did not engage in this work, 
 it would fall into unfaithful or incompetent hands. The 
 manufacture of Bibles, in the English language, is chiefly 
 in England, in establishments originally created by govern- 
 ment monopohes. In the United States, the business is 
 in the hands of the American Bible Society, and of private 
 publishing houses. The Baptists do not wish to disturb 
 the harmony of the English-speaking race in the use of 
 the received version. But that race comprises only a small 
 portion of the human family. Who shall supply the word 
 of God to the countless millions who have not received it ? 
 
14 
 
 We know that the British and Foreign Bible Society, and 
 the American Bible Society, have refused to aid versions 
 made by our missionaries, because they are, as we believe, 
 fully translated. Should we leave the work of giving the 
 Bible to the world to those who conceal a part of its 
 truth? 
 
 y A fourth answer is, The dissemination of the Bible is the 
 most economical form of evangelical labor. The cost of 
 ""supporting a single missionary would send out annually 
 some thousands of Bibles. Such are the facilities furnished 
 by the printing press for multiplying copies, and by the 
 opening of the ports of nearly all nations to commercial 
 intercourse, that we have great inducements to scatter the 
 Bible broadcast over the world ; because, if one in ten falls 
 into good ground, it is the most economical form of send- 
 ing the bread of life to the perishing. 
 
 A fifth answer is, Baptists are the only people who can, 
 or will, give the Bible, fully translated, to the heathen. 
 Pedobaptists must conceal that part of the inspired 
 volume which condemns their practices. This question 
 has been brought to a practical issue, in the two great 
 Bible Societies of Europe and America. There is, there- 
 fore, no alternative left us, but either to allow a mutilated 
 Bible to go to the heathen, to allow our missionary trans- 
 lators to be compelled to conceal a part of God's word, 
 and our principles to be insulted, or to engage, as a body, 
 in the Bible cause. 
 
 But the question may still be asked : Suppose that 
 we were now, for the first time, to devise a system of 
 evangelical organizations best adapted to develop the spirit- 
 ual life, and extend the influence and the efficiency of the 
 American Baptists, would it be wise to organize a society 
 for the Bible cause ? Might not the Bible work be com- 
 mitted to some other society ? 
 
15 
 
 Very likely it miglit, if Baptists are jDrepared to take a 
 lesson from Rome, and make the Bible cause secondary 
 to some other. A board selected for some other work, 
 might do the Bible work after some fashion. But, would 
 this course be treating the word of God with that rever- 
 ence which is its due ? What work would Baptists place 
 before that of giving God's word to the nations ? If it is 
 to be grafted on to some other, what shall the parent stem 
 be ? What is worthy to be the principal, if this is second- 
 ary ? Would it not be more wise and more consistent, to 
 engraft other branches of benevolent effort upon this? 
 Is not the dissemination of the Bible th e par ent stem, by ^ 
 right, of all branches of evangelical labor? If Baptists 
 build their churches on the Bible, shall they not build 
 their system of united evangelical labor on the same 
 foundation ? If we are wise or consistent, we shall put 
 the Bible cause foremost ; we shall select a board with 
 special reference to it, and then commit as many other 
 trusts to their hands as we may deem them able to dis- 
 charge with advantage. We are brought to the conclu- 
 sion, then, that if Baptists had no general, united societies 
 for the spread of the Gospel, they would first organize for 
 the diffusion of the Bible. That they ought to do so, 
 cannot admit of a doubt. 
 
 The work of translating, printing, and distributing 
 the Bible is not a branch of preaching or teaching. It 
 takes precedence of all other evangelizing agencies. It 
 is the^tem, the tap root of missions— foreign or domestic 
 iTwas by reading the Bible that Luther, and Wicklifife, 
 and Tyndal, became converts, then translators, preachers, 
 and reformers ; it was by reading the Bible that Ab- 
 dallah, the Arabian, became a Christian ; it was by hearing 
 it read that the first Greenlander was converte j. The 
 work of a Bible Society is to give the very words which 
 
16 
 
 the Holy Ghost teacheth to the eye and to the ear of all 
 the people and nations of men ; and, as a Baptist, I say, 
 that we ought to have a Bible Society, if we have no 
 other. Is it strange that Baptists cannot sustain a central- 
 izing organization which rejects the central banner of 
 their union ? If we do not make a Bible organization 
 our rallying standard, then we fcave none. There can be 
 no other common universally recognized bond of union to 
 our multitude of churches. Reject our central idea, and 
 we have no common centre. 
 
 I cannot stop now, brethren, to consider objections on 
 the score of economies. We, Baptists, ought to be duly 
 grateful that we have iDrethren who are considerate of 
 our purses. One thing is certain, however : if American 
 Baptists cannot sustain a Bible Society, then there cannot 
 be one sustained and controlled by Baptists at all. I can- 
 not divest myself of the idea, that the written word of the 
 Most High God demands some special honor, even where 
 we cannot reckon up the profit ; at least of a people who 
 profess to hold it in so high reverence as we do. For one, 
 I had rather run the risk of going too far, in doing honor 
 to that word, than of falling short. The sons of Eli 
 thought it poor economy, no doubt, to consume the fat of 
 the people's sacrifices in burnt offerings to the Lord ; but 
 God said, "them that honor me, I will honor; but 
 they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." When I 
 read in the pages of the Inspired Word those declarations 
 of its surpassing excellence, which cannot be applied to 
 any other book, nor to any other thing ; when I compare 
 our professions of respect for the Bible with our practice 
 in giving so much greater prominence to missions than to 
 the Bible, I am led to ask, whether we ard not obnoxious 
 to the^same reproof; "wherefore honorest thou thy 
 sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest 
 
17 
 
 of all the offerings of Israel my people ?" The Bible is 
 to us the Ark of the Covenant and the Testimony ; it is 
 between the Cherubim that overshadow the Mercy Seat ; 
 it is the Shekinah, whose streaming rays come forth un- 
 veiled from the Holy of Holies. And shall we, who pro- 
 fess to reverence the Bible more than all others, who 
 claim that its teachings have made us Baptists, who have 
 no other sure bond of union, — shall we leave the 
 Bible work to others ? If we do, we shall deserve to be, 
 as we shall be, the fag end of " the denominations ;" for 
 then the glory will have departed from our Israel. 
 
 But we have not done our whole duty when we put 
 the Bible into the hands of the people. It must be ex- 
 plained, advocated, defended, by the living voice, and by 
 the written and printed page. We have the Divine sanc- 
 tion for both these methods. Both have their peculiar 
 advantages. But, while it is admitted that the living 
 voice of the living preacher has its advantages, while it is 
 true that we have the precepts and examples of our Lord 
 and of His Apostles to sanction the oral preaching of tlu) 
 Grospel, it is no less true that both Scripture and expe- 
 rience give special prominence to the written page. It has 
 been thought by some that God revealed the art of writ- 
 ing, to men. The Law was given on " two tables of stone, 
 written with the finger of God." And lest this most 
 striking fact should not be remembered, it is repeated 
 that "the tables were the work of God, and the writing 
 was the writing of God, graven with the finger of God."' 
 And when Moses broke these wonderful tables, he was 
 commanded to hew out two others like them ; and God 
 wrote on them the same words that were on the first. 
 The people were commanded to write the laws on their 
 door-posts, on their garments, and on the frontlets of their 
 eyes. To the king of Israel this commandment was 
 given : 2 
 
18 
 
 " And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that 
 he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is be- 
 fore the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall 
 read therein all the days of his life : that he may learn to fear the Lord 
 his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do 
 them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he 
 turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; 
 to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his 
 children, in the midst of Israel."— Deut. 17: 18—20. 
 
 Our Lord appears to have commenced His public 
 ministry by reading the Scriptures. He refuted the 
 sophistries of Satan by saying, "It is written." If this 
 prominence was given to letters as the medium of preserv- 
 ing and disseminating religious truth, w^hen the printing 
 press was unknown — when copies were multipUed by the 
 slow process of writing, ought we not to give correspond- 
 ing prominence to the wonderful facilities furnished by 
 the printing press ? Then, only kings and priests could 
 liave the inspired volume ; but Christians are all 
 " kings and priests unto God." Hence John, in vision, 
 was commanded, "What thou seest write in a book, and 
 send it unto the churches." And he wrote, "Blessed is 
 <* he that readeth, and they that hear (if they could not 
 ■ i-ead) the words of this prophecy." The Bible is full of 
 ilhistrations of the great advantages of the written over 
 the oral method of disseminating knowledge, and of 
 spreading Divine truth in the world. I think that there 
 has been a tendency among us to exaggerate the compar- 
 ative value of the oral over the printed message, in our 
 evangelizing efforts. I think that we should consider 
 carefully the question, whether we ought not to bestow a 
 larger portion of our labors on the work of book-making 
 and distribution. 
 
 But I will not stop to argue this point now, because I 
 have another object in hand, viz : Which method of pub- 
 
19 
 
 lishing the Gospel, (next to the circulation of the Bible,) 
 the oral or the written, is most favorable to a general 
 union of all our churches? The latter, I think. The ob- 
 ject is to circulate, far and wide, books that advocate and 
 defend the truth ; and, if necessary, expose error. We 
 have brethren of sufficient learning, judgment, wisdom, 
 piety, and soundness in the faith, to prepare or to select 
 such books as we can all agree to circulate. And a book 
 once approved, stands approved. It does not depart from 
 the ftiith, nor become apostate, as preachers sometimes 
 do ; it does not fall from grace, nor become proud, nor 
 worldly, nor indolent, nor obstinate or refractory, as even 
 missionaries are sometimes charged with doing. A good 
 book does not require to be fed nor clothed, costs little 
 for outfit and travelling expenses, is not liable to fall sick, 
 nor to entail a family of helpless children on those who 
 sent it forth. It never tires on its mission of light and 
 love ; it goes to the sick chamber, fearless of all contagion ; 
 it tells the same story to the rich as to the poor — to the 
 prince as the peasant; it goes where no preacher can go, 
 and gains access to places into which no missionary 
 would be admitted. How many living missionaries could 
 do the work that the silent pages of the Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress is now doing, in the fifty languages in which it is 
 read ? 
 
 If the work of evans-elizins^ the world were confined to 
 the unlettered tribes, hke the North American Indians, 
 or the Bushmen of Africa, the case would be different. 
 But the press has become the great power of the world. 
 If \Ye let it alone, it will not let us alone. It is a fearful 
 engine for good or evil. There is, "first, the irreligious 
 press. It puts forth its baneful power in all lands where 
 letters are known. It sends out books, tracts, magazines, 
 iViid newspapers. They are read, and dilFuse their poison 
 
20 
 
 everywhere. They find an existing demand in the de- 
 pravity of human nature. What is to counteract them? 
 The commercial law of supply and demand ? The Devil 
 wants no better terms. If Christians will not combine to 
 "lift up a standard against him," he is sure of success. 
 Shall we be so ignorant of his devices as to give him this 
 advantage ? 
 
 Next comes the polite, fashionable literature, — the novels, 
 the sensation books, the biographies of villany, books of 
 tratels, of art, and science, poetry and prose, the flashy 
 newspapers and magazines, with which the press is teem- 
 ing. Suppose that they are not hostile to religion, that 
 they throw out no covert sneers, no slighting allusions, 
 which is more than can be truly said. Suppose that they 
 simply ignore the claims of Jesus, our Lord, — yet they come 
 with all the charms of novelty, with all the attractions of 
 style, with all the prestige that genius, and art, and 
 fashion can invest them, to pre-oecupy the mind, to ab- 
 sorb the thoughts, to vitiate the taste of the young, and 
 banish religion from the circle of their influence. Shall 
 we do nothing to counteract it ? Shall we leave the law 
 of supply and demand to create a taste for a thoroughly 
 Christian literature ? 
 
 A third class is the general religious literature, which 
 advocates those Christian doctrines and duties that are 
 commonly received, but omits others, which are essential 
 to the completeness of the Kingdom of Christ. "Thousands 
 of such books are published, and we rejoice in all the. 
 good that they do. The issues of the American Tract 
 Societ}^, and of the American Sunday-school Union, are 
 excellent in their place. But we aTl believe that they 
 omit some of the truth taught in the Bible that our Lord 
 requires to be taught, as essential to the completeness of 
 His kingdom. Shall we leave that part of the Gospel 
 
21 
 
 which even good men overlook, to the mercantile chances 
 of supply and demand ? 
 
 A fourth class of books, tracts, sermons, and essa3^s, 
 come from the various Pedobaptist presses, assailing our 
 principles and practices, our church polity and ordinances, 
 with all the power that talent, learning, prejudice and 
 fashion can bring to bear upon them. A large part of the 
 private publishing houses of the country are controlled 
 by Pedobaptists, or by men of no religion, who always 
 lean towards the side of wealth, fashion, and worldly in- 
 fluence. And it is a singular and suggestive fact, that a 
 large part of the books of religious controversy are aimed 
 at Baptists. Papists may teach priestly a-bsolution and 
 mariolatry, Episcopalians may teach baptismal regenera- 
 tion and salvation by works, Unitarians may degrade the 
 Son of God and profane the blood of the covenant, Uni- 
 versalists may promise Heaven to the wicked, though 
 he add drunkenness to thirst, Campbellites may delude 
 their votaries to expect the remission of sins in the water, 
 but you shall find your staunch Puritans and Presbyte- 
 rians, of all their jarring schools, spending more shafts on 
 the Baptists than on all these errorists together ! And 
 wh}'- ? What evil have we done, even on their own prin- 
 ciples ? Oh, we say, that "as many of us as were baptized 
 into Jesus Christ v/ere baptized into his death, and there- 
 fore we are buried with him by baptism into death." 
 The head and front of our offending is, that we dare to 
 carry out this truth. They admit the truth by inviting 
 us to their communion, they illustrate their charity by 
 abusing us for adhering to our principles, and their 
 honesty by denouncing the very principles which they 
 admit to be true ! And if we do leave to Baptist private 
 publishers the work of refuting these assaults, yet the 
 Pedobaptists have in their societies a publishing capital 
 
22 
 
 of not less than a million and a half of dollars, employed 
 in printing and circnlating a Pedobaptist literature. 
 Shall Baptists let this mighty flood roll over the land un- 
 checked? No! if they regard their principles as worth 
 defending, if they, believe that they have their Lord's 
 commission to preach, embody and defend His Gospel, in 
 its simplicity and completeness, they will be recreant to 
 their trust, if they do not unite as one to employ the 
 mighty energies of the press in its behalf Error in 
 books and tracts must be repelled by truth in books and 
 tracts. And as Jesus did not wait for people to come 
 and buy his truth, but "went about doing good," so we 
 should carry that truth everywhere. 
 
 While, therefore, we ought to rejoice in all that private 
 publishers are doing, and when we " pray the Lord of the 
 harvest to send forth laborers," should include in that 
 prayer a petition for an increase of godly publishers and 
 booksellers, yet Baptists should combine their strength to 
 print and distribute books and tracts. If we had no so- 
 ciety for this purpose, it would be our duty to form one 
 forthw^ith, and to endow it liberally. Such a society, next 
 to a Bible Society, is most favorable to a general union of 
 all our churches. It is the second best common bond to 
 preserve among our extended body the unity of the faith 
 and unity of action. It is a cause of sufficient magnitude, 
 and sufficiently distinct, to require the undivided energies 
 of one society. 
 
 The other method of extending the Kingdom of Christ 
 — that by means of oral preaching and teaching — -diffi^rs ' 
 from the other two in several important particulars. The 
 object of sending out missionaries, that is, evangelists, 
 whether into our own or a foreign country, is to raise np 
 churches.* This was our Lord's appointment. The Apos- 
 
 • See Appendix, note A. 
 
23 
 
 ties planted churches wherever they could, and these 
 churches, made of baptized believers only, are called by 
 the t^ignificant name of " candlesticks,''^ or light-bearers to 
 the world. A church is independent, though the mis- 
 sionary, or evangelist, around whom it is gathered, is its 
 pastor or bishop. So far as we send out men to preach, 
 we, of course, wish them to form churches. We wish to 
 dot the world all over with independent, self-sustaining 
 churches, all made up of baptized believers only, all 
 "candlesticks" to the regions around them. Now, as to 
 the relative importance of this department of labor for 
 the extension of the Kingdom of Christ, and the manner 
 in which Baptists ought to combine to carry it on, there 
 are several things to be remembered. 
 
 In the first place. It is necessarily expensive. A mis- 
 sionary, especially to a heathen people, must be a man of 
 the highest order of intellect, learning, and piety. He 
 should be a tried and jDroved man ; not only capable of 
 defending the Gospel against the sophistries of heathenism, 
 but one who can be trusted to lay the foundation of new 
 churches, and be an example to the flocks thus gathered. 
 To train up and support such men, must be expensive. 
 
 In the second place, There is a broad distinction between 
 the work of an evangelist, or missionary, sent out to 
 preach and to raise up churches, and a Bible translator 
 or a book distributor. A good translator may be a very 
 indifferent preacher, and a good preacher may be a very 
 poor translator. A man might be quite competent to 
 circulate the Bible, as well as to read and explain it, who 
 would not be a suitable guide to the churches ; and a good 
 missionary is rarely a good book distributor. The work 
 belongs to different classes of men, and requires a difler- 
 ent superintendence. 
 
 In the third place, There is no apostolic authority for 
 
24 
 
 the modern division of missionary labor into home and 
 foreign. Paul speaks of an arrangement by which James, 
 Peter and John were to preach to the Jews, while he and 
 Barnabas would go to the Gentiles. But even this di- 
 vision was not regarded ; for Peter first preached to the 
 Gentiles, and Paul opened the Gospel message first to 
 the Jews, wherever he went. But the division into 
 foreign and home missions is a modern invention. A 
 foreign mission society is but half a society ; and a home 
 mission society is but half a society. " The field is the 
 world." "Go ye into aU the world," is the commission. 
 And a Mission Board, competent to send evangelists to a 
 foreign nation, must be still more competent to send laborers 
 into the destitute portions of their own country. Nothing 
 would be more likely to happen than that applicants for 
 service in a foreign country, would be judged more suit- 
 able for home service. 
 
 In the fourth place. The work of sending out evangelists, 
 either into our own or a foreign country, differs from the 
 Bible and book work, in this : it is not possible, nor de- 
 sirable, to unite the churches generally in one organiza- 
 tion, to promote it. This work is partly ecclesiastical, 
 partly fiscal. A missionary must be a member of some 
 church ; his piety, call to the ministry, and fitness for his 
 work, must have been approved by some church. He is 
 amenable to the discipline of that church till he is dis- 
 missed from it, and received into another. Yet the Board 
 that sends him forth gives him instructions, and thus he 
 becomes accountable to two bodies. His conduct may be 
 approved by his church, but disapproved by the Board. 
 Then, if a Board is constituted by the concurrent author- 
 ity of many churches, or of individual members of many 
 churches, they are likely to set up dilTerent standards of 
 qualifications, to have difierent theories, and irreconcilable 
 
25 
 
 plans of missionary labor : then come up doctrinal ques- 
 tions, such as general atonement, or particular atone- 
 ment, free will, election and the saints' perseverance, to 
 say nothing of different opinions respecting polygamy, 
 temperance, slavery, aad other questions which might em- 
 barrass an extended society very greatly, though they 
 would cause no trouble to a single church, or to a small 
 cluster of churches. Possibly some of you, brethren, may 
 recollect some illustrations from our experience in mission- 
 ary operations. 
 
 In the fifth place, There are serious objections to the 
 forming and endowing of a large society for the purpose 
 of sending out missionary evangelists, especially into a 
 foreign land. The management of such a society must, 
 necessarily, fall into the hands of a few men, and as 
 naturally remain in the same hands, from year to year. 
 These few men have the power to appoint and discharge 
 missionaries, and to fix the amount of their compensation, 
 to instruct them what fields of labor to enter, or to leave, 
 and to punish them for any disobedience to their orders. 
 Yet, these missionaries are Baptist ministers, sent to be- 
 come the pastors of independent churches, equal in 
 official rank to their brethren at home ; and it is a con- 
 ceded principle, that every preacher among us is left to 
 his own responsibility to his Master, in choosing his 
 field of labor. Yet, a foreign missionary must obey his in- 
 structions, on peril of being recalled, or of being deprived 
 of his means of subsistence. I am not censuring, even by 
 implication, anything that has been done to, or by, our 
 foreign missionaries, but I ask, as a Baptist, is such a 
 system right ? I see very little danger in a society sup- 
 ported by every Baptist on the footstool, whose sole 
 object is to give the Bible, the pure, unadulterated word 
 of God, to the world : but I do see very grave objections 
 
26 
 
 to a large centralizing society for the sending out of mis- 
 sionaries. With my present views, I could put myself 
 under the control of no such society; I would have the same 
 freedom abroad that I claim at home, or I would not go 
 abroad ; and if I could not be supposed to be as honest, 
 as faithful to my Master's interests, and as judicious in re- 
 spect to the manner of my labors abroad as my brethren 
 at home, I would stay at home, I would send honest 
 accounts of my labors to those who undertook to "hold 
 the rope," while I went down into the dark well of 
 heathenism, but I would labor according to my own con- 
 victions of duty respecting my Master's will. I would 
 have this well understood, however, before I went, by 
 those who undertook the burden of my support, and if I 
 put myself under the orders of a board, I would obey 
 them strictly, so long as I held a commission from them. 
 
 In the sixth place. The work of sending out mission- 
 ar}^ evangelists properly belongs to clmrches or to indi- 
 viduals. Tliis seems to have been the way that churches 
 were planted at the first. The order of events, after the 
 mention of the church in Jerusalem, to which I have be- 
 fore alluded, is thus : 
 
 1. At that time there was a great persecution against tlie church 
 which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad 
 throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. 
 — Acts 8:1. 
 
 2. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere 
 preaching the word. — 8 : 4. 
 
 3. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, 
 and Samaria, and Avere edified, and, walking in the fear of the Lord, 
 und in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. — 9 : 31. 
 
 If we take these brief historic notices as intended to 
 indicate the means by which these churches were planted, 
 we find that it was not done by the Apostles, but by indi- 
 viduals who seem to have been laymen. Churches 
 
27 
 
 sprung up as the fruit of the preaching of these fugitives 
 from persecution, which must have consisted chiefly in a 
 relation of the miracles, teaching and death of Jesus, with 
 the proofs that He was the Messiah predicted by the pro- 
 phets. If churches were planted by means so simple at 
 that day, there can be no necessity for a great corporation 
 to do it now. The true idea of a missionary evangelist is, 
 one sent of the Lord. "Whence did Baptists borrow the 
 project of a great missionary corporation, to assume the 
 support of the preachers of the Gospel to the heathen ? 
 Xot of the Apostles, certainly ; not of their own ecclesiastical 
 principles. Paul had no such corjporation to sustain him ; 
 but, on the contrary, the churches which he planted, in- 
 stead of looking back to a board at Jerusalem for pecuni- 
 ary aid, did just the reverse. " For," says Paul, " it hath 
 pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain 
 contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem ; it hath 
 pleased them, verily, and their debtors they are. For if 
 the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual 
 things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal 
 things." These churches not only sustained the Apostle 
 as their missionary, but felt that they were indebted to 
 his countrynien also. 
 
 These facts show us what has been done by personal 
 effort, guided by personal wisdom, impelled by personal 
 foith and love. What has been done, can be done. Carey, 
 the pioneer of modern missionaries to the East, made his 
 own mission ; he and his associates sustained themselves, 
 not only devoting all that they received from- England to 
 the printing of the Scriptures and the support of other 
 missionaries, but they contributed eighty thousand pounds 
 sterling, from their own earnings, besides. Judson, the 
 pioneer of American missionaries, with the aid of his 
 associates, made his own mission, and called into being 
 
28 
 
 the societies that sustained them. Solomon says, that " a 
 man's giftmaketh room for him." If the spirit and power 
 of a missionary is not in a man, no society can put it 
 there ; if it is there, it will make itself known. I think 
 that Baptists must see, from the nature of their principles 
 as well as from their experience, that a great corporation, 
 to assume the support and control of missionary evangel- 
 ists, is exceedingly undesirable in itself. The work be- 
 longs to individuals and to churches ; but a corporation 
 for the purpose of supplying the world with the pure 
 word of God is an entirely diflerent thing. 
 
 Turning now to our existing societies for extending the 
 kingdom of Christ, we find the Missionary Union, under 
 its successive names and forms, to be the oldest ; though 
 foreign missions is not the earliest evangelizing enterprise 
 of American Baptists. The Bible cause and domestic 
 missions had received earlier attention.* The conversion 
 of Judson and Rice, united with the example of Carey 
 and his associates, was the occasion of enlisting us in. 
 behalf of missions to India and the East. The influence 
 of Judson on the course of our evangelizing labors has 
 been very peculiar. He was not reared as one of us : he 
 was our missionary, though unknown to us by face, almost 
 a third of a century : the story of his patience in the 
 most fearful sufferings, even to bonds and imprisonment, 
 had connected him with the noble army of Confessors 
 and Martyrs ; the Memoir of his distinguished wife liad 
 taken the charm from the tales of romance, and the name 
 of Judson, the hero missionary, the Apostle to Burmah, 
 awakened emotions of pious admiration, second only to 
 those of the heroic age of Christianity, or of Apostles who 
 had sealed their testimony with their blood. His fame 
 and his history were household words ; his piet}^ zeal, 
 
 ^ Sec Appendix, Note B. 
 
29 
 
 and self-forgetting love for the perishing heathen — his 
 serene faith, his meekness, patience, constancy, and emi- 
 nent services, were themes of universal admiration. 
 Money flowed like water at the mention of the name 
 of Judson ; it became the watchword of societies for 
 missionary inquiry by young men in their novitiate for 
 the Christian ministry, many of whom committed them- 
 selves to the work of missions in India under very crude 
 impressions of the nature of the work, some to labor very 
 successfully many years, some to return disabled or dis- 
 satisfied, more to find an early grave. 
 
 An experiment of thirty years has taught us, that all 
 who go to the East as missionaries do not become Jud- 
 sons. Disagreements between the missionaries, and be- 
 tween them and the Board, have come to light ; murmurs 
 of discontent from the missionaries have become louder 
 and louder ; the relations of missionaries to the Board 
 have been elaborately defined, over and over, 3^et they re- 
 fused to stay defined, till at last, the pent up elements of 
 discord, incapable. of longer control, exploded in this city, 
 to our unutterable mortification ; and the halo of myste- 
 rious sanctity around our Asiatic missions was, for a time, 
 thoroughly dispelled. And they are now represented as 
 enfeebled and flagging, if not in danger of utter extinction ! 
 
 During the same period, our Foreign Mission organiza- 
 tion has been the occasion of bickerings and divisions be- 
 tween the brethren at home. The General Missionary 
 Convention, formed in May, 1814, was composed of 
 Baptists from eleven States, — Rev. Dr. Furman, of South 
 Carolina, being President ; Rev. Dr. Baldwin, of Massa- 
 chusetts, Secretary. Gano and Semple, Bolles and John- 
 son, united as brethren of the same household of faith, in 
 sending the bread of life to the perishing. But, after the 
 lapse of years, sectional jealousies sprang up : poHtical 
 
30 
 
 questions, mixed up with questions relating to church 
 fellowship, were thrown into missionary discussions ; an- 
 other basis of cooperation than a common faith in Christ 
 and the institutions pertaining to His kingdom was insisted 
 on, — till at last, the tie that bound the Baptist body in 
 fraternal cooperation for the extension of the Redeemer's 
 Ivingdom was severed; not over a real, living, actual ques- 
 tion of difference, but over a vacuum, — a mere hypotheti- 
 cal question ! Next came the expedient to remedy the 
 error with human wisdom, borrowed from the "denomi- 
 nations ;" and the constitution of the Missionary Union, 
 with its exclusive Irfe-memberships, and its complicated 
 " breakwaters," came forth, like Minerva from the head of 
 Jupiter. No man could suppose, for a moment, that such 
 a thing was the outgrowth of Baptist principles. How it 
 came upon us, unless as a judicial visitation for our sins, 
 it is difficult to tell. Const'ituted as if for eternal dura- 
 tion and growth, a few years have produced a general 
 conviction that it is unscriptural, unbaptistic, not longer 
 to be borne than it can safely be got rid of. Hs history 
 has been in singular contrast to its name, for disunion 
 has marked its progress at every step. 
 
 What are the lessons from all this ? Is it not time to 
 inquire whether our plans for conducting foreign missions 
 are not radically erroneous ? Whether a great corpora- 
 tion, to take the control of all our missions, is desirable ? 
 Whether it does not embody a principle necessarily of 
 dangerous and of evil tendency to our churches and to our 
 missions? Whether foreign missionaries should not be 
 tritd mm, able and worthy to sustain a large share of per- 
 sonal responsibility, enjoying the same freedom of action 
 that we all claim as our birthright ? Whether the troubles 
 of our foreign missions are not the necessary consequence 
 of our errors? Whether in our labors for the extension 
 
31 
 
 of the Redeemer's kingdom, we have not given undue 
 prominence to the sending of evangehsts among the de- 
 caying tribes of eastern Asia? Whether the troubles 
 which are supposed to beset our other evangehzing 
 organizations do not really grow out of our mistaken and 
 vacillating policy in regard to foreign missions? And 
 whether that department of our labors for extending the 
 kingdom of Christ, is not chiefly or wholly obnoxious to 
 the charges of expensiveness and of dangerous central- 
 ization of power ? 
 
 I write with freedom, brethren, because I know that 
 you will not suspect me of indifference to the cause of 
 foreign missions. If, instead of contending so earnestly 
 for the salvation of the Union as to render it doubtful 
 whether it is worth saving, we should coolly "calculate 
 the value of the Union" as a help t<^ the mission cause, 
 would it not be quite as well ? As to home missions, the 
 constitution of the Missionary Union declares that the 
 lohok loorld is its field; though, like the Bishoprics of our 
 Episcopal neighbors, it allows some other societies to 
 nestle under its wing. The Home Mission Society has 
 done a good work, and has a great work yet to do, in 
 the new settlements of the West, which it could do to 
 better advanta2;e if removed nearer to the field of its 
 operations. 
 
 The American Baptist Publication Society, the next in 
 age to tlie Missionary Union, was formed for the purpose 
 of originating and circulating a Sunday-school and gene- 
 ral literature, such as we need and could expect from no 
 other source. Its object is, not merely "to increase the 
 number of valuable religious books," but to increase and 
 put in circulation books that teach important truth, \Yhieh 
 is left out of many valuable religious books. We have in our 
 churches and congregations some five millions of people to 
 
32 
 
 instruct and strengthen in Baptist principles, and all the 
 world beside to convert to those principles. A literature 
 adequate to this work must be immense, requiring all that 
 private publishers can do, in addition to the society. It 
 has been said, that "if a book will be read, it will pay for 
 itself ; if it will not be read, there is no object in publish- 
 ing it." This, if true, is a sweeping truth. Thus : if 
 preaching will be heard, it will pay for itself ; if it will not 
 be heard, there is no object in preaching. If a college is 
 wanted, it will pay for itself ; if it is not wanted, there is 
 no object in founding it. If people desire salvation, they 
 will come for it ; if they do not desire it, there is no object 
 in sending it to them. If this doctrine were true, it would 
 make short work with all our societies, for they would be 
 expensive and complicated, with a vengeance ! But it is 
 not true. Thousands of books are read because they are 
 put in people's way. They make a market for themselves 
 and for other books, because they are thrust into the 
 market. When truth becomes as popular in the market 
 as error now is, the above aphorism will be true, but not 
 till then.* 
 
 Of this society, Professor Knowles said, more than 
 twenty years ago, it " has from its commencement had a 
 strong hold on our regard. . . . We hope that this im- 
 portant society will receive a more vigorous and ex- 
 tensive patronage. It may be made a powerful instru- 
 ment in promoting the cause of truth. It has a strong 
 claim on every American Baptist. Let us be true to our 
 principles. "f Its founder was his intimate friend. Its 
 object is, not to diffuse a merely controversial literature, 
 but a literature which Baptists can safely admit to their Sab- 
 bath-schools, and to their firesides, and put into the hands 
 of inquirers and gainsay ers. Its business pays its way; 
 
 * See Appendix, Note C. 
 
 t See Christian Eeview, for Sept., 1836, 
 
33 
 
 its capital is wholly employed in its business, which pays 
 all the expenses of its officers and agents. It should re- 
 ceive, at the earliest possible moment, a working capital 
 of one hundred thousand dollars, to be actively employed 
 in manufacturing and disseminating books. There is. 
 perhaps, no other way in which that amount of money 
 can be more usefully or economically appropriated by 
 those who love our principles. A building fund is already 
 provided for by the munificence of a few brethren in 
 Philadelphia. Let the Society have a sufficient working 
 capital, let it be vigorously and skilfully conducted, and 
 the result will be a great increase of the number and the 
 business of our private publishing houses.* 
 
 The American and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 
 consequence of the refusal of the American Bible Society 
 to aid the translations made by our foreign missionaries^ 
 The necessity and propriety of the measure was concurred 
 in by one of the largest Baptist conventions ever held. It 
 was not greatly to our credit, professing, as we do, to 
 build our churches on the Bible, unmingled with traditions, 
 that we did not organize a Bible Society till compelled to 
 do so, or to allow our translators to be hampered with 
 traditionary rules, and our principles to be insulted. But 
 it is to the honor of the noble and true-hearted Baptists 
 who saw the alternative, that they resolved to give a pure 
 and complete Bible to "all lands," making the whole 
 world the field of our operations. 
 
 The Society has had a chequered history. By the course 
 of some of its officers — which I can never cease to lament, 
 while I shall ever love them as brethren — its usefuhiess 
 was, for a time, impaired ; but, standing on its original 
 
 '-'- 1 am saved the labor of saying mucli ia behalf of the rublication Society, be- 
 cause it has spoken so ably for itself. See the very interesting "History of the 
 American Baptist Publication Society, from 1824 to 185(i," by Rev. J. Newton Brown, 
 D. D. Also a tract, " Principles and Purposes of the A. B. P. Soc." 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 principle, it has stood its ground between two classes of 
 opponents, one insisting on making the English version 
 the standard of all translations, the other on displacing 
 that translation by a revised version. 
 
 The Society is now an existing fact ; it has a name, a 
 charter, a history, a noble house of its own ; it has 
 valuable legacies in hand and in prospect ; it has strong 
 friends, liberal donors and praying hearts, all over the 
 land, who love its objects arid its work. It has en- 
 countered furious gales, from opposite quarters, but it has 
 passed the rocks and the quicksands, and now looks for- 
 ward to the work of supplying the seven or eight hun- 
 dred MILLIONS who are yet destitute of the word of Life.* 
 
 Now, brethren, is it true that there are Baptists who 
 wish to put out the light of their only Bible Society on 
 earth ? to throw away the results of twenty years of labor 
 and sacrifice ? to make the dissemination of God's word 
 a secondary thing, or a branch of some other work ? 
 What will the world say to our claim that we are spe- 
 cially Bible Christians ; that "we are not as many, who 
 corrupt the word of God ;" that we are the unflinching- 
 adherents of faithful versions, — when they ask what we 
 are doing to give that precious volume which we claim to 
 prize so highly, and to follow so explicitly, to the world, 
 and we are obliged to answer that, as a body, we are 
 doingnothing? That we leave that work to Pedobaptists! 
 while we, following in the steps of Rome, give our whole 
 strength to "oral communication" under strict human 
 control ! 
 
 I know not how you look at some of the straws of 
 opinion among us, brethren, but when I hear Baptists 
 talking of the danger or the difficulties of our centralizing 
 around the Bible, but see no danger in centralizing around 
 
 * See Appendix, Note D. 
 
35 
 
 a board of absolute control over their brethren in the 
 ministry, I tremble for the integrity and perpetuity of our 
 churches. If the American Baptists cannot sustain a 
 Bible Society, then there cannot be such a Society on the 
 footstool as they insist is needed : and if we cannot sus- 
 tain a Bible Society, we cannot, ought not, to sustain any 
 Society whatever outside of our churches ! The field for 
 Bible work is opening and extending daily. Since the 
 founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, 
 no less than sixty milUons of copies of the Scriptures have 
 been circulated by that and the other European and 
 American Bible Societies. Now, the millions of Cliina 
 and Japan are becoming accessible to Bible distribu- 
 tion. The abolition of serfdom in the great Russian 
 empire is another sign of the times. There has never 
 been a period when such openings for Bible work were 
 so great as now."^ 
 
 Instead of contracting our Bible operations, they should 
 be greatly increased. We owe it to the God of the 
 Bible, we owe it to the millions perishing for the bread of 
 life, we owe it to ourselves, to our principles, to engage 
 with fresh zeal in the work. Doubtless it will cost us 
 something, perhaps " more than three hundred pence," 
 to honor the Bible as it deserves, but I think it requires 
 neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet to foresee the 
 two evils that will come upon us if we could bo so infatu- 
 ated as to give up our Bible Society. Whatever we may 
 " simplify," let us not so " simplify" ourselves as to bring 
 two costly evils, to save the expense of doing good. I 
 verily believe it will cost much less to sustain the Ameri- 
 can and Foreign Bible Society liberally, than to support 
 what we will have to support, if we could be so infatu- 
 ated as to relinquish it. Let him that hath Avisdom count 
 the number. 
 
 -• See Appendix, Note E. 
 
36 
 
 Here, then, are three divisions of labor to extend our 
 Redeemer's kingdom : The Bible for the world ; boolts to 
 explain it, for the world ; living preachers for the icorld ; 
 all for the same purpose, to raise up the golden candle- 
 sticks that shall bear the light to all people. God hasten 
 on the day that "we all come, in the unity of the faith 
 and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect 
 man, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ. 
 
 This seems to me to be on the true principle of the 
 division of labor, which is one of the grand conditions of 
 success. We have Apostolic precept and example for 
 such division in our labors for extending the kingdom of 
 Christ. But what is the principle of division ? Into 
 home and foreign missions, making Bible and book work 
 to be parts of these, respectively ? I find neither Scrip- 
 ture nor experience for this. The true division of labor 
 is according to its hind. To this agrees the voice of the 
 Apostle: "Having, then, gifts, differing according to the 
 grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us proph- 
 esy according to the proportion of faith , or ministry, 
 let us wait on our ministering ; or he that teacheth on 
 teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation," &c. If 
 some of our brethren have gifts for Bible work, some for 
 book and tract work, others for the work of preaching, as 
 we know they have, let each make the most of his gift. 
 But to divide the work of extending the Kingdom of 
 Christ between foreign and home missions, a division which 
 neither the Scriptures, nor experience, nor analogy 
 teaches, which the constitutions of our societies reject, 
 seems to me very much like dissecting with a cross-cut 
 saw, regardless of bones, joints, muscles, veins, or viscera !'•' 
 
 The objection that has been brought against our socie- 
 ties that they are complicated and interfering with each 
 
 * Sec Appendix, Note F. 
 
37 
 
 other, appears to rest on a radical error respecting tlie 
 proper division of labor. Suppose that a Bible reader 
 and distributor, a book colporteur, and a missionary evan- 
 gelist, are all operating on the same territory. The busi- 
 ness of one is to put the Bible into the hands of the people, 
 and get them to read it, or read it to them. The work 
 of the book colporteur is, to supply all the families with suit- 
 able reading, to find what books are read, what forms of 
 error prevail, and to apply the corrective. The evangelist 
 is to preach, to gather the converts into churches, to 
 make full proof of his ministry. Now it seems to me, 
 that here is the same sort of complication and interference 
 that there is between the architect, the bricklayer, and 
 the carpenter, in the erection of a building. They are 
 "all doing the same work," i. e., building the house. 
 There is as much complication and interference between 
 the builders as those classes of laborers. Let him that 
 ministers wait on his ministry, the colporteur on his 
 colportage, the Bible distributor on his Bible work. Expe- 
 rience proves, that it is a mistaken policy to employ evan- 
 gelists in colportage, or colporteurs in building churches. 
 Ne sutor ultra crepidam, is a homely adage, which, in a 
 free translation, may mean, "It is a pity to spoil a good 
 deacon to make a poor minister." The agency work of 
 these three operations must be divided on the same prin- 
 ciple. It might as well be said, that the rays of the sun, 
 moon and stars are complicated and interfering with each 
 other ; that rain, heat and sunshine, or that our churches, 
 colleges and newspapers, interfere with each other, as that 
 agents for these three classes of labor interfere with each 
 other.* 
 
 Our societies are charged with being expensive. I 
 pause, brethren, at this charge. Who has the right to 
 bring such an indiscriminate accusation, pubhcly, against 
 
 s See Appendix, Note G. 
 
38 
 
 societies maintained by the free-will offerings of Baptists ? 
 Has any one been taxed against his will, beyond his 
 ability ? If so, let him speak, and it shall be recompens- 
 ed to him again. But what, I ask, is the effect of this in- 
 definite charge ? Not to hinder the liberal, intelligent 
 friends of the societies from giving. No. It affects only 
 the penurious, the distrustful, the grudging, who want an 
 excuse for not giving, and to throw the whole burden on 
 on those who give freely. Such charges are cruel : they 
 inflict a gratuitous wrong. Will any one say that our 
 societies cost more than the good they do is worth ? 
 
 Or does the charge of expensiveness mean, that our 
 societies are expensive compared with those of "other 
 denominations ?" If the charge is founded on this standard 
 of comparison, what is it but that it is too expensive to 
 he Baptists ? It is quite likely that we might save money 
 by ceasing to be Baptists at all. The founders of Rhode 
 Island might have saved much money and suffering by 
 quietly ignoring their principles. The early Baptists of 
 Massachusetts might have saved their money and their 
 skins by the same prudent course. It is probable, too, 
 that by copying the systems which some of " the denomi- 
 nations" are writhing under, and striving to throw off, we 
 might make a saving of money. It does cost something 
 to be a Baptist, worthy of the name ; but if any of my 
 brethren think that it costs too much, I hope that they 
 will say as little about it as possible. 
 
 But we have been told, that a great saving of expense 
 might be made by giving all the foreign work to the For- 
 eign Missionary Society, and all the home work to the Home 
 Missionary Society, and that these societies would have 
 the funds to do it, if we would only furnish them for the 
 purpose. Unquestionably. And we have been pointed to 
 the very economical manner in which Methodists and Pres- 
 
39 
 
 byterians, and "other denominations," raise their funds, 
 and educate their ministers, &c. Well, this is an age of 
 discoveries, and, like my brethren, I have an ambition that 
 way. We want to do the Lord's work in the cheapest 
 way, of course. Here is a city church : the cost of its 
 house of worship, with the ground it stands on, must be 
 put down at $100,000. There is $7,000 annual cost. 
 The pastor's salary is $3,000 ; sexton, $1,000 ; singing, 
 $1,000 ; fuel, repairs and incidentals, say $1,000 ; 
 making thirteen thousand dollars annual expense. The 
 cost of ten such churches is one hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand dollars annually ! And in ten years they cost one 
 million three hundred thousand dollars ! ! And how many 
 have been added by baptism in that time above the exclu- 
 sions ? Suppose six hundred and fifty. Then these con- 
 verts have cost " the denomination" two thousand dollars 
 a head ! ! But by a collection of statistics out West, it is 
 found to cost less than five dollars a convert! What is 
 plainer than that those churches should be consolidated, or 
 simplified, or reduced in number forthwith? 
 
 Then, as to our general evangelizing societies, we need 
 only one, for Bibles, books, and missionary work, for the 
 whole world. We shall need but one Treasurer, one 
 Board, and one set of rooms. All agencies can be dis- 
 pensed with, not a cent, beyond the cost of postage, and 
 exchange on drafts, need to be paid for collecting. The 
 whole can go into the field of benevolence. Every mis- 
 sionary shall be a colporteur and Bible distributor, so that 
 a dollar from each Baptist will give a million of dollars 
 annually to the work. If it be said that such a society 
 has not the funds for all this work, the answer is appar- 
 ent : it would have them, if we would all unite to give 
 them. Lest it should not occur to you, brethren, I will 
 just add, that it might be found expedient to place mo at 
 
40 
 
 the helm of this invention for economizing benevolence; 
 and then, if all will do as they are directed, the machinery 
 will move without " friction." We would have but one 
 Theological Seminary, making a clean saving of seventy- 
 five per cent, there. It is true, Baptists would have to 
 become a slightly different sort of people from what they 
 are, but that is implied in all the proposed improvements. 
 "If any man think me a fool," in proposing such 
 changes, I will only say with the Apostle, " as a fool 
 receive me: for ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye your- 
 selves are wise." 
 
 Complaints are also made of the cost of agents. But 
 what is the standard of comparison ? Is an agent to be 
 put on a footing with a broker, or a commission merchant? 
 Is the value of his services to be reckoned by the per 
 centage of his collections and expenses? Or, is he an 
 honored servant of Christ, separated to the special work 
 of enlisting his brethren in a specific branch of benevo- 
 lence ? Is he to aim solely, or chiefly, at raising money ? 
 Is that the only object in sending him out? Have we 
 scriptural authority for sending out agents at all, to solicit 
 funds to be used for objects outside of the churches that 
 contribute them ? Let us see what light the Scriptures 
 throw on these points : 
 
 1. Giving is a Christian Grace. 
 
 " Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, 
 and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that 
 ye abound in this grace also." — 2 Cor. 8:1. , 
 
 2. Motive to its exercise. 
 
 •' For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though ITc 
 was rich, yet for your sakcs He became poor, that ye through His 
 poverty might be rich." — 9th verse. 
 
 3. The Rule in Giving. 
 
 " Every man as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not 
 grudgingly, or of necessity : for God loveth a cheerful giver."— 9 : 7. 
 
 4. The first Agent a Volunteer. 
 
 " Thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care into the heart 
 of Titus for you: for indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being 
 more forward,of his own accord he went unto you." — 8 : 16, 11. 
 
41 
 
 5. Another Agent appointed by the Ap>ostle. 
 
 " And we have sent with him the brother, whoso praise is in the 
 Gospel throughout all the churches; and not that o)ily, but who was 
 also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which 
 is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord." — 8 : 18, 19. 
 
 6. The third Agent, and his Character. 
 
 " And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often- 
 times proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, 
 upon the great confidence which I have in you." — 8 : 22. 
 
 1. Heason for Bending these Agents. 
 
 "Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that 
 they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, 
 whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a 
 matter of bounty, and not of covetousness." — 9 : 5. 
 
 8. The AgenPs Hank and Dignity. 
 
 "Whetlier any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow- 
 helper concerning you: or our brethren be inquired of, they are the 
 messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ." — 8 : 23. 
 
 9. The Blessed Results of this Agency. 
 
 " For the administration of this service not only supplieth the 
 want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings un- 
 to God."— 9 :12. 
 
 Let our agents be put on this elevated platform ; let 
 them be the wisest and holiest of our ministers ; let then 
 be commissioned to awaken, unite, and give system to tht 
 work of giving ; let them aim, specially, to cultivate the 
 grace of giving; let their salaries never be brought into a 
 mercenary comparison with the amounts that they collect, 
 nay, let them, as a rule, avoid taking collections, but hold 
 up "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," and rejoice if 
 the fruit is " abundant by many thanksgivings to God." 
 In order to do his work to the best advantage, the agent 
 should have one specific object, with which he should be 
 so familiar that lie can present it clearly and strongly.''' 
 
 In order that our threefold system of evangelizing or- 
 ganizations may be effective, they must be the true ex- 
 pression of our principles, they must have the confidence 
 of our brotherhood, and receive our united, earnest sup- 
 port. The lessons of Scripture and experience must be 
 
 * See Appendix, Note H. 
 
42 
 
 carefully studied, and rash changes avoided. We must 
 learn not to despise the day of small things ; we must not 
 make disparaging comparisons, nor charges of expensive- 
 ness, nor apply such unworthy phrases as '' machmery''^ 
 and ''cost of friction ^^ to our plans for extending our 
 Master's kingdom. Would Paul apply such debasing 
 epithets to the work of brethren whom he called "the 
 messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ?" 
 Let us feel the dignity of our labor; let us remember that 
 the greatest man among us is he who makes himself the 
 servant of all. Let us not be so forward to steady the 
 Ark of God as to dry up the resources of our societies in 
 order to force them to a change. Let our Boards, Secre- 
 taries, Agents, Pastors, and Editors, all use their power 
 "for edification and not for destruction." 
 
 It is more agreeable to the flesh to boast of our prin- 
 ciples than to be living examples of their worth. They 
 are suited to the wise, not to the rash and unskilful. Our 
 churches are not democracies, as they are sometimes 
 heedlessly called ; they are Christocracies, because Jesus 
 Christ is their Supreme Ruler ; they are Bibliocracies, be- 
 cause the written word is their supreme law. It is their 
 glory that they are made up, largely, of the common 
 people ; yet in them the most gifted minds find their 
 noblest scope. The reputation of our churches should be 
 cherished with tender care, for they need the influence of 
 thoughtful men, who will judge of our principles very 
 much by the success of our general evangelizing organ- 
 izations. If they see that we fail in our plans of united 
 labor, that we are ever pulling down what we have built, 
 and rooting up what we have planted ; now laying the 
 foundation of a missionary society, as if for endless dura- 
 tion and growth, then rushing to the opposite extreme of 
 abolishing all but our most primary organizations ; now 
 uniting in foreign missions, as brethren of the same faith, 
 
43 
 
 then dividing on abstractions and hypotheses ; now form- 
 ing a society with great zeal, then, when it is well begun, 
 and our ability has doubled, discovering that we are not 
 able to carry it on ; one day decrying ecclesiastical domi- 
 nation, then getting up a convention of churches to exer- 
 cise the very same power that we have condemned in 
 others ; one year preaching the importance of a division of 
 labor in our evangelizing agencies, then going about to 
 simplify, consolidate, and reduce their number, — will they 
 not conclude, that however true our principles may be in 
 the abstract, yet in practice they cannot be trusted ? And 
 will they not come to this conclusion with reason, if they 
 see us unable to unite in the work of giving the uncor- 
 rupted word of God to the nations ? 
 
 But I am not willing to admit that our principles lead 
 to confusion and division. I do rejoice that we cannot sus- 
 tain a centralizing organization to concentrate ecclesiastical 
 power in a few hands ; I rejoice that there is an under- 
 lying spirit among us, that will, sooner or later, topple 
 over all such human devices. When our principles broke 
 forth from centuries of captivity in the land of the Philis- 
 tines, they were like blind Samson feeling for the pillars. 
 Our fathers engaged in such forms of labor as they could. 
 We have the light of all their experience, prosperous 
 and adverse. From it we can surely learn that God has 
 called us to labor for the conversion of the Heathen to 
 Christ ; but not by adopting the policy of Rome. His 
 providence has confirmed the truth that Baptists have one, 
 and but one, universal, unfaihng bond of union, — the suffi- 
 ciency of the Bible — the duty of giving the Bible to all 
 people. This must have the first place ; it demands the 
 assent, and the aid of all. This work has no dangerous 
 tendencies ; it is scarcely possible to do too much of it. 
 
 As to Foreign Missions, I am glad to see the indications 
 
u 
 
 that a change of measures is demanded.* If the diseased 
 constitution of the Union can be healed of its congenital 
 maladies, without destroying the patient's life, it will be a 
 cause of rejoicing, I hope that some of your churches, 
 brethren, located in the intelligent and wealthy city of 
 New York, will have their missionaries in heathen lands, 
 sustained by your own contributions, rendering their ac- 
 counts of services to you, and under no earthly guidance 
 but yours. I hope that there may be found among you 
 young men ready to go and preach Christ to the heathen, 
 under your auspices. Let the work of missions be stripped 
 of that coloring of, romance which distance and novelty 
 lend to it ; let it rest directly on the hearts and hands 
 of God's people, on individuals and churches ; and, instead 
 of being a source of discord, it will not only bless the 
 heathen, but will be " abundant, also, in many thanks- 
 givings unto Grod." But let those who cannot, or do not, 
 choose to do this, give liberal aid to the Missionary Union. 
 I submit these thoughts for your consideration, 
 brethren, with all deference and humility. They broach 
 no new theories, propose no revolutions, seek no personal 
 ends, echo the sentiments of no faction, advocate no in- 
 terests nor measures except those which belong to the 
 kingdom of our common Lord. I long to see the great 
 body of American Baptists arising to a true comprehen- 
 sion of the greatness of the work before them, and of their 
 unparalleled advantages for extending that kingdom. I 
 want to see our great Baptist family one in spirit, in love, 
 in labor, as they are one in principle. We are able to 
 do — stop! — there is One who "is able to do exceeding 
 ABUNDANTLY, abovc all that we ask or think, according to 
 the power that worketh in usT Is that power now work- 
 ing in us to persuade a million of Baptists to contract their 
 
 •^ See Appendix, Note I. 
 
45 
 
 plans, and to begin that contraction by abandoning the 
 work of giving God's word to the world ? Have we for- 
 got that the measure of our success is the measure of 
 our faith ? When I remember that Carey attempted the 
 conversion of India, as his reverend satirist said, with 
 "a collection of thirteen pounrl'^, te i shillings and six- 
 23ence,'' taking for his motto, " A tempt great things for 
 God — expect great things from God ;" — when I read the 
 story of his toils, the obstacles he encountered, the won- 
 ders he achieved, under the inspiring power of that faith, 
 I look around to see who will follow up the work so nobly 
 begun. Is the spirit of Carey and of Judson still among 
 us ? It seems to me, brethren, that what we now specially 
 need, is confidence ; — confidence in God, confidence in his 
 word, confidence in our principles, confidence in our 
 brethren, confidence in each other ; tempered with the 
 meekness of wisdom. We have provoked one another long 
 enough with imaginary complaints; let us now "con- 
 sider one another to provoke to love and to good works." 
 I propose that we have but one strife for the next ten 
 years, that strife to be, who will do the most and complain 
 the least ; who will give most liberally, with the least dic- 
 tation ; who will be first to yield and last to complain ; who 
 will be most considerate of his brethren ; who will humble 
 himself to be, like his Master, " as one that serveth." I 
 do not know that he who does this will be " accounted the 
 greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven," in its present imper- 
 fect state, but he will be the greatest when we come to 
 see as v/e are seen, and to know as we are known. 
 Yours in the kingdom and patience of Jesus, 
 
 WILLIAM CROWELL. 
 New York, May 4, 1859. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. See Page 22. 
 
 That this was the Apostolic plan will not be doubted. But the Constitution 
 of the American Baptist Missionary Union declares : " Art. 2. The single object 
 of this Union shall be to diffuse the hmcledge of the religion of Jesus Christ by 
 means of missions throughout the world." If that be its " single object," then the 
 planting of churches is no part of its object ; unless it is impossible " to diffuse 
 the knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ " without planting churches, which 
 no one will pretend. If the word " single " had been left out, the forming of 
 churches would not be the object of the Union ; but the insertion of that word 
 fixes its meaning beyond doubt. 
 
 If it be said that the planting of churches is usually understood to be a part of 
 missions, that is admitted ; and so is teaching school, writing books, translating 
 the Scriptures, compiling dictionaries, distributing books and tracts, building 
 houses, and buy.iig compounds, understood to be a part of missions. But the lan- 
 guage of this article restricts missions to the single object of difFusing the knoifl- 
 edge of the religion of Christ. 
 
 But the Report of the Union for 1853 presents an instructive commentary on 
 the meaning of this article. That Report says, " The Constitution of the Mission- 
 ary Union declares, that ' the single object of this Union shall be, to difl'use the 
 knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ by means of missions ;' — regularly organ- 
 ized, and sustaining joint responsibilities, rather than by means of missionaries."' 
 If this be themeaningof the Article, then a "mission " is an " organization." whose 
 " single object " is " to diffuse the knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ." Is 
 this the Baptist, or the New Testament idea of missions ? 
 
 I NOTE B. See Page 28. 
 
 As early as 1804-5, a collection, amounting to seven hundred pound? sterling, 
 was made in this country, to assist Dr. Carey in the printing and distributing 
 of Bibles in India. Rev' Dr. Stoughton, who was personally acquainted with Ful- 
 ler and Carey, and who was a life-long correspondent of both, was active in 
 making this collection, in which they were generously aided by Robert Ralston, 
 Esq., of Philadelphia, and by Captain Wickes, in whose ship Dr. Marshman and 
 his associates sailed to India, in 1799. 
 
 In the year 1812, the same year that the Congregationalist missionaries, Juds-on 
 and his associates, sailed on a mission to the JCast, a society was formed at Salem, 
 Mass., called " The Salem BiBr-E Translation and Foreign Mission Society," 
 the second article of whose Constitution was as follows : 
 
 "The obj ct of this Society s^haU be, to rai.^e money to aid the translation of the ?cripturos into tlie 
 Kastem languases, at present poins on at Serainpore, under tlie superintendence of Dr. William 
 Carey, or, if (ieoniod advisable at any time, to assist in sending a Missionary, or Mis.sionarits, from 
 this country to India." 
 
 The same object had been commended, by the Boston Association of Ministers, 
 to their congregations, in November, iSll. The " Massachusetts Baptist 
 Missionary Society," for domestic missions, was formed in 1802. 
 
 NOTE C. See Page 32. 
 It is easy to find theoretical objections to any form of benevolent effort. ^Most 
 of the objections that have been brought against our Publication Society seem 
 to me to arise from misapprehension. Its special object is not to sui)ply an exist- 
 
47 
 
 ing demand, but to create a demand for books which ought to be read, and will be 
 read, if proper effort is made to bring them before the people ; but which will not 
 be, if left to the operation of the laws of trade. To doubt this is to impugn the 
 wisdom of ages — to condemn all such organizations as the American Tract Society. 
 Private publishers /oZ/om', the Society is to lead the market. 
 
 There is a great and increasing call for a Sunday-school literature, to supply 
 libraries to our Sunday-schools, especially at the South and West. The books to 
 meet this demand have hitherto been obtained, chiefly, from the American Sun- 
 day-school Union. They are, for the most part, excellent ; but do they teach cdl 
 that the New Testament teaches? Are we willing to have the two or three 
 millions of children belonging to our communities, grow up under the impression 
 that our distinctive principles and practices are not sufficiently respectable to be 
 alluded to in the books which they read ? They find no lack of books which 
 describe the beauties of christening, the falling of the pearly drops on the face of 
 angelic infancy, the feelings of the young mother when she offers up her first-born, 
 and all the appeals that can arouse the feelings and enlist the sympathies in behalf 
 of a pernicious error. Shall we allow such books to make their impressions on 
 the young mind, without any thing to counteract them ? 
 
 Then our churches, all over the West, are calling for books, which they can 
 safely put into the hands of all their members, which can be admitted to theii 
 families without reserve, and which can be commended of all, as safe guides to a 
 knowledge of our principles. Baptists have the ability to create and put in cir- 
 culation a most effective literature, for old and young, for friends and opponents, 
 and they owe it to themselves and to the cause of their Master, to provide a litera- 
 ture which shall show to their children and to the world, that they are not 
 ashamed of their religion nor of their name. 
 
 The Society has issued over three hundred millions of pages of Gospel truth, 
 advocating in due proportion those distinguishing principles of our faith which 
 are excluded from the publications of other societies. Here is a summary of 
 
 THE society's BENEVOLENT WORK FOR SEVEN YEARS, AND ITS COST. 
 
 Weeks of labor, ...... 
 
 Miles travelled, . ... . . . 
 
 Number of volumes sold by colporteurs. 
 
 Number of volumes given to the poor by colporteurs, . 
 
 Pages of tracts given away by colporteurs, . 
 
 Sermons preached, ..... 
 
 Prayer-meetings held, ..... 
 
 Addresses made, . . . . . 
 
 Religious visits made in families, . . . . ■ 
 
 Religious visits made in vessels. 
 
 Persons baptized, ...... 
 
 Families found without the Bible, 
 
 Sunday-schools organized by colporteurs, 
 
 Libraries given to poor Sunday-schools, 
 
 Churches constituted, ..... 
 
 Libraries granted to poor ministers, . . , 
 
 Value of grants made at the rooms, in addition to the above lib 
 
 and grants by coljoorteurs, . . _ • 
 
 The entire cost of all the above work and grants is 
 
 Of this amount the churches have furnished 
 
 The business has loaned . • • • 
 
 The business has given from itself .... 
 
 10.207 
 
 . 363,922 
 
 167,580 
 
 . 17.096 
 
 2,139,510 
 
 . 18,995 
 
 10.611 
 
 364 
 
 295.469 
 
 . 17.982 
 
 4,129 
 
 . 7.041 
 
 246 
 
 212 
 
 103 
 
 161 
 
 .^5.090 ^3 
 93.342 57 
 
 873,894 56 
 
 3.943 54 
 
 15.504 47 
 
 $93,342 57 
 
48 
 
 NOTE D. See Page 34. 
 
 As to the extent of the work yet to be done, to supply the word of God to 
 the world, let these facts be considered : at the formation of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, in 1804. it was supposed that about four millions of Bibles 
 had been circulated in the world since the invention of the art of printing. This 
 would be about four Bibles to every 1000 people. 
 
 Since that time nearly sixty millions of copies have been circulated. Com- 
 puting the present population of the earth at eleven hundred and thirty millions 
 not more than from one-tenth to one-twentieth of earth's millions have yet re- 
 ceived God's greatest gift to man ! AVhat a work is before us, to supply them 
 with the Bible ! 
 
 NOTE E. See Page 35.; 
 
 Although the American and Foreign Bible Society has been taunted by Pedo- 
 baptists with having been " born in a storm," and though some misguided Bap- 
 tists have surrounded its early years with storms, yet it has done a good work, for 
 which millions will call it blessed when time shall be no more. It has put into 
 circulation 592,278 copies of the Holy Scriptures, in this country ; 515,358 in 
 • Germany, under the direction of Mr. Oucken ; and half a million in India. 
 
 The Society has aided in printing and circulating the Scriptures in about fifty 
 languages and dialects. 
 
 The Society has appropriated $106, 750 63 to the Bible work in Europe and 
 Africa ; $2,546 50 to the work among the American Indians, and large sums to 
 assist the Chinese, Karen, and Calcutta missionaries in their Bible work. 
 
 The Society has made appropriations to the amount of $49,862 00 to aid the 
 English Baptist missionaries in the work of printing the Scriptures, and since its 
 organization, has made grants to the Missionary Union, to aid the translations of 
 their missionaries, and the amount of $172,253 72. Now, is there any reason to 
 suppose that it has diminished the receipts of the Union from its own direct 
 collections? The foreign mission cause has been much more liberally sustained 
 since this Society commenced its operations than before. That which is raised 
 for the Bible work is not deducted from the resources of any other society. It 
 has a hold on the hearts of the people which no other cause has, or can have. 
 There are thousands of Baptists who will give to circulate the Bible, who will not 
 give to the cause of foreign missions. 
 
 NOTE F. See Page 36. 
 
 On this point I find some excellent thoughts from the pen of one of our most 
 judicious IVionds of missions, in the Minutes of the Monroe, N. Y., Association, 
 lor 1853. Alter a brief consideration of the question " Have we too many socie- 
 ties?" the writer proceeds : 
 
 " Are the objects wrought by either of our great national societies unworthy ? 
 This will not be affirmed of course by any who contribute to their support. If it 
 be assumed that these ends are worthy, can they l)e reached more readily or cer- 
 tainly by consolidation than by the existing modes of action ? Division of labor 
 is a universal law of success. The more perfect the organization, the more closely 
 must it be regarded. The consolidation of all our societies would not supersede 
 the necessity of its application. In case all our benevolent enterprises were in- 
 trusted to one great board of managers, they could not be successfully prosecuted 
 except by committing the business of the departments, which are in their nature 
 distinct, to separate bureaus, sub-boards, or committees. This system would re- 
 quire for its efficient working separate accounts, records, correspondence, and 
 modes of administration. It would als6 require secretaries, treasurers, &c., at the 
 head of each, together with separate rooms and contingent expenses. The Com- 
 mittee does not see that, even in the matter of agencies, any advantages would be 
 gained. 
 
49 
 
 " The claims of these departments of action are distinct and various,— educatiou 
 of the ministry, foreign missions, publication of denominational books,— and each 
 requires for its efBcitnt presentation an acquaintance with its own peculiar field 
 of facts and arguments. No one man can at the same time master them a 1- 
 much less could he present them all at once or at different times in an effective 
 wav His statements would necessarily be vague, inadequate, and unexciting. 
 Bv" attempting to cover the whole ground, he would in reality cover none. Ihe 
 amount of benevolent contribution depends so much upon the legitimate excitation 
 of the impulses of the heart, that the chances would be that an agent attempting 
 to present the claims of three or four different objects at the same time, would in 
 point of fact collect little more funds for all combined than he would for any one 
 Ilepartment which he thoroughly understood, and eloquently and clearly presented. 
 1 succession of such well-instructed and single-minded agents will, each in his 
 turn, interest and instruct the same congregation, and each in his turn receive a 
 liberal contribution . To perform the work of an agent efficiently, requires special 
 «tudy and preparation. The people need instruction, they need facts and argu- 
 ments, such as do not lie on the surface. Commonplace arguments and ill-digested 
 and scanty facts are easily presented by a versatile and ready mind but such in- 
 fluences will never arouse the intellect or soften the heart No great moral move- 
 ment can be carried on with such a propelling power. We believe that practical y 
 an attempt at consolidation would sooner or later result in a substantial return to 
 the present system of divided labor. _ • n i „„ 
 
 « The benevolent operations of the Southern Baptists are nominally under one or- 
 o-anization,but practically thev have felt the necessity of dividing the labor among 
 four distinct Boards, fixed in four separate cities, each with its secretary, treasurer, 
 ao-encies, and machinery. We believe that any attempt at consolidation among 
 our benevolent bodies at the North would by necessity lead tothe same result as 
 at the South. We believe that the division of labor in collecting and disbursing 
 funds for the varying purposes of benevolence is necessary, and arises out ot tne 
 very nature of the case. To do one thing at a time is a dictate of common sense 
 It is equally requisite for efficient action that one man should be set to do one kiM 
 of work. Concentration of effort upon specific objects is the secret of the gi,<rantic 
 results of modern secular enterprise. It is equally applicable in the work ol i^oa . 
 ' This one thing I do,' was the key to the power of Paul. It contains a principle 
 of universal application. . x- n ^ ^ ^o-iNt 
 
 '^ Ao-ain, the general control of such an immense organization would necvs^ariy 
 pass into the hands of one small Board, liable to be influenced in their decisions by 
 a sino-le powerful will. On the supposition that all the machinery would remain 
 nearly as at present, an immense power of controlling and shaking public opinion 
 would be put into the hands of a very few men, or practically, perhaps, into tiie 
 
 hands of one. ,, i i „ „^r,/.an 
 
 " Human nature is the same in one body as in every other, and such a concen- 
 tration of power, with the control of the press, agencies, and other means otinmi- 
 ence, would receive additional force from the very sacredness of the 'ntercsis 
 intrusted to its care. We hesitate to jostle any organization, if by so ^iom v^o 
 peril the interests of an object so important as the continuous preaching or ine 
 Gospel, or sustaining its concomitant labors. Thus, a hierarchy in all b t ine 
 name might be consolidated in the bosom of the most democratic body m toe 
 world. The germ of the Eoman hierarchy is found in the supreme control gradu- 
 ally assumed and usurped) of a gigantic missionary and charitable or.|?an zaUoi 
 The concentration of power in the Methodist body, controlling and ^l'"'^!'"? ^" 
 the J^reat religious movements of the membership, is an example =" PO."t Con 
 centration is contrary to the genius of repub icanism and of tl'C Bapt.s. cliurch 
 politv. If all our organizations were united in one body, t^^vj.'^^^^^ "';^^!,? 
 be in one place. This would give an immense preponderance of "^fl« \° ^,,H^^^ 
 over -nortion of the countrv should be selected for this purpose. The controllin 
 po^fof ourdi^rentTocieties is in different places, and intrusted to different 
 
 •i 
 
50 
 
 men. They thus operate as checks and balances on each other, and secure the 
 churches against a centralization which might peril the dearest interests of 
 religion." 
 
 NOTE G. See Page 37. 
 
 It has been supposed that the colporteur work of the American and Foreign 
 Bible Society was an interference with the work of other societies. Even Dr. 
 Waylaud has fallen into this error. He says : 
 
 "The Publication Society employs itself in colporteur labor, an<l makes this the strong ground of 
 its solicitation. The American anil Foreign Bible Society has entered, to the full extent of its power, 
 into the same work, and it also puts forward its claims on precisely the same ground." 
 
 On this error, many of the objections to the operations of our societies are built. 
 But the colporteur work of the American and Foreign Bible Society bears 
 scarcely any resemblance to that of the Publication Society : it is a distinct and 
 peculiar work, not entered upon by any other society. The mistake has arisen 
 from the use of the word colporteur. To avoid mistakes in future, the word Bible- 
 reading Colporteurs has been adopted. The work is thus defined in the printed 
 rules of the Society, viz : " To circulate the word of God by reading it from house 
 to house among those who do not attend public evangelical worship."' The system 
 has the following features : 
 
 1. The work is not preaching, nor book peddling ; it is bible reading in private 
 houses, especially of Catholics, who cannot read, or if they could, would not be 
 allowed to have the Bible. 
 
 2. It takes no pastor from his work, for it employs plain, pious, bumble men ; 
 Irish for the Irish, Germans for the Germans, seamen for seamen, the sole object 
 being to convey the truths of the Bible to the cottages and cabins of the poor. 
 
 3. Each has a particular district assigned him. He cooperates with the church 
 in that locality by inducing those whom he visits to attend worship. 
 
 4. Each Reader gives a monthly report of the number of visits, in how many 
 cases he was allowed to I'ead and pray, in how many refu.?ed, number of families 
 destitute of the Bible, &c., &c. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that this labor interRrL^ with no others ; it is distinct 
 from the work of all other societies. Many families are thus reached, Avho could 
 be reached in no other way. They attend no preaching, no prayer meeting, no 
 preacher could gain access to them. That very great good has been effected by 
 it, cannot admit of a doubt. 
 
 A large amount of this work has been done in Germany, where it is connected 
 with Bible distribution. In Ireland, under the direction of a society there, this 
 work has been much blessed. 
 
 It may Ijc said, that this is not the proper work of a Bible Society. And with 
 equal truth it may be said, that it is not the special work of a Missionary Society. 
 It is disseminating the Bible to the ear instead of the eye. 
 
 But if tiicre arc ol)jections to it, as not the specific work of the Bible Society, it 
 may be well to keep it entirely distinct, and devote to it only such funds as are 
 given for it specifically. A Bible reading fund may be created, and churches or 
 individuals may be allowed to furnish the funds to sustain Bible-readers. The 
 work will then stand on its own merits, and every one can give for it just what 
 he pleases. 
 
 NOTEH. See Page 41. 
 
 In the Report of the Committee on Benevolent Organizations of the Monroe 
 Association, already referred to, the following remarks occur, respecting the work 
 of agents : — 
 
 " Here the question arises. Why should not pastors and private brethren in the 
 churches do the work of agents in collecting and transmitting funds ? In answer 
 
51 
 
 to this, we ask, Will they do it, as a general rule ? Has it been found safe to trust 
 to such agencies in practice ? lu all our more numerous and wealthy churches, 
 the pastor' is now weighed down with the labors strictly appropriate to his office. 
 The demand upon his time for careful preparation for the pulpit, in meeting the 
 numerous calls to visit the sick, bury the dead, and attend upon the management 
 . of those societies and public interests which necessarily fall upon hmi, must in u 
 great de"-ree prohibit a pastor, with only ordinary amount of physical streugtli, 
 from attending faithfully to the various duties now intrusted to the agents ol 
 different societies. In the present condition of things, at least, he will need to en- 
 joy more or less active cooperation with him on the part of such agents. So far 
 we suppose the existence of a disposition in pastors to do this work. The testi- 
 mony of those best qualified to speak in the matter proves, on the contrary, that 
 such a disposition is found to exist but very rarely. The agents themselves have- 
 often tried repeatedly to induce pastors of churches to undertake the responsi- 
 bility. They succeed only in very few instances. While this is Ihe case. 
 what other resource have the societies we speak of, save that of employing 
 agents ? If it be said that private members ought to do this work, it will l)e 
 seen that if it is done well by such an agency, it will cost more than by the pres- 
 ent method. The value of the time spent in such a work by a Christmn lay- 
 man in prosperous business, would, in many cases, pay tenfold for the labors oi 
 the ordinary asrent. If the work be given to persons whose time, from want of 
 vigor or intelligence, is less valuable, we should naturally expect a corresponding 
 diminution of benevolent returns. It is a universal law in matter and mind, that 
 great results are reached only by a corresponding outlay of power. _A\ hat we ac- 
 complish in any great enterprise, we must pay for by a corresponding amount ot 
 hard work ; and your Committee believe that it will be found actually cheaper to 
 continue the present system, than to absorb the valuable time and power ot pas- 
 tors and laymen to do the work of agents, laboring, as they evidently would, at a 
 great disadvantage. 
 
 " Besides, the work of a ^ood a^ent is not lost. Apart from his immediate object, 
 he is a preacher of the Gospel" He scatters religious truth whereverhe goes- 
 enlightens the minds of our churches by the special facts and illustrations which 
 he has prepared for the enforcement of the claims which he desires to urge. A 
 vast amount of religious, moral, geographical, and statistical instruction is thus 
 scattered, whose results appear in young men who are thus often led into the work 
 of the missionary and the Gospel preacher. The labors of Luther Eicc as an agent 
 of the Triennial Convention, breathed new life and power into our churches Ironi 
 Maine to Louisiana. The agency labors of Fathers Bennet and Peck m our own 
 State, in behalf of missions and other good objects, are among the choicest bless- 
 ings of the past. Objections to the agent are sometimes also prompted by secret 
 avarice, or a dislike to the objects presented for contribution. These objections 
 ought not to be urged against the existing system as such. Again, there are inel- 
 ficient and unworthy agents ; perhaps there are also unworthy pastors and dea- , 
 cons ; but these should not be taken as specimens of either class, or be used as an 
 argument for the abolition of the offices which they bear. Considering the priva- 
 tions, labors, and exposure of our brethren who act as agents, we believe there i^ 
 no class of men more scantily remunerated, or whose labors have a more direct 
 bearing upon the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Your Committee belie\e 
 that any prejudice that may have arisen against them as a class is the result ot su- 
 perficial views and imperfect examination. In case any society shall incur too 
 heavy expenses in this particular, or send unworthy men into the churches, tue 
 remedy is simple and easilv applied. The Committee feel that indiscriminate corn^ 
 plaints do not meet the evil, while they injure the feelings of good, able, and sell- 
 sacrificing brethren." 
 
5'J. 
 
 NOTE I. See Page 44. 
 
 The writer of this letter earnestly desires to see all our evaugelizing agencies 
 moving on harmoniously in their respective lines of labor and of usefulness. His 
 sole object is, to unite, to heal, to encourage, to sustain, to enlarge ; not to divide, 
 discourage, or contract. If any exjiressiou in it should be thought to indicate 
 hostility^ or indifference to any department of our great work of extending the 
 kingdom of Christ, no one can regret it more than himself. He is no revolutionist, 
 no society mender, never has been. He never believed in the necessity of dividing, 
 nor subdividing, nor of consolidating our evangelizing societies. He has ever 
 believed, and still believes, that our societies for promoting the kingdom of Christ 
 should operate in harmony and unity, in spite of all the differences of civil govern- 
 ment ; that there is no good reason why brethren of the same faith in all the vStates 
 of the Union, should not cooperate in extending that same pure, holy, cheering 
 Gospel which we hold in common. He regarded, and still regards, the separation 
 of Baptists into Northern and Southern States, in their evangelizing labors, as 
 needless and wrong. The troubles of the Foreign Mission cause were never so 
 jrreat as since that separation, which, instead of satisfying the Free Mission 
 brethren, and uniting them with the Union, as many confidently predicted, has 
 alienated them still more, so that they have taken a number of the most devoted 
 of the missionaries of the Union under their patronage. 
 
 Not only have our Southern brethren been driven off, and the Free Mission 
 brethren been still more alienated, but a state of feeling has come to light between 
 the Union and their missionaries, which it is truly painful to contemplate. How 
 came this state of things upon us? Who is responsible for it? Was the em- 
 phatic condemnation, record- d in the doings of the Union last year, just? Was it 
 unavoidable ? 
 
 How docs it happen, then, 'hat brethren who were implicated in all that con- 
 demned policy, are now so co 'erned lest " the denomination," should spend all its 
 money ? What vulnerable pc its is the smoke of a battle with our other societies 
 needed to cover ? If our socie :ies are to be held up to reproach, as being need- 
 lessly expensive, will it not be the duty of those Baptists who think that they have 
 something to do besides sending missionaries to Eastern Asia, as the employes of 
 a consolidated society, to look into the doings by which such a state of things has 
 grown up among our foreign missions, how much money has been lost on missions 
 now abandoned, or on unsuitable missionaries, and still more useless deputations? 
 
 It is well to be careful of the reputation of our benevolent societies, as well as 
 considerate of the feelings of our brethren. Few things are more destructive of 
 the usefulness of a society than the charge of expensiveness, and the cry for revo- 
 lution. It is painful to see such charges made, when it is certain that nothing 
 but evil can result from them. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 PRINTED IN US A.