The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-07-18
COLUMBIA S. C.
Sunday Morning. July 18, 1875.

~~~0f ~St ~O'Ses
CHURCH DISCIPLINE IN ENGLAND. The
American evangelists in England, whilo
they meet with good deal of heavy sar-
casm in the Tory press, and are referred
to in the House of Lords by Lord Lyttlc-
ton, amid laughter, rs giving perform
ances," have excited certain spirit of
independence in various classes. An
Englishman is independent, or nothing;
the church question in England is yet in
q very unsettled state, and between tho
non-conformists, dissenters and people
who go in for fair play, tho evangelists
have had supporters enough. In GER
tain way, these two are at the bottom of
the point that has just been raised ms to
the lawful right of q clergyman of the
Church of England to preach in non
conformist pulpit. The Rev. DIr. Ere
mouth accepted on invitation, some
months ago, to preach in the "City Tenn
pie" but was deferred by request from
the Bishop of London to await the ex-
animation of the legal right to occupy q
pulpit of another sect The matter was
referred to eminent counsel, Mr.. Fitz-
james Stevens and hIr. Benjamin Shaw,
who gave lengthy opinions, in substance
that it was illegal for clergyman of the
Established Church to occupy o non
conformist pulpit in England, but that
the law was not effective beyond English
territory. They drew some fine distinc-
tions.
eff o meeting for charitable object
were to be opened by a prayer, l should
not describe the whole meeting as an act
of public worship. If the prospects and
position Of the charitable society were
stated in sermon preached rs part of a
religious service, should describe the
whole meeting as an act Of public wor-
ship. Every case mus tdcpend upon its
own circumstances"
AT recent meeting held at the Getty
Temple" large gathering testified their
opposition to this ruling or to this state
of facts. Samuel Morley, NJ. P, pre-
sided, The Dean of Westminster, whose
dignity is we'll indicated by the magni-
iccnt and ancient Cathedral of which he
has charge, was ono of the most indig-
nant expounders of the sense of tho meet
Ing; and while Dean Stanley boasted
that che gloried in tho freedom of the
freest, the learning of the most learned,
and the reasonableness of the most ra-
tional church in christendom, he sought
to show by an historical review of the
turns in Christian liberality, how absurd
were the restrictions sought to be i'm
posed. The Dem of Westminster moved
the following resolutions, which were
adopted:
''That the meeting is of the opinion
that the restrictions placed upon the
clergy of the Church Of England, ac-
cording to the opinion of counsel now
given on the subject, of conforming
ministers taking part in services other
than those prescribed by the Acts of
Uniformity, are injurious to the fraternal
intercourse between the various Protest
mt Churches of the land, which is i'm
peratively required in the interests of
Catholic Christianity"
This was seconded by the Rev. New
man Hall, and unanimously carried.
The Times disposes of the question as
one not worthy of serious argument; but,
taken in connection with the agitation in
regard to disestablishing the church md
its other kindred elements in English
politics, this meeting of the notables is
significant. To end where we began, ns
the Rcv. Mr.. Fremouth writes to the
Times, the law 'appears to make it ille-
gal for him to join in such services as
those of Mlessrs. Moody and Snnkey."
Take away the petty Federal ''organ-
izcrs," snys Charles Nordhoff, in his last
lettar to the New York ILernLI ana IL o