The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-02-19 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF EXETER ON CLERGY
AND LAITY.

The Bishop of Exeter preached on Sunday morning
at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, in support of the
funds of the Poor Clergy Relief Corporation, the object
of which is to give immediate relief, both in money and
clothing, to the clergy of the united Church of England,
Wales, and Ireland, their widows and orphans, in
temporary and unprovoked distress. There was an
immense congregration, near upon 1,400 persons being
crowded into an edifice which is considered capable of
holding only 800. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Gathorne
Hardy, and many distinguished persons, were present
on the occasion.

The Bishop took for his text 1 Cor. ix, 13, 14: "Do ye not
know that they which minister about holy things hoe of the
things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are
partakers with the altar? Burn so hath the Lord ordained
that they which preach the Gospel should lice of the Gospel."

These words of the Apostle showed (Dr. Temple
said) that the Apostle recognised the Christian
ministry as a separate and distinct profession. There
was very much to be said in favour of a state of things
in which clergy and laity should not be distinct.
Every Christian might have been constituted a Chris-
tian minister. In fact, it was quite true to say that
every Christian is a minister of the Gospel, for every
Christian among his other Christian duties, has put
upon him the duty of doing all that he can to make
known its truths and to show it in his life, to show it
in his conversation and in his words, to be in every way
a preacher of the truth amongst all those with whom
he is living. It was impossible to be blind to the dangers
arising f rom the existence of a clerical order in the Church.
Still (the Bishop went on to argue) the existence of the
clerical profession might be shown to be a necessity.
This he illustrated by the case of the observance of
Sunday. There was no doubt great danger that the
setting apart of one day in seven might iead people to
look upon religion as a matter of Sabbath-keeping
only. The necessity of a clerical order being admitted,
the question of the maintenance of its members fol-
lowed, and here Dr. Temple pointed out the provisions
made in the Jewish Church for the support of the
priesthood, and went on to answer the objections
which might be urged against such societies as that
whose claims he advocated—that the property of the
Church, if only fairly apportioned and administered,
would render their existence unnecessary. On this point
he said : I dare say if the whole property of the Church
were to be set apart now for the first time, we should
make quite a different distribution of it to that which has
been made, and for a time at least we should contrive
to provide that all the clergy alike should be kilit from
anything like abject poverty. But such things can
never be done for a time, to make it unnecessary that
such appeals should be made to Christian congregations
as lam now making to you. In this country the pro-
perty of the Church is complicated with other property,
and all sorts of anomalies have crept in. I ask you to
look at it, then, as sensible men, and you well see,
that along with the present distribution of the property
' of the Church, necessarily are attached to it a great
variety of claims, which make it impossible all at once
to effect a difference. You cannot alter such things
without doing a greater injustice than yor are remedy-
ing, unless you alter very slowly. The collection at
the doors amounted to nearly ELK

DEATH FROX THE COLD.—At Paris two deaths
from congestion of the brain, produced by the intense
cold, occurred. One was that of a man unknown,
about forty years of age, who WBA fond lifeless at
about half-past five in the evening on the ro,f of an
omnibus of the line from the Batignolles to the Jardin
des Plantes. The body WM removed to the Morgue.
The other was that of a widow, aged sixty, a dress-
maker, residing in the Rue Miromesnil, who dropped
down insensible in the Rue des Themes, between nine
and ten in the evening. Although she was carried to
a chemist's shop and restoratives applied, she expired
shortly afterward"