years as a superintendent of missions. I know no man living who has been present at a larger number of National and State meetings and other notable gatherings of Congregationalists than he. Under his nom de plume of " Pilgrim," which he has signed to more than seven hundred letters published in various papers, he is known throughout the denomination. Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark is, as he always has been, a Congregationalist, though the great movement which originated with him. has spread through all Protestant denominations and through the world. Rev. H. A. Bridgman, the managing editor of the Congregationalist, has made special investigations of the beginning and growth of Congregational periodical literature. Dr. A. H. Quint, the moderator of the last National Council, has been a prominent factor in every one of these assemblies, and is unsurpassed in his familiarity with Congregational usages and with every aspect of ecclesiastical councils. Some repetition has been unavoidable, because the same period has been considered by different writers; but not more, it is hoped, than the symmetry of each narrative required.

I have made no mention of doctrinal discussions which center around the higher criticism of the Bible, and which are rife in all denominations. Nor have I alluded to very recent controversies connected with the American Board and Andover Theological Seminary. It is quite uncertain as yet whether these matters will demand much space in the history of Congregationalism in the nineteenth century. At present no denomination is more harmonious than ours. May the Spirit of holiness, truth, peace and love always abide in it!

My reverence for the wisdom, faith, consecration and courage of the men and women who have labored in this branch of Christ's body for the advancement of His kingdom has constantly increased as I have further studied their characters and aims. In the noble company of many names, of those who have "through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous

ness, obtained promises," Congregationalists hold an honorable place. All those who share their name ought to know something of their principles and deeds. Every Congregationalist surely should be informed concerning the important facts of the history of his denomination. If I have succeeded in making these facts more accessible and interesting, my labors will have been amply rewarded; for by the truths which He taught, the redemption which He accomplished, and the companies of believers in whom He dwells by His Spirit, the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A. E. Dunning.

BOSTON, May 15, 1894.

INTRODUCTION

By the Rev. RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D., LL. D.

It is gratifying to know that the volume on Congregationalism has been prepared, and is to be published, to which the writer of these lines is asked to

contribute a brief Introductory Note. A popular account of the principles and the history of Congregational churches should have its interest for all who know what such churches have done in the world, while it may naturally be expected to be specially welcome to those knowing more or less of the system, yet not fully informed as to its characteristics or as to their development in the past.

The present writer is by no means a prejudiced partisan for particular forms of practice commonly associated with this scheme of church-order. On the other hand he sees certain excellences in various other methods and forms of action, and could no doubt adjust himself to them if occasion required. But he has lived and worked in the Congregational fellowship during all the years of his Christian life, as his fathers had done for two centuries before, and his attachment to what he conceives to be distinctive in its principles is naturally strong. Perhaps, too, his testimony concerning this may not be weakened in force by the fact that it has in it the suggestions of experience; as one who has long lived in a house may fairly be sup

posed to know more of its internal arrangements and fitnesses for use than an outside observer, who has seen only its walls, windows, gables, and chimney-tops. So he gladly consents to say a few words commending this volume to the attention of those to whom his name may be known.

The two fundamental principles in the Congre gational scheme of the relation of churches to each other are obvious and familiar: First, that any permanent congregation of disciples, accepting God's revelation of himself in the Scriptures, and personally consecrated to Christ the Head, associating themselves, with their households, for the worship of God and the administration of Christian ordinances, constitutes a church; complete in itself, competent to elect and set apart its officers, to adopt its rules, to arrange its own forms of worship, and in general to manage its par ticular affairs in the way which shall seem to it best, under constant and reverent reference to the precept and guidance of the Heavenly King: Second, that every such church is bound to live in fellowship and communion, of faith, of spirit, and of work, with every other; to give to others aid and counsel when these are needed, to seek their fraternal aid and counsel when important action is to be taken by itself, or when differences of judgment and feeling arise within it, and fraternally to co-operate with them in all good works.

These two principles-the independence and auton omy, under Christ, of the local church, and the obligation of fellowship with others always resting upon it-are what give to Congregationalism its name, and

what impart to it any virtue which belongs to it as a scheme of general church-order. They have been well described as the two foci of its ellipse. They are the two responsive and regulating forces in its organic system. It is not "Independency," while it still looks askance on any comprehensive permanent organization in which the life of the local congregation is liable to be practically merged. Affiliated "churches"—not one all-embracing "Church," least of all "The Church"are what it finds in the New Testament, and what it seeks to reproduce wherever it prevails.

At the same time, in the relations to each other of the disciples associated in such churches it recognizes a normal equality of right and privilege, a real and effective brotherhood of believers, and estimates office as ministerial only, never as conveying endowment of prerogative. Character and wisdom are in its view the only proper conditions of influence, and the pastor himself is fitly a fellow-member with those of whom he should be also leader and guide. The notion of the dependence of church-life on any class of officers set over it, and supplying this life from superior heights, is as foreign to Congregationalism as would be the notion in society that household life and domestic harmony require to be conferred by official supervisors. From within outward, from beneath upward, is the law of the progress of life, in the spiritual as in the natural world. To try to reverse the process in churches is irrational in theory, and practically as dangerous, history shows, as an attempt to set the growing tree on its branches instead of its roots.