THE COMMISSION.
¥6Sf5tel AUGUST, 1860. Ho, a.
. ARE BAPTISTS SOCIALLY
EXCLUSIVE ?
You will often bear in town and
country of socinlly exclusive circles,
coteries who choose not to have much
intercourse, or intimate fellowship with
any beyond their “ own set,” who
hold themselves aloof from common
people, and talk of themselves as
“ moving in a different sphere” from
that of the mass of their neighbours.
ЛТо
ask, are these social exclusives
generally Baptists ? Is this clannish¬
ness a peculiarity of the members of
our churches ?
You may find some of it, perhaps,
here and there, for Baptists belong to
our common humanity ; hut is it not
more distinctly a peculiarity of some
other religious communions than ours ?
If you were going to judge from ordi¬
nary observation which of the religious
denominations were most repellent of
others in social intercourse — which
Were most closely knit together in clan¬
ship — which most naturally segregated
into little “ touch-me-not” coteries —
how would you decide ? You would
not say the Baptists. This is not their
character in any community with which
we have ever been acquainted. Social
exclusiveness, wherever else it may be
charged, is not a peculiarity of Bap¬
tists.
“Ah!” we hear some one sneer,
“ the Baptists are not much to he found
in the higher classes! They do not
3
usually belong there. They are, in the
main, composed of the poor and com¬
mon people."
Well, if this be so, we will try to
console ourselves by calling to mind,
that Jesus, and his Apostles, and the
members of the primitive churches,
did not belong to the higher order of
Pharisees and Nobles — the aristocracy
of the day — but that publicans and
sinners, carpenters and tax-gatherers
and fishermen, — “ the poor of this
world, rich in faith were the heirs”
and originators “of the kingdom.”
We have, it is our reproach to ad¬
mit it, more, both of wealth and intel¬
ligence, than are devoutly and benevo¬
lently used, in glorifying God, and
evangelizing the world.
But if this sneering intimation be
true, that the Baptiste are made up of
labourers and servants, farmers and
mechanics, and tradesmen, then how
can it be that they are chargeable with
exclusiveness? This would be a mar¬
vellous reversal of the ordinary cus¬
toms of society, in this world of ours.
Look at it. The Plebeians arrogating
social superiority over tlie Patricians, —
and the Patricians grieved and com¬
plaining against it. The rude Democ¬
racy hurting the feelings of the refined
Aristocracy by declining proffered fra¬
ternity and fellowship with them. Hu¬
manity in its fallen phases, is not
made of such stuff ns this. “ The
lower classes,” as the Baptists are so
often reproachfully termed, are not
