
 
 
 
 < 
 
 '^ 

 
 
 

 
 Rihcal Uniformity and Elasticity, and 
 Clmrcli Desecration 
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE 
 
 CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY 
 OF MAIDSTONE, 
 
 at tfje ©minarp Visitation 
 
 IN APRIL AND MAY, MDCCCLXXIII. 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN HARRISON, M.A. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF MAIDSTONE 
 
 Hontron 
 RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 HIGH STREET I TRINITY STREET 
 
 ^iforti I ©amtrtltge 
 
 CANTERBURY ; A. GINDER, ST. GEORGE'S HALL ; HAL DRURV, MERCERY LANE ; 
 MAIDSTONE, \VICKHAM AND SON. 
 
 1873
 
 TO THE REVEREND THE 
 
 EUEAL DEANS AND CLEEGY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARCHDEACONRY OF MAIDSTONE; 
 
 AND TO 
 
 THEIR LAY BRETHREN, THE CHURCHWARDENS AND SIDESMEN, 
 
 ASSEMBLED WITH THEM IN VISITATION 
 
 WHO WERE PLEASED TO REQUEST THE PUBLICATION, 
 
 Ci;i£i CI;aigc 
 
 j[n«!crtbfTJ 
 
 WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECTFUL AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD. 
 
 PEECIKCTS, CANTERBURY, 
 
 JUNE vr., MDCccLxxiir.
 
 , UIUC .
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 We are again met together, through (xod's 
 good jDrovideuce, with our lay brethren who are 
 associated with you in Church offices, in this our 
 solemn yearly assembly. Last autumn we had the 
 satisfaction of seeing amongst us, for the first time, 
 in the exercise of the Visitatorial function, our 
 Most Reverend Diocesan, after an interval of twice 
 the usual period in this Diocese for the holding of 
 the Archbishop's Visitation. His revered Pre- 
 decessor, as his Grace reminded you in the opening 
 of his first Address delivered at Maidstone, was on 
 the point of holding his Second Visitation, and had, 
 as you well know, partly written his Charge, when 
 he was taken from us to his rest ; and the serious 
 illness of his Successor, before the first year of his 
 office was completed, deferred for another three 
 years the customary Visitation of the Diocese. 
 The inquiries which the Archbishop issued to his
 
 b A CHARGE. 
 
 Clergy, and the answers to which were given in at 
 the Visitation, were, as I need not say to you, very 
 full and precise, and the returns thus made are now 
 undergoing, in due order, his Grrace's careful exami- 
 nation ; his attention being directed, as many of 
 you doubtless are aware, not only to any deficiencies 
 to be supplied, or things faulty to be corrected, 
 but also to anything which appeared worthy of 
 special notice in the way of commendation.^ The 
 presentments made by the Churchwardens have 
 been followed up in like manner, on his Grace's 
 part, by due inquiry ; and have either been dealt 
 with directly by the Archbishop himself, or referred 
 by him, where it seemed convenient, to the subor- 
 dinate officer, or authority, to whom it appeared 
 specially to belong. I may add, with particular 
 reference to the fabrics and fittings of the churches, 
 which it is the Archdeacon's duty, in a special sense, 
 to look after, that the week's visit which the Arch- 
 bishop paid at Maidstone, staying at the Mote, 
 while he held an Ordination also in All Saints' 
 Church on the Sunday, having on the Friday con- 
 secrated the new Church of St. Faith, afforded his 
 Grace an opportunity, of which he fully availed 
 himself, of personally inspecting several of the 
 churches in the neighbouring villages, and in some 
 
 ^ As in one instance, which came incidentally to my knowledge, in 
 which, as the result of the returns given in, particular inquiry was made 
 in regard to the means by which a great increase had been obtained in 
 the number of communicants.
 
 A CHARGE. 7 
 
 of the outlying places within reach. I believe I 
 am warranted in saying — and I report it with much 
 satisfaction, — that the Archbishop, in the course of 
 these casual visits, found tokens, beyond what he 
 had expected, of cost and care bestowed in the re- 
 storation of the fabrics, and in the increased accom- 
 modation, or improved arrangements made in them 
 for Divine Service. "No one can go," said his 
 Grace — in his Address delivered at Maidstone on 
 the first day of his Visitation, " no one can go, — as 
 I have been going during the last few days, from 
 church to church in this neighbourhood, without 
 being struck with the great improvement which 
 has taken place in the condition of the Houses of 
 God." " There is much more of that seemly ap- 
 pearance which we desire to see in the House of 
 God — much more accommodation for the poor." 
 
 " This I consider," said the Archbishop, " to be 
 greatly owing to the Diocesan Society" — the 
 Diocesan Church Building and Endowment Society ; 
 which he therefore earnestly commended to the 
 Clergy and Laity assembled at the Visitation ; 
 anxious to carry on effectually, by its aid, the work 
 which his honoured Predecessor had so much at 
 heart, and which he had set on foot at the cost of 
 great personal exertion, and with success correspond- 
 ing with his efforts. Desiring as I do to further, 
 to the utmost of my power, the earnest recommen- 
 dation herein of our Diocesan, especially to those of 
 our lay brethren possessed of worldly means, who
 
 8 A CHARGE. 
 
 have come into the Diocese since the Society was 
 first estabHshed, and who occupy, in many in- 
 stances, important places within its borders, I 
 feel at the same time that I am only fulfilling a 
 duty, and paying a debt, in acknowledging that it 
 is a " gift " which has been, now through a period 
 of many years, " bestowed upon us by the means of 
 many persons," for which thanks are to be " given 
 by many on our behalf." ^ Looking back, not only 
 to the period when it first became my official duty 
 to give my care and attention to this object, but 
 further back than this, to the time — now well-nigh 
 thirty-five years ago — when, in attendance upon 
 Archbishop Howley in his circuits of confirmation, 
 and on other occasions, I first became acquainted 
 with the churches of the Diocese, I cannot but 
 recognize gratefully how much is owing to the 
 valuable services of a body of men whose office 
 the Archbishop had revived in the Diocese — I need 
 not say I mean the Rural Deans — greatly to the 
 assistance of the Diocesan and of the Archdeacon, 
 by their frequent visits of inspection and their 
 friendly counsel always at hand. I feel, also, how 
 greatly we are indebted to the zeal and charity of 
 the parochial Clergy, and I ought to add, also, in 
 many cases specially, of their wives and families ; 
 " for to their power, I bear them record, yea, and 
 beyond their power, they have been ready of 
 themselves"^ in this good work, involving much 
 
 ^ 2 Cur. i. 11. - 2 Cor. viii. 2.
 
 A CHARGE. if 
 
 self-denying sacrifice and active exertion, and 
 oftentimes patient waiting for the fulfilment of 
 a long-clierished desire and hope. And last, but 
 not least, I must express how much we owe to the 
 cordial co-operation of their lay brethren, the 
 Churchwardens, and with them, and often by their 
 means, to a great extent, of the body of Church- 
 men in their several parishes, and other friends. 
 
 The work is happily still going on. Since 
 I last addressed you, church restoration,' — ex- 
 ternal repair and internal improvement, — has been 
 in hand, and is now completed, in the churches 
 of Downe, Eastchurch, Milstead, Ofifliam, Orpington, 
 Ryarsh, and Sittiugbourne. Re-arraugement of 
 seats, with great improvement of the interior, has 
 been effected in the Church of Bromley ; and ex- 
 ternal repair has been taken in hand at Bethersden, 
 re-arrangement within having been made some 
 years ago. The completion of Trinity Church, 
 Sittiugbourne, in a very populous and growing 
 neighbourhood, is now going forward. Similar 
 works have been undertaken, or are contemplated, 
 at Eynesford, Capel, Tudeley, and Holhngbourne. 
 The church at Speldhurst has been replaced by a 
 new and beautiful fabric ; a like work is in pro- 
 gress at Bexley Heath ; a new church is now build- 
 ing at Murston, far more conveniently situated 
 than the old church for the parishioners, greatly 
 multiplied, as they have been of late years, by the 
 brick-fields ; and a church has been erected on
 
 10 A CHARGE. 
 
 Charing Heath, which will be a witness and me- 
 morial of individual zeal and liberality, as well as 
 a great benefit to an outlying and scattered popu- 
 lation. In the principal town of the Archdeaconry 
 an important work has been accomplished in the 
 revival of St. Faith's Church, with its parochial 
 machinery about it ; the new church having been 
 consecrated by the Archbishop at the time of his 
 Visitation, as I have said, in September last. And 
 I trust that the arrangements which are now in 
 hand, and which have for some time been a matter 
 of some anxiety and careful communication between 
 the several parties concerned, may successfully 
 overcome the difficulties by which it has been 
 beset, and result in the building of a new church, 
 and the more complete organization of the district, 
 in the West Borough of Maidstone ; carrying on 
 and completing, in a neighbourhood where build- 
 ing has of late been going on to a great extent, 
 the work which, more than thirty years ago, was 
 happily begun, by the recovery and enlargement, 
 after a long period of desecration, of the ancient 
 " Pilgrims' Chapel," the present Church of St. 
 Peter's. I must also mention, with satisfaction 
 and thankfulness, the completion and consecration 
 last summer of the new Church of St. Paul's, 
 Sheerness, and the encouraging progress of the 
 mission and pastoral work in that place. 
 
 In connection with these matters, I must advert 
 to the labours of a Committee of Convocation now
 
 A CHARGE. 11 
 
 sitting, appointed " to consider what deficiencies 
 exist in the amount of spiritual ministrations pro- 
 vided by the Church of England for the people of 
 England and Wales, and the means by which these 
 wants may best be supplied." The Committee, 
 feeling that they should in that way most effectually 
 and regularly obtain the information they desired, 
 requested the Archdeacons of the Province to 
 forward the inquiries which the Committee had 
 drawn up, to the Clergy, in particular, of populous 
 parishes in their several Archdeaconries. I felt 
 somewhat unwilling to inflict upon the Clergy of 
 my own Archdeaconry, who had so lately been 
 called upon for such full and accurate returns to be 
 made to their Diocesan on the occasion of his 
 primary Visitation, any additional labour of this 
 kind. The object in view, however, appeared very 
 important, and the action of the Committee of 
 Convocation highly desirable ; and I have to make 
 my acknowledgments to my brethren of the Clergy 
 for the readiness with which they met the apj^lica- 
 tion made to them, and the careful and painstaking 
 manner in which they supplied, very promptly, the 
 information desired. 
 
 At my last Visitation I intimated my intention 
 of entering, in the course of the summer, on a 
 parochial Visitation — the fourth which I shall 
 have made, when completed — of the churches 
 throughout the Archdeaconry. I visited, accord- 
 ingly, in that summer, the deaneries of Sutton and
 
 12 
 
 A CHARGE. 
 
 Sittingbourne, and boped last year to bave 
 round tbe otber deaneries before tbe Arcbbisbop's 
 Visitation. I was able to visit tbe Western Divi- 
 sion of tbe deanery of Cbaring, and some few of 
 tbe parisbes in tbe Eastern Division, and also in tbe 
 Nortbern and Soutbern Divisions of tbe deanery of 
 Mailing : but tbe illness at tbe time of two of my 
 bretbren, tbe Rural Deans, prevented my visiting 
 tbeir deaneries ; and tben tbe customary inbibition, 
 pending tbe Arcbbisbop's approacbing Visitation, 
 put an end to my furtber progress. I bope, bow- 
 ever, in tbe course of tbe present summer, to com- 
 plete tbe parocbial Visitation of tbese deaneries, 
 and to visit tbe deaneries also of Croydon, Dartford, 
 and Sborebam. Tbe anticipations wbicb I bad 
 expressed to you, at my last Visitation two years 
 ago, in regard to tbe progress wbicb bad been made 
 since last I went my rounds, were, I am bappy to 
 say, fully borne out : tbere was little to note in tbe 
 way of defects to be supplied, or tbings amiss to be 
 corrected, compared witb tbe imj)rovements to be 
 recorded witb satisfaction and tbankfuluess, works 
 of zeal and love, " for tbe bouse of our God, and for 
 tlie offices tbereof,"^ to be bigbly commended and 
 approved. Wbile speaking of tbe several Ruri- 
 decanal Divisions, I may mention tbat tbe Arcb- 
 bisbop lias seen fit to subdivide furtber wbat was 
 lately called tbe deanery of Dartford, divided as it 
 iiad been some years ago into tbe Eastern and 
 
 * Neh. xiii. 14.
 
 A CHARGE. 13 
 
 Western Divisions. The further subdivision now 
 made will revive very advantageously, and to the 
 restoration of an old title, the deanery of Croydon, 
 which will comjDrise the whole of that original 
 parish, with Addington, and the adjoining parish 
 of West Wickham. The extensive deanery of 
 Bridge, in the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, having 
 been in like manner divided into East and West, 
 the entire Diocese will now contain twenty Rural- 
 deaneries, ten in each Archdeaconry. 
 
 In speaking, when I last addressed you, of the 
 distinctive character of these Visitation Courts and 
 Synods, of their original constitution, and the pur- 
 poses they had been designed, or in the course of 
 time made, to serve, looking back through their 
 past history, and having regard to their present 
 use, I took occasion to notice the opportunity 
 which they had afforded of making known, offi- 
 cially, and in due Ecclesiastical order, to the Clergy, 
 and to the Laity with them, in their several local 
 divisions, the legislative measures, — the Canons 
 and Orders or Statutes — which had been passed in 
 provincial Synods and Convocations, or enacted by 
 the national Legislature, in the combined action 
 of the Church and the State. It may be regarded 
 as in conformity with this general principle, or 
 practice, that our most Reverend Diocesan pointed 
 out, explicitly, in one of his Visitation Ad- 
 dresses, the provisions which, having been first
 
 14 A CHARGE. 
 
 approved by Convocation, had been " embodied in 
 a Bill and laid before Parliament, and in the 
 course of the last session passed into a law ; giving 
 to the Clergy increased liberty in their ministra- 
 tions, as regulated by the law of Church and State, 
 to meet the religious wants of the people, amidst 
 the new circumstances and multiplied exigencies of 
 the present time." And not only so, but his Grace 
 took care further to append to his published 
 Charge a detailed statement of the provisions con- 
 tained in the " Act of Uniformity Amendment 
 Act," as it is termed, of the last session.^ The 
 Archbishop was desirous not only of showing to 
 how great an extent the Church practically pos- 
 sessed the power, notwithstanding her relations 
 with the State, of adapting her Services to the 
 wants of her children, but also of impressing upon 
 his Clergy " the duty of carefully considering," as 
 he said, " in their several spheres, how far it was 
 desirable that they should avail themselves of the 
 liberty thus given ; in particular, how, inasmuch 
 as the law which had recently passed had enabled 
 the Clergy to accommodate the daily Services to 
 the wants of the people," " every clergyman," he 
 thought, would " be naturally expected to consider 
 carefully, in his parish, how far this new system 
 opens to him opportunities of Common Prayer 
 which were denied to him before." 
 
 It seems to me important, my Reverend Bre- 
 
 1 Act 35 & 36 Vict. chap. 35.
 
 A CHARGE. 15 
 
 thren, to recall to your recollection these state- 
 ments and exhortations of the Archbishop, as well 
 that they may not fail of their practical effect, as 
 also with a view to guard the legislative provisions 
 in question from misapprehensions to which, I 
 think, they have been in some quarters exposed. 
 As regards " the Shortened Order for Morning 
 Prayer or for Evening Prayer, specified in the 
 schedule to the Act," — I use the words of the 
 Archbishop's summary — " which Order may, on 
 any day except Sunday, Christmas Day, Ash 
 Wednesday, Good Friday, and Ascension Day, be 
 used, if in a cathedral, in addition to, and if in a 
 church, in lieu of, the Order for Morning or for 
 Evening Prayer, respectively prescribed by the 
 Book of Common Prayer," it is right that we 
 should bear distinctly in mind the precise object 
 for which this provision has been made. It has 
 been because, in his Orace's words, " no one can 
 doubt that there are in all town parishes, and often 
 in country parishes, persons to whom it is a great 
 blessing to have daily access to their parish church, 
 in order that they may invoke Grod's blessing 
 on the labours of the day;" while, on the other 
 hand, " experience has shown how difficult it is to 
 gather together any large congregation of hearty 
 worshippers in the midst of the busy occupations 
 of men's lives in this age." And, undoubtedly, it 
 is most gratifying and encouraging to find how 
 many, especially in the season of Lent lately past,
 
 16 A CHARGE. 
 
 amidst the full tide of business in the metropolis, 
 have been found to avail themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity of attending a short Service, of a quarter of 
 an hour or so, in the middle of the day. Only it 
 must be borne in mind at the same time that, 
 while the wants of persons so circumstanced are to 
 be carefully considered, and to the utmost provided 
 for, it ought to be done as little as possible to the 
 detriment of others, who may have greater leisure 
 for purposes of daily devotion, and highly value 
 the half hour, — nay, we may say, in the language 
 of a well-known hymn — 
 
 " the winged hour 
 Spent in thy hallow'd courts, Lord ;"' 
 
 and who, especially in loneliness of life, in enfeebled 
 health, or advancing age would thankfully linger 
 somewhat longer, like Hannah of old, in the 
 tabernacle at Shiloh," in the rendering of thanks 
 
 * I need not, perhaps, more distinctly identify the hymn, familiar to 
 the recollection of many, written by the late Rev. John William 
 Cunningham, for more than fifty years vicar of Harrow-on-the-Hill ; one 
 of the parishes which were from old time peculiars of the See of Canter- 
 bury, and, as such, often visited, for confirmations or on like occasions, 
 in former years, by Archbishop Howley. 
 
 " Dear is the hallow'd morn to me. 
 When village bells awake the day ; 
 And, by their sacred minstrelsy, 
 Call me from earthly cares away. 
 " And dear to me the winged hour 
 
 Spent in thy hallow'd courts, Lord ! 
 To feel devotion's soothing power, 
 And catch the manna of thy word." 
 
 2 1 Sam. i. 12, "as she continued praying before the Lord," 
 " Heb. multiplied to pray.'" Margin, A.V.
 
 A CHARGE. 17 
 
 for past mercies, or for the alleviation of heavy 
 sorrows ; in joining in His most worthy praise, in 
 hearing His most holy Word, or asking those 
 things which are requisite and necessary as well 
 for the body as the soul,^ at the hands of Him, the 
 Holy One, who " inhabiteth the praises of Israel," ^ 
 and hath left to his Church that most gracious 
 promise, for the support and comfort of her chil- 
 dren, through all the days of their pilgrimage, 
 " Where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name, there am I in the midst of them."^ There 
 are, doubtless, those who seem to think brevity 
 the very essence of devotion, as it is confessedly 
 " the soul of wit," and also, — in the opinion, 
 apparently, of many persons, — the only, or, at 
 any rate, the highest excellence of a sermon. 
 There may be those to whom any prayers beyond 
 the very shortest are a weariness, or an effort to 
 which they are unequal, and which defeats its own 
 object. There may be — I do not presume to ques- 
 tion it — those whose concentration of spirit may be 
 such as to enable them, within the smallest compass 
 
 ^ " And Hannah answered and said, ... I am a woman of a sorrowful 
 spirit ; " and " I . . . have poured out my soul before the Lord " (comp. 
 Ps. Ixii. 8 ; cxlii. 1, 2) ; " for out of the abundance of my complaint {or, 
 ' meditation ') and grief have I spoken hitherto." 1 Sam. i. 15,16. Comp. 
 vv. 26, 27. " And she said, my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I 
 am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lobd. For 
 this child I prayed ; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I 
 asked of him." 
 
 ^ Ps. xxii. 3, " But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises 
 of Israel." (Bible Version.) 
 
 3 S. Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 C
 
 18 A CHARGE. 
 
 of words, to realize varied wants, and the manifold 
 objects of comprehensive petitions ; there may be 
 those who can bring, with sufficient vividness, be- 
 fore their mind's-eye the claims of their Queen and 
 country upon their devout and earnest thoughts, if 
 they hear only the brief versicle said, " Lord, 
 save the Queen," with no repetition or reverting 
 to the theme ; or whose pra^^ers for Christ's or- 
 dained servants, and for the whole body of His 
 Church, may, with the effectual fervency which 
 Christ's Apostle commends,^ be summed up in that 
 other versicle, and the response to it, " Endue thy 
 ministers with righteousness. And make thy chosen 
 people joyful." But how many more they are — 
 we must, I think, admit — among the congregations 
 of worshippers in our churches, whose sense of 
 what is needed, and to be obtained by supplication 
 from on high, is deepened when we pray for all 
 the blessings on our Queen which our full daily 
 Office enumerates ; when again for " all the Eoyal 
 Family " we petition, " Endue them with thy holy 
 Spirit, enrich them with thy heavenly grace ; " or 
 when, yet again, " for the Clergy and people " we 
 put up such entreaties as these to Him '* who 
 alone worketh great marvels "■ — supplications and 
 prayers which we, my Reverend Brethren, and 
 our faithful lay brethren alike, must feel we greatly 
 need, in the discharge of our difficult and weighty 
 office towards the flock of Christ, and to Him 
 
 ^ James v. 16.
 
 A CHARGE. 19 
 
 whom in their persons we serve — " Send down 
 upon our Bishops, and Curates, and all Congrega- 
 tions committed to their charge, the healthful 
 Spirit of thy grace ; and, that they may truly 
 please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of 
 thy blessing. G-rant this, Lord, for the honour 
 of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ." It 
 is important, I think, that it should be borne in 
 mind, that the Shortened Form for daily Service 
 was designed to meet a special want, not to super- 
 sede, or set aside, the Church's duly established 
 Order of Morning and Evening Prayer ; and it may 
 not improperly be suggested, as a matter for con- 
 sideration, whether, in towns where there are more 
 churches than one, and clergy and congregations 
 disposed to avail themselves of increased facilities 
 for assembling themselves thus together, arrange- 
 ments might not be made by which, at one church, 
 there might be an early Service in the shortened 
 form, and in another, at a later hour, the ordinary 
 full Service. Above all, while we are anxious to 
 see the larger congregations in our churches, let us 
 not forget the privilege pledged to the " two or 
 three " by the sure promise of their Lord. 
 
 It has been further provided by the recent Act, 
 with a view to meet the case of town parishes, or 
 where there is a large population, " that an addi- 
 tional form of Service " may be used, varying 
 from any form prescribed by the Book of Common 
 Prayer ; so that there be not introduced into such 
 
 c 2
 
 20 A CHARGE. 
 
 additional Service any portion of the Order for tlie 
 Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Com- 
 munion, or anything, except anthems or hymns, 
 which does not form part of the Holy Scriptures 
 or Book of Common Prayer; and so that such 
 form of Service, and the mode in which it is used, 
 is for the time being " approved by the Ordinary." 
 It is obvious here that an opening is made for a 
 great variety of ritual, with a very large exercise 
 of private opinion and personal taste, limited only 
 by the required consent of the Ordinary ; and 
 since this additional Service would very generally, 
 I imagine, be the Service used by the evening con- 
 gregation, — a Service commonly attended by large 
 numbers, — there is occasion I think, for caution, 
 in regard to the limits within which, and the con- 
 ditions under which, the Clergy should avail them- 
 selves of this provision. The original appointment 
 of the Ritual Commission, it may be well to 
 bear in mind, arose out of varying interpretations 
 put upon rules and orders which, meanwhile, had 
 afforded much less scope for variety of practice : 
 and the dissatisfaction thence arising in many 
 quarters was thought urgently to demand inquiry, 
 with a view " to secure general uniformity of 
 practice in such matters as might be deemed 
 essential." The result appears, somewhat singu- 
 larly, to have been in the opposite direction, viz. 
 that of a great increase- of freedom, and variety. 
 Used discreetly and with moderation, such in-
 
 A CHARGE. 21 
 
 creased liberty may, doubtless, be productive of 
 great benefit ; but there is certainly need for care 
 and caution. There is in the present day, unques- 
 tionably, a great taste for novelty and variety ; but 
 at the same time there is behind it, in the general 
 feeling of our people, and especially in those whose 
 feeling is entitled to the utmost consideration and 
 the most gentle treatment, a certain love of uni- 
 formity in sacred things, a desire to know what 
 they may expect to find when they go to church. 
 The principle of uniformity, moreover, is essentially 
 that of Catholicity. The strength of the Church, and 
 the joy of her members, in the early days of her un- 
 divided heritage, was that, wherever they went in 
 different lands, on whatever shores they were cast, 
 there were certain established forms of worship 
 everywhere to be found — " one Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism " ^ — liturgical forms, as our learned writers 
 on the Church's ritual, such as Bishop Eeveridge, 
 Bishop Bull, and others have clearly shown, which 
 bore witness to a common origin in the earliest 
 days of the Apostolic Church.^ And it was in 
 their desire to restore this unity in our own branch 
 of the Church Catholic that our truly Catholic- 
 minded Reformers, Cranmer and Ridley, going 
 back to the consent of earlier ages, when they 
 were compiling what they designed to make dis- 
 
 ' Eph. iv. 5. 
 
 ^ See Bp. Bull's Sermon, " Common Prayers ancient, useful, and 
 necessary" (Sermon xiii.), Works, ed. Burton, vol. i., pp. 330-334.
 
 22 A CHARGE. 
 
 tinctively " The Book of Common Prayer " for the 
 Church of England, provided, as we read in the Pre- 
 face, that, "whereas heretofore there" had "been 
 great diversity in saying and singing within this 
 Realm ; some following Salisbury use, some Hereford 
 use, and some the use of Bangor, some of York, 
 some of Lincoln, now from henceforth all the whole 
 Realm " should " have but one use." The unity which 
 they desired — and which, I think, we must feel 
 altogether they rightly desired — to secure would 
 easily be endangered by too free an exercise, even 
 by the general action of this or that Diocese, of the 
 liberty in question ; and as regards the individual 
 discretion of the clergyman in the formation of 
 new Services, we are significantly reminded, from 
 time to time, of the jealousy which would call for 
 stringent provisions, local or other^ to restrict 
 possible vagaries of individual taste.^ We do well 
 in endeavouring, within due limits, to make our 
 Services what is called " attractive " : but taste and 
 fashion are strangely variable and uncertain things, 
 and liable to constant reaction in one direction or 
 another. And if we need to keep in mind, in 
 matters of public worship, the terms of our Blessed 
 Master's promise to the " two or three," we shall 
 also feel bound to remember the gracious favour 
 which He has declared towards united supplications : 
 " 1 say unto you," saith He, " if two or three shall 
 iUfree touching anything they sliall ask on earth, it 
 
 ^ See Note A.
 
 A CHARGE. 23 
 
 shall be done for them of my Father which is in 
 heaven." We might easily, without due care, before 
 we were altogether conscious of the change, lose 
 the unity of the collective Church, in its Provincial 
 and National constitution and action, and find 
 ourselves unawares in something very like a 
 " Congregational system." 
 
 There is jet another provision of the late Act 
 which is open to some degree of ambiguity in its 
 wording and aj^plication. " Upon any special oc- 
 casion to be approved by the Ordinary, there may 
 be used in any cathedral or church a special form 
 of Service approved by the Ordinary, so that there 
 be not introduced into such Service anything, ex- 
 cept anthems or hymns, which does not form part 
 of the Holy Scriptures or Book of Common Prayer." 
 We have given us, in the Archbishop's Charge, 
 his G-race's interpretation of this provision. " We 
 have felt/' said the Archbishop, " that special oc- 
 casions arise in every parish, when it is desirable 
 that there should be special prayers differing from 
 the ordinary Service in use at the ordinary time. 
 Such liberty of introducing special Services for 
 harvest festivals, or on an occasion of any great 
 sudden judgment which happens to visit a neighbour- 
 hood, or for any other remarkable occasion, is now 
 sanctioned by the authorities of the Church and 
 State." This is, certainly, what would suggest 
 itself, to anyone, as the obvious meaning of the pro- 
 vision in question ; and so the Archbishop under-
 
 24 A CHARGE, 
 
 stands it. But there appears to be a disposition in 
 some quarters, on the strength of this enactment, 
 to provide new " special " Services for solemn days 
 or seasons in our sacred year, for which the Church 
 would seem to have already made what she re- 
 garded as suitable provision in her regularly 
 appointed order/ 
 
 In immediate connection with this point, I would 
 notice a provision in the Act of the preceding 
 year, the " Prayer Book (Tables of Lessons) Act," 
 which appears to be open, in a still greater degree, 
 to doubt, and liability to confusion. It is provided 
 " that upon occasions to he appointed hy the Ordi- 
 nary , other Psalms may, with his consent, be sub- 
 stituted for those appointed in the Psalter." This 
 provision formed no part of the Report of the 
 Ritual Commission which came before Convocation ; 
 nor was it approved by Convocation in any such 
 extensive form. The words found in the Act, 
 " upon occasions to be appointed by the Ordinary," 
 originated, there is no doubt, in a clerical error, or 
 misprint, of the word "appointed" for "approved": 
 as is evident, indeed, from the context, which runs 
 thus — " upon occasions to be approved by the Ordi- 
 nary, other Psalms may, with his consent^ be substi- 
 tuted for those appointed in the Psalter." The 
 provision was, in fact, in its original intention, 
 when proposed in the Ritual Commission, strictly 
 parallel with that other contained in the Act, 
 
 1 See Note B.
 
 A CHARGE. 25 
 
 " that upon occasions to be approved by the Ordi- 
 nary, other Lessons may, with his consent, be 
 substituted for those which are appointed in the 
 Calendar." The minister, to whose discretion it 
 was left, would apply for the approval and consent 
 of the Ordinary. On the strength, however, of 
 this provision, in one large and important Diocese, 
 followed herein, I believe, by another neighbouring 
 Diocese, a Table of special Psalms has been ap- 
 pointed by the Ordinary, — exercising the authority 
 regarded as thus given to him (though indeed, the 
 word " approved " appears in the ordinance of the 
 Diocesan), — not simply for the few marked days 
 specified in the Lower House of Convocation when 
 the subject was dealt with there, viz. Advent Sun- 
 day, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Annun- 
 ciation, Easter Eve, and Trinity Sunday, but also 
 for the Thursday before Easter, Michaelmas Day, 
 all days of Apostles, and other Festivals.^ In the 
 last case in particular, it is provided, in the Diocesan 
 ordinance in question, that " when the Psalms in 
 the Daily Order are less appropriate, any of " some 
 thirteen which are specified, " may be used, at the 
 discretion of the Minister." It is an extensive 
 superseding of the appointed order of the Prayer 
 Book, for which a precedent would thus be set ; and 
 it becomes the more serious, when it is remembered 
 that there is a previous provision of the Prayer 
 Book, that, " whensoever Proper Psalms or Lessons 
 
 ' See ]Sote C.
 
 26 A CHARGE. 
 
 are appointed, then the Psalms and Lessons of 
 ordinary course appointed in the Psalter and 
 Calendar (if they be different) shall be omitted 
 for that time." The Church, in the Preface to her 
 Book of Common Prayer, has so clearly defined, 
 — and so greatly to the advantage of us all, — 
 the relations of Minister, Bishop, and people, 
 guarding the rights of each, that I cannot but 
 commend it to your practical consideration, my 
 Reverend Brethren, whether it be not our wisdom 
 to be somewhat sparing in our recourse to enact- 
 ments which appear open to grave question and 
 doubt as to their correct application ; and which 
 may imperil, unless due care be exercised, the 
 rights and privileges which they seem to extend, 
 but which they may in practice seriously compro- 
 mise ; endangering meanwhile the harmony which 
 the Church would desire to secure. 
 
 One other point I should wish to notice in the 
 provisions of the recent Act. " It was felt," to 
 avail myself again of the Archbishop's words, 
 " that there might be in many of our parishes, 
 especially in towns, difficulties from the length of 
 the Services, . . . and hence it was distinctly sanc- 
 tioned by the legislation of last session, that, in 
 cases, where it was found desirable, Services might 
 be divided. Many held," said his Grrace, " that 
 this could lawfully be done before ; but doubts 
 existed; and it was thought best to have a distinct 
 assertion of the legislative authority both of the
 
 A CHARGE. 27 
 
 Church and State, that there was nothing irre- 
 gular, or belonging to any particular sect or party, 
 in this dividing of the Services." When this 
 matter was before Convocation, I confess to having 
 felt some anxiety, lest what might look like a direct 
 Parliamentary interpretation, of rubrics supposed 
 to be doubtful, should interfere with the duty 
 and riglit of interpretation in such cases recog- 
 nized, in the Preface to the Prayer Book, as vested 
 in the Bishops of the Church. I thought it right, 
 therefore, to bring this point, by a distinct repre- 
 sentation, since attention had not been called to it, 
 under the consideration of his Grace the President 
 and their Lordships of the U|)per House. His Grace 
 was pleased to express his opinion of its import- 
 ance ; and I was glad to find that the clause in 
 the Act, which dealt with this matter, was worded 
 thus — that " whereas doubts have arisen as to 
 whether the following forms of Service, that is to 
 say, the Order for Morning Prayer, the Litany, 
 and the Order for the Administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, or Holy Communion, may be used as sepa- 
 rate Services, and it is expedient to remove such 
 doubts ; be it therefore enacted and declared, that 
 any such forms of Service may be used together, or 
 in varying order as separate Services .... without 
 prejudice, nevertheless, to any legal powers vested in 
 the Ordinary r The interpretation itself thus sanc- 
 tioned in regard to division of the Services was, in 
 fact, that which, I believe, had been generally re-
 
 28 A CHAKGE. 
 
 cognized and acted upon by the Bishops ; although 
 if there was any opening for a legal doubt in the 
 interpretation of the Act of Uniformity, it was 
 proper that in the "Act of Uniformity Amendment 
 Act " such opening for doubt should be closed. 
 
 In reference to the separate use of the Services 
 in question, I think it well to point out that, while 
 it is thus made clear that these Services may be 
 used separately, there is no authority given to use 
 them otherwise than in their integrity. I speak 
 with reference particularly to " the Order for the 
 Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy 
 Communion." It is a Service bearing the marks 
 upon it of so much careful consideration of the 
 several component parts of what the Office itself 
 describes as " those holy mysteries," compiled as it 
 was in the midst of serious divisions in Christendom, 
 and " deep thoughts of heart," that we should run 
 great risk, assuredly, in taking part of it, as an 
 appendage to other Services, and omitting the rest. 
 The earlier part of the Service, in particular, oc- 
 cupies a very imjDortant place in connection with 
 what follows. The Collect for Purity, the rehears- 
 ing of the Ten Commandments, with the responsive 
 petitions for pardon and grace, the solemn repeti- 
 tion of the Creed, these form the fitting approach 
 to sacred rites requiring special self-examina- 
 tion, deep repentance, and a true faith, in them 
 that approach ; and the Exhortation which precedes 
 the Confession, and which there seems a prevailing
 
 A CHARGE. 29 
 
 disposition to omit, has, perhaps, a special fitness, 
 and not the reverse, in connection with more fre- 
 quent Communion ; reminding us, as it does, " how 
 St. Paul exhorteth all persons diligently to try and 
 examine themselves," before they approach that 
 holy Table ; and, moreover, containing the fullest 
 enumeration given in the Service of the privileges 
 and blessings of that high Communion,^ as well as 
 of the danger, of which the Apostle had warned his 
 converts, of "not discerning the Lord's body."^ 
 Bishop Eidley, in his last Farewell, " written a little 
 before he suffered," spoke feelingly, in allusion to 
 the then suppressed Book of Common Prayer, of 
 what " this Church of England had of late, of the 
 infinite goodness and abundant grace of Almighty 
 God; great substance, great riches of heavenly 
 treasure, great plenty of God's true and sincere 
 word, the true and wholesome administration of 
 Christ's Sacraments, the whole profession of Christ's 
 religion truly and plainly set forth in Baptism." 
 " This Church had also," he said, " a true and sin- 
 cere form and manner of the Lord's Supper." ^ And 
 it may be of no small importance, that that whole 
 " form and manner" of Celebration and Communion 
 should be carefully observed and maintained in its 
 
 ^ " For as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and lively 
 faith we receive that holy Sacrament ; (for then we spiritually eat the 
 flesh of Christ, and drink his blood ; then we dwell in Christ, and 
 Christ in lis ; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us ; ") — 
 
 2 Compare 1 Cor. xi. 27-30. 
 
 ^ Life of Bp. Ridley, by Dr. Gloucester Ridley.
 
 30 A CHARGE. 
 
 full integrity, "according to the proportion of faith." 
 The Order of the Prayer Book, duly followed as it 
 stands, is a witness and preservative, on the one 
 hand, against Roman corruption of primitive 
 doctrine and ritual, and on the other hand against 
 the low Zuinglian, or Socinian, view which would 
 willingly recognize a feast of love, a Christian 
 agape, a token of brotherly unity, while it would 
 gladly omit the confession of faith and hope in 
 Him, our Saviour, Christ, both God and Man, " the 
 Only Begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father 
 before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Yery 
 God of Yery God, Begotten not made, of One sub- 
 stance with the Father," "in whom" alone " we have 
 redemption through His blood, even the Remission 
 of sins,"^ and "look for the Resurrection of the 
 dead, and the life of the world to come." 
 
 You will not be of opinion, T think, my Reverend 
 Brethren, that I have occupied your time unduly 
 by entering thus fully into the legislative provisions 
 which have been made since we last met in Yisita- 
 tion, and to which his Grace the Archbishop 
 directed your particular attention last year.^ It 
 will seem to you, I am persuaded, of some import- 
 ance that it should be perfectly understood what, 
 precisely, those provisions are, and that they should 
 be guarded from any misapprehension abroad in 
 regard to them. The Archbishop characterized 
 
 1 Eph. i. 7 ; Col. i. 14. ^ See Note D.
 
 A CHARGE. 31 
 
 the changes which had thus been made,, as " the 
 greatest which have been introduced in such a 
 matter since the time of Charles II. " ; and observed 
 that, " of course, if we have made some which prove 
 to be beneficial, we shall naturally consider whether 
 there are any still before us." " I believe we shall 
 find," said his Grrace, " that the mode in which 
 alone such changes can legitimately be introduced 
 is a safeguard against any rash innovation." That 
 only mode, I need hardly say, to which the Arch- 
 bishop referred, as that by which such changes could 
 be introduced, is by the regular and constitutional 
 action of Convocation preparatory to any measures 
 in Parliament. We shall hear no more, I trust, in 
 popular talk, of " a short Bill " to be brought in at 
 once, without the consent of Convocation, to settle 
 this matter or that. 
 
 Of other matters which were dealt with by the 
 Ritual Commission, and which have since been 
 brought under the consideration of Convocation, 
 I have the less occasion to speak, because they 
 are, some of them, still in process of examina- 
 tion and discussion. On one of these subjects — a 
 matter of great importance, and one which has 
 deeply stirred the mind of the Church, as touching 
 one of her ancient Creeds — the Lower House of 
 Convocation, to which the subject was specially 
 referred by the Upper House, has, after full, 
 and patient, and careful consideration, pronounced 
 very decisively its judgment. A very large Com-
 
 32 ' A CHARGE. 
 
 mittee of both Houses, including the whole of the 
 Upper House, and, according to custom and privi- 
 lege, twice that number of the Lower, has also 
 presented its Report, which has since been con- 
 sidered by the Lower House, and now remains to 
 be dealt with by the Upper House, if to their 
 Lordships it shall so seem fit. ^ 
 
 Upon matters which have come before Parlia- 
 ment, or which are at the present time awaiting 
 its decision, I will not detain you now ; because, 
 inasmuch as they are of a mixed nature, of a tem- 
 poral as well as partly of a sjoiritual character, we 
 may, I hope, have an opportunity for some confer- 
 ence, in regard to them, of the Clergy and Laity 
 present to-day, after the business of the Visitation 
 Court is gone through. 
 
 In regard only to the Burials Bill which is now 
 before the House of Commons, having passed the 
 Second Reading, and now awaiting the going into 
 Committee — which will be opposed — I would just 
 observe, that it jDresents the most extraordinary 
 instance that ever was witnessed, I suppose, in a 
 like matter, of a sudden and complete " change of 
 front," if I may so describe it, of the forces con- 
 federated against us. In the days of Church-rate 
 controversy, we were wont to remind the opponents 
 of Church-rates that if, as they pleaded, they did 
 not use our Churches, and had their own places of 
 worship to support, they had at least an interest in 
 
 1 See Note E.
 
 A CHARGE. S3 
 
 our Cliiircliyards ; to say nothing of the use they 
 often made of the Church itself for marriage rites ; 
 and that if they desired, as so many of them did, 
 to be laid beside their fathers in the old Church- 
 yard^ they might well be willing to contribute 
 something to the repair of the Churchyard wall, 
 or of the bell which was to toll at their burial. 
 But no, they would none of it : and men, wearied 
 out at last^ granted them their petition; and the 
 care and cost of the Churchyard was^ by the 
 abolition of all compulsory enforcement, thrown 
 upon Churchmen, as what, it was said, belonged 
 properly to them, and to them alone, to pay. And 
 now, all this notwithstanding, the Churchyard is 
 claimed as " national property" for all sects and de- 
 nominations, for people of all religions or none, to 
 use as of equal right and proprietorship imdoubted. 
 If it were only a little pardonable inconsistency, 
 or shortness of memory, in simple-minded men with 
 which we had to deal, or if it were only a slight 
 personal favour or indulgence that were concerned, 
 we might well, my Reverend Brethren, be willing 
 on our own part, and our lay brethren with us, to 
 be somewhat forgetful. But they with whom we 
 are concerned do not allow us for a moment to be 
 unmindful, that it is a great principle for which 
 they are contending: and, by consequence, so are 
 we. We were told by them long ago — some twenty 
 years since — that, in the parishes in Essex mainly 
 concerned, " the interest of the Church-rate struggle 
 
 D
 
 34 A CHARGE. 
 
 was gone comparatively into insignificance per se, 
 and was considered as a matter of great interest 
 only as bearing upon tlie really important question, 
 in their estimation, of the separation of Church and 
 State." And they believed that they had " in these 
 Church-rate battles the very best vantage ground 
 for advancing that question, which of all others, 
 was, in their estimation, the question of the ageT ^ 
 
 It is the same question now, under a new phase, 
 and with new tactics of warfare. It is no question, 
 — let it be well borne in mind — no question, as it 
 was in a former age, as to what form of religion 
 or Church polity — as, for instance, Episcopacy or 
 Presbyterianism — was most in accordance with 
 Scripture, and best entitled to national preference ; 
 no question of personal freedom to worship God 
 according to the dictates of individual conscience, 
 no man forbidding or hindering ; it is no question 
 of State patronage or State endowment, to be 
 bestowed equally, or proportion ably, upon all : 
 there is now an open repudiation of anything 
 like what is designated as " concurrent endow- 
 ment " ; it is simple " secularization" " that is in 
 view.^ The principle runs throughout, in Edu- 
 cation and Religion alike. In regard to Education, 
 in former years we were told that, " according to 
 the conscientious convictions of the religious bodies 
 
 ^ See Evidence given before a Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons on Church-rates, 1853 ; largely quoted in a Charge delivered 
 in 1854. 2 <^e(, ^ote F.
 
 A CHARGE. 35 
 
 of this country, the school " was a " part of the 
 machinery of a Christian congregation," and that 
 "education was primarily a religious institution."' 
 But now it is to be transferred bodily to the State ; 
 and the State, it is laid down, can have no religion ; 
 and Education is therefore to be secularized. And 
 as it fares with the village school, on such prin- 
 ciples as these, so it fares also with the Church 
 and the Churchyard. The land which, in Anglo- 
 Saxon times, the lords of the soil gave for God's 
 house and " God's acre," — as the plot of ground 
 which was given for the resting place of His 
 saints and servants was religiously named, — is, by 
 a strange anachronism and historic falsehood, pro- 
 nounced to be " national property," knowing no- 
 thing of a Redeemer that liveth, and shall stand at 
 our latter day upon the earth, or of a Resurrection 
 of the dead through Him. Meanwhile, all that 
 gives its value to the village churchyard, and that 
 might well make men wish to be laid there — its 
 sacredness, — would, in the very nature of things, be 
 gone ; " the sacred calm that breathes around," in 
 the expressive words of the well-known " Elegy," 
 as it came originally from the poet's pen — 
 
 " In still small accents whispering from the ground, 
 A grateful earnest of eternal peace " — 
 
 all this would be gone for ever. 
 
 I believe, my Reverend Brethren, whether as 
 
 ^ See the semi-official volume, put forth in 1847, 'The Church, 
 the School, and the Congregation.' 
 
 D 2
 
 36 A CHARGE. 
 
 regards Education or Worship, our Chnrclies or 
 our Schools, if we be but true to ourselves, to the 
 principles of our Church, as embodied in our 
 Prayer Book, and to our infallible Guide, the Word 
 of Grod, taking it as "a lantern to our feet, and a 
 light to our path," amidst whatever difficulties and 
 perplexities of the varying hour that path may lie ; 
 watching the signs of the times, and the varied 
 perils which surround us, we have nothing to fear 
 from the designs of our enemies. The feeling 
 which has shown itself far and wide among our 
 people, in resolute attachment to the principle of 
 religious education, and earnest deprecation of any 
 interference with it, is one more proof, in confirma- 
 tion of others which have been vouchsafed to us of 
 late, that there are, beneath the surface of that por- 
 tion of the vineyard which hath been given to us 
 to cultivate, springs of thought and feeling which 
 need but the occasion to call them forth to show 
 their influence and power. There are signs every- 
 where around us, in regard to the so-called " dis- 
 establishment and disendowment " of the Church, 
 or in other words — for it is nothing less than this — 
 the dethroning Christ our Lord from His Sove- 
 reignty as " the Prince of the kings of the earth," 
 and robbing Him of the gifts which His servants 
 in past days, in the spirit of lowly homage to Him, 
 and pious care for His poor, have devoted to Him, 
 and laid upon His altar, — that men are rising up 
 to a true sense of the momentous issues at stake,
 
 A CHARGE. 37 
 
 and prepared to resist, in good earnest, Sacrilege 
 and Desecration, Robbery and Wrong. 
 
 " Then draw we nearer," let me say, in conclu- 
 sion, in the words of the revered poet of our 
 ' Christian Year ' — 
 
 " Then draw we nearer day by day, 
 Each to his brethren, all to God ; 
 Let the world take us as she may. 
 We must not change our road." ' 
 
 Avoiding with charitable care everything — in our 
 teaching or action ; in our public ministrations, 
 or in our daily walk and conversation among our 
 brethren, — everything which might cause needless 
 division, arouse prejudice, even though it were un- 
 reasonable, or create mistrust, however unfounded ; 
 " giving no offence in anything, that the ministry 
 be not blamed," let us seek to be found " in all 
 things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, 
 in much patience, in afflictions," if need be, and 
 oftentimes " in necessities, in distresses," but always, 
 assuredly, " in labours, in watchings, in fastings ; 
 by pureness, by knowledge, by kindness, by long- 
 suffering, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 
 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the 
 armour of righteousness on the right hand and on 
 the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report 
 and good report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as 
 dying, and, behold, we live ; as chastened, and not 
 killed ; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, 
 
 ^ The Christian Ykae ; Second Sunday after Trinity.
 
 38 A CHARGE. 
 
 yet making many rich; as having nothing, and 
 yet possessing all things."^ 
 
 Even so, by our various ministries, in our several 
 offices and functions, as " many members " of " one 
 body in Christ, and every one members of one 
 another;"^ "as every man hath received the gift, 
 even so ministering the same one to another, as 
 good stewards of the manifold grace of God;"^ 
 even thus, by our humble duty and service ren- 
 dered as unto Christ, unto Him that is able to do 
 exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think, according to the power that worketh in 
 us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ 
 Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. 
 Amen.'"^ 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 3-10. ^ Rqui^ xii. 4, 5. ^ 1 Pet. iv. 10. 
 
 * Eph. iii. 20, 21.
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 It may not be uninstructive to recall to mind the popular im- 
 pressions conveyed, when the budget of Liturgical reform in 
 contemplation was opened, at the end of 1871, as grounded on 
 the last Ecport of the Rubrical Commission. It was described, 
 with something of exaggeration, not perhaps altogether extraor- 
 dinary, as taking " the opinion of Convocation whether it would 
 not be well to get rid of uniformity as far as possible ;" and 
 the proposal, it was truly enough observed, was " the singular 
 result of the Commission appointed four years " before " to con- 
 sider how to promote greater uniformity ' in such matters as 
 may be deemed essential.' " " The Law Courts," it was said, 
 had " taken out of the hands of the Ritual Commissioners those 
 points of dress and ceremonial which they were more especially 
 appointed to consider." Of the new " Lectionary," which was 
 grounded on the Commissioners' Third Report, it was observed, 
 that " one of its leading characteristics was that it was far more 
 elastic than the old Table ; and as both would be lawful for some 
 nearly ten years longer, the public " would " probably have some 
 opportunity for estimating the advantage of diversity, and of aj)- 
 preciating ' the discretion of the minister.' " In their Fourth 
 Rejiort, however, it was alleged, " the Commissioners ventured 
 on a general series of recommendations which went much/further 
 in relaxing the ancient rigidity of the Church of England." It 
 appeared (so it was said) as if the Church was " suddenly 
 invited to change front, and to ask Parliament to vest in the 
 Clergy and the Bishops an indefinite discretion in the arrange- 
 ment of the Services." For, besides the freedom sanctioned in 
 regard to the order of the Services, it was now proposed that, 
 " in a third Service on Sundays, the minister should be at liberty, 
 with the approval of the C'rdinary, to use any other form of 
 Service whatsoever, so that the words be selected from the Prayer 
 Book ; " and it was " similarly proposed that on week days, in- 
 stead of the regular daily prayers, any form of Service taken 
 from the Prayer Book and similarly approved, should be lawful. 
 It would be interesting," said the writer of this review of the 
 various proposals concerned, " to calculate the permutations 
 and combinations possible among some scores of prayers." It
 
 40 
 
 A CHARGE. 
 
 was further " proposed, that when the Queen " had " been prayed 
 for in a preceding Service, the prayer for the Queen in the Com- 
 munion Service " might be omitted ; " the time of the Service at 
 which the Sermon is to be preached " might " be varied ; the 
 Communion Office " might " be modified by more than one omis- 
 sion, including that of the Ten Commandments, at the discretion 
 of the minister, subject to the discretion of the Ordinary. Not 
 to dwell on similar minor alterations, a most material elasticity " 
 was " to be introduced into the Bm*ial Service, and the standing 
 dispute respecting the peril of the imbaptized or excommuni- 
 cated " was " evaded by leaving it to the discretion of the clergy- 
 man to read a few short sentences from Scripture, together with 
 the Lord's Prayer." 
 
 " It will take away the breath of many excellent people," said 
 the writer, " to hear that these sweeping changes are actually to 
 be proposed, .... and that they may find themselves before 
 many months unable to tell, on entering a strange church, what 
 part of the Prayer Book they will hear read, and not even sure 
 whether they will again hear the famous Lesson which has 
 fallen, for so many generations, on the ears of English mourners." 
 Amidst whatever feelings of satisfaction were expressed in re- 
 gard to " a list of relaxations," many of which offered " a relief 
 Avhich the majority of Churchmen had desired for years," it was 
 plainly said, " When we come to consider whether the simple 
 method proposed by the Commissioners will be likely to com- 
 mend itself as the solution of the problem, it is impossible not 
 to discover a difiiculty which has already attracted attention in 
 Parliament." " Under the existing law," namely, " a layman 
 at least knows what he may expect, and can claim the due per- 
 formance of known Offices. He may wish these Offices modified 
 and varied : but will he be content that the Clergy should do it 
 at their own pleasure ? In short, is not some such proposal as 
 that of Lord Sandon for Parochial Councils an inevitable 
 supplement of such a general relaxation of uniform rule as this 
 proposal involves?" ('Times,' Dec. 28, 1871.) 
 
 Happily, Convocation modified essentially some of these 
 proposals before they were carried into a law. And in regard to 
 the first point noticed in the preceding Charge, it may be ob- 
 served, Convocation did what in it lay distinctly to mark that 
 the shortened order of daily Service was not intended to be a 
 substitute for the regular form of Morning and Evening Prayer,
 
 A CHARGE. 41 
 
 but simply as allowing certain omissions to be made, if need be, 
 in those forms. And further, after as careful a consideration 
 in detail as was possible, it has defined — and the definition has 
 been embodied in the Uniformity Act Amendment Act — what 
 omissions may be there allowed ; so as to have the consentient 
 judgment of the Convocations of the two Provinces to determine 
 the matter, and not the discretion of each individual minister 
 with the approval simply of his Ordinary. Then, again, in 
 regard to matters more recently discussed in the Lower House 
 of Convocation, the omissions, proposed by the Eitual Commis- 
 sioners, of the Collect for the Queen, the recital of the Com- 
 mandments, &c., were rejected by the House ; as also the various 
 alternative Lessons proposed in the Burial Service. A " third 
 Service" for Sundays has also been prepared by a Committee of 
 the Lower House, which would secure something like unifor- 
 mity, and protect the congregations of our people from endless 
 variations in the forms of Service proposed. 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 The reference here made was, in particular, to the solemn 
 season of Holy Week, and Good Friday, above all. The Church 
 of England has appointed what she deemed fitting and appro- 
 j)riate services for the sacred day of Christ's Passion ; and any- 
 one going into a Chui'ch of England church on Good Friday 
 would naturally expect to find the service appointed in the 
 Prayer Book going on — not " Tenebrae," or the like — and would 
 be justified in such an expectation. But every kind of " will- 
 worship " for Good Friday might be introduced as a " Special 
 Service;" however little in harmony with the mind and feeling 
 of the Church. 
 
 This year there appeared in the papers a notice : — 
 " At three o'clock to-morrow (Good Friday) afternoon, there 
 will be a special service in the nave of Westminster Abbey, 
 with a sermon by the Dean. A shortened form of evening 
 prayer will be sung as far as the third Collect, Psalm 88 being 
 sung to a chant, by Flintoft, and the ' Nunc Dimittis ' to Elvey 
 in A. The sermon will then be preached, and on its conclusion 
 what are commonly known as the ' Passion ' numbers in the 
 ' Messiah ' will be sung as an anthem. Tickets for this service 
 are to be obtained on ai)plication to the Dean."
 
 42 A CHARGE. 
 
 It does not exactly appear how tliis " Special Service " was 
 authorized by the recent Act. Good Friday is one of the days 
 on which the " shortened form " is not allowed to be used, in 
 place of the Order for Evening Prayer ; and it does not appear 
 that the regular Evening Prayer was said at another hour on 
 that day, in the Abbey. 
 
 The same paper from which the above is extracted had just 
 given a notice, in reference to a church in the neighbourhood 
 of London, " Handel's Passion Music is to be sung this evening 
 by the members of the London Chui'ch Choir Association. 
 The service will commence at half-past seven." Then followed 
 a notice that " a selection from Bach's Passion Music " was 
 " to be introduced as a special service " that night, at one of our 
 cathedrals. 
 
 Whenever it is desired now-a-days to gather a large con- 
 gregation, it seems to be thought necessary to advertize a 
 " Sjjecial Service." Sometimes the services themselves do not 
 turn out to be so " special " as they might appear. On the 8th 
 of May last there apjDeared an announcement, as follows : — 
 
 " A special service in connection with the Church of England 
 Sunday School Institute is to be held this evening at St. Paul's 
 Cathedral at seven o'clock. The choir will consist of a large 
 body of the members of the London Diocesan Lay Helpers' 
 Association, assisted by the choir of All Saints', Margaret 
 Street; Mr. W. Stevenson Hoyte, the organist and choirmaster 
 of that church, conducting the entire service from the lectern. 
 Mr. Hoyte will also play the opening and concluding volun- 
 taries upon the organ, including an Andante in G, by Smart, 
 Fantaisie in F minor, by Mozart, and a Toccata and Fugue, by 
 J. S. Bach. The Eev. Daniel Moore, Chaplain in Ordinary to 
 the Queen, will preach the sermon." 
 
 On inquiry being made of the authorities of St. Paul's as to 
 the nature of this "Special Service," it appeared that it was 
 simply the Evening Prayer, with these musical appendages. 
 
 A " special service in Canterbury Cathedral " was lately 
 announced in a notice put forth in behalf of a Diocesan Society ; 
 but when it was inquired at the Cathedral what was the " spe- 
 cialty" in the service, it was found that the service was ap- 
 pointed to be " at eleven o'clock," instead of at ten, or half-past 
 ten, the accustomed hour.
 
 A CHARGE. 43 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 Tliis provision, in regard to the appointment or approval of 
 Psalms for special occasions, formed no part of the Bill as 
 originally brought into the House of Lords, nor in the Bill as 
 brought fi'om the Lords and printed for the House of Commons. 
 It appears to have found its way into the Bill, Avithout dis- 
 cussion and notice of any sort, as it passed through Committee 
 of the House of Commons. 
 
 Nor, as is stated in the Charge, did it form any part of the 
 [Third] Eeport of the Eitual Committee, which is referred to in 
 the Bill as the original basis of legislation ; nor was it approved 
 by Convocation in any such extensive form as it appears to take 
 in the Act. 
 
 The facts of the case, which it is of some importance tliat 
 Churchmen should rightly understand, are briefly these. 
 
 In the Session of Feb. 9, 1870, on the motion of the Bishop 
 of Winchester, seconded by the Bishop of Llandatf, the Bishop 
 of London presiding in the absence of the Archbishop, an 
 Address was adopted as follows : — 
 
 " We humbly pray your Majesty to be graciously pleased to 
 direct, that there be laid before the Convocation of the Province 
 of Canterbury the Eeport of a Eoyal Commission which your 
 Majesty was pleased to issue on certain proposed alterations in 
 the Calendar, with the Table of Lessons appointed in the Book 
 of Common Prayer for public reading in our churches." 
 
 In moving this resolution, the Bishop of Winchester said : — 
 " I need not say to any of your Lordships, that the regular 
 form for making any sort of alteration in that most sacred de- 
 pository of the Church, the Book of Common Prayer, is that 
 the Convocations of the two Provinces should be consulted, and 
 should give to her Majesty their judgment upon it. Of course 
 it cannot take effect legally until Parliament, with her Majesty at 
 the head, has also pronounced upon it. This has been the uni- 
 versal course hitherto adopted ; and as I doubt not that your 
 Lordships are most anxious that such a course should continue, 
 and as I am persuaded of her Majesty's gracious readiness 
 to bring the matter before us, I trust there will be no opposi- 
 tion to the motion, — that this Address, with the consent of the 
 Lower House, be pi*esented to her Majesty." (' Chron. of Con- 
 vocation,' 1870, pp. 2, 3.)
 
 44 A CHARGE. 
 
 The consent and concurrence of the Lower House, on the motion 
 of the Dean of Canterbuiy, seconded by the Dean of Westminster, 
 was, on the same day, unanimously given. (Ibid., p. 40.) 
 
 It is not necessary here to enter on any further particulars 
 in regard to this Address, or the answer returned to it ; or as 
 to the Joint Committee appointed to consider the Eeport of the 
 Commission, or any j)roceedings of either House in reference to 
 the Eeport of the Joint Committee, or connected with it. We 
 will confine our attention simply to the question respecting 
 special Psalms. In the Session of May 3 (1870) the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, in the Upper House, said, it appears, that there was one 
 question, in connection with the matter which the House had 
 just dealt with, which he " should like to refer to, as in the 
 nature of a casus omissus in the Lectionary." He thought it 
 was " desirable that some arrangement should be made with 
 regard to having Proper Psalms on particular days ; " and 
 he went on to specify Trinity Sunday, Easter Eve, and the 
 Epiphany, as days on which the want was felt. " I have 
 had a communication," said his Lordship, " with one of the ablest 
 ritualists of our day, who possesses a most excellent ritual 
 library, I mean the present Dean of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, Mr. H. J. Hotham. He has made good use of his 
 valuable library, and he has communicated to me the result of 
 his researches as to the Proper Psalms used in the ancient rites, 
 specially in Sarum, that being distinctly Anglican. I should 
 suppose that it would be very desirable that we should place 
 ourselves in relation with the ancient Church of Sarum, not 
 merely as to the Lessons of Scripture, but as to the selection 
 of the Psalms on great festive occasions and other solemnities 
 of the Church. I do not know whether it would be quite in 
 order to propose this as a resolution. I would rather raise it as 
 a question ; but this is the sort of motion that I would, if neces- 
 sary, submit : — 
 
 " ' That an addition be made to the " Table of Proper Psalms 
 on certain days," and that Projjer Psalms be appointed for the 
 following Holy Days — viz. the Feast of Circumcision, or New 
 Year's Day; the Feast of Epiphany, or the Manifestation of 
 Christ to the Gentiles ; the Feast of the Annunciation ; Thursday 
 before Easter, Easter Eve, Trinity Sunday. Also that Proper 
 Psalms be appointed for Chiu-ch Dedications and Harvest Fes- 
 tivals ; and that in the selection of those Psalms special atten-
 
 A CHARGE. 45 
 
 tion be paid to the Psalms appointed respectively for these 
 occasions in the ancient use of the Church of Sarum.' 
 
 " This is the question I wish to bring before the House. As 
 to the manner of dealing with it, I would rather be instructed 
 on that by others." 
 
 The qiiestion was asked, " Could not the Eitual Commis- 
 sioners propose it ? " The Bishop of Lincoln replied, " I have 
 proposed it to them. They wished to do it, but they thought 
 that their powers did not extend so far. I have already sounded 
 several members of the Eitual Commission. I do not know 
 that they might not do it, but they did not seem to think that 
 they could." 
 
 The question, it was agreed, should be postponed to a future 
 occasion. " In the meantime," said his Lordship, " I suppose I 
 am at liberty to commimicate it to the Eitual Commission." 
 
 The Bishop accordingly, a few days after (May 6), addi-essed 
 a letter to the Eitual Commission, which is to be found in the 
 Appendix to the Fourth Eeport, p. 160. 
 
 At the meeting of the Eitual Commission (the 105th), held 
 May 19, the letter was taken into consideration. " The Bishop 
 of Gloucester and Bristol moved, and Mr. Buxton seconded, 
 
 " ' That the Commission desires to record its best thanks to 
 the Bishop of Lincoln for his communication touching the 
 Proper Psalms, and, having ascertained that his proposals are in 
 theii" judgment sufficiently provided for by a general Eubric, 
 which has been -drawn up by the Commission, do not feel it 
 desirable to make the Special Table of Psalms as suggested by 
 him.' 
 
 " To which Mr. Humphry moved as an amendment, which 
 was seconded by Canon Gregory, 
 
 " ' That the Bishop of Lincoln's suggestions be referred to a 
 Special Committee.' 
 
 " A division was first taken upon the amendment, when 8 
 votes were given for it, and 12 against it. 
 
 " A division was then taken upon the original motion, when 
 9 votes were given for, and 2 against it." (Fourth Eeport, 
 p. 125.) 
 
 The " general Eubric " referred to in this resolution, as 
 already passed, and appearing to the Commissioners to answer 
 the purpose, was as follows, and had been thus brought about.
 
 46 A CHARaE. 
 
 At the (68tli) meeting, held April 16, 1869, "The order how 
 the Psalter is appointed to be read " having been read by the 
 Secretary, 
 
 " The Bishop of Oxford moved, and Earl Beauchamp se- 
 conded : 
 
 " ' Upon special occasions to be approved by the Ordinary, 
 Proper Psalms may, with his consent, be substituted for those 
 which are appointed in the Psalter.' 
 
 " Upon a division the motion was agreed to, nemine con- 
 tradicenfe. 
 
 " Canon Payne Smith then moved, and Mr. Humphry se- 
 conded : 
 
 " ' That a Committee be appointed to select Psalms for alter- 
 native use on Sundays, and for such Holy Days as may seem to 
 require it.' 
 
 " Upon a division, 4 votes were given for, and 9 against, the 
 motion." 
 
 It was consequently lost. However, at the meeting (Tdth), 
 held on June 3, 1869, 
 
 " Upon the order how the Psalter is appointed to be read 
 being read by the Secretary, Lord Ebury moved that the con- 
 sideration of it be adjourned for a week, in order to enable him 
 to prepare and circulate a paper upon it. 
 
 " Upon a division, 9 votes were given for, and 4 against, the 
 motion, and the subject was accordingly adjourned." (Eeport, 
 p. 99.) 
 
 Three weeks afterwards (78th meeting), June 24, 1869, we find, 
 
 " Upon the motion of the Dean of Ely, the Minute adopted 
 on April 16, with reference to Proper Psalms to be substituted 
 on special occasions, was read by the Secretary; and it was 
 agreed that upon a revision such Minute should be considered 
 as open to amendment." (Report, p. 101.) 
 
 Accordingly at the (88th) meeting, held February 1, 1870, 
 
 " The following new Rubric, provisionally adopted on April 
 16, 1869, was then read by the Secretary : — 
 
 " ' Upon special occasions, to be approved by the Ordinary, 
 Proper Psalms may, with his consent, be substituted for those 
 which are appointed in the Psalter.' 
 
 " The Bishop of Carlisle moved, and the Dean of Westminster 
 seconded, that the new Rubric be amended as follows : — 
 
 " ' Upon occasions, to be approved by the Ordinary, other
 
 A CHARGE. 47 
 
 Psalms may, witt his consent, bo substituted for those which are 
 appointed in the Psalter.' 
 
 "Mr. Perry also moved, and Mr. Humphry seconded, that 
 the Eubric be amended as follows : — 
 
 " ' Upon occasions, approved by the Ordinary, other Psalms 
 may be substituted for those appointed to be read daily.' 
 
 "A division was first taken upon the Bishop of Carlisle's 
 motion, when 10 votes were given for, and 4 against it, and 
 Mr. Perry's motion was therefore not put. 
 
 " Mr. Humphry then moved, that in the Eubric, as now 
 amended, the words ' with his consent ' be omitted ; but upon a 
 division 5 votes were given for, and 12 against it." (Report, 
 p. 109.) 
 
 Meanwhile, at the (87th) meeting, held January 12, 1870, 
 when the Third Eeport had been under consideration for final 
 adoption : 
 
 " The Dean of Westminster then moved, and Mr. Humphry 
 seconded, to add after paragraph eight the following words : — 
 
 " ' We recommend that, upon occasions to be approved by the 
 Ordinary, Proper Psalms may, with his consent, be substituted 
 for those which are appointed in the Psalter.' 
 
 " But after discussion, the motion was, by leave, withdrawn." 
 (Eeport, p. 109.) This Eubric, therefore, was deliberately not 
 included among the recommendations of the Third Eeport. 
 
 At the first meeting, therefore, of the Upper House, in the 
 group of Sessions of Convocation held later in the season, 
 July 5 (1870), iu the absence of the Bishop of Lincoln, the 
 Bishop of Winchester said, " I am very earnestly requested by 
 the Bishop of Lincoln to propose a resolution to carry out one 
 of the recommendations of the Eitual Commission, and have 
 great pleasure in doing so : ' That an humble address be pre- 
 sented to her Majesty, praying her Majesty to direct the 
 necessary steps to be taken to empower the Bishop of any diocese 
 to allow of the use of Special Psalms on- special occasions ; and 
 that this resolution be communicated to the Lower House.' " 
 The motion was seconded by the Bishop of Hereford and agreed 
 to. 
 
 On the day following, in the Lower House, the Prolocutor 
 interrupted the discussion which was going on on the subject of
 
 48 A CHARGE. 
 
 Cathedral Chapters, to communicate this and another resolu- 
 tion of the Upper House, and read the address proposed. 
 The Prolocutor added, " I have in reference to these matters to 
 say that I have received a letter from the presiding Bishop, in 
 which he says he has no wish to interfere with the usual course 
 of business of this House ; but that it is most desirable that the 
 address to the Queen should be taken into consideration as soon 
 as possible." ('Chronicle of Convocation,' p. 479.) 
 
 The next day, accordingly, in the course of the discussion on 
 the same subject, the Prolocutor said that, before calling upon 
 the next speaker, he wished to communicate to the House, that 
 their Lordships of the Upper House were " desirous that the 
 Address which was sent down for approval" the day before, 
 " with regard to the appointment of Proper Psalms for special 
 occasions, should be returned to the Upper House as soon as 
 possible. Perhaps," said the Prolocutor, " if the resolution does 
 not require discussion, the House will allow me to put it. I 
 may mention that this is a matter in which one of the most 
 honoured members of Convocation, Dr. Wordsworth, now Bishop 
 of Lincoln, takes great interest. The object of the proposal is 
 that there should be Proper Psalms appointed to certain 
 Festivals." 
 
 The adoption of the resolution by the Upper House having 
 been moved and seconded, the Dean of Canterbury observed, 
 in reference to Cathedrals, that hitherto it had " been the duty 
 of the Dean to appoint Proper Psalms when they seem to be 
 required," but it now appeared that they were to apply to the 
 Bishop of the diocese to appoint Psalms. He therefore asked, 
 " Should we not substitute the word ' Ordinary ' for ' Bishop ' ; " 
 and the Prolocutor offered " to suggest that alteration to their 
 Lordships." Thereupon Canon Jebb, " with a perfect recogni- 
 tion of the ancient right of the Bishops to appoint special 
 services for special occasions," thought that this was " a period 
 at which the House should regard with the utmost jealousy any 
 attempt to alter the Prayer Book. It is all very well," said Dr. 
 Jebb, " for the Bishops, on their own authority, to appoint 
 Lessons or Psalms for special occasions ; but to alter the Psalms 
 on the great Festivals, desirable as it might be in itself, would 
 be a most essential alteration of the Prayer Book ; and I do not 
 think it ought to be undertaken unless with the sanction and 
 supervision of Convocation itself." 
 
 J
 
 A CHARGE. 49 
 
 "The Prolocutor. — I have been requested by tlie Bishop of 
 Lincoln, who takes sj)ecial interest in this subject, to state that 
 the object of the Address to her Majesty is to obtain power to 
 appoint Psalms for Ascension Day,* Trinity Sunday, and the 
 Epiphany ; and for such special occasions as Harvest Services ; 
 and for a third service on Sunday. 
 
 " Canon Jebb. — Then the discretion of the Bishops is to be 
 limited to that extent ? 
 
 " The Prolocutor. — I believe it to be so. 
 
 "Archdeacon Clark. — What the Upper House recommended 
 is, that we should ask the Queen to authorize the Bishops to 
 appoint Special Psalms for special occasions, npt, as I under- 
 stand, the great Festivals of the Church, but Harvest Services, 
 and occasions of that kind ; but the Bishop of Lincoln seems to 
 contemplate something more than that ; and the House should 
 be quite clear on that point before we vote. 
 
 " Canon Eiddell. — I think that, connecting what is now pro- 
 posed with the letter of the Bishoj) of Lincoln, it is impossible 
 to doubt that the power in question is intended to apply to the 
 Epiphany and other Festivals of the Church for which no special 
 Psalms are appointed. The House must not overlook the Bill 
 which has been introduced into the House of Lords by the Lord 
 Chancellor It appears to me as if we are now virtually about 
 to ask Parliament, in addition to sanctioning a new Lectionary, 
 to give new and important powers to the Bishops. 
 
 " Prebendary Fagan. — I move the addition of the following 
 words : — ' That, in reference to the great stated Festivals of the 
 Church, this House earnestly prays that there may be one 
 general agreement on the part of the Bishops as to the Psalms 
 to be selected.' 
 
 " Canon Selwyn. — May I ask what you think is the meaning 
 of the word ' empower,' as used in the words, ' to ask her 
 Majesty to take such steps as may empower a Bishop ' ? 
 
 " The Prolocutor. — I am not conscious of what is taking place 
 in the Legislature ; but I happen to know that there is a Bill 
 passing through Parliament in reference to the Lectionary, and 
 I cannot help thinking it is desirable to include in it a provision 
 giving liberty to a Bishop to appoint special Psalms for such 
 special occasions as Harvest Thanksgivings. 
 
 * "Ascension Day" is here obviously a misprint or mistake— ap- 
 parently for " The Annunciation."
 
 50 A CHARGE. 
 
 " Arclideacon Clark. — I agree with Prebendary Fagan that 
 it is essential there should be a clear understanding on the 
 matter, and I therefore second his motion for the addition of 
 the words he has suggested. 
 
 " Lord A. Compton. — I wish to call attention to the fact that 
 during the last group of Sessions . , . the House was reminded, 
 that at the end of the Lessons appointed for December there is 
 a rubric to the effect, that on any sjiecial occasion the Bishop 
 may substitute other Lessons for those aj)pointed in this Calendar, 
 that is, other Lessons than those recommended by the Lectionary 
 Committee ; and I think that the same rule may be applied to 
 the Psalms. 
 
 " Canon Swainson. — I understand that if I as a clergyman 
 wish to read particular Lessons, I may, with the consent of the 
 Bishop, substitute them ; but I do not know that the Bishop 
 has any power to enforce upon me the reading of his substituted 
 Lessons against my will. I maintain that, if this is passed, the 
 Bishop will have no power to enforce the reading of any Psalms 
 upon any clergyman in his diocese. 
 
 " The Prolocutor. — Canon Swainson may be certain that what- 
 ever rule is applied to the Lessons will be applied to the Psalms. 
 
 " The resolution and the rider proposed by Mr. Fagan were 
 then adopted. 
 
 " The Prolocutor, accompanied by his assessors, proceeded to 
 the Upper House, and presented to their Lordships the resolu- 
 tion just agreed to by this House " — (' Chronicle of Con- 
 vocation ' (1870), pp. 529-532.) 
 
 No answer, that I am aware of, was ever communicated to 
 Convocation — certainly not to the Lower House. The Bill then 
 before Parliament was, as is well known, withdrawn for that 
 Session ; and when the new Bill of the following year was 
 brought in, there was, as has already been said, no such pro- 
 vision contained in it. 
 
 It is abundantly clear, from these Minutes of the proceedings 
 of the Lower House, that what the House assented to — or under- 
 stood that it assented to — was the proposal of a power to be 
 given, in the case of the Psalms in like manner as was proposed 
 in the case of the Lessons, to substitute special Psalms on 
 special occasions, with the aj)proval and consent of the Ordinary ; 
 such " special occasions " being Harvest Thanksgivings and the
 
 A CHARGE. 51 
 
 like; and that, if the power was to include great Festivals of 
 the Church, the House assented to it only as qualified by an 
 earnest prayer for such agreement, on the part of the Bishops, 
 in regard to the Lessons selected, as might secure uniformity in 
 the several dioceses ; and, also, with the understanding that the 
 freedom of the minister to use the Church's appointed Lessons 
 would not be taken away. 
 
 The " Tables of Lessons Bill," however, having passed in 
 the Session of 1871, the Bishoj) of Lincoln held a Diocesan 
 Synod at Lincoln in the following autumn (Sept. 20, 1871). In 
 his address delivered in the Synod, after speaking of the new 
 Lectionary, his Lordship went on to say : 
 
 " There is another matter of interest in which we may derive 
 much benefit from the recent concuiTent action of Convocation 
 and the Legislatui'e in this matter. I refer to the means it afibrds 
 us for the additional provision of special Psalms and special 
 Lessons for special occasions." 
 
 He described it as " a happy thing that appropriate Psalms 
 may now be sung or said, not merely on some of the great Festi- 
 vals and Holy Days of the Church, but on all. Hitherto," said 
 the Bishop, " we have sometimes been constrained to use joyful 
 Psalms on mournful occasions, or mournful Psalms on joyful 
 ones ; but now, by the joint action of Convocation and of Parlia- 
 ment, it has been provided that ' upon occasions to be approved 
 [appointed, qu.] by the Ordinary, other Psalms may, with his 
 consent, be substituted for those appointed in the Psalter,' and 
 this power may be exercised by him on all occasions whereon 
 ' he shall judge that such alteration will conduce to edification,'" 
 (The Bishop refers, in his published Address, to " the Eejjort of 
 the Proceedings of Convocation of Canterbury on July 5th and 
 July 6th, in the ' Chronicle of Convocation ' for 1870, pj?. 451 
 and 530," and to the " Tables of Lessons Act," 34 and 35 Vict., 
 chap. 37.) " It is obviously very desirable," the Bishop went 
 on to say, " that suitable Psalms should be provided for the first 
 Sunday in Advent " — of which, however, no mention had been 
 made in Convocation — and so in like manner for the Festival of 
 the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Annunciation, Easter Even, 
 and Trinity Simday. " This may now be done," said the Bishop. 
 " Let us thank God for it. 
 
 " It is also desirable that a distinct series of Psalms, no less 
 than of Lessons, should be provided for the use of those who 
 
 E 2
 
 52 A CHARGE. 
 
 have three Services in their churches on Sundays. This also is 
 now within our reach. 
 
 " The Ordinary is also authorized to permit the substitution 
 on special occasions, such as Harvest Festivals and Church 
 Openings, of appropriate Lessons in lieu of those specified in 
 the Calendar." 
 
 " To permit," it is rightly said ; for by the wording of the 
 Act, in regard to the Lessons, the Ordinary's function, as before 
 observed, is that of approval and consent. There appears so far a 
 great increase of liberty. But the Bishop went on to say : 
 
 " You will, I am persuaded, my reverend Brethren, concur 
 with me in the opinion, that it is my duty to lose no time in 
 exercising the autliority given to me as Ordinary in this behalf. 
 After having taken counsel with persons well versed in Litur- 
 gical learning, I propose to lay before you to-day a Table of 
 Special Psalms for use on special occasions, and also a series of 
 Psalms for a third service on Sundays and Holy Days, together 
 with an indication of Special Lessons which may be used on 
 certain occasions. (' This portion of the Tables,' it is added in 
 a note, 'is due to the labours of a Committee of the Lower 
 House of Convocation.' )" 
 
 " Let me commend these Tables to your consideration and 
 use for the next ensuing three years, at the expiration of which 
 they may be revised, if thought necessary." (Address, pp. 
 17-19.) 
 
 Now here at once, from the permissive power accepted by 
 Convocation and sanctioned by the Act, is an exercise of autho- 
 rity precisely that which the Lower House was not prepared to 
 recognize ; and the operation of which in different dioceses, with 
 no agreement of the Bishops among themselves, it earnestly 
 prayed might not be introduced, with all the ambiguity which _ 
 it was apprehensive of, in regard to the nature and extent of 
 these " special occasions." In the " Form and Order of holding 
 the Synod," under the head of " New Lectionary, Additional 
 Proper Psalms, and Proper Lessons on Sjpecial Occasions," it is 
 said, 
 
 " The Ordinary being authorized by the joint action of Parlia- 
 ment and Convocation to appoint Sj^ecial Psalms and Special 
 Lessons on Special Occasions approved by him, the Bishop puts 
 forth in the Synod the following Tables of Special Psalms and
 
 A CHARGE. 53 
 
 Special Lessons, which may be used in the Diocese of Lincoln 
 on occasions therein specified : — 
 
 " These Tables will be subject to revision after the expiration 
 of three years." 
 
 Then follows " Table I. Proper Psalms for Special Occasions," 
 including Advent Sunday, the Circumcision, the Ej^iphany, the 
 Purification [now added], the Annunciation, Thursday before 
 Easter, Easter Even, Trinity Sunday, the Festival of St. Michael 
 and all Angels, now also added, as well as the " Days of Apostles 
 and otlier Festivals ;" for "Ember Days," for " Bogation Days ;" 
 as well as " for the Consecration of Churches, or Anniversaries 
 of their Consecration ; and for the reopening of Churches after 
 Restoration ; for the Consecration of Churchyards ; for Harvest 
 Festivals; for School Festivals; for Missionary Services; for 
 Diocesan Synods, Visitations, or Eurideaconal Chapters." 
 
 In the recent Visitation of his Cathedral and Diocese, the 
 Bishop, in the Second of his Twelve Addresses, thus refers to 
 the action in this matter already taken in the Diocesan Synod. 
 
 " Let me here refer," said his Lordship, " to the ' Table of 
 Proper Psalms and Proper Lessons for certain occasions,' 
 which was put forth by the Ordinary in our Diocesan Synod, 
 held at Lincoln, September 20th, 1871, for use in this diocese, 
 under the condition of being subject to revision at the end of 
 three years." 
 
 " Allow me to express a hope that you, my reverend Brethren, 
 will give effect to these recommendations, and that on Holy Days, 
 and other times specified therein, you will refer to that ' Table 
 of Psalms and Lessons,' and avail yourselves of it." (Twelve 
 Addresses, pp. 55, 56.) 
 
 It is given in the Appendix to the Addresses, with consider- 
 able additions, which, as is stated in a note, had "been put 
 forth by the Ordinary since the Synod ; " viz. Psalms for Palm 
 Sunday, for Monday and Tuesday in Easter "Week, Monday and 
 Tuesday in Whitsun Week, for All Saints' Day, specially ; for 
 St. Matthias' Day ; for Choral Festivals, and Benefit Societies. 
 
 It might, obviously, admit of an argument whether or not, 
 in such a case, the order in the Prayer Book ajiplies, viz. that 
 " whensoever Proper Psalms or Lessons are appointed, then the 
 Psalms and Lessons of ordinary coui'se appointed in the Psalter 
 and Calendar (if they be diflferent) shall be omitted for that
 
 54 A CHARGE. 
 
 time." But it is easy to see in liow very painful a position a 
 clergyman might find himself placed by a diocesan action 
 of this kind, under the presumed authority of the Church as 
 well as of the State ; amid circumstances in which he might 
 feel himself utterly precluded, by considerations of propriety 
 and duty, from expressing his objections to particular provi- 
 sions, perhaps deeply affecting, in some cases, his inmost con- 
 victions, and practically denying him the liberty which had 
 seemed to be extended by the supposed " elasticity " of the new 
 system. 
 
 The writer of these notes is convinced that it is quite need- 
 less for him to express, how reluctantly ho would offer an 
 opinion at variance with any recommendation or action of one 
 for whom he entertains so high a respect and so affectionate a 
 regard as he has for the Bishop of Lincoln. " Amicus Socrates, 
 amicus Plato, sed magis arnica Veritas." And he cannot sup- 
 press the feeling, that the interests of truth and unity are 
 deeply involved in the maintenance, among us, of the Book 
 of Common Prayer, in its integrity. It is a bond of union 
 which, amidst all our differences of opinion and sentiment, still 
 holds us together as nothing else can ; and it would be an irre- 
 parable loss that we should suffer, if the bond of union were 
 snapped asunder. Discussions which have lately taken place 
 will not be without their use, if they have revealed, to the prac- 
 tical conviction of men's minds, how delicate a problem is that 
 with which we have to deal ; and what a flame might be lighted 
 up, and what elements of discord might be called into existence 
 and action, by anything like disintegration of our Church's order 
 of ritual and service ; holding as it does the balances between 
 conflicting opinions, apparently irreconcileable as held by ex- 
 treme parties and rival systems, external to itself, but admitting 
 perfectly of a true harmony in the view of Christ's one Catholic 
 Church, in the " one faith " of which they exhibit partial 
 elements or rays, parted by the prism of sectarian or private 
 opinion, but which form in their imion a pure and perfect 
 light. 
 
 It is obvious to remark that, while the Bishop of Lincoln 
 adoj)ts for his diocese in such matters the ancient " use of Sarum," 
 the Bishop of Salisbury may, in like manner, set himself to 
 revive in his diocese " the use of Lincoln " ; the Bishops of North
 
 A CHARGE. 55 
 
 Wales, with still more evident propriety, if possible, " tlie use 
 of Bangor," and the Bishojjs of South Wales " the use of Here- 
 ford." And, with yet stronger rights, " the use of York " 
 would claim acceptance in the Northern Province. And thus 
 the intention of om- Church at the time of the Eeformatiou 
 would be defeated, and her work undone. Again, not even 
 in the same diocese would there be any uniformity of prac- 
 tice. Inasmuch as on All Saints' Day, by the new Lincoln 
 ordinance, " any of the following [eleven Psalms] may be 
 used" at Matins:— Ps. 1, 11, 15, 16, 20, 30, 33, 34, 61, 79, 
 84 ; and at Evensong [eight, viz.] Ps. 92, 97, 112, 138, 141, 
 147, 148, 149, it might easily be that in no two chui-ches of the 
 diocese would the service be the same. In like manner, on days 
 of Apostles, and other festivals, there are fifteen appointed, for 
 the choice of the minister ; two having been added to the list 
 put forth at the Synod. There is nothing to prevent Proper 
 Psalms being appointed for every Sunday in the year, and the 
 Prayer Book order thereby entirely superseded. In fact, to 
 the special Psalms for Advent Sunday a note is appended refer- 
 ring to the Table of Psalms appointed for the Third Service on 
 Sundays in Advent ; and it is noted, " These may be used also 
 at Morning Prayer or Evensong on those Sundays." 
 
 It is, moreover, to be borne in mind that it is not the appoint- 
 ment of "Proper Psalms" for "Special Occasions" that has been 
 provided for ; — a resolution thus worded was distinctly rejected 
 by the Ritual Commission : what was carried was that " upon 
 occasions" — any occasions" whatsoever — "other Lessons" may 
 " be substituted for those appointed in the Psalter." And this 
 power may be exercised by the Ordinary, as the Bishop of Lin- 
 coln observes, "on all occasions whereon" (quoting from the 
 Act) " he shall judge that such alteration will conduce to edifi- 
 cation." (It does not appear why this was not printed in the 
 prefatory matter.) On the strength of this provision the Ordi- 
 nary might, obviously, substitute "other" Psalms for those which 
 contain anything " imprecatory " or " damnatory," if, in his 
 opinion, such alteration would " conduce to edification." As it 
 is worded, the substitution is to be " for those ajipointed in the 
 Psalter " ; and therefore, it may be presumed, there would be 
 no power to substitute other Psalms for those appointed in the 
 Table of " Proj)er Psalms on certain Days." Else there would 
 be another source of danger and mischief opened.
 
 56 A CHARGE. 
 
 NOTE D. 
 
 That wliich the Archbishop at his Visitation commended to 
 the thoughts of his clergy, I should wish here to recall to mind, 
 was " the duty of carefully considering, in their several spheres, 
 how far it was desirable that they should avail themselves of 
 the liberty " now given by the Church, exercising in combined 
 action with the State " the power of adapting her services to 
 the wants of her childi-en ;" and in particular, in reference to 
 " opportunities of Common Prayer " opened to him, " which 
 were denied to him before." To this question it seemed to me 
 specially fitting that I should apply myself, with a view to ren- 
 dering such assistance as I might, in my office, to the clergy in 
 the practical consideration of this question. In connection with 
 this subject I have great satisfaction in quoting, as I do with 
 entire concurrence, an expression of opinion from the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, contained in the Visitation Address, already referred 
 to, in the way of a caution to his clergy as to the expediency of 
 their availing themselves, in another respect, of the liberty of 
 abridgment now permitted by the law. The Bishop says, — 
 
 " It is the office of the Church of God to guard and authenti- 
 cate and preach God's word, and she does this by the public 
 reading of Scriptm-e, which is the best preaching. Until last 
 year, for more than three centuries it was the glory of the 
 Chui'ch of England, among the churches of Christendom, that 
 not a day passed but she read four chapters of Holy Scriptiu-e. 
 But in an evil hour (as I presume to think), in a hurried Session 
 of the Convocation of the province, on February 13th, it was 
 agi'eed that, on almost all week-days thi'oughout the year, the 
 officiating minister in a parish chm'ch may be at liberty to omit 
 one Lesson at Morning Prayer and one at Evening Prayer ; and 
 this permission was afterwards authorized by the Legislature, 
 although, by the New Lectionaey, sanctioned in the preceding 
 year, 1871, the Scriptui-e Lessons had been much cm-tailed ; so 
 that, unless we decline to use this permission, our people are 
 now to be content with the stinted allowance of two short 
 Lessons daily, whereas formerly they had the benefit of four 
 longer ones. 
 
 " Let me, therefore, express an earnest hope, my reverend 
 Brethren, that no clergyman in this diocese will avail himself of
 
 A CHARGE. 57 
 
 this permission, but will read two Lessons at Matins and Even- 
 song. It was the practice of the primitive Chm'ch to read both 
 Testaments together. If you begin to disparage the Old Testa- 
 ment, as compared with the New, or to contrast one Testament 
 with the other, and to weigh one against the other in the 
 opposite scale of human opinion, we shall soon lose both Testa- 
 ments. ' What God hath joined together, let not man put 
 asunder.' " (Twelve Addresses, pp. 51-53.) 
 
 In the same sense the Archdeacon of Buckingham, the Pro- 
 locutor of the Lower House of Convocation, in his Visitation 
 Charge of the present year, says, — 
 
 " With regard to the Shortened Service, I would venture to 
 express my hope that advantage may not be too freely taken of 
 the liberty granted by the Act to omit one of the Lessons. I am 
 not finding fault with a relaxation which may occasionally be 
 found convenient ; but I cannot forget that it was the practice 
 of the early Church to read both Testaments together ; and it 
 would be, in my judgment, a serious loss, as well as a grave 
 departure from primitive usage, if the habit were to become 
 general, of reading one Lesson only at our Daily Morning and 
 Evening Prayer." (Charge, p. 28.) 
 
 In connection with this subject, of the reading of Holy 
 Scripture in the Church, I cannot refrain from continuing the 
 quotation from the Lincoln Visitation Address. " That we have 
 gained much by the New Table of Lessons," the Bishop of 
 Lincoln thinks, " we must thankfully acknowledge ; but that wo 
 have also lost a great deal," he freely admits and plainly 
 expresses, " we must no less sorrowfully deplore. The use of 
 the New Lectionary for more than a year," says the Bishop, 
 " has now discovered many blemishes and defects in it to the 
 careful students of Scripture. It is much to be wished that the use 
 of the New Table had been made provisional. And let me here 
 offer a suggestion," the Bishop adds, " that the term fixed in the 
 'Table of Lessons Act' for the final ahandonment of the Old 
 Lectionary, namely, January 1, 1879, should also be made an 
 occasion for the revision of the New Table of Lessons." (Second 
 Addi-ess, p. 53.) 
 
 K any further Rubrical revision be taken in hand, the first 
 subject in order for consideration and revisal would be in the 
 prefatory matter to the Book of Common Prayer, " The order 
 how the rest of Holy Scriptiu'c is appointed to be read," and
 
 58 A CHAEGE. 
 
 with it the whole question of the appointed order of reading 
 Holy Scripture in the Church, specially in regard to the 
 Sunday Lessons. Part of this prefatory matter, as it is given 
 in our Prayer Books lately printed, rests entirely upon the 
 authority of the Queen's Printers, with a warrant of some sort 
 given by the Eitual Commission in communication with the 
 Government. It appears that at one of the last meetings of the 
 Commission (the 104th), held May 17, 1870, 
 
 " The Secretary read a communication from the Queen's 
 Printers, suggesting that some alteration was necessary in the 
 preface directing how the rest of Holy Scripture is appointed 
 to be read, in order to adapt it to the new Lectionary, as being 
 now reprinted, for the purposes of a Bill before Parliament." 
 
 Thereupon it was moved and seconded, " and agreed, nemine 
 contradicente, that the Chaii-man be requested to address a com- 
 munication to the head of Her Majesty's Government, suggesting 
 that the Queen's Printer be authorized, under the circumstances, 
 to print the paragraph as amended by the Commission at its last 
 meeting." (Eeport, pp. 123, 124.) 
 
 No further notice appears as to whether such communication 
 was made, or whether any or what reply was made to it. 
 
 The Minute in regard to the amended paragraph referred to, 
 as agreed upon at the preceding meeting, stands thus : — 
 
 " The Bishop of Chester moved, and Earl Beauchamp seconded, 
 and it was agreed, nemine contradicente, that the second para- 
 gi-aph in the preface, setting forth how the rest of Holy Scripture 
 is appointed to be read, be amended as follows : — 
 
 " ' The New Testament is airpointed for the Second Lessons at 
 Morning and Evening Prayer, and shall he' read over orderly every 
 year ticice, besides the Epistles and Gospels, except the Apocalypse, 
 which shall be read once in addition to certain proper Lessons ap- 
 pointed upon divers Feasts.' " (Eeport, p. 123.) 
 
 A somewhat remarkable circumstance, however, is that the 
 Queen's Printers did not so print it. They discovered, probably, 
 that " the Apocalypse " was not ordered to be read as a whole, 
 three chapters being omitted {viz. the 9th, 13th, and 18th) ; and 
 consequently they printed the last clause as it had stood before, 
 with a new insertion, thus: — "except the Apocalypse, out of 
 which there are only [certain Lessons appointed at the end of the 
 year, and'] certain Proper Lessons appointed upon divers Feasts," 
 the portion here enclosed within brackets being inserted. But
 
 A CHARGE. 59 
 
 there was no action, as miglit have been expected, of the Ritual 
 Commission to supply the omission which the Queen's Printers 
 had pointed out ; and when at the last meeting of all (the 108th), 
 held June 28, 1870, the committee that had been appointed 
 '' rejjorted their amendment of the Schedule " to be appended to 
 the Fourth Eeport, we find — 
 
 " Earl Beauchamp then asked leave to insert certain para- 
 graphs in the First Schedule, in lieu of the amended ' Order how 
 the rest of Holy Scripture is appointed to be read,' so as to 
 adapt them, with an amendment, to the Bill now before Parlia- 
 ment on the new Table of Lessons ; but after a division the 
 motion was, by leave, withdi-awn." (Eeport, p. 129.) 
 
 Meanwhile the Queen's Printers made the important change 
 of " twice " for " thrice " in regard to the reading of the New 
 Testament. " The New Testament is appointed for the Second 
 Lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer, and shall be read over 
 orderly every year tioice, once in the morning and once in the 
 evening, besides the Epistles and Gospels, except the Apoca- 
 lypse," &c. So it stands printed : but Her Majesty's Printers 
 had no lawful authority given them to declare this to be the 
 order of the Chiu'ch of England. Indeed, the present order of 
 the Church and the State, while there is the oj)tion left of read- 
 ing either the old Tables of Lessons or the new, is, in fact, that 
 the New Testament shall be read over orderly every year thrice, 
 or otherwise (if the new Lessons are read) twice. It is, in 
 fact, though not a " provisional " use that has been allowed by 
 the Aet, an alternative, or optional use ; if only the Act be left 
 free and unfettered in its provisions. 
 
 While these pages have been passing through the press, there 
 has appeared (in the ' Guardian,' Sej)t. 3, 1873) a report of the 
 proceedings at the Annual Conference in the Diocese of Carlisle, 
 held on August 19th and 20th. Under the head of the " Act of 
 Uniformity Amendment Act," the Bishop said, the point which 
 he had chiefly in mind when he proposed this question — " What 
 useful application can be made in the diocese of Carlisle of this 
 Act ?" — was that which was touched by ten deaneries in the fol- 
 lowing suggestion, " The more general adoption of daily or more 
 frequent week-day services." " I was anxious," said the Bishop, 
 " to elicit opinion as to the practicability and consequent pro- 
 priety of opening our churches more frequently to divine
 
 60 A CHARGE. 
 
 worship, under the condition of using a shorter service than 
 that prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. In many 
 churches of this mountain diocese I conceive that it is impos- 
 sible to make a week-day service really profitable for edifica- 
 tion. There are, probably, many of which this can be said, 
 and which nevertheless are shut up except on the first day of 
 the week. I feel myself therefore emboldened, by the expressed 
 opinions of meetings which may be said to represent half the 
 diocese, to urge the consideration, whether it might not be 
 desirable to open many of our churches on week-days, either 
 morning or evening, as circumstances may dictate, for a short 
 service of prayer, with or without an exposition or a sermon. I 
 may add that I believe the chief value of this Act is with 
 reference to week-day and special services. So far as the accus- 
 tomed worship of Sunday is concerned, it will be found that the 
 chief value of the Act is to give legal sanction to certain 
 arrangements, which convenience had dictated, but the legality of 
 which was regarded as doubtful. I venture to express my hope 
 that the powers of the Act will be sparingly applied in changing 
 the custom of the parishes with regard to Sunday service ; I feel 
 a little afraid lest the rigid imiformity of past years should be 
 replaced by too great a love of variety. I confess, for example, 
 that I should regard with sorrow the omission of the Litany 
 from our morning service ; and I should specially grieve over its 
 absence when the Holy Communion was to be administered. 
 Writers on liturgical questions tell us that it is the most suit- 
 able introduction to that solemn service, and my own feelings 
 certainly assent to their decision." 
 
 Before the close of the Conference, to meet, as it would 
 appear, some misapprehension of what he had expressed, the 
 Bishop took occasion to say that, in regard to the Litany, " all 
 he said was this, that the best writers tell us the Litany 
 was the proper introduction to the Holy Communion, and so far 
 as his own feelings went he agreed with that ; but he did not 
 wish, as Bishop, to interfere with the freedom of the clergy in 
 this matter. Eegarding generally the question of morning 
 services, the advice he would give was that each clergyman 
 should consider what was best for his own parish, and do it. 
 Now they had got further liberty under this Act, he urged them 
 not to avail themselves too readily of it, but rather to take a 
 conservative view of the powers it gave them."
 
 A CHARGE. 61 
 
 NOTE E. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to record here, that the Eeport of the 
 Joint Committee, agi-eed upon in Lambeth in December last, 
 with the Eeport of the Special Committee of the Lower House, 
 having been adopted, with certain amendments by the Lower 
 House in the February sessions, was taken into consideration by 
 the Upper House, in the May sessions, and with the amend- 
 ments made by their Lordships, was considered again by the 
 Lower House, and finally assented to on the last day of that 
 group of sessions. Looking to the general exj)ression of opinion 
 there, and also in the great body of the clergy throughout the 
 country, and still more, of the Church laity, testified especially 
 by the feeling shown in so remarkable a manner in the great 
 meeting held in London on the 31st of January, it may be 
 safely said, without much doubt, in the language of the Vene- 
 rable the Prolocutor, in his recent Charge to the Clergy of his 
 archdeaconry, that " the removal of the Athanasian Creed from 
 our Service Book is not an event at all likely to come to pass 
 in this nineteenth century." 
 
 An organ of public opinion, sensitively alive to the " popu- 
 laris aura," and not likely to exaggerate the dangers of expan- 
 siveness and elasticity of creeds and formularies, said very 
 significantly, not very long ago, in words worthy to be borne in 
 mind, and practically acted upon : — 
 
 " A very great danger for the Chiu'ch lurks in the very com- 
 prehensiveness which is her boast. The strength of other sects 
 and communions lies in the definiteness and rigour with which 
 they are prepared to face the problems of religioixs life. It 
 remains to be proved whether the Church of England, without 
 forfeiting the breadth of which she is justly proud, can hold her 
 own in this vigorous struggle of positive creeds." There had 
 been claimed for her " no less energy in the assertion of positive 
 truth than in the maintenance of open questions. There is no 
 danger of her failing in the latter point " — was the sagacious 
 comment of the spokesman of public opinion — " hut her best 
 friends may loell he anxious ahout the former " 
 
 May it be her blessedness to have it said of her, by the gra- 
 cious voice of Him " who walkcth in the midst of the seven 
 golden candlesticks," " Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept
 
 62 A CHARGE. 
 
 my word, aud not denied my name," And may tliis be her 
 portion and privilege, " Because tlion liast kept the word of 
 my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
 which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell 
 upon the earth." And, in order thereto, may she never forget 
 the warning, by that loving yet awful Voice, " Behold, I come 
 quickly : hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
 crown." (Eev. iii. 8, 10, 11.) 
 
 NOTE F. 
 
 It cannot be too clearly or too generally understood, that 
 the only solution of the problem which the advocates of " Dis- 
 establishment and Disendowment " propose to themselves is, the 
 essential " Secularization," entire " Desecration " of the Chm-ch, 
 its patrimony, its fabrics, and everything that belongs to it. 
 The last scheme which had fallen in the way of the writer, 
 when he was holding his Visitation, was propounded in ' Mac- 
 millan's Magazine ' for April last, in an article entitled " Dis- 
 establishment and Disendowment, with a proposal for a really 
 National Church of England," by Alfred E. Wallace, F.E.S. 
 The article is introduced by a note of the editor's, expressing 
 that, whether the views set forth in it " can ever be realized in 
 detail or not, it is certainly most desirable that the doctrine, 
 that ' Church property of every kind is national property, to be 
 seciu-ed,' as Arnold expressed it, ' for ever for public use, some- 
 thing saved out of the scramble, which no covetousness can 
 appropriate and no folly waste,' should be put forward in strong 
 and uncompromising terms by an able and eminent man of 
 science like Mr. Wallace, even though the particular mode he 
 proposes of carrying the doctrine into practice may seem to 
 some inadequate or even problematical." 
 
 The writer of the article desiderates some " practicable and 
 beneficial mode of applying the national property now held by 
 the Church, or of preserving and titilizing for natiunal objects the 
 parish churches and other ecclesiastical buildings spread so 
 thickly over our land, and which constitute a picturesque and 
 impressive record of much of our social and religious history for 
 nearly a thousand years." " The main principle," he lays down, 
 " that should guide oiu* action in this matter," as he conceives, 
 is " that existing Church property of every kind is national pro-
 
 A CHARGE. 63 
 
 perty, and tliat no portion of it must under any circumstances 
 be alienated, either for the compensation of supposed or real 
 vested interests, or to the use of any sectarian body ; and further, 
 that tlie parish churches and other ecclesiastical buildings must 
 on no account be given up, but be permanently retained, with the 
 Church property, for analogous purposes to those for which they 
 were primarily established — the moral and social advancement of 
 the whole community." 
 
 " It must, I think," says Mr. Wallace, " be admitted that an 
 institution which provides for the residence in every parish of 
 the kingdom of a permanent representative of the best morality 
 and cultiu-e of the age — a man whose first duty it is to be the 
 friend of all who are in trouble, who lives an unselfish life, 
 devoting himself to the moral and physical improvement of the 
 community, who is a welcome visitor to every house, who keeps 
 free from all j)arty strife and personal competition, and who, by 
 his education and training, can efficiently promote all sanitary 
 measures and healthful amusements, and show by his example 
 the beauty of a true and virtuous life — that an institution which 
 should really do this, would constitute an educational machinery, 
 whose influence on the true advancement of society can hardly 
 be exaggerated. But" then, it would appear, "in order that 
 such an organization should produce the full beneficial effect of 
 what it is capable, it is above all things essential that it should 
 keep itself free from sectarian teaching, and from everything calcu- 
 lated to exert religious prejudices.^' There must be no " adoption 
 of a fixed creed by the Established Chm-ch." 
 
 The writer of the article accordingly proceeds to sketch out 
 what he considers " should be the status and duties of the man 
 who will take the place of the existing clergyman as the head and 
 representative in every parish and district of the National 
 Church. 
 
 " First, as to his designation ; he might be termed the rector, a 
 name to which we are already accustomed, and which does not neces- 
 sarily imply a religious teacher. He should be chosen, primarily, 
 for moral, intellectual, and social qualities, of a much higher 
 character than are now expected." Among other things, it 
 appears, " he should be specially trained in the laws of health 
 and their practical application, and in the principles of the most 
 advanced politiccd and social economy. His religion should be 
 quite free from sectarian prejudices, but his private opinions on
 
 64 A CHARGE. 
 
 religious matters would be no subject for inquiry. He should, 
 however, be of a religious frame of mind, so as to be able to work 
 sympathetically with the clergy of the various religious bodies 
 in his district, and excite in them neither distrust nor antagonism. 
 He must have a fair knowledge of physiology, and of simple 
 medicine and surgery, of the rudiments of law and legal procedure, 
 of the principles of scientific agriculture, and of the natural-history 
 sciences, as well as whatever is considered essential to the edu- 
 cation of a cultivated man." 
 
 "The duties of the parish rector would comprise, among 
 others, all those of the existing clergyman ; hut he would never 
 conduct religious services of any kind (sic, ital.). The parish 
 church, with its appurtenances, would, however, be under his 
 entire authority, in trust for the whole body of parishioners, to 
 be used for religious services by all or any duly organized 
 religious bodies, under such arrangements as he might find to 
 be most convenient for all. Any religious body should be able 
 to claim the use of the chui-ch as a right (subject to the equal 
 rights of all other bodies) ; the only condition being that it should 
 possess a permanent organization, and that its ministers should 
 be an educated class of men, coming up to a certain standard of 
 intellectual culture and moral character." 
 
 " The rector would himself lecture in the church on moral, 
 social, sanitary, historical, philosophical, or any other topics which 
 he judged most suitable to the circumstances of his parishioners. 
 He would also allow the church to be used dm-ing the week for 
 any purpose not inconsistent with the main objects of his posi- 
 ■ tion. His knowledge of law, and his position as ex-ofiicio magis- 
 trate, would enable him to settle almost all the petty disputes 
 among his parishioners, and so, greatly diminish lawsuits. He 
 would be an ex-officio member of the School Board, and of the 
 governing body of any other public educational institution in 
 his district. It would be his duty to see that new legislative 
 enactments were brought to the notice of the persons they 
 chiefly aifected, so that no one could offend through ignorance. 
 He might, if he pleased, visit the sick, if his services were asked 
 for, but this would be altogether voluntary. It would be an 
 essential part of his duty to be on good terms with the ministers 
 of all religious sects in his district, to bring them into friendly 
 relations with each other, and to induce them to work harmo- 
 niously together for moral and educational objects."
 
 A CHARGE. 65 
 
 " Of course there would be some high officers fulfilling the 
 duties of bishops, or inspectors over the rectors ; and over the 
 whole a Supreme Board, or a Minister of Public Instruction ; but 
 these are matters which would offer no difficulty in an institution 
 of which the main features are so well marked out." ('Macmillan's 
 Magazine,' No. 162, pp. 498-503.) 
 
 The writer of this article, it must be allowed, has done some 
 service in attempting fairly to embody in an actual form the 
 theory, which is the only approved one in the present day, 
 among the friends of " disestablishment and disendowment," viz. 
 the application, to all things hitherto regarded as sacred, of the 
 process of utilization and secularization, on principles unde- 
 nominational, non-religious, and therefore, in the fullest sense 
 of the term, irreligious. We know that, on the principles of 
 physical hydrostatics, water will not rise above its level ; and it 
 is simply impossible, in the philosophy of the moral world, that 
 that which springs from a source which is of the earth, earthy, 
 can produce results which are from above, derived from the 
 supernal fountain of things heavenly. There can be but one 
 result. The experiment was tried by a nation of old; and 
 this was the verdict pronounced upon it, and proved by bitter 
 experience to be true. " For my people have committed two 
 evils ; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and 
 hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
 water" (Jer. ii. 13). The secularized "rector," and his dese- 
 crated parsonage, will be looked to in vain for even the temporal 
 and social benefits and blessings to the peo^Dle around him, of 
 which " the village j)reacher's modest mansion " was once the 
 home and centre. Our churches, no doubt, would, many of 
 them, be excellent lecture-halls, and grand concert-rooms; but 
 it is earnestly to be hoped Churchmen will do nothing, in 
 a would-be "utilizing" of sacred buildings, to pave the way for 
 utter desecration and degradation. 
 
 The exclusion of the religious, or as it is called now-a-days 
 the " denominational " or " sectarian " element, must infallibly 
 exclude any effective inculcation even of the moral lessons which 
 in modern systems are to be all in all. "Let all bitterness, 
 and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put 
 away from you, with all malice : and be ye kind one to another, 
 tender-hearted, forgiving one another " — this is the lesson 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 A CHARGE. 
 
 which patrons of British and Foreign schools, " Unsectarian," 
 and even Secular schools, would wish to teach — but where is to 
 be found the motive, or the example ? Not where the Apostle 
 found it — " even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be 
 ye THEEEFOKE followers of God, as dear children ; and walk in 
 love, as Christ also hath loved us " — here is the same motive, 
 the same example come in again — " as Christ also hath loved us, 
 and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God 
 for a sweet-smelling savour." (Eph. iv. 31, 32; v. 1, 2.) We are 
 here at once — and on Christian principles, and the principles 
 of human nature, inevitably — in the very midst of " dogma," 
 the very deepest, inward mysteries of Christian Faith. Divine 
 Wisdom has long ago set before us the choice — the only choice 
 we have. " Either make the tree good and his fruit good," 
 said our Blessed Lord ; " or else make the tree corrupt, and his 
 fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." " For of 
 thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather 
 they grapes." (S. Matt. xii. 33 ; S. Luke, vi. 44.)
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Recently Published. 
 
 CHARGE, 1871. 
 Visitation Courts and Synods. A Charge 
 
 delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Maidstone, 
 at the Ordinary Visitation in May, 187 1. Price \s. 
 
 The Unity of a Christian Kingdom in the 
 
 One Church of God. A Sermon preached in Canterbury 
 Cathedral, February 27, 1872, being the Day of National 
 Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Recovery of H.R.H. 
 Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Price is.
 
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