A SPLIT IN THE CUHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 402, 24 January 1872, Page 6

A SPLIT IN THE CUHURCH OF ENGLAND.

(From the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' Oct. 6;)

Mr Voysey, late vicar of Healaugh, conducted divine service on Sunday morning at St. George's Hall, Langham-place, under? the auspices of a committee formed f "»r the purpose of establishing Mr Voysey in a church of his own. The programme of his committee headed * The , Voysey Establishment Fund/aunounces as the principal points of Mr Vnysey's teaching : — 1. That it- isrtbe right and duty of every man to exercise his private judgment in matrers of religion;" 2. That the character and dealings of God are infinitely higher than the popular Views represent them to be 3. That ibis necessary to practise virtue and brotherly love in order to understand the love and goodness of God, Of this committee Dr Hinds; late Bishop of Norwich, is chairman / there are two or three other clerical names on the list of some sixty names, among which the best known are those of Claries Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Sir John Bowring, Sir W..C. . Trevelyan; W. !P. Price, M.P., and James Hey wood. Voysey, who wore the usual surplice rand stole, and an Oxford hood, read prayers from a revised Prayer-book compiled by himself. Much of the language of the Prayer-book is retained, but many passages are suppressed and others condensed, and. the "whole is, to use the words of the preface, "stripped of all that has become obsolete and out of harmony with a pure Theism ■" Of the confession some clauses are struck out, and in " Spare Thou them, O God, which confess their faults," " cleanse " is substituted for "spare." The Absolution is altogether dispensed with. The Lord's Prayer is retained, and also its name ; but in the rest, of the forms all allusions to the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity seem to have been expunged. The petition in the Litany in, favor of magistrates is followed by thisnew one : — " That it may please Thee to help all literary persons and editors uf the public press, that they may uae all their powers in the cause of truth and righteousness, and rise above the praise and blame of man." There is a similar petition in favor of schools and seminaries of sound learning, teuch-r3 and men of science. In his sermon, Mr Voysey said the object of the movement which he and his friends had set on foot was tlie removal from Christianity of those portio'is of the popular belief which, in his opinion, are contrary to the teaching of history and experience, and derogatory to the character of the Supreme being. He desired especially to get rid of the doctrines of the fall, eternal damnation, and the atonement for the sins of a portion of mankind by the sufferings of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures, which made God responsible for- the absuid and immoral notions of various ignorant and arrogant men, was about to be repudiated. It would piobably not be in the lifetime of any one of his hearers that the b'ots and blemishes of popular religion would be removed, at least not in England, and he begin to attempt their removal with no very sa:ignine hopes of success ; but he would never give it up while he had a voice with which to protest, or until he was beaten out I of life.