The Express.
London, England, 1859-05-28 00:00:00

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LONDON. B.47VIDAT. X 47 28.

A COILIM.FONDIUIT at Oxfed seeds us to-day
some facia which LAIMPTTC, and will obtain, the serious
attentiou of all who value either the peace and hap-
pineal; of families, or the Protestantism of the
national &arch. The circumstances disclosed is

the letter signed M. A. tisonionoia" are known
to several of the most eminent men in that
University. where they hare excited divot
and indignation —u assuredly they will do
wherever they are published. The story, though
painful, isnot long. A young and gentle lady, whom
nature and parental tenderness had striven to make a
blaming to society, who wu diffusing a grace through
her fatheis household, and was destined, in the
expectations of two families, shortly to adorn a new
and happy home, goes to Oxford, where she oneonn.
ters some members of one of those sisterhoods
without which, it seems, the designs of a certain
section of Anglican Churchmen ciusnot be accom-
plished. These sisterhoods omelet of persons
who have come to think that there is a piety above
that of fearing lion and keeping his commandments,
. . . .

and look down from a superior height upon the crowd
of Christians whose wisdom it is to seek the path of
humble duty, and walk therein. Their piety,
proudly pretending to soar above the law
of which we all fall short, affects •
bfe of supererogatory merit. It seems strange
that in • Reformed ('harsh we should meet
with pretensions so far removed from the cardinal
doctrines of the Reformation ; but we live in strange
times. To a sisterhood of this character the young
lady was introduced. What arguments were need
we know not ; but we know the result. The affec-
tionate daughter, thew ife in expectation, was induced
to renounce her family engagements, and take • vow
of perpetual virginity. Of course the influence by
which this resolution was brought about was not
exclusively feminine. A " spiritual adviser " had
been at work. " Direction "is not unknown in the
Church of England. This man, called to account
by an indignant father, only answers—" Peace,
"peace! The vow is beyond human question.
" Why fret yourself about that which is
" fixed and irrevocable." The father feels
that he his been wronged and outraged by this
intermeddling of a stranger in the affairs of his
family. But what are his mere natural feelings or
his amassed natural rights that they should be
weighed against the " counsels of perfection " of a
spiritu►l adviser?

We an not about to disease either the wisdom or
morality of vows. There are churches—the Church
of home fur instance—which adopt voluntary engage-
ments of this kind into their system of teaching,
and we should no more think of discussing their
elect in these columns than we should think of
argutcg the dispute about transubstantiation. Those
who are born in that church are brought up in fami-
liarity with the induceme•ts which lead men and
women to sow themselves to celibacy, poverty, or
voluntary obedience, and they judge them at leisure.
Their views of life and sentiments of duty are all
formed with reference to the principles and ideas upon
which engagements such as we are considering are
founded. Par different, however, is the situation of the
young Protestant who hears for the first time, per
in a secret interview, the mysterious exposition
of • novel or romantic vocation. The imagination
Is fascinated, conscience is !surprised, and soder the
domination of • powerful and novel impression a
resolution is taken, not always instantaneously,
which affects for good or evil the happiness of more
than one life.

Are we always to live exposed to the machina-
tions of traitors is the bosom of the National
Church For the conduct of this clergyman in
achising a young Protestant lady to take the vow of
virg otty we are ail more or less responsible.
As ion, as the Chareh of England re-
mains established every Ene.shman is compromised
by whatever is done by her authority or supervision.
The nation provides the 'racial positio■ from which
three '• spiritual advisers" carry on a war against
society, and may therefore fairly demand that that
positires shall not be employed is a manner inimical
to its interests. We have a right to insist that mem
who eat the broad of the English Church shall not,
by their teaching, whether politic or private, omit
reSections upon the " honourable estate" in which
oar mothen lived chastely according to a Divine
ordinance. It may not be generally known that
a vow of this nature is recommended by Mi-
x:eters of the Church of England, not only to
women but to men. In • tract which has
been forwarded to us, and which purports to
be issued by the '• Confraternity of the
!holy Cram," men are told that although " a Min
" may have wife and children, and yet be • great
" saint ; " yet "it is lees likely that he will do this,
...if he has • wife and family, than if be has deter-
" mined to forego the p:easure of having them, that
" he may be able to devote ail hie time andthoughts
"to GOD'S service." Ani ju►t afterwarda it is ex-
plained that "all may practise this self-denial if
" they wilt, through the grace which (ion will be.
" stow upon them if they pray for it." We repeat
we make no war upon dectri•es Is such. Only we
protest against such teaching es this an the part of
Ministers of the Church of England. It is antic
social and unprotestant. It is not what the nation
expects from the Ministers appointed to scree it, nor
is it what it finds in its English Bible. There is
nothing contrary to religious liberty in the require-
ment that the Ministers of our Protestant Church
shou:d he Protestant. Let this be secured, and the
itomanieers shall not hear *complaining word from
as whi.e they " walk in the light of their own tire,
" «td in !be @parka teat they have kiad:td."