The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

THE

Ktbapool tanbarb,

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1855.

THE DUTY OF ENGLISH CHURCHMEN

TOWARDS THE EASTERNS.

WE once heard a clergyman in the north of
England, who, when asked to sign testimonials for a
neighbour addressed to the Bishop of Glasgow, stared,
and looked excessively puzzled. " The Bishop of
Glasgow !" he at length exclaimed : " why, I thought
they were all Presbyterians in Scotland. I did not
know that there was a branch of the Church existing
there. 1-Tnileed, whenever I have been in Scotland, I
have always attended the Established worship, which
I should not have done had I known that Episcopacy
existed among them." This happened not more than
eight years ago, and may serve to lessen our astonish-
ment at the general ignorance which prevails with
reference to the Churches of the East. Many, we
verily believe, are actually ignorant of their existence,
or, at any rate, of their existence within the Turkish
Empire ; and many more have only learnt it in con-
sequence of the present war. Every body knows that
the SULTAN is a ➢lahommedan, and thousands have
taken for granted that his subjects are the same.
And of those who are better informed, who are aware
that Christians are to be found in all parts of the
Empire, and that in European Turkey they very
greatly outnumber their Mahommedan fellow-subjects,
the majority seem to take for granted that they are
pretty much the same as the Romanists, and only less
to be feared because farther off, and not so much
given to proselytising. Now, even admitting, what
we know to be very far from the fact, that they have
departed from the truth as widely as the Church of
Rome, still, as we endeavoured last peek to show,
there are strong reasons why we should regard them
with a very different eye. They are, no less than
ourselves, witnesses against the Roman claim of
supremacy ; and this alone might well serve to create
in the hearts of English Churchmen sympathy in
their behalf. The characteristic of the Romish Church
is development, which is tantamount to ecclesiastical
radicalism ; whereas the Greek Church is distinguished
by an excessive conservatism, a conservatism which
not only clings to the doctrines of the past, but, also,
maintains rites, ceremonies, and the like, which through
lapse of time have ceased to answer their intended
purpose, and have become in some instances worse
than useless. But this conservative spirit, this de-
termination to walk in the old paths, affords, we
think, ground of hope. It is the very spirit by which
our own Reformers were professedly actuated. It
may be admitted, that the Greek Church has, in
many things, departed from the primitive pattern
which it_ professes to follow ; that it is cast in the
mould of a later age, when doctrines, discipline, and
ceremonies bad alike become somewhat corrupted.
But this, we conceive, is the result of ignorance rather
than of wilfulness ; and calls for an effort upon our
part to enlighten and assist them. The case of Rome,
with her doctrine of development, and claim to in-
fallibility, seems hopeless. Individuals may be in-
fluenced ; but the Romish Church never. But the
Greek Church, while upon the one hand she makes no
claim to infalibility, upon the other admits the duty
of conforming herself to the primitive pattern : and
therefore, we say, convince her that she is wrong, i.e.,
that she has indeed departed from antiquity, and
we have ground to hope that her system, however
stereotyped, will be quickly broken up, and recast in a
purer and more beautiful mould.
But then comes the practical question, how is the
attempt to be made ? How may we, with the greatest
prospect of success, attempt to elevate the Greek
Church in particular, and the Eastern Churches gene-
rally, and, at the same time, make them a blessing to
the Mahommedans and others around them ? The
first step, we conceive, is to acknowledge her frankly
and freely as a sister Church, as equally with ourselves
a branch of the Church-Catholic, possessing a legiti-
mate authority over her own legitimate children. To
treat her as we would treat the heathen is only calcu-
luated to prejudice the great mass of her people
against us, and to indispose them to listen to us, or to
accept anything at our hands ; while, exactly in pro-
portion to our success, we shall introduce schism, and
all its accompanying train of evils. We should en-
deavour to influence the people through the bishops
and clergy ; endeavour to convey light to them, and
have them to communicate it to their flocks. The
Moravian missionaries, we believe, who are employed
among some of the heathen subjects of the Russian
empire, are content to hand over their converts to the
Greek Church for baptism, thus strengthening her
hands, instead of weakening her by laying the founda-
tion of a rival community ; and if the instruction
which they convey to their converts is sounder than
such as is generally received by the members of the
Greek Church, then it follows, that in every convert
whom they hand over, they instil, so to speak, new
life-blood into the body which revives him. And
somewhat analogous is the course' to be pursued by
ourselves, if we are ever to confer any real benefit
upon Eastern Christianity. Whatever of earnestness
.remains therein must be elevated and purified, and
then left where it is to act upon all around it. If,
indeed, it could be shown that salvation in the Greek
Church is impossible, or even that, as in the Church
of Rome, one of the sacraments is not duly ministered,
the case would be different,, and every principle of
charity would impel us to induce as many as possible
to come out of her.

In this,l6'in many other things, France and Rome
are before us, and are using all their influence to pro-
mote their own views among the Eastern. Rome
has no more forgotten her claim to supremacy over
them than ourselves ; while the Emperor of France, it
is well known, assumes to be the protector of the Latin
Christians in the East, just as the late Emperor of
Russia assumed to be of those belonging to the Greek
Church. " Everywhere," says a writer in the
Colonial Church Chronicle, " the Eastern Papal
aggression is being carried on with the utmost vigour,
and it is backed up by England, because, in her proud
indifference, she does not know what she is about ;
and by France, because it is her interest to do so. It
cannot be `repeated foe often, for the benefit of those
who have not travelled in the East, that in Asia,
Roman Catholic and Frenchman are convertible terms.
France is, and is recognised as the protector of oriental
Roman Catholics, to a degree that Russia never claimed
in behalf of the orthodox church ; and it is a known
fact, that the main cause of such conversions as have
occurred from the Greek Church to the Latin Com-
munion, has been the prospect of protection from
Turkish tyranny at the hands of French ambassadors
and consuls." Now, much might be said in condemna-
tion of English apathy, regarding it merely in its
_political consequences ; but upon the part of the
English Church such conduct is absolutely suicidal,
inasmuch as it necessarily strengthens the hands of
Rome, her bitterest and most untiring foe. A time
for action like the present may possibly never occur
sgain : and if, in order to action, any concessions
upon the part of the Turkish Government are needed,
we have established a claim to them, a claim paid for
with the best blood of England. But, indeed, our
course, in the first instance, appears to be a very
simple one. Multitudes of our own countrymen are
now in the East, at Constantinople and elsewhere, for
various purposes of business or pleasure. Let them
first be cared for, and the English Church wipe away
the reproach, a very general one, of neglecting her
own children, We
•
" "c;34.1. a church and a body of clergy
'.n, .donstantinople ; and, above all, we need a bishop at
their head, to direct and controul them in their efforts.
The first duty of such a body would be to look after