The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-24 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM.
At the annual meeting of the committee of the Bishop.
of Argyll's Diocesan Fund, the prelate from whom the
fund takes its name related some unfavourable experience
touching the voluntary system. In Scotland, he said, the
Episcopal Church had many advantages : its members
were wealthy. There had been a great disruption of
the Presbyterian body, and a movement had
existed for some time towards the adoption of
the more aesthetic aspects of religion. Nevertheless, the
experience of the voluntary system, when applied to
religion in the case of the Episcopal Church, had been
unfavourable. Few of their clergy received above £lOO
per annum, and they would receive less were it not for the
assistance of the Church Society, which itself, however,
had been able to pay only a portion of the sums expected
from it. Although other voluntarily supported churches
had had a more favourable experience of the system, he
felt it was owing to other causes than the appli-
cation of the voluntary principle—that is, the direct pay-
ment of money in connection with religion, which was
the essence of the voluntary system. The connexion of
money with religion in the sense of payment was always itself
abnormal, and could never exist without great hazard
to religion, for free religion was but another name for true
love, and if neither love nor friendship could be connected
with payment without destroying them, neither could
religion. The only way in which it could be done, with-
out detriment, was by payment by the State or by endow-
ment, when the connexion was so remote as to become
invisible, and was thus practically destroyed. No doubt
the Voluntary System had high authority. St. Paul
himself allowed it, but he also added that he
himself had rather die than use it, lest he should make
the " Gospel void," and the Gospel, the Bishop thought,
was often made void by money payments—at all events,
by the demand for them where they were not freely offered.
Little did the world know of the struggles of a " volun-
tary clergy,!' how they strove to conceal their needs, how
such clergy fear to " regard men's persons because of ad-
vantage," and finally cease at times to minister at all
from the sense of the shame which acoompanies all who
sell their charms for money. Far better, said the bishop,
to couple secular labour with the ministry than to use
it as a professional means of livelihood. No man
should bring up his son, he thought, to a Church so
dependent. Sooner or later it would end in his
perfunctoriness in work or withdrawal from it. No
doubt it would be borne if part of the way of the Cross,
but was it? The only way in which non-established Churches
could be efficiently served by a ministry, he felt,
was by the offertory system thoroughly realised, where
neither party knew anything of the donor, or by the work-
ing of societies, which if not secret should yet not conduct
their affairs by way of statements and appeals and col-
lections in churches, but privately among themselves,
as was done by the Freemasons, and in all cases at a
distance from the scene of labour, as was the way
in foreign missions, no such operation being possible
within the limits of the region to be ministered to without
detriment to it. The only justifying cause, he felt, for
the voluntary principle, or payment by the piece, as
applied to relizion, was that it sometimes brought the
ministry into direct connection with individuals to whom
the maintenance of God's service and worship was a de-
light, men who, happily were found everywhere, but men,
alas ! on whom others less pure and loving allowed all
burdens to be laid, and bywhom all battles of Christianity
were fought—the St. Christophers and the WinkelriedA of
our Churches.

THE ST. GOTHARD RAILWAY.—A correspondent
of the Eastern Budget, writing from Vienna, says that the
St. Gothard Railway question, which has given rise to so
much excitement in France, is there regarded from
the commercial point of view, and no political
importance is attached to it. Unless the neu-
trality of Switzerland were violated, the proposed
railway could not be used for the transportation of troops ;
besides Prussia is not likely to send troops to Italy. It
is much more probable that Italian troops might be re-
quired on the Rhine, but in the opinion of the best autho-
rities Italy is far from strong enough to send troops
to Germany. The impression that prevails in Vienha.is
that too much ixpportanc is attached to the commercW
influence of the St. Gothard Railway, and too little regard
paid to the significance of the other new lines which will
then be in existence. Except for Switzerland and a com-
paratively small part of the Zollverein and Northern
Italy. the St. Gothard Railway can never be of much
general use, if the other States and nations concerned do
not remain idle.