CHAPTER XI

PASTOR AND THEOLOGIAN:    1810-1850

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might
be saved."—Romans 10 : 1.

*' Whatever subordinate ends, therefore, the Christian pulpit may secure in this
or the coming worid, its legitimate, paramount aim is the glory of God in the salva¬
tion of men."—Gardiner Spring, "The Power of the Pulpit," p. 170.

THE last chapter, although in many of its
facts and incidents suggestive of the real
life of the church, is for the most part only
a description of the outer shell. It presents to us in
detail the physical conditions under which the work
of the church was carried on. We now turn to study
that work itself, and we shall begin by tracing the
career of him who was the church's leader throughout
this period.

In a sense the whole religious life and activity that
then existed in the Brick Church, all those matters,
for example, that will be presented in the next three
chapters, form a part of his biography. But there
are certain more personal facts and events which may
well be treated by themselves in a chapter especially
devoted to him. And here it will be convenient to
deal also with all the church's distinctly theological
interests during these years, since in them the church
could hardly be said to act at all except in the person
of its pastor.

148