LITMIR.BIZ

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to be sure, extensively in vogue, and with a large portion of the community in high honor. There are whole sects that seem to have no conception of any thing like a vigorous life in the Church without its presence. And beyond the range of these, scores of ministers and congregations are found who glory in it as the very “gate of heaven,” and consider it no less essential than the pulpit itself to the progress of any considerable revival. During the last winter, as already mentioned, there were places where the spirit of the Anxious Bench might be said to carry all before it, and it is likely that it will be so again during the winter that is to come.

      But all who are at all acquainted with the world know that the worst things may thus run for a season and be glorified in the popular mind. And especially is this the case, where they hold their existence in the element of excitement, and connect themselves with religion, the deepest and most universal of all human interests. No weight of fashion enlisted in favor of the Anxious Bench can deserve to be much respected in such a trial of its merits as we are here called to make.

It should be remembered, however, that this popularity, such as it is, is in a certain sense but the echo of a sound which has already ceased to be heard. Whatever may be the pretensions of the Anxious Bench, on the field we are now contemplating, it is after all a stale interest, so far as the Church at large is concerned. Not many years since it stood in very considerable credit in different parts of the Presbyterian Church and over a large portion of New England. But on this ground the thing has fairly exploded. It has been tried and found wanting. Here and there, it may still be held in honor. But in a general view even those who were formerly its friends have come to look upon it with distrust, and are no longer willing to give it their countenance. As with general consent, throughout New England and New York, the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches have abandoned the use of the Anxious Bench for “a more excellent way.”125 With all its popularity then where it now prevails, it is after all a stale interest, worn threadbare and flung aside in a different quarter of the religious world. In these circumstances no great account is to be made of its present credit in any view.

Nothing can be argued again in favor of the Anxious Bench, from the Success with which it may appear to be employed in the service of religion. This is often appealed to for this purpose. We are referred triumphantly to the actual results of the system as tried in different places. We are told of hundreds awakened and converted in connection with its use. God, it is said, has owned it, and impressed His seal upon it by working through it mightily as a means of salvation; and if He choose to honor it in this way, who are we that we should find fault or condemn?126 We should rejoice to see souls brought into the kingdom in any way. We should be willing to make room in such a case for the manifold grace of God, allowing it to have free course in any channel through which it is found to flow, and not seeking to force it into conformity with our own narrow views. All this carries with it a plausible sound. But after all the representation is entitled to no respect.

      In the first place, to draw an argument for the Anxious Bench from its immediate visible effects, is to take for granted that these are worth all they claim to be worth. We are pointed to powerful awakenings, of which it is considered to be the very soul. We are referred to scores and hundreds of conversions effected directly or indirectly by its means. But who shall assure us that all this deserves to be regarded with confidence as the genuine fruit of religion? It is marvelous credulity to take every excitement in the name of religion for the work of God’s Spirit. It is an enormous demand on our charity when we are asked to accept in mass, as true and solid, the wholesale conversions that are made in this way. It will soon be made to appear that there is the greatest reason for caution and distrust with regard to this point. No doubt the use of the Anxious Bench may be found associated, in certain cases, with revivals, the fruits of which are worthy of all confidence. But this character they will have through the force of a different system that would have been just as complete without any such accompaniment. In such cases the revival may be said to prevail in spite of the new measures with which it is encumbered. On the other hand, in proportion as the spirit of such measures is found to animate and rule the occasion, there will be reason to regard the whole course of things with doubt. One thing is most certain. Spurious revivals are common, and as the fruit of them false conversions lamentably abound. An anxious bench may be crowded where no divine influence whatever is felt. A whole congregation may be moved with excitement, and yet be losing at the very time more than is gained in a religious point of view. Hundreds may be carried through the process of anxious bench conversion, and yet their last state may be worse than the first. It will not do to point us to immediate visible effects, to appearances on the spot, or to glowing reports struck off from some heated imagination immediately after. Piles of copper, fresh from the mint, are after all something very different from piles of gold.

      Again, it does not follow by any means that a thing is right and good because it may be made subservient occasionally in the hands of God to a good end. Allow that the system represented by the Anxious Bench has often had the effect of bringing souls by a true and saving change to Christ, and still it may deserve to be opposed and banished from the Church. God can cause the wrath and folly of man both to praise Him in such ways as to Himself may seem best. And so, under the influence of His Spirit, He can make almost any occasion subservient to the awakening and conversion of a soul. But it would be wretched logic to infer from this the propriety of employing every such occasion, with preparation and design, as a part of the regular work of the gospel. It is sometimes said indeed that if only some souls are saved by the use of new measures, we ought thankfully to own their power, and give them our countenance; since even one soul is worth more than a world. But it should be remembered that the salvation of a sinner may not withstanding cost too much! If truth and righteousness are made to suffer for the purpose, more is lost than won by the result. We must not do wrong, even to gain a soul for heaven. And if for one thus gained, ten should be virtually destroyed by the very process employed to reach the point, who will say that such a method of promoting Christianity would deserve to be approved? There may be movements in the name of religion, and under the form of religion, and yielding to some extent the fruits of religion, which after all come from beneath and not from above. The history of the Church is full of instances illustrating the truth of this remark.

      Simeon the Stylite distinguished himself, in the fifth century, by taking his station on the top of a pillar, for the glory of God and the benefit of his own soul. This whimsical discipline he continued to observe for thirty-seven years. Meanwhile he became an object of wide-spread veneration. Vast crowds came from a distance to gaze upon him, and hear him preach. The measure took with the people wonderfully. Thousands of heathen were converted, and baptized by his hand. Among these, it may be charitably trusted, were some whose conversion was inward and solid. God made use of Simeon’s Pillar to bring them to Himself. The seal of His approbation might seem to have rested upon it to an extraordinary extent. No wonder the device became popular. The quackery of the Pillar took possession of the Eastern world, and stood for centuries a monument of the folly that gave it birth. We laugh at it now; and yet it seemed a good thing in its time, and carried with it a weight of popularity such as no New Measure can boast of in the present day.

But why speak of Stylitism in particular? The whole system of monkery may be taken as an example, of the same force, on a larger scale. What a world of abominations has it not been found to embrace? And yet, under what plausible pretences, it sought the confidence of the Church in the beginning! There were not wanting powerful reasons to give it recommendation. The whole Christian world in fact fell into the snare. The interest became a torrent, before which no man was found able to stand. Most assuredly, too, there was the life and power of religion, to some extent, at work in the movement. Monkery was to many, in fact, the means of conversion and salvation. And to this hour an argument might be framed in its favor, under this view not less plausible, to say the least, than any that can be presented for the use of the Anxious Bench.127

      The Romish Church has always delighted in arrangements and services animated with the same false spirit. In her penitential system all pains have been taken to produce effect by means of outward postures and dress, till in the end, amid the solemn mummery,

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