Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-12-17
Christian COurtesies.

A VERY pleasing incident connected
with the recent Church Congress, at
Leicester, England, was the presenta-
tion Of an address to the Congress
signed by thirty-two Nonconformist
ministers Of the place. The address,
after making mention Of the worthless
of the Church of England who have
passed away, such as Herbert and Ken,
Leighton and Wilson, continues;
"The works of Hooker and Jeremy
Taylor, of Pearson and Milman, Of
LightfoOt and Westcott, are the delight
and possession of the NoncOnformist
ministry as well as Of your own. II our
forms Of worship vary from yours, yet
your noble liturgy, enriched by the per-
sistence, the trust, the sorrow and the
gladness of the saints of many ages is
for us, no less than for others, price
less treasure of devotion. Scarcely
ever do we come together to give thanks
for the Divine goodness without using
those hymns which the singers Of your
Church have given the world, and side
by side with Wesley, Watts and Dod-
bridge we place the solemn and beau
tiful melodies Of Heber, Lyte and Ke-
ble." u
The Bishop of Peterborough, who
presided at the Congress and who was
the guest d Wesleyan citizen Of
Leicester, made an extended reply,
which was couched in the same courte-
Gus language and marked by the same
Christian spirit. In the course of his
reply he said; .,E 1.I iC
''As you truly say, 1t is hard for men
to meet around the same board, to
kneel before the same altar. to Join in
the same prayers, to sing the same
hymns, grasp one another's hands in
fraternal greeting, and then to be ig-
norant of or suspicious of one another $
motives and principles. Thankful we
are, then, for the removal of this diff
Guilty; thankful are we also to remem-
Der this, that if you are good enough
TO say that you owe Us something for
the lives, for the words, for the sayings
of Churchmen, we have our debt, on
our part, TO you. / cannot stand on a
platform in Leicester, and forget the
name that / have already mentioned of
Robert Hall. 1 cannot hear from your
lips of Watts and Doddridge and not
remember how familiar these names
are to us, and how our children have
learned to lisp the words they have
taught us"
The Bishop concluded by saying:
" In the grave Of the past let us hope
and trust much of the ostrangement,
much Of the suspicion, much OF the ha-
tired, much of the old wrong between
| Church and Dissent, may be buried.
We can at least rejoice that for mo-
ment or two we have met together as
brethren in the name of the common
Father, whom we worship, and the
Savior, who has redeemed us all, and
as we pass along our several parallel OF
divergent paths the memory of this
night of fraternal greetings and OF fra.
ternal interchange of sentiment and
life will lhger in our hearts, and we
| Churchmen shall go away from Leices-
ter with one added memory TO the
j pleasant memories that have clustered
around our presence here, that this
singular and remarkable incident has
graced the gathering OF the Leicester
Church Congress our Noncon,
fOrmist brethren, spontaneously, heart
| lily, lovingly and kindly, have come
here Tonight to give us a fratetnaj
greeting Which we cannot forget, which
we do not wish to forget, and which We
heartily return You in the name Of the
Lord" t.r s,....... ..., .
IL there were more of this spirit pre-
vailing between the different divisions
OF the sacramental host, we should be
able to regard the final triumph of the
Church and its completed unity as being
much nearer than It now appears.
Y ObSeTOer J". ..l