The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-09-10 00:00:00

tittraturt.

SECOND ADDUCES OP TH. LAY 1111113.118 OP Tat
CHURCH AIIMICIATIOII TO THE PEOPLE or ENGLAND.
"In the present moot we propose to suggest practical
stem to he adopted by three whose clergymen unterte.
!lately practise the rites end preach the doctrines of
Bailie. The test by which the laity may detect such •
man is easily applied. If the clergyman calls himself •
pried i• if he tells his toople that by his pot itly
set he can turn the bread and wine of the Lord's
deeper into the body and blood of Christ—the ease is
elear, we can see what he iv, he is not • pastor of the
Reformed Church of England, he is a priest of the ,
Church of Rome. He must be treated as such. For
nothing is more hurtful than to let him mix among Os.
SA an Anglican clergyman. The shepherd hos become
a wolf, and if he remiins in the fold, assuredly he will
mangle the flock. This in fact is his aim. Many of
them priests point to their large following—to church-
winetens and congregations whom they have misled.
In other words, they have used their oppertunitii a. as
English clergymen, to socestomtheir people to Rowlett
practices ; and this is a great evil—the larger their con-
gregation, the worse their offence. Therefore inch
persons must he treated as men having the plague. They
mast be put in quarantine, lest they infect us. If it is
said that such treatment is annoying—of sours.; en
ere oil precautions against disease; but though
vexation', tl'oy ere needful. If it is said these persons
do not call themselves Roman priests; granted : but
they are wore.; a Roman priest conferees to his church,
obeys his bishop, follows his creed ; whereas these
uses disregard the srticlee of their church, and, having
vowed to ['mobile its ritual, they Introduce the symbols
of the ritual of Rome. 11. How are they to be dealt
with' This is the question. Faithful churchwardens
represent the laity, and a churchwarden ha.
great legal powers: what those are hes beer,
ex elained in a publicationt to which we
refer; of the seenracy of which we are
satisfied. But, besides the churchwardens, every
parishioner has his responsible position and powers.
Whatever is said or done in his parish church, not
authorised by our Liturgy or by the law, he should
communicate to his bishop. But he should also com-
municate the facts to the Diocesan Society, if tbere be
one: or to the Church Association of the district ; or, it
Wee be not one, to the central body in London. Re-
monstrance may then follow, and by timely remonstrances
the wended may be pot down: too grad we, however,
cannot be taken to verily the feces, and to stets them
accurately; hear-say reports, vogue averments, ease.
gyrated statements are worm than tireless. 111. But
take tie worst ease; suppose the unfaithful minister to
persist in his practices, and to pass unreproved by his
bishop, or ti defy him. What course is to be followed
by the parishioners? On this point we aidede with com
fidenoe though with regret; it seems to us that they
must CCU* all dealings with such a minister in matter.
concerning religion. They must forsake the church
which is now made to resemble • Amish chapel rather
than • Protestant English church. No doubt it is pain-
ful to leave our parish church, and to torn our baohe on
walls within which we have knelt for yeam, in which we
have learnt nor earliest lessons, and received our deepest
Impressions; hut anything is preferable to false doctrine
for ourselves and our children. Them men poison the
moral atmosphere not with the epidemic that hurts the
bode, but with the errors that destroys the soul. IV.
But bear in mind, that, though you are driven from
your local place of worship, you are not debarred
from the Communion of the Church of England.
Though them unfaithful men usurp the paraonage and
the fahrie. they cannot take away your faith. It may
be difficult to displace them; but, however faithless,
they cannot destroy your Motu. Hold fad and use
the pure service of which they cannot deprive you.
Let none, however tempted. be to join communities
opposed to the Church of England. Let those leave
onr Church who hate her name of protestant, and scorn
her reformed ritual. Their place is among the
sehismaties of Rome. Let us, loyal to truth, stand firm
within our Church, and refuse to quit her
communion. And thus our Bock, safe from infection,
will continue to unite in the Liturgy of their church.
and thank God that they can pour forth the sounds of
united prayer, in words which our Reformers pit.
served, and left to us, pure and undefiled, as they
were deriv. el from apostolic times. V. Next in
importance to your church is your echoed. And
from the contamination of error in mhool, your children
must he guarded with care. In different parishes, the
position of the school varies. If it has aid from the
Government, the management is vested in a committee,
and then the clergyman is the chairman, but the lay
member-oi, if they attend, have votes. In such • case,
the• elmuld exert the power which they posecu over the
maeig.ment of the school; appoint a master in whom
thee have confidence, and direct the course of instrue•
(ion. Hut if an unfaithful clergyman has control over I
the school, the children should be gatheted elsewhere;
for the smallest room, where they are taught well, is
better than the largest hell in which they learn error. I
On Sundey. in such a case, they should be left to the
direction of their parents, for on no aceount should they
miter aet arch in which they will be trained in Romish
superstition. VI. The next matter of importance in •
parish is the administration of the cheritin. They ire
often placed under the joint control of the church-
wardens and clergyman. In such tote., the church-
wardens should take ears to claim their due share of
the administration. In mixes of voluntary gifts, a
'committee etoold be formed to tired their distri-
bution. VII. In all objects of philanthropy, the
same rule should be applied. In the normal
and happily the u eel date of our parishes, the
influence sit the clergyman is great. He devises, and
we accept; he leads, and we gladly follow. But
when the minister claims to be • sacrificing priest,
this condition 01 thing. ceases. We most keep clear of
men who have hssi ends in view, and who will use for
these ends any influence we afford them. The
parishioners, avoiding contact with the priest, must
carry out by themselves their own objects of benevolence,
or social usefulness. in these means, disagreeable as
they are, we diall find the speediest remedy for the
gri 00000 evil which now afflicts us. For it cannot be
too strongly pressed, that the remedy for the wrongs of
the laity is difficult of attainment either through the
action of eocleeiastical authority, the hazards of ,
legislation, or the slow and costly process of law. In I
fact, till the ecclesiastical courts are remodelled, we can I
place little confidence in their decision. We must fall
back, therefore, on our own rewards as members of
the Church. Them rewords are ample and easily
applied. VIII. Some of the clergy seem to think
they can act without the laity. in Convene-
don, and In their plans for Episcopal Synode:
the seem to fancy that the Church was made
for the Priesthood alone. It is time that these
persons should learn that the Church of Pngland, as an
established Church, rests on • compact with the State,
and that this compact expresses the confidence and
trust of the English people. The laity have had no
wish to bout of their strength nor to put forth their
resource. Their desire was to act in closest harmony
with their Clergy. But now that • section of the Clergy
claim the right, of Priests—tell the Laity that Priests
should role and the people obey; corrupt our simple
Liturgy by foreign ceremonies and dimwit us with
Roman teaching, it is time that we should let them feel
that they do not poemm the confidence of the lay
members of the Church. When doers once onen are
canoed against them, when our charities flow through
other hands than theirs, when our children are with-
drawn from their wheels, and we abandon the parish
church, these men will learn to their cost (let us hope to
-their correction), that the Church was not made for the
clergy alone. but for the people roe leis than the pester.
'This lesion Pried., and certain Bishops)) are too ready
to forget. It is time they were taught it, and they
-cannot be taught it too soon.—From The Church Astir
tnicioes MonlAlp Intelligencer for September.
Tug "W•LIEIXO LEAF" Or TEDIA.—• few years since
• specimen of the Phyllium seythe, the "Walking Leal"
of India, was kept alive at the Royal Botanic Garden at
Edinburgh. Mr. Andrew Murray wrote a long account
of it, and Smolt( other matters says : "It so exactly
resembled the leaf on which it fed, that when visitors
were shown it, they usually, after looking carefully over
the plant for a minute, declared that they could we no
ineeet. It had then to be mere minutely pointed out to
them' and although eying is nototioudy said to be
believing, it looked so absolutely the same as the leaves
among which it rested, that this test would rarely satisfy
them ; and nothing would convinee them that there was
• real live insect there but the test of touch—it had to
be stirred up to make it move, or taken off the plant to
trawl on the Anger of the attendant."—From a clever
Prim, on '"l'he dieguises of inmate," in the current
number of Hardrickes Science Gossip.

ELIPS•IIT }IMMO 111 NE/A[ll.-11e SOIMOIII were
.aid to be about • mile off, but it was certainly at least
for three miles that we pursued oar way through grass
sometimes as high as the becks of our hantert, and
sometimes through forest-trees tangled with creepers
end donee with young soiling. of the aalt-tree. Through
these impedimenta the elephant forces hie way with
ease. The rider, however, most be mreful that his feet
do not get crushed between them and the sides of the
elephant, or that he is not pulled off his mat by the
*verb toting boughs. Indeed, besides the fall, which
might be serious, there see other dangers which may
result from losing your mat. We had not gone far in
the formt, when the Maharaja, who had kindly warned
itte of all that ought and ought not to be done for the
letter keeping of one's mat, either espying the monads
of his guest in elephant riding or for some other reuse,
"I think you had better change ycur elephant and
get on this one," which he called to a man to bring up
from among Uttar) which were following us. "I. you
tell off that elephant you were first meted on," said his
excellency, after the exchange had bees effected, "he
might very likely kick at you, so he is somewhat a new
nee; the old female elephent you are now on knows
better than to do so; but losing your seat in the abase
is an awful thing anyhow, and whatever you do bold on
tight; and Heaven help you if you do fall." It was
evident that my host thought a spill on my part not an
impossibility, and this was not encouraging to • novice;
for smiting the fall were harmless, yet there was the
risk of being trodden under foot by moot the four Of
five more of elephants following in the rear. However.
ttss in for it now, and set to Ivor* to develop my
•'hesive faculties, to the utmost, and passed the ti,
during which we were moving op to our prey in deter-
mining the number of evolutions which I meld perform
me an area of three feet square on the top of an
elephant's back, going at • fast shaking walk. "nil."
mid the Maharaja, "Is nothing to the pacts we shall go
as soon as the bugle sounds. The only thing then is to
go as fast as you can ; push your elephant along, over,
or through everything you meet, like lox hunting in
England; and when you see • hough ahead which you
cannot avoid by bending or stooping, you must get down
on the crupper of the elephant, bite thia" And =Meg
the action to the word, his Excellency, nimbly slipping
from his seat on the pad, squatted like a fro, on the
bind quarters of the animal be rode, bolding ce by the
erupper.—Frames Marmite for tieptemher.