Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

shall be taught to go about this labour of love with great zeal and great prudence. Each visitor must confine himself chiefly to his own immediate vicinity, and not take a larger district than can be properly managed. This must be carefully attended to, and means of a systematic character adopted to secure the regular occupation of the local territory.

12. The members of the district shall each subscribe at least one penny a week to the District Fund, for defraying the expense of the rent, fire, lighting, and cleaning of the room, as also of the Sundayschool, of the magazines for the library, and of other incidental matters. This subscription shall be paid to the helpers at the close of the weekly meetings, or at such other periods as may suit the convenience of parties.

13. When the system is brought into full operation at the Model Station, and the bulk of the church has become convinced of the importance of the measure, and begun to long for its general adoptionwhich may require a space of twelve months, more or less, according to circumstances then there shall be a break-up, and a dispersion and settlement of the body of helpers among their several districts, in each of which a room, properly situated, is to be erected or procured, and fitted up in a manner equally adapted to public worship or to school instruction. It may now be presumed that they have acquired sufficient experience to proceed, under the general guidance of the pastor, after the example of the Model Station.

14. Of the trained helpers, now located in each district, the pastor shall choose one to be the chief or superintendent of the station, who shall act in all things as his assistant; and, as such, shall preside at the weekly meetings. The chief helper, or superintendent, shall also be the treasurer of the district, paying all expenses, and transferring the balance, if any, at the close of the year, to the deacons for the use of the poor.

15. The exercises shall be carried on at each district station after the same manner as they had been conducted, during the experimental period, at the Model Station; the chief helper shall act the pastor's part, and his colleagues in office shall take a principal share in the service; but the chief helper shall make it a point, by degrees, to bring forward proper persons among the ordinary brethren to participate in the exercises, that cultivation may spread, and the competent agency on the station be augmented as largely as possible. For a time it may be proper that both the common helpers should speak at every weekly meeting, that one of the members should offer the opening prayer, and that another should be the third speaker. As, however, the members improve, it may sometimes be right that only one common helper should speak, and that the ordinary members should conduct the rest of the service. When the system is fairly established, the chief helper shall form a list and a plan, under the pastor's direction, of all the persons who are accustomed to participate in the exercises, on the same principle as the Wesleyan Methodists' local preachers' plan. This step will prevent at once favouritism and confusion, and secure a fair distribution of the district employment.

⚫ 16. The nights of the weekly meeting at each station must be so

arranged as not to clash with the night of the weekly lecture at the chapel; the usual weekly Monday prayer-meeting will now be merged in the weekly meeting of the first or chapel district; but, on the first Monday of every month, there shall be a general special prayer-meeting at the chapel, for the spread of the gospel; and on that night there shall be no service at any other station. During the other weeks of the month, supposing the weekly lecture to be on Wednesday, the arrangements may stand thus:-There shall be on Monday, the meeting of the first and chief station, viz. that of the chapel; on Tuesday, that of the second station; on Thursday, those of the third and fourth stations; and on Friday, those of the fifth and sixth stations.

17. Every fourth weekly meeting at each station, henceforth to be called the Monthly Meeting, shall be specially set apart for prayer, and the business of the station. The first hour shall be occupied with devotion, and then, strangers retiring, business shall commence. The pastor, as president, shall bring forward the several subjects in the following order :

:-

First. Health.-The visitors shall report upon the cases of sick members, if any, during the month. Fresh cases of serious illness, if any, shall be announced, and persons nominated to visit them; but kind and tender attentions to sick members are not to be limited to such persons as are thus nominated. The members of the district generally, but especially those of nearest residence, are also expected, more or less, to visit afflicted brethren and sisters. Visitation, however, is not to be confined to the members, but shall extend to all in the district who are accustomed to receive tracts, and attend the services at the chapel and the stations.

Second. Tracts.-The tracts which have been in circulation during the last month shall be exchanged, and reports made of any occurrences that may merit notice. With a view to stimulus, the pastor shall inquire whether any of the members have succeeded in the course of the month to obtain scholars-to induce any of their neighbours to attend the meetings or to become subscribers to the library, and whether any case of usefulness has been discovered.

[ocr errors]

Third. Library. The pastor shall next inquire of two or three of the members what books they have been reading in the course of the month; what was the scope and object of the authors; and like questions. It must not be known before-hand who is to be thus interrogated; and the questions are principally to be pressed upon teachers, catechists, expositors, and the younger portion of the members.

Fourth. Finances.-The helpers shall then settle and arrange their pecuniary affairs, and receive any arrears of weekly subscriptions which may have arisen during the month, at the close of which such matters must always be settled.'-Jethro, pp. 188-197.

6

The second department comprehends the children,' the treatment of whom is to be regulated in the manner following.

1. The name, age, and residence of all the children of the members of every district respectively, shall be registered in a separate book, to be kept at the station for ready reference.

2. A meeting of all the members of each district shall then be held, and immediate steps taken to ascertain the state of Christian education throughout their families; and inquiry shall also be made, whether every child of proper years be receiving proper day-school instruction. In every district where the neighbourhood is not well supplied with a day-school, measures shall be adopted to establish one for the especial benefit of the children of the members-not exclusive, however, of others—where due attention shall be paid to the moral and spiritual interests of the young.

4. A Sunday-school shall then immediately be opened in the room at the station, specially for the members' children, but open to all that come, who can read with tolerable facility, and to such only. This school shall be taught exclusively by members of the church, persons of approved piety and intelligence. To this institution shall be attached a good juvenile library.

5. The next step shall be the formation of Theological Classes, to be composed of the elder scholars of both sexes who have advanced beyond Sunday-school pupilage, and other young persons whom it may be possible to persuade to avail themselves of the benefit. Every class shall be under an appropriate catechist appointed by the pastor. These classes shall separately meet on the Sabbath afternoon, in private houses, according to local convenience, each sex by themselves. There shall also be a monthly meeting, on a week-night, of all these classes and their catechists, in the station-room, for prayer, when the pastor shall meet them as often as possible.

6. These classes, in addition to the use of the juvenile library, by each paying one penny per week, shall likewise have access to the district library.

7. There shall be an exclusively private quarterly meeting with the pastor, in the station-room, of all the parents of the district who are members, with their children. At this meeting the duties of domestic instruction and of filial obedience, and the relation of the children to the church, shall be clearly specified, and tenderly pressed. This quarterly meeting shall be held on one of the monthly nights, to prevent the oppressive increase of pastoral duty. By this means, too, there will be four quarterly and eight monthly meetings, which will throw a beneficial variety into the services of the stations throughout the year. On such occasions the monthly business would, of course, go on at the close, as usual.

[ocr errors]

8. There shall be at each station a half-yearly tea meeting, composed exclusively of the members and their elder children, with the helpers, catechists, teachers, and other functionaries of the district. Suitable exercises shall be carried on, and at every second meeting, which shall be considered as the annual assembly, there shall be presented a general report on the affairs of the station. At these meetings the pastor will of course preside.

9. There shall further be an exclusively private half-yearly meeting, in the chapel, of all the members of all the districts, with their children. The afternoon of the Lord's-day will generally be the fittest time for this assemblage; that period will insure a more full atten

VOL. VI

3 B

dance than could be commanded on a week-night-and, besides, the Sabbath is indispensable to the main point of arrangement, comprised in the next provision.

10. At this half-yearly meeting shall be solemnly admitted to full communion all those young persons, being children of members, who have become decided in the course of the previous six months. None else, however, but children of members shall be admitted at such meetings; and they shall always be so admitted. At the same time a list shall be read of any children and youth, the offspring of the mem. bers, who may have died in the course of the preceding six months, with statements of any thing that may merit notice. Then shall follow the administration of the Lord's Supper, accompanied by suitable addresses from the pastor, and appropriate prayers by the helpers of the districts.-Jethro, pp. 216-219.

The third department relates to the congregation.'

2. Let the pastor announce from the pulpit, that, as a preliminary step, at given times, the names and addresses of the whole congregation, not already incorporated in the theological classes specified under the second department, will be received and registered by the helpers.

3. Heads or occupants of houses who have a well-aired, comfortable room, capable of containing from twelve to twenty individuals, and will feel it a privilege and an honour to have it occupied once a week for Christ, shall next, from the pulpit, be requested to transmit their names and addresses to the pastor.

4. There shall then be an allocation among the rooms of the individuals whose signatures have been obtained, according to their respective residences, and who shall be constituted into companies or classes, comprising each from twelve to twenty-and not more, which would tend to defeat the object.

5. The pastor having selected from the church a body of the most intelligent, judicious, and devout persons he can find-who shall henceforth be denominated congregational helpers, in contra-distinction from the district helpers-one of these shall be appointed to each room, and a day fixed for the first meeting. At that time the pastor shall repair to the spot, and constitute the class. He shall introduce the helper and the persons composing the class to each other, and lay down the method by which it is to be conducted. He shall also deliver a book, containing the names of the class, and shall request the helper to mark attendance weekly, and report to him upon that, and the general state of the class, once in every three months. It is desirable that such helpers should all be heads of houses, and considerably advanced in years.

6. The great object of the class must determine the mode of its management. That object is not principally devotion-it is even presumed that the bulk are unawakened persons. The great end, then, of assembling them, is to impart instruction in order to their conversion. It is not, therefore, required or permitted that much time be spent in devotional exercises. Singing may be dispensed with, espe

cially where the helper does not possess the capacity of leading the tune. It suffices for the helper to offer up a short appropriate prayer for spiritual aid at the commencement, and for the blessing of God at the close of each successive meeting.

7. The Sabbath afternoon, especially where there is no service in the chapel, is the best period for holding these meetings. At that time servant maids, apprentices, journeymen, and workmen of all kinds, are at leisure, and in a state of mental repose to listen to instruction. This season is, on other grounds both strong and weighty, the proper period

for their convention.

8. Pastors who do not preach in the afternoon shall, according as health and strength may permit, visit these meetings in order, once a quarter, and converse individually with the members of the class, on the state of their hearts and views, and the ground of their hope.

9. The helpers of the districts shall be specially appointed as superintending visitors of these classes-each set of helpers limiting their labour of love to such classes as are held within their own district. They shall visit in rotation; and the congregational helper shall always be apprized of his intended visit. The visiting helper shall always remain the whole time with the classes, otherwise he will but distract the business, and the end of his visit will be defeated; he shall engage a part of that time, after the business of instruction is terminated, in suitable conversation, endeavouring to encourage the class, and to hold up the hands of the helper, and he shall then conclude the meeting with prayer. These visits shall be arranged according to a plan, that they may be paid at proper distances, and with due regularity; this shall constitute a part of the monthly business of the district.

10. A box of appropriate tracts and books shall be deposited in the class-room, and placed under the care of the helper, not to give but to lend to the individuals who compose his class. These books the helper shall give out according to the circumstances of his class, and, when they are returned, endeavour to ascertain whether the parties have read, understood, and profited by them.

11. In these classes, each sex shall, of course, meet apart; and, in the arrangement, due regard shall be had to standing in society, both as to the helper and the individuals composing the class. For the female classes it would be desirable to train a body of superior female helpers; till that can be done we may use the services of grave married

men.

[ocr errors]

12. In addition to these general classes-into which all practicable and proper methods shall be earnestly employed to press every seatholder and hearer in the congregation-there shall be at least two special classes, one for each sex, to meet also on the Sabbath afternoon, and to be composed of persons drafted from the general classes, who are deemed to be in an awakened and decidedly hopeful state. These shall be designated the PASTOR'S CLASSES, and be under his more immediate charge, while each of them shall also, nevertheless, have its own proper helper. Let the pastor's wife, if duly qualified, and it be otherwise convenient, meet the female class, and a person of the first ability that can be procured, meet the other; and let the pastor

« ZurückWeiter »