The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-05-12 00:00:00

District Nebo.

ARCHIDLACONAa VISITATION.

The Archdeacon of Dorset is now on hie annual tour
of visitation. We give • condensed nport of the Charge,
end ban no doubt it will be road with interest, treating.
se It doss, on various subjoin' of great import•nes at
the ',moot tine. In • few days, we believe, the whole
of it wUt be published under authority.
CHAloss itTea ast.Asiossair arms' Cauacs
LCD STAIN.

After a few pnlintlnary remake. the Archdeacon
referred to the struggles in Parliament about Church
pates, end &location, and the Irish Church es indications
that the stet* is losing its religions conscience; but this
was not surprising, because the Government is in the
bands of men who may or may not be believer' in the
Bible. He noteed bow the Church and the State had
each encroached on each others office, but it had been
for their =canal benefit. Now it was evillest schlep
was impartible, and the Marsh wee being led to place
billet reliance on God. At the present time, what
eitould be the Ch arch's policy? Should she reproach those
who guide the State? It was written, " Then shalt not
speak evil of the I der dilly people." Or 'gain, should she
regent the affront and rudely seek for seperatien from the
State? She has to eonaider before oath • step is taken
whether God's glory will be promoted and the nation
profited. Will the throne avowedly without • religious
conscience be • blowing to the land? Will an earthly
power, with scarcely the profession of a Christian name,
be likely to agerchee its influence for the real welfare of
the people. He could not think that any sober•minded
churchman would give • helping hand to mob a work
of denier. Bat then, may the Church conform to the
wishes of the world, in order to maintain the anion?
Any she compromise any portion of God's work
to please men? Surely not If she would be
sand by God sea approved of men for good, she must
lest have meow for the honour of her Lord, for her.
self, for her own principles, for her own faith and
discipline She mast shisw that she is prepared to
aaerilice any gad every portion of this world's great
of honour, or privilege, or property, or omelette°,
rather than lower the heavenly standard of truth "ad
parity committed to her. Rashness and rudeness in
separation oa the one li•nd,ead compromise of principles
for the sake of union, are manifestly games which are
unbecoming Her who sigma to be the bride of Christ
the Lord. But there Is • third course, which foUoirs the
line of believing, prayerfal, and mini eossideretion of
each movement which the State makes, with the view
of doing our pert, molt me we can, to obviate while Is
manifestly evil, to improve every opportunity for rood,
sad to convert thous things which either ere, or may
seem to be, occasions of evil into mane of edemas*
the Wettest' of truth.

CHI7IIOII RATES: WZAT II TO IT DON&

Proceeding to speak reuerning Mirth Rotes, the
Archdeacon observed that a 'harsh rate wu levied sad
willierly paid in almost every perish. lfe attributed
the abolition bill to • politiesl moveneet. But it was
their business to eoludder the new position in
which they would be Owed. Already chinch.
surdeas are *siring wbetber they will be
lsslly nwpostsible fir the repair of the fabric of the
Church, and for things wesseary for Divine warehip f
Whether the property of the Church will still be vested
to them as the representatives of the with ? There is
the question too of liability for the Visitation Fees.
There WON legal claim of the clerk and lesion for their
customary Woad, and there are sundry other duress
aed thaws that bare to be considered and dealt with.
_ . _

With regard to at these there is but on-t7-answer-,-lhat
legel provision will be made for their settlement,
and the Church will have to accommodate hisnelf to
the altered temporal circumstantial in whieh the State
has placed her. She has on variou ocoaaions,
through her spirituel ntlem, or through her friends is
Parliament, 'hewn herself ready to weep. • mediate.
Mond the present law with the view of removing every
supposed grievance out of the way of Nooeco-
formias. Nothing short, however, of total aboli.
Noe would satisfy them. He said Weirdly total ,
abolition, bemuse the meseure whish has peeled so I
lately in It. House of Commons is nothing lees than
this. The Church is by it plated in this matter
on the level of other religions bodies, and her
essantiers ten meet together and agree to • charge Upon
their lands, and this agreement, as any other prosed
reat, will in low be binding upon the persons
ante to have formally assented to it. This
proposal may in DOIZIO few parishes COMO DO prank:el
difficulty. Here and there the great proprietors of the
soil swill either charge their lends for the maintenance
of the Church, or they will require payment of a rate
by their tenants. or they will pay it themselves, But
iodises difficulties will arise in many parisher out of the
course that Is proposed, and groat confusion and tumor-
tainity and inequality will be the result. Bet there remains
an appeal to the oonscienoes of ehurehmen, whether
they are not in the sigt,t of God bean), every men
weeording to his ability, to makes willing and a boonti.
ful offering for Hie service, and for the worship of Hill
house of prayer. For many years peek and more and
more so every year, base thoughtful men desired to see
the Chart* in her Lord's name boldly make a claim for
auppert from the Lord's people, and with confidence
fall beck upon the scriptural custom of • weekly offer-
tory. Happily our Book of Common Prayer bolds
ready for our use the antenees of Holy Scripture, and ,
the rubrical instructions for the officers of the Church
ia the collection of the alma. Only from • charitable
repeat for those who have grown up under another
system, and not 'infrequently ler their weaknees or their
prejudice, bad very many of them refrained for the
time from introdoeine • better way. He reminded
them that English Churchmen, as a body, probably '
pay leas by far for the support of their religion than
almost any other naligionice in the world. He was not
forgetting the many noble offerings of the rich and of
the poor which abound on every side to God's glory.
Bot he h.ld that the great bulk of the member, of
the Church of England have her Public ministmtiont
Inc of cod. Our anoestora provided payment for the
clergy; the tithe which the tenant of the soil pays is me
gift, no charity on his part, no offering oo the pert of
his landlord, or of himself ; it is simply the payment of
• debt, of • portion of rent, of a rent for that teeth 1.0111
whieh our fathers dedicated to God. And again bow
nobly did our fathers eddow os with parish (Marches
and churchyards. We might well rejoice that God has
put it into the hearts of many of His nervosa' in these
last days to restore these houses of God, end to add
new ones; but think what a miserable measure of •
sun'. substances is represented by that very trifling
sum which is paid in Church-rate, and which has too
often been the whole sum given by him towards the
maintenance of (101%1 worship and work. It is time
for us to consider well, now it in forced upon us, whether
we cannot mend our ways. Each clergyman must hear
the responeibility of deciding whether In his own parish
he can seasonably take his stand upon a higher ground,
and place the necessities of his own Church. and
of the Church at barge upon the broader basis of the
free-will offerings of his people. This, however, he
must say that In his judgment it was acentiel to the
incase of the offertory that the assuagement of the fund
so collected be placed, aa much as possible, in the hands
cif the Church itself, and not in these of the clergy.

NATIONAL EDOOATIOI.

He next referred to tile Royal Commissions on the
three great division of sohoo/s in England, and pro-
ceeded to .peek on the dimominatioorl system of the
State aid afforded to the schools for the working cargoes.
He oonsidared it had worked well, but the difficulty
woe how it eould be farther developed without interfer-
ing with the liberty of Washers an the matter of
religions teaching. He maintained that no difficulty
had arisen in the withdrawal of Dissenters' Oddest
from religious torching they disapproved, but he con.
uttered that if a teacher was legally debarred from
instructing • child ie what be believed to be the
truth all the best and 'noel devoted religious trotters
would give up the work. We might well take
warning from the regalia of the American 'yam.
Under present circumstances, when parent. are at
liberty to eduosta their children or to leave them to
grow up in woeful ignorance, the religious diffloulty is
scarcely felt in the country. But if any system of
esengsleory education is carried out and parents a,
directly or intlirestly, by any force or pressing con.
swains, sompellad to rend their children to school (as
for instance by • system of registration and the require-
of • °snidest* of esetain elementary knowledge,
u a condition of being allowed to go to partial or full
labour before • certain age), then most certainly with
this system, among other diffieulties, snob as those in
connection with the demands of the egrieraltural
employer, and the not 'lnfrequent necessities of the
poor parent, will come in ths religious difficulty. And
closely 'Abseiled to the compulsory system is that of the
school rue If thin were carried out it must, he believed
lead to the adoption of • system of secular education,
or of that which was, in his judgment, from Be vary
negativeness sad tendency to undo all definite belief.
possibly even worn, t system after the model of
many • British and Foreign or other General
School where the Bible is read in the letter,
and tither the teacher' are Prohibited from giving
an ezposition of its mousing to the children, or that
arpoution is from time to time varied in its character
according to the dootrioal views of the denomination to
which thr teacher for the time being belongs. This proposal
of a wheel rat* brio(' in also that other question to
which jest now so touch attention is being justly paid.
Wh• Mr it is by any means right that (other the
owner 01 the tenant of the soil should without the aid
of the other property holding dames of the community
boar U. burden of an educational rate. In his judg-
ment the present system has worked so fez edmirablr
well, and has proved to be as generally equiteible and
soceptable as any earthly system is likely to be.; and he
shoos' strongly advocate its development, believing
that it is capable of heirs made to °moping the great
woe} that must in justice to our poorer brethren be
dune. The marcli, he believed, had to keep two things
Wont her; on the one hand to Mar nothing of her
diligenes, Day rather, he amid eclivery magi to bearers
her &bribes in wearing to all around her the blaming
of • wood religious education; sad on the other not
to allow her seal for God's Truth to maks her rash aod
unforbsering in the owisideration of the taws upon
which the State may offer to aid her in the work.
In this arandeacenry the Church is admirably promotiee
this goad work. Built is, done by • few paerrete i;
each Weedily, and freqaently the poor clergymen has to
pay • eery unequal share. This is the owe especially
in naall poor parishes, and he 'outmoded to their
liberal support the Dorset Hairier] School Satiety. In
cowing/on the Arehdasoon spoke of the Dorset Conaty
tioiwoL