After days of crimination and recrimination, and of a sharp separation which divided the very house-as, in times when political feeling runs high, Republicans and, so-called, Democrats glare at each other from opposite sides of the Halls of Congress; minister and one deacon prominent and predomiuant on the one hand, another deacon and the Sabbath school Superintendent on the other-the furrow of angry division running almost through the exact center of the church, so that with whom the honest majority might really be was matter of computation so nice as to excuse two opinions; families cleft by that line to the degree that blood-relatives had not for weeks been on speaking terms; every nerve of the little community tense with excitement: after five days like this, we seemed to have exhausted all ordinary expedients of hope, leaving the case in nothing bettered but to all appearance growing worse hour by hour; and, sick at heart, and immeasurably weary of what promised to be a task as thankless and useless as painful, we adjourned for another night. When morning broke some of us were powerfully impressed with the conviction that nothing remained to be done - so vain had proved the help of man — but to shut ourselves up to the duty of seeking help from God. The Council agreed readily to that opinion, and sent a message to the church, saying that it proposed to spend the time upon its knees until light should dawn, and requesting them to do the same. We were in different rooms in the same building, and each body very well knew, as the hours passed on, how the other was engaged. After a long period- I have now no idea how long- the minds of the Council came into a feeling of readiness to enter the presence of the church. It instructed its moderator to implore the parties in the quarrel, and the scandal, to stop where they were, and to confess their sins one to another and to God, before the Council. We went in. Some of us whose eyes were not altogether dry, could see traces of moisture even also there. Cong' Church, Philadelphia, Pa., to advise as to difficulties between it and Rev. Burdett Hart, one of its members; the body adopting this final minute [Orig. MS. Rec.]: "The Council then voted unanimously that they would record their deep gratitude to Almighty God for the gracious manner in which He had been pleased to interpose to heal the wounds of this Zion; and by taking the case out of their hands, and settling it in the genuine Gospel way, had made it unnecessary for them to come to any formal Result." The moderator had grace given him to speak briefly, and with pathetic tenderness, the few words which conveyed to them how much in earnest we were in our judgment that blame rested upon them ALL to a degree that could not but deeply grieve Him who loved them and gave Himself to die for them; and that made it wholly out of the question for any to go home from the presence of another, with uplifted head, saying: "I am holier than thou." And then, begging them to repent, and hasten to confess their sins one to another, and to God, he led Council, and church, and congregation, in a prayer such as was never printed in any prayer-book-born of the time, and saturated with the needs of the occasion; which seemed to lift us all up into the very presence-chamber of the Infinite Holiness, and so to quicken within us the sense of the greatness of God, and the littleness of earth, as to make all human passions, desires, plans, possibilities, friendships, aversions, disappointments or humiliations, seem to be less than nothing and vanity, when weighed over against the one great controlling, pervasive, enrapturing benefit and joy of being in Christ, with Christ, and like Christ, here and forever, and forever! An extended- a painfully anxious-pause followed his softly-breathed amen! Nobody wanted to break that silence. But there were many earnest ejaculatory prayers -" uttered" but "unexpressed "that the minister might have grace given him to rise to the hight of his great privilege and duty, and speak acceptable words. At last, not very heartily in appearance and with no special warmth of manner, he did rise. He said something to the point; not quite what the Council felt he ought to say, but something. Yet when he sat down some of us shivered with the apprehension lest a chill refluent wave were sweeping back to drown out our hope. Then a gray-haired deacon rose on the other side. He tried to speak. But articulation was too much for him. Nothing came but tears and sobs - better than words. And when, at last, he was able to control his voice enough-as he went across the old division aisle and held out his hand - to beg the minister to forgive him, it was the prelude of such a general break-down of feeling as one might live a lifetime and never see. Old and young seemed well-nigh beside themselves. One strong man in his strength, who had been in the thickest of the unhallowed fight, and whose position had been a chief element in the dreadful discord, fainted, and was laid prostrate like a dead man upon a settee; while some of his own kith and kin who had been too far away in this unnatural separation to exchange words with him for weeks, crowded around him with restoratives, and those best restoratives of all, words of passionate tenderness. And so the flood-gates brake open. The great power of God was manifest. The place whereon we were standing was holy ground. Under such a pressure of devout feeling nobody was ashamed to own the wrongs he had done, or the greater wrongs he had felt. And the gladness of reconciliation, to those long heart-rent households, was as the joy of the morning after the black and fear-laden night. The sight made me think of the exuberant exultation which, like ruddy sunshine, glorifies that old canvas at Leyden, which portrays the jubilance of the starving peoples when the Spanish cordons had been broken, and boat-loads of bread were hurried in, and famished lips were strengthened to sing: "laeti omnes exultare, et pro liberata Urbe, grates Deo summas agere. 324 By and by we sang our joy and gratitude, the good deacon, whose ejection from his ancient place as choir-leader had been one element of the strife, being requested by the late "other side" to lead our service of song in the house of the Lord, as we ALL joined in: "Blest be the tie that binds," etc. The Council paused only to authorize a final minute of their gratitude that God had been pleased to end the matter by a Result that was in deeds, and that required no words, and dissolved. And it is on record that the next Lord's Day there was such a breaking of bread together at the Lord's table in that place, as was worth going miles to see, and to share. an As a tribunal-the more if well Presbyterianized — Ecclesiastical Council is admirably fitted to be a failure. And 324 Joannis Meursi Athena Batava, sive de | Urbe, Leidensi, etc. (1625), 63. -in the words of William Bradford's manuscript citation from Peter Martyr on the blank leaf of his copy of Robinson's Justi fication of Separation, etc., - whenever: "in councells ye voyces be not waiyed, but numbered, whereby it cometh to pass that oftentimes ye greater parte prevaileth against ye lesse, and ye worse above ye better," there must often arise that depressing sense of incongruity and inefficiency which is so apt to accompany the misapprehension and misapplication of forces in themselves most benign. But the general effect of such an illustration as I have given of what is possible in the relation of every such assembly to the church and the community whose needs it is called to serve, offers convincing proof of the Gospel savor, the common sense quality, and the practical efficiency of the Ecclesiastical Council of our fathers, when fairly employed, as compared with any expedient of any other polity, for the remedy of such ills as the Church of God endures, while on her pilgrimage through these valleys of shadows and tears and sin, to her glorious home on high! |