The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-06-03 00:00:00

SCRIPTURE READERS ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of the friends of this association, which was
established about twelve months ago, for providing scrip-
ture readers in connexion with the Church of England,
was held on Monday. Amongst the ladies present were
Lady Frances Egerton, Lady Georgiana Bathurst, and
Lady Charlotte Greville. Amongst the gentlemen were
the following—The Bishop cf Winchester, the Marquis
of Westminster, NlarquisCholmondely, Lord Robert Gros-
venor, Lord Badstock, the Earl of Effingham, Lord
Ashley, M.P., Lord Sandon, M.P., the hon. W.F. Cow-
per, M.P., Rev. H. Montagu Villiers, the her. Richard
Burgess, the Rev. W. W. Ellis, the Venerable Archdea-
con Sinclair (Middlesex), the Venerable Archdeacon
Dealtry (Surrey), and the Dean of Salisbury.
The Bishop of London, after noticing the spiritual des-
titution of the metropolis, remarked on the plan and ob-
jects of the society in the following terms. It had been
considered by many laymen that the Church would be
wholly inadequate to answer all the demands made upon
it; and that something might therefore be done through
the instrumentality of laymen employed as scripture
readers, to bring a portion of that great multitude from
the darkness of spiritual destitution within the precepts
and divine illumination of God's holy Church. He knew
that that plan had been, and still was, objected to, on the
ground that it encouraged laymen to take upon them-
selves duties that properly belonged to the ministerial func-
tion of the ordained clergymen. He did not mean to say
that there was not weight in the objection. Indeed he at
one time felt its weight so strongly as to hesitate giving
his sanction to the plan. But when, as the chief pastor
of the diocese, he looked around him and beheld a great
moral wilderness, without tit^ power of sending duly com-
missioned labourers to cultivate it, he did think he should
no longer withhold his sanction from a plan, which, al-
though it might be beyond the letter of the Church's
rules, was yet so hedged in by wise and salutary regula-
tions, that it did not, as far as be could observe. trench
in the least degree upon the fundamental principles of
the Church. The question in his opinion amounted to
this—were they to suffer thousands and tens of thou-
sands to die in an unilluminated and unholy state be-
cause they had not at their command a sufficient number
of regularly educated clergymen to send amongst and dis-
tribute to them the blessings of spiritual instruction I
He quite admitted that if they could send out a sufficient
number of regularly commissioned instructors, they would
be doing better than at present; but without entering into
details to show, he would content himself by saying that
that was impossible. They must therefore have rec atrse
to other instruments. Of the regulations of that society
he wished to observe, that scripture readers could not
intrude themselves into any parish without the consent
he might almost say unless at the request, of the clergy-
man of the parish. No one was sent for to undertake
the work of scripture reading who had not been previ-
ously examined by a person appointed by the Bishop of
the diocese, and who should report to him the qualifica-
tions of the candidate. Neither was it in the power of a
scripture reader to remain long in the parish to which he
was sent, than the satisfactory discharge of his duties
warranted or rendered advisable. Under these and other
restrictions be did feel that it would be for the interest
of Christ's Church, and that it would add to the useful-
ness of the clergy to sanction and aive his cordial assist-
ance to the object of the association as far as the metro-
polis was concerned—presenting as it did a vast spiritual
wilderness over which was spread a multitude of lost
sheep, whom it was their duty to endeavour by every
means to bring into the fold and under the care of the
proper shepherds, who might lead them to God's word,
and induce them to become worthy partakers of the sa-
crament. He, and the clergy over whom he was placed,
felt a deep debt of gratitude to those laymen of whom the
committee was composed for having so readily adopted the
regulations they had suggested, and thus obviated some
of the objections which a portion of the clergy enter-
tained to the plan of association. At present he was
happy to say that experience was all upon their side. He
had it in evidence from those of his own clergymen who
had availed themselves of the assistance of some of the
33 gentlemen who had been sent forth by the society as
auxiliaries to the regular instructors of the people, that
so far from having reason to regret Tile establishment of
the society, they had cause to be thankful to God for put-
ting it into the hearts of his servants to tender them as-
sistance, which had been of great value to them in the
discharge of duties which it would have been far beyond
their power to discharge had not the way been prepared
for them by their lay fellow-labourers. He had also
learned from a valued friend of his who was now at the
head of a diocese which had been under his cure for some
years, that great advantage had already been derived from
the association in various manufacturing towns in Lanca-
shire and Cheshire. In conclusion, the Right Rev. Pre-
late expressed an anxious wish for the prosperity of the
association, whose efforts he sincerely hoped would be
crowned with success ; while he as ardently hoped to see
the objections to it, which still existed in the minds of
many pious and zealous members of the Church, give
way, one by one, to the most satisfactory of all argu-
ments—viz., continued and increasing success in the
operations of the system.
The following are the " reader's" duties.
" The reader is placed solely under the control of the
clergyman of the district, whose directions he is implicitly
to obey; the only stipulation of the committee being that
he is not to be employed less than six hours a-day in visit-
ing and reading the scriptures from house to house
within the district to which he is assigned.
" The readers are furnished by the committee with
journals, in which to record all their proceedings, and
with report papers, which they are directed to transmit to
the clergy every week, and which are framed to show, in
a tabular form, the character and results of each day's
and week's proceedings. They have also to report to the
clergy the cases-of any sick persons requiring to be visited ;
of any individuals needing spiritual advice and consola-
tion ; and as they are looked upon as useful pioneers of
a District Visiting Society, they are also enjoined to re-
port, for the information of the district visiters, any cases
which may come to their knowledge of temporal relief
required by the poor."