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 ADDEESS 
 TO THE CHURCHES, 
 
 UPON 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS. 
 
 BY THE REV. TIIOS. E. PECK, 
 
 OF THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 EVANGELICAL TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 PETERSBURG VIRGINIA. 
 1862. 
 
This Address was originally published by the Synod of 
 Virginia, October, 1861, as a Pastoral Letter to the churches 
 under their care, but its timely and excellent suggestions are 
 calculated to benefit christians of all denominations, and it is 
 therefore issued by the Tract Society as an address to the 
 churches generally. Its Author is the Rev. Thos. E. Peck, 
 of the Union Theological Seminaiy. 
 
 c. LbROI printer, 
 
[No. 83. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE CHURCHES, 
 
 —UPON— 
 
 Ttt IPIISli? GM8U 
 
 Dear Brethren. — We feel it to be our duty to address you 
 upon the dangers, discouragements and temptations which 
 visit you in these times of trouble and distraction, and threat- 
 en not only to embarrass and hinder the progress of the 
 Lord's work among you, but, in some of the churches, even 
 wholly to arrest it. We are in the midst of a war which will 
 task the utmost resources of the country,and make the largest 
 draughts upon the patriotism aud self-denying zeal and pa- 
 tience of our citizens, to conduct to a successful termination. 
 There is great danger, in these circumstances, of our over- 
 looking the immense and transcendent interests of the church 
 of God, in the absorbing solicitude we naturally feel to estab- 
 lish the independence of our own commonwealth, and of 
 those who are confederate with it. We ask your attention, 
 therefore, as the followers of the Lord to some hints in re- 
 gard to the claims of His cause upon you, in the present 
 crisis. 
 
 1st. And, in the first place, beloved brethren, we are en- 
 titled to assert in regard to all the dispensations of Provi- 
 dence, that they are not designed to suspend, much less to 
 arrest altogether the progress of the work of grace. This 
 work in time is only the evolution of that great plan of sal- 
 vation which was conceived in the counsels of eternity, and 
 whose final consummation all other works of creation and provi- 
 dence are intended to subserve. "God created all things by 
 
4 ADDRESS TO THE CHtJfcCtiES, 
 
 Jesus Christ to the intent that, now, unto the principalities 
 and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church 
 the manifold wisdom of God." "All that the Father giveth 
 to me," says our blessed Saviour, "shall come to me, and him 
 that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came 
 down from Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of 
 him that sent me. And thus is the Father's will which hath 
 sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should loose 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." The 
 same Saviour who uttered these precious words ha3 said also 
 that "He came not to send peace on earth but a sword," and 
 to make the members of a man's own household his foes. — 
 The same voice which cried upon the cross, "Father forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do," has summoned the 
 hosts to the field of battle. All power in heaven and earth 
 is in His hands, as the Saviour of the elect ; and it is as the 
 Saviour, that He has stretched out the drawn sword over our 
 land and has filled it with strife and blood. . There is no 
 incompatibility, therefore, between this war and the progress 
 of His work of redemption. The covenant which secures 
 the salvation of the church, is as sacred as it can be made by 
 the blood which sealed it, and as sure as it can be made by 
 the oath of Him who, "because He could swear by no great- 
 er, hath sworn by Himself" — "no weapon," saith the Lord to 
 the church, "no weapon that is formed against thee shall pros- 
 per." 
 
 2. In the next place, as the work must go on, so also, it 
 must go on by your means. No doubt that Christ our Head 
 might dispense with all human instrumentalities, ministry, 
 oracles and ordinances ; and Ho might have done so from the 
 beginning. He needed the use of no word, no preaching, no 
 men, no money. But lie has not chosen to dispense with 
 your services, and it becomes you to bless His name every 
 day that He has not; but, on the contrary, that He has given 
 you the glorious privilege and fellowship of being co-workers 
 with Himself; that He has with unsearchable condescension 
 and grace, said to you all — Itvillnot do the work ivithout you. 
 It is still true, and will continue to be true, till our blessed 
 Lord shall come the second time, without sin unto salvation, 
 that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of 
 
irON 1HK ^RESENT CRISIS. 
 
 God, and the word of God, maialy by the HviDg preacher. 
 The ministry of the word, therefore, must be sustained, the 
 ordinances of worship must be continued, the church must 
 shine on as a light in the world. 
 
 But some of you may say, "you are requiring impossibili- 
 ties." "Have not our lesources been crippled, our ministers 
 been enlisted for the war, our taxes increased, while our abili- 
 ty to pay them has been reduced, Arc. Arc V 
 
 We answer, "Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?" A 
 majority of the people of the South, if they had been asked 
 a year ago, whether it were possible for her to do, what is 
 matter of history now, that she has done within the last six 
 months, would doubtless have pronounced it impossible. — 
 The trial has developed her resources in a manner which has 
 astonished her own people. And this leads us to observe. 
 
 3d. In the next place, that we have good reason to believe 
 and to hope, that this great tribulation which has come upon 
 us, has been sent, not only not to cripple the church, but to in- 
 crease her resources, and to make her a more efficient witness 
 for her Lord and Master ; and that in two ways : 
 
 (1) By bringing her to humble herself under the mighty 
 hand of God in true repentance for her sins. Xo man who 
 has the love of Christ in him, and is acquainted, on the one 
 hand, with the talents intrusted to the church in the South 
 and, on the other, with what they have done with them, can 
 help seeing that we have come very far short of our duty, 
 both in regard to the claims of our own population, and the 
 demands of the nations which know not God. We have 
 wasted more of the subs' ance committed to us as stewards 
 upon vanities and trifles, than we have given to save the na- 
 tions from eternal death. Does not their blood cry out against 
 us ? Brethren, suffer the word of exhortation ! Has it not 
 been the rule with you when times were "hard," and there 
 was necessity for retrenchment, to begin at the house of God? 
 Have you not said "I can give nothing," when you had it by 
 you ?" When you have heard the cry for more ministers ; and 
 the thought has suggested itself that it might be the duty of 
 your sons, to preach the gospel, have not your hearts preferred 
 for those sons the pursuits and prizes of wealth and ambition ? 
 If so, is it strange that the Lord who loves you, and will, there- 
 
(> ADDKESS TO THE CilL'ROHKS 1 , 
 
 tore, sliovv you your sins, now compels you to give freely of 
 your sons and your substance, for the protection of your fire 
 sides and your altars? You refused these gifts for the eternal 
 salvation of your fellow-sinners : you are now compelled to 
 relinquish them for the deliverance of yourselves from that 
 which is worse than the death of the body, a tyrant's heel. 
 God, then, has shown you that the reasons you assigned for 
 not sustaining His work, liberally, were neither true nor real. 
 He has demonstrated this, in your own experience. 
 
 (2) The other way, in which the efficiency of the church 
 is to be increased by this war, as we humbly trust, is by ma- 
 king all God's people see what the spirit of love truly is, and 
 in what manner genuine love works. The love of country — 
 what wonders of heroic fortitude, and of self-denial, of self- 
 sacrifice, has it not wi ought within the last few months ! And 
 yet this love of country is a natural feeling of man, so natural 
 that the word of Gou leaves it to nature, and gives no com- 
 mandment concerning it, any more than concerning the love 
 of a mother for the child of her womb. Yet stronger than a 
 mother's love has this love of country shown itself to be ; 
 for mothers, and even widows, have cheerfully given their 
 jewels to their country. What then, beloved brethren, shall 
 we say of the love of Christ ; our love to Christ wrought in 
 us by the Spirit of the living God ? Will not that work by 
 self-denial, if it be real ? Will this love, any more than the 
 love ot country say. "I will give what I shall not miss?" *'I 
 will give this, because I can give and not feel it." "I will 
 serve that which I love, only with that which costs me noth- 
 ing ?" No ! no ! Paul had no such conception of that love, 
 when he was willing to trust it without a commandment : "I 
 speak not by commandment, to prove the sincerity of your 
 love," (2 Cor. viii. 8.) He had no such thoughts of it when 
 he spoke of the example of Christ's love to his people being 
 the exemplar of their love to Him. "For ye know the graoe 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for 
 your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty 
 might be rich." (2 Cor. viii : 9) "For the love of Christ 
 constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for 
 all, then all died ; and that He died for all, that they who 
 live shall not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him 
 
UPON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 7 
 
 who died for them and rose again." (2 Cor. v: 15, 16.) 
 The meaning of which sublime utterance is, that the design 
 and the effect of Christ's self-sacrificing love in laying down 
 His life, is the reproduction of that love in His people, or the 
 production of living images of Himself, images of II im emi- 
 nently in this, that they shall not live unto themselves but 
 unto Him, in like manner as He lived not unto Himself, but 
 unto the Father. Hence Christ himself makes the posses- 
 sion of this love essential to discipleship, and the law of self- 
 denial the fundamental law of His kingdom. "If any man 
 will come after me, let Mm deny himself, and take up His 
 cross, and follow me." It is also the law of honor in His 
 kingdom. " Whosoever will be shief among you, let him be 
 your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be saved, 
 but to save, and to give His life a ransom for many." 
 ■ Unless, therefore, brethren beloved in the Lord, you are 
 prepared to say that you love your country more than Christ, 
 you must make up your minds to lives of self-denial for 
 Christ's sake. We hope and pray that you may come forth 
 out of this furnace of war purified as gold, single-hearted, 
 unselfish, self sacrificing servants of Christ, your Lord. 
 
 4th. Once more, we beg you to reflect upon the conse- 
 quences of not sustaining the ministry of the word among 
 yourselves. This war may be a long one; God can make it 
 long, if we do not humble ourselves under His mighty hand. 
 We say nothing of the frightful possibility of subjugation 
 by the hand of them that hate us. At the close of the war, 
 long or short, 300 or 400 thousand men will be restored to 
 the bosom of society; men, it is to be feared, more or less 
 conupted in the horrid school of the camp, notwithstanding 
 all the labors of chaplains and private Christians among them, 
 men who have become reckless as to that most sacred thing, 
 human life, profane, Sabbath-breakers, and what not. how 
 we should pray that|our beloved countrymen may not become 
 such ! But if they should be such, and should return into 
 the bosom of a community which has itself, in the meantime, 
 been'degenerating ^and becoming more corrupt, under closed 
 churches and silent pulpits, what must be the result? We 
 shudder and shrink from answering this question. Our only 
 hope of escape from such a doom is in maintaining a vigo- 
 
8 ADDRESS TO THE CHURCHES. 
 
 reus spiritual life in the community at home ; a life and con- 
 stitution strong enough to remould the returning material 
 
 We beseech you, then, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
 by your love for 3 ourselves and your children and your couu- 
 try, by your love to a lost race, and above all, by your love to 
 our dear Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and by the account 
 you must render at his dreadful bar, sustain the regular 
 preaching of the word, among yourselves; see to it that 
 your preachers preach the ivord of God; save yourselves 
 from the sin and curse of political preaching; let the Sab- 
 bath, at least, be sacred to the concerns of God and salvation. 
 If one church cannot sustain a minister by itself let two or 
 more unite for that purpose. If this cannot be done, let the 
 officers hold meetings for prayer and exhortation; and 
 them visit from house to house, reproving, convincing, entreat- 
 ing with all long-suffering and doctrine. Pay special atten- 
 tion to the instruction of the young, the lambs of the flock. 
 "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love ; 
 in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; 
 fervent in spirit; serving the Lord ; rejoicing in hope ; patient 
 in tribulation ; continuing constant in prayer ; distributing to 
 the necessity ot saints ; given to hospitality. Bless them 
 which prosecute you ; bless and curse not. Rejoice with 
 them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Re- 
 compense to no man evil for evil. Be not overcome with 
 evil, but overcome evil with good." "If ye do these things, 
 ye shall never fall, but so an entrance shall be administered 
 unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever ! 
 Amen !" 
 
Hollinger Corp* 
 P H 8.5