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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
In this a church necessarily differs from a worldly society , in which prevails generally a love of pre-eminence , and a jealousy of every new person brought forward . Nothing of this can appear in a Christian Church . All wiu be done for edification .
The regulations of the committee will be consistent with the perfect law of liberty , by which alone a Christian Church is bound ; and , of course , the bishop or presiding elder will make such a change in the course , as circumstances may require . Thus , should there be strangers at the meeting , he will naturally propose to them , first , whether they wish to address the church in any manner of exhortation ; and he will supply any deficiency that
may have arisen from various causes in the appointment of the committee . As every thing is to be done decently and in order , the bishop or presiding elder will attend to the spirit of this rule : and a Christian Church cannot
break out into any thing unseemly under his inspection . Under the inspection of the committee falls the admission or secession of a member ; not that it can decide definitely upon those points which belong exclusively to the church . The preparatory investigations on such
subjects will be best undertaken by the eiders , under whose cognizance will also be placed the direction of the public funds , the care of the sick and needy , the correspondence with other churches , and in short , every thing that may be arranged with propriety by them previously to the submission of it to the decision of the church .
In carrying forward the business of a church , " we find another kind of officers described by the apostle under a name which means to serve or minister : and the name may be still with propriety retained . Certain persons will be elected in a manner similar
to that of the election of elders , and at the same time to be the deacons or ministers of the church . The qualifications for this office are so well laid down by the Apostle Paul , that it is needless to repeat them here ; though
it may be necessary , from the fatal effects of the breach of one part of these precepts , on this subject to point out the necessity of the marriage of every one elected to this office . The business of a deacon or minister will ,
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as the name implies , be to serve the church , by attending to the proper accommodation of the members at any meeting , the making of the arrangements for the meeting , the coU lection of the contributions on the
first day of the week , the distribution of alms , and similar offices . We read of deaconesses in the Scriptures , and these are most fitly adapted for the services to be rendered to the female part of the church . The appointment of them seems to devolve with the
greatest propriety on the committee of eiders , who , in the selection of them , will attend to the directions given on this subject by the apostle . Mention is also made in the
Scriptures of other officers termed angels , or rather messengers ; and an officer of this kind may be requisite in keeping up the communication between different churches ; or it might be in the communication between the
committee of eiders and the deaconesses . The appointment of these officers , when necessary , seems to be most fitly vested in the committee of elders . To be a member of a church , it is requisite that the person having a desire to become one should be a
Christian : but as the name is now become common , and it 13 thought to be an insult to suppose any one not entitled to this appellation , it is evident , that the mej * e appellation is not of itself
sufficient . The character of a society is made up of that of its individual members , and too much care cannot be applied in the first instance , lest the church should suffer afterwards
for want of due circumspection . In the case of relatives or friends of members , a recommendation of two members to the committee of elders would be sufficient , and it would judge of the propriety of recommending them to the church . This judgment would
naturally be formed on such inquiries as could easily be obtained in a Christian Church ; and , of course , there would be friendly communications between the . party proposed and some of the elders , previously to the determination of the committee . At
the general meeting , the name of the candidate , his two proposers , and the approbation of the elders , would be read to the church , which would decide in the usual way . If a stranger offered himself to the elders , they would ap-
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398 On the Constitution of a Christian Church .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/18/
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