Of the lecture preparatory to the communion, the monthly concert, and the occasional church fast, I shall say no more than that they are seasons which the conscientious will not feel at liberty to neglect, nor the heavenly minded be willing to lose.

Respecting religious meetings generally, public and private, it may be said that they are that upon which, not only the life of religion, but the external prosperity of the society itself mainly depends. In proportion as these are kept up, in numbers and in spirit, the power of religion is felt, vice is awed, division and decay prevented, and accessions gained. He therefore that will be true to the body, will, as a practical church member, no less than as a devoted Christian, sustain, with constancy and fervor, its religious meetings.

CHAPTER IX.

MEASURES FOR THE PROMOTION OF RELIGION.

THE cause of religion being committed, under God, to human hands, the measures by which it is to be promoted are left, to some extent, to be determined by human wisdom. What doctrines we are to preach, and what ordinances to observe, the scriptures have fully instructed us; and we have general instructions, and some specific ones, in regard to measures; but not so detailed and full as to leave nothing to men.

The Congregational churches, while they have been distinguished, and even proverbial, for their general love of order, both in church and state, have never thought it necessary to keep to one exact system of measures, but have wisely availed themselves of any measures which appeared to be judicious and not unscriptural.

Often, in low states of religion, they have deemed it necessary to break up their fallow ground:' and in addition to the usual services of the Sabbath and the week, have appointed special seasons of prayer and fasting, with serious visiting of families, and other movements. Such measures on the part of our churches have been greatly blessed of God in times innumerable. Thousands have from them dated their hope of eternal life. In times of special attention, more frequent and pro

tracted public services, and more abundant labors of every kind have been deemed important.

There has been much discussion latterly about what are called "new measures;" such, namely, as protracted meetings, the public "anxious seat," female speaking in promiscuous assemblies, with certain strains of preaching and praying.

I have not the presumption to think myself able to settle the matters at issue should I attempt it. I have looked at the subject with a conviction that some of the evils, seen and feared, are obvious enough to all but the authors of them, and that others are magnified by an over-cautious timidity; and that whatever the evils are, they are likely to receive a speedier and healthier cure by being left to the good sense and private correction of the churches than by a public controversy, protracted, and vague, and irresponsible, and in other respects not always happy, in the newspapers.

Meantime there are a few plain observations, which I may be permitted to make respecting all extraordinary measures, whether 'new' or 'old.'

1. A wise man will neither receive nor reject a measure simply because it is new. But being new, he will not adopt it hastily; nor be deceived by its supposed success in places where it has been tried. He will look at the remote and settled tendencies of things, as well as at immediate apparent effects. Many a revival regarded as wonderful at the time, the preaching and

measures being all of a novel and exciting character, has proved but chaff in the end; or worse still, a field burnt over. "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." There is such a thing as a solemn revival of religion produced by the Spirit of God; the fruits of which shall appear to his glory in the final day. Of this let none be incredulous. And doubtless there are such things as spurious religious excitements, the results of which will also appear. Why should there not be spurious revivals as well as spurious conversions, which nobody questions; and why are not the former to be expected and guarded against, as well as the latter?

2. It is a matter of experience, however it be explained, that novel measures, and especially very novel ones, do not bear repeating. The "church conferences" which were practised extensively a few years since in Connecticut and some other parts of New England, and were attended with striking effects at the first, were attended with little or none on being repeated.*

* These "conferences" were composed of pastors and delegates, or in some instances, of delegates alone, from some twelve or fifteen neighboring churches to each church in rotation. Reports were given on the state of religion, accompanied with prayers and exhortations, and sometimes with a solemn renewal of covenant on the part of the church visited. A part of two days was spent in these exercises. The delegates returning made report of what they had seen and heard to their re

The same has been true, I believe, as a general thing, of "protracted meetings."

The explanation is perhaps not difficult.

First; Viewing these measures apart from the agency of God, there is a novelty in them, in the first instance, which attracts the notice of people and draws them together. Then the unwonted numbers which are seen assembling, and the strangeness of many among them who do not use to be seen in religious places, but like the excited hearers of John, have come out for once, as if warned to flee from the wrath to come, produces naturally a solemn expectation that God is about to revive his work. Wonder and solemnity, abstraction from the world, the pervading sympathy of a great congregation, and deep and expectant attention, prepare the ground for the seed which is about to be sown. But on a repetition of the measure, the novelty is wanting, the audience few, and the impression faint.

Secondly; That diffidence of means and instruments, that humble and earnest looking to God, that trembling sense of responsibility, which Christians manifested in the first instance, are too apt to be exchanged, in the second, for a vain reliance on the means themselves;

spective churches. The effects were apparently great and happy, but not unmixed with evil. Union prayer meetings have been held with similar effects. In these a few neighboring churches meet, not by delegates, but as many as can. Prayers, exhortations, a sermon, and the Lord's supper, are the usual exercises.