the positive and the negative requisitions of that principle, may involve us in certain most puzzling questions, and even in apparently dangerous acts. How shall we, when thus involved, then proceed? In general, it may be said that a wise and firm adherence to principle is the expedient and safest course for both pastors and churches. As to the details of conduct in which the adherence to principles should be expressed, Congregationalism, in large measure, refers us to its common law. Almost all of the forms of procedure for instituting a church, for ordaining its officers, for calling councils, for expressing and ratifying the decrees of councils, as these forms are given in our Congregational manuals, are not, in their essence, to be spoken of as Congregationalism at all; but they are parts, although it may be still doubtful and disputable parts, of the common law in present use by Congregationalists. And the due use of past results of experience as expressed in common law is, as we have seen, a derived principle of our church order. The common-law principle provides, then, not only that each individual shall use his sanctified common sense, but it also provides a certain set of rules and customs in which the common sense has taken concrete form. These rules and customs are themselves to be used, not as integral parts of Congregationalism, for they can never become this-but in a principled and truly helpful way. And, whenever principle compels us to set aside any of these accredited rules and customs, this, also, is fearlessly and yet wisely to be done. Nor does the doing of this constitute in itself a breach of communion; nor is it to be treated as a result of the spirit of segregation and schism. Where the rules and customs of Congregationalism have grown into forms which controvert its very principles, those

forms are on principle to be accused and opposed. They are, in such case, not to be regarded as mere developments of our church order which it is desirable to secure, but rather as dangerous accretions which it is necessary to purge away. For to fall back from rules and customs upon principles is of the very essence of Congregationalism. But the proper course of purgation is not the act of cutting which separates brethren, but the continuous cutting-away of error which relieves all the brethren of their accretion of error while they still remain united in the remaining truth. To have rules and customs which may not be criticised and amended is uncongregational.

While, then, I recommend to you the study of socalled manuals for the details of law and custom contained in them, and recommend also that you should, as long as you can do so in a principled way, conform with all the details of this law and custom, I recommend, the rather and the more heartily, the study of the principles of Congregationalism as they are to be seen developed and illustrated in its own history. This study of history you must, for the most part, conduct by unprejudiced reading of the older books. But, above all, ground yourself in principles; for, if you are not a Congregationalist from principle, you would really better not be one at all. The very nature of our church order forbids its successful working as a mere matter of expediency. To treat and hold it as a matter of expediency is, indeed, very inexpedient: to treat it and to hold it as a matter of principle is the only true expediency. If the general form of your church polity is indifferent to you, by all means take up with some specific polity where the class of indifferents can more safely leave the interested to manage

matters entirely in their own way. And let me assure you, that if you will study Congregationalism, not as a matter of rules and customs fit for record in a manual, but as a matter of principles moving forward and diffusing themselves in all its history, you will be likely to become its hearty convert. You will be willing to dispense with the definite regulations of the bishopric, or the book of discipline, if only you can yourself intelligently take part in the work of getting for these large and noble principles a completer realization in the churches of Christ. Nor need this work seem indefinite and in mid-air; for, as we have already seen, the planting, nourishing, and multiplying of churches which give a concrete embodiment to these principles, -of churches that are self-controlled, self-sustaining, and self-propagating, although in loving and manifest communion with one another, is the distinctive denominational work of Congregationalism.

With these introductory cautions we turn now tc contemplate, in the light of our past discussion, certain drifts and tendencies of present Congregationalism.

The distinguishing and significant feature of the church polity of the present time is its extreme restlessness. The spirit of change seems to have pervaded nearly all personalities and institutions: the desire or the foreboding of change seems to have taken possession of all hearts. Customs are to be altered; laws and precedents are liable to be speedily or even scornfully set aside. The formalities of the ages, the worship and hymns of the ages, the churches of the ages, the doctrines of the ages, are all to be considered from multiform and shifting points of view. Somewhat, it is universally assumed, must speedily be done for the better organization of the Christian Church, even though

the precise somewhat to be done cannot be described with great definiteness by any leading mind. That the affairs of our own church order have not hitherto gone thoroughly well, all its adherents are ready to admit: therefore all will at once and eagerly, as a penance for the common past indifference, undertake the emendation of these affairs. That many proposals for changes are running to and fro among the Congregational churches, there can be little doubt; but there is more doubt as to whether thereby knowledge will be greatly increased. Whenever we seem ready to secure a temporary rest from new endeavors at improving the situation, the ghost of evolution-that charming and royal shade which haunts all modern theology as well as science-stalks upon the scene to say, "Do not forget this visitation is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose."

Concerning this restlessness which both afflicts and spurs to new endeavors the Congregational church polity, we observe at once the following truth. This restlessness is only one form of the common manifestation which now pervades the entire life of Christendom. Somewhat new and somewhat momentous, the momentously new, hovers in the air over all businesses, politics, social customs, and religious forms. This amazing stir in the life-blood of the nations reaches every minutest artery and vein, and quickness to new activity both the decay and the repair of the body politic in Church and State. Of this universal restlessness our corporate church existence cannot well fail to partake. The unthinking indifference of the middle ages as to civil and religious institutions and doctrines has given way to its modern opposite. The arm of the great Titan is raised to break the mould of the very customs which he has

himself sweat so long in making.

And whereas the

care bestowed upon a true church polity by the Puritans was for a time lost in the polemical zeal over certain disputed doctrines, but has of late re-appeared in other forms, it is not strange that this care should, under the circumstances, express itself in restless planning for ill-considered change.

Three or four of the more specific manifestations or results of this prevalent spirit of restlessness need to be considered in order that we may comprehend those tendencies which are discernible in the church polity of the age. The prevalent feeling is one of dissatisfaction with the present organization of the Christian Church. Any special dissatisfaction with Congregationalism may be considered as in part one manifestation of the larger spirit of dissatisfaction. The spirit of change always tends to find fault with the old, to accuse the older institutions and forms for the ill successes experienced, and to long and work for some change in institutions and forms. It might be supposed that the reverse process would be the truly natural course. It might be supposed that men always become rationally dissatisfied with the old because they have actually found it imperfect or harmful, and that they therefore reasonably seek and plan for some change; but probably, in most cases, the dim unconscious restlessness of spirit is the general movement out of which the special dissatisfaction primarily comes. Of Congregationalism it is not true that we have any sufficient and rational ground for being dissatisfied with any of its more ancient and honorable forms; and certainly we cannot wish to effect a change in the principles which characterize the true church polity. The real and rather shameful truth is that most men