The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

tages. If districts are too large, divide them.
Let my Lord Shaftesbury raise a fund for building
new churches and endowing them. Let him
never become the means of setting, the clergy upon
detouring one another. By such means he will
bring the Church, and religion itself, into contempt.
His proposal will work evil in every way alike to the
Tractarian as to the Evangelical. In fact, the pro-
moter of error is more active than the preacher of
truth. Really respectable and godly men, I know,
would not avail themselves of any such liberty, par..
ticularly if they knew it were in opposition to the
wishes of the incumbent. As to the late services in
Exeter-hall, I deny that they answered the purpose
for which they were intended. Why, we have Lord
Panmure telling us he want. Though my district is
several miles from the Strand, I found two or three
of my people going there as they had a predilection
for this or that preacher. I would tell my Lord
Shaftesbury that a district of two thousand is not
sufficient to maintain a clergyman by the pew rents,
particularly as he has the charities of his parish
mainly to support. I repeat it, none but conceited
clergymen will ever avail themselves of this new-
fangled proposal, and as regards themselves it will
only foster pride. They will seek to please men,
and so prove they are not the servants of Christ.
And with regard to their bearers, they will only
create itching ears, and all the evils mentioned by
St. Paul in 1 Cor. chap. 3. Whoever heard of Paul
placarding the walls of Athens or Corinth announcing
his intention to preach ? No ;he went ammp, the
masses : where multitudes were gathered, thither he
went. Let the intinerating ministers of our own day
go and preach to the heathen—there is a wide field
wherein they will not build on another man's Lunde •
tion ; and let my Lord Shaftesbury act with con-
sistency and Christian feeling and charity. " What-
soever ye would that men should do unto you do ye
likewise unto them." While he would limit parishes
to two thousand souls, he would swell congregations
to twice that amount. He may depend upon it he
will destroy local effort and charity for the poor. I
was about to build a third school in my parish, and
devising means for its endowment, but I shall now
wait and see the issue of his proposal.
I beg to remind the Bishop of London of the fact
that he has had no acquaintance with parochial work,
and also tbat bishops sit in the House of Peers
to represent the clergy (who are excluded). His
Lordship never speaks in the House of Lords but to
misrepresent the clergy of his diocese. He recom-
mended the clergy to accept the Divorce Bill when
from the tenor of his speech he felt they abhorred it.
He seems to think that it is his duty to represent
the Premier rather than the clergy. The ded is not
far distant when our bishops must be elected by the
clergy of their respective dioceses, or otherwise be
expelled the House of Lords.
I beg to thank you, sir, for the stand you make
against all these innovations on the institutions of our
country. Go on, sir, and show the clergy their
danger, and urge them to unity.—Yours, &c.,
A CLERGYMAN.