The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-08-27 00:00:00

ecclesiastical Intelligence.

Ti PAN•ANOLICAN COUNClL—Amongst vabfeele
likely to be considered at the Pan. Anglican Council are
the following :—(l) The Relations of Colonial Churches
with the Mother Church. (2) Appeals front Colonial
Courts to the Archtsishop in person. (31 The Reform
of Convocation. (1) The Relation of the Church of
England with the rest of Christendom. (5) Corporate
Reunion. (6) The Coupe d'efirre. (7) The restoration
of Wesleyan" to communion with the Church of Ragland,
(8) The Royal Supremacy and the Court of Final
Appeal. And possibly —though at present there is some
doubt on this point—(9) Rittulkuu. —Chard New&

THE BISHOP OF CHIUMIR ON RITUALISIL—A me-
morial to the Bishop of Cheater againe Ritualism has
been signed by over 9,000 lay members of the Church
of England in Liverpool and district. In reply to the
memorial the bishop writes thus :—" Atheneum Club,
Pall-mall, S.W., August 9.-14 deer air,—As I under-
stand that your name stands first among the signatures,
I will beg your perminion to addresa to you my ati-
knowledgment of a memorial from lay members of the
Cheri& of England in the town of Liverpool and its
neighbourhood. I sympathies with the deep 0.,,,arn
with which' the memorialists 'view the introduction
into many of the churches of the land of an elaborate
ritualism, Remit/3 vestments, altar lights, and Incense,
In avowed connexion with doctrines which cannot be
well diatinguilhed from Transubstantial and the
Isaias* dike Wm.' My own fooling Is wins* the

Ula of lighted candles in the daytime. But, as I bad
t 3 rennrk in replying to • previous memorial,
cionffieting opinions as to their legality have
been given by eminent lawyen ; and we must
await a declaration of the law from the Ecclesiastical
Court, into which this question has been carried.
: With regard to another head of your eomplaint. I have
received asenrance from the clergy to whom, doubtleas,
, the memorialista refer, that these practised were
abandoned in compliance with the expression of my dia-
-1 approvaL I am as desirout as WIT of the mernoralists
ern be to maintain the doctrine of our Reformed
Church, as set forth in the 214th and 31st Articles, and
the prescribA form of worship, as plainly laid down in
the Prayer Book. But this prescribed form of worship
must be maintained in its interrity if it is to be main-
tained in its purity. If one school of thought in our
Church Gould be induced to give up its extravagances,
and the other would be more hearty and exact in com-
pliance with the directions of the Rubric, all might
alike offer the prayer that we might alike offer the
prayer that we might boll the faith in unity of spirit
and in the bond of pane, with • clearer conscience and •
better hope of accieptanoe.—l beg leave to remain, my
dear sir, very faithfully yours, WILLIAM Cassrui.—T.
Darnley Anderson, Esq.

TIM Mari or CHRISTI:IDor.—At the Dorchester
meeting on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts (of which we gave • brief
outline last week), a speech somewhat out of the order
of dull routine was made by the Rev. W. Pee:oval Ward,
rooter of Comptcn Valence, on the necessity of the
re-union of Christendon, and it provoked a little
dissuasion. The rev. gentleman referred to the observe-
Cons of the Rev. H. Rowley, who went out to Africa
with Bishop Mackenzie, showing how wonderfully God
had opened the nations of the earth to the reception of
the Gospel, and asked, Was Christendom ready
to answer to the call the nations were making
with such • piteous cry? He thought not; and why!
Because it was disunited. The unity of the church was
• necessary condition for the success of the gospel. The
Church was disunited—Christians were disunited- and,
what was worse, they were content in their disunion.
Mr. Balker had told them, that notwithstanding the
success of the missions of our Church in India, be could
not claim any great success, and be thought that gentle.
man would hear him out, that the cause of that want of
great success was the divisions amongst Christians.
There were Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Anglo
Catholics, Sooth Presbyterians, Wesleyan& Baptiats, and
every possible denominations calling themselves ,
Christian, yet all differing from one another—all
quarrelling with one another. And how could they
expect that the intelligent Ulnae°, and the highly
sduested Brakes', ...odd te Shuts! Weeks Obey
not say, "Gentlemen, settle the differences amongst
yourselves before you have the audacity to come to
teach nor Yet their old religion was dying out, and
thy were ready to receive any good religion; but we
could not offer it to them in the only way in which our
Lord intended it should be offered to them as • church
being one. He read an extract from • book by • dis-
tinguished layman, Sir Charles Young, who said "it was
a positive duty to seek to restore to Christendom some-
thing of its long-lost symmetry. The divided aspect
of the Christian Church, its controversies and conflict-
ing opinions on matters of doctrine and discipline, its
schism., and alas! its petty jealousies and animosities,
contributed in a startling degree to the prevailing din-
belief in the great asysteriee of the Faith. Reunion—
could it be doubted? was the bounden duty of the Chum's
to strive and pray for ; not only for the sake of those
who call her Mother, but for the whole human race for
which the Redeemer shed His most precious blood."
Disunion was the great difficulty with which OW
missionaries had to contend, in India and in the colonies.
But how did it concern them In Doiehester ? It
concerned every one of them. They might give their
money, and he hoped and trusted they would give their
money in greater measure than they had yet done; but
it was not money that would convert the world—it was
to be converted by man's instrumentality under God.
Our Lord sent out his twelve apostles, united men. By
them nation after nation was converted. Why did they
not see those wonders of conversion now! Clearly, for
the first 1,000 years after our Lord had ascended whole
nations were converted. The whole Church was a
united body, and when St. Augustine came over to our
shores he certainly met those who opposed him, but not
• different faith. The great nation of the Romans was
converted by a united Church ; and he said again the
unity of the Church was the condition of the sneer= of
Christian missions. No doubt it was the first thing for
them to pray for and strive for that the Catholic Church
should be re-united. But it appeared to them, and they
must fear, it was a long way off. Was there nothing
they miseht do sooner, aye, this very day, in our own
country! There was a great deal they could do. Charity
began at home, and this was a great work of charity it
began in their own parishes, among their own
neighbours, in their own Church, and it went on through
the country. It was their bounden duty to cultivate
A spirit of unity first and foremost amongst themselves.
It WAS of no use talking about the re-union of Christens
dam whilst they were creating divicions amongst them.
selves. They, as members of the same Church of God
—those who professed to be members of the same
Church—must feel it was their duty, if they had any
regard for their own requirements, to cultivate in the
first instanoe a spirit of unity and concord amongst
themselves who belonged,to the same communion. If
they wanted an example of the sort of spirit they
should cultivate they would find it in that most
beautiful beatise lately delivered in this town by their
own dear Right Reveread Father in God, the Lord
Bishop of Salisbury. He received a letter not long
since, written by • distinguished scholar and theologian.
who said that charge was diticated in • loving and
loveable spirit—(applause). That charge gave them one
great precept, which they would do well to lay to heart.
People might differ with some parts of it ;it was quite
open for them so to do; but there was one precept laid
down in it ',Wats oket..sia. acsic bound to
listen to—that was that they should not bear false
witness, that if they would only seek the unity of the
Spirit and bond of peace, bearing false witness would
be impossible. They should strive, first of all, to see
how far they mold agree with • friend or neighbour
before they began to differ; they should show a
respectful deference to the opinions of others, and this ,
was perfectly consistent with maiutainng a most firm '
and zealous hold upon their own principlcs, and advocat-
ing them to the utmost of their pewee. Taking that
same charge again, delivered in that "loving and loveable
spirit," showing a heart open to all men, yet how firm.
how uncompromising, were the principles there bid ,
down ! If they followed that example, depend upon it
they would seen see they would learn to respect one
another, and respecting one another they would learn
to love one another. If that spirit were cultivated
amongst them, by members of the same Church, and
among all schools and all divisions of thought among
them, they would very soon look out beyond their own
circle, and what would they see? They would see in this
country large bodies of dissenters from our Church. Let
it be remembered that in any form of religion, however
acquired and maintained, held by any large number of
men, there was something well worthy of their atten-
tion, and depend upon it there was no large body of
dissenters in this country who had maintained their
position and held together barge bodies of their fellow-
country men but who had within their system something
or other which would be most valuable for the Church
to study, and carefully consider whether it would not
in its better form bear importing into our own body.
Take the Congregationalists for instance. There was
great truth in Congregationalism, and it had been found
in large towns. Take the Baptists. There was great
truth and reverence &soonest them. And take the large
body of which he was still more particularly anxious to
speak—the Wesleyan& John Wesley sever wanted to
leave the Church; he was driven out of it: and !belt
were those now in the Church who, in their folly, sought
to go through the same process again. Only conceive,
if they could win back again the Wesleyan body into
, the Church of England, what an enormous power it
would give them, both for the missions to the heathen
In the colonise and at home. The Wesleyan system, in
allsita better kinds and forms, was precisely what they
smote in the Church of England. Why had they not
got hold of the lowest orders of the country people?
Beatnik: they had nothing in the Church answering to
the Wesleyan system. When Bishop Jedd was in
Ireland, he and his friend Alexander Knox were the
beginners of the great Catholic movement which had
taken great hold on the Church of England. Bishop
Jedd was Bishop of Limerick, and a friend wrote to him
from England, 'eking him whether he thought if the
Weeleyan system were attempted in Ireland it would
gain any hold over the peasantry. His reply was, "No,
because the Roman Catholics have in their system pre-
cisely everything that is attractive in the Wesleyan
system to the lower orders." What was it that gave
the Roman Catholics power over the lower orders in
France, Italy, and other countries? That they had
within themselves • gram answering very much to the
Wesleyan system in England, but which the Church of
England was entirely without. Legislation had not
enabled them to meet the difficulty of the time. Con-
vocation was stifled, and the s -4 Pniformity
considered the greatest roidortetne Church had ever
endured. They bad lost the great body of Wesleyans,
and he said they were the body of all others the first
and foremost they should try and win hack again to the
Church of England, and be believed they could do it if
the Church of England would only open her system
wider than it was at present. He then spoke of the
responsibilities of the Press of this country, and its hos
menses power for good or evil, and proceeded to my that
If all neighbours would strive to live at peace with one
another if they would love truth they would gain
peace; or if they would seek for peace they should at-
tain to truth, for never without truth would they gain
peace, never without peace would they attain to truth.
England was galled to the missionary work, and if she
would go forth as one Church she would be invincible
among the heathen.—The Rev. H. Rowley replied that
he did not think that the unity of Christendom was
absolutely necessary to the moms of missionary
enterprise. And he said that because he saw that the
success which had attended the missionary efforts of
our own Church—notwithstanding the divisions that
were in it, and which he lamented as much as anyone—
had been more than commensurate with the efforts they
had made. He did not hesitate to say that in no period
in the history of the Church had there been annajiaayed
a success to missionary effort so great as that which
had been vouchsafed to the missions of the
Church of England during the last 50 years—(applause).
The Rev. W. P. Ward said he did not mean that they
were to wait in their exertions in the missionary cause
till the re-union of Christendom, but that, while they
were zealous in the missionary cause, they should
recollect that which oosuioned very much that want of
in, gram enemas, namely, because Christians were dis-
united. The Yen. Archdeacon Sanctuary observed
some cnightjthink the remarks of Mr. Ward were tend-
(ng to disunion, rather than union, though he was not
of that opinion—(hear, bear)—for ho held it to be the
duty of every Christian man to bear witness to that
measure of truth which God had bestowed upon him,
and be did not believe that it would produce any
hindrance to the spread of the gospel if persons only
bore witness to that truth in the spirit of lone, He did
not think the mission work would be stayed by the
division amongst Christians, though he had no doubt
they were a most serious hindrance to it—(basr, bear).