PAM. 
 
 REPORT 
 
 BY A COMMITTEE OF THE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF MASS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY VOTE OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 VUBNEiT & RUSSELL, PRINTERS, 
 
 No. 7 0 JOHN STEEET. 
 
 1860 . 
 
LAY CO-OPERATION: 
 
 A. REPORT 
 
 BY A COMMITTEE OF THE 
 
 P^bsioitiEji 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF MASS. ' 
 
 PUBLISHED BY VOTE OP THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 TUDNEF & RUSSELL, PRINTERS, 
 
 No. 79 JOHN STEEET. 
 
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At a Meeting of the Western Association of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church of Massachusetts, in December last, “ a Committee 
 was appointed to prepare a paper on the subject of Lay Co-operation. 
 The Rev. Messrs. S. P. Parker and J. P. Spaulding were appointed 
 that Committee.” 
 
 At a subsequent Meeting of the Association at N. Adams, it was 
 resolved that the report of the above Committee be published for distribution 
 in the several Parishes of the Missionary District, at the expense of the 
 Association. 
 
REPORT. 
 
 -- 
 
 4i 
 
 From a somewhat intimate knowledge of the state 
 of religion in New-England, we are persuaded that 
 it contains as purely missionary ground as almost any 
 portion of our country. Reliable statistics recently 
 gathered — embracing Maine, New-Hampshire, Ver¬ 
 mont, and Massachusetts—inform us, that on an av¬ 
 erage, one^KaTf'orthe population never enter a place 
 of worship, except on extraordinary occasions; that 
 only one third are regular in their attendance ; and 
 that, after deducting those who are unavoidably de¬ 
 tained at home, not more than one fourth, including 
 the unevangelical, attend regularly from Sunday to 
 Sunday. (See report of Home Missionary Society, in 
 Boston Recorder, July, 1858.) 
 
 Farther: they among us who profess Christianity 
 are greatly divided. There are numerous isms, which 
 reject the authority of the Bible, or receive it only as 
 they make it harmonize with the teaching of the 
 light within them. The orthodoxy even of the Pil¬ 
 grim Fathers ” has been, to a large extent, aban¬ 
 doned. The Apostle’s Creed is to many unknown, 
 and by many rejected. The result is what might be 
 expected. Multitudes, who claim to be evangelical 
 
6 
 
 believers, practically divorce their Christian faith and 
 experience from self-denial and obedience to the posi¬ 
 tive commands of Christ. That form of error widely 
 prevails which assumes that sincerity is the only test 
 of Christian character ; which disbelieves in Chris¬ 
 tianity as the institution of Christ; and which treats 
 His sacraments with practical contempt. Wide spread 
 spiritual apathy, obduracy and deadness, are the le¬ 
 gitimate and rank harvest in this field. The old, 
 positive, historical Faith of the Scriptures, of the 
 primitive Christians, of the four great general coun¬ 
 cils, has survived in the hearts and lives of compara¬ 
 tively few among us. Thus, the necessities 
 
 of the country furnish God’s opportunity for His 
 Church. 
 
 That Church is at once Evangelical and Catholic. 
 She proclaims Christ crucified as the only hope of the 
 world ; His spirit to be needed alike by the subtle 
 phijosopher and the darkened savage, to re-create the 
 heart. As His institution, she keeps and transmits 
 i\ie faith once delivered to the Saints ; founded on the 
 Bible, as interpreted by the Apostles’ and Nicene 
 Creeds ; battled for by Athanasius against the Arians, 
 and by Augustine against the Pelagians ; clung to 
 by the Universal Church before the separation of the 
 East and West; proclaimed anew in trumpet tones by 
 the English Beformers; the faith of Christianity^ 
 
 which is THE WHOLE TRUTH OF BeVELATION. 
 
 Again, the Church is Christ’s Body, and therefore 
 
1 
 
 the embodiment of His Truth and Love. The earth 
 brightens wherever she moves. The wretched, the 
 ignorant, the heathen, far or nigh, can no more live 
 within her reach, unpitied, unhelped, untaught, than 
 they could have come in contact with Jesus as He 
 moved throughout Judea and Galilee, without feeling 
 His everlasting love. Accordingly she delights, like 
 Him, in relieving suffering and sorrow. She warms, 
 and clothes, and feeds the destitute. She watches and 
 nurses the sick with true sympathy. Hepresenting her 
 Lord, speaking for Him in His own gentle voice, glow¬ 
 ing with His personal love to man, she kindles their 
 affections into fife, -excites contrition for sin, and the 
 desire for pardon and holiness. She thus wins their 
 hearts to the Saviour ; and secures for herself, as 
 Christ’s living Body, the approval of their judgment. 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church maintains this 
 two-fold character, God calls her to testify to the 
 Faith of Christ Crucified, whole and undefiled, and to 
 bring a Gospel full of tenderness to the masses of the 
 unevangelized people. Her duty is plain; for on 
 whom does the Saviour look at this moment with the 
 greatest compassion, hut on those who, like Himself 
 on earth, have not where to lay their heads ? Whom 
 would he heal but the sick ? Whom would He find 
 but the lost ? Whom uplift hut the downfallen ? 
 As His living Representative, therefore, the Church 
 must bear forth both her great central doctrine of an 
 Incarnate and Crucified Saviour, and his succor, and 
 peace unto the world. 
 
8 
 
 But our people are not half awake to the import¬ 
 ance of their mission. They are not conscious even 
 of their strength. Our present appliances are insuffi¬ 
 cient for the emergency. For our Clergy alone cannot 
 accomplish the work. The officers of the army cannot 
 fight, single-handed, and win the victory. An ener¬ 
 getic minister, fully alive to the calls to do good in 
 his parish, be his work in city, manufacturing village, 
 or rural district, will he perplexed hy the multiplicity, 
 and borne down by the weight of his cares and toils. 
 His charge, like that of Moses, is too heavy for him. 
 He must not be left to a disheartening, solitary strug¬ 
 gle. His hands must be upheld, or how can he pre¬ 
 vail ? 
 
 The desire is widely felt for the restoration of the 
 proper work of the Diaconate. This is one movement 
 in the right direction. But that without which we 
 must inevitably fail to occupy the ground that invites 
 us, is the communication to our people of their Mas¬ 
 ter’s personal Love for men ; and preparatory and sub¬ 
 sidiary thereto, the restoration of the true powers and 
 Spiritual Functions of the Laity, 
 
 We have neglected too long an element of strength 
 which has been one of the main reliances of other 
 bodies of Christians. The skilful working of the Lay 
 element by the Methodists, has been one of the prin¬ 
 cipal instruments of the singular efficiency of those 
 Christian brethren. The employment of their Church 
 members, by the Orthodox Congregationalists, by the 
 
9 
 
 Baptists, and other Protestants, has constituted one of 
 their strongholds of power ; while it has ever been 
 the policy of Rome to turn to her own purposes the 
 forces begotten by the zeal of her Laity. In this spirit 
 she has fostered the various Associations, Orders, and 
 Brotherhoods that have risen within her, and given 
 them her formal sanction. 
 
 This neglect on our part to stir up and marshal for 
 Christ’s service the ranks of our people, has been a 
 lamentable mistake. But it has sprung from no in¬ 
 herent defect in our system. It has been the result of 
 accident, in part; but still more of a conservatism 
 temporarily carried to extremes. 
 
 Our Church has retained, and professes to hold, 
 whatever offices and powers were left her by the Apos¬ 
 tles. The Clergy were not then the Church. The 
 Laity sat in the Council at Jerusalem, and the Coun- 
 ciliar Decree was the consentient voice of the Apostles, 
 and Elders, and Brethren (Acts xv. 23). So now our 
 Church recognizes the Laity. They sit in her Councils 
 as Legislators. They take part in the election of our 
 Bishops. They exercise controlling functions as War¬ 
 dens and Vestrymen. They are an acknowledged 
 Order and Power in the Church. The Clergy ought, 
 therefore, to look to the Laity for help in the work of 
 their Master. 
 
 But the Laity have been so long suffered and en¬ 
 couraged to excuse themselves from co-operation in 
 the Spiritual Work of the Church, that it becomes ne- 
 
10 
 
 cessaiy to determine what their Spiritual Functions 
 are ; what are the precise limits of the work that be¬ 
 longs to them. We must know our resources, else we 
 cannot hope to employ them. 
 
 That they have Spiritual Functions would seem as 
 clear as that they are members of Christ’s Body. If 
 a man’s eyes, ears, lungs, or heart, fail to do their 
 proper work, we conclude that they are paralyzed by 
 disease or are dead. No fanciful analogy, hut plain 
 sense, then, suggests that men or women whose virtues 
 and energies are not quickened into action in behalf 
 of the world, and who fail to partake of their Lord’s 
 toiling, sacrificing life in its service, are sick members, 
 or dead members, of Christ! Their living implies 
 their working. What, then, is the work which is the 
 legitimate province of the Laity ? 
 
 We reply: Every duty which is not exclusively 
 limited to the Clergy by the Scriptures and the Consti¬ 
 tution and Canons of the Church. The commissioning 
 of Christ’s Ministers; the administration of the Ordi¬ 
 nances, and of Discipline; the official proclamation of 
 the Gospel, as the deputed Embassage of Christ; the 
 Pastoral Care: this is the sum of Clerical Function in 
 its several degrees. Yet without encroachment upon 
 the Ministry proper, with full recognition of the prin¬ 
 ciple of subordination, and of instituted orders of ad¬ 
 ministration and of gifts, there are points of approach 
 in the work of the Laity to that of the Ministry. 
 What is clearly on the people’s side of the line, which 
 
11 
 
 divides their labor from that of the Clergy, belongs to 
 the people. 
 
 Now, it is every man’s duty to he a preacher of 
 righteousness.” We mean by this, more than the 
 silent influence of example, and the benign light 
 of a holy life. We maintain that there is a sphere, 
 below the Ministry, for the direct co-operation of the 
 Laity with the Clergy, in the eflbrt to extend the 
 Gospel. 
 
 In this sense, the Disciples, without distinction, in 
 the Apostolic Church, were preachers. The great sal¬ 
 vation was the absorbing theme of all men. The 
 brethren declared what God had done for their souls. 
 They published abroad the glad tidings. They ex¬ 
 plained and enforced them. They were ready to give 
 answer when asked for the reason for the hope that 
 was in them, according to Apostolic injunction. And 
 what was all this but preaching ? 
 
 This argument is not wholly inference. The multi¬ 
 tudes converted on the day of Pentecost, beyond all 
 question, carried the Gospel to their widely distant 
 homes. The Disciples, who “were scattered abroad 
 upon the persecution that arose about Stephen,” 
 preached the Word to the Jews at Phenice, Cyprus^ 
 and Antioch. Among them were “ men of Cyprus 
 and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch 
 spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus' 
 (Acts xi. 19-21). Such success attended these Lay 
 Pioneers, that when the “ tidings” of the “ great num- 
 
12 
 
 ber” they had converted came to the Church at Jeru¬ 
 salem, an Apostle^ was sent forth to instruct them 
 more fully, to confirm their faith, and to organize them 
 into a Church (Acts xi. 22). St. Paul salutes many 
 private Christians by name who had helped him In 
 the Ministry, and who, like the “beloved Persis,” had 
 “labored much in the Lord” (Rom. xvi. 12). It will 
 avail nothing against our argument—it will rather 
 strengthen it—to say that there was then a peculiar 
 exigency, and that special gifts were bestowed; for 
 these special gifts were common to Clergy and Laity. 
 Why was Ordination necessary in the one case and 
 not in the other? The very bestowing of gifts for 
 preaching, and yet withholding Ordination, is the seal 
 of the legitimacy of preaching by the Laity, under 
 the prescribed restrictions. 
 
 And how could there have been impropriety in 
 what was inevitable ? They had attained for them¬ 
 selves the knowledge of the way of life, how could 
 they help imparting it ? They saw their brethren and 
 friends perishing around them; was no voice, telling 
 how they might escape from eternal death, to pass 
 their lips ? The fervency of their love to Christ, and 
 therefore to men, must thus have constrained them to 
 a direct proclamation of the Gospel. 
 
 It cannot be said that this Lay preaching was but 
 the natural result of the faith, warmth, and energy, 
 which characterized the youth of the Church: nor 
 
 * Barnabas. 
 
13 
 
 that the circumstances of the times alone made it 
 justifiable. For these Apostolic precedents have the 
 force of laws, and become fixed principles of duty and 
 action. The nature of the case enforces the argument. 
 Men always, and everywhere, are responsible, as much 
 for the good they can do to the souls and bodies of 
 their fellow-men, as for their own faith and piety. 
 They can no more resign to others the exclusive privi¬ 
 lege of laboring for man’s highest good, than they can 
 worship God by proxy. What it is their right and 
 their privilege to do, becomes their imperative duty. 
 That they may^ is proof that they mmt exert every 
 faculty in the cause of Christ. Nothing here can 
 restrict them, except Revelation itself; and Revela¬ 
 tion not only speaks no restriction, but actually fur¬ 
 nishes precedent for that very action of the Laity for 
 which we are pleading. 
 
 The ages of the Church, next succeeding the Apos¬ 
 tles, support, by their practice, this our interpreta¬ 
 tion of the New Testament. Among Laymen may be 
 reckoned apologists, theologians, and Church histo¬ 
 rians. The learned Origen was a teacher of theology, 
 and a preacher of the Gospel, distinguished for his 
 success in making converts,^ at least seven years 
 before he could be ordained Deacon by the Canons of 
 the Church.”^ He was permitted by the Bishops of 
 Caesarea and Jerusalem, to preach publicly in their 
 
 1. Eusebius. Eccl. Hist., B. VI., c. 3. 
 
 2. Bingham’s Origines Eccles. B. III., c. 10, sect. 2. 
 
14 
 
 presence. And he is defended on this ground: that 
 ‘‘ wherever there are found those qualified to benefit 
 the hrethern, they are exhorted by the Bishops to ad¬ 
 dress the peopleof which several instances? are 
 cited.^ Laymen became also successful missionaries ; 
 of whom, Frumentius, who converted the Indians, 
 
 building for them a house of prayer,” and “instruct¬ 
 ing them in the principles of Christianity and the 
 “ captive W’oman,” who “ taught the way of truth ” 
 to the Iberians, by “ meekly explaining the Divine 
 Doctrines,”^ are familiar examples. 
 
 The numerous inferior Orders show how completely 
 all classes were enlisted in the work of the Church. 
 There were the Deaconesses,^ probably alluded to by 
 St. Paul f by Pliny, in his Epistle to Trajan f by 
 Tertullian,'^ and the Fathers generally; whose office 
 was, among other things, to instruct women prepara¬ 
 tory to their baptism, and “ to visit and attend upon 
 women who were sick or in distress.” There were the 
 Catechists,® who might he Laymen as well as Cler¬ 
 gymen, and who were to teach the elementary princi¬ 
 ples of Christianity. These might be masters in 
 schools in which theology was taught, and were ad- 
 
 1. Euseb. E. H., B. VI., c. 19, towards the end. 
 
 2. Socrates’ Eccl. Hist., B. I., c. 19. 
 
 3. Theodoret’s Eccl. Hist., B. I., c. 24. 
 
 4. Bingham’s Origines, B. II., c. 22. 
 
 5. Korn. XVI.; I Tim., V., 3, 4, 9, 10. See Commentaries in locis. 
 
 6. Pliny Lib. X., Epist. 97,*ancillae, qnae ministrae dicebantur. 
 
 7. Viduae. See place quoted in Bingham. 
 
 8. Bingham, B. III., c. 10. 
 
15 
 
 mitted to preach in private auditories appointed for 
 the purpose. There were the Readers/ whose duty 
 was, to read the Holy Scriptures in church, and who 
 might also he Catechists. There were the Para- 
 holani^ so called, from their “boldness in exposing 
 their lives to attend upon the sick in all infectious 
 and pestilential distempers who are said, in the 
 statement of their office,^ to be “ deputed to attend 
 upon the sick, and to take care of their bodies in time 
 of their weakness not to mention the Defenders of 
 the Pooi\ and many other orders of men,^ who, by the 
 fulfilment of special functions assigned them, might 
 be of great assistance to the Clergy, and contribute to 
 the efficiency and advancement of the Church. 
 
 Indeed, energetic Lay co-operation and the pros¬ 
 perity of the Church have ever been inseparable. It 
 was so at the Reformation in England and elsewhere; 
 and has been so since to the present time. Mr. Fran, 
 cis Wharton,® of Kenyon College, in a vigorous 
 pamphlet, shows conclusively that, “ for the prelim¬ 
 inary purpose of leading the careless in such a popu¬ 
 lation ” (to wit, people outside the regular dispensa¬ 
 tion of the means of grace) “ toward the Church and 
 
 1. Bingham, B. III., c. 5. 
 
 2. Bingham, B. III., c. 9. 
 
 3. Cod. Theod. lib, 16, Tit. 2, de Episc, leg. 42. Parabolani, qui ad curanda 
 debilium aegra Corpora Deputantur, &c. See quotation in Bingham. 
 
 4. Bingham, B. III., “Of the inferior orders of the Clergy in the Primitive 
 hurch.” 
 
 5. The Missouri Valley and Lay Preaching, 
 
the Ministry,^ Lay scripture-reading and preaching 
 form an agency^ which is the most practical, and the 
 
 I 
 
 most consistent with the means and prosperity of the 
 Church that “this agency is in accordance with the 
 usages of the Church at the periods^ when her mis¬ 
 sionary labors were most blessedand that “ its active 
 exercise is at least not inconsistent with the main¬ 
 tenance of a high degree of clerical independence, 
 spirituality and dignity.”^ 
 
 This is the large and wise view. It is the safe 
 mean between two dangerous extremes : the denial to 
 the Laity of all spiritual function, and the confound¬ 
 ing "of the offices of Laity and Clergy. The former of 
 
 1. “ The Clergy examined before the Bishop of Exeter’s late Committee on Spiri¬ 
 tual Destitution recognize two agencies as being peculiarly and almost solely instru¬ 
 mental in awakening non-churchgoers to a sense of their religious danger; the Scrip¬ 
 ture Keader’s Society, and the London City Mission. Both these work through 
 Lajnnen, who penetrate where a Clergyman, by his profession, could not enter. They 
 meet error and sin in their own holes.”— Wharton, p. 18. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Champney, well known as one of the most efficient of the London 
 Clergy, before the Committee of the House of Lords, strongly attested the great work 
 that had been done by the employment of Lay agents ; in the increase of schools ; 
 visiting the sick and infirm; bringing the people into closer contact with the Clergy ; 
 enabling the latter to exercise better supervision over their communicants, etc. And 
 Dr. Hook, addressing the same committee, says, “There are among the working 
 classes many good Biblical scholars, men well informed in English, and especially in 
 sacred literature, who are able, if I may use the expression, to talh the Gospel, where 
 no Minister would be admitted, and who might be very useful in visiting the sick. 
 They can be employed without quitting their trades. * * I have employed such, 
 
 myself, paying them no salary, but having an understanding that, when needed, they 
 might receive some compensation. These persons would he qualified even for out~door 
 preaching. I think that those who, like myself, believe in the Divine institution of 
 the Christian Ministry, and who think that the Stewards of the Mysteries of God 
 should be regularly ordained, would prefer the employment of workingmen to invite 
 people of their class to repair to Church and to participate in the ordinances of the 
 Gospel, to the adoption of any system of out-door preaching by the Clergy, It would 
 undoubtedly be more effective. ” 
 
 2. See Xote A. in Appendix. 
 
 3. See Appendix, Note B. 
 
 4. See Appendix, Note C. 
 
17 
 
 these strikes at the efficiency of the Church ; the latter 
 at the Church itself, as a Society founded by Christ, 
 and invested with His authority. 
 
 The principle thus established, finds already, in 
 some of its applications, a general recognition. Our 
 Bishops, in this country, have always given license 
 to Lay Headers. By some of them, the permission to 
 catechize and exhort has also been allowed. The sys¬ 
 tem of Sunday Schools originated in Lay-Agency, and 
 is a noble example of it. The devoted staff of men 
 and women laboring with our Clergy in Africa and 
 China, has been largely instrumental in the efficiency 
 and success of those missions. The action of the late 
 General Convention in the appointment of a Commit¬ 
 tee on Lay co-operation, consisting of one layman from 
 each diocese, is in perfect accordance with these pre¬ 
 cedents, and shows the Church’s sense of the impor¬ 
 tance of the subject. 
 
 It will be readily seen that we should be justified 
 in applying the principle to the field of labor outside 
 of our established parishes; especially when the 
 scarcity of clergy, and of means to support them, 
 might otherwise prevent the introduction of the Church. 
 
 But in the Parochial work this co-operation is indis¬ 
 pensable to the success of our Church. The Laity 
 may do much which to the Clergy is often difficult or • 
 impossible.^ They should deem it their special duty 
 to become ‘‘ helps” (1 Cor. xii. 28) to the Pastor. By a 
 
 1. See note 1, p. 16, and note B, in Appendix. 
 
 2 
 
 « 
 
18 
 
 proper division of labor, under his direction, they 
 should share with him a portion of his cares. Our 
 Laity should be to the commissioned Ministry what 
 the brooks and streams are to the rivers and seas, that 
 intersect the land in every direction, and pour into 
 them the wealth they have gathered. The members 
 of our Parishes, warming their own hearts by work¬ 
 ing for the Redeemer; visiting the sick; carrying 
 alms to the poor; distributing approved books and 
 tracts; teaching not only children, but adults, in 
 waste places, where the voice of the Gospel seldom 
 comes, and thus perfecting their own knowledge ; dis¬ 
 cussing with the irreligious the truths of the Bible 
 and the Prayer-Book; conciliating, convincing, and 
 gathering into the Church all classes of the commu¬ 
 nity, particularly the neglected ; can most effectively 
 aid the Pastor and the Church, and glorify their 
 Saviour. 
 
 The Church expects such exertions from all who 
 join in her services. In the responsive parts of the 
 Liturgy, and in the Chants and Hymns, the people are 
 associates of the Minister, in conducting the public 
 worship of God. The solemn utterance aloud of con¬ 
 fession, prayer, and praise, lays the whole Christian 
 obligation directly on their souls. Audibly proclaim¬ 
 ing before the world, on every occasion of public wor¬ 
 ship, their religious purposes and vows, they condemn 
 themselves out of their own mouths, if they negle^ct 
 the offices of love implied herein. 
 
 9 
 
19 
 
 Thus the duties of the Laity, as fellow-helpers’’ 
 with the Clergy, are as evident as they are essential. 
 Yet we find in our people an apathy—we should 
 rather say inertness—which is truly alarming. It is 
 immeasurably retarding our progress—nay, it is the 
 direct cause of very much unfruitfulness in ourselves 
 and in the world. Let us look the evil fearlessly in 
 the face. It is disaster within the Church, and with¬ 
 out it. 
 
 It is disaster within the Church. It is a law of 
 God, that neglect of duty, long continued, extin¬ 
 guishes the Divine Life. If this neglect become con¬ 
 crete and systematic, then, in spite of the form of 
 godliness, God’s living power will have fled. The 
 habit of walling our souls in with whatever is pre¬ 
 cious in the means of grace; of raising our eyes to 
 Heaven for our own salvation, with no prayer, no 
 effort for the abandoned, the perishing, makes ‘‘ sweet 
 religion a rhapsody of words.” Our most solemn be¬ 
 lief becomes a barren dogma, a delusion, attractive, 
 but full of peril. We build to the God of Love a 
 temple of ice, glancing with the hues of heaven 
 to the eye, while the atmosphere within is the chill 
 of Death! The great reason why Missions in our 
 Church languish, why so many of our Parishes make 
 no returns for a Redeemer’s Love, by helping to extend 
 His Truth among the Heathen abroad and the Infidel 
 at home ; why a Christianity dwarfed and poor in 
 fruits, so often prevails among us, in spite of the abun¬ 
 dant agencies of grace in the Bible, the Prayer-Book, 
 
20 
 
 and the Church; is because we do deliberate violence 
 to our Holy Faith ; we tear out from its heart the per¬ 
 vading, energizing Love of Christ for men. 
 
 Hence it is disaster outside of the Church. The 
 very nature of the charities of the Church implies that 
 they are the gushings of Love from a community of 
 hearts. But how little are the charities of the Church 
 thus poured forth upon those who need them. To 
 illustrate: Suppose that through the children whom 
 the Parish Clergyman has gathered into the Sunday- 
 School, or that by other offices of kindness, he has 
 persuaded two or three out of that large Sahhath- 
 profaning population around us to enter our place of 
 worship. They are strangers to our people and to our 
 forms. Conventionalities, social separations, put a 
 gulf between them and us. So far as sympathy and 
 acquaintance go, these people are isolate. The look 
 which they attract is a look of wonder. They feel 
 alone in the midst of a crowd! alone in the House of 
 God,,whither the feeling of loneliness should never 
 come. Disheartened, or repelled, perhaps they never 
 enter our Church more. They seek some more con¬ 
 genial sanctuary with a humaner aspect and warmer 
 air ! or they desert the House of God forever! 
 
 How many souls have been lost to the Sa¬ 
 viour, lost to the Church, through this shameful 
 neglect of Christians ! Ought these persons to have 
 lived unknown and uncared for ? Ought not the 
 baptized members of Christ’s Church, and more 
 
21 
 
 especially her communicants, to have gone forth, 
 like their Master, to seek and to save them ? 
 The process is short from doubting man to doubt¬ 
 ing God. Nothing more certainly leads to irreli- 
 gion in the human heart, than this constant ex¬ 
 perience of the apathy and selfishness of Chris¬ 
 tians. It is stubborn and awful fact, that this 
 lack of Christ’s Love in the hearts of His dis¬ 
 ciples, this practical un-Christianity, has fearful ac¬ 
 count to render, for the alarming and spreading 
 unbelief and Heathenism in New-England. 
 
 How, then, can we wonder, that so often little 
 should remain within the Sanctuary but the living 
 corpse of Pharisaism; while outside, there is spread 
 around us a festering mass of Infidelity ? 
 
 The tendencies thus inevitably growing from our 
 prevailing insensibility, if they are not counteracted, 
 must carry themselves into woeful results! Alas ! 
 for our Church, if reverence for the Ministry beget 
 freezing torpor in the people: if, in avoiding Uzzah’s 
 sin of presumptuously laying hands on God’s Ark, the 
 Tribes of God forsake their place and their duty 
 around that Ark, and beneath its very glories desert it 
 in the battle! 
 
 The Clergy of this Association earnestly desire their 
 flocks to arouse at once to a sense of the duty of Lay 
 co-operation. To this end, their own spiritual life 
 must be quickened. They must rise to the true con¬ 
 ception of that Gospel of Love which they have 
 
22 
 
 received, and which they are hound, by their Chris¬ 
 tian vows, to carry to others. Specially should they 
 feel that the joy of their own free Salvation is in¬ 
 finitely heightened, when they lead others to the 
 Saviour; that the Love of God ever rises highest in 
 their hearts, and gives out most of its electric fire, 
 when they^touch others with its flame ; that tempta¬ 
 tion never is so weak. Heaven never so alluring, as 
 when they have opened the doors of sin and sorrow to 
 Christ’s Holiness and peace; when households, once 
 degraded and reprobate, have, through their efforts, 
 become Christian and happy. 
 
 We would have our Laity remember, too, that our 
 Lord prepared the way, by His works of lesser mercy, 
 for the reception of Eternal Life. It was Hej the 
 Healer of men’s bodies, the Unsealer of the blind eyes 
 and the deaf ears, that cried, ‘‘ Come unto me, all ye 
 who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest.” It was He, the Counsellor of the doubting, and 
 the Weeper with the bereaved, who stood in the 
 graveyard at Bethany, and proclaimed, “I am the 
 Resurrection and the Life.” Thus, on holy sympa¬ 
 thies, on works of Love and Mercy to men’s bodies, 
 did Christ build the way for the entrance of Himself, 
 the Saviour of the soul, into their hearts. Let the 
 members of His Church “ go and do likewise.” 
 
 Then will our Laity feel, that though not public 
 Preachers, they have a far-reaching stewardship. 
 The work to which they are appointed is matter of 
 
23 
 
 account at the Judgment Day. God lays upon them 
 much of the responsibility for men’s temporal suffer¬ 
 ing and Eternal ruin. They must answer for the 
 keeping of their brother: it involves the keeping of 
 themselves. In words more tremendous than any 
 others ever uttered, Christ says unto each Christian 
 man and woman, ‘‘ Verily, inasmuch as ye have not 
 done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, 
 ye have not done it unto Me.” 
 
 Long has our Church, by Christ’s grace, been the 
 “ Keeper and Witness of the Truth.” He now calls 
 her to improve her present opportunity : to do what 
 SHE CAN, in order that the comfortable Gospel of 
 Christ be truly preached, truly received, and truly 
 followed, in all places, to the breaking down of the 
 kingdom of Sin, Satan, and Death.” 
 
 Hence, it becomes our solemn duty to organize our 
 ranks ; to call forth our whole strength; not only by 
 loving and faithful appeal and sound instruction, but 
 by a wise and forecasting policy, to enlist and direct, 
 to the greatest glory of God, all the latent energies of 
 our people. 
 
 We venture to suggest a plan of organization, and 
 of concert of action, in the parochial work. The 
 several Parishes can modify it, according to their 
 judgment and circumstances. 
 
 After preparing the way, by preaching and talking 
 to the people, each Pastor might assemble the men of 
 his congregation, willing to work, and invite them 
 
24 
 
 to organize a Brotherhood or Association, of which 
 he should he ex-officio the head. 
 
 Money might he raised by entrance fee, donation, 
 subscription, or the offertory, in order to provide need¬ 
 ful books, tracts, clothing, food, and fuel. Then the 
 Parish might he districted, and one or more persons 
 assigned to each district, who should visit every family 
 having no ecclesiastical connection, ascertain their 
 spiritual condition, and, wherever they can, by appeal 
 and instruction, acts of Christian kindness, and by 
 alms, if expedient, bring the children to Sunday- 
 School, and the children and parents to Church. 
 
 Meetings might he held monthly, at which the 
 visitors should make report of their labors. The record 
 of the information might he carefully kept, and work 
 he reassigned for report at a subsequent meeting. 
 
 The several committees should bring immediately 
 to the Pastor, everything requiring his attention, and 
 seek his advice, especially in all that belongs to the 
 Spiritual work. 
 
 Vestries might take upon themselves the fulfilment 
 of these duties. The Wardens and Vestrymen are 
 the Hector’s Cabinet Council, and Executive Com¬ 
 mittee, and their responsible station in the Church 
 imposes on them the duty of co-operating with him 
 in promoting the spiritual growth of the Parish. 
 
 It is very necessary that there should he a Society 
 of the women of the Parish, for the purpose of prepar- 
 
25 
 
 ing clothes for the poor, and ministering to the sick, 
 under the guidance of the Pastor. 
 
 Auxiliary to the above, there might be a public 
 monthly meeting in the Church, on Sunday evenings, 
 devoted alternately to the reports of these Home Mis¬ 
 sions ivithin the Parish, and to the Missions of the 
 Diocese and Church at large, Domestic and Foreign. 
 This would greatly aid in kindling and spreading the 
 Missionary spirit. 
 
 Let the people of a Parish devote their best powers 
 and prayers to the execution of some such plan, and 
 the increased spirituality and strength of that Parish, 
 under God, will be instantly apparent. It will be 
 seen to drink of the life of Jesus, and to be treading 
 in His steps. It will become the great channel of 
 men’s benevolence, as well as the means of their sal- . 
 vation. It will secure the blessing of the poor. The 
 neglected masses will crowd into it. They will rise 
 up and say, We will go with you, for we have 
 heard that God is with you.” 
 

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APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 A MEETING was held ill Leeds, March, 1859, for the formation of a 
 “ Yorksliire Church of England Scripture Leaders^ Society.’^ The Bishop 
 of Bipon presided. He explained that a XYest Riding Scripture Readers^ 
 Association” had existed since 1852. It was proposed to enlarge its 
 basis, and call it by the above name. The Society was not to interfere 
 with the province of the parochial clergy, but was to be auxiliary to the 
 usefulness of that body. The readers were to be communicants of the 
 Church of England, and of position and ability to discharge efficiently 
 their onerous house-to-house duties. His Lordship next alluded to the 
 necessity there existed for calling in this lay support,” by a statement 
 of the great and increasing population, rendering it utterly impossible for 
 the five hundred and sixty clergy of the Diocese to meet its spiritual wants. 
 
 These facts attested, beyond dispute, the necessity for additional labor¬ 
 ers : and the lay element could discharge a great work, and materially 
 assist the parochial clergy.” The Rev. Dr. Hook, then Vicar of Leeds, 
 and others, seconded the Bishop’s views. Resolutions were passed and 
 a committee appointed, consisting of the Rev. Drs. Hook and Sale, also 
 the Revs. C. J. Camidge, J. Bell, J. Fawcett, and B. Crosthwaite, Mr. J. 
 XV. Childers, Mr. E. B. Denison, etc., the number of the laity being equal 
 to that of clergy. Abridged from Whartonh note. 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 Mr. XVharton argues, “ That the advanced post of Gospel preachers is 
 to be of the community, to remain with the community, and to subside in 
 the community : its work to consist not in instruction in Theology; not in 
 Church discipline or government; not in pastoral charge: not in admin¬ 
 istering the ordinances; but in telling the glad tidings in the close beat¬ 
 ing of heart to heart, and the near looking of eye to eye. So was it in 
 the Reformation. The “ Gospellers” who preached in the market-places, 
 who sold Tyndale’s Bible at the fairs, who, staff in hand, worked their 
 way from hamlet to hamlet, who suffered at the stake, were laymen. The 
 English Reformation came not from Cranmer, nor from Henry X^III., nor 
 
28 
 
 even from Kidley, but from these unknown and uncommemorated men, 
 who of the people, acted with the people, and soon spoke/or the people. 
 So was it with the preliminaries of the great awakening of the 
 Mother Church, toward the end of the last century. Alas! that we 
 should say it, but this work was carried on by men, who, by their own 
 showing, as well as by our own actions were to us as laymen.’^—p. 23. 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 Mr. Wharton contrasts two periods in the Galilean Church : when it 
 exulted in a constellation of intellect and culture, such as no religious body 
 has at any time excelled,then “ her laity were heard through her press, 
 in her monasteries, and in her public avenues.'^ Then, w’^hen great^laymen 
 like Perrault and Paschal, spoke did the ecclesiastical intellect of France 
 rise in a superb lustre. Then were heard the thunder notes of Bossuet, 
 of Massillon of Bourdaloue, Then were published the acute disquisitions 
 of Arnauld, and the sw'eet Commentaries of QuesneV’ etc. But soon 
 there came a change—Jesuitism prevailed—Jansenism was proscribed— 
 lay preachers were silenced—and soon, in the language of Bobert Hall, 
 
 The Gallican Church felt herself at liberty to become as ignorant, as 
 secular, as irreligious as she pleased; and amidst the silence and darkness 
 she had created around her, she drew the curtains and retired to rest.’^ 
 Soon in those halls, where once flashed the eye of the eagle of Meaux, 
 wms heard the cri^p, scoffing laugh of Voltaire, and then the blasphemous 
 yell of Marat 
 
 To consider a notable instance of the same kind in the English Church. 
 
 Of all the Anglican clergy, the non-jurors held the most arbitrary views 
 of sacerdotal prerogative. The laity were,according to them, “inno 
 sense to be aught but catechumens—to learn, but not to teachP They be¬ 
 came, with honorable exceptions, hangers on of great men, and reduced to 
 “ mean acts and dishonorable shifts.^’ “ They were preachers without 
 hearers, so long as they preached at all. ****** 
 It was not that their schism was not disinterested, and impelled by a noble 
 enthusiasm; it was not that they (the non-jurors of the first generation), 
 did not include some saintly and highly cultivated men. Such were Ken, 
 whom the Catholic Church will always regard as one of her purest and 
 brightest lights: Archbishop Sancroft, Bishops Turner, Lake, and Loyd, 
 wdiom she will cherish among her bravest confessors; Leslie, as one of the 
 most acute and subtle of her apologists; Collier, as the most elfective and 
 fearless of critics and literary reformers of his times; and Bodwell and 
 Hicks, as among her most erudite scholars.’^ 
 
 Of the non-jurors of the second generation, Mr. Wharton says : “ They 
 had every motive to sustain them; they had p., legitimate succession; they 
 had the distinction of martrydom without its extermination; they had a 
 true and pure creed and a faultless liturgy; they had the enthusiasm of a 
 
29 
 
 splendid, and in many respects just cause. Certainly, as to the mere ques¬ 
 tion of estahlishmentarianism, there was no choice between themselves and 
 their Erastian opponents. But what became of them ? Compare them 
 with the Huguenots. The English martyrs loitered,in easy and unfruitful 
 indolence, about their old haunts ; the French toiled with thej^r own hands 
 and taught as they toiled. The former had the liberty of speech opened 
 to them, but spoke to emptied rooms * the latter were gagged, were muti¬ 
 lated, were proscribed; but in the forest, in the upper chamber, in the 
 cave, found, illiterate as they were, eager auditors ; coming under cover 
 of night, and almost under the royal guns, for miles and miles ; forming, 
 when they assembled, one compact, living heart. Both had America spread 
 out for their free effort. The former were followed by a few broken down 
 gentlemen of Jacobite creed, and have themselves been described to us 
 as idle, arrogant and ineflEicient; the latter [carried with them thousands 
 of faithful and pious artisans, to the marshes of Brandenburg, to the crowd¬ 
 ed lanes of London, to the shores of Virginia, of New-York, and South 
 Carolina. With such odds in favor of the non-jurors I can attribute this 
 difference in results to but one cause, the Huguenot ministers were of the 
 people, felt with them, spoke their vernacular, and heard the same mother 
 tongue speaking back to their own hearts ; and thus, through the action 
 and counter-action of preacher and hearer, of teacher Avith teacher, pro¬ 
 moted and extended pervasive, life-controlling, heart-subduing theology. 
 But the non-juror first inflicted on his flock the mischiefs of a monopoly 
 as to others, and then suffered the results of a monopoly as to self. 
 
 “ It has been observed, that during John Wesley^s life, the Methodist 
 preachers claimed to exercise their gifts merely as lay members of the 
 National Church. In this period of resuscitation of religion, within as 
 well as without the Church, an earnest, faithful, preaching lait}^ stood 
 side by side with a body of clergymen, than whom there have never been 
 any more zealous, more able, more loved, and more honored. Those were 
 the days when Wilberforce, Thornton, Charles Grant, Zachary Macaulay, 
 Sir Bichard Hill, stood side by side with Cecil, John NcAvton, Fletcher, 
 Bomaine, Scott, and Wilson. 
 
 But in an earlier period, ‘-in one sense the darkest” in our Church His¬ 
 tory, I am willing to seek for the illustration of the working of lay evan¬ 
 gelization. .. In those days the clergy fell into two great classes. The first, 
 with few exceptions, were jacobites in politics and non-jurors in everything 
 but schism. .. How did these men, who claimed to be the sole organs 
 through which religion could speak, prepare themselves for their awful 
 responsibility ? What effect did the conviction of the exclusive possession 
 of this august gift have upon them ? Let us see. Among these divines, 
 numerous as they were, the Church of England found not one able apolo¬ 
 gist—scarcely one teacher or preacher, whom history brings down to us, 
 as capable of swaying the heart or convincing the judgment—very few 
 men of literary taste or theological culture. The only works of high 
 
30 
 
 merit, as we are told, that sprung from a rural parish in those days, were 
 the Vindication of the Church of England, and the Apostolical Harmony, 
 of the Eev. George Bull, written and published by him when at the liv¬ 
 ings of Suddington, St. Mary, and Suddington near Cirencester. But this 
 eminent divine, afterward better known as Bishop of St. Davids, reso¬ 
 lutely severed himself from the nonjurors, in principle as well as polity. 
 
 “ There was another class, forming in the main the metropolitan and 
 university clergy, who were beset with far different influences from those 
 which narrowed the minds, and contracted the influence of the class just 
 described. Let us look, however, at the associations by which this last 
 class were surrounded. Eminent in their counsels, and active in carrying 
 on with them the missionary work, were laymen, whom even Barrow, 
 Sherlock, Beveridge, and Tennisoo, could condescend to call brethren and 
 friends. There were Robert Boyle, the earliest advocate of a scheme of 
 missionary extension, Daniel, Earl of Nottingham, and William Melmouth. 
 There was Francis, second Lord Guilford, and John Hook, a leading bar¬ 
 rister, and William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, 
 and Col. Maynard Colchester, all of whom were active in the organiza¬ 
 tion of the Society for the promotion of Christia7i Knowledge, which in its 
 infancy ivas almost solely under lay management. To them was soon add¬ 
 ed Robert Nelson, author of the well-known treatise on Easts and Fes¬ 
 tivals.*^ 
 
 “ Now here was a body of laymen of signal ability and high position, 
 having in their number men noble in birth and distinguished in every de¬ 
 partment of science, and in each learned profession. These exercise the 
 highest functions below the ministry. They write practical, devotional 
 treatises; they publish exhortations ] they issue commentaries on the ser¬ 
 vices of the Church; they defend her polity and her doctrines; they 
 voluntarily, with but one clergyman in their number (the Rev. Dr. Brayj 
 take upon themselves the formation of a Society which assumes the work, 
 not only of issuing tracts, but of sending out Missionaries. 
 
 ‘‘ Now what was the effect of this on the clergy ? I answer that there 
 never was a brighter constellation collected in the English Church, than 
 that which fostered and was fostered by these laymen. Never did a body 
 of clergy rank higher for their eloquence, for learning, for liberal culture, 
 for grave and earnest devotion to their great cause, for the honor and rev¬ 
 erence paid to them by the community, not the least distinguished among 
 whom were these same ‘ preaching’ laymen. It would be an error to 
 ascribe this to any phase of theological belief. These ministers embraced 
 all shades; Tillotson, gentle and wise, gifted] with a most perspicuous 
 style and persuasive elocjuence; Berkley, acute, subtle, and zealous, and 
 endowed “ with all the virtues” ; Burnet whose ardent love of souls and 
 indefatigable industry are too apt now to be lost sight of, behind the political 
 turmoils behind which his position threw him ; Butler, the most philosophi¬ 
 cal and profound of apologists; Lowth, tho most classical and poetic of 
 
commentators; Beveridge^ the tenderest of homilists; Stillingfleet, the 
 keenest of controversialists • Cudworth and Henry More, still lingering 
 at Cambridge; and South, Jane, and Alrich at Oxford. These men, em¬ 
 inent for their learning, their talents, their character, and their piety, were 
 no less eminent for the respect and honor paid to them, both by the state 
 and the community. 
 
 “It is enough to say that we have two juxtapositions worthy of our no¬ 
 tice at this period of English ecclesiastical history. On one side, we see 
 the laity ready ever to persecute an unordained preacher, and yet the 
 clorgy illiterate, inactive, and socially dependent. On the other side we 
 see laymen active, spiritual, and zealous, and the clergy refined, pious, and 
 capable, the objects of public reverence and love.’^