g11r..-•.,*,ccici'1 . ...:....'...t'-i.b#lll
18 :111107
New Series, Vol. IV, No. 19.
amtritalt, grtiblittriait.
THURSDAY ; 9,1867
“PERMINENT LICENTIATES.”
A far better term is this than ":Lay
Preachers," which has been so • much used
of late years. . Not because " Lay .Preach
ing ", and "Lay Preachers" aririllegitimAte
work and Workers in the Church,,; but be
cause"*' 11''
of the prevailing esire,—s a we
call it prejudice I—that those who formally
Address religious Meetings; should hive Some
formal license from . some Coinietent• ec'clesi
astical authority. '
And we are'not sure .that.thisdesire--or
,prejudice---Lis not ,a wise one, in thepr'eseut
condition of the Church, although it is plain
that the preaching of. the primitive Chris
tians was, to a great extent, Lay Preaching.
Although the primitive 'church was jeal
ous of the various daties and ranks , and pri
vileges of its ministry, it still re,garded the
proclamation of the Gospel to the uncon
verted, which was the only thing then called
" preaching," as the 'common privilege and
duty of every ChriStian,, and 'so the Church,
not merely the'rninister.s, "went every where
preaching the word," when scattered from
Jerusalem by persecution.
When our Lord ascended, he gave gifts to
his Church. Among many "spiritual'gifts,"
the highest was that of the lthiiisTsi. lie
" gave the AposTLis, and the ',PROPHETS, and
the EVANGELISTS, and the PASTORS, and
Teachers." ,
The latter 'class of" Pastors and Teachers,"
was the local ministry, as the other three
were Catholic ministries': In this local minis
try, there grew up gradually, and apparently
from below upwards, the three order's of DA
00x, Bram, and EasuoP, as the Ministers of
a local parish. , ' '
" Deacon"' id of course the generic term of
all cairts:r.h.e Jfii;wtott. priesthooct .are
called " deacons;, Cli,riA is a " deacon" or
minister; St: Pant -is' a " deacon ;" the ordi
nary ministers of a
word
'are , atlArst all'
deacons; for in the word there is a "general
idea of service, and' o of divine sirvice Or mi
nistry.
Soon, but low soon we do not know, there.
came to be two orders of these Deaconi or
ministers, which seeds to have been at first
distinguished as Senior Deacons and Junior
Deacons, or sometimes as simply. Seniors
and Juniorc. So, of Elders or Seniors, we
have frequent mention, while the . Juniors
parried out Ananias and Sapphira; and soon
the term Deacon or Minister was dropped
from the first class, and they remained
simply Seniors or Elders, while Junior was
dropped from the second class, and Deacons
only remained. The Elders also, while the
Church was in this inchoate state, were
called by other titles—as Bishops, Presi
dents, &c.
. The " Angel," who appears in the Apoca
lypse as the chief minister of a local church,
before long appropriated the very suita
ble title •of Bishop, leaving to the other
orders the names Elder and Deacon. And
so the primitive Church notnenclature was
complete in the four classes of Apostle, Pro
phet, Evangelist and Pastor, and the three
orders of local pastors and teachers, named
Bishop, MO' rind Deacon, which 'may still
be' seen in ally 'well-ordered Pre'sbyterian
Church,*itibout prelatical or 'popish addi
tions.
Across AS line of these regular arid ordi
nary ministries; there came an ex tifriefitinary
ministry nowhere named in the ltetiii"kesta
ment, but brought before us in the Special
.
ministry of Timothy and Titus, who were
44 APOSTOLIC LiawTax," appointed by an
Apostle to do apostolic work, and having
only that special and temporary authority
conferred by the Apostle.,,,,This office could
not be brought into precedent, unless Apos
tles were restored, who could appoint such
Legates.
But in this array of ranks and orders in
the Christian ministry, there was no pro
vision for confining " Preaching" to any or
all of these various ministries. There was
the Apostle having "the word of wisdom"
for supreme rule and guidance; the Prophet
with his " word of knowledge" to speak for
" edification, and exhortation and comfort;
the Evangelist with his special gifts to pro
dlaini the Gospel and found churches; the
Pastors, "apt to teach," for the instruction
of the organi7.ed,pllarch of parents and 'chil
dren, superintending the worship, ruling the
JohnA Weir
church, and gathering and -distributing its
charities.
But all this orderly arrangement of the
Christian Ministrydid not shat out the Lay
Preaching by which, to a great extent, the
rapid evangelization of the world was car
ried on. Every Christian man .and.woman
became at once a •preacher of the .Gospel,
either to single individuals, as Christto the
- woman of Samaria, or to larger and larger
numbers, according to each one's ability.'
And so; When , sca,ttered by persecution;:the
Christians of Jeruialem " went everywhere
preaching the word." Some of these went
" as far as Pheniee , and Cyprus and Antioch,"
preaching the , Goipel to Jews only, and
u'ome of the converts, whb were! inen of Cy
prus and Cyrene," 'went , to Antioch arid
preached the Lord Jesui to 'the Grecians:
And all this: Lay Preaching was abun
dantly successful; and so the Apostles, who
remained at . Jerlisalem as the centre of
unity and• authority; , sent Peter and John,
down to `Samaria, and Barnabasto Antioch,
to 'bestow•• the Holy Ghost and organize.
Neither did all, this order and. System inter
fere with the work: of that 'Lay Evangelist
Aquila; nor that still greater one Apollos,
born at Alexandria, , an eloquent man and
mighty in the Scriptures."
SO, neither in' our own day, should bur or
ganization shut ant any of.these -sorts of
Lay Preaching; :and yet, in thepresent.con
dition of the Church,swe cannot doubt that
official authority - would be wisely given to
every Apollos and Aquila in our Churches;
'whether' they be, tent-makers like Aquila, or
Merchants, or mechanics of modern' trades.
If the Honie Missionary Cbmmittee,. or
the Piesbyterieg ha,ve'failed, to bring for
ward siich:a class of,meli; we believe 'it has
been for one or - both of two' reasons . ; either
'for want of this verY'offteial authority which
the Permanent -Licentiate would, have; or,
and that mainly ; because , they.have aimed
too high: in the social , scale: They have
smight:forthe literary Men; for lawyers and
judges i . and others who are mentally over
taxed-during the , week, and need the Sunday
or" who maybe too proud or too worldly
to take such a position. For this work we
want plain men, whose daily business is more
of the , handthan of.the brain, and who are
bumble enough to preach in houses or barns!
or fields, and to the plainest and most igno-.
rant people. And there are many men of
this sort, who can think outs Sundayrs , talk
in the midst of their daily'work, and who
would be very acceptable With' a " Perma
nent Licentiate's" authority, to very many
precibus souls who would not understand.
your lawyer or judge or doctor.. ;
He.who asks, " Can you get. Judge This.
or Doctor That to do this work ?" fails to
see, at' all, the things aimed at by the advo
cates of ibis measure . . We don't want such
men, and have an entirely different class• of
men in view, and a different sort• of work.
Some of the Presbyteries will probably
overture the Assembly this Spring on this
matter,, and whether it will attract any no
tice or induce any action now, still, let the
friends of the movement.continue to agitate
in ecclesiastical bodies and papers until it is
accomplished. Probably it will , be found
best to give these " Permanent Licentiates "
ordination as Deacons or Elders in some lo
cal church, so that as we have now Bishop-
Evangelists, we may also have in. this new
arrangement Elder-Evangelists, and Deacon-
Evangelists . ; all of which maylaelp to bring
us back to primitive views and practice with
respect to the two lower of the three orders.
Of our ministry.
Many of our readers can at this moment
think 'of 'nen just suited .to this work, to
whom such arrangement and authority
would give the requisite courage to do for
mally, and in 41, pulpit, in a vacant charge,
what they now do with great acceptance in
:the less 'formal prayer-meeting.
Let us have the Permanent Licentiates
THE APPROACHING SABBATH-SCHOOL CON-
MENTION.—Five years ago the presence of
eight hundred delegates in a Convention of
teachers and friends of Sabbith-achools held
in this city, formed a scene which our Chris- .
tian friends will be glad to see r'epeated.
And repeated we expect it will, be, with no
abatement of interest, on the 28th inst., the
time appointed for the meeting- of a State
Convention in the church, corner of Broad
and Arch.. A preparatory meeting was held
on Monday ; evening; for completing- the' ar-
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, MAY 9;18:67..
rangements, and the public. will no doubt,
be furnished with seasonable 'notice of fur
ther particulars. It is dxpected that the
hospitalities of :Christian--families will be
tendered to delegates iron" Xbripad. • .
Since the altar is gone, atrettsiin a great portion
'of the Amerlcan Church, where l ii the robin for the
priesay character in the minister? Is this, after
all, , not the point in the fight between the,gown and
,the citizen's dress ?
These two inquiries ,contain the gist of a
column editorial ,in theTTOerman Reformed
Messenger:of last week, called out by a brief
paragraph of our Roschester porrespondent,
in which certain Brooklyn ;preachers were
spoken " by gowns in the
pulpit. We do' not know that we have any
response to the Messe4er criticism beyond
an affirmative answer to its last question..
The denial of the prie stjy . character of the
ministry in any, literal . sense, arid .the re
moval• of the altar from the churCh ,as a
purely Jewish piece of ! . ‘iirniture, are. essen
tial, to Protestantism in 7ur. view, and the
gown, though of less significance, naturally ,
goes with•them. Our ecellent friend of
the 41 - es;enger, and his esteemed
,associates'
are, we fear, by these criticis.ns, on a t mat
ter in itself trifling, shoQn to be fast drift
ing to a point where it will be difficult to say
what claim thby have to the honored title
"Reformed."
.We commend the Messenger to, the table
of Scripture titles given ; 14 ministers of the
Gospel in the New • Testament, found in the
opening paragraphs of t Tinet's Pastaral
Theology, where as the, author mem' arks,.no
nams dn. Common • nee for this office is
wanting but that of prick aloir 'here=
-oing , ..-at of priest a, .e; where we
find minister, deacon, tishop, presbyter,
apostle, pastor, steward, ambaisador, angel
employ - ed; bat where the woid'"iriest': is
r
mive ,applied except to ;the whole body of
" e beli ' D ' iers; :Weide% (41,11O , Ihexix Vinet's.
definition ,of the dlgistiftn., minister, to
•which, we think, all whorefuse to accept . the
doctrine of the real prelienee in the Sacra
-1 Mert; "_He is the Christian;
but the Christian consecrating his activity
to making- others Christians; -or to edifying
those who have embraced that religion. He
does hibitually that which occasionally and
in a a special manner becomes the duty of
all ChiaStians." Vinet's Theologie .Pastorql,
Deuxirne gait,. pp. 15-17.
I,TRE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT PHILA-
The Billowing communication, comes from
an old and constant 'friend of the Temper
ance cause. The entire - absence .from• the,
'religious papers of any notice, either of the
call-or of the proceedings of the.•late. great
temperance demonstration in this city, had
before arrested our attention. So Tar as
this' paper is concerned, the reason is cor
rectly stated below, and we infer that the
same was the case all. through. Neither
"Cold Water• nor any Other of our regular
readers need to be informed that we have
given the Most prompt and earnest welcome
to the late 'efforts•.to .revive the work ; or,
that, through its_ vicissitudes, we have,
Stood by it, basing our advbcacy of it on the•
gospel •principle Of .personal self-denial for
the public good, and urging total abstinence
and legal prohibition -of the traffic 'as
the Only hopeful measures for. Carrying
out the Reform. ,We confess ourselves more,
than surprised by the inadvertence, if such,
it be, of the executive management of the
late meeting, in failing to call the religious
press to its aid. Such papers keep no.corps
of city reporters, and are in the main obliged
to depend upon information volunteered by
those who have the interest to be forwarded
in special charge.
EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN PRESBYERIAN,
DEAR BROTHER,-I missed what the city
dailies of the next morning:told. me was a
-great -and lively temperance demonstration
at , the Academy of Music; on the'evening of
the 18th ultimo. Your paper, and .as I have
since learned, other religions papers, con
tained no notice of it, and gave 'no account
'of the proceedings. .1 .depend npon: such
papers for, my information of meetings to be
held, or: the doings of meetings which have
been held, in behalf ,of:the great. moral move
ments of the n times.. I have ;generally a
quick scent on the temperance. track, but,
in the 4wayi.mentioned, I lost it on that dny,
auglzkyroidosidedly chagrined by theisilence
GOWNS 'AGAIN;
DELPHIL
of the, religious, press concerning it, both be-
fore and , after its occurrence. I have since
been informed that on the parf,of
,those en
trusted with the duty of getting the affair
before the public, there seemed to be an en
tire ignoring of 'the existence of the reli
gious papers. Atleast I am definitely in
formed that, in the peso of some of the most
important of them, they receiVed no notice
.
of the meeting, - and were furnished with no
opportunity to, give its doings to..their read
ers. 'The aid of the secular press was pro
perly invoked and secured, but the editors
to whom it would have been most natural
turn.for the most hearty and efficient sup
port, were left in entire darkness concern
,
ing.the affair. This is the more strange'be
cause of the prominence -which the Christian
community, must bear in the restoration of
vitality
. to the temperance cause, if any
1 thing of lasting efileiency is expected from
it—beca,use also of' the fact so plain to all
who walk through this community - with
their eyes open that there is nowhere such
a readiness of action on this subject, such a
ripeness for new and enlarged efforts as
among the evangelical papers, clergy and
churChes. There may be exceptional cases
of delinquency, but I have no hesitation in
claiming that the statement is signally true
of the eiangelical elenient in this city as a
whole. And it is a condition, of things,
- which it will be madness to neglect in any
fresh effort to abate the intolerable nuisance
of dram shops, or unburden our people of
the misery of drunkenness. The scheme'of
divorcing the temperance reform from
Chrisiiamity, has, had one fair trial. Our
good ship comes out frOm it almost wrecked.
For the time to come, lei us give that coast
a, wide berth. • COLD WATER.
COOPERATION IN THE BENEVOLENT
;SCHEMES Or THE CHURCH.
f.' •
• , 171 i
" • OliißTUitZ TO TI E ASSEMBT.Y
IThe'following overture speaks for itself.- It moots a
subject that'dentands a full discussion in the Gene
ral and by the Press.]
The Third Preshytery of Philadelphia,
whilst rejoicing - in every good work, and
bidding " God-speed" to every agency for
the spread of the Gospel, by whomsoever
conducted, yet has observed with deep con
cern, that those benevolent movement's
which have been organized by our• Branch
of the Church, through its General Assem
bly, which are controlled and. directed by
our own churches through the Assembly,
which have been conamended as most vital
to the success of the body in its efforts to
evangelize the country and the world, are
embarrassed, and crippled by the lack of
means for the prosecution of their appropri
ate work. •
Facts make it undeniable that very few
of our ,churches give, their co-operation to all
of the Assembly's schemes for evangeliza
tion and benevolence, each year; and that
no one of the Committees has the support
of the whole, if even of the half, of the
churches connected with the Assembly.
. Believing that this is a great evil, and one
loudly calling .for reform, the Presbytery
overtures the Assembly to take such action
on the subject, as in its wisdom shall seem
adapted to remedy the evil:,
UNTIMELY [?] DiscussioN.—The excellent
correspondent of the Christian Herald" R P.
P." has been discussing the question of Re.
union from a. stand-point similar to our own
In a late letter he writes of the criticism
Which he has encountered for so doing, to
the following effect:
"Some of my friends think I have been
' too sharp' in my articles on Reunion.'
'I have meant to utter simply the truth about
the facts of the case. I have endeavored to
be holiest and candid, and not uncharitable
towards our Old School brethren. There
were some things that needed to be spoken in
My judgment, and I had as well speak them
as 'any one. It is not always a pleasant
"thing 'to utter the truth that ought to be ut
tered. We may be too rash, or too prudent.
Bro. Jas. Gallaher used to say, 'there is
such a thing as being prudent to death.'
There are cases where prudence runs into
cowardice; and where, through fear of giv
ing offense by plain speaking, immense harm
has been done. I am in favor of reunion
just as soon as there is piety and principle
and enlarged liberality enough on both sides,
to make it productive of peace and harmony,
and the increased efficiency of the Church.
lam not in favor of it any sooner. I fear..
'that state of things has not yet come. Let
the two General Assemblies recommend the
Genesee Vtrangelist, No. 1094,
uniew —il lif elf feeblkSichnreheit lying contiguous
to'st l otheii , Let a majority decide as .to
the byt t ery with , which they shall unite.
11 fight I.!•.? be,, done at once. Then let
th, erehes .and carry it' Out
m
gwili Ist'net all the steps lean in tete
dirafen. bet -there be • frequent exchanges
of pulplgs. and.let, ministers and members be
received lotalkeir letters of dismission from
eachisideowithout the suspicion of heresy
in a nnw.exateitiation. Let there be inter
en 'of :Churches, and Presbyteries,
as 5Yn0,4113„ - inil.:qe.iieral Assemblies. Let
IA ell study th e 'things that make for peso;
and om:info's foal come of itself, and as soon as
is , de ireble."
4 4 4 NO ALLUSION TO POLITIOALL QUESTIONS."
one of ohr city dailies a few days since
-contained a letter from a Norfolk correspon
dent, giving an account., of the celebration
im thit city of the recent "Thanksgiving'
of the Order of Odd Fellows. Rev. Soho
Keely, "Paeit Grand of Petersburg," was
thekirator. "Speaking of faith, one of the
itiotttioeS of the Order," says the letter, "he
.said, 'Washington; the great rebel, had faith ;
rebelled and ,cut loose from England, and•
thus'seeured the independence of the cofo
niee., I , see: signs, and know them in the,
color of the skies, and have faith in them,
-but will not now tell what they mean.' He
referred to his efforts to procure the release
.of Mr. Davis," &c., &c. So runs the sketch
of the oration. But the cream of the thing
is found in the beautiful naivete of the eor
respondent, who adds, "No allusion was,
made to:political questions."
THElit TERMS.—The Union Presbyterian of
April .3d specifies 'on what basis the grow
ingliberal wing of the United Presbyterian
Chureh would be willing to negotiate for
union :-
' •
• • I
1. On the 'subject of communion could not
the 0. 8: Presbyterian Church take the
ground that' itis,not, proper to invite to, the
Itord'A tahle.all the.. members of sock Priori
geliCar Churches, as admit to Probationaryiri emberghiP, and such 'as confirm potter's
who do not give " scriptural evidence that
they are true Christians ?"
2. Could she not print in her Book of
Psalms and Hymns, such a version of the
entire book of the Psalms of the Bible as
would be acceptable to United Presbyte
rians, so that all our ministers would find in
all her churches a hymnology which they
could conscientiously us; and which would
be, as ample as the one at home ?
Could she not do something to make her
hymns real versions, or, at least, moderately
close paraphrases, of some part of the Now
Testament, or other portions of scripture
3. Could not, her General Assembly ad
dress a pastoral letter to all her churches,
affectionately showing all her members the
entangling nature of the permanent secret
societies of this country—not, indeed, pro
posing to make withdrawal a term of com
munion, but giving light, on this subject,
and offering cogent reasons in favor of the
abandonment of these orders?
There is gOod reason to believe that a ma
jority of the ministers of the General Synod
of the Reformed Presbyterian Chnrch would
be willing to accept the same terms.
CoNFassioN.—The wife of Rev_
M Field, in a letter from Paris, gives some
of her girlish reminiscences when a child in
tle Catholic Church in France. One of the,m
we cut out :
" When the time came for me to goto the
first confession, I was greatly puzzled what
to'confess. My old bonne ,
who was in a pet
that day, said I was such a naughty child
that I might as well confess all the sins.in
the book! So taking her direction to the
letter, I copied the whole list of offences..
With this fearful catalogue in my bands, and
a trembling heart, I went to the priest, who
sat dull and heavy in his confessional box.
He paid little attention as I rattled off my
lesson, till I came to one word which struck
upon his ear. It was "simony," which was
one of the sins I was confessing. "What is
that, my child?" he said. "I do not know,
mon pere." He then asked how I came with
such a formidable registry of evil doings;
and when oid . him, he laughed so immo
derately (he was a _huge fat man like those
burly monks we saw in Italy) that I thought
he would tumble out of his box. But he gave
me full absolution for simony and all other
offences, and spoke a few kind words, and I
crept away, with an inexpressible relief to
my poor fluttering heart that I had not com
mitted the unpardonable sin. Of course this
little incident proves nothing but the ignor
ance of a child, but it may show you how
iinpressions are mingled in the memory of
those far-off years."
Par We shall publish a reply of Rev. Mr.
Eva, on Millenarianism next week, and with
this shall close the forxrial controversy on
the subject. _