One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Tome 1 - John Williamson Nevin Mercersburg Theology Study Series

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target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_46389d6b-fe6a-5828-97d1-9e5d7c30ca13">109. [Thermopylae is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece which was the site of several memorable battles in antiquity, the most famous being that between Persians and Greeks in August 480 BC.]

      Chapter I.

      Design of the Tract.—Occasion for inquiry.—Importance and solemnity of the subject.

      It is proposed to institute a free inquiry into the merits of the Anxious Bench, as it has been enlisted extensively of late years in the service of religion. My object will be to show that the measure is adapted to obstruct rather than to promote the progress of true godliness, and that it deserves to be discouraged on this account.

      No one needs to be informed what is meant by the Anxious Bench. Its nature and design have come to be as familiar to most people as the nature and design of the pulpit itself. Even among those who dislike it there are few perhaps who have not had the opportunity at one time or another of witnessing its operation, while all are well acquainted with it at least in the way of description and report.

      It will be understood that the Anxious Bench is made to stand, in this case, as the type and representative of the entire system of what are technically denominated in our day “New Measures.” It is not meant by this, of course, that it is so bound to the system as never to be separated from other parts of it in actual practice. It may be in use where no new measures besides are tolerated; and it is possible, on the other hand, that it may not be employed by some who in other respects are wholly in this interest. But still it may very fairly be exhibited as a type of the system at large. These measures form properly a system; and it is only in this view that it is possible to estimate rightly their nature and character. It is not uncommon to class with them things of a different nature altogether; and then advantage is taken of the confusion thus produced to evade the point of objections urged against new measures in the proper sense. This, however, is sophistry of a very shallow order. The idea of New Measures is just as well defined in itself and as generally intelligible in the American Church as the idea of popery, Methodism, Presbyterianism, or almost anything else of the same general character that might be named. It is only by a gross and palpable abuse that some wish to make it include the best things in the Church. New measures, in the technical modem sense, form a particular system, involving a certain theory of religious action, and characterized by a distinctive life, which is by no means difficult to understand. Of this system the Anxious Bench is a proper representative. It opens the way naturally to other forms of aberration in the same direction, and may be regarded in this view as the threshold of all that is found to follow, quite out to the extreme verge of fanaticism and rant. The measure belongs to the system, not in the name simply, but in its life and spirit. At the same time, it is the most favorable aspect in which the cause of New Measures can be presented to our view. The simple Anxious Bench, as it is often used in a sober way, is the most moderate and plausible shape the system can well take. If this then be found unworthy of confidence, the whole system will be shorn of its title to confidence at the same time. If the Anxious Bench can claim no indulgence, it must be idle to put in a plea for its kindred measures. All beyond this is only something worse.

      Here too is the proper point for grappling with the heresy of New Measures. It can answer no purpose to discountenance the system in general, if we lend our influence theoretically or practically to uphold a measure forming like this a legitimate stepping stone to all the system is found to embrace. No satisfactory line can be drawn between this and the more advanced forms of extravagance for which it prepares the way. They will be found to involve in the end the same principle. That is a false position, therefore, by which some excellent men allow themselves to speak freely against noise and disorder and bodily exercises in public worship under other forms, while at the same time the Anxious Bench is not only spared, but treated with honor and confidence, as though it had come to form part of the accredited and regular service of God’s House. Men who occupy this position may preach or write an abundance of wholesome advice on the subject of false excitement in religion; but their advice is not likely to carry much weight with it in the end, as not going after all to the ground of the error against which it is directed. If we would utter an intelligible and consistent testimony against New Measures, we must make no exception, openly or tacitly, in favor of the Anxious Bench. Here precisely is the proper point at which to grapple with the whole system.

      There is occasion for the inquiry here proposed. It is true, indeed, that throughout a large portion of the country the Anxious Bench, after having enjoyed a brief reputation, has fallen into discredit. It has been tried, and found wanting; and it might have been trusted that this experiment would be sufficient to drive it completely out of use. But unfortunately this has not been the case. Over a wide section of the land we find it still holding its ground, without any regard to the disgrace with which it has been overtaken in the North and East. Peculiar circumstances have conspired to promote its credit on this field.

      It is within the range particularly of the German Churches that a new life may be said to have been communicated latterly to the system of New Measures. No field is more interesting at this time than that which is comprehended within these limits. A vast moral change is going forward upon it, involving consequences that no man can properly calculate. From various causes a new feeling is at work everywhere on the subject of religion. As usual, the old struggles to maintain itself in opposition to the new, and a strong tendency to become extreme is created on both sides. The general mind unhappily has not been furnished thus far with proper protection and guidance in the way of full religious teaching; and the result is that in these interesting circumstances it has become exposed more or less at almost every point to those wild fanatical influences which in this country are sure to come in like a desolating flood wherever they can find room. Upstart sects have set themselves to take possession, if possible, of the entire field in this way, on the principle that the old organizations are corrupt and deserve to be destroyed. Their reliance, of course, in this work of reformation, is placed largely on New Measures! Thus a whole Babel of extravagance has been let loose upon the community far and wide in the name of religion, one sect vying with another in the measure of its irregularities. In these circumstances it has not been easy for the friends of earnest piety always in the regular churches to abide by the ancient landmarks of truth and order. The temptation has been strong to fall in, at least to some extent, with the tide of fanaticism as the only way of making war successfully on the dead formality that stared them in the face in one direction, and the only way of counteracting the proselyting zeal of these noisy sects in the other.