The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-08 00:00:00

SPURGEONISM

Old Mother Church is naturally a good easy soul.
Her maxim is, "He that is not against us is for
us." She is not, cceteris paribus, much given to
the odium theologicum. Her maxim is, "Swallow
your victuals and drink, and hold your tongue."
She hates all that botheration about " experiences."
If a man professes to belong to her, she does not
care to inquire what he believes. "Oh, my son,"
exclaimed the affectionate Presbyterian mother to
her heteredox young hopeful, " I would'nt have
cared if you had come to believe in nothing at all ;
but only think that you should be so imprudent as
to become an Unitarian." That is the spirit of the
Establishment all over. With her everybody is
orthodox who doesn't dissent. She claims all waifs
and strays. She appropriates all the " unconsi-
dered trifles" which do not appear to have an
owner. Everybody is sound enough in the faith
for her who does not take the trouble to have
" opinions." She hates a Dissenter far more than
an infidel. If the latter will only " keep his tongue
within his teeth," she will reckon him as a tolerable
average Churchman. The mild impartiality of her
antipathy to all Dissenters has prompted her to use
her political influence to protect them from the
consequences of their mutual animosity. Were the
Independents or Wesleyans in power, Quakers or
Unitarians would sustain unremitting persecution.
The Establishment gladly tolerates heretics as
thorns in the sides of nonconforming orthodoxy.
She has a sneakingkindnessfor rationalistic heresey,
made up of detestation of evangelical fanaticism.
Naturally she is the very genius of a dead calm.
She cannot be bothered with talent, or genius, or
zeal. She has an antipathy to anything original
—except original sin, and that she winks at, prin-
cipally on the score of the fees on baptismal rege-
neration. Everthing about her must be what it
has been before. All her prayers, homilies, ser-
vices, are stereotyped, and set down for her. She
insists upon her ministers reading their sermons ;
and they ostentatiously flourish their sermon cases
in the face of the congregation, to show that they
leave nothing to impulse, to earnestness, to mere
eloquence or inspiration. She has little favour for
platform oratory ; she thinks it decorous to be dull.
At her missionary meetings, and her Societies for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
and for Domestic Bible Readers, she delivers her-
self with studied prosiness, as if anything like feel-
ing or enthusiasm were only fit for Methodists and
other low fellows that had never been to Oxford.
Hush ! Quieta non, movere. Meddle not with
such as are given to ehange. Leave things as they
are, and let us all be comfortable. Be silent and
quiet. Do all things decently and in order. Let
us have nothing outré. Wisdom is stare super an-
tiquas vias. Why should we exert our wits as if
we lived by them? Leave those to use their brains
who have nothing in their pockets. Talent doesn't
pay ; even learning brings nothing hi. Kissing
comes by favour ; preferment, either by interest or
purchase. In either case ability or zeal has nothing
to do with the matter. Why, then, should we either
be able or zealous ?
Lord Dungannon is frightened into fits—fits of
interrogation. The Church has actually taken to
field preaching ! The Lord's anointed mount tubs,
and hold forth in the market place, and vociferate
on the green, and recruit for the army of Heaven
on the common, sub Jove—al fresco ! Actually
Bishops exhort in unconsecrated conventicler ;
dignitaries of the Church condescend to become
chaplains in ordinary to the "great unwashed ;"
and Lords Spiritual, Peers of Parliament, take
refuge from the decorous ennui of stately episco-
pacy in stump oratory and Exeter-ball ! Nay,
worse and worse, _Lambeth pats them on the back,
and Lords Temporal become ushers and pew-open-
ers to

Greasy rogues—tbe common dung o' the soil.

-- -
We ask candid and religious men just to look
steadily at the operation of the ecclesiastical eco-
nomy of the Establ:shed Church. Observe, the
whole clergy are entirely independent of the people,
and are not in the least accountable to the State or
to the Legislature. Whether they do anything or
do nothing, their emoluments are the same, are a
freehold ; can it he surprising that on such terms
they prefer doing nothing ? Their whole phraseo-
logy is worldly and carnal. A cure of souls has, by
the very instinct of the system, been called a " liv-
ing ;" a minister of religion is termed an incumbent
—a fellow who leans and presses as a burthen upon
the parish ; a fresh spiritual charge is termed a
preferment; and a godly office is styled a benefice.
' What can come of that, what has come of it, but
carelessness, self-seeking, " the flesh," " pride, vain
glory, and hypocrisy?" Just think for a moment
of the necessary, the inevitable effect of raising a
clodhopping poor scholar from clouted shoes, pe-
dantic learning, and a hundred a year, to Fulham
or to Lambeth, a peerage, a carriage, and a palace.
Through what sycophancy, tuft-hunting, and in-
trigue must he have crawled his way thither ! Who
makes him what be is ? A politician, who looks to
the return be is to get for the promotion—who
exacts it—who gets his price in votes and subser-
viency. What object has that man in further look-
ing to the souls of the people ? He comes upon
pomp, luxury, wealth, rank, not as " native and
to the manner born," but as an earthly paradise—
a worldly Elysium. What interest has he in the
promotion of piety, the awakening of zeal, the call
ing of sinners to repentance? Every temptation,
every motive, is presented to him to draw him
away from his duties, and to awaken his sense of
solemn obligation. He is a beggar set on horse-
back ; where is he to ride to ? When asked by a
Lord to say grace, he might have retorted that
he never returned thanks to God for any one
under a Prince, or a Duke at the very least.
Why, it is a condescension in him to preach
the Gospel. Lord Dungannon was quite scan-
dalised that a Bishop should serve his Master
by proclaiming glad tidings to the poor. lie is a
Lord ; he is rich ; be has power ; he has a family ;
his very revenues are a worldling's work ; he is in-
dependent upon any contingency; he will be just
as well-off, as great, settle his sons and daughters
as well if he does just nothing at all, as if he were
the most diligent of labourers in the vineyard of
the Lord. Who can doubt which frail human na-
ture will prefer
Well, but be has servants under him, deans,
archdeacons, rural deans, rectors, vicars, curates.
Why, is it forgotten that each of these offices is a
freehold interest ; that a living, a benefice, an in-
cumbency, a preferment has been bought, sold, ex-
changed ; and that to leave these at the mercy of
the contingency of the due perfatmance of official
duty would be to endanger the sacred securities of
private property ? The Bishop, by a long and very
expensive process, may, if he chooses (which he
never does), suspend or admonish, or, but emi-
nently rarely, depose a clergyman for grossly im-
moral conduct or heretical opinions : but for doing
nothing, for negligence of his functions, for utter
disregard of his duties, the offender is entirely be-
yond the reach of challenee. Dissent may grow,
the conventicles may be filled, the Church may be
empty. What of that ? " Sir," said the clerk to
the rector, " the flock aro all going over the hill to
the Methodist Chapel." " Well, John," was the
consolatory reply, " d'ye see any of the tithe going
over the hill to the Methodist Chapel ?"
It is true, indeed, that the Bishop has livings in
his gift ; that the patronage of others is given him
to give away ; that his good word and his bad word
go for something. Are these dispensed according
to merit ? Must not the sons and sons-in-law and
cousins and nephews of "his lordship" be first
seen to V Will zeal, piety, and eloquence form the
best recommendations to a man who has none of his
own, or w)ro at least cannot be troubled any