The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-03 00:00:00

CHURCH EXTENSION.

SCIENCE is progressing, commerce is elwiet,
industry is labouring with ceaseless toil, all t'rge
with all these aids to material wealth, the the
strength of the nation, in its maintenance °_
decal.
Christian religion, appears to be left to the ,clth'otit
tory efforts of individual piety and zeal, ro•
any really practical endeavour to render theiPtio
gress of the Church co-equal with that thetit
people. It is not that the subject has been vii„,acie
attention, or that complaints have not been 'aro
of urgent necessities still unrelieved; but the Leg
are permitted to exist, and year after yeallirra to
over without any effectual step being tse
appply a remedy. Since the reign of ELl7old,
this country has multiplied its poPulatien, sal
and its material wealth perhaps a htmdrea'arch
yet the important concerns of the Natienal._Cl:over
are under fewer Bishops, so that, each bella per
loaded with duties he finds it impossible le for
form, too often does nothing, and clairas eretried
the quietude of his diocese. They IValAstosa
their hand at reform, and, having suppressed with
bishoprics in Ireland, contented theraSeiCe:h3t of
the creation of one new one in England' dos
This, however, was a elO.
wrung from them with difficulty, the real' he" of
bling-block being the addition to the neleerbY
Spiritual Peers, and the difficulty was get over
refusing the last-made Bishop a seat m the .010
of Lords. The want, however, to be suPPlie.Bl4.so
greater : the Church requires far more suPv'easia
than she enjoys, and if the difficulty of lec+Deogli
the episcopal votes is still insurmountable 0500
it would not be easy to give a legitin'ate,rn the
for it—there is, still the resource of connw.;°
13
Parliamentary privilege to the present ii911:);e te'
far the most important point, however, iS
the
modelling of the parochial system, 'iv_
populous towns of the north of Englanw -Viter
yQhen as
outgrown its means of usefulness. jc)Of
'7
pool was but a small fishing. town, its Pes,:tpel),,
a hamlet of the parish of Walton, ruiPoo,9l:
practical inconvenience ; and when subsecla'oo
increased in population, its constitution "-cfloo#
single parish might have been equally uncbiLport'
able. Now, however, it has risen into the '5.-poPll'
ance of the second town in the empire, it -Or!
lation, including the suburbs, ieaching :se
half a million, and yet with no more effeetteo
supervision than when it was but an
place. Liverpool should be a city, Illsll°il4r
,
and the centre of a diocese. It should ditti
into at least a hundred parishes, each one "tricni
incumbent whose pastoral duties would be:ocill;
defined, with churchwardens and other ll'irrrete'
officers, and with the power to levy char? eocie4
for the maintenance of the fabric and the clecititee6.4(
of divine worship. We should not thell,lertr
the anomaly of churches being the Pr4i, pee
private individuals—of incomes obtained fr°lo.ol3lo'
rents—of the poor being excluded in "del' i°ed
modate the rich—and the people scattereo•6
sheep having no shepherd, each one runnifif'og
some favourite preacher, virtually destrelletlsl
unity of spirit and the bond of peace, and tad:
in reality the schism against which 00 5:- tads
to pray. Perhaps the greatest obstacle tr
realization of the parochial system in lorgftit tlll4
is the want of means for endowment ;
'
obstacle is only great because our Church re,
are wanting in boldness to apply them ea°soy
their power, or, on the other hand, r° soc)
to obtain their ends by secular authority'
ties
De;
no Churchman can recognise. If the revefole:
longing to the Church were equitably elis`.ofalr4
and more attention paid to spiritual elis-0016r
than temporal gain, a great part of tile dies
7,
would be surmounted ; and were this cl°:
case would be made out for an apPeal 110(1°J;1
ment. The attemt must, however, be t 0:1
the Church itself :lit would form the inetei;cl;
topic on which Convocation could derut Chef
prove by far the most important steN-0
extension that has yet been made. Wit-tteo,t,ool
divided into parishes of reasonable e,"vor'l
number of population—with dioceses Nfrlie'..ei"e'
as nearly as possible to the number of re, of: of
extent of districts—and with the abundLet,hitleoclif
nuns belonging to one applied to the Phe "'ell ho
°'
another, we might fairly expect to Of.
of England what she ought to ber-i'eor
the_ people, the bulwark against all err-