The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

COURT OF PASSAGE.

TsE Court of Passage was opened yesterday, in the Nisi
Prins Court, St. George's Hall, before E. James, Esq., Asses-
sor. The business set down for hearing consisted of 1 de-
murrer, 1 remanet, 95 issues, and 3 writs of inquiry before the
Registrar on Thursday morning. Thirty of the cases were
disposed of yesterday ; twenty-four of them being settled out
of -court. The six which were heard did not involve any
pointor principle of public importance.

THE CHURCHES OF THE EASE

LECTURE LAST NIGHT.

'THE REV. DR. WoLIT delivered a lecture in the Teutonic-
-hail, last night, on the " Churclm of the East." The interest
of the subject and the -fame of the Rev. Doctor, whose re-
searches in the East have of late formed the topic of much
religious and literary discussion, failed to attract a very large,
although they did draw a very respectable, audience-: among
whom we observed the Rev. 'C. Morrell, the Rev. C.'Wray, the
Rev. James Slade, jun., the Rev. Duncan, the Rev. the
Priest 'of the Greek Church, Liverpool, the Rev. K. M.
Pughe, the Rev. Edward Pearson, &c., &c.
The lecturer, who was applauded on his entrance, began by
giving a statement as to the condition of the various Churches
iu the East which he had visited. Though not .an English-
man, he said he felt much interest in, and attachment to, the
institutions of England, as he had experienced great kindness
' and protection from the officers of the British army and navy.
When he first went out, he conceived considerable prejudices
against the people with whom he was to come in contact. He had
been led to expect that he should meet with none but savages,
and barbarians. Experience, however, had shown him the
necessity of changing his views on many -of those points.
Instead of savages he had found among the Arab and Arme-
nian Greeks many good Christians. Many-ef his prejudices
had been overcome by the intercourse he had held with those
parties ; and he owed much of his success to the advice he
had received from an Englishman, an officer of the Turkish
contingent in the present war. That gentleman, understanding
that the lecturer was about to proceed on alecturing mission,
had again offered him council. He cautioned him, in the
present temper of-the public, not to run counter to the popular
feeling. His friend—Colonel Mitchell, the hero of the Kaffir
war—advised him not to bring the subject of the good he had
experienced in the Ctirnea, and other quarters of the Russian
empire, prominently forward. He intended, however, to show
the many kindnesses and comforting assurances he had met in
the Greek Church in Bakshiserai, in Simpheropol, and in
SebaStopol; but this would form the subject of his second
lecture. He had found in these quarters great and gross
ignorance among -the monks who professed to teach the
people; but the greatest amount of good•he had found in the
labours of the Bible Society, by distributing the Bible in the
native tongues of the different countries. After a eulogium
°Lithe benefits conferred by this societyand its labours, he
proceeded to give an,outline of the progress of Christianity in
the various countries of Asia. It might be remarked, he said,
that the Christianity of those parts was not an enlightened Chris-
tianity; but look at-some of our own manufacturing districts,
look at Somersetshire even, and there we will find that the
Christianity of those districts is not of a greatly more enlight-
ened . character than that of the poor and ignorant Asiatics.
He quoted illustrations of this from the religious maxims of
-some of the Greek priests who are.residont in the neighbour-
.hood of Sinai and Mount Horeb. In the Greek Church and
'nations he had found many of the most interesting features
which he had met with in any church or among any people.
The Greek people to this day, he said, are greatly attached to
the study of literature and of theology, and to promote this
.they have sent their children to the universities of Germany.
A nation so attached to literature cannot be truly
.represented as a nation of barbarians. How were the
.missionaries of the Church Missionary and other similar
societies received by the Greek people.?—with open arms.
At Jerusalem, and in other places, this was manifested on
many occasions. The Greeks had showed themselves willing
to profit by the exertions made for their benefit. This was
chiefly owing to the judgment of Josiah Pratt, who had the
management of the Church Missionary Society, who advised
that controversy should not be attempted among them, and
that they should not be sought to be converted. to the Pro-
testant Church. The same course had been found suitable
with the Armenians. The lecturer declared his belief, founded
on etymological analogy, that the Greek Orpheus is identical
with the Hebrew Abraham. He proceeded to trace,
through etymological analogy, the success of the Christian
missions in various places of Armenia, and in the neigh-
bourhood of the Black and Caspian Seas. At Bokhara and
i Ispahan, the people are taught the reading of the Bible in their
native tongue. The Armenians gave the lecturer every assist-
ance in establishing schools. He gave an outline of a sermon
' which he.had heard from an Armenian bishop in Sebastopol,
in the-ear 1825. In this the Armenian prelate inculcated
the leading features of the Christian doctrines ; above all, he
preached -Christ crucified for sinners. This bishop was eighty
years of.age, and dwelt on the statement that, if tears can
wipe away sin, the blood of Christ alone can wipe away both
tears and sin. The Armenians are represented as a set of
savages—this is not true. They have been benefited by the
British and Foreign Bible Society and by the Church Mis-
sionary Society. But they have been damaged by what ?
By the establishment of the Bishopric of Jerusalem,. sanc-
tioned by the Church of England. While life was granted to
' him, he (Dr. Wolff) would never cease to denounce the estab-
lishment of that bishopric. That bishopric had been the
means of causing disagreement and suspicion among the
Armenians and -Greeks, by calling in the &mans of the
Sultan. One man, a good man, and a great man in this
country, Lord Shaftesbury, had been instrumental in obtain-
ing the settlement of this bishopric ; but a man may be a
great man in London, and a great man in Liverpool, and
only an old woman at Aleppo. (A laugh.) He would propose the
total extinction of the bishopric of Jerusalem, which had been
productive of nothing but strife and intolerance. The poor
Greeks in that quarter were oppressed by the Mahomedans,
and trepanned by the priests of the Church of Rome, who
gave them money in the first instance when they professed
their adherence to the Latin Church; this allowance being
broken off, they came to those belonging to the Church of
England, and offered to become of the same religion as the
King of England, if the money were continued to them.
(Laughter.) These were the parties who were set down in
the printed Reports as converts to the Protestant Cnurch ; he
for one wished the Church much good of such converts. For
his own part he had no faith in them.
His next lecture, to be given in the same place to-morrow
evening, would he said treat further of the subject of the
Eastern Churches.