The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-29 00:00:00

lirli'ERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS. —(YESTERDAY,)
THE CHURCH SERVICES.
Lord STANhIOPE said he would now le fer to the
services of the 30th of January and 29th of May. There
were acts of peri trnent directing those days to be cb•
served. of the 12th and 13th of Charles II , but no ser-
vices were pro, hied ; it teat left to other autboritiesi to
provide there. In this case the cenvocation of 1651 did
provide such services. That convocation world not in
a'l re pen it commend itself greatly to the religious fee -
Wiz f the ,preterit day, for it directed tbat a portion of
the Apoert !the Amur(' be need for the lessonm of the
church. By it twee new offices were drewn up for the
30th of January and the 20th of May. De Seneroft
poetised these seiv!cts to the cenvocetion, but it refused
to adopt 14,-!!(11; and a reptl priclametion was thersepnii
haue,t, erj deihg by the KiliCA authority the use of the
very fortes which the convocation bed-rejected. So fen
therefore. fr-tm the eerviceelor the 30th •of Jeecany aid
the sth of Nov. having reeeived the approval ot conve-
cation, that body has actustly cleaned Weer:el-eon their
tr.e. There wen, therefore, no authority beyond the
rept' proclamation for these etrvices in their present
form ; amid as for the act 4 of Ciathament, they would of
coureo becorna obsolete the mornebt the crown ceased to
insist on the use of the Services. He (the noble earl) next
came to the quesnolit were those err vices such as won'd
be desirable, for their intrinsic merit, to retain ? He
must, for hie own mot, confess that, he felted en elij•e-
riots in the very title of that far the 30th of January.
He considersd tbat the name of martyr ought, at all
events in divine worship, to be reserved for those Chris-
Mane who, rather than renennce their faith, coffered at
the hands of Pegan persecutors. To apply it to a king
Who, however barearouely had been put to dea.h by hie
own subject?—who, however errieg and guilty, were
nevertheless Chi Vans, seemed to btm (the noble earl)
to be a c orwleoe misapprehenson of the term.
(Cheers.) He (the fiord, earl) could not admit that.
Cearles I. helongeet to that noble army who were cele-
brated in another and very beautiful part of the L'turgy ;
but when he came to the details of the service-he fund
it even still more objectioreible than its title ; for a
parallel was drawn in it between the sufferings of our
Divine Redeemer and those of King Charles. the texts
of the O!d Testament, which were prophetic c f the pas-
sion, being drawn out in array and applied to the royal
martyr. (Sear ) He found.in it, too, a prayer in which
King Charles was spoken of as the " greatest of kings
and the best of men." Was it desirable that the authority
of the church ehonld appear to he given to a statement
like that ? Many of their lordshipt might no doubt feel,
as he tthe note,. earl) bimselt felt; much sympathy forthe
fate of Charles I. ; hut that was no reason why atiate.
!tient like that to which be bad referred should remain
in the publiceervices of the church. To the service for
the stti of November similar remarks applied ; end he
would ask whether it was desirable to maintain forme.,
leriee which were no longer appl•cable, and which were
held in estimation by no school in the national church.
(Hear) He ptoeosed to adopt the form ot moving an
idrees to her Majesty, in prof ,nence to propeting the
repeal ..f the statutes, and that for several reasons. In
the fi,et place, as he had alteady observes, if the services
were thecontinued, the stetutee would Immediately be-
come obsolete. But, in any case, the form of an address
would be the most respectlu! to the Crown. The prero—
gative of the Crown was the first thing 'that would be
affected. It was signified at the commencement of each
reign by a proclamation ;ivied by the sovereign, and
countereie nett by the secretary of state ; and if, there-
fore, they proceeded to rep-al the acts without itching
any notice of the prerogative, their conduct would t artily
be consistent with that respect which they would all be
anxious to show to ber Majesty. The proper course
would therefore he to commence with an address to the
Crowe, after which it w, uld be corny-tent to her Ma-
jestyht Ministers either to advise her to withdraw the
proclamation at once or to propose the repeal of the
etatutee (Hear, bear.) The service for the ermi ve vary
of the accession was more ancient than any of the other
three. It cou dbe traced to the reign of Queen El.za-
beth and the year 1570. There was also a case in which
proceedings hail been threatened against a clergyman
named Johnson, who in the reign rf George I.
bad refused to read it, probably bemire be had scruoles
ae to the right of the Hanoverian .neces.ion. He nettle,
however, his tehmiesion, and the, metier went no further.
It was remarkable that notwithotaneirg the emphatic
mariner in which the proclatnasion was uorded, the use.
of these forms practically depended after all upon the
feeling cf each individual clergyman. In 1844 there was
published upon, this eulj,cte a work which; though not
free from sonic prepossession, was distinguished by learn-
ing and research—" How shell wo Coeferni to the,
Liturgy ?' by the Rsv. Jas. Robertson ; and tail gentle
man's conclusion was thus summed up :—" We very
rightly use these state services, provided that there is no-
thing in them which we do not consider wrong; bet we.
are not obliged to use them, because they form no Miry
of the rarvices of the church at by law eeteblishod." In
point of fact, there were very few churches in which
these days were observed, ueless they happened t , fell
on a Sunday, in which case it occationally happened that
a few prayer. selected from the special services a ere in-
troduced into the ordinary teri.;cex cf the day. It might
be sake d, why thus distort, the present statetf this ?
The services did, however, continue to be me d iu else
college chapels and cathedral., although there wire COMO
cathedrals which had discontinued them. One of the
latest examples of this kind ivies the moliedrel church of
Canterbtiry, where the services had lately teen emitted
by the authority of the neap end ohaeter, and with the
senction of the mott rev. prelate who tireeideil over the'
towhee:7i province. Still it must he admitted that the I
either ;rale and college chapels sere in this matter tome-
what behind the parochial churches, which he thought
was to be regretted, for they ought to be exampite to
the rest. and not to follow in the rear, The service ftr
the r•th Nov. was seldom used except under. the prompt-
ieg. of a strong party feeling. Where a clergyunia was
strongly °epee') to Raman Catholic principles, it was
no doubt his tight and his duty to warn his flock aeaintt
them ; but he, deni. d that that c uld be done in sty eatis
factory manner by reading services which speke of "the
hellith malice Red bloodthirste" designs of their ftlhne-
sul jette. (Hear, hear.) Such services .night et'r up ran- i
cour and bitterness, but they could Lever rfford ,ry as-
sistance to sober controversy. Oee who was once a mem-
ber of their lordships' !muse wee once asked to expre.s
in a few words the mei,' advantage which was dttived
tresn the connection e.f the Church and State. "Tee oh-
ject of the ontineolieri," he raid, " was not to make the
Church political, but to make the State relieioue.
(Casere.) That was a wise end a noble saying, and one
that deserved to sink deep into their lordthips' minds.
It was, moreover, a true saying, so far as the eervtcee of
the aura generally were concerned. .Pelt he -tont' eee
their lordship whteltio. the neee sr os regtoded their
,cry;e4, Could not have heel to be CXlte ly the re-
verse ! Could they doubt that their object was :o atthe
the Chinch p, boat!! Mean) In fact, it was only because
they were seldom used that they could be defended.
Whatever might he the, is-ne of tee motion with which
he (the no'ile ear') was about to conclude, be should
never regret that he had made it ; for be mild never
regret thef-a lines t f re, pect aud attachment to the Church
from which be could assure their 10.rd:ships it had eprieng
The noble earl concludedooy moving the following reso-
lution: "That an humble address be presented to her
Mejasty, preying that her Mejestyewitinhe graciously
pleased to take into her royal consideration the precia-
ina ion ot the Bret yetir of her M tje-ty's reign, c :maw d-
ing the 11-e of the forms f prayer and service mate for
Nov. 5, Jan. 30, May 29, and Jane 20 ; end should her
Majesty see fit, to erder the subethntitin for the said pro-
earnation of one declenirg it her Majetty's pleasure that
only the service appointed for June 20, being the anui•
versary cf her Majesty's accers;t.ll, ebell bee°, forth be
printed and published and annexed to the Book of Cent-
urion Prayer and Liturgy of the United CMlreh r f
En -
lard and Ireland, to he used yearly on the Paid day.
The A chhiehop r f CANTERBURY was understood
to say that he bad felt able duty to resist the motion of
Lerd Ebury fur the revision of the Liturgy, brcauee the
prevailing differences were so treat that such a ruotine
sound not conduce to the welfare of the Church. To
the present motion, however, be could see no such ob-
jection. (Hear.) On the contrary, the general opinion
was in favour of removing then set vices from the Prayer
Book, more especially as they did not firm any part of
the Liturgy, to which the clergy bad giien their assent,
and to which they were bound to c eiturei. (Hear.) Un-
der these circumstances it would be far better !hat ihey
should be regularly retooled, than that they should be
irregularly dineearded. (Hear, hear.)
Lord EP.URY tupperted the motion, which, in point
of tact, ouly formed a portio r ef the larger question,
which be had inirateced to the notice of their lerdstitee
a abort time b f ire. fie hoped, however, that the Go-
vernment would think it necesstry to propose the repeal
of the statutes, becaute) it was laid down in .Burn's
t• Eccletiastical Law" that these eery:ere migtt he en
forced nu grounds quite independent of the royal prodia
metier, which iu reali y was not issued till the reign of
George I. He bad objected to repetitions in put ho wor-
ship ; bet he was this year at a church where the special
tervice fir the accession was used,. at el the Qteee was
prayed for six times during the meriting, service. In the
principal collect there was a petition that the Qoesu
should be defended from the nmehmation.% 4 her eute
j =ets ; and he could not thick that that Wat 4 an appto-
pria.e prayer fur the times iu which we lived. (Hear.)
The Bisaop cf LONDON said there was tee ereetest
possible difference Ott weeli the present motion and the
motion of Lord Ebury,to which r. ference bad lief II made.
He had objected to tee latter p.opotal, not because he
was afraid of alterations ; on the ceettary, be coesidered
that the strength of the Church of England consisted in
her adapting herself to the wants of the age in which we
lived. It would, however, be impossible to enter upon a
general revision of the Liturgy without raising many
points of doctrine; and it was a great safeguard of the
Church of England, that from the Ref/mean:in she bad
included within her pale persons of different religious
meutiments, but who c orld yet concur iu the great Imla-
inentele of the faitn. Such a revition as the noldelerd con-
templated would only have led one party to expect to see
their own 'news stereote pod, and tt. get rid cf those a hum
it wasqute as desirable to retain as theeuselvet. (Heir:)
The noble lord compla.intd of the length of the Sunday
morning service ; but that was o.ving to three perfectly
independent services—watine, li.aoy, and communion—
being joined together. It was the opinion of the bishops,
or at least of nearly all of them, that it was ptrfect!v
lawful to separate these services. The reason, there-
fore, why the services were so long, was because the
clergy knew that if they applied to the bishops for
authority to separate them, they would raise a storm
among the laity. The laity had, therefore, no one to
thank but themselves. To the motion before their lord-
ships there could be no objections such as those which
the motion of Lard Ebury bad, ca!led. forth ; because
there were no doctrinal questiOns whatever involved in.
the discontinuance of the state services. (Hear, hear )
It was said that the proposal was unnecessary ; but that
was taut quite the ease, The services were mid tea tly