The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

shall be able to go every evening. I can't every morning,
for I am a working-man. (Hear, hear.)
A female in the body of the meeting.—And I hope I
shall also. (Great laughter and applause.)
At this stage of the proceedings, Dr. M`Neile left the
meeting.

The CirsmisrAlv said he wished to state, with reference
to the church in his district which it was proposed to raise
under the auspices of the Working Men's Association,
eyhxadl,aooolrea
that there were 400 men already contributing their 2d. a
week. Th
paidalready
yThey had £68,8, alsoando agsoitte
ahaood been given
them worth
from the late Edmund AfolY neax Esq ° Z.l an f 00. d Messrs.
Hilton Halhead, Edward Cropper,'and T. D. Anderson
had also contributed £lOO eli 3lessrs Christopher.
had Bushell, Charles Cotesworth,Willia; Jones,' W' •
lent', Charles Groves, and Mr. Wood
so that already upwards of £7OO had been
(Applause.) It was intended that one-halt subscribed.
should be free. of the sittings
The Rev. Mr. BAR MET seconded Dr. APNeile's motion.
The Rev. Dr. BAYLEE supported the motion. Referring.
to the scene of the evening, he regretted the necessity of
one clergyman having to denounce the views or. leknings
of another ; but showed, by quotations from the Testa-
ment, that the apostles even, on two different occasions,
had gently but openly rebuked one another.
The motion, having been put from the chair, w as carried,
only one or two dissenting.
The Rev. W. PoLLocs proposed that the thanks of the
meeting should be given to Dr. Baylee, and in doing so
said, we are not enemies to the use of daily prayers in our
church. (Hear, hear.) Ido not know that I eau do
better in the way of stating this assertion than by reading
the language contained in a letter in the Lirerpool
Standard of this day, from one of the clergy, whose name
I shall presently mention to you. This clergyman writes :
—" Let Mr. Wray and his friends find me the stipend for
an additional curate, and I will immediately meet the
wishes of the complainants, and offer them daily prayers '
and weekly communion ; .for with my present staff it
would not be possible to do so without the neglect of other i
and more important ministerial and pastoral work, as I
think. I most sincerely assure Mr. Wray that, so far from
`grudging others the enjoyment,' and `taking comfort to
myself' that my people are not pining after a daily service
and a weekly communion, I would praise God most heartily
could I see the earnest and spiritual desire for such services •
kindled in the whole mass of our population. The daily
public orisons of tens of thonsands harmoniously and in
the congregation poured forth to Heaven from hearts hal-
lowed and renewed by the Holy Spirit would be the most
heart-cheering and delightful scene imaginable to my
mind." The writer of that letter is your chairman.
(Hear, hear.) He expresses, as I believe, the feeling of
all that body of the clergy who have been alumniated in
this matter—to my mind insultingly calumniated; and if
one word has been spoken here to-night by my dear friend
Dr. M`Neile that has given any one pain, I know he did
not mean to do so. Instead of having acted rashly, intern.
perately; and passionately with regard to this question,
Dr. M'Neile has, to my knowledge, acted with the greatest
possible forbearance in the matter. I will tell you why
I say so. It is within my knowledge that, many months
ago—l fancy a year and a-half—Dr. M'Neile received
from some unknown •hand a copy of a circular which
was signed by a person, a promoter of the free church,
which has raised this question. I saw this letter in Dr.
M'Neile's hand ; it was never intended he should see it—
(hear, hear)—it was never intended I should see it,
and it was never intended that any man of either of our
kidneys—(laughter)—should see it; but we did see it,
although we don't know to whom we are indebted for see-
ing it, and that letter, which had signed under it the
name of Mr. Wray, contained statements most disparag-
ing to the great majority—indeed, I think I may say the
whole body of the clergy of Liverpool—(hear, hear) ;—and
one expression which I am able now to recollect, though I
have not seen the letter for a long time, was that "puritan-
ism had got possession of Liverpool," and the words he
used were " the enemy must be driven out." (" Hear, hear,"
and " Oh, oh.") What is the enemy of those gentlemen ?
Not popery, against which they have solemnly protested
before God and man on their subscription to the 39
Articles—(hear, hear,)—not so much dissent, although
they are not very fond of dissent, and they do not
very much like dissenters ; but the thing which they
hate most and fear most, the enemy which they desire to
drive out, is the puritanism, as it is called, of Dr. APNeile
(cheers,)—and of my brethren all around me, and of the
clergy who, thank God, occupy by far the most prominent
positions in thii town—(cheers)—and carry infinitely the
most of all the hearts of the people with them. (Hear,
hear.) If ours be puritanism, at all events lie was right
in say inc it has got possession here in Liverpool ; and I
can tell him and his friends, with God's blessing, it will
continue in possession. (Applause.) I believe that a
general agreement, as to all fundamental truths and as to
the great discipline and doctrine of the church ought to be
sufficient for us—(hear, hear,)—and there may be shades
of difference in the minds of honest and earnest church-
men, and I would allow all that. (Hear, hear.) But when
I see men of opposite opinions coming forward to assault,
insult, calumniate those who do not agree with them ;
when I see this Tractarian party taking the stand they have
taken in Liverpool and throughout the country, I have
been compelled to feel that the time had passed for silence,
and that the time was come for every man to show his
colours, and to speak out plainly his mind. (Applause.)
Now, I say, as to this movement, in my opinion, our Right
Rev. Father the Bishop of Chester has used and exercised
an extreme exercise of his jurisdiction; but I also do not
hesitate to affirm that I believe, under the circumstances,
that extreme exercise of his episcopal jurisdiction was
called for. (" Hear," and a voice, "He was wise?)
The promoters of the new church, in my mind, ought to
have been permitted most freely to have gone to work and
to have procured subscriptions for the new church. Let
them collect subscriptions, and we should not say any-
thing in the way of hindrance ; but if they affirm what
they are doing is for the purpose of condemning all the
rest of their brethren in the same locality—if they say
what they want is something additional and different to
anything done in the town, and begin, accordingly, by
casting stones at their brethren—then I believe it is the
duty of our bishop to stand forward in dgfence of a faithful
body of his clergy, and to say—"l will not have, under
certain circumstances, the peace of the church broken, if
I can avoid it, in this part of my diocess." (Hear, hear.)
If that which is to be promoted on this occasion is " some-
thing additional to and something different from" what is
done in the town, it must be perfectly legitimate to in-
quire what it is that is intended. (Hear, hear.) So far
as the daily prayers go and weekly communion, I myself
say God speed the work. (Hear, hear.) I say if ever I
can find that only 30 people of my congregational district
wish for daily prayers and weekly communion, they shall
have it in my church. (Applause.) I don't believe that
Christian men can meet too often—(a Voice : " Try it")—
in the sanctuary to offer up the holy prayers that are our
heritage in the reformed church of England, and to hear
the word of God read and explained to them. Ido not
believe that we can too often celebrate together the feast
of the holy communion of the body and blood of Christ.
(Hear, hear.) I do not think we can too often eat that
bread and drink that cup by which we show forth the Lord's
death until he come. (Hear.) And if we have not those
things, it is simply from the circumstances of the times,
from the pressure of other duties, and from the fact that
every man and even woman at present is so incessantly occu•
pied. What is the additional thing which is wanted ? It is
more than daily prayers and weekly communion. (Hear,
limn) I tell you what it may be. It may be that we
should have our sick beds attended by ministers, who,
when they administer to the dying the sacrament of the
Lord's supper, will then pin up pictures of the crucifixion
on the curtains of the dying man's bed, and desire it may
be left there, within his sight, until he dies. (Hear, hear.)
I do not wonder that a Protestant audience think the
thing impossible. (Hear, hear.) But I say it is possible,
and I say it is done, and I say it has been done by some
of our clergymen in Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) Another
thing which may, perhaps, be wished for is auricular con-
fession carried out, it may be in the same aboininable and
disgusting details with which it was carried out at Ply-
mouth by gentlemen of the same party. (Hear, hear.)
That, also, may be intended, and more perhaps may be in-
tended in the way of visiting. Within the last week, in
a house in Liverpool, a very short way from my own, a
most intelligent and dear friend of mine met another
clergyman of our church and of this party, and a mattes
happened to be mentioned—a marriage which was to take
place on the following morning, the marriage of one of his
sons, and something was spoken of as to an idea that had
been entertained for a moment, or that was not enter-
tained, of two clergymen officiating at the marriage cere-
mony. This gentleman went on to say he did not like
this plan ; that one of them was evidently enough in the
administration of such a sacrament. The lady was rather
startled at hearing of the sacrament of matrimony. He
went on and affirmed that it was a doctrine of the teach-
ing of the Church of England in her Prayer-book that
matrimony was a sacrament. (" Oh, oh.") I will read to
you what the Church of England Prayer-book says on the
subject. (The rev. gentleman read an extract from the
Prayer-book, excluding matrimony from the list of sacra-
ments.] That is what the Church of England says, and
one of her sworn eons was teaching my friend that, never-
theless, according to the doctrine of the Church of Eng-
land, matrimony was a sacrament. (" Oh, oh.") Those
may be some of the additional things that are to be taught
amongst us ; those are some of the things " different from
and additional to" what is taught in the present system of
puritanism—that enemy which has to be driven out from
Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) Therefore I say all this justifies
what I confess with Dr. Baylee needs justification, and
that is the fact, that any one clergyman of the Church of
England speaks in any way against any one of his brethren.
(Hear, hear.) I can only say it is with the deepest pain
of heart and spirit that I make these observations ; but I
believe the time has come when we must make them, or
cease to be faithful to the best interests of the church of
our Lord. (Applause.)
The Rev. Mr. POWELL, of St. Thomas's, Toxteth-park,
briefly seconded the resolution, which was agreed to, and
the meeting terminated with prayer.