The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-16 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

PASTORAL-AID SOCIETY

A numerous and highly respectable meeting of the friends of
the Liverpool Auxiliary Branch of the Pastoral-Aid Associa-
tion, was held on Friday evening last, in the Concert Hall,
Lord Nelson-street. Amongst those present we noticed the
following clergymen :—The Rev. Messrs. Hugh M'Neile, A.M.,
Wm. Pollock, J. N. Connor, Wm. Falloon, H. Hampton, R.
Wolesley, J. Roberts, Drummond Anderson, and C. W. Law-
rence, Secretary to the Society. Shortly bef ire seven o'clock
the Rev. Hugh M'Neile was requested to preside, and the meet-
ing was then opened with suitable prayer.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN, in a brief speech, opened the business
of the meeting, after which the Secretary read the report. We
regret that we were not present at the opening of the meeting,
and cannot, therefore, give the rev. gentleman's remarks.
The Rev. Mr. FALLOON was then introduced to the meeting,
and received the most marked applause. When silence was

restored he said, that he came there that evening at the request
of their valued friend and brother the ex-secretary, the Rev.
Mr. Nolan—(Applause,)—Who was prevented from attending;
and he also attended at the special request of their valued
friend and brother their new secretary—The Rev. W.
—(Hear, hear.)—lndeed he felt happy in being permitted to be
present, and to speak at such a meeting, however nnwort by
anything, he might say on behalf of the claims of the Church
Pastoral-Aid Society might be. He did so not only as a duty, but
he looked upon it as a privilege to be allowed to come forward
in support of a Society, which had proved itself so useful in
the spread of Christian knowledge and the light of Christian
Religion. He could safely and sincerely say that he attended
there with all his heart.—(Cheers.)—That Society he confessed
held a higher than common-place regard in his esteem, be-
cause he saw in thaT Society a peculiar value and a distinguished
virtue connected with it, which belonged to no other Society.
If he was asked what that peculiar value was, he would answer,
that it was the desire manifested by the Society to advance the

hononr and glory of their great 111aster.—(Chee'rs )—Whereevei
that Society was spread there were to be found men bearing tea
timony to the great and-distinguished pre-eminence of the
Lord anti Saviour Jesus Christ. He was not, nor had he eves

eel], ashamed of the Gospel of Christ as being the only means
of salvation by which the believing sinner could enter the
Kingdom of Heaven, and therefore he loved that Society, which
above all others aided moat to spread that Gospel amongst
those who needed the light of the word. That Society was pos-
sessed of inherent value as well as virtue. It was.of value be-
cause it was not silent in the land • it bad a voice—" a voice
like one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
Lord, and make his paths straight." It took pains to make
the testimony of salvation known through Him—the Lamb—
to the most obscure peasant in the parish, and to the most
abject and most despised of men, in the most remote lane,
alley, or garret of their densely populated towns and cities—
sending forth men, and men of God too, men whose souls ex-
panded with the love of Christ—men who had purchased for
themselves the degrees of the Most High, who had not only
graduated in the universities of the earth, but also in the uni-
versities of Heaven—men who were in all things qualified to
preach the Gospel of God to all mankind, in order that such
might lead the poor and benh.thted sinner back from the error
of his ways to the fold of Christ.—(Applause.)—This it was that
,neared to him to give real value—real sterling value to their
I.—(Hear, hear.)—lt not only had that virtue which
was so essential to the well-being of all bodies whose aim was

ssociatior,

the prod;

gation of the truth

that virtue. Yes, it not only had the heath
but it administered the medicine eveiTwhe

teristic features made it to them a Society of peculiar virtt

the more so on account of its being ever trice iOtieitedeCMer
Christ —preaching the light and the truth of his Gospelunto all

men—in every clime under the sun. These things• had ever
endeared their Society to his heart; for he valued no person,
Church, or Society, and no nation on earth, which did not hold
Christ and the faith as delivered by him to the Apostles, in the
highest, the first, and the holiest pre-emi

„ ed the society the more because it was not one of confu-
sion, but of order, in the ministry. No clergyman was forced
on any parish—no, they were always asked for by the incum-
bents—then they are sent from the society to the field of their
labours. Where would they find any society better adapted to
the purposes of the church than the Church Pastoral-Aid So-
ciety? He would answer, nowhere. They valued the church,
but they did exaggerate her worth; nor did they place ,a higher
value on her than she deserved. As an assistant to Christ she
was beautiful 4but as a substitute for Christ she was not to be
tolerated. Still she was the Church which carried to its fullest
extent the Spirit of the Lord—the Spirit of Fence into the dwell-
ing-places of the kingdom. And yet this was the Church, not-
withstanding all her value, and the number of her martyrs—
all of them sons of the Gospel, fallen asleep in Christ, believing
in his second coming, which had been called, on a recent occa-
sion in this town, the upas tree of this country, spreading her
poison wherever she extended. He should think that the per-
son who made use of that simile knew not the meaning of the
words ” upas tree " ; and he, Mr. Falloon, was a'so of opinion.
that he knew as much about the Church of England as he did

nothing about either. He, however, would inform him
that the :pas tree was a mere fable in ancient history;
but perhaps the speaker at that meeting was in as much

ignoiance On the iubject of church government as he was of
the fable of the apes tree. (Hear, hear.) Therefore he would
just leave the gentleman who used that sublime figure in the
full enjoyment of his erudition, and treat his fabulous argu-
ments as they really ought to be treated, with contempt.
(Applause.) The church was called the church of Christ mili-
tant on earth, because she was really so aggressive that she would
carry the light of the Gospel to those that sat in darkness. She

was a church that had ever been true to her character and her

tamely on while Satan revelled, and souls were perishing-.
She must be true to tier colours. She must spread the
glory and honour of the Most High. The fact that such aso
ciety bad an existence at all, was to him a proof that the Church
of England had not been aggressive enough in her character.
(Hear hear.) He had always felt that these causes materially
contributed to the necessity for the establishment of such an
these causes was, the apathy of the
—the second was, the indifference to
iced by the state or government of

Church of England herself

the country

he third was.

the cold-hertedness,

.01
worldly-mindedness, and avarice of many of the wealthy por-
tion of our fellow-countrymen. He knew that they could
adopt no more effectual mode of promoting the welfare, the
loyalty, the peace, and the godliness of the people of England,
than by spreading the gospel amongst them. (Hear, hear.)
Some persons might call it weakness in him to say so;

but still he confessed be was weak enough to believe
that true• religion formed the basis of all national prosperity.
(Cheers.) If he was asked why it was that England was so great
and powerful—why it was that, she stood preeminent amongst

nations—why she Was the "envy and admiration of surround-
ing nations ; ' he would not tell them of her climate mild and
salubrious as it was—he would not tell them of her soil, fertile
though it was—he would not tell them of their merchants, the
most princely in the world : no, but he would tell them that the
bible—the book of God was cherished in England. That the
found of God's prayers from that glorious and immortal book
has sounded from many a cotta4e in England, bringing down
the. blessings of the Lord upon the population tenfolc
_ _

whedthe bible should be

T betel it

test calamity and disaster to this country that
had all heard, he supposed, about the recent ere

which had been raised on the Sands, which was called
the "Light of Nations." That was just the position which
England occupied with respect to the Gospel—she was the light
in that respect,which radiated round all the earth, because all the
schemes of missionary enterprize emanated from it. They had,
no doubt, heard that that beacon erected on the Sands had dis-

He would say that if Eng

and retired from the roc

of ealvation, and commenced to build on the sands of expe-
giency,_that Gospel light, which has stood for ages the beacon

bfeakers of a fell democracy, and sink beneath the power oi
fiendish infidelity. (Cheers.) He believed that as the Churcl
of England was at present conducted, it was calculated t(
promote the honour and the glory of the Gospel—a Gospe
which in itself was the promoter of " peace on earth, and good•
will to all men." The Pastoral-Aid Society was one which adaptec
itself to the wants of the people at large. It went out into the
world, and met the over-worked pastor in the field of his exer•
tions, and assisted him in his labours. It met the man of the
world in his walks, and infused• into the leaven of his soul at
earnest desire to walk in the ways of God. (Hear, hear.
Wherever a branch of that society had been established, it ha(
always tended to good, and increased the impulses of all met
in the ways of benevolence. It was enough for him to reinin(
them that the society had already been the instrument o
meeting the spiritual wants of 2,150,000 of their fellow-country
men. (Hear, hear.) He felt confidence in pressing the claim:
of that society on them ; for he thought that any body wide'
supported the glory of their Master should also itself be sup•
les. (Hear, bear.) He would conclude 1,1
teir warmest sympathies, as worthy of the