Bible Readings, 1858-59.
The church (so-called) in which I now ministered had been built by
persons who intended to accommodate the largest number of people for the
smallest amount of money. It was scantily built, and almost square, with
galleries on three sides. On the remaining one there used to be a
pulpit, conspicuously placed in the middle of the wall. This important
portion of the edifice was now removed to one side, to make room for a
Communion table, the seats in front being arranged chancel-wise, facing
one another, for the choir. This was quite a damper to my ecclesiastical
tastes; besides being ugly in the extreme.
I tried by putting ornamental scrolls over the windows, and by staining
the glass in them, to make some improvement. I also painted a diaper
pattern round the side walls; and upon the high blank wall behind the
Communion table exercised all the skill I possessed, but fear it was
somewhat in vain, though I laboured hard. The designs looked very well
on paper, but when displayed on the wall gave no satisfaction; so one
after another they disappeared, till my dissolving views, as they were
called, ended in a large floriated cross of gold, with a monogram
inter-twined in it, on a dark background.
When once, however, the Lord began to bless the Word, and souls were
awakened, despite all anti-ecclesiastical appearances, my heart was
drawn towards the ugly place, and I loved it greatly. I could never have
believed that my former tastes and tendencies could have been so
completely changed as they were.
In those days it was a strange thing to hold an after-meeting in a
church; it was never done, even by the few who had such meetings.
Therefore, I took the anxious ones and others to my own house for the
inquiry meeting, after the evening service. Having taken up the carpet
in the drawing-room, we fitted it up with chairs and forms to
accommodate ninety people, while half as many more occupied the hall,
and often numbers stood outside the windows. In this house it pleased
God to give us very many souls, who were brought in week by week for
several months. I believe every room in that house, like the rooms at
Baldhu Parsonage, was consecrated as the birth-place of one or more of
God's children.
The number of those who attended the after-meeting became so great, that
we found it necessary to go to the large schoolroom. This place will
also be remembered in eternity, and many a soul will say of it, "I was
born there!"
One night, when I returned home from a distant meeting, I was called to
see a person in Feat distress of soul. As I went down the street at
eleven o'clock, I was surprised to see lights in almost all the houses,
and what was more, to hear voices in urgent and importunate prayer, as
also the voice of thanks-giving. The whole street was alive, and indeed
there was a most "joyful noise" on every side. I was praying or
rejoicing in one house or another all through the night, which was one
never to be forgotten.
A glorious work of salvation was going on without the extravagant noise
and excitement we used to have in former years. I was exceedingly
thankful for this also, and began next to consider what was to be done
with these new converts. Besides inviting them to the church services,
for which they needed no pressing, I urged them to read their Bibles at
home, bidding them to mark any passages where they wished for
explanation, that I might have something good and profitable to speak
about when I visited them. Then I invited them to Bible-classes; instead
of to experience meetings, which Cornish people rely upon so much. On
these occasions I endeavoured to instruct the people from God's Word,
and put Christ before them as the object of faith, hope, and love. After
prayer I encouraged them to ask questions, which made these gatherings
interesting and also instructive on the very points upon which they
required information.
I found that these Bible-classes were a great blessing to those who
attended them, but more than all, perhaps, to myself; watering other
souls with the water of life I was more abundantly watered. The
questions of the people drew my attention to distinctions and
differences I had not noticed before, and helped to take off the
coloured glasses through which I had hitherto read the Word.
I observed that the third, sixth, and twentieth chapters of St. John's
Gospel had been held and interpreted by me in a way that I now saw to be
altogether wrong. I had taken the first of these as bearing on Baptism,
the second on the Holy Communion, and the third on Priestly Absolution.
I pondered much over these chapters, and marvelled how they could have
been so diverted from their original and obvious meaning; and, more
wonderful still, that countless millions in Christendom had so received
them for many generations. It was a bold thing, and seemingly
presumptuous to suppose that I was right and all Christendom wrong; but
I soon found that mine was no new discovery, and that if millions who
followed traditions without comparing them with the Bible, thought on
one side, there were also millions who did read their Bibles, and
thought on the other.
It was perfectly clear, moreover, that one obvious motive or policy had
dictated the false application of the three chapters. It will be
observed that priest rule is established in them; for, according to this
teaching, no one can enter the kingdom of God 'without priestly
operation in baptism; no one abide or be fed in it without the same in
Holy Communion; nor any one receive absolution from sin, and final
release from hell to heaven, apart from sacerdotal action.
On the other hand, I saw spiritual men, as sure as they were of their
own existence that their new birth took place, not at baptism, but at
their conversion. Therefore they were convinced that the third chapter
of St. John, in which our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus is
recorded, refers to that spiritual change which takes place at
conversion, and not to baptism, which was not even instituted for two or
three years afterwards (Matt. 28:19).
Again, as to the sixth chapter. A spiritual man knows that he feeds
continually on the body and blood of Christ, it is the "Bread which came
down from heaven" for him. The Lord said, "He that eateth Me, even he
shall live by Me" (John 6:57). They know how they received spiritual
life, and also how it is continually maintained; therefore they could
not allow themselves to be carried away with such a palpable fiction as
transubstantiation, or any other doctrine kindred to it. The sixth
chapter does not refer to the Lord's supper, but the Lord's Supper
refers to the reality which is mentioned in it.
Lastly, as to the twentieth chapter of St. John, on the authority of
which it is supposed and asserted that Christ left power with His Church
and priests to forgive sins. Of this we may say, He has not delegated
any such powers at all. When He gave commissions to His disciples (not
exclusively to the apostles), He said, "Lo, I am with you." Our power is
not imparted to us from Him, but is in Him. We have no power at all, but
in Him, and no grace but 'that which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1). It
is His presence, His real, promised presence by the Holy Ghost, which is
spiritual power; and this is given directly to individuals by God
Himself, and is not transmitted through other channels.
The Lord Jesus, on His resurrection day, said to His disciples, in the
upper room--and, be it remembered, that all the eleven were not there
(and some women may have been)--"Peace be unto you. Receive ye the Holy
Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, 'they are remitted unto them; and
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23).
Is it possible or reasonable to suppose that our Lord intended by these
words to constitute all that assembly absolving priests? The apostles
and early Christians (both men and women) never thought so, either
before or even after the day of Pentecost, when they were taught and led
by the Holy Ghost. The apostles did not exercise any so-called priestly
functions; they all preached the Gospel, and as ministers and witnesses,
declared, through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins. Their testimony
was then, as such testimony will ever be, the savour of life or the
savour of death. It was thus they remitted and retained sins; and yet
not they, but God by them.
While I was thus ruminating, a book came into my hands which interested
me greatly. This I read and re-read, and made an abstract of it. It was
the "Life of Adelaide Newton." What struck me in it so much was, to find
that this lady was able to hold spiritual communion with God by means of
a Bible only. Is it possible, I thought, to have such close communion
with God, apart from the Church and her ministrations? I do not hesitate
to say that this was the means, under God, of stripping off some remains
of my grave-clothes, and enabling me to walk in spiritual liberty,
instead of legal and sacramental bond age.
Human reasoning would say, "What, then, is the use of ministry and
sacraments? Let us dispense with them, and be independent of them
altogether." This is no better than saying that we will continue in sin
that grace may abound; and the same answer which the apostle gives will
do for this also: "God forbid!"
It does not follow, because some people make too much of ministry and
sacraments, making them absolutely necessary to salvation, that we
should, on the other hand, disregard them. There is another and happier
alternative, and that is, to realize they were made for us, not we for
them; therefore we should not be subject to them, but rather they should
be subject to us, and be used by us, not in order to obtain God's grace
and salvation, but to show that we have already done so. In our
obedience to God's ordinances, we acknowledge our allegiance to Him, and
our submission to His will.
For fear that my people should go off, as too many do, into disregard of
the "means of grace," because sacramental people make too much of them,
I began a class for exposition and explanation of the Prayer-book. I
commenced by showing them that the Church of England is the Lord's
candlestick in this country, not the candle, and certainly not the
light, but the candlestick which the Lord set up here, possibly even as
'early as the days of the apostles, to show the true light, which is
Christ. And though, Romish corruptions supervened, it pleased God, at;
the time of the Reformation, to raise up men to deliver us from them,
and to restore true Bible teaching.
Thus I endeavoured to show them, that the system of the Church of
England was one which should commend itself to their regard, as quite
agreeable to Scripture; and if it is not carried out according to its
intention, that is not the fault of the system, but rather of those who
administer it. Next, as to worship.
The object of our assembling in the house of God is not, I said, so much
to hear sermons, or get instruction, as in Bible, or other classes, but
rather "to render thanks for the great benefits we have received at
God's hands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy
word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well
for the body as the soul." That worship is devotion towards God; it
consists more in giving than in getting. Some of the people were greatly
interested when I pointed out to them, that the order of our Service was
exactly the same as the order of theft spiritual experience, in
conviction, conversion, and Christian life.
For example, the Morning Service begins with a sentence such as, "To the
Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled
against Him;" then comes the exhortation, which moves us to surrender
ourselves; then the confession, which is the act of surrender.
Immediately after this is declared the absolution and forgiveness of
sins, "to all who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe the Gospel."
Then comes the Lord's Prayer, which leads us, at once, into the place of
children, accepted in the Beloved: then follow acts of thanksgiving":--
"Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise."
"Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord, let us heartily rejoice in the
strength of our salvation."
These, and such-like explanations, helped to enlist the interest of the
people; and when, as before, they only used to endure the prayers, while
waiting for the sermon, now they engaged in them intelligently, and even
with more delight than in extempore prayer.
As to the Communion Service I bade them notice that it begins with the
Lord's Prayer, in which we draw near to our Father, not as sinners, but
as His children; asking for a clean heart and for grace to live
according to His will; then, we approach the table, unworthy, indeed, to
take even the crumbs under it, but trusting in His mercy. We do not go
there to offer a sacrifice of Christ's body, but of our own as a
thanksgiving to God, offering and presenting ourselves--spirit, soul,
and body--a living sacrifice to His service.
Every week we took some subject from the Prayer-book, noticing the
special seasons in their order, such as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany,
Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsuntide, each with their respective
teaching.
I was now happy in my work; but it did not, of course, go on as sweetly
as the theory sets it forth. We made, however, as straight a course as
we could, under contending winds and currents. The intelligent part of
my congregation, however interested they were in the work outside the
church and the worship within, nevertheless, had their misgivings and
doubts which they did not hide. They said, "This teaching seems all true
and scriptural; but what will become of us if you go away, and another
man comes who thinks otherwise? We have no security as in the chapels,
that conversion work will go on, and living souls be fed and encouraged.
Very few churches have such a work as the Lord is doing here!"
This, indeed, was the sad part of working in the Church of England then.
Even still, there is much discouragement on this head; and too many
living souls, who would not willingly go, are driven away from their own
Church, to seek teaching in other communions; but they cannot take their
children and servants to witness priestly ceremonials, or to hear
sacramental, as opposed to spiritual teaching; neither can they
conscientiously give countenance to these things, by going themselves.
However, I endeavoured to pacify the people by begging them to be
thankful for present privileges, and to trust God to lead them for the
future.
It is an awful thing to see and know that people come for bread, and get
a stone; for fish, and they get a serpent; and for an egg, they are
offered a scorpion (Luke 11:11, 12). Exceedingly trying it is to be
frowned upon by clerical brethren in the presence of Dissenters, who, to
say the least, do know the difference between life and death. In one
church we have the service elaborately rendered, and the sermon is
nothing; in another the sermon is everything, and the service most
slovenly; and, too often, souls remain unawakened, and perishing on all
sides.