Harkey - The Church's Best State

Kenneth McGuire said:

I thought that, for fairness sake I should release some of the "other side" of the Nevin - no matter how much I am in sympathy with him.  And so I picked this book written by Simeon W. Harkey a year before the Nevin tract to let a spokesperson for these "new measures" speak in their own words.

Simeon W. Harkey was a Lutheran Pastor who was a product of the early Gettysburg Seminary.  He was active in the revivals of the 1830's and 1840's and wrote this book to advocate that these revival techniques should be a permanent part of the Church's life.

On the one hand, the revival he wanted included catechization.  In fact caring for it was one of the signs of revival for him.  In addition, he was AGAINST the anxious bench itself, because it was physically uncomfortable for people.  Much of what Nevin says just doesn't connect with him.

On the other hand, as Nevin said, "Religion does not get the sinner, but it is the sinner who “gets religion.” Justification is taken to be in fact by feeling, not by faith; and in this way falls back as fully into the sphere of self-righteousness, as though it were expected from works under any other form." (Nevin, J. W. (1844). The Anxious Bench (116). Printed at the publication Office of the German Reformed Church.)

I find a great contrast between what the Lutheran Confessions say about Justification by Faith and what Harkey does.  When the Defense of the Augsburg Confession says "What is Justifying Faith" it talks about preaching - preaching that tells of the promise of Christ - that it is free - and that the merits of Christ on the Cross are standing behind it.  On the other hand, Harkey talks about how it is a voluntary act performed by the illuminated of trusting in God.  Then he adds that this is a gift of God really...  (pg. 32-33 of this work)  I will leave it to better Theologians than I to determine if this is heresy, per se, but it certainly is a drastically different way of talking.  I suspect that this was noticed a bit in his day which is why he added an appendix on Justification in the 2nd edition...

I should say a few words about the edition itself. I generally try to keep as close to the original edition as possible, but made a few changes.  First, I didn't want to bother with footnotes when the footnote was just a biblical reference.  So, whenever the original had a footnote with a biblical reference, I placed the reference into the text surrounded by parentheses.  Second, a few pages are misnumbered in the last appendix by having the page number jump down a hundred pages for a few pages before getting back on track.  I "corrected" the pagination.

In addition, pages 53-54 are immediately duplicated as pages 55-56.  I maintained this error as well as a few misspellings, etc. that I noticed.  I am sure that I introduced a few errors as well too...

Source for this edition is http://archive.org/details/churchsbeststate01hark

SDG

Ken McGuire

Peace to you, Ken!                                                    *smile*                                        .. and .....             Always Joy in the Lord!

                    This is an area of which I have been totally and blissfully ignorant for the many years of my life!               I thank you for the opportunity of replacing this "vacuum" with some helpful and quite interesting material.                          You are indeed truly appreciated.