Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-29
CHRISTIANS NOT FIRED,
BUT FROZEN TOGETHER
CANON EDWARDS oUTsPoKEN AT
CHURCH CONGRESS
The Church of England, He Says, Is
Suffering From Apathetic Bishops
and Bible Destroying cIergymen.
Marriage and Divorce Discussed
Special Gable to The Herald.

Special Gable to The Herald
LONDON, Oct 2S.-There were a
number of important subjects dis
cussed in a most interesting way at the
Church Congress, while in session at
Weymouth
The need for "revivals" shown in the
prevalence of gambling, the rising
standard of luxury, the growth of pau
perism, and the existence of selfish
vested interests was the keynote of
the paper with which the Rev. A. w
Robinson, vicar of All Hallows, Bark"
ing, opened the discussion on that sub
ject.
There will never be a revival in the
Church of England so long as the
church allows herself to tamper with
fundamental truths declared Cancn
Allen Edwards. who followed, amid a
roar of applause.
The church suffered from "apathetic
bishops" and "Bible-d destroying clergy
men," he declared and continuing said:
Il am thankful that the word revival
has at last found it's way into the
program of the church congress. SO
far as 1 can recollect, it has never
been there before. The bishop and
people of this diocese have placed the
Church of England under an enormous
obligation for putting 1t in the fore-
front of the discussions.
Nowadays the Christians in the
church," he said instead of being
fired, seem to be frozen together. We
want the support of the bishops in
these revivals."
The founder of the church army"
then announced the bishop of Sails
bury and the Rev. w. Carlile. in his
Church Army uniform, stepped to the
front and told something of his re-
Vival work at st. Mary-at- Hill. Il be-
lieve," he said, that the altar rail of
the church will be the penitent form
just as Wesley borrowed it from our
dear old church."
He insisted upon all helping the
clergy, not excluding women. 1T was
a woman, my lord, who first led me
from being a scoffer to Christ.
zone day" he continued, II saw ono
of my workers jumping. He had heen
converted about six months before.
You mustn't jump in church., l said
to him. oh but, Mr.. Carlile, he said,
I have just led my first soul up to
the altar rail, and I can't help jump
ing l said to him: Very well, jump"
The burden of the many speeches
which followed was praise of the re-
cent nonconfornlist revivals, and the
work of Evan Roberts in Wales.
At the discussion on marriage and
divorce under the presidency of the
bishop of Bristol, Lord Shaftesbury
gave a paper on "The Ideal of Christ
ian Marriage" and claimed that the
marriage tie is indissoluble on earth,
and that the divorce laws only tended
to iniure the moral and social life of
the nation.
Mr.. Duke. x. c., NJ. P, dealt with
the legal side of the divorce problem
in an extremely practical speech. Mr..
Duke laid particular stress upon the
good work done by English law ad-
ministrators in preventing collusion.
Some people had urged that publicity
should not be given to divorce cases,
hut he maintained that in many cases
the only punishment was the publica-
zion of the affair in the public press.
These reports often acted as whole
scme deterrents against misconduct.
The bishop of Rochester caused q
mild sensation by declaring he was
prepared to inhibit any clergyman who
might re-marry persons who had been
guilty parties in divorce cases, and
looking round among the assembled
clerygymen, he added grimly, that he
had the inhibition papers with him in
his bag.
The bishop of Bristol wound up the
discussion with the declaration that
the marriage tie is absolutely indis-
eoI1IhIe in the lifetime of the parties.