The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-02 00:00:00

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.

The primacy of New Zealand has fallen by election
to Bishop Harper, of Christchurch. This prelate
stands high in the public estimation, although he
has not the commanding abilities and force of
character which distinguish his predecessors. But
then men like Bishop Selwyn are not
to be met with every clay. Bishop Harper
has filled the see of Christchurch since
1856. lie was educated at Queen's College, Oxford,
and graduated B.A. 1820, so that he is probably
about 03 years of age. He was for sixteen years
before his consecration vicar of Stratfield. Mortimer,
near Reading. The income of the see of Christ-
church is £OOO from lands set apart by the Canter-
in the colony. By the promotion of Bishop Harper
bury Association, and the interest of £l,lOO vested
Earl Granville will be called upon to exercise his
Church patronage for the first tine,

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS ON CHURCH AND STATE,

The Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain
have just issued an address to their countrymen on
the relations between Church and State. They begin
with a review of Church establishments generally,
and of the effects produced upon Christianity by the
alliance of religion with the State, so that the Church
became a political power. The Mosaic law, they
argue, was consistently national, because it could
Produce its divine charter of incorporation ; but the
Toleration Acts of our own Parliament have rendered
the Church no longer national and the Acts of
Uniformity are based on principles diametrically
opposed to the Acts of Toleration. The payment of
tithes was never compulsory under the Jewish law,
and it was not for some centuries after the Christian
era that any stipends were paid to ministers ; in fact,
not until they assumed to themselves the office and
position of priests, which were never claimed in the
early days of Christianity. The Friends illustrate
all their argument by references to the early
Christian writers. They attack the principles upon
which all State religions are founded, and they
make particular allusion to the question of the clay.
The Church of England in Ireland, they
affirm, is especially objectionable. It is founded
on compromise ; it is not national; it produces
arrogance on one side and irritation on the other;
it tends to foster a spirit of narrow Anglicanism ;
it has secularised and weakened the Church by pro-
moting the abuses of patronage ; it keeps the people
in a constant state of pupilage and dependence on
the clergy. All these objections, in the opinion of
the Friends, apply much more strongly to the
English Church in Ireland than in England. Little
has been done towards its avowed objects, for tho
proportion of Roman Catholics to Protestants in
Ireland is now greater than it was a century ago.
The society ask if any really imagine that in removing
the existing legal Establishment the State would cease
to be Christian. " Can there be a greater fallacy ? It
is not the State that makes the Christian; it is rather
the Christian that moulds the character of the State."
It is noticeable that the pamphlet in question
emanates from the Society of Friends in Great
Britain only, the members of that body in the sister
island having as yet taken no part in the matter.