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To the Honorable R. F. IF. Allston, a Lay Delegate to
the G-eneral Convention of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.
Beaufort, Sept. 8th, 1856.
Dear Sir,—As you have represented the Diocese of
South Carolina, in the General Convention of our Church
for a number of Sessions, and expect, I presume, to attend
that which is to he held in Philadelphia the next month, I
take the liberty of addressing you through the public prints,
on a subject of much interest, which will be brought before
that body. I refer to the Memorial of Dr. Muhlenberg and
others on the better adaptation of our Church to the wants
of the age by a greater latitude of Rubrics and Canonical
relaxation.
Much attention has been attracted to the subject in all
parts of the|country—a variety of facts and opinions illus¬
trating the usages of Bishops and Clergymen in conducting
the service, has been contributed; and there prevails an
earnest and wide-spread expectation that some measure of
substantial relief will be adopted by the General Convention
at its ensuing meeting.
Many of the Dioceses have discussed the matter at their
respective Conventions, and expressed their sentiments in
due form for the guidance of their Delegates in the General
Convention. No action whatever was taken by our own;
and as it may thus be inferred that there exists amongst us
no wish for any changes, I trust a few remarks from on®
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who for many years took an active part in our Diocesan
affairs, will be received in candor and kindness. Your ac¬
knowledged equanimity will, I am satisfied, restrain, you
from regarding what is said with less consideration because
of the conflict of opinion that sometimes occurred between
us in reference to the policy of the Diocese. We differed,
and expressed our differences honestly and honorably, as
members of the same Christian deliberative assembly should
do ; nor will I do you the injustice of surmising that the
suggestions to be made will suffer in your estimation from
the fact that he who offers them has no longer either a seat
or a vote in the body which elected you, and to which you
are responsible for the course you may see fit to pursue.
Clergymen who are zealously engaged in furthering the
interests of our Church, encounter in its present system
serious inconveniences growing out of the length of the
Liturgical services, and their apparent strangeness to those
unaccustomed to them, together with their alleged monotony
and tendency to formalism.
That our Morning Service, when the Litany and Anti-
Communion Service are included, is too long for a promis¬
cuous assemblage, such as usually convenes in our sanc¬
tuaries, can scarcely be denied. Even the least formal and
most spiritually-minded, however interested in its Scriptural
tone and solemn eloquence, would wish it reduced, if not
for their own sakes, at least for the sake of others in whose
Welfare they feel concern. Indeed it is on all sides con¬
ceded that the Morning Service, as used in most of our
churches, consists of several distinct services, which have
been combined ; and nothing seems mote natural and proper
■than that ministers, if they see fit, should use either of them
at their discretion.
8
Persons unused to our Liturgy complain not only of its
strangeness but of its monotony and tendency to formalism.
Something should be done to render our mode of worship
less irksome, if we desire to obtain that fair proportion of
influence in our common country which each branch of the
Church of Christ must hope at some time or the other to enjoy.
Ministers are in the habit, when missionating, of varying
the service, and at times of using prayers of their own ;
but this course is condemned by some as altogether illegal,
and many of the fiercest controversies in the Church have
grown out of clergymen conceiving themselves at liberty to
hold prayer-meetings in their congregations, and to unite
with ministers of other denominations. There has never
been a question in my own mind as to the lawfulness of
these measures. I affirmed the right before Bishop Bowen,
in the presence of my examiners, prior to my admission to
Peacons' Orders, in 1833, and have never hesitated to affirm
and exercise it since ; but I doubt not that for doing so
many have misjudged me, not only in the diocese at large,
but in the congregation which I had myself formed, and in
which I ministered for nearly twenty years. Let the Gene¬
ral Convention, then, if it desires not only to extend the
Church without, but to quiet it within, declare in some form
or the other, that measures which Bishop Griswold, Bishop
Moore of Virginia, Bishop Meade, Bishop Mcllvaine, Bishop
Smith, Bishop Johns, Bishop Henshaw, Bishop Elliott,
Bishop Lee of Delaware, and a host of presbyters—many of
tfleip now in glory, and others still actively engaged in
their earthly ministry—have deemed it not only their privi¬
lege, but often their duty to resort to, are to be left to the
discretion of every individual minister in his pwn sphere.
The reasons which geem to ,<pall for $a,nQnica,l ppd rpbrica^
4
relaxation, are the relief of the clergy, the edification of the
pious, and the recommendation of our Church to those un¬
used to her services.
As a body, our clergy enjoy indifferent health. Whether
from their sedentary habits, or their narrow circumstances,
or their anxiety about spiritual matters, the larger part of
them are able to bring to the duties of the sanctuary less
buoyancy and alacrity of spirit, than the usually jubilant
tone of its liturgy calls for. The consequence is, that in
many cases the officiating minister is entirely fagged before
the service is over; and the congregation, instead of wor¬
shipping God, are sympathizing with their broken-down
pastor. Now, why my dear sir, should it not be conceded
for the relief not only of the clergyman, but of the people,
that he may leave out as much of the service as his physi¬
cal feebleness renders tedious, alike to himself and others ?
Many I know are accustomed to say, that if anything is to
be left out they would prefer losing the sermon ; but I think
a little reflection will satisfy them, that this is not right.
The word preached by the living speaker to listening men,
is the divinely prescribed means of doing good; and a Gos¬
pel sermon prayerfully and earnestly delivered, must, hu¬
manly speaking, be better suited to the spiritual condition
of all present, than even the Ten Commandments, and the
Epistle, and Gospel for the day. I am satisfied from all
that I have read upon this subject, that there is throughout
the Church, a settled persuasion that the morning service is
longer than the physical powers and animal spirits of most
of the clergy can render edifying, and that full and clear
license ought to be had for shortening it.
There are, as might naturally be expected, few classes of
men who suffer so much from over scrupulous consciences as
clergymen. In the Episcopal church, the system of canons
and rubrics often acts as an incubus upon such; and their
lives, instead of being spiritual and happy, become ecclesias¬
tical and wretched. They are apt to merge religion in the
usages of the church, and, before they are aware of it, have
turned into utter Ritualists. I doubt not that 'some of the
finest spirits in our church have been worn down into mere
drudges, by the perpetual worry and petty annoyances about
rubrics and cannons; and that many able and zealous men,
who called of God to preach the gospel, would gladly have
selected our ministry as their field of labor, have been de¬
terred,and disgusted by the intricate chain-work of restric¬
tions which bind up the clergy.
But not only relief for the clergy, but the edification of
the pious laity calls for some modification of the service. -
Weariness is hostile to devotion, monotony is dangerous
to spirituality, customariness is extremely delusive. No one
can notice the appearance of most Episcopal congregations of
a hot summer's morning without seeing that something is
wanting to make the worship what it should be. And of a
cold, rainy, winter's day, in a damp country church, with
not a dozen persons present, besides the minister, they must
have a glowing zeal who would insist upon the entire service
being read.
I am aware that when I name as a reason for some litur¬
gical changes, a wish to recommend our church to those
unaccustomed to her services, there are some in our commu¬
nion who disrelish such an argument. They conceive that
our church, being the only true one, is lowering its dignity
when it endeavors to attract. I am satisfied, however,- my
dear sir, that to one of your intelligence, it is clear that just
in proportion as a church is believed to be scriptural 'arid
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right, ought to he the efforts to render her acceptable. To
say that our ministry is the only lawfully authorized one in
the land, and then to render access to it so tedious and trou¬
blesome, and the exercise of it so hampered by endless mi¬
nute regulations, and the ministrations of it so trying to the
physical energies, is assuredly not the policy which a man
of sagacity and liberal sentiments would suggest.
There is a view7 of this subject which I cannot close with¬
out adverting to—the better adaptation of our service to the
religious state of our negroes. I know that in your own
parish the untiring and well directed labors of your excel¬
lent pastor, Mr. Giennie, have, with the steady co-operation
of his parishioners, and the blessing of God, wrought remark¬
able results ; and, it may be said, that if others will do like¬
wise similar results will follow, without any changes in our
church system. But others are not going to do like Mr.
Giennie. There are few who can. And a general system
ought not to be adapted to the capacities and circumstances
of the few, but of the many. It has cost Mr. Giennie the
best twenty years of his life to accustom the negroes of his
parish to the use of the church service. Where are the men
who have the time, or will take the pains, to attempt this at
so great a sacrifice ? Besides, is it an ascertained fact that
the repetition of the service is, of itself, conducive to spirit¬
uality ? I have known persons who have been able to re¬
peat every part of that service, from their earliest years, with
whom it was obviously little more than lip-service. The
generality of our ministers, when officiating among the ne¬
groes, omit much of the regular service, and many introduce
prayers of their own. Still there is no law of the church
which authorizes a different form of worship among negroes
from wbfrt is ysed among whiles; to prevent the eavijf
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■which many, who seem to take pleasure in opposing every¬
thing different from their own measures, vent against their
brethren, it would he well for our General Convention to set
the matter at rest.
I have thus, my dear sir, troubled you with my views on
this subject. Though my ministry is virtually done, and
whatever service I may be able to render God and my fellow
men must be in secular, and not ecclesiastical paths, yet I
earnestly desire that the church of my fathers, and of my
own choice, which had my prayers, and labors, and tears,
for the prime of my life, should rouse herself from her leth¬
argy, and shaking off the mildew which has insensibly gath¬
ered upon her, and snapping asunder the Lilliputian net¬
work in which her own sons have ignorantly enwrapped her,
and putting forth the intellectual and spiritual energy she is
actually possessed of, though afraid to exert it, may take her
stand among her Protestant sisters of this continent, ready
to become all things to all men that she may gain some.
The time has gone by, if it ever was, when cloistered eccle¬
siastics, unskilled in anything save black-letter, had only to
proclaim absolution through a divinely instituted ministry.
The Gospel, untrammelled by rules and rubrics, must be
carried to the masses, if the masses will not come into our
churches. And though there may be a few who, like Whit¬
field and Wesley, can demand the attention of a promiscu¬
ous crowd in the open air to religious truth, yet, if there be
any, let them not, like these much traduced but devoted men,
be forced from the church of their affections to find a field
for their exertions.
Trusting, my dear sir, that you will excuse the liberty I
have takeh in addressing you thus publicly, and praying that
Almighty God will make use of the important influence
■wliicli, from your long standing as a delegate, your charac¬
teristic courtesy, and your prompt and diligent attention to
business, you have justly earned in our General Convention,
to further the broader and more comprehensive adaptation
of our ecclesiastical system to the moral and social necessity
of the day.
I am, dear sir,
Very sincerely,
Your ob't serv't,
WM. H. BARNWELL.