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Incumbents and officiating ministers in London and other populous towns, where the prompt administration of civil authority, or the full weight of the undefined, but most effectual influence of society, is felt to restrain the public conduct of men, and to enforce a thousand small and almost imperceptible proprieties of the Christian system, may lightly dismiss this question, as hardly affording matter for thought; but to the pastor of a country parish, into which the arm of the executive seldom or never reaches, and where the scattered households of his flock are either too far dissociated by distance and habits of life, or too little wrought on by Christian principle and zeal for the honour of God to combine in establishing and maintaining a moral standard for the community, it is a point of most weighty and painful interest. For the country pastor stands alone; no civil authority near at hand, no moral influence to second and secure the effect of his endeavours. All his aids are, the faint and uncertain support of a churchwarden, whose ecclesiastical character has finished long ago; and the vague remote threat of presentation before a person whose office is unknown, and a tribunal whose censures are derided.

This is no overstatement of the evil. For even in the case of ordinary offences, I have known warrants to lie dead in the hands of the constable, who, from a secret unwillingness to discharge an invidious office, and from fear of the sturdy felon threatening broken bones against any one who should attempt his arrest, has secretly connived at escape, or persisted in neglect of duty. Thus the administration of law is defeated.

A minister, more powerless still than the defeated law, is reduced to his personal influence, and if, through a happy co-operation on the part of his people, which can alone be obtained where he has been successful in diffusing widely the spirit of religion, he can preserve the public worship of God's house from disturbance, it is well; but if he be in a parish steeped in a dull indifference to unseen and spiritual things, or vainly striven with for years by a full and reiterated exhibition of religious truth, and so grown impenetrable under the hammer that should break, and barren as the way side under the dew that should fertilize, (and who is there, even a stranger in Christ's church, that has not known these things?) if such be the lot he is called to stand in, the slight influence he can exercise over the well disposed, (and they, be it remembered, are not the disorderly,) and the still slighter influence he can exercise through parents and masters over those that are rebellious, is all that he can do.

To open the subject, let us say, that when any disturber of the Divine service shall attract the minister's notice, the first step is private expostulation; on the second offence, expostulation in the presence of parents or friends, and a warning that, on the third offence, it will be necessary to require the churchwarden to take down the name in the face of the congregation, and to present it at the next bishop's visitation. With one or two the first expostulation may succeed; with a few, the second; but with those that, by obstinacy, provoke a third, will the last step avail much? The matter becomes a direct trial of strength. If no result should follow from the presentation, it falls VOL. VIII.-Sept. 1835.

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dead, and virtually awards the victory to the offender, bringing into contempt the authority of Christ's ministers over his church in general, and of the pastor over his congregation in particular. But if the presentation should be followed up by a prohibition from the church for a given time, and by the penalty of the costs, there would arise the difficulties of executing the sentence, the probable resistance, the collision, and the whoop of persecution. Can we say, in such a case, that our ministry would not be hindered? or that while the worship of God is treated irreverently, without a check, it can succeed? On the one hand, we risk the hallowed and impressive solemnity of religion, and therefore religion itself; on the other, we must endure the strife and division of conflicting with our people.

It is a painful alternative to repel any from the house and services of God, for it is, in effect, to proclaim such an one an outlaw in Christ's church. And yet may it not be asked, whether the acquired habit of irreverence, and the callousness of the mind, brought on by persevering to disturb the worship of the church, does not put the offender's soul in equal or even greater peril.

But again, will not the troubled state of our public ministrations diffuse a chilling and depressing influence throughout the whole parish? For the congregation is, as it were, the heart of the system, which carries blood and vitality even to the remotest extremities; and if this be chilled or diseased, the whole body will become languid even unto death. I have put this subject interrogatively rather than venture an opinion, because I should be glad to see it treated by older, abler, and more experienced hands. Some of your correspondents may be induced to communicate their own practice in such cases, and to define, 1, What offences require a minister's animadversion, and, 2, how they should be treated from the first commission to the final obstinacy of the stubborn offender. I am, &c., Πρεσβύτερος.

PSALM SINGING.

"I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."

SIR,-In the places at which I have generally attended Divine worship the person who announces to the congregation the verses that are to be sung out of the Psalms, reads aloud the first verse of the couplet, or the first two lines of the stanza, and then leaves the congregation to follow by help of books. But many, or at any rate some, in most churches, are unable to read or are without books, and most Prayerbooks have only one version of the psalms bound up with them, while portions for singing are commonly selected indifferently from both the old and new versions. Now it is difficult to catch the sound of singing so as to enter into the sense of what is sung, without some previous know. ledge of the words, and it is perfectly easy to do so if you know at all what words you are to expect. It would therefore surely be better to have the whole passage read over before the singing commences, or to

ve the several couplets or stanzas read before they are severally sung, as is the case in some churches. The trouble and time would be a mere nothing. This as a point of minute detail may be thought too trifling for notice, but nothing is really trifling which affects in any degree the sympathy of the congregation in the worship that is offered up, and in which all ought to join in spirit. It is of course desirable to make a mode of worship, which has been in use in the church of God in all ages, and which has been sanctioned by our Lord's own example, (Math. xxvi. 30,) as easy to enter into and to sympathize with as possible; and we, who justify our use of liturgical forms in preference to extempore prayer, in a great measure on the ground of their being more easily intelligible, are bound in consistency to impart the same most excellent quality to our psalmody as well as to our prayers. I am, sir, your obedient servant, L. S.

LIMITATION OF THE CURE OF SOULS.

SIB, I beg leave to recommend, through the medium of your Magazine, the following extracts from Bishop Stillingfleet's "Duties and Rights of the Parochial Clergy."

Nottingham, July.

A. H.

"Every one who is in orders hath a double capacity: one with respect to the church of God in general; another to that particular flock which is allotted to him, by the constitution of this church, and the law of the land. For although the nature of our duty, in general, be determined by the word of God, as I have already shewed, yet the particular obligation of every one to his own flock is according to that power and authority which, by the rules and orders of this church, is committed to him, and is fully expressed in the office of ordination. By which it plainly appears, that the care of souls committed to persons among us is not an absolute, indefinite, and unaccountable thing; but is limited as to place, persons, and duties, which are incumbent upon them. They are to teach the people committed to their charge; by whom? by the bishop when he gives institution."

"We are members of a church established by law; and there are legal duties incumbent on us, with respect, not only to the laws of God, but of the realm. For although our office and authority, as churchmen, hath a higher original, yet the limitation of the exercise of it is within such bounds as are allowed and fixed by the law of the land."

LIBERALISM.

SIR,-A prospectus of the "Destitute Sailors' Asylum, Dock Street, London Docks," was put into my hands a few days since. To that portion of it which relates to the religious instruction of the inmates, I wish (with your leave) particularly to direct your attention. It is as follows:

"The morning prayers of the Church, and the Scriptures, are read

at the Asylum every morning at six o'clock; and every week-day evening at seven o'clock orthodox dissenting ministers come and preach to the people. On the Sabbath-day the men attend the Floating Church on the Thames, and on them devolves almost the whole duty of taking people on board and returning them, whether it be from the vessels in the river or from the shore, in the boats belonging to the Asylum and the church-ship. On Sunday the men have an extra meal, coming between the forenoon and afternoon services, in the ship. In the evening they go to Pell-street Chapel, (dissenting, I suppose,) in the neighbourhood of the London Docks, where a gallery is set apart on purpose for them."

Much need hardly be said on the foregoing extract. It is one of the many instances of spurious liberality which we are compelled to witness daily in the proceedings of the (so called) religious world. It is what we must bewail in private, but, as becomes ministers and members of Christ's church, boldly protest against in public. It is to be hoped that the patrons of this institution, who doubtless are most of them professing churchmen, will be led to re-consider this part of their plan. Had no mention been made of the church service, we should have supposed of course that the Institution was under the management of some zealous and well-meaning dissenters, conscientiously opposed to the ministrations of the church. But the use of her service at one part of the day leads us to conclude that professing churchmen have considerable influence in its management. It is much to be feared, too, that they hold but lax notions of the nature and claim of that church to which they profess adherence, or they would not so openly sanction the ministration of the (so called) orthodox dissenting preacher. They cannot be aware of the undivided allegiance which the church demands of all her members. This is deeply to be regretted, as the object which the society proposes is one of the greatest importance; and the great sacrifice both of time and income, which the resident directors of the institution (as I hear) have made, deserves the highest praise, and should provoke zealous emulation. Let us hope that the bold and hardy race for whose benefit the Asylum is intended will speedily be placed under the exclusive charge of a duly ordained minister. This cannot be too much for churchmen who wish well to the Institution to expect. For this purpose many who now pause and hesitate would willingly contribute. But till an arrangement of this kind is adopted, and all room for sectarian influence is done away with, it cannot but be expected that they decline all connection with a society of so dubious and equivocal a character. As yet it has too much of the low sectarian feeling of the present day to suit the ideas and spirit of sound and zealous churchmen. I am, sir, yours, with great respect, PRESBYTER.

Bath, June 6th, 1835.

HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

SIR,-Amongst many of the more quiet contrivances for the increase of dissent which might be specified, there is the Home Missionary

Society, whose evident object is to spread the unscriptural and licentious principles of dissent throughout the length and breadth of the country. But instead of society in the singular, I ought, perhaps, more properly to say societies; for, besides the principal, or national, one, whose head quarters are in London, and whose field of operation is the whole kingdom, there are many local ones which have been instituted and are kept in existence by county or district associations of dissenting churches, as they are called. The Independents and Baptists have each their respective associations and Home Missionary Societies. An association sometimes consists of the congregations of a single county, and sometimes of two or more counties, just as circumstances may seem to demand. Some of the associations embrace twenty, some thirty, some forty, and some fifty or sixty churches, as they are termed. There are sometimes, however, many congregations within the limits of an association that are not at all connected with it, some for one reason, and some for another. Some do not approve of associations, considering them inconsistent with congregational independency; others, perhaps, disapprove of some of their principles or practices, and others are refused, or, having been admitted, are cut off by the association, on account of errors in doctrine, or delinquency in some point of discipline or practice. Every association has an annual meeting for the transaction of business. A moderator is chosen, and the ministers and messengers (persons deputed by the associated churches, one from each besides the minister,) arrange the affairs of the body. Sermons are preached, and collections (generally, if not always,) made for their home missionary proceedings, as each association has, for the most part, a local Home Missionary Society connected with it. And at the annual meeting, or by a committee, (dissenters are as remarkable for their numerous committees, as the present cabinet for commissions,) at their quarterly meeting, the movements of their missionary agents are prescribed, and their salaries paid. These agents are, of course, very carefully sent to those places where they are most likely to raise a congregation; and this is the case with the general society, as well as with all the local ones. They all, however, and the general society very particularly so, profess to send their agents only where, what they call, the Gospel is not preached; but this is mere pretence, or, perhaps, what is worse, perfect Jesuitry; for, Gospel here or Gospel there, the question with them is-Are the principles of dissent preached there? If not, and there is a probability of "establishing an interest" there, an agent will assuredly be sent, if they can spare the money to pay him. To substantiate my charge of Jesuitry, I need only say that, within the last twelve months, I called upon one of these agents, and asked him whether, as an honest man, he could say that the Gospel was not faithfully preached in the church of the parish in which he was then residing, and into which he had been sent for the pretended purpose of preaching the Gospel. After a moment's hesitation, the man candidly acknowledged that the Gospel was preached in the parish church. I immediately rejoined" Why, then, do you not leave the town? for your society professes to send its agents nowhere but where the Gos

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