remaining committed to the older allegorical and typological methods of exegetical interpretation.]
103. [Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck (1799–1877) was Professor of Theology at the University of Halle where he was instrumental in moving the school from rationalism to pietism.]
104. [Ernst Wilhelm Christian Sartorius (1797–1859), a staunch defender of the Augsburg Confession, was a German-Lutheran theologian who taught at the University of Göttingen and served as the General Superintendent of the Union Church (which had united Lutherans and Reformed in one church body) in the province of East Prussia. He also served as chaplain of the royal castle church at Königsburg.]
105. [Johann August Wilhelm Neander (1789–1850) was a church historian known for prioritizing the original sources and for his concentration on people, rather than institutions. He was born a Jew, David Mendel by name, but converted to Christianity under the influence of Schleiermacher.]
106. [Nevin’s claim is supported by the evidence of Richard Carwardine that Finney’s “New Measures” had already been used by Methodists: “The Second Great Awakening in the Urban Centers.”]
107. [Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) matriculated at Heidelberg and Tübingen before becoming professor of Greek at Wittenberg. He played an essential role at the Diet of Augsburg and the resulting confession was, by and large, his work.]
108. [Adam Clarke (1760–1832) was a British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar.]
109. [Thermopylae is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece which was the site of several memorable battles in antiquity, the most famous being that between Persians and Greeks in August 480 BC.]
Chapter I.
Design of the Tract.—Occasion for inquiry.—Importance and solemnity of the subject.
It is proposed to institute a free inquiry into the merits of the Anxious Bench, as it has been enlisted extensively of late years in the service of religion. My object will be to show that the measure is adapted to obstruct rather than to promote the progress of true godliness, and that it deserves to be discouraged on this account.
No one needs to be informed what is meant by the Anxious Bench. Its nature and design have come to be as familiar to most people as the nature and design of the pulpit itself. Even among those who dislike it there are few perhaps who have not had the opportunity at one time or another of witnessing its operation, while all are well acquainted with it at least in the way of description and report.
It will be understood that the Anxious Bench is made to stand, in this case, as the type and representative of the entire system of what are technically denominated in our day “New Measures.” It is not meant by this, of course, that it is so bound to the system as never to be separated from other parts of it in actual practice. It may be in use where no new measures besides are tolerated; and it is possible, on the other hand, that it may not be employed by some who in other respects are wholly in this interest. But still it may very fairly be exhibited as a type of the system at large. These measures form properly a system; and it is only in this view that it is possible to estimate rightly their nature and character. It is not uncommon to class with them things of a different nature altogether; and then advantage is taken of the confusion thus produced to evade the point of objections urged against new measures in the proper sense. This, however, is sophistry of a very shallow order. The idea of New Measures is just as well defined in itself and as generally intelligible in the American Church as the idea of popery, Methodism, Presbyterianism, or almost anything else of the same general character that might be named. It is only by a gross and palpable abuse that some wish to make it include the best things in the Church. New measures, in the technical modem sense, form a particular system, involving a certain theory of religious action, and characterized by a distinctive life, which is by no means difficult to understand. Of this system the Anxious Bench is a proper representative. It opens the way naturally to other forms of aberration in the same direction, and may be regarded in this view as the threshold of all that is found to follow, quite out to the extreme verge of fanaticism and rant. The measure belongs to the system, not in the name simply, but in its life and spirit. At the same time, it is the most favorable aspect in which the cause of New Measures can be presented to our view. The simple Anxious Bench, as it is often used in a sober way, is the most moderate and plausible shape the system can well take. If this then be found unworthy of confidence, the whole system will be shorn of its title to confidence at the same time. If the Anxious Bench can claim no indulgence, it must be idle to put in a plea for its kindred measures. All beyond this is only something worse.
It is well too that we can thus deal with our subject. If there be no room, as some pretend, for treating it in a clear and satisfactory way under the title of New Measures, by reason of the confusion with which that term is used, it is so much the more important that we should substitute the particular for the general; and we have reason to congratulate ourselves on finding a single, well known form of action that can be taken fairly as the representative of the whole system. In this way our argument will not be abstract and vague, but pointed and clear. Whatever dust it might be contrived to raise with regard to the proper sense of the term New Measures, all know at least the meaning of the Anxious Bench. Here then we have a tangible, concrete subject with which to deal. Let it serve as a specimen of the system to which it belongs. In this way the system is characterized and distinguished. It includes things of the same general constitution and spirit with the Anxious Bench. In trying the merits of this, we try at the same time all these kindred practices and nothing more.110 If any choose to incorporate with their idea of New Measures, things of a different constitution and spirit entirely, it cannot be helped. But they can have no right to force any view of this sort upon the present argument. Our business is with New Measures in the proper sense; and that we may not seem to run uncertainly, or beat the air, we characterize the system by one of its most familiar exhibitions. It stands before us in the type of the Anxious Bench.
Here too is the proper point for grappling with the heresy of New Measures. It can answer no purpose to discountenance the system in general, if we lend our influence theoretically or practically to uphold a measure forming like this a legitimate stepping stone to all the system is found to embrace. No satisfactory line can be drawn between this and the more advanced forms of extravagance for which it prepares the way. They will be found to involve in the end the same principle. That is a false position, therefore, by which some excellent men allow themselves to speak freely against noise and disorder and bodily exercises in public worship under other forms, while at the same time the Anxious Bench is not only spared, but treated with honor and confidence, as though it had come to form part of the accredited and regular service of God’s House. Men who occupy this position may preach or write an abundance of wholesome advice on the subject of false excitement in religion; but their advice is not likely to carry much weight with it in the end, as not going after all to the ground of the error against which it is directed. If we would utter an intelligible and consistent testimony against New Measures, we must make no exception, openly or tacitly, in favor of the Anxious Bench. Here precisely is the proper point at which to grapple with the whole system.
There is occasion for the inquiry here proposed. It is true, indeed, that throughout a large portion of the country the Anxious Bench, after having enjoyed a brief reputation, has fallen into discredit. It has been tried, and found wanting; and it might have been trusted that this experiment would be sufficient to drive it completely
