The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-19 00:00:00

In this town many churches had been built, and many clerg.
men had been supplied to fill those churches, and whatever
might be the increase of population in Liverpool, he could
not but doubt that the well-timed liberality of the rich would
take care that the spiritual wants of the community shook
be sufficiently supplied. Unhappily the cas
ferent in the other parts of this district ; there were pl
where the population had increased almost as rapidly as w
ourselves, but where there had not been the wealth nor tht
liberality in order to make provision for the spiritual want:
of the inhabitants. We had a melancholy picture of an im•
mense population growing up without any of those means of
grace and knowledge which we knew and felt from experience
to be absolutely necessary to guide men to a conviction of the
truth, or make life itself a blessing. Much had been done,
and he was thankful'so much was doing, to supply the want
of the church accommodation; and if it pleased God to
spare their lives, they hoped in a few days, with their friends
at Preston, to make a report of the last year's proceedings
for building churches in the surrounding district of Lan-
cashire. But building churches was nothing unless they
supplied them with ministers. After dwelling for some time
on this point he said whatever might be their means of con-
tributing to the wealth of the society they all might contribute
to its efficiency. Those who could give nothing could at
least give their prayers,—" The prayer of a righteous man
availeth much." It would be in vain that clergymen were
appointed were not the prayers of faithful men employed in
imploring that blessing which came from on high upon their
labours.

The Rev. THOMAS NOLAN then offered up a prayer fo
the divine blessing upon the proceedings of the meeting.

The Rev. CHALI;S LAWRENCE, Secretary to the Local
Society, then read the report of the committee for the past
year, of which the following are the chief features :

After stating that the auxiliary had remitted to the Parent
Society the sum of £226, the report alludes to the lack of
zeal manifested to the society by its supporters, and chal-
lenges more attention to its objects.
The system upon which the society has acted is noticed in
the following terms:—
"The existence of the Additional Curates Society may be
looked upon with satisfaction by your committee as a happy
provision by which those may be assisted who take different
views of an important, but not a primary question. This
society has taken her stand upon a great distinction not
always remembered. Her supporters regard the Bishop as
the sole dispenser of holy orders and the guardian of the pre-
cint of his diocese, but subject to such limitations, and
those connected with the rights of incumbents, the usages of
the church, and the laws of the land, have ever recognised
the right of the laity to interfere, more or less, with what
may he termed the localization of men once admitted by the
bishop to the functions of a minister of the gospel. And it
would be strange if an opposition, professedly based upon
principle, to such a system should exist in Liverpool, where
there is not a clergyman now resident, who, after having
been, of'course, ordained by the bishop, and being virtually
subject to his authority, does not owe, in a less or greater
degree, the fact of his position in this town to lay patronage.

The recognised right of interference in the localisation-of
the clergy seeking assistance, in this case entirely limited by
the rights of incumbents, who, at their hands, the subscri-
bers of the Church Pastoral Aid Society exercise, not through
a committee of delegated laymen, but through the more suit-
able machinery of a clerical committee. The system, we
contend, is a correct one. If it should work ill it will not be
from defective principle, but from the frailty of that material
of which all human institutions must consist, and from the
errors of judgment and corruptions of heart which creep into
the working of the best systems, and disappoint the soundest
principles.
" Within the last 15 years a great change for the better has
taken place in England in regard to her church ; and in no
place is that change more ;wparent than in Liverpool.
Churches have been multiplied in districts judiciously
chosen. Men, faithful to their divine master, and fully com-
petent to their work, have been attached to specific portions
of the vineyard, and the whole will soon present the appear-
ance of systematic and progressive cultivation. Among all

the difficUlties still to be encountered, and hindrances Cvery
day experienced, what thanks to God do we not ov

for the

dew of His grace lying so thickly on this favoured town
The Church Pastoral Aid Society has not been inactive and
unblessed in bringing about these results. The districts of
St. Paul's, of St. Michael's, of Christ Church, of All Saint's,
and latterly that of St. Barnabas, have received grants from
her. May not your committee, then, conclude with the ex-
pression of a hope, in conjunction with earnest prayers to
God, that he will pour forth in still more abundant degree
the healthful spirit of his grace and fertilising dew of his
blessing upon us, that this great town shall at no distant pe-
riod rise from the unsuitable position of a receiver which
now she occupies with regard to this society, and pour back
an ample return into the exhausted coffers of her benefac-
tress ! May not rather a still better founded confidence be
placed in the power of the word of the grace of God, now so
fully ministered among us, to touch the springs of men's
hearts, to subject them to the claims of the Saviour, to melt
them at the recital of the spiritual indigence cf others, and
to moor them to Christ-like efforts of mercy."
The following collections were made in aid of the associa-
tion, last Sunday week, in this town :
St. Mary's, Edgehill £36 0 0
Seaforth
St. Barnabas 2O 0 0
St. Mary's, Kirkdale
All Saint's
St. Luke's
St. Simon's
St. Paul's

The TREASURER then read a statement of his accounts
from which it appeared, that, whilst Liver pool had contributed
only £205 ss. 2d. to the funds of the Parent Society for the
year, she had drawn from them, in the same period, a sum
of no less than between £5OO and £6OO.
The Rev. W. PoLLocK, incumbent of St. Helen's, then
moved the first resolution, to the effect that the report
be printed, and the usual officers appointed. He pre-
sumed that that resolution was never intended to be
any thing more than a peg to hang a speech on; but, as far
as it referred him to the report that was just read, it gave
him the opportunity, if he only had the power, of speaking
to any length, and of speaking on almost any subject con-
nected with the interests of the Church of Christ in this
country. When a short time ago he received a letter from
the committee of the Pastoral Aid Society, requesting that
he would consent to appear as one of their deputation, he
felt there was but one course to pursue, and that was, at
once to obey. He felt, indeed, as well he might, that the
society might have found many abler advocates, though, at
the same time, he felt they could not find a warmer one.
They never could find an advocate who felt every feeling of
pastoral obligation, and every Christian sentiment of regard
and esteem, or one who would plead their cause, at least,
more earnestly than he would do wherever he appeared as
their representative. And now that he had come, if any
thing could give him additional pleasure, it was to see him
(the Chancellor) occupying that seat. (Applause.) He
(the reverend speaker) did not wish to adopt the language
which would be most disagreeable to him—that which
might be deemed the language of flattery, but he would say
it gave any minister in the Church of England confi-
dence to have him presiding over any meeting that took
place They did feel that his presence was of itself an as,
surance of the purity, of the holiness of any cause he
mitted to be heard before him. He would follow the report
in the first place, generally to the principles of the Church
Pastoral Aid Society ; and in the second place, to the opera-
tions of the society, its success, and its results in Liverpool.
The rev. gentleman then took a very animated and eloquent
review of the period when this society was established, in the
course of which, he said it was when chartism was assaulting
all that partook of the nature of settled law—when socialism
was blaspheming against all that was held good or sacred,
and above all when popery had returned at length within the ,
precincts of the constitution ; it was at such a period, in the
year 1837, that God put it into the the hearts of other chosen
chosen servants to institute and organize the Church Pasto-
ral Aid Society. (Applause.) When the founders of this
society looked abroad on the state of things he had described,
they attempted to meet them by such means as he would
further lay before them. They looked with much anxiety at
the distractions by which society was torn and shaken, and
they felt persuaded that the true way of healing this was only
if they might happily succeed in multiplying in the land
the dwelling places of the son of peace. They believed
that the oil which should be thrown on the troubled
waters was of that bought by the unction of the
Spirit of the living God. Such, he was surz they could
bear him witness when he said, were the first persua-
sions of the founders of the Pastoral Aid Society. But
they had another step to advance. Having determined to
give themselves to the work of God—the holy work of ad-
vancing so far as they might the cause of the gospel amongst
their.. countrymen—they had then further to inquire by what
legitimate means they might carry their design into execu-
tion. Was there a lawful and ordained instrumentality for
the spread of the gospel of Christ already in existence, or
must they desire a new one ? They had already a chief shep-
herd and a fold in this country, and was it their duty to ac-
knowledge that fold or to found a new fold ? The founders
at once decided that the fold should be the Church of
England. They knew her to be holy in her faith—catholic

in her constitution—and apostolic in her descent. They saw
her when they looked at the annals of her history—they saw
her in better and purer times, although they were more
troubled times—they saw her supported by the blood of
many a martyr to the truth as it was in Jesus—and even
now they saw the tokens of God being with her in the con-
version of many a sinner. They knew, too, when they
looked at her parochial system, that the machinery only
needed to be carried out in practice to give to every sheep a
fold and every fold a shepherd. The fact was that prin.
ciple would not permit them, and inclination never tempted
them for a moment to look further than the church. There
were some whom they might be permitted to call unautho-
rized dictators, who had been bold enough to pronounce
that that was not a church society: (Applause.) Really,
he must confess, they were in utter ignorance of the autho-
rities which, no doubt, such parties were able to produce in
support of such an assertion ; but until those authorities
were produced, and as yet they had only heard the result—
until they knew the full authority on which such a statement
was based, they were constrained to say, first, that it was
essentially wanted and required for the wants of the church
on the one hand and the order of the church on the other.
it was an earnest desire to extend her borders, to throw
to strengthen her streets, to perpetuate her
wide her sanctuary, to carry out her ministrations, to widen
to develope her spiritual exercises ; it was a
de
her a clean church, not- baying spot, or wrinkle,
standing,hesi
desire
e to courts,
s e
and
e
or any such thing. He said that if such feelings and such