CHURCHES may be divided into four
descriptions, in regard of their prevailing character.
(J. A. James, "The Church in
Earnest" 1847)
The first consists of those in which an apparent
high degree of spirituality exists; the preacher is devout, and his
sermons partake of his own habitude of thought and feeling; the people, like
the pastor, are thought to be, and perhaps are, professors of a higher tone
of piety than many others; and there is much of the divine life. But
although numerous and wealthy, they do nothing, or nothing in proportion to
their ability, for the cause of Christ. Their collections are few and
small—they are not at all known as engaged in any of the great societies of
the day. They seem to suppose their calling to be to luxuriate on gospel
privileges, to enjoy a perpetual feast of fat things; but they appear to
think they have no vocation to proclaim the word of the Lord; or at any rate
they consider themselves as something like the Jewish church, a stationary
witness for God.
The second description of our churches is that of
the communities of Christians where there is perhaps less of spirituality,
less of the desire for doctrinal theology, either in the pastor or the
flock, though their spiritual life is by no means low in comparison with
many others; but with them all is activity and energy, the pastor is devoted
not merely to his people but to the cause of God at large. The collections
are numerous and great. The church can be depended upon, and is looked to
for assistance by the directors of our evangelistic institutions. All hands
are busy in Sunday and daily schools, tract distribution, Bible classes, and
organizations for home and foreign societies; all that know them think and
speak of them as a thoroughly working church.
The third description applies to those who are
neither the one nor the other of the foregoing; they have lost their
spirituality and have not gained a character for activity; they neither
enjoy the life of godliness nor diffuse it, they have not even a name to
live—but are dead.
The fourth description includes those, (alas! how
few they are,) who unite earnest spirituality with activity and liberality
no less eminent; whose spiritual life is all healthfulness and vigor, and in
whom its developments are seen in all the operations of holy zeal.
This then is what we want—churches in which the vital
principle of piety shall be so strong that they may be said to be like the
mystic wheels of Ezekiel, instinct with the Spirit of God and ever in
motion; churches whose activity, like that of the strong and healthy man, is
the working of a life too vivacious to remain in a state of indolence and
repose; churches so filled with the Spirit, that his gracious influence is
perpetually welling up and flowing over in streams of benevolent activity
for the salvation of the world; churches partaking of so much of the mind of
Christ that from their own internal constraint, they must, like him, be ever
going about doing good. Oh that God would pour out his Spirit, and raise
every separate fellowship of believers to this blessed state of spiritual
prosperity!