The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-29 00:00:00

THE CHURCH IN JAMAICA.

The Bishop of Kingston, Jamaica, has arrived in
England on a mission to the Colonial Office. Next
year the law which provides for the maintenance of
the Established Church in Jamaica expires by
eftluxion of time. Great anxiety is said to be felt
amongst the Churchmen of the island at the prospect
of _this change. and the visit of the Biahop_to

lima is ror -me purpose or saving tile Establisnment
from entire deprivation of State aid. But, however
much the change may be feared by the shepherds,
the mere prospect of it has been of immense benefit
to their flock. There can be no doubt that the
expectation of being left to its own resources has
developed an amount of latent energy in the Colonial
Church which would hardly have been shewn under
the security of a fixed income. As the Jamaica
Guardian says : "The very fear of such a crisis in
the history of the Church in Jamaica has produced
revolutions in this body; she has suddenly sprung
into life, become missionary and active in her opera-
tions—such an amount. of energy and earnestness
has never been known m the Church before, and it
is the responsibility of self-support that has produced
this wondrous change in her constitution."

PROFESSOR BEESLY ON THE SUNDAY QUESTION.

The National Sunday League have obtained in the
person of Professor Beesly a champion who will fight.
He does not mince matters. The other day he pre-
sided at a meeting of the League, held in Marylebone.
He declared that the origin of the Sabbath was much
misunderstood, "It was founded (we quote the
reports which appear in the morning papers), by
great statesmen in ages gone by. He had no reason
to doubt that there was such a man as Moses, with
whose name its institution was usually connected ;
nor did he doubt that Moses was a man of a far
higher type of grandeur than it was possible in these
days to conceive. Those great statesmen found
their people sunk in barbarism, and they desired
to raise them to something better. If they
wanted men to practise personal cleanliness, to
abstain from unwholesome diet, or to give up hurt-
ful practicesz they knew well that it would be useless
to reason with them. They therefore adopted the
wise and sensible course of assuming that there was
a Supernatural Being, and that that Being would.
punish those who disobeyed his precepts. In that
way habits were formed which lasted long after the
sanction on which they rested had been forgotten."
So the Sabbath had been founded, not for a religious
reason, but that the people might have one day of
rest. This, he thought, was good. He would give
all these employed in museums and theatres rest by
the establishment of a Friday holiday. This was the
solutiOn offered by the Catholic Church, and he
thought it met the difficulty.

ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL, BRIGHTON.

A summons has been granted against the man who
caused the disturbance at St. James's, Brighton, and
he may find to . his cost that it is not the duty of
private individuals to supplement the action of the
bishops and the ecclesiastical courts by brawling in
church. The Ritualists surely have the right to the
benefit of the Act against disturbing congregations—
a right which belongs to any sect of Dissenters. When
the roughs of St. George's-in-the-East threw the has-
socks about the church as a demonstration in favour of
Protestantism, the authorities of the day sacrificed
the Rev. Bryan King in deference to them. Things
have changed since then ; and be the Ritualists right
or wrong, the law will take care to protect them from
such brutal fanatics. It is evident that some people
take pleasure in being shocked, or it would occur to
them to be the most reasonable course to keep away
from these services and attend others more to their
taste. There is variety enough to please the most
exacting and fastidious.