The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-11-27 00:00:00

THE IMPRISONMENT OF MR. DALE.

Notwithstanding the announcement that the Church of St.
Vedast is closed for some time, there was a larger number
of people who came to the doors in Foster-lane than even on
the preceding Sunday, but beyond the notice of the vestry
meeting for Thursday morning and the churchwardens
offered reward for anyone sticking or defacing notices,
there was no other announcement. In many of the London
churches the prayers of the congregation were asked for the
peace of the Church and for Thomas Pelham Dale, priest in
Holloway Gaol.

An address from communicants of the Church of England
in the city of York has been, received by the prisoner, stat-
ing that they heartily sympathize with him in the cruel in-
dignity to which he is being subjected for his bold firmness
in upholding the Catholic faith and ritual of the Church.
The English people cannot bear, the signatories allege, this
long-continued persecution of faithful ministers, and they
pray that by God's mercy he may soon be permitted to leave
the prison into which he has been so cruelly thrown.

In a printed address to his congregation Mr. Dale writes
under the heading if ebrews xi., 4-5 v. :"As I cannot
speak, I feel I must write a few lines. This is the second
time we have been obliged to seek shelter away from
our awn church. But, then, this trial came upon us on All
Saints Eve, and I write with the sound of the lesson—
Hebrews xi.—read in my ears within our prison, and which
may well serve us as a subject for meditation. The very
first saint in Scripture is the first martyr, and each one who
Is ready in God's fear to become an Abel, to spend his
vapour life for the Lord, has his plase, if not in the portriat
i gallery of faith, what s better still, in the register of the
'Book of Life. We ought, God give us grace to do it, to lay
down our lives for the_ brethren, and by grace we will. We
must walk with God like Enoch. Death cannot hurt those
who live like this. They will not the. They who live thus
have already their feet planted on the top of that ladder
which reaches to Heaven."

Monday morning's post orought several thousand signa-
tures to the petition to the Queen for Mr. Dale's release
from different parts of England, and a very large number
from fellows and undergraduates of the University of
Cambridge.

At the meeting of the Church of England Working Men's
Society at Cannon-street Hotel, London, on the 10th inst.,
Mr. Henry Wright, one of the speakers, pointed out that as
Mr. Gladstone had used every means to prevent the passing
of the Public Worship Regulation Act in 1874, so they might
reckon on his support should a Bill be brought before the
House of Commons to amend that Act, and added Mr. John
Bright would also help, because he is in favour of freedom
of religion. The latter statement being challenged by
several of the audience, the following letter has been for-
warded to Mr. Wright, in confirmation of his speech :

"Dear Sir,—l suppose an Established Church, being a
creation of law, must keep within, the law, and they who
cannot endure what the law requires must place themselves
outside of it by withdrawing from the Church. The case is
one much to be regretted, but, perhaps, it will open the eyes
of some people to the bondage which is inevitable for the
ministers of a Church which is the creation of law, and
therefore, bound to submit to the law. I speak of the
Church as we see it constituted and working in this
country. Thousands of members of my sect were Persecuted
two centuries ago. They were outside the Church, and
are still, and for that very reason prosecuted even to death
for that in many cases. If your clergy will put themselves
outside the Church they will be free as the members
of my sect are now. It is hardly possible, or rather it is
not possible, to be within the lines of the Church and to
have the freedom of those who are outside. I can sym-
pathise with Mr. Dale in some degree; but I do not see
how 1 can be of any service to thins. If the blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the Church, the sufferings of Mr. Dale
may help many Churchmen to a clearer view of their
illogical position, wishing at once to be inside the Church
and to have the privileges of those who are outside.—l am,
truly yours, "JOHN BRIGHT."
"Henry Wright, Esc."