Page images
PDF
EPUB

meaning was securing ascendency. Dr. Pye Smith and Dr. Halley frankly renounced the earlier position, and they were followed by the overwhelming majority of the Congregational ministers of the last generation. In more recent years there has been a reaction in favour of the central principle of the Savoy theology, which insisted on the objective value both of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper; but it is probable that the sacramental article of the Declaration of 1833 still represents the general belief of English Congregationalists.

CHAPTER V

THE WORK OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES

VISIT OF DR. Reed and DR. MATHESON TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA-CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN CANADA-APPEALS FOR HELP FROM CANADA AND AUSTRALIA-PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT SOCIETY FOR COLONIAL MISSIONS-THE SOCIETY ADOPTED BY THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION-WORK OF THE SOCIETY -ITS RELATONS TO THE UNION-THE HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY; ITS ADOPTION BY THE UNION-THE IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETYTHE CONGREGATIONAL Board of EduCATION-CHAPEL BUILDING SOCIETY-PASTORS' INSURANCE AID SOCIETY-THE SOCIETIES SEPARATED FROM THE UNION-PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNION -MAGAZINES TRANSFERRED TO TRUSTEES-HYMNALS ISSUED BY THE UNION-CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY-CONGREGATIONAL LECTURE-THE MEMORIAL HALL-JUBILEE OF THE UNION.

AT

I

T the meeting held in May, 1832, for constituting the Union a long and cordial letter was read from the Rev. Dr. Thomas Snell, Secretary of the General Association of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts; at the meeting held in May, 1833-the first annual meeting—an equally friendly letter was read from the Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles Ely, the "Stated Clerk" of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cox, an eminent Presbyterian minister from New York, addressed the Assembly. Dr. Ely proposed an "interchange of delegates " between the Churches of America and England, and the proposal was immediately accepted.1 The committee were directed to "make the requisite arrangements for endeavouring to procure two or three brethren to proceed to America, in the spring of 1834,

1 See ante, pp. 693-695, and Congregational Magazine, March, 1833, 184-186.

so as to be present at the meetings of the General Assembly in Philadelphia; and also at such meetings of the Congregational Body in New England as they may be able to visit ; and to collect and communicate such information as will be mutually interesting respecting the state of religion in both countries." 2 Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Andrew Reed, of London, and Mr. (afterwards. Dr.) James Matheson, of Durham, consented to undertake what Mr. Reed, in his farewell address, described as "the hazardous service." They sailed from Liverpool in March, 1834, spent several months in the United States and in Canada, and on their return published an account of their journey. Their report on the religious condition of Canada gave a powerful impulse to the formation of the Colonial Missionary Society a year or two later.

4

3

A few Congregational Churches had been founded by emigrants from New England-Churches at Liverpool and Chebogue in Nova Scotia, in 1760 and 1767; at Sheffield, in New Brunswick, in 1762; at Stanstead, in East Canada, in 1816.5

In 1770 a house for Congregational worship was hired at St. John's, Newfoundland, and a Mr. Jones, who belonged to a company of artillery stationed in the town, became its pastor. In 1775 he obtained his discharge, and was regularly ordained to the ministry. A chapel was built in 1790; and when Mr. Reed and Mr. Matheson visited the colony, it was under the pastorate of the Rev. D. S. Ward, who had been a student at Hackney College. In 1819 a Church was formed in what were called the Talbot settlements, by Mr. Joseph Silcox, who, before he left England, had been a member of the Church at Frome under the pastorate of the Rev. Timothy East. The Church consisted of fifty-two members; they were scattered over three townships, in each of which a log house or a barn was used for a preaching-station. It was under such conditions as these that a few Congregational Churches were founded in Canada before 1830.o

2 Congregational Magazine, March, 1833, 379.

3 Ibid., April, 1834, 240.

A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches, by Andrew Reed and James Matheson, 1835.

5 Waddington, iv. (1800-1850), 436-440.

• Ibid., 432-435, 440-442.

In December, 1827, a Conference of Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalists was held at Montreal, and it was determined to establish the Canada Education and Home Missionary Society. The principal objects of this Society were to give aid to weak and struggling Churches and to train young men for missionary and pastoral work in the Canadian colonies. Mr. Henry Wilkes, a young man about to sail for England to enter the University of Edinburgh in order to prosecute his studies for the ministry, was a member of the committee; and he was authorised to do his best to induce suitable ministers-Presbyterians, Baptists, or Congregationalists to emigrate to Canada. He was also authorised to collect money to pay for their outfit and passage money. The final and formal decision on the suitability of any particular minister for colonial work lay with the committee at Montreal; but the powers entrusted to Mr. Wilkes seem to have been practically unlimited: the committee had good reason for relying on his sagacity and zeal. Within a very short time he induced four ministers to go out; the Rev. J. Gibbs, of Banff, became pastor of the Congregational Church at Stanstead in 1830; the Rev. John Smith, of Glasgow, became pastor of Union Church, Kingston, and undertook the charge of two students; the Rev. Richard Miles, who had recently returned from the Cape, formed the first Congregational Church at Montreal; and the Rev. Adam Lillie, who had been a missionary in India but had recently become assistant to the Rev. John Watson, of Musselburgh, settled in Brantford, and became the chief promoter of an institution for the education of young men for the ministry. Mr. Wilkes himself had intended to settle at Toronto, but, through some mismanagement, the negotiation for the purchase of the building in which he was to preach fell through, and he became pastor of the Albany Street Church at Edinburgh. He continued, however, to urge the religious claims of the colonists on the sympathy of the Scotch and English Churches, and he probably did more for Canada at Edinburgh than he could have done at Toronto.7

But a young and unknown man, however zealous and able, could, after all, do very little towards providing ministers

7 Waddington, iv. (1800-1850), 446-451.

for a rapidly increasing population, scattered over a vast extent of territory. When Dr. Reed and Dr. Matheson, on their return to England, appeared before the Committee of the Congregational Union, and made their report on the condition of Canada, the committee resolved (Dec. 4, 1834)"That the claims of the Canadas be brought under the notice of the Directors of the London Missionary Society." As early as 1811 that Society had sent out the Rev. Duncan Dunbar as a missionary to Canada, and it had recently voted £100. to Mr. Wilkes. In response to the appeal of the Committee of the Congregational Union, they now voted £1,000 to aid in supplying the religious necessities of those British colonies. in which the English language was spoken. The money was to be distributed by a sub-committee of the Directors of the Society. Two men were sent out: Mr. William Hayden, who was a Home Missionary in the neighbourhood of Hull, to Coburgh; and Mr. David Dyer, who seems to have been a lay-preacher connected with Barbican Chapel, London, to Hamilton.8

About the same time, the Rev. William Jarrett, the pastor of a small Church at Sydney, New South Wales, and the Rev. Frederick Miller, pastor of a Church of sixty-three members. at Hobart Town, appealed to the Union on behalf of Australia. The committee decided (Feb. 3, 1835) that as the London Missionary Society had just voted £1,000 for colonial purposes, the Congregational Union could, for the present, do nothing.

But the subject was not allowed to drop. It came up at least three times at committee meetings held in the course of 1835. At a meeting held on November 3, "reference was made to some plans adopted or under consideration, by committees distinct from the Union; but no resolution was adopted." 9

It was this independent movement that led the committee to take action. The scheme for founding the colony of South Australia was attracting considerable attention, especially among Congregationalists, and several young men belonging to Mr. Binney's congregation were thinking of becoming colonists. Mr. Binney became deeply interested. 8 Waddington, iv. (1800-1850), 440, 457-458. • Ibid., 459-464.

« PreviousContinue »