It was expected that the Quarterly would be issued about four years ago; but circumstances which need not be detailed here, have delayed it until now. It at length makes its appearance in perilous times. Many will feel no doubt, that it should have been still longer postponed. This should certainly have been done, had the prospect existed of peace close at hand. But such is not the case. Instead, then, of deferring the work longer, it is believed that an obvious necessity exists for its immediate publication.
More now than ever before in this country, do even Christians need to be placed completely under the influence of Christianity. In mind and heart they are deeply and painfully agitated. Christianity alone can tranquilize and soothe them. In thought they are distracted and unsettled, and in affection alienated one from another. Truth alone can unitize, settle, and reassure them. Their zeal has cooled, their energy lost its ancient tone. Fresh, living pictures of the love of Christ, more than anything else, can rekindle the former, and vitalize the latter. Exciting political news so engrosses their attention that their views of the Gospel are in uncommon danger of becoming dim and unreliable. Nothing can so effectually prevent this as sharp, spirited discussions of the great elementary themes of Christianity. Indeed, never before did so high a necessity exist in our ranks for sound elementary preaching, and sound elementary writing as now. Let such preaching, and such writing, quick with the noble warmth of preacher and writer, be sent home to the hearts of the people, and salvation, and joy, and gladness will be the result. That it is the solemn duty of every true man to work for these great ends, surely none will deny. To these ends it was felt that the Quarterly might, in some humble measure, at least, be made auxiliary. Hence its appearance at the present juncture. The desire that when the war-god once more still his clamor in the land, our body—that great body for whose growth and health some of us have now been long working—the desire that that body may be still one, with not a member lost, with truth maintained and honored, is the most absorbing passion of the poor heart that utters this. We have loved that body, and cherished it with the heart-warm love of the mother for her babe. And in return that body hath loved us much, loved us fondly, tenderly. We cannot desert it now in this hour of trial. No: we must work for it with pen, work for it with tongue, work for it with [111] prayer, work for it in hope, work for it the livelong day, and dream of it in watches of the night—work for it and never faint.
Beloved brethren: In the broad valley of the Mississippi, during the last forty years, our labors have been immense; and hitherto we have looked on them justly as a crown of glory. Much of this vast tract is this day dotted over by our own colleges, seminaries, meeting-houses, flocks in Christ, and homes. Worthy have been the hands that have toiled in this wide field, and honored the memory of such of them as sleep in its dust. Our numbers we now count by tens of thousands, with hopes the brightest that ever cheered the heart. No people ever had juster grounds of rejoicing than we, none ever had more at stake. Can we now afford to lose this great work? Can we ever afford to have its brightness dimmed for a moment? Never, never. We must work heroically, and in every way maintain what we have gained, and still work to gain more.
The sects of the day are doing nothing, literally nothing, save growling at one another as of old; while their members hate each other cordially on account of political differences. Let us be unlike them. We are setting them, in many places, a sublime example, and it is having its effect. They are beginning to realize that our plea of Christian union is not a mere pretense; but that, even in the trying present, we are living the thing we have been preaching to others. Even the world is taking lessons of us. Ages hence their effects will be seen. Let every brother, then, be alive to the grand work which God and his providences are calling him.
Be our high aims the following: To maintain, 1. The purity of the truth; 2. The unity of the church; 3. To cherish and disseminate a tender and fraternal spirit—a spirit as ready and willing to forgive as it is to be forgiven.
In conclusion, we ask for the Quarterly the countenance and support of a noble brotherhood, as far only as it may subserve these great ends.
The old subscription list obtained four years ago has been thrown aside. All, therefore, who want the Quarterly, must subscribe for it anew. The subscription price is published on the outer cover. [112]
[September, 1863]
Return to Lard’s Quarterly index.