The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-01-17
THE DEAN DEFIANT.

i'elluS tllaI dil WHO participated III Une laIe
notable "joint communion were guilty Of
abetting the sin of schism, and of promot
ing intidelity, should read the speech made
by the Dean of Canterbury at the meeting
of the London Branch of the Evangelical
Alliance.
Dean Smith is comfortably unconscious
of having done any wrong in the m after.
The mutations of Tozer, the plant of Pot.
ter, and the long roll of Drumm have all
failed to arouse in him any sense of alarm
or any feeling of guilt. He recognizes the
fact that he has been soundly berated by
his sacerdotal brethren; but thinks that
better men have been worse treated for the
same cause, and even says that he has
been scolded less than he expected
" When," says the Dean, 81 compare the
measure of abuse that has been dealt out
to me with what was dealt out to my VEN
cradle predecessor, DR.. Afford, when he
did much the same thing at Berlin, at a
previous meeting of the Evangelical ALI
ance, / cannot but think there really has
been in this country a growing feeling of
the necessity of Christian union among
u.s." 1t is evident that the scholar of Can
terbury knows how to extract sunbeams
from picked cucumbers.
These complaints have not, however, he
says, been Joined in "by any person of
rank or influence in this country" and he
! rirbt 70 t1,a 81
Times as one of those who have assaulted
him, which puts his estimate of that news
paper in very definite terms. HIS reply to
the charge that he is an anarchical person,
a breaker of laws and rules, is so good that
we shall quote his own words:
"As regards the laws and rules, do not
know what they are. If a law violated my
Christian principles, I should stand to my
Christian principles, and whatever the con-
sequences, l would break the law. Loud
applause.l AS long as law is on neutral
ground feel myself bound to attend to
that law; but there is no canon whatever
in the Episcopal Church of America that
forbade me taking part in that communion
at New York. If there was such, it would
be for me to consider how far | was
bound by it. l broke no law and no
rule whatsoever in being present at the
communion. Here in England it may be
that we have to pay penalty for our
position as members of the Established
Church. 1t is not all gain on our side.
r. Hear, hear and applause There is
loss as well as a gain. But in America
there is no such thing. There is no Estab-
lished Church. Loud and prolonged
cheers. All the communities there are
equal in the sight of the law, and each one
can make its own laws, its own canons, its
own constitution. | am here as an Episco-
palian. T. Hear, hear.'] l do not conceal
my principals. T. Hear, hear and ap
plause. Nor do consider that at all
compromised those principles by being
present at that communion with a great
many others who were not So"
1t would seem that when Dean of Can
terbury talks cut in meeting like that,
with the scarcely concealed approval of
the Primate of All England, Low Church.
men in this country might muster up cour-
age to say that their souls are their own,
and that fraternal acts like that of the
"ioint communion - are not only expe
dent but lawful.
Here is another point upon which the
Dean is equally explicit. Our readers will
find it no new doctrine:
81 believe there is no stronger profana-
ton of the Lords Supper than to turn it
into test of the communion to which you
belong. l believe, if there is one thing on
which we might all of us unite, it is in
showing forth our faith in the death of our
blessed Lord; and we misuse the death of
our Lord chat great proof of his love-
when we turn it into an occasion for hate
and discord-when it is turned into a test.
1t was so once in this country; but we have
abolished til Test Acts, and we look back
to that time with shame. And why should
we maintain in our own minds that which
we as nation abandoned? The Lords
Supper should be the thing to draw US
together, not thing to keep us apart.
Hear, hear.
With the following excellent passage
which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, and for instruction in right
eousness, and which we commend as such
to Churchmen OF every altitude in this
ceuntry-we conclude our excerpts from
Dean Smiths plucky speech:
cit was moment of very great pleas
ure that there, as member of the Episco-
pal Church of England, l should meet with
men whom love, and join personally, like
my friends, Dr. Stoughton and DR.. Angus,
with the representatives of all the different
churches in this great feast of love. 1t is
with very great sorrow that have seen
that the Episcopalian Church should find
fault that there should be only one member
of their body there were a great many
more, however, present there. 1t is just
as great an act of love for DR.. Stoughton
and others to take the communion with me
as it is for me to take the communion with
them. ['Hear, hear and loud applause.
They are making just the same concession
as was making, doing what was endeav-
oring to do-find some common ground on
which we were all to meet as brethren.
Renewed applause Their communities
have not found fault with them; they have
not been exposed to obloquy and censure,
because they took part in it; and it is a
painful thing that the community to which
l myself belong should be SO narrow in
their views as that they should not see that
there is something greater than any one
particular community and church, and
that is the Universal Church of Christ.
Loud applause. y
Startling Facts.
Mr.. Charles Brace, who for twenty years
has labored for homeless and friendless