Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-02
| PROFITABLE DISCOURSE.

PROFITABLE DlSCOUASEs ssThe Half-Way Covenant and Say brook PlatfOrms,-Rev.M MT. James of Fair Haven Delivers an Inter- esting Historical Sermon-COntfnu-l alton of the Series of Discourses on
 ssThe Great Leaders in Connecticut
 Congregationalism.
 The third in the series of Sunday even ing discourses at the Second Congrega- tional church on "The Great Leaders in Connecticut Congregationalism," proved, like the predecessors, highly interesting. Rev. D. M. James, the pastor, has bestowed considerable thought and study upon these discourses and his effort has been highly successful in the presentation of very in teresting historical matter. The subject of the third sermon was: "The Half Way Covenant and Saybrook Platform" A synopsis of the discourse follows:
 ssThe Cambridge Platform of 164s, the Halfway Covenant of 1869 and the Say brook Platform of 1709, are important landmarks in the early ecclesiastical his tory of New England. They were not decisions of ancient synolds introduced and imposed upon the Puritans from with out, but were the legitimate product of forces inherent in the early colonies. They are the instruments by which we examine and interpret the religious movements of the first century.
 No person who desires an intelligent ap- prehension of the severe struggles through which the people of New England passed in these early times can afford to ignore these historical landmarks. To under II H- l. = IL -.1 synods, the causes which seemed to demand them and the effects which they immedi- ately produced, is to understand the form at1ve influences of our civil and religious life. With the passing away of Hooker, Davenport and Cotton and those eminent laymen associated with them in planting and shaping the colonies of Connecticut, New Haven and Massachusetts, passed away the first generation of noble leaders in church and state. These men had been trained in the renowned universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They had been associated in old England with men who thoroughly understood the fundamental principles of the great German and Eng fish reformations. They had been sur rounded both there and here by influences that demanded the exercise of every power belonging to a well trained manhood. They stamped themselves on the institu- tions of the colonies they founded.
 But when this generation of men were one by one removed from leadership in church and state, and when new men trained in the new institutions of New England, or induced by other motives New England colonies, we are not sur prised to find that these new men took issue with the older men and the estab- ished way and introduced 8 conflict in both civil and ecclesiastical matters which, if not always carried on in the most Chris tian spirit, was in the end most productive of good.
 The two most important questions that agitated the churches and involved the colonies were questions which related to church membership and to church govern ment. These two questions were formu- | lated and propounded to the synod of eld- order of the general court of Massachusetts in 1869. The questions were these: "Who Are Subjects of Baptisms" and "Whether, According to the Word of God, There | Ought to be 8 Consolation of Churches, and What Should Be the Manner of Its" | We are concerned at present with the answer which was given by the synod of 1862 to the first of these questions, and which is known in history as ''The Half l way SOtouduO, dAu WlOu bu0 tuS W0l which was given by the synod of 1708, convened at Saybrook, Conn, by order of the general court to the second of these questions and which is known in history as "The Saybrook Platform"
 The question, "Who are subjects of baptism" was only one phase of the more comprehensive question, Who are entitled to membership in the church? What con- ditions ought to be imposed on persons seeking either for themselves or their children the privileges of church fellowship Whatever were the individual differences of opinion on this vital question there was for at least twenty years uniformity of practice in the Congregational churches throughout the colonies. They were to be orthodox in their confession of faith and personal in their Christian experience
 None were admitted into church member ship except persons who, after examination in matters of individual experience, were judged regenerate. They drew very sharp distinction between regenerate and unregenerate persons and guarded closely the entrance to full communion in the church. On this point the Cambridge platform, adopted in 1e4s, is very specific
 The standard was high, the test severe
 Persons who could meet the requirements could rejoice in the privileges of spiritua
 church, and churches that could lift and hold the moral and religious lives of theil constituency on this high plane, must have exerted controlling influence in their respective towns The standard, however
 belonged to an ideal condition of things rather than to real. The towns were inhabited by men, not by saints; the churches were composed of people,. not
 to the tests; the churches hesitated to impose them. The people became dis
 satisfied and demanded change. The churches were becoming depleted and sought 8 remedy. The children and grandchildren of the Pilgrims and Puri
 tans were less welded to the strict Con. gregational way than their fathers, and the tide of new corners from the older countries were not anchored to the same deep religious convictions. They came not to found kingdom of God, but tc pelled by commercial rather than by re. | iigious interests. They could not satisfy the existing conditions of membership in the church; yet they valued for them selves and their children church privi- leges. In some of the colonies they could not exercise the rights of freemen with out enjoying the rights Of church men. These changed conditions required some modification in practice and | 'Ine dAI way NOVenanJ was aQOpt- ed as compromise. The question turned on the relation of baptized children to the church and on the right of parents who had been baptized, but who were not members of the church in full communion, to demand baptism for their children. These demands were not readily conceded. They met with strong opposition and were the occasion of serious difficulty and di- vision. Special councils, special orders of the courts, the personal influence of emi- nent elders and laymen were appealed to and employed in order to adjust these diff faculties and to restore harmony. Matters grew worse instead of better, and in the hope of coming to some agreement a synod was held in Boston in 1857. The synod as- sembled, considered the twenty-one ques- tons proposed, announced it's decision, and when the delegates from Connecticut had reported the same to the court, the general court issued an order '"That copies should go forth to the several churches in this colony" -S
 Here we have both the decision of 8 synod and the order of court interposing to settle theological and ecclesiastical ques- tions, and yet even in New England and among Congregational churches the people would not be dictated to in matters of faith or of polity by either synod or court or by both. There was at least spark of the old fondness for religious freedom lin gering in the descendants of the Puritan. Samuel Stone's opinion of the people was