The Litchfield County post., 1826-08-01


 fhe past year. sixteen missionaries have been employed for greater or less portion of the fine. in as many different churches. The in- ,aor,ne If the Society, for the year, was Sl734 gss--beiug an increase over the past year, Of e50ss--CoRR.eObs.
 But this increase, says the Report, though 0nffcient to yield us some encouragement, cannot but be considered as trifling; especi- ally when we reckon up the numbers and es- tiYnafe the resources of the Congregational churches of CouneCticut, and think how strong and numerous are the ties by which they ought to feel themselves connected with each other. The work of building the waste places and repairing the breaches pr00eeds with laIiaen- fable tardinsss. To only sixteen churches are Re enabled Co deal out scanty pittancc, while more than sixteen others are like the heath in the desert. or like the, mountains of Gilboa upon which there was no rain or dew. And we feel ourselves bound t0 express our fears that unless some new impulse shall be given to the work which we are called to di- rect, the progress of desolation will ere long become more rapid than the progress of re
 pair. The state If public opinion and feeling must be thoroughly changed iu several par ticuIars before any thing of moment can ht accomplished towards cultivating and beauti- flying the spiritual desolatiOns of Connecticut. Some of these particulars we would venture frankly and plainly to specify that they may come more distinctly to the consideration of our fathers and brethren.
 |. There must he change of public senti- ment in regard to the moral obligation of Christians to support the institutions of the gospel. In former times the laws of this com
 munity have Imposed on its members legal and civil obligation to maintain the order and the ordinances of religion. In the progress of society, which has OccasiOned a nultiplici- ty of religious opinions, and variety of re- Egious denominations, each acting in separ ate sphere of interest, these laws have been gradually and finally abolished. Of their abO- | litiOn we have no intention to complain; we trust it will be the means of purifying and building up the church of God. But we ask our fathers and brethren, if itis not preva
 lent impression in which even our churches share too largely, that all moral obligation to contribute for the nlaintainance of Christian institutions was abolished with the sanctions of the civil law. We ask if the impression is not gaining ground even in our churches thar whatever man bestOws to support the wOr- ship of Jehovah is in every sense matter of charity, and in no sense matter of obligation l ga mere gratuity which neither God nor man has any right to demand of him, if at any | time, and for any reason, without any reason he chooses to withhold it. And we ask whether, while such sentiment is making it's insidious progress, the progress of moral des- olation, must not be irresistible. And we say that when public sentiment shall brand with righteous reproduction the meanness of such as share in the privileges and the decencies of religious order, and sit and bring their fam Mes to sit among the wOrshippers of God in his own temple, and yet refuse to pay for what they thus enjoy and still more when Christians shall be brought to feel that the supporting of the ordinances of public wor- ship is with them especially matter of most serious obligation to be fulfilled at all hazards tnsomuch that every superfuity must be re- erenched and even the supply of needful food and raiment must be invaded before the king dom of God can be neglected, ,--then the work of desOlation will be stayed and the waste and desert places will break forth in songs.
 2. A change is required also in the state ofl public sentiment respecting the common inte- rests and mutual duties of our churches. The | Congregational churches of Connecticut are tor the most part leagued together for the promotion of discipline and for mutual watch fulness against heresy. But it must be &C., knowledged that through all these churches the feeling that their most important interests are one and that they have mutual duties to discharge. is less general and less powerful snan what IS demanded by the exigencies -ofl the times, aud might u expected from the | reiatiOns of their common faith and common order. And when public sentiment shall have been changed in this particular; when the weakest church. shall feel elitself invigorated by the consciousness that 1t shares freely in the efforts and the prayers of the strongest and most prosperous; when every church that Fejoices in the order of the gospel shall re- member that it has one interest with the weakest and most destitute; when the feeling shall become universal that a single parish given over to spiritual ruin is moral nuisance not to be eHdured--a district Infection send. ing forth on every breeze wide contagious influence and most of all, when ministers shall feel, and act upon the feeling, that he who by labour. by poverty, by privation, by deadly cOgfiict with the enemies of God, re- deems one church from extinction, and spreads over one waste and desolate place the verdure and the brightness of moral cultivation, de- serves more honour in the kingdom of our Lord. than he who by the charm of his el0- Quence or the might of his intellect gathers around him the gaiety, and the wealth, and the talents, and the siearning of the proudest
 metFopOlis,-then we shall have no more Oc-
 casion to complain that the work of repairing
 sbe breaches proceeds so slowly.
 3. The religion of the gospel must beeeme
 throughout our Churches, more of a practical 4 and nOyv1pf,l fh;re <hav, sA .o.., !. --.s -