Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-06-16
Report on the Narratives OF the
State of Religion at Rutland
and Bennington Confer
ence. held at Brandon.
june and s.

Your Commute have not time 10 collate
and digest the statistics of the churches;
nor is this necessary, for it will be done
by our Statistical Secretaries, and they
will be published with the minutes of the
General Convention, and distributed
among the churches.
We wish as briefly and earnestly as
possible, to suggest some things which
have been pressed upon our own minds by
the narratives as a whole, including the
words spoken here. The reports from eur
churches this year furnish material both
for announcement and thankfulness, and
also for humiliation, repentance and re-
newed activity. While some of them
have been refreshed and their members
increased, and one, if not two or three,
richly and largely blessed; others have
hardly held their own, but their numbers
have decreased.
The suggestions to which your Commit
tee wish to call attention are the follow
ing:
1. The responsibility of the churches,
and their obligation to be centers OF lie
and light in the communities in which
they are planted. These churches donot
exist for their own sake alone. The crest
aim of the Gospel is TO eradicate selfish
ness and self-seeking. They are to shine
in the darkness as lights; to be salt IN
the community, to be leaven in the masses
AS grace works in the individual soul,
like leayen, to transform it, so Church
of Christ is to leaven the community IL
which it is planted. And this, not as IN
dividuals, but as churches. All the spirit
ual forces of the individual members are
to be combined and concentrated into one
force, to be energized by the Holy Spirit,
and work cheerfully and earnestly under
his guidance. Every member is to con-
tribute as much as possible to this com
bined and concentrated power. Some OF
the churches, and doubtless, some indiyld-
uals in all of them, have felt and acknoWi-
edged the obligation of which we speak
They admit that they are responsible for
the salvation of the ungodly around them,
so far as their influence and believing
prayers reach, or might reach.
2. Another suggestion, growing ont Of
this first, or closely connected with il, Is
this, the need of higher style of conse.
Grafton, and Christian living and working
in our churches. They cannot fulfil the
obligation we have spoken of without
this. Some have deeply felt this, and
have laid themselves anew. and wholly
upon the altar of God. Giving themselves
and all they have to to the Lord, they
have afectionately and earnestly ssought
to win their friends and acquaintances to
the Savior so near and so dear to their
own souls. Nor have they done more
than their duty, nor attained TO more
than it is the privilege of all Christians
to attain. If any of our churches, or their
members are living at poor, dying rate,
it is not because God has forsaken them,
but because they have departed from him
If they are straitened, pinehed and IN
fruitful, it is not because the arm of the
Lord is shortened. If their prayers are
not answered, it Is not because the Lords
ear is heavy, that he cannot hear. If they
are cold, God is not cold; Jesus is always
warm, and the Holy Ghost is fire.
3. The churches may be encouraged by
these reports to pray and labor in faith
and expectation. Several of the reports
furnish such encouragement; especially
that from Benson. The praying people
there seem to have had great power with
God As nothing is too hard for the Lord,
so they, praying in the Holy Ghost. found
no 'hard 'cases" among the ungodly.
They expected their prayers to be an
swered, and why not? Why ought they
not? Why ought not all Christians 10
pray and labor in expectation of success?
Is not God the Spirit always ready TO
work with working church {? Has not
our dear Lord all power in heaven and On
earth and is not the exceeding great and
precious promise, "Lo l am with you al
ways, event unto the end of the world
still in full force and virtue?
The above report is furnished to the
Rutland HERALD by vote of the Confer
ence. 1t was written by the Rev. W. I.
Herriek.