THE RELIGIOUS WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 10399, 21 August 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD

PROGRESS OF THE ANGLICAN

CHURCH.

. Tho ‘Record’ for June 14 contained a joint contribution under the heading ‘The Church in the Queen’s Reign,’ from the pens pf the Rev. A. R Bnakland and Mr H. C. Hogan, and (remarks the ‘St. James’s Gazette’) it is carefully and ably written, and with conspicuous fairness, considering the Evangelical traditions of the paper. Here are some extracts

.... Tins church IN 1837. At the Queens accession the church was in tne l middles of its awakening from the deathlike lethargy of half a century before. The Evangehoal revival had done something, and tho Uxtord movement was beginning. But things tfrere very different from what they are now. ine writers of this supplement have traced the history of the church since that time. Take this as a picture of 1837:-“ The bishops (in wigs) were great personages. They drew large revenuM from the estates of their sees and |‘ ved commensurate splendor. Sometimes tupy added other valuable preferments to their bishopric. When Henry Phillpotts was made Bishop of Exeter in 1830. he sought to hold the rectory of Stanhope and a prebendal stall at Durham, each worth about £5,000 a year, together with the bishopric, the revenue of Which was then £2,700. He retained the prebend until his death. The less conscientious bore their responsibilities lightly. A prelate would hold, perhaps, ono confirmation a year and_ then would pronounce the words of consecration but once over the entire body of confirmees. The wife of a western prelate gave a dance to the confirmation candidates. In tho diocese of Oxford Bishop Bagot ordained candi®a t . lloUt ' any previous interview on his part. When Samuel Wilberforco went to the diocese an innkeeper sought compensation because the candidates no longer frequented a ball he gave on such ooca-iona. The stipend of a curate m 1841 seems to have bom about £IOO a year, put less was often given. A ’ pious graduate ’ ? offered in an advertisement £SO with a title or a Yorkshire parish. Tho sale of advowsons was carried on without any of tho subterfuges demanded by a more sensitive age. Kellers frankly addressed themselves to ‘persons desirous of providing for a son or a relative in the .church, and the spiritual aspects of an ad vowson were cheerfully ignored. In a church homPkirahtiea, non-residence, and indifferent bishops parochial life was at a low ebb. there were men of unblemished piety and great industry, but they were in a minority. In the village church, served for the most part by a curate, the services had little to attract. Occasionally an Evangelical curate, by the fervor of his ministry, won the hearts of his people. For tae rest, as Dean Hole confesses, ‘ they did as week deOCnOJ com P elled > and that but once a

The organisation of the church was poor, ihere were twenty-seven bishops for a population of twenty-six millions—the same number as lor a population of tour millions at the Reformation. A Nonconformist attack on church rates was beginning, which ended at last in the compromise of 1868. Abroad there were but two bishops in North America, two in India, * w< ?. West Indies, and one in Au - tralia. The Additional Curates Society was n?v m f n ln y ear of the Queen’s accession. Ihe Record was the only church newspaper.

LEADERS OF THE CHURCH IN 1837. It was an era of many questions and much stirring writing on the po’itical and social H’c of The church’s leaders in 1837 were: William Howhy was at Canterbury, E. V. Vernon Harcourt at York, J. B. Sumner (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) was at Chester, 0. J. Blomfield at London, bold Henry of Exeter’was supreme in the West Ihe most active prelate was Blomßeld. At Oxford a group of comparatively young men were beginning the Tractarian Movement. Newman was thirty-six, Pusey thirty-aeven, Kcble fortyfive. Hawkins was Provost of Oriel. Routh was at Magdalen. A. 0. Tait wa i a tutor at Balliol. Jhe names of J. 0. Ryle and f" .. . Stanley appeared this year side by side in the First Class of the Lit. Human. School. Jewett won the Hertford Scholarship, Salomon Ctesar Malan the Pusey and Ellerton Soholarrhip, Piers Calveley Chughton the English Essay, A. P. Stanley the Ireland and the Newdigate. Whateiy had, a few years before, been made Archbishop of Dublin ; but hia influence was still felt in Oxford. Arnold was gone to Rugby, but he was still a power in controversy. At Cambridge a great blank had been caused by the death, the year before, of Charles Simeon. Marsh, Turton, Lee, aud Scholefield were professors. Cams was a Fellow of Trinity. O. J. Vaughan, C. J. Ellicofct, and J. S. Howson were reaping university honors. The present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of Durham were boys at school. Samuel Wilberforoe was vicar of Bnghtstono; tad been offered the vicarage of St. Dunstan’s, Fleet street, by Simeon ; had worked hard for C.M.S.; and had nourished a plan for combining S.P.G. and C.M.S. in one organisation. Edward Bickersteth was rector of Watton; W. Marsh was at ,\ h °( naa s. Birmingham; Hugh Stowell at Christ Church, Manchester ; Baptist Noel was at the height of his popularity at St. John’s Chapel, Bedford row; Daniel Wilson was vioar et Islington ; Henry Venn was at St. John’s : H u ßb J ame3 Rose, Burgon’s ‘ Restorer of the Old Paths, had just, by the Joint act of Hawley and Blomfield, been appointed Head PI King’s College, London.”

CONVOCATION. One of the most Important charges has been the revival of Convocation, which had not met Hnoe 1717. The Convocation of Canterbury met again in 1852, and of York in 1861. The writers in the Record say with legard to thin: "" progress of affairs has bo far realised none of the fears entertained in regard to the revival of Convocation. It has at least wrought no harm to the church, and its discussion of the ecclesiastical affairs mainly ftom the standpoint ot the clergy has been of undoubted service. It hss done nothing great or striking, its most solid contribution to the history of the time or if>ination of the Revised Version of the Bible. Perhaps it has been most advantageous to the church iu producing a desire on the part of churchmen for some representative Synod with power to act as well as debate. This desire has issued in the formation of the Houses of Layman, and m a demand for such reform of Convocation as shall mako_ it fairly representative of the clergy. 1 his, it must be confessed, is no small service. The activity of churchmen was also shown by the starting of the services at Exeter 1857 > and eveni °g services in St, Paul’s and Westminster Abbey in 1858. Later came a new spur to the intellectual revival inside the church by the publication of ‘Essays and Reviews in 1860, and the Colenso affair in rioto ® Church Congress met. In 1000 the first Lambeth Conference was held.

BEVI3ION. In the fifties there was a good deal of talk about revision of the Prayer Rook, but it oimc to nothing. The revision of the Bible, however, has been undertaken and carried through. The revised New Testament appeared in 1881 and Oid Testament in 1885. This revision originated with a proposal by Bishop Wilberforce m 1870, and it had taken fourteen years, in eighty-five sessions of 792 days in all.

DISESTABLISHMENT. Disestablishment was in the air in 1837. But this danger to the church has both arisen and also apparently disappeared during the reign, xhe Irish Church was disestablished in 1868 and in 1871 Mr Miall brought in a Bill for England, which was rejected, but as to which ‘ The Times said that it could hardly bo doubted that this century would see the consummation Mr Miall wished tor. The prediction does not seem likely to be fu’filled. Mr Asquith’s Weli-h Bill speedily had to be withdrawn. The Scotch Bill- was not introduced. And the Socialistic tendencies of the time are in favor of a State religion rather than the reverse. Moreover, the church is organised for defence now as it has never been before; and though much is stiU needed m the way of reform, this task is one which will be undertaken by the friends of the church and not its enemies.

GLEANINGS.

Among the Pope’s treasures is an Easter egg which he received from an English lady. The shell is made of ivory, its lining is of white_ satin, and the yolk is a gold case containing a large ruby set in diamonds. The whole is valued at £2,000. A split has occurred in the Beresford street Congregational Church at Auckland. The Rev. Mr Burgess and the deacons have resigned, and refuse to be re-elected. Recently Miss Emelia Grace Briggs daughter of Professor Charles A. Briggs received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. There were twenty-four members of the graduating class, but the chief honors were accorded to Miss Briggs. She does not expect to preach, but has passed through the curriculum of the seminary that she might be better fitted to teach various high branches of learning-sacred and secular.

In a Brompton County Court case the solictor for the defendant complained that the plaintiff had given a written receipt insulting to the Roman Catholic faith by “ coneluding it with the word ‘Amen.’” The Judge ruled that there was nothing insulting in “Amen” to either Catholic. Protestant, or Jew-

Oxford conferred the degree of D.D. on the flight Kev. J. F. Siretch, coadjutor Bishop of Brisbane; and Yale University the degree of LL.D. on “ lan Maclaren.” - Mr S._ Schechtor, reader in Talmudic in the University of Cambridge, writes to ‘The Times’ as follows:—“It will be of interest to Biblical scholars to know that I have discovered more fragments of the original of Ecclesiasticus in the library here, among the Hebrew collections lately brought Home by me from the Eastern ‘ Geniaolh.’ As only a small portion of the vast collections has yet been examined, and as they all come from one and the same place, there is every reason to hope that further examination may bring still more fragments to light of this lost Apocryphal booh.” A curious scene was witnessed at Victoria station on the evening of July 4, when the Archbishop of Finland took train for Dover, en route for St. Petersburg. The platform was packed with men, women, and children, and not a few of the former were Church of England clergymen. The archbishop was accompanied by the pastor of the Russian Chapel, and for twenty minutes before his train started passed backwards and forwards among the people, blessing them, the people the while kneeling in an attitude of prayer. He kissed the men on the right cheek and the children on the forehead, and the ladies were allowed to kiss his hands. During “this ceremony the choir of the Russian Chapel sang a chant, and the archbishop blessed them and said a few graceful religious words to the assembled people, who loudly cheered as the train left. There was another impressive scene on the Admiralty Pier, Dover. The church choirs in their surplices and a number of the clergy assembled, and between the arrival and departure of the archbishop sang the hymns ‘Jesus shall reiga where’er the sun’ and ‘Thechurch’s one foundation.’ The night being fine the pier was crowded with spectators, the effect being very impressive. Dr Adler, the chief rabbi, in the course of a sermon daring a visitation to Birmingham, made a powerful denunciation of the evil wrought by money lenders. It will be remembered that a few years ago the Glasgow Hebrew congregation removed from the roll of membership a seatholdcr who had made himself notorious by usurious oppression. This was an extreme step, taken to meet an extreme instance of the profanation of the name. The synagogue, said the chief rabbi, must leave no atone unturned to purify ite courts from such contamination, la one way particularly it should act without hesitation. Such men are well known as fond of parading' the display of their illgotten wealth, and too often they make the synagogue itself the object of ostentatious gifts. Such presentations should be resolutely refused. On a recent Sunday a gift of this kind was the occasion of an unseemly tribute of congratulatory compliments in the Dublin Synagogue, almost simultaneously with the donor’s name being mentioned in connection with moneylending of not a reputable kind. The chief rabbi said: “In such instances the congregations have the remedy in their own hands if they wish to dissociate themselves and other Jews from the evil reputation with which such traitors to our race arc branded by the general public.” Mr William G. Sprigg, a nephew of the Premier of Cape Colony, is touring Australasia in the interests of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the Caps.