The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-12-12 00:00:00

No. Vll.—it EJ RCTED (SYNODICAL) ADDRESSES
Is THE DICMESI Or LairrA.

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5 nor • Ins ori lltsrsrAnusnmirr.—by linto/us;

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At a time when th hest hienda of tho Church loolc
futse,rd with deep anxiety to the future, when Dia.
establi-linient and Disendowment occupy a prolueent
plasm in the programme of a large and powerful parte,
when slay of her old friends are growing indifferent
about the matter, it surely cannot be inconsistent with
the (Meats of a Diweian S)nod, to look this matter
ateadily in the face, and consider what reason we have
to expect such an important change in the position of
tic Church, curl what the probable mults will be.
then, if we consider Cod's dealings with Ills
Church In past agea, we shall be forced to acknowledge
tl.i.t it is quite possit4 that such • change may be
imminent. At the time of the Reformation the
Church allow) was supported by all the Temporal
Power of Enrope, and He, who is pleased to work by
means, supported Ilk own T. nth In opposition to such
vast material rower which was enlisted in the defence
of Poi cry, by uniting our Church with the State, and
that so c'osely that the national honour and the National
Church seemed to he Identified. Without doubt this
onion was kept up at no Mil. Goat, Our Reformers,
tolerant enough towards the non-Ephicopal Churches
of Franco and Geneva, had no idea of any divided
Church at home; this want of toleration, although it
was far more political than religions, led to a great
deal of persecution and a great spiritual weakening of
the Church. as when by the Act of Uniformity some
hundreds of the best and ablest ministers were driven
out of her Communion. And yet it effected its pur-
pose. Ragland, as a nation, was identified with Protes-
tantism in the face of all Europe. But now all this is
ganged. Ti ere I. not one country in Europe that rives
a national support to Popery- truth and falsehood DO
longer contend with material, lint intellectual, forces; it
Is therefore reasonable to expect that the truth in this
lend will have to stand alone, without the aid of the
state. And •ho that knows that truth will for a
moment doubt or fear the issue?
But such a change is alio very proLni,/e. From the
day when men, who were not member@ of the Church,
were admitted into offices political and civil, and Into
Parliament, the data of the union of Church and State
were numbered. From that day the onion has been an
anumaly. The Church cannot charge her lectionary
without it is find submitted to en assembly, consisting
in part of Dissenters, Roman Catholics, Unitarians,
Jews. The priniples and practices of the two are
diverse, and every day shows the impossibility of their
working together, no State determine to pass the
Burials Bill, the Church protests but cannot help ler.
self, she is the weaker vessel, and as long as the union
exists, she Is bound "to love, honour, and obey" her
Lord and Master. The State, being appealed to, lays
down certain laws as to the doctrines and ritual of the
Church ; the chief officers of the Church, themselves
appointed by the State, refuse to Garry out those laws.
But in nothing has this ineompstibility of temper and
disposition appeared more plainly than upon the ques-
tion of Education. The Church wishes to keep It In
her own hand.; the State saes you 'hall do no such
thing. It seems, therefore, highly proboUe that the
parties will shortly cu-my their differences into the
Drronea COOHT.

And whilst there will be many inconvenient:des
attending such a separation, in many respects ii wUI be
desirable. It will cause a separation between the two
elements that now are "unequally yoked together"
within the Church—vital Christianity and worldly For.
: whatever is real, honest, and true, will with
draw from that which is a hindrance and a blight to
the true Church ; and while the pomp and grandeur of
the Church will cleave to the world, that which is really
valuable will keep di-tinet, and,thoueh inferior in num-
ber c-onparerl with the worldly profesaors, poor in this
world's geode. simple in habits of life and of worship,
it will be infinitely more plwerful for good than at
present, because God will be in the midst of It, Relight
will be single and pure oil holy. Another advantage
will be that the chi, f rapport of the Aureoles Policy
of the Church of Rome in this land vriU be withdrawn.
What is it that enables that Church to enjoy such imma-
tittles from State control in this land? Why hae it
greater indulgence here than In any country in Europe?
It is simply through kalousy of the Established
Church. The great Liberal Petty piety her off against
the E.tablished Church; they will not unite with
Churchmen in restraing her advance.; but that hin-
drance out of the way, she would find her nunneries
and monasteries and charities no longer sealed against
State inapectioo, and h. r day of defiance of the law
would have pa-sod away.
Of course in such an important change vested
interests would have to be considered. Ido not allude
now to the country 'squires who have the advowson of
a living in their families, ready for any one of the sons
who has no particular liking for doing anything else,
in consequ.nee of which many a child is brought up
from early days with the understanding that when he
is three-and-twenty years of age be will have to declare
that he i " inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost" to
take upon himself the core of souls, when he "has
not so muoh as heard whether there be any Holy
Ghost and has a most indefinite idea of the nature
and value of Ills ownllsoul. But I most particularly
refer to that most industrious class of persons who
advertise incessantly in every ecclesiastical and religious
newspaper certain wares that I fear will not have •
ready vale in • disestablished church, I mean the one-
cootors of manuscript and lithographed sermons, at the
small priee of thirteen shillings and sitpenoe per
quarter. Senn) inform the Church that tio y have two
or three thousand for inspection and selection. What
will become of these hard-working men? Of canoe,
, when the Church is disestablished clergymen will mot
, have ZOO per annuni,and betva and glebe for teaching
the people, and buy their doctrine at 13s, 6d. per
, quarter. What becomes of the men who have under-
taken the office of minister without any qualification
for it, nobody will mind; bat I hope our legislators
will not overlook these manufacturers of ready-made
Evangelism. I have often wondered that some of oar
Bishoya have not found room in their very extensive
charges to notice and protest against this diagram to
our church; I hope the omission is not caused by a
fellow feeling : I have heard of Bishop's charges that
could not be warranted home made.

Considering then the possibility and probabuity of a
eri at change in the Church's position, surely we ought
to be c meickring what we shall do to meet it. The
honest preacher of the gospel has nothing to fear—the
real Christian is perfectly safe—the great Head of the
Church will not leave or forsake the one, or the other.
Wherever He has a people He will provide a teacher,
and that teactler will be fed. Religion will lose much
of its eztenial gaudiness, but it will be more influential
in the hearts and lives of its honest professore. Bo we
may well leave theu things In the hands of infinite
wisdom, and power, and love. Whatever change takes
plum it will be for Ilia glory and His people's good, I
and with this we may well be content. But as Chards. I
min we may and ought to prepare for the worst.
Instead then of protesting against the coming change as
"Sacrilege," instead of proclaiming the vast advantage
which the Church in her present state confers on the I
country at large; and the tremendous lows that will
accrue to tho State by hor disestablishment ; mush In
the spirit of • qusrrelsorne wife, who winds up all her '
most aggravating tirades by assuring her husband, that
"ho will be sorry for her when he has lost her;"
instead of falling in with the suicidal scheme of uniting
troth and error in defence of the temporalities of the
Church, let us be getting ready for the day of trial, and
seaman that is about to leave • sinking 'hip and swim
for his life prepares for the moment of danger by divest.
leg himself of everything that may hinder him in his
struggle with the waves, so let Churchmen be prepered
to fling away whatever is non-euenttal or injurious.
Let them no longer permit the bishops for their own
honour and glory to resist every measure for the real
reform of the ecclesiastical courts. The sooner these
warts with all their anomalies are swept away the
better. lustead of upholding the laws of the Church
and restraining transgression, it is in their endless
labyrinths that the chief oonspirators against the Church
of the Reformation shelter themselves, beyond the reach
of individual Churchmen, and loster'd by Episcopal
privilege, and Episoopal indifference. And then let no
foolish worship of antiquity, no aesthetic sentimetality
prevent us from all uniting in the abolition of Cathedral
establishments. L t the rich and great support them, U
they like them, by their voluntary gifts, but the Church
should not be bastioned by them. Some such marinas
as these would delay the evil day, and make the Church
more fit to meet the difficulty ; but above all, the
clergy must remember that they will have to depend
upon the goodwill of the laity. If they secure that
goodwill now by their faithfulness and devotion, all will
be well; but the time is short, and the opportunity
now offered will not be renewed.

A COUNTRYMAN AT THE CATTLE-SHOW.
My eye, what sight o' stock is here,
0' pigs, and ship, and cattle I
Our thought. was all, this time last year,
Took up wi' news o' battle.
But now awhile we finds relief
In sommut like smooth water ;
We turns again to Obrhonui beret,
Instead o' Christian slaughter.
Whereas, upon a spell o' peace,
There sims to be reliance.
Lets look at all that there increase
0' flocks and herds wi' tolerate
It is a woLder to the eye
Which on that pieta: remits,
That there part show sod huge supply
a London Christen' beemte
'Tie out o' Mother Berth as they,
All on 'ern dram their sources,
Droo torrents, mangold, grain, and hay,
Which we by tillage forces.
To make her bring forth all them fruits,
We've got for to improve her.
Wl' vittles they sucks up by roots ;
Which vittles in manceuvre.
Them ship and bullocks, hence few days,
Turned into mutton-eaters.
And beef, will farm, the torpid says,
The flesh o' human creturs.
That pig ion now hears grunt and squeak,
Med ern, if butcher hush 'on,
Come out on some young lady's cheek,
In pork•fed roses blushun.
On barley-male, fat, well you know,
Did that there hog flit fatter.
The barley win on refuge rose—
tech is the round o' matter!
Long way we 'tend the cattle show,
At every celebration,
And help make all that matter flow,
The course o' circulation.
—notch.

Kelly's second trial has hien postponed until the next
Dahlia Commission, on the ground of the Pruiadl"
which must neeessanly have resulted from the adverse
oomments of many English journals upon the conduct
of tl.e jury which acquitted the prisoner of Talbot's
murder.

MYSTERIor3 Cinctrnstancs.—On Wedneeday the
body of a woman was found on the railway at Reading
with the Lead lying some d'stance from it The pollee
have discovered that on Tneeday the deceased was
beaten by her husband, who has &Wooded, leering
twp chiliren, the eldest only eighteen months old.
Before leaving his reddens, the mos he 4 dootroyel Oso
wholo of lila Lotter.,