Free Churchmen.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13727, 17 October 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

Free Churchmen.

DR. CLIFFORD'S' ULTIMATUM. •■ "WE WILL NOT SUBMIT." At a time when tlie prospects <of justice for Nonconformity are threatened by many strong forces -working against a Government which has a solemn" pledge fcu fulfil, Dr. Clifford: issues what ; may be regarded as an ultimatum "on behalf <of the thousands of passive resistors'' who have stood by Dr. Fairbairn's declaration for the past sir, years. Lying side by 6ide -on my tabic, writes Dr. Clifford, are the newspapers of this morning and a letter from a Primitive Methodist minister. The newspapers tell of the gigantic National Society for tho Education of the Children of the Poor 'in the Principles of the 'Church of England, the English Church Union, the Church Schools Emergency Defence Committer, and the Parents' Leaguo for the frusfation of the audacious attempt of tho Government to try for the third time to settle the education controversy. Tho letter is from a passive resister, who says: "I was sent to Winchester gaol five times, for seven days each time. I have been once to Briton, ami I have to go again in a few days." .A Baptist minister wrote me'a fortnight ago, after his deliverance from prison. Just before that a London medical man told me a similar story, only adding that his period of detention was, "for sotne inscrutable reason, three days longer" than on any previous occasjori. Tlie passive resistors of a Midland town have been penalised to the extent of £I,OOO for refusal to pay what, they rightly regard as the •'priests' rate." These are a few: incidents tvpical V.f many. I admit wo have not vet pulled down 'tho Hyde Park railings; we are passive resistors, men and women standing true to the pledge riiadcbv Dr.' Fairbairn in 1902, when he said" on behalf of a large deputation to Mr Balfour with regard to the proposed unconstitutional and unjust legislation on education,"" We will not submit." '

PROSPETCS NOT BRIGHT. Six years have elapsed since that memorable declaration, and what are our prospects now! No one wijl say that they arc particularly bright. The Iri.-b Roman Catholics, who came to the aid of Mr Balfour in forging the fetters of the Education Act of 1902. and' fixing Ibem upon our conscience-V bare got, what they want. Mr Birrell and Mr Balfour, the. lords and Bishops and the. Commoners. Nonconformist Members of; Parliament joining them, " with/ fear, and . trembling," hove given the Romas Catholics the 'tongeoveled Roman Catholic University to be placed by the Rid* of'the Anglican University in the same city of Dublin. "They Jiavo their .reward," but the end So not yet. As Bishop Butler says,' " Things are what they are; and their cbtaiqiicncfs will be what tiicy will be." Whether these same Irish Roman Catholics - will in the coming autumn '-rivet the .fetters; 1 in whoso manufacture.-, tijey had tso determining a share, more securely * ujion its I will not eity. Certainly I biipe not. But. this is obviotw; that we, who.have asked for-.nothing whatever in! State education except the rights of and equality of opportunity in the" Civic pro- ! fession of Btat«-pakl teaching, and ;arfc lcjft to suffer the consequences of reeisting compuleion of the State to contribute di- ! rectly to tlw propiigation of that Boman J Catholicißm which makes an Italian dwelling in Rome a'- primarr factor in our politic*, and to the furtherance of tb,a£ ; Anglo-Romauitjin which teaches that onr Free Churches are not Christian Churcbes at all, and doos it. in the name, and by the authority, of Parliament. . ', So far, then, we have flirt fared well. We put our ." caws' 'before; the country from 1902 to 1906 with some fulness o/id perfect, clearness. The, cpurttrjr our claUu in.a*isurpr'isingly ciupbatic way. Tlie '• pareute" who are now tif wly :nirodac*d to-settle, evei.yihing' rbeardj: ihit appeal, and expressed their" tiiind*. > ,' Abd what, has come of it allT. "Soaiething |»«- tempted and nothing done" wuuFd tint.be an 'accurate-verdict. Much has bwn ht tempted' and something has been done: nut the chief evil abides'-*-" Roinc is; on- tho rates." Tl»e eitiaten is forced bv th" State to see his money gong >tmight \to uphold sectariimism. The' legidatloiv in deuomiiiational and not national. MONOPOLISTS ACCUSATIONS. T know it is said that so, lung as- the Bible or any part of it is used in Stat* schools, the Free Churches are on ilnj rates., They arc not. A.s churches they derive no advantage whatever from it.i civic use over and alwive what they uo from any legitimate Use of Milton or Sbaktispeare, It i.s only in total ignorauo! of what the Free Churches bold and teach that such misrepresentation can find any support. In fact, the plea, is simply the despair'ng cry of men who will not part*mith their unjust monopolies.But may we not expect a settlement on purely civic and non-eeclesinstirsl - line* now ?' Alas i in Kngland the Commoners propose and the Lords dispose. The peers itnd bishops are Britain's overruling pro v'dwee in all affairs that touch the Church of England and the political status •of Roman Catholicism. The "National So etety" wed not- waste its strength and its inuds. Mr BainC-t may enjoy his hob day in perfect peace. The House' ■of Lords will not fail in doing ■•»> duty -to the land.to the beer barrel, and to sec tariim education. It is notoriously ihf, most blind, bigoted, selfish, sectarian, and intolerant institution our gtcst country has produced. The " Church "isin m« •danger from it. It is -the country* that is in peri!! Hut the bishops! Well, I am willing to hope anything from the bishops. I Ik 1 eve thy arc beginning to understand the situation. One'of them, seeing Ihf conditions under which Liberalism has t<; act. has already declared that the " bis hops may gel much more from a Liberal t'or.tnmeiit than from the f'riiontsts, ,mij there i- no doubt that if our 'lovernmcnl were lo idler their third Educaton' Bill to suit *Mr Balfour, the temporal liui spititvial ]«ers. and the Irish Roman L'a 'indie party, it wimbl easily Is-eome Isw But they will not do any such thing. N'o! I cannot hope much from thai non elective assembly, which, aeeordinii to the rccordr. of an Anglican. Mr .lo.sepl t'l.ivtoii. has fiiilcd "lo do juslYc nrif love mercy with a iiiiiformily thai in al iiw>i unlitoken, and a |M , r>ist«.-nce thai would be paiiietic if i' «<re not traifie.' My hoirc !-. in the passive Thei malic little iioJm'. They gn : n j'Miil m tention : but in their various localities the; lep the eye- of the nation o|w-n to lie flagrant \> rotigs of the pt«r-ent system, an' feed that sense of justic in tile Engbsl 1 people which in the end of the day i imnc to ti-iumph. in spite of the f»c that " Kitgli-hineii dearly love a lord,' , and cling with wonderful affection to thH j gild—! tyrannies. Our watchword i« ("Thi* lei-M.Hiou is «r>.ng, and wo «ii i no! Miltmit."