---
title: 'James Henley Thornwell on the Church’s Mission'
type: post
author: 'Caleb Cangelosi'
date: 2021-09-17
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2021-james-henley-thornwell-on-the-churchs-mission
---

# James Henley Thornwell on the Church’s Mission

“What, then, is the Church? It is not, as we fear too many are disposed to regard it, a moral institute of universal good, whose business it is to wage war upon every form of human ill, whether social, civil, political or moral, and to patronize every expedient which a romantic benevolence may suggest as likely to contribute to human comfort, or to mitigate the inconveniences of life. We freely grant, and sincerely rejoice in the truth, that the healthful operations of the Church, in its own appropriate sphere, react upon all the interests of man, and contribute to the progress and prosperity of society; but we are far from admitting either that it is the purpose of God, that, under the present dispensation of religion, all ill shall be banished from this sublunary state, and earth be converted into a paradise; or, that the proper end of the Church is the direct promotion of universal good. It has no commission to construct society afresh, to adjust its elements in different proportions, to rearrange the distribution of its classes, or to change the forms of its political constitutions. The noble schemes of philanthropy which have distinguished Christian nations, their magnificent foundations for the poor, the maimed and the blind, the efforts of the wise and good to mitigate human misery, and to temper justice with mercy in the penal visitations of the law, the various associations that have been formed to check and abate particular forms of evil, have all been quickened into life by the spirit of Christianity. But still it is not the distinctive province of the Church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for arresting the progress of intemperance, gambling or lust. The problems, which the anomalies of our fallen state are continually forcing on philanthropy, the Church has no right directly to solve. She must leave them to the Providence of God, and to human wisdom sanctified and guided by the spiritual influences which it is her glory to foster and cherish. The Church is a very peculiar society; *voluntary* in the sense that its members become so, not by constraint, but willingly; but, not in the sense that its doctrines, discipline and order are the creatures of human will, deriving their authority and obligation from the consent of its members. On the contrary, it has a fixed and unalterable Constitution; and that Constitution is the Word of God. It is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is enthroned in it as a sovereign. It can hear no voice but His, obey no commands but His, pursue no ends but His. Its officers are His servants bound to execute only His will; its doctrines are His teachings, which He as a prophet has given from God; its discipline His law, which He as king has ordained. The power of the Church, accordingly, is only ministerial and declarative. The Bible, and the Bible alone, is her rule of faith and practice. She can announce what it teaches, enjoin what it commands, prohibit what it condemns, and enforce her testimonies by spiritual sanctions. Beyond the Bible she can never go, and apart from the Bible she can never speak. To the law and to the testimony, and to them alone, she must always appeal; and when they are silent it is her duty to put her hand upon her lips.
 These principles, thus abstractly stated, are not likely to provoke opposition, but the conclusion which flows from them, and for the sake of which we have here stated them, has unfortunately been too much disregarded; and that is, that the Church is not at liberty to *speculate*. She has a creed, but no *opinions*. When she speaks, it must be in the name of the Lord, and her only argument is *Thus it is written*.”

— from [*Collected Works* (1873)](/authors/james-henley-thornwell), 4:382ff.