The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-17

statement, "The composition of common prayer
and ceremonies is n sinful violation of the
worship of God" In the Cambridge Platform
II is stated bishops are human creations mere
inventions of men, to the great dshonor of
Jesus Christ; plants not of the Lords planting
and should certainly be rooted up and cast forth.
And on the principles of the New Haven settle
ment, All rectors, bishops, and priests are OF
the devil; are wolves petty popes, and anti
Christian tyrants; IL is a heinous sin to be pre-
sent when prayers are read out of book by
vicar or bishop; the lovers of Zion had better
put their ears to the mouth of hell aud learn
from the whispers of devils than read the
bishops books"
When such language was used In formal Church
documents deliberately prepared and put forth,
we may easily imagine the acts by which they
were followed up. In reading them to you l
utter no censure, no one could feel any resent
ment The spirit which dictated them need
only to be seen, through the words themselves
to secure its inevitable deserts. But the civil
law was invoked against every one who had
courage TO confess his friendship or favor
towards the Episcopal churches. Heavy fines
were inflicted on those who took part in our
religious ceremonies and a severe law enacted
against the observance of any such day as
Christmas or the like. And SO Good Friday aud
Easter, on which Presbyterian ritualists are be-
ginning to preach sermons on the crucfxion
and resurrection and decorate their churches
with flowers and Whitsunday, were forbidden
to be observed as the anniversaries of
our Lords death, OF our Lords
ISpuAICSbAOH, hnu VI buc Rllb VI bu6 E1Oly SDlTlL
The courts of law were ordered to sit on Good
Friday, on which 1t was well said no other
judges had been known to sit IN judgment since
the days of Pontius PLATE.
At Salem John and Samuel Brown, merchant
al lawyer, both excellent men, and members of
Council, were sentfback to England in 1929 be-
cause they had assembled with few others in q
private house to worship God according to the
Book of Common Prayer. And 1 suppose If the
Puritanical spirit in the Church had free course
now my brother B0tterson and myself would be
transported to Rome perhaps for bringing into
use and life some other parts of the Prayer
Book which we undeviatingly follow always
BY the charter of the colony granted by that
Charles who died on the scaffold In the
Church's faith and for it, the colonists were en-
titled to that privilege. Those were dark days
for our Church, brethren. when toeration, JUS
tice, and charity were thus forgotten. BY de-
grees this abated little, and Boston endured
with reluctance the introduction of the first
EI iscopal church in New England The Kings
Chapel In Boston was founded in 1885, fifty
years after the colony was settled. Subsequently
learn from Fuller that Salem Portland Ports
mouth, Newport, Newburyport, Providence, and
New London received the Church; and besides
to the faith, such as Cambridge, Taunton Bris-
tol, Stratford, Norwalk, Marblehead, and Litch-
field. In the year 1701 "rhe Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts"
was chartered in England for the purpose of i'm
parting the blessings of the Gospel in the Church
to all British and foreign peoples. This great
society has been instrumental in establishing
sixty jurisdictions and as many bishops in va
rious parts of the world, eight or ten of whom
are presiding over dioceses in American colo
nies. and about thirty-six are, in addition,
bishops in these United States. At the COM
mencement of the struggle between the colonies
bishop in this continent. Virginia and Mary
land, where the Church planted by Robert
Hunt was fourishing, had about two hundred
and fifty ciergymen, of the first and second
Nr1n nvnd thaS tnfA ~. LaI
eighty in all. 1t was not an unpromising be-
ginning, but the obstacles were numerous and
formidable in the extreme. AS an instance of
the deep-seated prejudice cherished against the
Episcopal Church, Hawkins, in "His Account of
Missions" says that sister was led by it to
pray that her brother, who had sailed for
England to obtain ordination at the hands of
bishop, might be lost at sea. The Church here
was without bishop, an academy, college, or
any seminary for educating priests or deacons.
In 1884 the first bishop of the newly-organized
though long existing P. e. Church was conse-
Grated for Connecticut - the Right Rev. DR..
orders as bishop from our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, through the hands of three bishops of
the Episcopal Church of Scotland, an ancient
and primitive branch of the Church, which has
no connection with the State, and is now
fourishing even in that Presbyterian soil, by
the blessing of God, and the voluntary contri-
buttons of His people. Subsequently, the ever
venerable bishop White; OF our own Pennsyl-
Madison, of Virginia, obtained orders in Eng
land. The events which caused Dr. Seabury,
the first Bishop of Connecticut, to seek conse-
Grafton in Scotland, were mercifully oyerruled
for the good of the Church here. He natu-
rally was attached to the ritual of the Scotch
Church, and to that circumstance we
owe 1t that our communion Office, and the
prayer of conservation especially, was taken
from the Scotch ritual and not from that of
England. The form of this prayer effectually
debars the idea of any merely casual presence
in the Eucharist, and makes our doctrine far
more clear than the English canon does, which
might be interpreted to favor carnal presence.
Its immense superiority In fulness and beauty
over the English ritual will be apparent on in
| epection. Possessed thus of a ritual composed
of the greatest and best parts of other national
| rituals, as her people are compounded together
| out of the population of the British isles and
| other nations; possessed of bishops of her own,
| and goodly company of priests obedient to the
faith; and, above all, possessed of entire inde-
| pendence OF all governments, secularities, and
entangling alliances, our Church has, Ia the
| teeth of such opposition and prejudice as have
| described, advanced steadily, until she has now
more than fifty bishops and upwards of two
thousand five hundred priests and 200, 600 com
| municants. Less than she ought to have, If she
| had not been so very respectable; so afraid to
| throw herself, in frankness and fulness OF doc
trine, on the people. In popular movement such
as we had here, she would have gained the
middle class, who are now mostly Methodists
instead of those highly respectable, first-clasi
people, who are too digni6ed to let plain people
worship with them Ia the same church; bu
| enough to make us thank God and take courage
from the hope that, in the next fifty years, she
will embrace and assimilate much larger pro
portion of our people. OF her fifty bishops and
two thousand five hundred priests at least Sc yer
hundred have been brought into her fold by
conviction of her Scrlptural claims on theil
belief and obedience; and while kind friends are
anticipating secessions to Rome l find abou
twenty-five ministers of various denomination