The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-11-24
PASTORAL LETTER.

upon IHe WHICH characterized
deliberations, and upon the earnestness witt
which it addressed itself to those measures
which may bring wanderers back to the
fold of God, and promote true saintliness oil
character and life among His elect people,
If we shall be permitted to assemble agaiI
in Diocesan Convention, shall seek tC
the various measures and policies which
our united council deemed of special i'm
portance.
At present invite your attention to some
matters of Diocesan interest:
l. Thursday, the 29Ch day of this month,
is set apart day "of Prayer and Thanks.
giving to Almighty God for the fruits of
the earth and all the other blessings of His
merciful Providence.
How abundant have been those fruits!
How numerous those Providential mercies.
Year after year, for a long time past,
there has been dsappointmeuts of the farm
ers' hopes. But this year the earth has
brought forth by handfuls. know that
in some localities there has been partial
failure, but as a rule your barns have been
filled with plenty.
The condition of our national affairs is
calculated to fill us with mingled gratitude
and awe. A reign of peace and quietness
has succeeded bitter discords. Almighty
God has SO ordered results as to battle the
speculations of the most sagacious, and to
bring US ont of a storm of political strife
into still waters.
Does it not become us, by formal act, to
acknowledge that it is not 10y our own in
dustry and sagacity that plenty and peace
have smiled upon us again, but that the
Lord our God, He it is that maketh us to
prosper?
| entreat you then to make ready for this
National Thanksgiving, and, ON the day
appointed, to go up to the House of the
Lord to render unto Him our thank and
praise.
| ask that the Offertory on that day may
be devoted to the Home for Friendless
Children which is our Diocesan charge,
and that besides the offnrtory you will send
as some of you are wont to do. boxes ana
barrels of provisions greatly needed
have visited elsewhere large and expen
sive institutions established to reclaim those
friendless ones who have fallen away from
an upright life. But how much better is it
to preserve, instead of retaining, to pre-
vent, rather than to cure! These twenty
little ones were emphatically friendless,
until the church befriended them. They
have no mothers, or else their mothers are
unable to care for them, and they are the
adopted children of the Diocese. While
they are not free from the faults of child
hood, yet | am sure that one seldom sees a
household so healthy and SO happy, SO do
cile and affectionate.
Consider, pray you, that this is the one
only asylum on the Eastern Shore, apart
from the Jail and the aims house, for the
triendleSS. Consider that its needs at this
moment are very pressing, and you will not
withhold from the fatherlesS the gleaningS
of an abundant harvest.
,. The General Convention has author
lied as an experiment for three years, the
use of Scripture Lessons according to the
calendar of the English church; and also
of special Lessons for Lent and for the
Rogation and Ember Days, prepared by its
own committee.
1t was thought that actual experiment
was the Surest test of the suitableness of
these Tables. A committee was appointed
to watch this experiment and to report
thereon three years hence.
The clergy are thus at liberty, in their
discretion, to make choice among these
several dictionaries. | think it will be
best to make a fair trial of each. In the
congregation of the Cathedral, | purpose
to begin at Advent the use of the English
Fable and to continue it for year, avail
ing myself in Lent of. our own new Table.
| should be glad if the clergy would do the
same, SO that i'll due time we may be able
to compare our experiment and our judy
ments. | give this as my opinion and ad-
vice, but do not urge it as an official ad
mOnition.
). | do, however, officially enjoin the
clergy to read public in every congregation,
the following important canon. Scandal
GUS divorces are very infrequent among US.
While have had painful causes to adjudi-
cate elsewhere, | am glad to say that in the
eight years of my residence in this diocese,
have not in a single instance, had any
such brought to my notice.
Thanks be to God, that there is in Mary
land, large reverence for the sanctity of
marriage, aud that the Divorce brokers.
who elsewhere drive so brisk trade, find
here no encouragement to their enterprise.
For this very reason, we should be at the
greater pains to let our people know what
the church has ever taught and in this
canon ailirms anew, that man or woman
once joined together in Holy Matrimony
can be released from that bond only by
death or by the adultery of the other party.
CANON 13.-oE MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
Sec. |. II any persons be joined together
otherwise than as Gods word doth allow,
their marriage is not lawful.
See. 2. No minister shall knowingly,
after due inquiry, solemniZe the marriage
of any person who has divorced husband
or wife still living, if such husband or wife
has been put away for any cause arising
e. hut oh l.,
held to apply to the innocent party in
divorce for the cause of adultery, or to
parties once divorced seeking to be united
again.
Sec. 8. If any minister of this Church
shall have reasonable cause to doubt wheth
er person DESTROYS of being admitted to
Holy Baptism, or to Confirmation. or to
the Holy Communion, is married otherwise
than as the word of God and discipline of
this Church allow, such minister before
receiving such person to these ordinances,
shall refer the case to the bishop for his
godly judgment thereupon; prootded how
ever, that no minister shall in any case
refuse the sacraments to penltent person
in imminent danger of death.
Sec. 4. Questions touching the facts of
any case arising under section 3 of this
canon shall be referred to the bishop of the
diocese or missionary jurisdiction in which
the same may occur, or if there be no
bishop of such diocese or missionary juris
dicton, then to some bishop to be desig-
mated by the Standing Committee; and the
bishop to whom such questions have been
so referred shall thereupon make inquiry
in such manner as he shall deem expedient,
and shall deliver his judgment in the
premises.
Sec. ). This canon, so far as it atfixes
penalties does not apply to cases occurring
before it takes effect, according to canon A,
title t.
| have suggested that this canon does not
at all differ in principle from previous
legislation, but only re-affirms the estab-
lished law of the church.
Its peculiarities are twofold: it distinctly
imposes penalty, not only upon the minis
ter who celebrates, but upon the person
who contracts an unlawful marriage
Moreover it relieves the Parish clergyman
from the responsibility and the odium of
determining the questions which may arise
under this canon, and referes them directly
to the Bishop is thus recognized not as an
appellate court, but as the court in ordinary,
by whose godly judgment each case is to
be determined.
Invoking upon you the blessing of God