OCT I 2 '62 Strm onf 'Ll THE GOSPEL METHOD OF EVANGELIZATION. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, AT TIIE ANNUAL MEETING IN TUE UNION CHURCH, WORCESTER, MASS., SEPTEMBER 28TH, 1853. RE Y. PROF. HENRY E.JECK, OBERIIX, OHIO. Ncro-'Scrlx: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, 48 BEEKMAN STREET. PRINTED BY JOHN A. GRAY, 95 A 97 CUFF, CORNER OF FRANKFORT STREET. 1 8 5 3. 8 E II M 0 N THE GOSrEL METHOD OF EVANGELIZATION. 1 Cor. ix. 22. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” fHntt. iv. 8, 9, 10. “Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Evert institution, w hether social, political, or religious, has an animus, a spirit, a something which makes it, as the case may he, useful or dan- gerous, worthy of affection, or deserving of reprobation. Of no institution, and of no class of institutions, is this more true than it is of those which are designed for the propagation of religion. Men do not undertake to disseminate their religious sentiments orprinciples without being animated by a spirit which communicates itself to, and appears in the organization or institution through which their endeavors find a channel. The Society of the Jesuits has a character as discernible as is that of any brother who wears the habit of the order. The American Missionary Association has a spirit as characteristic, and as easily known, as is that of any person who has come here to express an interest in its concerns. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions has a cha- racter as evident to observation as is that of any officer who conducts or of any member who promotes its affairs. Now, the animus or spirit of an institution or organization is more apparent in the policy pursued in its operations than in any thing else — 4 ANNUAL DISCOURSE. more even than in its most solemn professions. Know the mode, the method by which, for instance, missionary associations perform their work, and you know the character, the soul of the Societies themselves. Let such an institution prove itself cunning and crafty in the accomplishment of its purpose, and though it may call itself “the Society of Jesus,” and assert that it embodies the guilelessness of Christianity, it is known to be corrupt, and its name becomes, in public esteem, the synonym for what- ever is hateful and dangerous. But let it in its public policy be honest, straight-forward, and truthful, and worthiness of character is ascribed to it by all who candidly observe it. And to pass to another point, it may be said that as the spirit or animus of an institution is indicated , so is it influenced by the policy or method it observes in accomplishing its purpose. An institution may have in its beginning a commendable spirit; but, required to take up a certain line of policy, it may push that policy to such an extreme, or so maintain it in the face of evident indications that God would have the once useful method abandoned, as to suffer an entire loss of the character which, in its better day, made it worthy of praise. Many, it is to be feared, have been and are the institutions which have descended to a fear- ful degeneracy of character, through incautiousness in taking up policy which has reacted on and destroyed the laudable purpose it was intended to execute. If these, then, are the relations of the policy of institutions to their standing before the public and to their actual character or spirit, what topic can more properly ask the attention of those who convene to inves- tigate the affairs of, and pray for, a missionary enterprise, than one which has respect to the method to be observed in the propagation of religious truth ? In this question I have hinted my design in setting before you the passages of the Scriptures which I have just read ; but I may properly express my purpose more distinctly by saying that I propose to look to these texts for indications of the material points of policy to re REGARDED, WHETHER BT INDIVIDUALS OR BY INSTITUTIONS, IN TIIE PROPA- GATION OF THE GOSPEL. Following this purpose, then, I ask you to join me in looking, I. At the indications with respect to one aspect of the true method of evangeliza- tion which the first of our texts sets forth ; for I may say here that our texts severally illustrate different though harmonious : spects or phases of the same thing. The passage now before us — “I am made all things to all men” — is the language of the Apostle Paul, and describes the method by which he discharged the duties of his great office. We shall prepare ourselves ANNUAL DISCOURSE. 5 to understand the sense and appreciate the importance of what is here said of himself by tire Apostle, if we spend a little time in considering some of the circumstances under which the writer of the words before us was raised up for and discharged the ministry committed unto him. Paul, though of Jewish origin, was born in a Greek city, and belonged to a family which enjoyed at least some social elevation. lie had fami- liar intercourse, in his early years, with the best of both Jewish and Greek society : and Greek society was then the most cultivated in the world. At his conversion he lost social position, and was brought into close affinity with those who occupied humble stations in life. And varied as was the social, not less so was the moral history of Paul. Naturally impulsive, and in his early years violent in his prejudices and persecuting in his spirit, long a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he became at his conversion of meek and gentle mind, a Christian in whom was no guile. This variety of intercourse with men of all degrees, and this variety of experience of almost all possible moral states, gave the Apostle an oppor- tunity to know human nature in all its aspects ; to realize how man feels and is inclined to act under the widely different influences to which, in different social positions, and with different temperaments, habits, and education, he is subjected. He knew, by experience of it, what tempta- tion to arrogance and pride the rich suffer ; he knew, by contact with it, to what temptation to desponding and churlish murmuring the poor are exposed, lie knew, by trying it, how hard it is for the socially elevated to descend to the humiliation which, to follow Jesus, they cannot escape. He knew, by daily sight of it, how difficult it is for the mind unquick- ened by habits of thought, to waken itself to the activity required for a heart-work. He knew full well with how strong a hand prejudice holds to old opinions, and with what power some forms of temptation weigh with even a soul consecrated to the service of God. He knew how for- malism imagines that it sees too much, and philosophy too little spirit- ualism in such a system as that of which Incarnate Deity is the centre. Jews, Greeks, Gentiles; men of all sorts and classes; men trained in all ways and in no ways ; religious men, sensual meu, fanatics, and philoso- phers, all men — he knew them all, and seemed to be able, as I have said, to realize the -wants and measure the feelings of all. This knowledge of human nature made Paul tolerant towards it. He did not forget, when he preached the gospel, that those to whom he preached were almost invariably acted on by influences which made them averse either to all truth, or to that form of truth on which he was inclined to insist. He did not forget that the Jew w'as in bondage to prejudice, the Greek to philosophy, and the gross Gentile to appetite. He did not forget that the Jew, though he sought salvation by Jesus, might yet 6 ANNUAL DISCOURSE. entertain strong regard for the temple worship. He did not forget that the Greek, though bending at the cross, might jet be disposed to ask a solution of its mystery. He did not forget that the pagan or the profli- gate, turned to the better way, might yet go on feeble knees through the strait path. Nay, rather remembering the frailties and the perverse tendencies of human nature, he bore with it as it rejected truth, and was patient with it as it only slowly groped its way out into the light. With the penitent Jew he prayed and vowed in the Temple, though for himself he was free from the law which required temple-service. With the believing Greek, he reasoned respecting mysteries, for the solution of which he was willing to wait till, in the light of eternity, they should no longer be mys- teries. To the poor wretch, just escaped from the power of lust, he extended his own strong hand, and exclaiming, “ I am more than con- queror through Him that loved me 1” besought his trembling brother to hope for the same glorious conquest in which he rejoiced. He made it his business to strengthen weak hands and feeble knees. He denied him- self luxuries, and even necessaries, lest by the use of even that which his conscience did not refuse to him, he might hurt the yet uninstructed con- sciences of others. He made forbearance to the frail a cardinal element in his scheme of Christian duty; and no precept did he ever utter more fervently than he did that in which he said to his Christian brethren, “ We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.” If, then, we are to give weight to the example of Paul, we must infer that he who has the true evangelizing spirit will be tolerant towards human weakness, and will pursue a method of labor which will make account of the effect on the moral state of men, of temperament, of training, of habit, and of social position. He will remember, in urging the claims of the gospel, that every man has frailties and besetments peculiar to himself, and that he is in bondage to some influence which, perhaps and probably, has no weight with any other being. He will remember that old notions may so distemper the moral eye, that truth cannot always be readily seen by it, and if seen, not fully understood ; and that, until there is prejudice, or some other form of selfishness, there is no sin in this distemper. He will remember that impediments to acceptance of the truth may be inseparable from the social affinities of those for whose good he labors, lie will remember that the uninitiated and the novice cannot see duty as he, a veteran, does, and that many things which would be entirely sinful in him might be no offense against right in one who knows less than ho does. And if for the individual to have the true evangelizing spirit, he must he tolerant, so, for an institution, a church, a Missionary Association or Society to have this spirit, it must bo forbearing. It must not drive its ANNUAL DISCOURSE. 7 ponderous wheels over institutions, theories, and social distinctions which oppose themselves to it, but must rein its way on facile axle through such a course as a kind discrimination between ignorance and sin, between essential practice and non-essential conduct may open before it. With one aspect of the true policy of evangelization before us, let us now turn, that we may observe another, to the text which stands second at the head of my discourse. “Again, tlie devil tnkctli him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, aud saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” We have here a drama. The actors are, on the one hand, the father of lies, the being who either originates or accelerates the cheats, the oppres- sions, the cruelties, the iniquities of all forms, which blight human happi- ness, pervert the human mind, and fit the immortal soul for endless woe : on the other, the being on whom the heavy load of the world’s redemp- tion has been laid — who, more loving than an earthly father, and more tender than a mother, looks on no human woe without compassion, and on no sorrow without desiring to relieve it; the being who counted it no grief to try the temptations, the afflictions, the pains of men, and to encounter the bitterest of suffering, ay, death , that those who hated him might be saved. On a height overlooking the world, these persons, he who curses and he who blesses our race, confront each other. The Arch-tempter, glorying in his power and in the mischiefs of which he has been the author, points his companion to the evils which the world endures ; the selfishness, the malice, the bitter strife, the woes, the personal griefs, the bodily pains, the liungerings, the thirstings, the social and moral calamities, the arrogance of place, the depressions of the poor, the bereavements which extort a wail from the captive in the cell, and as well from the king on the throne; the opposition to truth, and the hostility to God which deface the fair earth, and deform the image of the Most High. Saddening is the sight to the lowly and loving Man of Sorrows. Not more painful is the sight to the parent of the anguish of his first-born and only child which struggles in the embrace of a cruel death. Yes, saddening indeed, and the more afflictive to him, because he knows that the end of these sins and griefs and woes is not yet ; that generation after generation of their offspring, in long procession, must still, through scores of centu- ries, traverse the path of human history : the more saddening too, because he knows that in conflict with these enemies of good, the disciples who shall take up the peace-dispensing gospel he has come to declare, must bear trials from which his own heroic soul, armed with highest powers, cannot but recoil. 8 ANNUAL DISCOURSE. The survey completed, the Deceiver says to the other, “Al! these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Ah, is not this a tempting offer ? The mastery of the world, the deliverance of that world from temptation, from sorrow, from discord, from physical and moral evils; and the rescue of the saints in all ages from the reproaches, the bufferings, the martyrdoms they must experience if Satan remains supreme ; all these advantages to be gained by just one act, a compromise- act, an act which no eyes but those of them who are parties to it shall see, and which need never again be repeated. Will not the Saviour accept the offer? Nay! Hear his indignant reply ! “Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” With such emphatic rebuke does he meet the offer made him, and with that one sentence does he declare that not even to save the world, the object on which his heart is most set, will he pursue a course which will either involve himself in sin or indicate the least tolerance towards the sins of others. Here, then, we have disclosed another of the aspects of the policy of true evangelization, viz.: that it will for no consideration, and however much it may be incliribd to accommodate itself to the opinions and non- essential habits and customs of men — that it will for no consideration make any compromise with, nor any concession to sin ; that not sapping and mining, but outspoken and inflexible hostility, will be the style of its opposition to all evident unrighteousness. Leaving here the text before us, and taking up the inference which has been drawn from it, I may remark upon it, that evangelization must always act in distinct hostility to all sin, and with no tolerance for, or dis- position to accommodate itself to any sin, or, 1. It cannot claim that it represents Christianity. Christianity makes no provision for sin, nor are the terras on which it offers its blessings indulgent towards the least sin; and if Christianity sternly discounte- nances all sin, shall a church, for instance, which, by a timid use of her discipline, shelters any known iniquity ; or shall a religious newspaper which, by studied coldness towards reformatory enterprises, gives virtual countenance to the sin to be reformed ; or shall a religious Publishing Society, which, pliant towards strong-handed vices, garbles the works of the honest dead — I will not say to suit the wishes of, but for the purpose of reaching the corrupt living; or shall a Missionary Society, which, by a time-serving policy, really lends its influence to the support of wrongs which humanity hates — shall either of these agencies call itself an instru- ment of Christian evangelization ? Nay, surely, if there is any thing in a name. 2. Evangelization must always act in distinct hostility to all sin, or it ANNUAL DISCOURSE. 0 can accomplish no, or if any, no good results. Policy which is timorous and time-serving has no moral power. Pursued by unscrupulous Jesuits, it may seemingly convert heathen by nations, and bring kings to receive holy water at its summary baptism ; but it never really converts the heart. It cajoles the passions, but does not move the will. Nay, it makes men scorn itself, and loathe the doctrine or system of which it is the vehicle. Leave condemnation of oppression out of the gospel you carry to him who holds his fellows in unrequited bondage, and will he respect, or admire, or truly embrace that gospel ? Not if he has in him a sense of the first principles of right, of justice, of obligation. Indeed, it is only aggressive policy, policy which, awed neither by the standing, the wealth, nor the threats of the transgressor, says boldly to him, “ Repent of Sin oh perish,” which is likely to bring him to exclaim, as David, convicted by the prophet’s pointed parable and his bold charge, “Thou art the man,” exclaimed, “ I have sinned against the Lord.’’ True, a timorous evangelizing policy may sometimes produce results which promise well ; but the end of those results shows that evil keeps growth with, if it does not outgrow the good produced. Send mission- aries to a tribe or nation of pagan slaveholders; hesitate about requiring the missionaries to reprove the peculiar sin of the people, and let the missionaries hesitate about doing so; and though idols shall be given to the bats ; and civilization develop a social state and political institutions ; and though industry shall turn hunting-grounds into fruitful fields, and religious worship be offered in temples crowning hills on which pagan holocausts once smoked, yet will the civilization soon show itself to be a brutal state, and the political institutions prove themselves only perpetual supports of monstrous wrong. Read in the horrible pro-slavery laws of the so-called civilized and christianized Choctaws, the indications of the final issue of an evangelism which temporizes with sin. And it is further to be noticed, that it is generally, if not always true, that even while temporizing evangelization is rewarded with partial good, the policy employed exerts a fatal reflex influence on those who employ it, and through them on others. Look, for illustration of this statement, to the history of the leading events which have transpired in this country within a few years. Chief among these events have been the annexation of Texas, as a slave State, to our federal Union ; the waging, in behalf of slavery, of a wicked and almost wholly unprovoked war with Mexico ; and the attempt by Congress, in the passage of the celebrated Compromise measures, to make the North for ever subservient to the slave power. Now, by what process has this series of events, culminating in the Fugitive-Slave Bill — and what a climax of villany ! — I ask, by what process this series of events, all designed to favor an infamous institution, 10 ANNUAL DISCOURSE. has been brought about ? Brought about, be it observed, in the face of a national conscience which, even in the days of Madison and Jefferson, was strong enough to save our Constitution the disgrace of saying one word which should assume that slavery is a legal institution. By what pro- cess ? Let the history of evangelizing instrumentalities answer. In the time named, one leading religious Publishing Society, the organ of a union of denominations, and sustained by prominent ministers and lay- men, has seemingly, if not evidently, at the instance of slavery-propa- gandists, coolly condemned to withdrawal from circulation a little book which, with much merit, had no fault except that it says : “ What is a slave, Mother?” asked Mary. “ Is it a servant ?” “ Yes,” replied her mother ; “ slaves are servants, for they work for their masters, and wait on them; but they are not hired servants ; but are bought and sold like beasts, and have nothing but what their masters choose to give them. They are obliged to work very hard, and sometimes their masters use them cruelly, beat them, and starve them, and kill them ; for they have nobody to help them. Sometimes they are chained together, and driven about like beasts.” Another more prominent Publishing Society has, like its fellow, either bowing before or subservient to our peculiar institution, while publishing treatises on the various sins and crimes which come within the compass of human guilt, constantly failed to rebuke, and even left wholly out of sight the sin of holding men in slavery, a sin known by it to be indulged in by a large class of those who read its publications ; and has added to what seems like sycophancy in its course by expunging from the stand- ard works issued from its press such passages as might be obnoxious to slaveholders. And meantime, a leading Missionary Society has capped the volcanic fires of earnest desire for the relief of the bondman, kindled in many Christian hearts, with the truly extinguishing doctrine that slavery is an organic sin, and therefore not to be treated as one would treat sins not organic, such as drunkenness and falsehood. These things — all measures of evangelizing policy — have occurred : and what effect have they had ? Making those who were participants in them, and those who were subject to the influence of the participants, familiar with, and complacent towards, compromising and temporizing with sin. AVhat effect could they have, other than such a debasement of the religious mind of the country, and then, of course, of the politics of the country, (for religion has hitherto been a check on our politics,) that the audacious legislation which enacted the Fugitive-Slave Bill was made possible, and was tamely acquiesced in by not a small portion of the pro- fessedly religious men of the land. A temporizing evangelization, then, by the operation of the laws of our ANNUAL DISCOURSE. 11 nature, not only fails of its professed object, but recoils in evils not a few on those who undertake it, and often on the Church and world at large. And I need hardly add, for a third remark respecting the policy of evangelization which compromises with sin, that it cannot have Divine approval. Surely, the Being who struck with instant death the man who thoughtlessly lifted a hand to steady the tottering ark, is not likely to be complacent towards an individual or an institution guilty of tem- porizing with esil that good may come. Here resting this train of thought, I may properly repeat the inference drawn from our second text, that the true evangelizing spirit will, for no consideration, make any compromise with or concession to siu. The two aspects of the proper method of evangelization are now before us ; and with our picture complete we find that in this method are joined toleration toward the ignorance and sympathy with the trials of men, with undeviating, open hostility to sin. And now, brethren, can the importance of making evangelizing policy embrace the two elements so frequently named on this occasion be too strongly emphasized, or can those who love truth be complained of if they strenuously insist that the work of saving souls, whether at home or abroad, shall be so conducted that while the weakness of man shall not be rudely assailed, his sins shall not pass unreproved ? The question of course answers itself. It was, if I mistake not, with an earnest and devout desire that Christ- ianity might be rescued from the corruption to which, what seemed to many the time-serving policy of certain agencies and enterprises under- taken in her name were likely to subject her, that its founders originated the Society which now celebrates its Seventh Anniversary. A brief review of the circumstances under which the American Mis- sionary Association was established will not be out of place here. In the course of the agitations which attended the anti-slavery move- ments of 1837 and onward, many thinking men through the country were led to feel that their 2 ^olilical alliances were such as made them parties to the support of slavery. Doing works meet for repentance in their political associations, they were naturally led to look next at the moral aspects of their religious connections; and the result of the inquiries on this point which became somewhat prevalent was, that a forward step, especially in the matter of relations to missionary enterprises, w’as also necessary. The conviction ripening into action, its fruit was the follow- ing call. “ To the Friends of Bible Missions in the State of New- York. “ Brethren, — The undersigned are friends of Freedom apd of Missions. Heretofore we have acted in the support of Missions through the Arneri- 12 ANNUAL DISCOURSE can Board and kindred Associations. Numbeis of us still do so. But we need not inform you that latterly strange things have come to the public knowledge. Slaveholders are in churches planted and sustained by the American Board. They are there approved and regular members. They have been welcomed to, and continued in them, without question, without reproof, without discipline. This has been done for more than one quarter of a century, and is still done; and now that the thing has at last come to be generally known, the Board, and those who direct its affairs, excuse, justify, and declare it apostolic and scriptural. They com- mend the missionaries who have done and still do it, as competent and faithful, and tell them, in terms, that they cannot advise, much less re- quire them to change their proceeding. For aught that appears, the gospel we are to propagate through this agency is to tolerate, baptize, and welcome slavery to the Church, wherever it meets it in all the earth. Caste, polygamy, and other social wrongs are to have a like allowance, admission, and sanction. And they who would have it otherwise are assured that they transcend ‘God’s method,’ and have not learned their ‘ procedure from the Bible.’ ..... “ Brethren, the undersigned invite all the friends of freedom and of missions, who have heretofore cooperated with the American Board and kindred Associations, or who now do so, to meet in Convention at Syra- cuse, on Wednesday, the 1 8th of February next, for the purpose of con- sidering generally the whole subject of the Bible methods of propagat- ing Uie gospel ; and particularly for the purpose of putting forth such a remonstrance against the practice referred to in the mission churches, and the positions taken in justification of it, as the cause of Bible missions de- mands ; with the consideration of such practical measures as may seem best to give practical effect to the same.” In answer to this call, a large convention, composed in no small mea- sure of men eminent for ability to comprehend truth and for devotion to duty, came together. During the session of the convention, the policy of the Missionary Board with which most of the delegates had been in the habit of acting was illustrated by a quotation from one of its own Annual Reports, the Report* presented at the meeting held in Brooklyn, N. Y., in the autumn of 1845. * This Report was called out by the presentation to the Board at a previous ses- sion of several petitions, asking for some action on the part of the Board, which should silence the charges of a disposition to be time-serving with respect to its relations to slavery, which were current in some circles. The spirit of the Report (certainly to a degree) embraced the doctrine that slave holding, as such, is not to be treated in the matter of religious instruction, admonition, nnd discipline, as are drunkenness, falsehood, nnd gaming. The quotation was adduced ns a fair exponent of the views held by the lending officers of the Board with respect to some of the functions and methods of evan- gelization, and is in these words : “ But slavery is not the only social wrong to be met in the progress of the mis- sionary work, and to which the principles which are adopted in prosecuting that ANNUAL DISCOURSE. 13 When this frank and distinct avowal of the policy of the American Board, with respect to “ organic ” sins, was produced in the convention to which I have referred, and when it was proved by reference to the in- structions given by the Prudential Committee to missionaries set apart to labor among the oriental churches, instructions which charged its servants to make no assault on the rites and ceremonies which the very missionaries thus charged have described as being “grossly idolatrous,” and as consisting in part of homage to the image of the “ immaculate mother of God ;” and when it was further proved, by reference to documents showing that the Committee had refused to allow missionaries to organize churches for the shelter and culture of converts in t^ie Ea