Part 70 (2/2)
_XVII Of Baptisn of profession, and uished froeneration or the new birth
The baptis children is to be retained in the church
[140] I have understood, nevertheless, that a resolution was adopted expressing the sense of the Conference as to my past labours in the Church; but the publication of it has been suppressed in the official organ, as also in the printed minutes, of the Conference
The correspondence in the subsequent pages shohat feelings and sentiments I retired from the councils of the Conference; and I could not have supposed that anyfros what the Conference had deemed a bare act of justice to an individual who had laboured nearly thirty years in connection with it, and often performed most difficult services and labours in its behalf Such a proceeding will reflect ment of every honourable and Christian mind in Upper Canada, of whatever persuasion or party I am happy to believe that this poor iatorius” cannot blot froeneration in the Church recollections of labours and struggles of which the expurgators know nothing but the fruits--aes they enjoy
I have also been credibly infornation and the judg many years' connection with it, are withheld from the Wesleyan public, insinuations are circulated, that nation has been dictated by ulterior political objects--an idea which I have never for one n, as far as I know, to the thoughts of every public man in Canada
[141] Of the utter insufficiency of public rown up Christians, e and authorized Minutes of Conference:--”For what avails public preaching alone, though we could preach like angels? Wepreacher must, instruct theood earnest, the Methodists will be little better than other people Our religion is not deep, universal, uniform; but superficial, partial, uneven It will be so, till we spend half asuselessly” ”For, after all our preaching, norant as if they had never heard the gospel I speak as plain as I can, yet I frequently meet with those who have been my hearers many years, who know not whether Christ be God or man And ho are there who know the nature of repentance, faith and holiness Most of them have a sort of confidence that God will save them, while the world has their hearts I have found by experience, that one of these has learned more from one hour's close discourse than fro a catalogue of those in each society, go to each house Deal gently with the Give the children the instructions for children, and encourage theet them by heart Indeed, you will find it no easy ion So true is the remark of Archbishop Usher--'Great scholars may think this work beneath the the foundation skilfully, as it is of the greatest importance, so it is the masterpiece of the wisest builder And let the wisest of us all try, whenever we please, we shall find that to lay this ground-work rightly, to ion, will put us to all our skill'”
”Unless we take care of the rising generation, the present revival will be _res unius aetatis_ (a thing of one generation); it will last only the age of a man”
There are several ministers who earnestly labour in the spirit of these extracts from Mr Wesley's Minutes of Conference--printed the year of his death But their labours are the proence, and not dictated or backed by the authoritative exanition of the Church relations of the interesting subjects of their instructions The effect of the general disuse or neglect of syste of such, instruction of adult s alone, ious profession, want of clear and acute views of the grounds, doctrines, nature, institutions and duties of religion, indifference to all religion, or wandering fro to circumstances or caprice; but in all cases the loss to the Wesleyan Church of the greater part of the harvest which she should and arner of Christ
CHAPTER LV
1855
Dr Ryerson Resureat majority of the Conference of 1854, after ret and syled--rejected the resolutions proposed by Dr Ryerson on the class- question, yet sorrow at the loss frouished adeepened as the year advanced, and much personal effort was made to induce him to consent to some honourable means by which his return to the th, as the Conference-year neared its close, he yielded to the wishes of his friends, and, on the 26th May, 1855, addressed the following letter to Rev Dr Wood, President of the Conference:--
From the conversations which have taken place between you, my brother, and some others of our ministers and myself, in reference to my present and future relations to the Conference and to the Church, I think it but respectful and an act of duty to state , that there may be no misapprehension on the subject, and that you may adopt such a course as you shall think advisable
When I wrote nation of office in the Church, the one dated 2nd January, 1854, and the other the 12th day of June following, I had but faint expectations of being in the land of the living at this time In what I wrote and did, I acted under the apprehension of having no longer ti, in the most decisive and practical way in hts of members of the visible Church of Christ whether they are baptized children or professing Christians Since then I have reason to be thankful that the alarreatable to continue or, at least for some time to come
In than essential condition ofwhat is not enjoined in the word of God, but excluding, on other than scriptural grounds, exe the baptized children of our people who, as well as their parents, are scripturally entitled to iven the subjectthe last twelveexamined all the works on it within my reach, I am, if possible, more fully confirmed in the views I expressed last year, as both Wesleyan and scriptural, than when I penned them And it is not unworthy of remark, that the only tspapers in Canada which have combatted my views have been _The Church_ and _The Catholic Citizen_; and both of these papers have done so upon the ground that my vieere not coeto their creed of ecclesiastical authority; and I confess that the position I have been unexpectedly co the last two or three years as to the right of every hts of individuals and ard to taxation for the support of sectarian schools, has more deeply impressed upon uard of civil liberty, and that ”the Bible only ought to be the religion of Protestants;” and especially in a matter so important as that which determines who are members and what are the conditions of membershi+p in the Church of Christ
I must, therefore, in all frankness and honesty, still declare my conviction that there is no scriptural authority for the pohich is given to a minister, by the answers to the 4th question in the 2nd section of the 2nd chapter of our Discipline, to exclude a person from the Church of God for what is expressly stated not to be ”i which is not ranked a the ordinances of the Church in the General Rules of our Societies, which the 12th section of the 1st chapter of our Discipline does not enu Methodists, and which Mr Wesley stated to be ”not spiritual, not of divine institution” I would never exercise such authority myself; I never have exercised it; but I will not assu, however, that it otten, that while I thus speak and quote the authorities of the Church in respect to class- as a test or condition of Church race and a ard class-s (as stated in my former letters above referred to), as well as love-feasts and prayer-reatest value and i converted into a condition of membershi+p in the Church of Christ, and thus eneration of our people and many other sincere Christians, I cannot view it as I would wish, and as I could otherwise do, with the sas
In regard to the other aspect of the question, as it applies to the baptized children of our people, and in which the nature and office of Baptism are involved, I feel it to be of such vital i to make some observations which I hope ether useless
The circuly on this point were stated in my letter to you on the 2nd January, 1854, and afterwards more fully justified in ; and it is with no sree of surprise that I have found my views ed that they involve baptis can be further from the fact
What I maintain is simply what is stated in the 17th Article of Faith professed by our Church, and by the catechism used in the Methodist Church on both sides of the Atlantic, and what is set forth at large in the writings of Mr Wesley and Mr Watson Baptisn; but, of course, neither can be that of which it is the sign
Baptism (as the 17th Article of our Faith expresses it), is not only a sign of profession, and uished froeneration, or the new birth
What I n, while regeneration, or the new birth, is the inward spiritual grace; that by baptism we are born into the visible Church of Christ on earth, while by the Holy Ghost we are born into the spiritual or invisible Church of Christ in heaven, the same as in the Lord's Supper; there is the visible act of the Church and of the body of communicants, and the invisible act of the Saviour by the Holy Ghost and of the soul of the communicant The two are distinct; the one may not accompany the other; but they may, and often do, acco his child in faith to the Lord's baptism, the same as the communicant should come in faith to the Lord's Supper The communion of the Lord's Supper is the act of a professedof the Lord's baptis the seal of membershi+p in Christ's visible Church, that ”uished from others that are not baptized” Hence in the Wesleyan catechises of baptized persons? The answer is,--They are racious relation to Him as the Second Adam, and as the Mediator of the New Covenant, is solemnly ratified by divine appoint a clais of which they are the proper subjects