St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-06-28

A CHRISTIAN ENDEAV OR CHURCH.

The Congrega nationalist of recent
date contained an interesting &C
count of new departure in church
organization at Hardwick, written
by Rev. F. F. Lewis of that place.
We give it entire:
A large representative council was
called to consider the organization
OF church in a growing village of
seven or eight hundred people, and
sat in continuous session for three
hours. The sum of its deliberations
is found in the following minutes:
Voted, That the council proceed to
the organization of the church.
Voted, That the creed, covenant and
rules are approved, with the understand
ing that the Christian Endeavor features
are experimental and subject to change.
1t had been a question with some
whether a church should be formed
in village of such size. already con-
tanning other evangelical churches;
but when the story Of tie movement
was told-when it was stated that
the Sunday school had reached
membership of 100 in three months,
that the congregations were steadily
increasing, that nearly one-half the
families represented were formerly
non-church-goers, that nearly all the
rest were of Congregational origin,
that several conversions had al
ready resulted, that a large number
of business men were interested,
that all bills had been paid and
reasonable support assured for the
future-the council said, This is the
hand Of the Lord and not of man"
There was much questioning con-
corning the covenant, which read as
follows:
Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for
strength, l promise him that l will
strive to do whatever he would like to
have me do; that l will make it the rule
of my life to pray and to read the Bible
every day, and to support my own
church in every way, especially by at
tending all her regular Sunday and mid
week services, unless prevented by some
reason which l can couscientiously give
to my Saviour; and that, just so far as l
know how, throughout my whole life,
l will endeavor to lead a Christian life.
As a member of the church l promise
to be true to all my duties, to be present
at, and to take some part, aside from
singing, i'll every church prayer meeting,
unless hindered by some reason which I
can conscientiously give to my Lord and
Master If obliged to be absent from the
bi-monthly preparatory service of the
church l will, if possible, send to the
pastor at least verse of Scripture as
token of loyalty and renewed consecra-
ton to Christ to be read in response to
my name at the roll-call.
This covenant was REINFORCED by
certain bylaws. Uuder duties Of Of
hcerS was this:
The clerk shall call the roll of members
the pastor the names of all who fail to
respond.
Under the head of meetings was
this:
At the preparatory service the roll shall
be called by the clerk and the responses
of the members present shall be consider
ed as a renewed expression of allegiance
to Christ. 1t is expected that if any is
obliged to be absent from this meeting
he will send by some one who attends
request to be excused. If any member of
this church is absent from the pre-
paratory service and fails to send an
excuse, the standing committee is ex-
pected to take the name of such a one
and in kind and brotherly spirit ascer-
tain the reason for the absence.
Under the head of discipline was
found this:
Any member of the church who shall
be absent, unexcused, from six consecu-
tive preparatory services of the church
shall be subject for church discipline
and may by vote of the church be sus-
pended or excluded from membership.
Objections were easily found, and
here are a few: Such a routine at
the preparatory service will be irk-
some. These provisions will keep
members of other churches out of
this church. They open back door
out of the church, through which
members can slip out easily. They
weaken the sacred and inviolable
character of the covenant. They
cheaper the church, divine institu-
ton, by putting it on a level with
mere human institutions. While
these provisions may work we'll
under present leadership, the next
pastor may not be in sympathy with
Christian Endeavor ideas and will
feel himself handicapped.
To these objections the pastors
and others replied: Members of
Other churches coming to this vii
lage who do not read their Bibles
and pray regularly, who refrain
without good reason from attend
ing prayer meetings and taking part,
ought to meet with a change OF
heart before uniting with any
church. If mistake has been made
in admit ting any one to the church
it IS better TO treat the mistake in a
businesslike way than to seek to
excuse it CT pass it over unnoticed.
Our theory OF the church is the same
as yours, but we believe in applying
our theory in accordance with the
facts One fact is that In very