The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.

THE ordinary middle-class Englishman is apt
to consider himself a most exemplary religious
character. His estimate of other nations is,
in this respect, highly unfavourable. He
thanks GOD he is not as they are. The
French, in his opinion, are atheists, the Ita-
lians idolators, and the Germans metaphysi-
cians who believe in nothing but abstract
terms spelt with capital letters. He likes that
his religious institutions should be in unison
with the character of his creed—sound, solid,
and substantial—ancient, respectable, and
wealthy. He supports, therefore, an Estab-
lished Church, at which he is continually
railing, and with treble the revenues of any
other ecclesiastical body in Europe. If you
ask him why he does so, he cannot give you a
very good definition of his reasons ; it is, as
we have indicated, rather a matter of feeling
and of taste than anything else. But he will
not confess this ; and there are, of course, a
large class of Englishmen whose reasons for
supporting the Church of England are of a
very different kind. If the clergy, however,
would study to retain and strengthen their
hold upon the popular affection, they must be
observant of all classes, and conversant with
all reasons for which the people are attached
to them; and we cannot but fear that the pro-
ceedings of certain English clergymen, at the
recent meeting at Berlin, will have a tendency
to lower their position in the minds of all their
adherents.

There are, in the main, two causes fur the
support of episcopacy in this country. The

first is what we have already stated—namely,
that it is a form of Church government well
suited to the inclinations of the English
people ; that it is in harmony with the rest of
our institutions, bound up with many of our
dearest traditions, and regarded with unfeigned
attachment by the aristocracy and the pea-
santry. This may be called the practical,
social view of the question, and, in order to
preserve it, the clergy must be careful not to
violate any of the associations with which
their order is connected. Those who support
the Church from such motives are very scru-
pulo•is on the subject of externals. They do
not like innovations of any sort. They like
the Church of England to be what it has been,
both in ritual, in practice, and in doctrine.
They disliked the ceremonies of the Tracta-
rians infinitely more than the extremest Cal-
vinists disliked them, and they have hated
the vagaries of Low Churchmen with a keener
hatred than the most ultra-sacerdotalist could
display. To all this class, the spectacle lately
afforded by the Evangelical Alliance will be
productive of the deepest disgust. Their
notion of the Church is that it is something
infinitely more dignified than any other form
of Christianity ; that it appeals with much
greater effect to the imagination, and has
more power of exciting rational devotion, than
the style of Nonconformist worship. To see,
then, dignitaries of this Communion, the ex-
clusiveness of which they pay so much to
maintain, abdicating their position, and nega-
tiving all differences between themselves and
every species of heterodoxy, will be felt by the
classes we have described as something like a
personal injury.
But there is another and a still more impor-
tant point of view than this. Common sense
will sometimes inquire, after all, whether if
this be the only good of episcopacy it is quite
worth the price we pay for it. It may be
worth a good deal simply on the above
grounds, but not worth all it costs us now.
We only say that:thia is a view very likely to occur
at times to so practical a people as the English ;
and if there were not another large section of
Churchmen who support it from higher con-
siderations, we question if the party of taste,
and prescription, and utility would very long
hold their ground. But there is a large party,
as it happens, who say, " We support episcopacy
because there is something in the institution
which cannot be got elsewhere. It is a boon
of which we cannot afford to count the cost,
any more than we can of medicine, or any other
thing without which life cannot last. Episco•
pacy is an apostolic institution which, if not
demonstrably necessary to salvation, it is at
least very dangerous to neglect ; and we cling
to the Church of England, therefore, as being
to our minds pretty well coextensive with
Christianity." Now, our readers need not start.
These opinions are not Tractarianism.
They existed long before that party was heard
of, and will exist long after it is forgotten
It is simply the view taken by the old High
Church party from the days of Queen Er.az&-
BETH downwards. It was held by Dr. Joint-
sox and many other good English Churchmen
who entertained a rooted aversion to Popery;
and has, we repeat, all along been the creed of
a large party who have as good a locus atandi
in the Church of England as any other. What
must be their feelings on perceiving clergy-
men of their communion consorting familiarly
with sectarians it is needless to describe.
Now, if we take the two classes of Churchmen
we have here depicted,we shall find that together
they constitute a good half, if not a majority,
of the whole English Church. And we have
not the smallest doubt that their feelings
have been deeply wounded by the indecent
and thoughtless proceedings in question. And
we do maintain that no person in English
orders, and receiving the money of the English
Church, is justified in showing such con-
temptuous disregard for the sentiments of so
many of her members. That Dissenters and
Churchmen are all alike may be the private
opinion of the Dean of CANTERBURY, but it is
not the opinion of the Church of England;
and we deny his right to convey that im-
pression to other countries by lending the
sanction of his high office to such irregularities.
There were once a good many, and perhaps
are still some clergymen iu the Church of