The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-27 00:00:00

cause of prosperity and peace, and influence and honour,
in a nation, (beautifully illustrated by our own history), is
what it was when Hezekiah and Josiah and Jehoshaphat
cleansed their country from the pollutions of idol's temples,
and established from Dan to Beersheba, the true worship of
the true and living God. We have only to change the dates,
and make allowance for a French eclipe of king and church,
or an Irish comet with a lurid tail, and the old almanack
becomes the daily newspaper. (Immense cheering.)
Now, my lord, to teach the middle classes of our commu-
nity these principles is our object in our Collegiate Institu-
tion ; and to begin with their children is our object in the
kindred Institution of little more than a year old, for whose
infancy it is my pleasing duty to solicit your fostering regard,
and for whose growth I venture to anticipate your nourishing
liberality. (Cheers.)
My lord, our labours in this cause are not the random
shots of unenlisted volunteers, but the orderly and well di-
rected fire of disciplined regiments, under episcopal comman-
ders. We educate not as insulated individuals, to make in-
sulated scholars, but as churchmen, to make educated, intel-
ligent, and attached members of the church. (Cheers.)
I ain ashamed to have so long trespassed upon the time of
your lordship. With this mention of its connection with the
church, I have to propose " Success to the Diocesan Educa-
tional Society." (Cheers.) It is the peculiar feature of the
society, that it leads you to see our vocation as clergy-
men ; to see us take the formularies of the church to the chil-
dren of the middle classes, and invite them to the nourish-
ment of that bread which grows in the stature of the perfect
churchmen who is the perfect citizen. I believe there is no
society but thechurch that can meet the aching necessities of
the population of the world in the state into which it has
now fallen. There is a longing anxiety in man to have the
desire of his heart for communion fulfilled, and where shall
we find it fulfilled ? Communion here is interrupted by the
thousand accidents of life, it is cut off entirely by the inevi-
table stroke of death All social communications are liable
to perpetual interruptions. Family bonds, ardent attach-
ments, must give way to the iron necessities of life, dragging
children from their homes, breaking up the domestic circle,
carrying men into foreign lands to traverse whole nations.
The whole state of human society is, at best, but transitory.
All that man's heart most longs for is most interfered with,
and he is left a longing creature, still looking for higher, more
satisfying, more sanctifying communion. (Hear, hear.)
My lord, it is the church of God, as it appears to us
in the book of Revelation, the church of God as mi-
nistered by his appointed servants, that supplies this
communion. (Hear, hear.) It supplies a permanent com-
munion, and not that only, but a communion that gives us
a foretaste of that which is to come. So, my lord, we read
the communion of the saints. We read it as the communion,
not merely with those that are now bound in the social circle,
or in our congregational societies, but as a communion of the
whole body of Christ, part of which are already departed, and
are with the Lord. We come together by faith—with the
spirits of just men made perfect. (Hear, and great applause.)
The church offers communion with the mighty dead, who
being dead yet speak, not only in the example they have left
but in the communion which they held forth ; and in 'pre-
senting such a society as the Christian church more and
more prominently to the eyes of men, as we do in
these educational institutions, we are using God's own
ordinance, the only effectual one, for the best organiza-
tion of society. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I deeply feel
that in the attempt to shew thus briefly the nature of the
claims the church has upon the best affections of the heart,
superior to any other that can be propounded to man's
observation, I have not succeeded to my own heart's
wish in conveyir g the desire of that heart in these words.
But if I have intimated it to any—if I have opened a line,
might it in that way lead to the duty of believing communion
by faith with the spirits of just men made perfect ? I trust
I have done a service. Though you may not see the benefits
resulting from it at present, or perhaps ever, I shall perhaps
not have any occasion to be sorry for it when I meet many I
now address in another and a more enduring society. (Cheers.)
Returning to the matter in hand, and desiring to come to a
close, I cannot look along the line of tables, and see the in-
dividuals which compose the present company without feel-
ing disposed—and I hope I shall be excused—l cannot
see the two distinguished characters on your lordship's right,
without being tempted to let my real last words on the pre-
sent occasion be the fabled last words of a gallant chieftain.
When I consider the investigating vigilance and public warn-
ings of our beloved diocesan with reference to rising heresy
in the church, and the ability, power, and indomitable perse-
verance of our noble guest, where the battle of the constitu-
tion is to be fought, I am urged to use words whose fami-
liarity can be sanctioned only by the associations of their
context—
" Charge, Chester, charge ! on, Stanley, on!"
[The reverend gentleman then resumed his seat. It is im-
possible to describe the enthusiasm of the long, loud, and
vehement cheering with which the concluding line was taken
up by the auditory. Mr. M`Neile was heard to say only,
" Charge, Chester, charge !"—" on, Stanley, on !" from a
thousand voices, was the exciting response.]