The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-11 00:00:00

N EWS PAPER

S-`y'

?.ff;(4,trili,tl::..-T;z4
)T
remain in the Church after he ' 4 ieit'Aktti.4lG 1--
, ,
in any particular of its stands Otitfi
son of them all has any title to h c,e-.
that is guiltless throw the first sten . F
sand of them have signed a petition for revision
and reform of the Services and Articles, on the
express ground that they have ceased to profess
them as they stand. The descent into hell, the
damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed, the
confession and absolution implied as doctrines in
the service for the sick, are flatly disowned by the
very men who pray the Bishop of London to un-
frock the Oxford essayists as apostates from the
standards of the Church. The Bishop of Norwich
and many other dignitaries of the Establishment
have openly published their heterodoxy, and
asserted that no mind can accept so many contra-
dictions and inconsistencies as all coherent and
true. Paley confessed that he subscribed the
Articles merely because he could not afford to keep
a conscience. Tillotson said of the Athanasian
Creed, " The Lord get us well rid of it." Dr. Parr
held it up to open ridicule. Even in so cardinal
a point as the Commandments the clergy enjoin
from the altar the keeping of the seventh day of the
week, on the ground, stated by itself, that the
Lord rested on and hallowed it; while from the
pulpit they stickle for the first, and openly disre-
gard the seventh. The truth is, there is no con-
formity anywhere—no, not even the profession of
it—and subscription is nothing but a dodge for
keeping the temporalities of the Church in the
hands of Government, the great families and their
toad-eaters, whose consciences are wide enough to
swallow any conditions that will enable them to
bolt the living, or fatten upon the benefice.
We know these self-sufficient Sion College saints
salve over their moral sense when they
Compound for sins they aro inclined to,
By damning those they have no mind to,
with the convenient subterfuge that their dissent
from the Articles is on minor points, while the
essayists strike at the very root of the credulity of
the whole Gospel dispensation. Well, the Baptists,
Independents, Calvinists, Methodists, differ from
the Church only on minor points—agree to the
standards much more nearly than the clergy do to
each other. Why are they excluded from the
Church ?—why are Scottish episcopal ministers
debarred from the pulpits of the nation ?—why are
endowments withheld from orthodox Dissenters,
who, according to the very argument of Dr. M'Caul,
conform to the established faith as nearly as the
State clergy ?
But this has been always the stale trick of the
Church. It first persecuted and prohibited all dis-
sent ; held every schismatic, even in the smallest
divergence, to be an enormous sinner. When
sectaries became too strong for them it sneaked up
to orthodox dissent and called to it, as agreeing in
all essential points, to help to persecute the Papists
and Unitarians. When Unitarians grew in social
influence, it was discovered that the Church,
although not accepting their doctrine, could frater-
nise with them on the ground of a common Pro•
testantism ; and last of all, when the Jews
demanded of Parliament the recognition of their
civil rights, it has been seen that the Church of
England:that has declared Popery:to be Anti-christ,
and the Scottish Kirk that in its Act of Settle-
ment calls the Pope " that man of sin and son of
perdition," can wheedle both Roman Catholics and
Unitarians to their aid, and tell them that their
differences are on comparatively minor points, and
that they legislate together on the basis of a com-
mon Christianity against those who are alleged to
call its author an impostor. Now, perhaps the
Sion College Sanhedrim may find that the Jews at
least accept the inspiration of the Old Testament,
and may fraternise with those who seek to persecute
essayists who deny even that. Last of all, perhaps,
we shall find when the views of the latter make
way, that fortune, which makes us acquainted with
strange bedfellows, will make Dr. M'Caul glad to
club noses with the essayists and reviewers, to
make common cause with the religion of Nature
against the Atheists, Pantheists, or Buddhists.
Reverend Fathers of the Church—a word in your
car—the least said's the soonest mended.

,Ajt,:c4
..b4lrev
0143 -

THE BISHOP OF DURHAM ON " ESSAYS AND
REVIEWS."—The following letter has been received by the
Venerable R. C. Cox, M,A,, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne,
from the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Durham, in reply
to an address to his lordship from the Archdeaconry of Lin-
disfarne, on the subject-of the work entitled "Essays and
Reviews," recently published :

"Londoil, Feb. 4.

"My dear Archdeacon,—l beg to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of the address from yourself, the rural dean, and the
clergy of the Archdeaconry of Lindisfarne. Having felt it
to be my duty to read with great care the volume of ' Es-
says and Reviews' to which the address alludes, I am not
surprised that the hearts of honest and faithful Churchmen
should burn with indignation at finding such a publication
should have emanated from men professing to be minis-
ters of our Church. lam still less surprised that you are,
as clergymen, deeply grieved at finding such doctrines can
be heard from any pulpit or professional chair in our land,
You say you consider it desirable that the bishops
should at once proceed to vindicate the commonly
received Catholic sense of the Creeds, Articles, and Formu-
laries. I have not failed to convey your opinion and wish
to a large number of my right rev. brethren. The subject
has undergone long and serious consideration. The illness
of a beloved member of the family of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and a telegraphic summons to him, rendered it
essential to postpone further discussion. You will feel with
me that any conclusion determined upon in the absence of
that most rev. prelate would have lost much of its effect
from the want of that weight which his wisdom and firm-
ness would have given to it. I feel that I should be fail-
ing in my duty, as your bishop, if I hesitated to express my
most deliberate conviction, formed after the careful read-
ing of the " Essays," that a more heterodox volume could
scarcely have been produced. The cautious style of the
writers may possibly render it difficult to frame out of this
work a case for direct legal investigation ; but no candid
reader can be blind to the fact that inferentially the Atone-
ment is denied, miracles are explained away, prophecy is
cast aside, inspiration, in the only real meaning of the term,
is rejected. Under these painful circumstances, p3rmit me
to express my hope that your exertions will not be limited
to the issuing the address which I have now received. I
feel that, as men of all shades of opinion in the Church have
united in signing the address, because they are convinced
of the presence, in the person of these seven essayists, of a
common foe to Christian truth, so we should all unite in
dedicating ourselves afresh to the service of our Divine
Master. We should resolve not to allow mere externals to
divide us ; but, on the other hand, a common danger to our
common Christianity should make us cultivate a spirit of
scriptural unity, redouble our exertions to obtain an experi-
mental knowledge of the Word for ourselves, to propagate
the Gospel of Christ among our fellows, and maintain in
the face of the world the value of the sufficiency and supre-
macy of the Word of God. It will be, in great measure, by
our Christian earnestness and by our scriptural teaching
that we shall guard the unwary from being led into paths
of such dangerous speculation, and show our abhorrence of
opinions which I, from my heart, consider to be not only
detrimental to the best interests of morality and derogatory
to the Word of God, but which are so manifestly opposed
to the truth as it is in Jesus. Praying that God may bless
all attempts to spread the pure Gospel of Christ through
the length and breadth of the land, I am, my dear Arch •
deacon, very faithfully yours, _ _

"H. MONTAGU DLNELM.

" Ven. Archdeacon Coxe."

THE REAL CHARACTER OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.

(From the Saturday Review.)

We have always taken a view of Louis Napo-
leon'sh character somewhat different from that which
commonly prevails. He is usually supposed to
a supernaturally far-sighted man, who
plans long beforehand, matures them
hall profoundly calculates the means necessary
execution, and adheres to them through
eunning, and, up to
difficul-
ties and accidents with inflexible n infl
ossYriistegers,
We
have always maintained, on theeo
is a man of very ordinary capacity,
ntterrarriyb,l
et
tit a
the
to hold the trigger
world only because he happens
mine—restlessly
but very far from ad-
dicted,long-
which wouldindeed,
conspiracies,a destructive
his calculations, wanting in
asigcehrtteadinorpoint inventive,ie
profounddaggdecision,er e f
tahned somewhatarbo narlevelledinfirm
at
him to Italy ; but he never knew
promptness
purpose.
T hoef
sentt
he would do when he got there, as his
rehelscaechntrtleYbas.ewwtb,ialderments have sufficiently proved The
conventional view of his genius required that his
conduct towards the Italians during the last six
months should be styled " inscrutable ;" and it
was styled inscrutable accordingly. But it was, in
fact, only perplexed and wavering. One line of ac-
tion was all the time crossing another line of action,
and both were marred by the complication. We do
not doubt that the Emperor's head is full of schemes
—the accumulation of a life of plots and of long
broodings in solitary imprisonment ; but we doubt
whether he has any grand plan or whether he even
understands the Europe in which he is acting, and
which is not that of the First Empire. He has in-
trigues going on everywhere—in Hungary, in Spain.
in Belgium, in the Rhine Provinces, in Turkey, in
Egypt, with the seditious Irish press, with a fac-
tious leader of the English Opposition. He strives
at infinnee for himself on all sides; but we suspect
that, like a magpie stealing spoons, he scarcely
knows what use is to be made of all this influence
when it is accumulated.

SWOOP OF A HAWK ON A BREAKFAST TABLE.
—On Thursday morning week, as Mr. Duncalfe, of Pirton,
near Wolverhampton, was sitting with his family at break-
fast, a hawk dashed against the window of the room with
such violence that a large pane of plate- glass was shivered
into a thousand fragments, several pieces striking Mr.
Duncalfe on the forehead, which was cut, but not seriously.
The bird fell in a d Ong state upon the breakfast table.
What makes the circumstance the more remarkable is, that
this is the third time, within a few years,
that Mr. Dun-
calfe's windows have been broken in the same way, n each_.
case ending in the death c tae hawk.—Stafordslarcs
vertiser.