CHAPTER II.

THE PROPER OBJECT AND MEANS OF THE CHURCH.

CONTENTS.

DESIGN OF THE CHAPTER STATED-MORAL

HUMAN

AND

NATURE-HOW ACCOUNTED FOR-CONSISTS IN WANT OF SYMPATHY WITH GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT-AGGRAVATED CONFIRMED BY GUILT-DEVOID OF ALL POWER OF SELF-RESTORATION -GOD'S PLAN FOR OVERCOMING THIS EVIL-HIS MIND CONVEYED TO US IN A SERIES OF HISTORICAL FACTS-ALL IN KEEPING WITH HIS

PURPOSE, TO ATTRACT MAN'S SYMPATHY ΤΟ MORAL LAW-THE PURPORT OF THOSE FACTS, AND THEIR ADAPTATION TO WIN MAN TO HEARTY SUBJECTION-SUPREME AUTHORITY WORKING OUT OUR DELIVERANCE-AT THE COST OF EXTREME SUFFERING-RESULTING IN OUR ELEVATION TO A STATUS OF MORAL FREEDOM. THE EXHIBITION OF THIS SCHEME OF RECONCILIATION FITLY ASSIGNED TO MEN-TO MEN WHO APPRECIATE IT-TO MEN IN ORGANIZED ASSOCIATIONS OR CHURCHES-MAIN END FOR WHICH CHURCHES HAVE BEEN INSTITUTED HARMONY OF SPIRIT WITH THAT END REQUISITE TO SUCCESS -WILL SHOW ITSELF IN SYMPATHY WITH GOD'S RIGHTS-INTEREST IN MAN'S WELFARE-FAITH IN THE GOSPEL AS A MEANS TO SECURE

BOTH-CONCLUSION.

CHAPTER II.

In order to a just estimate of the particulars in which, and the extent to which, the British Churches may be regarded as wanting in efficiency, it will be necessary to get as clear a notion as possible of the kind of work given them to do, and the power entrusted to them for its performance. If, as may be hoped, the standard of measurement can be generally agreed upon, there will be less likelihood of serious difference of opinion, in our after statement of the result of its application. Accordingly, I shall attempt, in the present chapter, a brief exposition of that change in man which it is the avowed object of revealed truth to effect—of the exquisite adaptation of that truth to bring about the change-of the arrangements made by God to secure an appropriate exhibition of the truth, and of the spirit requisite to an efficient application of them. A church is an organized association of men, whose principal design it is, so to commend

God, as portrayed in the Gospel, to those who are ignorant of, or mistake, his nature and his purposes, as to win them over to a willing subjection to him; or, in other words, to do all that human instrumentality is appointed, and competent, to do, to awaken in the hearts of their fellow-men, a sympathizing recognition of the Supreme. The inquiry, therefore, whether the Church is fulfilling, in the main, its primary object, and if not, to what causes its failure may be traced, can hardly be carried on satisfactorily, until we have acquired a clear conception of its peculiar enterprise and its legitimate

resources.

Whether mankind have suffered any deterioration of nature in consequence of their descent from the first pair-whether such deterioration, if it exist, be uniformly transmitted from father to son-and whether this state of things, supposing it to be a fact, is taken into account in the Divine plan of moral government, so far as our world is concerned, are questions about which men differ in opinion far more widely in terms than in substance. Candour, perhaps, will not be disposed to deny, that, to the whole extent of our present acquaintance with the inferior orders of animal life, there is, in every individual of every species, a perfect sympathy of its nature with the position assigned it by the Creator. Its propensions, just in proportion as they are developed, uniformly move it to keep