CIRCULAR LETTER, 1809.
MESSRS. EDITORS: -- In looking over the minutes of the New York Baptist Association, I was so much pleased with the Circular letter of 1809, as to wish it reprinted, that the reader of the Memorial might see what our fathers thought and wrote some forty years ago. The letter was prepared by a Committee, consisting of brethren John Williams, Wm. Parkinson, and C.P. Wyckoff; and its object, viz: -- the co-operation of private members with their Pastor, in promoting the cause of Christ, is quite as interesting and important now as then. The Circular is substantially the same as that of the Charleston Association of 1802, and is certainly as appropriate to the churches in our frozen regions of the North, as to the sunny South. H.
CIRCULAR LETTER. The New York Baptist Association met in the meeting house of the First Baptist Church in the city of New York, on the 24th and 25th days of May, 1809, to the churches they represent, send Christian salutation:DEAR BRETHREN IN THE LORD:
Pursuant to a resolution passed at our last session, we now proceed to address you chiefly in the substance of a letter published by our sister Association of Charleston, in A. D. 1802. This letter we adopt, not we hope from a desire of ease, but because we think the subject of it better suited than any other to the present state of our churches, and the discussion equal, at least, to any production of which we might be capable on the same subject. The subject is embraced in the following question: -- "By what conduct are members of churches most likely to strengthen the hands of their ministers, and co-operate with them in promoting the interests of vital religion?"
This subject, brethren, is truly important; it certainly demands, and we hope will receive, your serious attention. Of your desire that the kingdom of Jesus should flourish, as also of your willingness to assist in its promotion, we should be sorry to entertain a doubt. But may we not suggest to you certain means, by attention to which, in our opinion, your usefulness will be most likely to appear.
Your Ministers who are appointed to lead in this great work, demand your attention. With them you should be ever ready to unite in all measures which promise success. Consider their office, their character, and their labors. If, in your choice and continuance of them, you have attended to scripture direction; they are faithful stewards; they are men called and qualified of God for sacred service -- men possessing the spirit of that religion they endeavor to inculcate upon others -- men eminent for faith and patience, for charity and godly zeal, for prudence, and discretion, for every grace and virtue -- men animated with a principle of love to Christ and the souls of men. Their appointment also as pastors and teachers, implies that you need, and they are calculated, instrumentally, to dispense spiritual food -- even knowledge and understanding in divine things. However, with all the qualifications they possess, and which, we hope, they are endeavoring to improve, they are but men, and men too of infirmities and imperfections. As good men, and as zealous for the truth, Satan and the world will hate them, and use all means to injure them; and, as men of infirmities and imperfections, every advantage will be taken of them. You then are not to be idle spectators and 1eave them to labor and suffer alone. And what may be your own treatment of them cannot be a matter of indifference; no, to secure their greatest usefulness a certain line of conduct towards them is your incumbent duty. Their influence must be preserved, otherwise their usefulness will be lost. To preserve their influence, as far as it depends on you, tenderly regard their characters. The character of every good man is dear to him and ought never to be slandered. With what delicacy, then, should we treat that of a minister; and how carefully should we refrain, not only from every thing which may slander, but which may, either directly or indirectly, lessen that reputation, on which, not only the dearest happiness of an individual, but, in some degree, that of a whole community, depends. The limits of our letter will not permit an enumeration of the various means by which the character of your minister may be injured, but your own prudence will see and avoid them; and your own solicitude, that his character should be fair and honorable, wi1l suggest to you many prudent expedients to wrest it from the abuse of others. Feel for the cause of God, and you will then feel for the reputation of his servants.
"You may lessen your ministers' influence by the want of a proper regard, not only to their mora1, but to their ministerial character: unjustly depreciating their abilities and making illiberal remarks on their performances, will greatly injure their influence. It is laudable to compare the doctrines delivered by your ministers with the sacred scriptures, and to judge for yourselves respecting the truth of them; but is there not some delicacy to be used in expressing your objection to their doctrines, or your disapprobation of their performances? Instead of retarding the work, by continual and severe remarks upon the labors of those you hear, would you not do well to remember that no human works are perfect, and that you, in forming to yourselves a standard of excellence, are subject to deception and error? Let, then, forbearance be exercised; recollecting, also, that circumstances are numerous which lead mankind to feel, think, and judge differently. You will act a more liberal, a more consistent and a more useful part, by uniting with your pastors; and, as suitable opportunities may offer, by endeavoring to impress the minds of your families, friends and, neighbors, with the excellency of those truths which they may, from time to time, deliver unto you. Dwell more upon their good and wholesome instructions, their fervent and pious exhortations, than upon their errors and failings, and you will strengthen their influence and assist their labours. Circumstances, indeed may occur, in which it might be proper to notice the deficiencies in their performances; but in those instances prudence and discretion are to be used. Perhaps a free and affectionate conversation with them, in private, about the unsatisfactory parts of their performances, would generally answer the best purpose. This might be of mutual advantage. Failings, to which your ministers are liable, in common with all mankind, and which may be called infirmities, are to borne with tenderness, and should never be subject to severe censure or ridicule. A contrary conduct would not only be ungenerous, but would lesson [sic] the respect due to their character, and injure their usefulness. Let your general deportment towards them be respectful and becoming the dignity not of their persons, they are earthen vessels, but of their office -- of the trust committed unto them. Live with them in love, esteeming them highly for their work's sake, and you will comfort their hearts, strengthen their hands, encourage them to enter with more cheerfulness and spirit upon their labors, and open to them a fairer prospect of success. Be ever ready and desirous to enter into familiar conversation with your ministers upon the spiritual state of your own souls, on the duties of the christian, and the precepts arid doctrines of the gospel. Great would be the advantage vital religion would derive from such an intimacy, well improved, between ministers and their people. Knowing your views and feelings, they would more successfully communicate to you instruction, and you and they, be mutually animated in the work of God. Reflect upon the effects of a contrary conduct. Consider the discouragement and difficulties your ministers must feel, and the darkness and coldness in which you are likely to remain, if no such opportunities for spiritual conversation are improved. Is not the want of this converse with them, on spiritual things, one great source of those complaints which you have often made respecting your lifeless state; and are not pastors and people, in this respect, verily guilty? May your lips be touched as with a live coal from the altar, and your tongues become as the pen of a ready writer; and at the close of your interviews with your pastors, may you be able to say, Did not our hearts burn within us when we communicated our thoughts and feelings to him, and he expounded unto us the scriptures!
"To pray for your ministers, is a duty incumbent on you. Brethren, says the apostle, pray for us. That they have the prayers of the soul's committed to their charge is to them an animating consideration, and cannot fail to attach them to you more tenderly.
"Provide for your ministers a comfortable support. They are to be instant in season and out of season; to be wholly occupied in the various duties of their office: studying, meditating, reading, preaching, praying, exhorting, and visiting their flocks in sickness and health. These are labors in which your ministers are to be continually engaged; but their temporal support God has made your care. If their time and attention are occupied and embarrassed with making provision for their own and their families' support, it will be impossible for them to attend as they ought to the cause of God among you. Here you must strengthen their hands and encourage them in their work, by delivering them as much as possible, from the perplexing cares of the world; thus, manifesting your willingness to bear your share of the burden. Has the conduct of any of you been different from this? And, if so, have your ministers felt no difficulties, and has vital religion suffered no injury? Let experience impartially decide. Surely they have. Brethren, these things ought not so to be; the sacred cause of Christ demands, from you every support. Unite with your ministers, and, if they are willing to devote their time and strength to the work, do not prevent them by denying them a comfortable subsistence.
"From the faithful discharge of the duties we have already enumerated as incumbent on you, your ministers will derive peculiar aid in their work; but your general conduct, as well as your particular treatment of them, will either strengthen or weaken their hands, as such conduct either supports or wounds the cause of God. Your exemplary and holy lives will add force and energy to the truths delivered by your teachers. Live, then, that religion which you would wish recommended to others; maintain a holy communion with God, and keep alive the spirit of religion. Let your souls be animated with the contemplation of the glorious character of God, and the glory and grandeur of Christ's kingdom, both in this and the future world. But remember, religion does not consist in contemplation only. The duties inculcated in the Bible, are mostly of the active kind; and such as can be performed only by men in a state of society. The fruit of the spirit, not the flights of the imagination, mark the Christian, and distinguish him from the children of the wicked. Be careful to have your intercourse with the world free from censure, and recollect that he who is unjust to man is unjust to God. The enemies of religion will justly ridicule your profession, of a change of heart, if it be not connected with a change of conduct. They will say, your conversation is a deception, your devotion mockery, and your faith no better than that of devils. Your ministers will labor in vain to convince others of the necessity of being born again, if you should be found of an unforgiving temper and conduct, censorious, backbiting, passionate, impatient, indolent, covetous, or sensual. They will never believe that religion to be of God which does not benefit mankind by softening and improving the mind, and by suppressing those passions which are destructive of domestic and public happiness. Viewing the works of God and his providence, and being struck with that goodness which he has displayed in these operations, they justly look for the same display in the effects of a religion which claims God for its author. They will never believe that religion to be of God which is connected with a character the reverse of his own. To answer the expectations of those who reason justly, and silence the clamours [sic] raised by the enemies of religion, your ministers will labor in vain without the assistance of your truly christian lives and conduct. Be then the tender, affectionate companion, not the peevish, passionate and cruel; be the faithful parent and the dutiful child; the peaceable, the fair, the punctual and the upright man in all your commerce with the world; and the sincere christain [sic] in all the duties of religion. Live in peace among yourselves, and you will comfort and support the hearts of those who watch for your souls as those who most give account. This will be their language -- "Behold the people of our charge; and learn how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Union peculiarly characterize the kingdom of Christ, and is essential to its beauty, strength and happiness. Destitute of union and peace among yourselves, you are not subjects of the king of peace, and are not co-operating with his servants. Figure to yourselves, how harrowed up must be the feelings of a minister, how blasted his strength, and how accumulated his difficulties, who lives in the midst of a divided and contentious people. Do they co-operate with him in advancing vital religion in the world? The spirit of contention is death to vital religion, and will ever be fatal to the most powerful exertions of your ministers. Let, then, the olive branch of peace ever be green among you. The injury which the cause of Christ sustains, from neglect of gospel institutions, or from a careless attention to them by those who profess to be the children of God, particularly to public worship, is often great, and being sensibly seen, and felt by the ministers of Christ, embarrasses them with peculiar difficulties. This institution is well calculated to awaken an attention to religion, and to spread its happy influence among mankind. Well worthy of remembrance is the injunction of the apostle -- "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together." He who neglects this duty, or is careless in the performance of it, must be destitute of a proper regard to the feelings of his minister and to the real interest of religion. The evil is contagious: the example of one man has influence on another, and a regular attendance on public worship becomes unfashionable; your minister is deserted, and his heart and strength fail him. To strengthen then his hands and to aid him in the work, go with him to the house of God, and animate him and your friends by your presence.
In your families, much may be and much ought to be done, which would be of general and important advantage, and greatly facilitate the work of the ministry. Not indeed in the work of regeneration -- for this is the work neither of parents nor of ministers, but of God, (Eph. ii. 10,) but in disposing to a decent and serious attention to public means. Impressions favourable to religion may be early fixed on the minds of chi1dren; and more readily by parents than by ministers themselves. These impressions received from their parents, prepare their minds to receive the instructions of their ministers; and being made in early youth, they generally abide with them, and direct and influence their conduct through life. Numerous are the evils, extensive and lasting, which vital religion suffers from the neglect of family instructions; but time will not permit us to trace them through their various branches. Your own experience must have brought many of them to your view; and you must have often mourned for the neglect both of family religion and the pious education of children. Have you not often grieved for ministers, whose unremitted exertions to form pious and serious habits in the minds of youth, have been rendered fruitless by the want of support and encouragement from pious parents? Let it not be said of you, brethren, who are the heads of families, that you have deserted your ministers in this difficult and important part of their work. Every tender, every affectionate, every powerfu1 consideration, unites to awaken and fix your attention to this duty; and to fill you with shame and remorse for the neglect of any means for informing the minds of your tender offspring, for attaching them to the doctrines of the gospel and to the practice of true virtue. To second, then, the exertions of your ministers, and encourage them in the work, you must maintain religion in your families, and teach it to your children and domestics, both by precept and example.
The few observations which we have made upon the subject, and which we must now close, we hope will receive from you that attention which their importance demands. The promotion of religion in the world, is, of all others, the most interesting object to a benevolent mind, being the most intimately connected with the happiness of mankind and the declarative glory of Christ. What vigorous exertions then ought to be used, both by ministers and people, to promote the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom: and what solicitude should we feel to know whether we are using the most successful means to accomplish it. Guilt, it is to be feared, has in a greater or less degree, been incurred by us all. We have been wanting in that noble ardour which the religion of Christ demands; but it is time now for us to awake and rise from the dead. The voice of our Redeemer is heard in different parts and through extensive regions of our land. He has lifted up his standard against the enemy, when coming in like a flood, and thousands are flocking to it. Let us unite with them, engaging with resolution and perseverance in the contest -- manifesting by our holy lives and godly conversation, that we are in truth enlisted under the banners of Jesus. Manifest, brethren, to your ministers, by your faithful conduct, that you will not desert them in their noble opposition against error, sin and Satan. Zealously engage with them in all becoming measures to promote the saving knowledge of the Redeemer, and the consequent fruits of holiness; and may your united efforts be crowned with abundant success in the complete triumph of truth, holiness, peace and love.
Our interview has been harmonious and pleasing. Our business has been transacted in peace, and our separation is in love.
And now, brethren, "wishing you grace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ," we remain yours in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. =============== [From The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Record, February, 1846, pp. 36-43. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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