Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1867-12-31
Published by Request from N. Y. Papor.l
A Declaration Of Certain Clergy and
Lalty OF the Protestant Episcopal
Church.

Church.
The subscribers to the follow ing dec
laratlon, deeply moved by what they
believe to be the present dangers Of
our beloved Church, IN the open and
secret tendencies which exist in it to
conformity with the Church Of Rome
and humbly trusting in the guidance
and bles sing ofthe Holy Spirit, would
make this statement of their views
and feelings, for the purpose of mus
tual encouragement and support.
The essential principals Of these
tendencies is an entire subversion of
the Protestant and Evangelical char
acter of our Reformed Church. 1t
transforms the ministry of the Cos
pei into a Priesthood Baptism into
a magical rite the Lords Supper
into the Sacrifice Of the Mass evan,
gelical liberty into bondage to mani>
told observances and cerimonies and
The One Church of Christ, ''the bless
ed company Of faithful people, into
the body Of those who recognize and
conform to mere saccrdotal system.
These tendencies, already far adj
vanced in England and this country,
are materially aided by asubtler and
less clearly pronounced sacerdotal>
ism, which finds expression among
us in exclusive view OF the Episcopal
Church in an unscriptural concep>
tons OF the sacraments in supersti-
tious ideas Of the power Of the min
istry and in legal rather than aa
evangelical view of the Christian III
The influence of these tendencies
we believe to be eminently injurious
to our Church, by the reasonable
prejudice which they excite fatal to
the performance of the great mission
to our Church in this land, by their
contraritey to true liberty and the
true progress of the age; dangerous
to souls by their hiding of the free
grace of the Gospel; and dishonora>
bic to Christ by their substitution Of
human meditatorship in the place of
zone Mediator, Jesus Christ"
Under deep sense of responsible
ity, we ask ourselves what, in this
crisis, it is our duty to do?
In the first place, we fell compelled
to affirm that in many pulpits Of our
Church another Gospel is preached
which is not the Gospel Of Christ
The Church needs to be awakened to
its peril. A paramount duty is inns
posed upon our clergy and our miss
sionary organizations, to see that, so
far as they are able, the true word of
God shall be preached in our land
We cannot yield this liberty and OBJ
legation to any claim of territorial
jurisdiction, and we hereby express
our sympathy with the resistance
which is made, in this respect, to the
attempted enforcement of false con,
structions OF canonical law.
We believe also that the present
crisis of Professionalism demands a
higher degree Of sympathy and CO..
operation among the various evangel.
zeal bodies into which we are dividA
ed. An exclusive position, in this
respect, we hold to be Injurious to
our own Church, and inconsistent
with our history and standards, as
we'll as with the spirit of the Gospel
In the case Of those "chosen and call
ed" to the work Of the ministry by
those"who havepublc authority given
unto them in the congregation" and
minifestly blessed in their labors by
the Holy Ghost, we believe that we
cannot withhold our recognition OF
the validity of their ministry without
imperilling the interests of evangel.
zeal religion, "despising the brethren, y
and doing "despite unto the spirit Of
grace" In this matter, also, we ex>
press our earnest sympathy with the
resistance which is made to those
false interpretations of canonical law
by which this recognition and fellow
ship would be restrained.
This statement of our views is
made under a full sense Of any re-
sponsibility which it may involve
The love and devotion which we bear
to our Church, and the allegiance
which we owe to Christ will not al
low us to hesitate. With kindness
and charity for all who differ in from
us, imposing no burden upon the con
sciences of others, as we are unwill'
ing to submit to any imposed upon oul
own, we claim only that in the Church
affection it is our inalienable privil-
eye to be true, in these respects, tC
our sense of duty to God
Signed by