The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-01-02 00:00:00

FAITH, THE CHURCH'S BULWARK!

The (limns!' News of Wednesday tells the following
story as introductory to its leader on the Machonochie
judgment :—" In the dark days of last century, when
faith in the unseen was prin ipally to be found among
Dissenters, there wasa certain house in Wales hauntvd
by an evil spirit. The wife of a Dissenting teacher
volunteered to encounter the enemy alone at night,
with no external aid but her Bible and a candle.
Looking up from her book in the course of tho
nigi.t, she perceived a hideous and appalling fore,
had seated itself noiselessly opposite to her.
She gazed at it untlitchingly and then resumed
her reading. Your trust is in that candle,' said t,.e
evil being with a malicious sneer. She met his glans,.
once more, and then blowing out tile candle, wait
till the dawn of morning resealed that the defeated
I demon had departed never to return, an silently as he
I came, and vanquished by faith alone. D. Les the story
I need explanation as applie dile to our present is with,
or does anyone need reminding that faith i all si.•
I need for final ,victory °VET the NVOlit r Further
the eh //reit N es declares, in reference to the judgint nt
that "every tyrannical act of the kind is a nail in the
Establishment's coffin."

i
I ST. ALBAN'S, HOLBORN, AFTER TIM
i PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENT.
(From the Daily News, Monday, Dec. 28.)
1 The jsmring rain of last Sunday morning did not
' prevent a very large congregation, of which a good
half w 0.4 composed of women, from assembling at the
I principal service at St. Alban's, Holborn. London. A
1 law persons were doubtless led thither by curiosity to
learn what had been the effect id the recent judgment;
1 but nearly all seemed to possess that familiarity with
the usages of the place which only a habit of attend-
ance could give. It would have taken a person inti-
imately conversant with Ritualism to discover any
daft ter ce between the service conducted on Sruidayaria
that which was performed on the Sunday before. The
altar appeared in all the glory of the great feast of
the season ; the chancel was studded with processi.mal
banners; the priests crossed and recrossed. an;
arranged themselves in one cmthination after another ;
and the prayers were imbedded in a long musical per-
formance an hour and three quarters in length.
The service of the Holy Communion commenced
about a quarter before eleven. During the preceding
prayers sia lighted candles, arranged in two triplets,
appeared on the altar; but while the priests were at-
tiring themselves in the vestry, an acolyte appeared
who extinguished these candles, and lighted the two '
large ones WWI stood one on each side of the altar'
and which remained burning throughout the cylebras
thin and the memo-. The three officiating priests
wore the " vestments," the legality of which has not
yet been decided on by any ecclesiastical tribunal, and
the service was performed as far as the Nicene Creed.
The Rev. Arthur H. Stanton then ascended the pulpit
and preach.' a short sermon from the Epistle of the
day (St. John the Evangelist's day) " Truly our fel-
lowship is rith its Father, cud I;ith his Son Jesus
Christ." The preacher struck the keynote of his
discourse by declaring that when the Lord Jesus Christ
was born he was born into a world of inffistioe.
The strong oppressed the weak, the many the few,
and the rich the poor. Christ clothed humanity with
himself, made hone in him, and now every wrong done
to one man is done to humanity, andevery wrong done
to humanity is done to God. After amplifying this
theme, the preacher referred to the peculiar circum-
stances ‘if that church. A vibration, he said, had
massed through their hearts thus Christmas. They
had suffered at this season of the church's joy the
ancient threefidd injustice of which he had spoken. A
grievous wroug had been done them—whether by
the Judicial Committee or by the promoters of the
suit the preacher did not say—but the followers of
Him who lay in the manger must not deem this
strange. After all, it had not marred their ;.acred
joy, and perhaps this was the happiest Christmas
they had over spent or shout ever spend. Their aim, he
said, was not to obtain power, nor to master Dm
intelligence of England, but to win the hearts of the
people, and this they were doing. t.;inee the wrong
they had sustained had become known they had
received the warmest demonstrations of sympathy,
and in hundreds of Christian homes St. Alban s,
Holborn, had been remembered this Christmas with
love and pra)er. After observing that patient
endurance of wrong was one of the means by which
the world was to be won for Christ, the preacher,
without ally formal conclusion, descended the pulpit
stairs, and resumed his place in the ChanceL
'rhe servToe then proceeded, Mr. Mackonochre him-
self bearing ti.e celebrant. The reverend gentleman
did not rleva to either the paten or the chalice, buo
three times during the prayer of consecration he either
knelt or bowed very low. The number of communi-
cants was not large perhaps because it was so near
Christmasolay, and there was nothing remarkable in
the further pro„,ress of the service.
--

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