THE

General Baptist Magazine.

SEPTEMBER, 1884.

That to do with Differences and Divisions in Churches.*

WHAT to do with the differences and divisions in churches is a question we all find it hard to answer. We may be able to particularize and arrange them, but who shall tell us how to deal with them? One thing may be taken for granted at the outset-they are not all to be dealt with in the same way. A mode of pacification that might be very effectual for a broil in a small village church, would not suit a large town church; and what might be adapted to the town would not do for the country. And yet for all the churches, whether in town or country, one thing is appropriate, and that is prevention. Better by far for all the churches to "seek peace and pursue it." Happy is the nation that has no history, may be a good maxim: happy is the church that has no quarrels, is unquestionably a right one. At this very season many people are reading, with deeply loyal interest, that charming volume containing the correspondence of the beloved and lamented Princess Alice with her mother, our Queen. One thing recorded by the Princess made an indelible impression on my mind. She expresses the opinion in one of her letters written during the progress of the FrancoPrussian war, which for its loss of life and happiness she so sorrowfully bemoaned, that the grand result of the war was not the rectification of the German frontier, or the taking of the forfeited provinces, but the united German Fatherland. We have not, it is true, to deal with nationalities, or with the kingdoms of this world, but we have to deal with spiritual interests and with the kingdom of Christ; and to maintain our peace and our unity in church fellowship is better than all the dazzling conquests which could be offered as a prize for strife.

No way of dealing with church contentions is likely to meet with general approval or success which ignores the independence of the churches and their right of private judgment; although the independence of the churches is here and there their madness, and their

The concluding portion of a paper read at the Midland Conference at Barton Fabis, June 4th, by Rev. W. H. Tetley, of Derby. We regret that, through want of space, we are unable in accordance with the request of the Conference to print the whole of the paper.-ED. GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER, 1884.-VOL. LXXXVI.-N.S. No. 9.

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WHAT TO DO WITH DIFFERENCES AND

right of private judgment the right to a place inside Bedlam. Nor will it avail to use repressive measures. Sitting on the safety-valve is not a prudent proceeding when the steam is up, and there is gain occasionally rather than loss in letting bickerings run their course. Quarrelsome church members, like quarreling lovers, will kiss and be friends after they have had it out.

One good way of dealing with these things is, I think, that of severely letting them alone. Many awkward bits of ecclesiastical experience will right themselves if we don't trouble. We must allow for time and reflection. Differences so treated will fade out of the memory, and tempestuous disputes, like furious storms, will blow themselves out. Many well-meaning Christian people appear to forget this, and by keeping up a constant supply of solace or advice about grievances, or by perpetually inviting this treatment for themselves, the wounds that have been given or received are not allowed to heal. If you have ever read those well-known poems of Carleton's about the Farmer's dispute, and the Farmer's peacemaking with his wife, you will recollect how he depicts the aggravation of the quarrel

"And down on us came the neighbours a couple dozen strong,
And lent us their kindest service to help the thing along."

How also when loving memories and tender regrets had prevailed, and the Farmer and his wife were at one again, and have had quite a delightful evening together, he lets the well-pleased husband tell us

"Next morning an ancient virgin took pains to call on us,
Her lamp all trimmed and burning to kindle another fuss;
But when she went to prying and opening of old sores,
My Betsy rose politely, and showed her out of doors."

Far be it from me to suggest any way of getting rid of these ancient virgins or brigades of helpers, save a polite and a kindly one. Yet their riddance will in the majority of instances turn out an excellent service for disturbed and troubled churches, and their exodus at the doors will do something to make the advent of peace and good-will possible.

Another method of dealing effectively with church troubles of this character is to practice strongly all the minor moralities. Why should estrangement and irritation within the church be so decidedly obdurate? What defence can be made of churlishness, and unapproachableness, of hardness that refuses to be won, and of fury that declines to be appeased, especially in the household of faith? An unforgiving spirit is condemned on merely moral grounds. To be sinister, morose, and implacable is to offend against the rules of decent behaviour, leaving the rules of the Christian faith entirely out of the question. Many a time the frank and hearty acknowledgmont of error would disarm an opponent; hostilities that might otherwise be left to rankle and fester, a few plain and simple words will dispose of. Let us be straightforward with one another. Let us be forbearing, patient, and charitable. Especially let us have the charity that suffereth long and is kind, that envieth not, that vauntith not itself, that is not puffed up, that doth not behave itself unseemly, that seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked. If we are offended, let us not be swift to take offence. If

DIVISIONS IN CHURCHES.

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we have offended, let us hasten to atone for our transgression. If we have wrought harm by want of thought, or by want of understanding, or by want of feeling, let us make ample amends, mollifying the wounded spirit, and seeking to exemplify in all things the golden rule of doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us. Special care is needed in the use of the tongue. It is a little member, and boasteth great things. But no man can tame it; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. In the matter of church differences it has much to answer for. We must curb its wantonness; we must arrest its random speeches and false reports. We must bear in mind that if good words are worth much and cost little, bad words, that are worth nothing, destroy a great deal. No one knows the extent and misery of the destruction already effected in this way, not only in the circle of friendship, the experience of individuals, and in public life, but in our churches as well; and the homely but striking lines of an American poet are not without deep significance for ministers, deacons, churchmembers, and religious people generally—

"Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds:
You can't do that way when you're flying words.
"Careful with fire,' is good advice, we know:
"Careful with words,' is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead:
But God Himself can't kill them when they're said."

Whatever may be done or left undone, however, in dealing with these matters, let us have nothing to do with the law-courts. Lawyers and judges may be very gifted and useful members of society, and as the world stands their services are often required, and have usually to be very well paid for. Be it so. Still, in church affairs, let "Don't go to law," be our maxim, We have Committees of Reference, which may be consulted. We have in our own body a Board of Advice and Arbitration which may well be trusted. When difficulties arise which. cannot be settled within the church, the right thing is to go at once to this Board, seeking its mediation and assistance. We have the satisfaction of knowing that we are not appealing to strangers, but to brethren. We are not before an unsympathetic tribunal where our case may be imperfectly understood, and is only to be treated as a mere professional affair; no! we are in the presence of those who know the churches and their history, and who will not fail to employ wise and brotherly devices for our good. But this Board should not be treated suspiciously. Whenever or wherever its powers of conference and counsel are invoked, there should be a full and frank surrender to its decisions. It need not be given hastily or imprudently; but it is of the very first importance in trusting to arbitration that there should be submission to the arbitrators, and that, whoever the disputants may be, there should be no reservation on either side to clash with the final decision.

There may be cases in which friendly personal interposition may be preferred to any official arrangements. The senior ministers in our ranks, or men of good standing and honourable fame in our churches, may be called in quite privately to give wholesome words of advice and caution, calculated to allay feverish symptoms in the tone and temper of church life. Such brethren may be likened to the venerable and

skilled family physician, who is taken into the fullest confidence, and entrusted with all the domestic secrets. Many a time their calm and judicious words will stay a malignant outbreak, and if perchance there are signs of mischief too fully developed to be suppressed, the treatment they recommend will do much to counteract the evil effects of the malady.

After all, the best way of dealing with anything and everything in the church that jars upon our fellowship is to be ourselves stedfast and immoveable in the Christian life. The force of Christian character, both in the prevention and settlement of religious warfare, is indisputable, and seldom indeed will it be found ineffectual at any stage or in any phase of church trouble. Isolated examples may at long intervals present themselves where every method of trying to make peace will fail, and God's method of dealing with idolatrous Ephraim is the only feasible one. Such communities must be "let alone." But very rarely indeed will this be the case; and if our churches can only be more consistent and faithful in carrying out the apostolic rule of making all things subordinate to the edification of the church; if they will hold fast to the profession commonly reported amongst us-"in things essential unity, in things non-essential diversity, and in all things charity" then may we hope for the realization of that entrancing prophetic vision of peace and harmony in the Redeemer's kingdom, when "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." W. H. TETLEY.

Princess Alice.

IT is no small tribute to the value, brightness, and blessedness of a home when the children brought up therein ever look back upon it with sunny memories. The Princes and Princesses of our own beloved country were all brought up in such a home. Princess Alice, whose letters have recently been given to the world, is never weary of extolling her parents, and the home of her happy childhood and girlhood. That home-life with its genuine and ardent affection, with its careful culture, and its lofty Christian influence, has been of untold value to the several members of our Royal house. If the influence of the Prince Consort has been anything like the same on others as upon his second daughter, that good and noble soul left behind him a legacy of blessing more precious than gold, an example which has been, and which is, one of the most beneficent and inspiring that any children ever had.

Whatever opinions our readers may have upon the subject of government, we are all agreed upon this, that no worthier sovereign ever reigned than Queen Victoria.

The more we know about her, the more the nation loves her, and every sorrow that saddens her widowed heart, sinks into the heart of all her people. No wonder, for the Queen has gratified her subjects by

PRINCESS ALICE.

taking them all, so to speak, into her confidence.

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She has in the

simplest and most charming manner revealed to us so much of her private life, and told us so unaffectedly of her joys and griefs, that she is no longer a stranger to any of us.

This feeling will be strengthened by her most recent volume, "More Leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands;" and by the Biographical Sketch and Letters of her daughter Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse. Both these volumes, moreover, may be taken as memorials of the Prince Consort, for everywhere, from beginning to end, his name, his memory, his work, his influence, his spirit make the sunshine and the shadow.

But what surprises most is the extreme naturalness and simplicity of it all. It reminds us, indeed, of a story which belongs to the days when as yet railways were not. In those days a nobleman and his lady with their infant child were travelling. Being overtaken a long way from home by a severe snowstorm, they were obliged to seek shelter for the night in the humble abode of a shepherd. When the nurse began to prepare the child for bed, the shepherd and his wife gazed with silent awe as first the silken cloak, and then the various other costly wrappings were taken off one by one. At length when the divestiture was complete they gave vent to their astonishment by saying,

"WHY, IT'S JUST THE SAME AS OURS!"

Such is the impression produced by the revelations of Royal life which these volumes convey.

When we find that behind the dignity of state, such high-sounding names and titles as H.R.H. Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Princess Royal; and H.I.H. the Crown Prince of Germany, are respectively Vicky and Fritz; and when we learn that H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Duke of Saxony, Cornwall, and Rothesay, Earl of Dublin, &c., and the Princess Alexandra, go amongst their immediate kindred as Bertie and Alix, how homely and like our own the Royal house becomes ! Again: it might not occur to us, but it is nevertheless true that even Royal personages have the same needs, suffer the same inconveniences, have the same likes and dislikes, read the same books, and meet with the same mishaps as other people. A pet lamb will not always love his child-mistress, Princess though she be, however often she may kiss his nose, and plead for his affection; thin ice will not always bear a prince, nor save him the humiliation of going home in absurdly unsuitable garments; and coachmen will not always drive straight even when Her Majesty the Queen is in the carriage, and when misfortunes occur the first lady in the land has to and does make the best of the upset.

Life in a Royal household is by no means a round of uninterrupted luxury and enjoyment. There are people to see, matters to arrange, papers to read, visits to make, institutions to found and foster, public business to deal with, beside those things that are within, that which cometh upon them daily, the care of all the household. "Private individuals," said Princess Alice, "are, of course, far the best off-our privileges being more duties than advantages-and their absence