The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-11-28 00:00:00

No. v.—REJR.CTED (SYNODICAL) ADDRESSES

THE DlOCiall tV LAKTA.
BO:LEM A STIC AL QUACKHIT.- By Blithers,

The ehutch in this diocese seems at the reeent tiro°
to be in danger of expiring, tot from any incurable
disease., nor from oil 1440, but ft., m s pieces, of ,plickery.
It is the faabion of all quacks to promise their dupes
• speedy reoovery, and to maintain thrt their particular
reuicdtee are epee tic, for all dieeaser. end capable of
Speedily removing all tinel t symptoms: and if a
Man be is, rfectly well and happy, the quack will try
awl persuade bleo,sud too often succeees the attempt,
tbat be health is capable of improvement; thus Many
a poor follow Au been quacked out of health and into
Ms grave. The Church in this Moo, so was compara.
lively quiet theta was indeed a growing ietrust
of the clergy among tho laymen, but it had not of late
orn'Y expressed it., If. Throughout the land in Ohl r
d emirs the ditoontent had been more marked, the
real ground of discontent and of danger, being the
Inefficiency of the clergy, the unteriptural eh:tracte r
of 01.I1r011 patronage, tho mons. rout Incongruity of
cathedral estatili.hmenta, and the exclusion of the lay
member., alio ire tie stud uipurterA of the Church,
from all voice to her elfina. This danger was aggra-
vated by the eas•ults of Popery. Nonconformity, iod
In a,1.11t1 iron. without, end tt it ShOIIIII a 1. 111
.lota;isto, evidently foc,red hy the hiihope, from
ri.w for the nostruins prescribed.
. .

Ist. We will have a Synod, oompowd of pet clergy
and officiate, and laymen elected under the superinten-
dence of the clergy. A Synod without authority. or
power: which can only discuss what the Bishop chooses,
and come to the conclusions which his lordship wishes.
A Synod, the standing orders of which are to be
Wowed without discuesion ; where rural deans and
medievail noblemen, ipsie satertiortlate secerdotierte. vie
with one another in denoting the poor Bishop into
intsgioary Infallibility. Its true It will not remedy
the evils under which the Church is labouring, but
perhaps it will keep things quiet—make the laymen
submit a little longer, when they find themselves
Inciter! to join In soots an august assembly. Like the
" mate!, IA refs. pleasant" in joint stock companies,
It will sod in making things eery sospieweaut, when the
laymen find how they have been played with.
But another nostrum at the present time is the use
of the surplice in preaching, " • uniform dress" in the
chore, as one Bishop has lately described it. And why
not? What difference dose the colour of a dress tnake ?
Certainly not much. A piees of silk can't do mush
harm, but if that piece of silk has certain emblems on
it, which make it a Fenian flag, no honest man will
hoist it, or walk under it and if preaching in the
surpliee has for thirty years pest been diligeatly
Introduced into our churches by men who avow the&
hatred of the Reformation, and of the articles of our
church, then no honest churchman will adopt it. Balls
have • seep.. U aversion to anything scarlet: what
then should we think of a man who would try and
pacify ci, enraged bull by shaking • scarlet flag in hie ,
face ? And yet in the prooent suspicious and excited
state of the laity of the church, bishops are just as wise
when they recouimend the sdoption of the surplices,
tinny years ago there was a celebrated quack in London
who professed to care all complaints by scrubbing his
patients becks uutil they were sot.; he prospered for
• time, but at last come to grief; so our Bishops think
to ours the evils of the Chursh by a process equally
" ansavoury."
But another great remedy is the introduction of
"Sisterhoods," or "Nursing Sisters," and it is hoped
that if our Dieceeen Synod leads to nothing else, it
may lead to the establishment of • training institution
for nurse, at head quarters. What do we know of
these Ststerboods? And are we to have trained nurses
or slaters of mercy? If nurses, why need they be
traluoil under the shadow of the Episoopd Peleee and
the Cathedral? Will part of their training be daily
attendance at the Cathedral service? Whatever they
are called, they will be active agents of Sfteerdotalism,
and they will Garry the poison of that system into every
hoepital mad every sick room into which they are •4-
mitted A clergyman of high position in America Caine
ova to this country • few years ago on purpose to visit
the sisterhoods of England ; all avowedly formed for
nursing purposes. Before returning home he said, "I
sin extremely disappointed with my visits to your
English Sisterhoods: I find them essentially Popish."
Thst is the testimony of a High Church American
clergyman. The Pall Mall Gazette, no Puritan publica-
tion, says, "Th. danger to be apprehended (from the
sisterhoods) appears to us to be nothing less than the
risk of a morel injury to the whole nation, and to every
part slit, infinitely more important than any Improve.
merits in hospital nursing, even if the improvements
la the nursing could not I, heal without the sisterhoods."
list why are these tiaceniutaliste so anxious to Intro-
dime these sisterhood.? Is it because they existed in
Ito Primitive church? No. The Sisterhoods of the
Apoetlea' time consisted of widows who bad borne
childreu, end, sgeordiog to the oldest canons, of not
less than GO years of age. But the Apostolic Sister-
hoods would not 'satisfy our modern Apostles : perhaps .
with some reason; there are plenty of "old women" ,
already in our pulpits, without having any more in our ,
nunneries. So these modern sisterhoods are were girls. I
But why are these sisterhoods necereary ? Because they
are the most uuserupul ,Ul., unwearied, reckless, un-
&Walled preeelytis,rs in the world. Presuming on the
privileges of the weaker sex,while the Confessional—for
a sisterhood is nothing without • Father Confessor—
has banished every spark of female bashfulness from
them, there Is no limit to their audacity. As to their
nursing capabilities, let the Hampstead Small.pox
flospflal settle that matter. It is for church purposes
they are suppoited, the nursing is a mere blind to
deceive the unwary, and hldo from public attention the
real mischief 11141, LS going on. A well-known London
clergynien soy., " A few years ago I obtained admla-
&it'll into one 01 these homes for a poor young woman
who Was living in my *wish, and had been led into
VICIOUS habits She WAS kindly treated, and derived
considerable benefit from the Instruction she received,
but she rrrrr hod home under the most solemn exhorts-
lions (if not promiles) t, withdraw herself from my
ministry, and to attend • highly ritualistic church In
the neighbourhood. Another of these ladies opened •
house lii the same clergyman's psrish, •nd it One.
declined his visits, and her whole efforts were
to influence the labouring classes against his
ministry. Miss Margaret Goodman, however, In
her book "Sisterhoods of the (Lurch of England," bits
so thoroughly exposed the abominable abuses of the
whole system, that the very mentiou of the subject in I
a Church synod should esll forth th • loudest expression
of disgust. But will it be so? surely not. Quietly,
but steadily, men, who hive no higher principle than I
este:nal oburchinan•liip, will be led on step by step ;
sad they who tibia yew hare given up their Independ-
ence at the Bi.hup's bidding, will resign the rest of
their conscience Into his Lordship's keeping, and Eva*
Chnwparns will be found side by aide with the
tsac- rdutalists ailvuottiog the extension of this pernittiotui
ryst•in. It Is folly to plead the example of the Con-
tinent. An able writer saps: "the Sisterhoods of the
Continent ace • poor makeshift for the benevolent
families of a married clergy—we have our sisterhoods
of a different complexion and different character alto.
getter : sisterhoods tho holiest and the noblest that
ever graced humanity, in our failed world; truo sister.
hoods of Christ's church, doing the holy work of Christ's
church, and owned and recoenised by Him who is the
great Shepherd and Bishop of our church."
One more remedy has beea propounded, namely the
permitting laymen to with the Bishop's sanction.
This is a most transparent device to catch the unwary
laymen. The Bishop's sanction will enable the laymen
to preach in the church of a minister who approves of
his preaching: at rho name time that sanction will pre-
vent his preaching elsewhere. Where the gospel is
faithfully prcached the laymen is not wanted ; but in
dark wid peslected parishes ho is wanted. The careless
ungodly clergyman will never let no earnest laymen
preach in his pulpit: the ritualist will only let • MIA
preach whose highest ambition it is to awing • censer as
an acolyte, to net as ceressioniarins, or to carry a
crosier before • Bishop. What then will be gained?
But now the laymen wants no episcopal sanction to
preach the gospel. where the godly clergyman cannot
do so, In every place and every parish where his help is
needed: who then will seek the Bishop's asnetioe for
doing that which as • Christian he has God's moieties
for? But it seems like • woo:salon, when in reality ills
• trap : let the laymen beware of falling into it. BAter
for better for godly laymen to assort Ikeir right to sot
as Evangelists throughout the land. Hundreds of dark
parishes are waiting for than, and would welcome them,
iwo whieh the law prevents the faithful clergyman
from entering ; if laymen will not occupy them in the
church's name, the dissenters will : but this Bishop's
ssnetion is only in additional chain upon those who are
mitticiantly bound down, as Lord Catboat boldly
dealer, d at the Yorkshire Church Conference.
These then are some of the remedies devised for the
*hutch s ailments by her Quack Doctors. Cm n any one
doubt but that the rernely is worse than the disease
Surely it is time that there were "men that have under-
standing of the tiniest° know what Israel ought to do"
who would expose these flimsy pretences at Church ex-
tension, Led make it known that what the Church wants
Is simple Christianity, stripped of ?desks:ash, hypocrisy
and worldlines. ; Christianity in the pulpit, and in the
daily life awl conv,r-atina. 11..0 and women whose
religion is something more than mere dress : otherwise
the day is not fax.daidaet when Christian Laymen will
Ink* God's work in their wen heads • and then thews
professional teachers 1112,1 professional 'sisters will alike
and together be left out in the Gold. Christ left His
chursh on earth to teach His truth -the church in this land
IVY established an her present position, not for the sake
of L.,,,(17 Bishops, and Deans, and Dignitaries, and
fiiatarhaids, hut tu teach that seine truth: if they fail
to do that, sli the rest is rubbi.h, aLd ti.c sooner she
ceases to cumber the groond the better.