Page:Preaching the Gospel to the working classes impossible under the pew system.djvu/15

 cause of free and open churches is the cause of the Church of Christ against the world. There must he no compromise with worldly principles, or there can be no success; apparent success, so obtained, is worth nothing. The system of appropriation must be denounced and exposed as avowedly selfish; it must be written against and preached against till men are made to see and feel the evil and sin which is involved in it, and those who are ignorantly partakers in the sin made aware what they are doing. When this is done, many persons (far more than could be expected) are found ready to resign their private seats and declare them free. I believe there are few churches in which the great majority of pews or appropriated seats might not in this way be made absolutely free and open. In old parish churches this is probably the best way of introducing and first carrying out the principle of freedom. This, however, will be only a transitory state of things. When once there is experience, to a fair extent, of the advantages of such freedom, there will be no insuperable difficulty in getting rid of appropriation altogether.

When principles are truly recognised and acted upon, matters of detail may generally be left to take care of themselves. Little, therefore, need here be said as to what arrangement of seats, and provision for kneeling, &c. are found most convenient in a free church.

I believe it is generally appointed that we must do right before we can understand or perceive the whole good which we shall experience by so doing; I am sure it is so in this case. Nothing but the constant use and observation of a church perfectly free will fully convince any person of the power it carries with it, and the influence for good it has on those who attend it, and the degree in which it sets forth the idea of the Church and the Gospel, and so sets forward the glory of God and the salvation of men. All these it does notwithstanding and in spite of even the greatest hindrances and imperfections in the work which accompanies it.