The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-12 00:00:00

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A SMART BLOW AT POLITICAL DISSENT.

(From the Annual Pastoral Address of the Wesleyan
conference.)
If Christian brethren of some other denominations so-
licit us as ministers to join them in their organized oppo-
sition to the continued union of the Church of England
with the State, our reply to them is this,— that our spi-
ritual charge is too absorbing, and at the best too imper-
fectly fulfilled, to allow of our entering on such a course ;
that personal peace and spiritual gifts are too precious to
be thus endangered, when a wide and only half-tilled field
of practical and evangelical labour lies before us; and
that, as our middle position between the religious parties
of the land, which we have held from the beginning, was
not of our own seeking, but of providential appointment,
we cannot abandon it without a manifest call. In these
sentiments we believe we have your acquiescence, and by
these your own conduct is generally determined. In our
view Christianity is a system of absolute truth and law, as
well as of goodness and mercy ; Wild therefore we regard
with complacency both the national or legal acknowledge-
ment of its claims, and the private or voluntary extension
of its influence. Let us look at our own land, with its un-
evangelized, ignorant, and Sabbath-breaking millions;
let us turn to our foreign missions, and everywhere see
our brethren, in the work, exposed to the excitement of a
determined struggle with the Pagan, Infidel, and Popish
antichrist, looking to be aided by our prayers, advice, and
reinforcements ;—and then inquire if there be not too
much cause for anxiety about our own vineyard to allow
of our going out of our direct path to take counsel respect-
ing another. Asserting like the Apostles of our Lord our
unquestionable right to religious liberty, and like them
maintaining it ; with them, likewise, we are content to go
on preaching Christ, leaving other projects to he tested by
the results cf that doctrine. And with regard to the an-
noyances which we and our neople may receive from High
church follies ..a necnmptinns. whil reserving to our-
selves the right of bold and indignant appeal against them
in a proper quarter, we mainly confide for their counter-
action to the influence of the truth itself: " The truth
shall be our shield and buckler." We have a deep sym-
pathy with the spiritually• minded and single-hearted of
our Nonconformist brithren,.notwithstanding the injuri-
ous reflections which have been cast upon us in some of
their official periodicals; nor is our interest less in
those who within the Established Church declare the
great doctrines of the evangelical covenant, and enforce
them by a consistent and blameless deportment. 'All
who teach and live thus are on our side : the acquisition
of them is to us clear gain. Romauism and infidelity are
gathering darkly around our borders ; and we have a right
to our own allotted vantage-ground, and would use it by
imploring all parties to exercise forbearance and self-
restraint in everything but preaching and teaching Christ,
and exhibiting the power of godliness. With this supreme
object in our minds, suffer us further to exhort you to
such practical courses as may now be more minutely
stated.