CHAPTER XLIX
The Chicago Association
[p. 164]
If we may judge of the heavenly future by the present, the believer will delight in remembering his part in the battles of his age between justice and wrong, and to be able to demonstrate thereby that he did not withhold his aid and testimony. For without testimony against wrong there is no battle. Like the demons of old, evil demands only to be let alone. Every age has its own moral battle, but each is some form of making merchandise of the weakness or the sorrows of mankind. Today it is the liquor traffic; in the days of the Northern Illinois Association it was the slave traffic. It was an irritating question. At every session some radical brother was sure to be on hand to bear his testimony against the inhumanity of slavery, and to offer his testimony to the committee on resolutions for record. If the conservative brethren had been wise they would suffer so much as that for the sake of peace, since the only result would have been the printing of a harmless resolution in the Minutes. And slaveholders then cared as little for convention resolutions as liquor dealers do now. But it is not easy to be silent; especially when one is on the doubtful side of a moral question. The following Association tilt in 1844 was recorded by Bro. Boone himself, for he was clerk: "Upon a proposition of Bro. J. McClellan to introduce a resolution on the subject of slavery not reported by the prudential committee, a constitutional question arose, viz., whether a member could present business for the action of the Association which had not been presented to the prudential committee, which elicited considerable discussion. After which the moderator decided the resolution to be in order. Bro. Boone, in order to settle the question forever, appealed to the house from the decision of the chair. Whereupon the house sustained the decision unanimously." The resolution was then presented and discussed, and the following substitute presented by Bro. Joslyn finally adopted: "Whereas, the question, Ought slaveholders to be employed as missionaries? is now deeply agitating our Home Mission Society, to which we through the Northwestern Convention are auxiliary, therefore, Resolved, that we entirely disapprove of the employment of slave holding missionaries as repugnant to the spirit of the age, of missions, and of the gospel."
[p. 165]
Two years after this, in 1846, the wedge of sentiment divided the Association. The dividing line in Chicago was between the churches, along Washington street and west. In the division of assets the northern part was given the name, and the southern part the organization; but both changed their name, and both practically retained the organization. The southern part became the Fox River Association, with 14 churches and 920 members, and the northern part became the Chicago Association with 19 churches and 930 members. The churches of the latter now existing are Second church of Chicago, Elgin, Dundee, Crystal Lake, Waukegan, Yorkville, Barrington, Woodstock, St. Charles. R. W. Padelford, of Elgin, was chosen clerk at the first session, and retained the office until his death in 1891. The Western Christian was chosen as the organ of the Association, and the Free Mission Society as their agency for missionary work. At their first meeting, held at Dundee in 1847, they put themselves on record thus: "No professedly christian church is worthy of that name which holds slaves or allows it in her members. We cannot cooperate with missionary societies which sustain a connection with slavery." On application of the agents of the regular benevolent societies for permission to present their causes before the Chicago Association and take collections, it was voted that they be received as visiting brethren but not acknowledged in their official capacity. But this rule after a few years was modified, allowing all causes to be presented, and contributors to have their choice. In 1848 the Association assumed the support of a part of the German mission carried on by John G. Oncken, in Hamburg. This German mission was carried on for several years, and was valued not only for its own worth but for its educational influence on the churches. In 1851 the Elgin church said in their report to the Association: "The independent German mission occupies no small place in our affections, founded as it is upon the apostolic plan, under the entire control of the churches. The intelligence received from our missionary, Bro. Frederic Oncken, have been cheering and refreshing to us." Still slavery held the first place as an evil to be testified against and to be separate from. In the exciting times following the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1856, the Association meeting in Chicago renewed their covenant thus: "We pledge ourselves as christian brethren and sisters, in our individual and associational capacity, to wash our hands from all guilt arising from a participation in this sin."
[p. 166]
But at last the civil war was over and slavery was no more. New issues came up. There seemed no need that Chicago should be longer divided. The Fox River Association took the first step when in 1879 the country churches organized as the Aurora Association and the city churches as the Lakeside Association. But there were still five city churches outside. And several country churches declined to change. They were endeared to each other by the exciting days through which they had passed and they liked not to part. Old memories were precious. They were as war veterans asked to give up their reunions. The Lakeside came to the rescue. In 1882 they dissolved, and were welcomed under the one head of Chicago, country churches and all. And still the Tabernacle church and the Elgin church clasp hands once a year as in the old times ot the '40s. ================= [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 164-166. -- jrd]
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