The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-02-11 00:00:00

MISSIONS-PROTESTANT AND POPISH.

A lecture was delivered last evening at the Concert-
hall, Lord Nelson-street, on the above subject, by the
Rev. F. Clos3, of Cheltenham. The lecture was the
fifth of the series now in course of delivery under the
auspices of that young but eminently useful society, the
" Liverpool Church of England Institution." The
spacious hall was densely crowded in every part by a
most respectable and intelligent auditory, and great num-
bers bad to retire unable to gain admission into the room.
The chair was occupied by Samuel Holme, Esq., and the
platform was crowded by the clergy and inttuential laity.
Among others we noticed the Rev. Dr. M•Neile, Rev. F.
Parry, &c., &c.

The CHAIRMAN, preparatively to introducing the busi-
ness of the evening, said—" In all thy ways acknowledge
Him, and He will direct thy steps," was the command of
Him in whom we lived, and whom, he hoped, we served ;
and, therefore, in accordance with the command of our
God, he called upon their clerical secretary (the Rev.
Mr. Mosse) to commence the proceedings with prayer.
A suitable prayer having been offered up,
Mr. Homan again rose. He said, under ordinary cir-
cumstances he should not have ventured to have intruded
upon their time by any remarks cf his own, but would at
once have introduced the eminent clergyman who was to
address them ; but upon the present occasion, when the
country was convulsed from end to end, upon a subject
which so intimately touched upon our civil and religious
liberties, they would forgive him if he ventured to call
attention to one or two points of paramount importance,
in connection with the all-important subject upon which
they had assembled. The lecture to be delivered was to
contrast the difference between the Protestant and Popish
missions, and he thought he should scarcely be doing his
duty, in the position he had undertaken, if he did not
state, before its commencement, one or two matters in
connection with the subject. The first thing to which
their attention must be directed, would probably be the
privileges and opportunities England possessed for carry-
ing the gospel of our Lord and Saviour to every climeand

of England, and what were our individual respon-
sibilities in reference to our own population. to the
masses of the population in Ireland, and to all the
countries with" which, as a commercial nation, we had
intercourse. When he reflected upon our colonies, spread
over almost every portion of the globe—that our Queen
reigned over three millions of the human race upon
whom the sun never set,—for we held commer-

cial treaties with almost every ~entry
under heaven,7—when he reflected that our ships unfurled
their flags in -every region,—that we had an amount of
wealth never before bestowed upon any nation,—that we
possessed opportunities never before enjoyed by any peo-
ple,—that we live under equitable laws, which gave pro-
tection to the peasant as well as to the prince, to the
poorest as well as to the highest and noblest born,—
when he looked at our science and mechanical skill,

civilized c,

at our iron mines

our coal mines, wi

ch furnished

us with the material to over,

to annihilate distance upon land as well as at va;
when he found God had permitted us,—and he attri-
buted these endowments not to secondary (
(great cheering)—but to Him who was the a

all science and of all philosophy—when we coul i commu-
nicate intelligence by electricity—when we were printing
by steam—when we saw all those wonders which the
science of man, permitted by God—(hear, bear)—
made applicable to the uses of man—a duty rested
upon us, as Christian men, to communicate those pri-
vileges and blessings to every human being. (Cheers.)
But we possessed more than these ; we had the word of

the Eternal God, that ward which could make men wise
unto salvation, if they would only believe it ; we had
scriptural education spreading amongst;us—and he hoped
it would - 'Loud cheers.) Education, without

spread

scripture, might make men intellectual, but it would
never make them christians. (Cheers.) He complained
that those who looked upon man as an intellectual being,
forgot his immortality. Against such a standard of edu-
cation as a christian man, he publicly protested. He
rejoiced that he was a member of that glorious church
which had ever been a missionary church, and every
church to be a missionary church, must be so abroad as
well as at home. It had been found in practice, that
those, generally speaking, who were most inclined to
Christian missions abroad were the best Christian mis-
sionaries'at home. (Cheers.) They were called together to-
night to contrast the Missionary Church of England and
of Rome. The Church of England was for circulating the
Bible, but the CLurch of Rome sent forth missions for
the purpose of quenching the light of the scriptures, for the
purpose of contravening the command of God,—" Search
the Scriptures." The Church of Rome, by her Pope and
by her canons, taught the reverse of this, therefor( -
was an anti-christian church

—the one propagated the

word of God, the other tried to quench it. (Applause.)
Let them not deceive themselves. They were living
in a period when they must work, when every one
must carry forth all the interest he possessed, for spread-
ing the truth of God and for dispelling Papal error. A
conflict was about shortly to take place, which, if he
mistook not, would convulse our institutions to their
foundations. The sacerdotal power of Rome aimed at
the subversion of the Church of England, and an attempt
was being made—not by the Pope, for he was a puppet in
the hands of his priests and cardinals ; a poor weak old
man, who had abdicated his throne, and who was now
kept on it but by the power of foreign bayonets—to sub-
vert England by an organised sacerdotal army scattered
through every land—knowing that if they accomplished
this the world. would be at their feet. The Pope had been
urged to an ad which no Papal country would submit
to. (Cheers.) He would not be prevented here from
stating that which he had stated in other places relative
to the fatal bill of 1829 (cheers),—a bill against which,
at the time, in his humble way, he protested, and against
jet' he now, wore strontrly than ever, protested (cheers).
That bill had given to the Pope a power in Protestant
England, which, had Englishmen been wise, he never
would have been permitted to have harvested (cheers).
If she were wise now, and if they valued their civil and
religious liberties, they would protest against the milk.
and-water policy of the present Government,—they
would interfere to put a stop to that policy (cheers). He
had seen her Majesty go to open her Parliament in state,
and his heart shrank wi
the Duke of Norfolk, fa

fast bound in the fetters of Popery ; and the speec It'which had
been put into the mouth of her Majesty was just such a one as
he had expected. (Hear, hear.) The people of England must
interfere—at once interfere—for if they did not they might
rest assured we should be made to feel, as a nation, for our
departure from the principles of our God and of his Gospel.
(Applause.) He called upon them to study this great question
well, to be determined to maintain our Protestant institutions.
(Cheers.) I: it were only for the sake of our Roman Catholic
fellow-countrymen, it was our duty to do so. The Roman
Catholic possessed no civil liberty in Rome. Wiseman had
denounced the slums of Westminster, but if there was a de-
based population anywhere it was in the city of Rome, where
. .

the Pdpe'reigned in his palace

(Applause.)

them tb