The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-03-17 00:00:00

THE DOESETSHIRE UNIONISTS AT THEIR

DIVERSIONS.

There is in the county of Dorset a village named
Yetminster. at which the railway train stops once every
day, and another called Proms Vanchurch, where at
present there Is no railway, although, doubtless, a
branch would be opened without delay if anyone ever
wanted to go there. These two important villages
have started • broach of the English Church Union,
and here held three ordinary meetings, the last at the
Ball Hotel, Bridport. If this was an ordinary meeting,
we wonder whet their extraudinary meetings will be?
something awful to contemplate. Now self-develop-
ment is part of human nature, and it was not to he
expected that so much wisdom and eloquence was
Intended "to waste Its sweetness on the desert air,"
and as no reporters thought it necessary to be there,
why they reported themselves. Anything rath.r than
let the world be ignorant of their existence; as the ,
pullet in the triumph of her heart at her admission
to tbe full dignities of Am-ship announces in loud
cackles the arrival of her first egg, even if it be but a
soft one. In the congenial columns of the Chronkle
the important association found • fitting channel for
the publication of their proceedings, and never surely
did men combine to proclaim their own absurdity more
spocerafully. It appsszl that this stupendous
organisation mustered nine members and two
visitors. The subjects for discussion were two,
" Good Friday" and the "Burial Service."
With regard to the former, the Rev. H. 0. Francis
was very earnest in exposing the baneful effects
of "Hot Cross Buns." Rev. T. 0. Marshall, room.
mended the introduction of "Th. Three Hours Agony,''
and "The Reproaches," i.e. Popish services; also that
•• the bitt should toll sotoooily or Orr limo whom our
Lord gave up the Ghost." "That posters on walls, and
bills in shop windows, such as were issued from the
Church Press Company were very useful." We have
seen these posters, an which Good Friday is termed the
" Great Day of Atonement," an usertion which
ignorance of the Bible oan alone &peanut for. The Day
of Atonement, the peculiarity of which was, the enter-
ing of the High Priest into the Holiest Place, WWI •
type of the Ascension into Heaven. But after this
came the following dialogue

The Chairman hoped that no one would put any hilts or
posts n In another clergyman's parish vfltlrut hp approval.

r -Th. Bev. T. 0. Mandrill, hoarser., Bald that of tju.ras no
clergyman would thus interfere In a brother's pariah; but any
layman inlghtmost certainly put up such posters In hla own
perish.

How very ingenious; of °ours' a clergyman would not
circulate this rubbish in Another clergyman's parish, but
hel could employ some silly layman to do it, and there
are persona willing enough to be found in every place.
Than came the Bartel Santee, about which the Rey.
H. Candy °beamed, among other things, is follows :
He thought something might be done to improve the
prompt at) le of coffins and their furniture, and recommended
to the notice of the branch • Buie pamphlet on the subject
by Mr. Brett, of Stoke Newington. Clergymen might, If no
undertaker would do m get down a small stock of simple
furniture of a more Christian kind than that usually employed,
and very often they would And a peuent of handles very
much welcomed by tram* who were burying • relation
In a parish coils, and who longed for eripiethlng to take off
the Immure of It 1., conclusion he wished to may most
decidedly that in all them suggestions he had referred only
to the burial of communicenta. For them alone shoold tire
WOW be chord, and for them alone should the pia* con-
cent to offer the Holy Huebert.* at the time of the funeral.
He thought we were all much in fault in not making •
sufficiently marked distinction between them who were living
In communion with Christ by receiving the blamed aseramient
of His body and blood, and than who were bring In open
rejection of grace, and In open violation of His la“ most I
mered commend.
Bat Use Rev. T. 0. Marshall, not to be outdone,
say'—
Bet there elways should be • celebration, if poseible. The
celebration would then follow immediately after the lemon.
It should never be postponed till aftor the body is buried IN
though It were only for the comfort of the mourners, Instead
of being, is It really Is, the Church'. °Moe for her
departed member—the pleading for the departed soul the
merit, end &All of Christ.
These gentlemen have evidently forgotten that they
belong to a Church which declares such things to be
"blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits." After
ennumerating various Ritualistic antics to be observed
at the funeral, it sras evidently adopted as • settled
question that they were only to be performed at the
burial of oommunicante. Upon which Mr. Marshall
says
If It lame objected that by thee acting we made curatives
judges of our brethren and were liable to he deceived be
hypocrisy, he wee quite willing to !admit both charges, and
would reply to them in the Inspired words of Boer (Detit.
exit. BA The mast things belong unto the Lord our God:
but Shoes thirip which an revealed belong unto us and to
our children for ever, that we may do the words of this
law.' Whet could be more clearly revealed than this, that
"Except we tat the Bak of our Lord and drink his blood we
em have no lifer
Here we have • perste of Scripture as usual misquoted
and misapplied; in the Bible it is "the Huh of the Son
of Man," not "of our Lord." And if this poor silly
priest knew the meaning of the Bible, audited studied it
half as well as he has boob of eadeelastical millinery and
furniture, he would have known that our Lord, in the
mune ehaptu had promised (v. 47) everlasting life to them
that believe on Biro, had promised ( v. 44) " to raise up
at the last day" them that come to Him, and had said
(v. 35) " H. that oometh to Me shall never hunger, and
he that helieveth on Me shall never thirst," and to
narrow these promises to the mere eating the sacramental
bread is simple blaaphemy.
Again they would have the pall ornamented with
a tar worked on it, such so "Jesu, mercy," "Blessed
are the dead," kn. Will they tell us in what part of
the Bible they find that text, "Jean, mercy?"
But the most important part of the meeting wu the
conclusion, when the beg was pealed round and a collec-
tion made in support of the branch, which amounted to
fourteen shillings end formates I How about the
fourpenny 1 Which of those eathusiastie Churchmen In-
vested his money to the extent of a "Josyr He must
have been the representative man, whom Tate and
Brady had in their eye, when they travestied the 112th
psalm :
Yet what his charity impair.,
He saves by prudence In affair..

Os the whale we think that we haws never seen so
painful an exposure of folly and ignorance oombined
with smosit, as this report of the Tetminster and From.
Tenants& Braneh. Rid sa it is to have such men in
the disguise of ltinieters of the Christian religion, it is
well that they its so demented ea to expose their
silliness to the midis pee. The indignation of all
sensible uses, excited by the doings of the Ritualists,
and kept alive by the dimmest's! exhibition of the
Bishops in Coevesetioe, is not likely to die out while
such fuel for Its ire is supplied by these unhappy
creatures. Alas for the poor people of the two perishes!
Can nothing he done to help them In their unhappy
Mate, Isft so the mercy of such teaohers ? Can we
wonder lithe Nosmonformist Chapel is filled to over.
Sowing? Can we regret it? It is at the door of these
empty-beaded Priests that the ruin of the Church of
Knaland must lie, if ever she Gomm to ruin. They are
making her contemptible, and, when once she becomes
conkieptible, her fall will not be far off. And what
will the Bishop of Salisbury say to them things? Will
he again dare in the House of Lords to estimate the
Ritualism of his diocese Will he venture to say it is
ionised to one parish?