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 I E) RARY 
 OF THE 
 U N IVLRSITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 HOME RE-UNION. 
 
 TWO PAPERS 
 
 KKAD AT THE 
 
 DIOCESAN CONFERENCE, 
 
 Hdd at Truro, October 27th and 28th, 1881, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Right Hox. EARL NELSON 
 
 AND THE 
 
 Rev. PAUL BUSH, 
 
 (Hector of Duloe), 
 WITH THE DISCUSSION THAT FOLLOWED. 
 
 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 
 W. Wells Gardner, 2, Paternoster Buildinqs, E.G. 
 
 
 Ant> at the Office of the Society, 7, Whitehall, S.W. 
 
 
 2cL. ; by Post, 2id.
 
 Truro Diocesan Conference) 
 
 1881. 
 
 PAPERS AND DISCUSSION UPON 
 HOME RE-UNION. 
 
 TheEev. P. Bush (Duloe) moved "That the objects 
 for which the Home Ee-Union Society exista are worthy 
 of earnest and practical support." He said :— The first 
 thought which will naturally Buggeat itself to those 
 now present, who have not given the subject of 
 Home Ee-union much consideration, will probably 
 be, that the time of this Conference could be more 
 profitably employed by considering a more practical sub- 
 ject. They will remind us how the eirenicon which a few 
 years since was addressed to the Wesleyan Conference, 
 praying that large and influential religious society, 
 which now numbers its five million communicant 
 members, like another eirenicon which was proposed by 
 the Church of Eome by one of the most devoted 
 of English Churchmen, was rejected. They will 
 tell us that so long as there is so much disunion 
 among English Churchmen all our efforts for the 
 re-union of Christians will be vain, and that the 
 only answer we shall receive from Nonconformists will 
 be, ** Settle your own differences before ygu invite ns to 
 join you." 
 
 But can we accept these as reasons for not pro. 
 moting Home Ee-union? When we remember how 
 earnestly our blessed Lord prayed in the Temple the 
 night before His Passion, in that player, which has 
 been called by the Fathers of the Church, •* The 
 Great Intercession," that the visible union of His dis- 
 ciples might be a witness to the world that the Father 
 had sent Him, dare we say that He prayed for what has 
 been described as a " benevolent dream " ? Dare we say 
 that the union of Christians, who came so very rear Ei»i 
 heart, 13 no concern of ours? that we jray go on, year 
 after year, without making any eSoct that thoae who are
 
 2 
 
 now separated from ns, ma? be one with na P Let these 
 who are discouraged by the cold reception which the 
 Bishop of Lincoln's ** Ireuicum Wesley anum " met 
 with, take into account the number of Dissenting 
 ministers who have sought, and still seek, ordination at 
 that Bishop's bauds. Let those who maintsiin that our 
 own divisions incapacitate ua from invitiag other Chris- 
 tians t ) j nn our Church, remember that a diversity of 
 ritual is not inconsistent with true loyalty to the Church 
 and a hearty, nnresreved assent and consent to her Book 
 of Common Prayer. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that our divisions are a hin- 
 drance to ns in our efforts to bring within the 
 Church's fold those who are at present without ; but are 
 not these divisions often exaggerated P Is there not 
 every year greater toleration of the different parties and 
 schools of thought in the Church P Men meet together, 
 clergy and laity, in Buri>decanal Synods, in Diocesan Con- 
 f erences at Church Congre8ses,and the more they meet the 
 more they learn in how much they agree, in how little they 
 differ : in non-essentials there may be diversity, but in 
 essentials there is unity, and in all things charity. If 
 then, in spite of, or rather besanse of, errors without, 
 and diviitions within, it is our duty to promote 
 re-union, how may we best do soP The Home 
 Ee-Union Society was formed some years ago for 
 the purpose of " presenting the Church of England in a 
 conciliatory attitude towards those who regard them- 
 selves as outside her pale, so as to lead towards the 
 corporate re- union of all Christians holding the doctrines 
 of the ever-blessed Trinity and the Incarnation and 
 Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is by working 
 on the lines of this society, and under its guidance, that 
 we shall best promote unity. 
 
 It was said, not long since, that " the several dif- 
 ferent Nonconformist bodies are simply different regi- 
 ments in the same general army of the Church 
 of Christ in England," and this would seem to 
 be the opinion which, strange to say, some Churchmen 
 have, that the Church of Christ in England is only one 
 of many religious systems'— all equally good ; but it is 
 not by ignoring the errors of Nonconformists, or lower- 
 ing the standard of our teaching that we shall promote 
 corporate re-union ; but rather by maintaining the whole 
 truth committed to us from the beginning, seeking to 
 raise those up who have fallen short of the full 
 teaching as revealed to us in the Bible. The 
 Churchman who is persuaded to lay the foundation stone of _ ^
 
 3 
 
 a Baptist Chapel, or to allow his namo to be placed on the 
 list of patrons of a bazaf^r in behalf of a CoDgregatioual 
 Church, may acquire a momentary reputation for liber- 
 ality, his broad Churchmanship will in all probability be 
 applauded, and contrasted with the narrow and anti- 
 quated views of some of his neighbours ; but such a 
 proceeding will not have the desired effect of 
 attracting any honest Bissenter to the Church, 
 and is more likely to perpetuate divisions among 
 Christians than to heal them. Nonconformists 
 separated from the Church ; not the Churoh 
 from them : and wa shall not win them back to the 
 Church by ourselves becoming sectarian, even for a day. 
 To do, or say, anything which might lead them to sup- 
 pose that we regard their respective societies as, like the 
 Churoh. ** built upon the foundation of the apostles 
 and prophets," would be to act as though no 
 visible Church had ever been ordained of God, and 
 must delay the coming of that time, which our 
 blessed Lord prayed for, and His Church prays for, and 
 which we know must come, when all shall be one. 
 
 But without surrendering one particle of that body of 
 truth.which the Church holds, without compromising any 
 Church principle, there are ways of promoting re-union, 
 which are open to all of us, whether clergy or laymen* 
 One way, need I say it ? is by being courteous to Non. 
 conformists ; working with them whenever we can do so, 
 without sacrificing truth to peace, as, e.g., in the cause 
 of temperance, or by availing ourselves of such an oppor. 
 tunity as was offered us last July, when the Archbishop, 
 11 Bishops, and among them our own Dioceson, and many 
 clergy and laity of the Church, united with the leaders 
 of different sects, in inviting us to seb apart a day for 
 prayer and humiliation for the sins of our nation : and 
 whenever we can work with them, it must not be in a 
 half-hearted or patronizing way, as if it were an act of 
 condeecension on our part, and we were doing them a 
 favour, but with all hoaesty and earneetness, and at the 
 same time giving them the full credit of teaching the 
 truth Bo far as we believe they have taught it ; and they 
 certainly have taught it, and do teach it more fully ,than 
 some of us think. 
 
 Those who teadthe reports presented at the late 
 Wefcleyan Conference must have been strnck with 
 the reality of their work, and with the thorough way 
 *a which they do it. They must have been strnck, too, 
 with the small amount of bitterness which was manifested 
 by the ep9ftkers. When we remember the seotaxian
 
 animo*iity of former days, may we not hope that the 
 Christian spirit which the Home Ee-union Society has 
 ever shewn in its different controversies with Noncon- 
 formiats is already bearing fruit ? If we trace Dissent 
 to its beginnings, it is quite impossible that we can aquit 
 the Church of all blame in the matter ; each sect bears 
 witness to the omission of some Church teaching. Those 
 who first separated from the Church did so, for the most 
 part, because some Church doctrine, or practice, or 
 privilege, was denied them ; and no one can read the 
 history of the early Methodists without a feeling of shame 
 and sorrow that the Church should have allowed them to 
 leave her, instead of enrolling them as a guild of church 
 workers, as in fact they described themselves—" extra- 
 ordinary messengers raised up t) provoke the ordinary 
 ones to jealousy." It was the Church's intolerance, or 
 the Church's exclusiveness, or the Church's neglect of her 
 duty ia former years, dwarfing rather than nurturing 
 their spiritual growth, spiritually starving them ; it was 
 this which induced many earnest men and women to leave 
 the Church, and however wrong they were in leaving her, 
 because of the spots and wrinkles which it was easy to 
 detect, we ia Cornwall cannot deny that God has worked 
 by and through those who went out from us. We cannot 
 deny that He has blessed the zeal of many who received 
 no outward call to the ministry, and yet have taught 
 the truth in a fragmentory imperfect manner. This is aa 
 true on the one side as it is true on the other that it is 
 owing to the neglect of God's ordained ministers that 
 our own institutions have failed to fulfil their mission. 
 Then again there is another reason for which the Home 
 Ee-union Society exists, and for which it deserves the 
 hearty support of all churchmen, i.e., because one of its 
 objects is to remove those practical abuses in the Church's 
 system which have so long been a atumbang block to 
 all religious men— Churchmen and Nonconformists alike. 
 Isome abuses have already been removed ; Churchmen of 
 old clung to them, but they are gone There are others 
 which, though not gone, are going, such as the law of 
 patronage, theabsenca of self-government and discipline, 
 and the assumption by the Privy Council of spiritual 
 powers ! These are a sore injury to the Church, and 
 prevent other Christians joining her ; but the day is not 
 far distant when we trust that these, too, will be 
 reckoned amopg the evils of a former generation of 
 Churchmen. Meatitime, notwithstanding these evils, 
 there is a growing approxifflai>ion on the part of 
 Nonconformists to the Church's system, Many of them
 
 Bubscribe to one at least o! her creada. In the architec. 
 turo of tleir sacred buildingi, in tlie character of their 
 Bervicea. in the formg used in conducting those services, 
 in the dresB and address of their ministera, the Church 
 is there guide. 
 
 Surely, then, the time has come, when Churchmen 
 should support those who are eneeavouiiDg. on the 
 one hand, to remove the glaticg anomalies and 
 defects in the Church's system, and on the other hand, 
 by forbearance and patient explanation to " inBtrnot 
 those who oppose themselyea." By so doing, we shall 
 not only relieve the Church of much that checks her 
 growth, and injures her constitution, but may we not 
 also hope that in time we shall teach Noc conformists, 
 the truth -a truth, be it remembered, which many an 
 English Churchmaa, aye, and English priest, of the 
 last generation, was slow to believe -that the Church 
 to which we belong is no new Church, dating from the 
 Eeformation, but one and the same with the Pre- 
 reformation Church, and that while she is Protestant, she 
 is also Catholic and Apostolic ? - (applause). 
 
 Earl Nelson, seconded the motion. He said . 
 It is needless to dwell on the importance of i^n-ty 
 among all calling themselves by the name of Christ. 
 Brotherly love is an essential part of Christianity. 
 St eaul'a declarations against schisms aud divisions 
 are clear and frequent. The Bible history of the 
 unity of the early Church gives no uncertain sound, 
 while our Blessed Lord's Prayer for unity that the world 
 may know and accept His mission from the Father is 
 overwhelmingly conclusive, that unity on the part of all 
 profesaing Christians is a thing to be earnestly prayed 
 for and striven after. Moreover, all Christians are at 
 present prepared to allow tbis in the abstract, and to 
 strive after unity according to their different lights. It 
 is pleasing to believe that there are at the present time 
 the foreahadowings of a spirit of unity, aa if it was 
 God'a will that, out of the very intensity of our past 
 strifes and bitternesses, there should grow up a yearning 
 desire for unity and peace. There is a greater desire 
 among some of the oMer Nonconforming bodies, so far 
 to sink their original animosities, as to arrange for a fre- 
 quent interchange of pulpits among those who once so 
 grievously differed. Indeed they boaht that they are 
 willing to grant such an interchange with th<^ clergy, if 
 we would only recognise their status as ministers and 
 allow them to preach in our churches. It is well known 
 that a public liturgy and singing in Churches has become
 
 a m%rk of unity instead of a cansa of division. It is 
 
 pretty freely admitted that one of the great objects of 
 the Methodist (Eoumenioal Council was the promotion of 
 re-nniou between the minor Methodist bodies and the 
 Wesleyan Connexion. 
 
 It is well' for us Churchmen to consider how far we 
 can meet this spirit, and overrule it to the furtherance 
 of God's honour and glory and the fulfilment of His 
 will. Two things must be clearly understood. First, 
 that the Church's desire for unity is based solely on 
 a desire for the promotion of our common Christi- 
 anity and for the true advancement of the kingdom of 
 our common Lord. And all ideas of worldly triumph at 
 the reconciliation of those that have gone from 
 us, or of worldly aggrandisement and power that 
 might accrue to the Church as a political body 
 musb be utterly discarded from our consideration. 
 Secondly, that while we recognise in these movements 
 among our Nonconformist brethren a right desire, we 
 must avoid the danger of satiafying this with a sham. 
 The unity to be sought after must be real, and based 
 on souod foundations. It must be a unity by which we 
 can be truly united with the whole Church from the 
 beginning. In our common warfare against infidelity 
 and error, it will not do to ignore 1,500 years of living 
 Christianity j blotting out the labour of those who, 
 having fought the gcod fight while on earth, now form 
 the largest proportion of the Great Church at rest in the 
 Paradise of God— that glorious company of witnesses 
 before whom we are privileged to contend. It is uhis 
 second principle which prevents us from at once meeting 
 the Noiiconformists half-way, lest we should satisfy a 
 really true desire after unity by a phantom unity, which 
 might, in some sort, have the semblance of unity without 
 its real power and strength. The truth in love, if you 
 will, not love gained for a time by the suppteasion of 
 essential truths. Bearing these things in mind, let us 
 see what can be gathered from Scripture as to our rule 
 of life towards those who are at present either separated 
 from us or being members of the same body do not 
 hold bur party shiboleths ; for a very great step towards 
 true unity will be gained if we strive to act towards 
 these according to the true teaching and practice of our 
 Lord Himself, as revealed to us in iloly Scripture. 
 
 The most frequently quoted text is S. Mark ix, 38-42, 
 which seems to lay down a general rule of conduct 
 towards individuals outside the Church— no one to be 
 hiuderdd who works in Christ's Name and ao shews a livisgr
 
 faith. And it may be ooncluded by our Lord's remarks 
 that we muat be very careful lest we cause offence to 
 any " of those little ones who believe in him " by 
 ignoring the testimony of their good deeds, or by sug. 
 geating bad motives for them, "By their fruits ye 
 shall know them," and this is further supported 
 by the Apostles, who received the imperfect teaching of 
 ApoUos, and by the acceptance of the good works of Corne" 
 lius.whf^n still a heathen, by the witness of the Holy Ghost. 
 But our blessed Lord's practice is most fully exemplified 
 by Lis kindly actions towards the Samaritans, 
 who formed, in their relation to the Jewiah 
 Church, some analogy to the relation of the 
 general body of Dissenters t3 the Church of the 
 present day. No form of orthodox Nono3nforcnity can 
 be charged with so great a divergence from the Catholic 
 Church as that which existed between the Jewa and the 
 Samaritans; therefore, if our Lord bo acted towards 
 them, how much more should we act with the same 
 spiiit of brotherly love towards those who are 
 so much less estranged from us in fundamental 
 principles ? In the Old Testament the original sin of Jero- 
 boam in separating from the worship at Jerusalem is never 
 forgotten, and the Samaritans of our Saviour's time 
 inherited, or at least had adopted, that schiam. Our 
 blessed Lord never forgot the position due to the Jewish 
 Church until she was finally cast away : He enjoins 
 obedience to the priesthood as sitting in Moses' seat, 
 notwithstanding their manifold corruptions : the 70 are 
 forbidden to enter into any city of the Samaritans, but 
 are sent forth to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. 
 And it is nowhere recorded that our Lord over entered into 
 a Synagogue of the Samaritans, though He so frequently 
 applauded their individual faith. Tet towards them 
 aa individaals He deliberately broke through that rule of 
 cruel and embittered feeling which existed betcveen the 
 Samaritan and the Jew, and He acknowledged the 
 advanced faith shewn by many of them in the parable 
 of the Good Samaritan, in the commendation of the 
 thankful leper, and in his patient teaching of the woman at 
 Jacob's well. And in this history there is a further and 
 important lesson to be learnt. It is somewhere prophe* 
 siad in reference to these very Samaritans and t'ae Jewiah 
 Church, " I will provoke you to j »alouay by tliose that 
 are no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you." 
 And so we find in the midat of their undoubted schism 
 which our Lord rebuked, " Ye worship that which 
 ye know not," " We worship that which we know, for
 
 Salvation ia of tlia Jewa." They had yet attained to a 
 g'-j^ftter fiitli Ihau many of the believing JewB, and 
 eckuowledged Christ not only aa the Meesiah on the testi- 
 mony of the woman, but *' we have he^rd him ourselvei 
 p.Tid know that this ia indeed the Saviour of the world." 
 Thia was no empty boast, for at a later period of our 
 Lord's Ministry, when the immediate deetruetion of 
 Jerusalem was at hand, and the new kingdom was about 
 to be es':ablish6d, the order went forth " To preach the 
 Gospel in Judea and in Samarirt, and to the ends of the 
 earth"; and then large numbers of these schismatics 
 gladly received the word and entered the new king- 
 dom. There era two great lessons here ; 1st. ** Not to 
 ignore, or qu nch, oi* harden the pure faith that 
 many a one who differs from our standard of belief 
 manifests in Ma daily life." There ia a terrible 
 tendency of the human heart to exaggerate our own 
 goodness and to judge everybody by the higher standard 
 of belief and morala.wbiQh our social position and advan- 
 tages, far more than any innate goodness of ours, have 
 almost compelled us to attain to. We see immorality in 
 people under various forms, and we judge them very 
 harshly by comparing them with ourselves, for- 
 getting our own social advantages and the greater 
 temptations and varying rulea of conduct by which 
 their daily life is surrounded. Much of the ptide 
 and stubbornness and political rancour of the Dissenter 
 is aggravated, if it has not been originally caused, by 
 our behaviour towards him; whereas a tender, loviog, 
 humble spirit, free from all worldly considerations, must 
 make its way and win the promised reward. 
 
 2ad. We must be careful not to forget the provoking 
 to jealousy, which the different bodies of Dissenters 
 were designed to effect, when they went out from 
 us, as they emphatically did in consequence 
 of some special error of our own, or some unduly 
 neglected teaching, which they forsooth may have after- 
 wards unduly exaggerated. As a Church we are too apt 
 to maintain our own pexfection, and to refuse to learn 
 the many shortcomings which the various Nonconformist 
 bodies would point out to us, or to acknowledge the 
 many good things which they have been permitted to 
 accomplish. They were before us as a body in the crusade 
 against intemperance. They have laboured with us for 
 years for the suppression of the slave trade and for the 
 diffusion of the Bible, and have shamed us in times past 
 by their missionary zeal. When we look back to our 
 past history, we can rejoice in the stand they made
 
 9 
 
 against persecntiDg laws and against Erasti-i-nism, and 
 wbor we look back at our past nesrl-icta we tnust allow 
 that a grdat deal of the Bin of Bchi^m mnat lie at our 
 door by oar acquiescence as a Church in evile, from 
 many of whicli we have now happily been delivered. 
 But there are many evils whicli still remain, which look 
 much more ugly from without than to us who have 
 been obliged to get accustomed to them. I will name 
 five. 1. Laws regulating the sale of patronage 
 2. The unreality of the cong4 d'4lire. 3. The practical 
 exclusion of large sections of our people from any part 
 in the ministry. 4. The want of sufficient elasticity in the 
 arrangement of our services to meet the religious feelings 
 and necessities of all classes, and of all the variously con- 
 stituted minds of our people. 5. Our own disdensiouB 
 and misunderatandings. 
 
 If we xeilly yearn for unity we must strive to remove 
 from amoug us those evils which cause so great stum- 
 bling blocks in our brother's way. Of the»e the two 
 first can be remedied by legislative means, and the reli- 
 gious Dissenter, for the sake of true religion, might be 
 expected to help towards that end. The third is a 
 matter which must be taken up from within the Church. 
 Endowed scholarships in our Theological Colleges should 
 be at once inaugurated, not only to help these of the 
 Nonconformists who are moved to join the ministry 
 of the Church, but for enabling men of all classes who 
 have a call for the ministry to be duly prepared for it, 
 however poor their worldly position m»y be. It is a 
 blessed thing to have a highly educated ministry, and to 
 have one supplied from the highest classes of our people, 
 but it caanot be defended on political any more than on 
 distinctly religious grounds that the members of any 
 class should be, as a rule, practically excluded from the 
 ministry in consequence of the absence of worldly means. 
 The fourth evil points to the importance of unity as op. 
 posed to uniformity, and to the necessity of that variation 
 of ritual which, under judicious regulations, might prove 
 most suitable to meet the religious feelings and neces- 
 sities of the variously constituted minds of our people. 
 To this end the circuits of the itinerant 
 preachers of the Primitive Methodists might be 
 made a valuable model on which to organise 
 a preaching lay agency in the Church ; for I am 
 am convinced that to many of our people the alternate 
 reading and exposition of Scripture, with hymns and 
 extempore prajef, with liberty to give vent to their 
 feelings is evidently an acceptable means of encoaiaging
 
 10 
 
 spiritual growth. My idea of unity would be that 
 all should receive the Sacraments of the Church at the 
 hands of God's duly appointed ministers, side by side 
 with the free workings of the Spirit in cur lay members, 
 but in unity with instead of in opposition to the Church's 
 more regular ministrations. 
 
 Fifth.— In considering under the fifth head our own 
 internal divisions, we really touch upon the only vital 
 points which should stand in the way of complete 
 re-union. And yet in these so called vital points how 
 little real difference there is between us ! Those who 
 ignore sacramental teaching do so very much from 
 an entire misunderstanding about the views of others 
 concerning it. The man who protests against sacra 
 ments fears lest they should be put in the place of 
 Christ, although they are only received by those who 
 hold them as the means through which Christ brings 
 His blessings to the souls of His people. Those who 
 protest against faith only protest against a formal faith 
 without fruit, and those who protest against works pro- 
 test against a trust in our own works as a means of 
 Salvation ; but what true child of God ever could have 
 faith without shewing forth imperceptively the fruits of it ; 
 or what true child of God could ever hope to do anything 
 except amid continuing shortcomings, and by the help 
 alone of God the Holy Ghost ; or how is it possible to 
 conceive a true child of God who could claim any justifi- 
 eation except through the all sufficient merit of our 
 beloved Lord P St Paul defines faith " as the assurance 
 of— or the giving substance to— things hoped for, the 
 proving or test of things not seen." And yet what won- 
 derful mistakes are made as to the possession of this 
 grace. It is commonly held that the Catholic 
 from his supposed trust in outward forms must miss the 
 grace altogether ; while the Protestant, because 
 he has realised certain feelings in his own heart of which 
 he can give account, becomes in the eyes of many the 
 sole possessor of this grace. But there is just the sam- 
 risk that a trust in religious feelings, which are quite as 
 apparent for the time being as any forms can be, might 
 damp a true faith according to St. Paul's definition of it, 
 and might end in a belief in nothing that was only hoped 
 for, and therefore not tmgible, and in the rejection of 
 everything that is only spiritual and therefore unseen. 
 St. Paul lived in the realisation of the unseen world, and 
 accepted blessings as very real which could only be 
 spiritually discerned. 
 The beat chance of re'Union is a rallying round those
 
 II 
 
 old truths held by tlie undivided Church, and clearly 
 proveable by God's Holy Word. These are the com- 
 mon iDheri^anco of ua all, but many of these are in 
 danger of being lost altogether from the very exist- 
 ence of those divisions which ifa all profess ta de- 
 plore. The first advertisement to the " Tracts for the 
 Times," published in 1834, concludes with a paragraph 
 which is worthy of careful consideration : — '* The 
 Church of Christ was intended to cope with human 
 nature in all its forms, and surely the gifts vouchsafed 
 to us are adequate for that gracious purpose. There are 
 zealous sons and servants of her English branch who see 
 with sorrow that she is defrauded of her full uspfulness 
 by particular principles aad theories of the present age, 
 which interfere with the execution of one portion of heJ^ 
 commission ; and while they consider that the revival of 
 this portion of truth is especially adapted to break up 
 existing parties in the Church, and to form instead a 
 bond of union among all who love the Lord Jesus Christ 
 iu sincerity, they believe that nothing but these neglected 
 doctrines faithfully preached will repress that extension 
 of Popery for which the ever multiplying divisions of 
 the religious world are too clearly preparing the way." 
 The effect of this teaching, begun nearly fifty years 
 ago, has resulted in a greater revival of religious life 
 than ever took place within the same period in any branch 
 of the Church, and has in the main already brought about 
 a greater unity in the employment by all of larger means 
 of grace than could have been safely dealt with before the 
 true teaching of the IJatholic Church was clearly accepted 
 among us. The more we realise our connection with 
 Christianity from the beginning, and hold firmly the 
 great doctrines upon which its foundation rests, the 
 more shall we be brought out of the trammels of party 
 strife into the true unity of the Body of Christ. On 
 these grounds I heartily second the resolution commend- 
 ing the Home Ee-uuion Society to the practical support 
 of this Diocese, feeling assured that the principles and 
 the mode of action which I have ventured to recommend 
 you to adopt are in direct accordance with the rules of 
 this society. The diocesan secretary of the society is 
 the Eev W. S. Lach-Szyrma— (applause). 
 
 The Eev H. Ovbbt said the question of Home Ee-unioa 
 came very near the hearts of every clergyman in Corn- 
 wall. One of the great obstacles in the way of unity was 
 the often fatal delusion that a man was brought into the 
 chapel simply with the object of being saved. He did 
 not recognise the higher, better, and nobler object of
 
 12 
 
 becoming a member of the Catholic Church of Christ, and 
 to live in accordance with the high aim of the Christian 
 to do hia own duty as a member of the one body— (ap- 
 plause). Christians should live as members of the one 
 Body, and it was in this idea of catholicity 
 that dissenters were deficient. Anotber obstacle 
 was the family feeling, which too often existed; 
 and a thitd was a feeling that the liturgy of the 
 Church was n<>t to them so full of the spirit of love as 
 their own extempore prayers. On this point he thought 
 it was time that the Church should adopt a service 
 more suited to an uneducated population, and lend the 
 ch»pelB and schoolroams for the ^imple reading of the 
 Holy Sc iptures, the singing of hymns, and, possibly, 
 the use o£ extempore prayers. 
 
 Earl Mount Edqcumbe : My lord, ladies, and gentle- 
 men, I cannot help adding one or two arguments to what 
 hf»s been said by the proposer and seconder of this 
 resolution, because I think some laymen connected with 
 the county cf Cornwall should express an opinion upon 
 BO important a subject. I would first especially thank 
 Lord Nelson who has come so far to give us some practical 
 help in foi warding that which I believe we all so earnestly 
 desire— (applauie). 
 
 The resolution now before the Conference is no 
 unconnected with one I brought forward last year* 
 That one had reference, however, only to the unity 
 of those who belorg to the Established Church. 
 This one has reference to the unity which we hope to 
 promote between all those who seek for Christ within 
 these realms. This diocese, I feel, holds a special position 
 in such a matter ; it has special advantages and disad- 
 vantages. I think we in Cornwall are perhaps free from 
 the trammels which exist in other dioceses I believe that 
 in no diocese is conciliation towards Nonconformists raore 
 essential than in this ; and, at tlie same time, I believe 
 there is no diocese in which conciliation is more likely to 
 be met, at any rate, in a kindlier spirit than in this — 
 (applause). The Canon Missionera who have held 
 missiooary meetings in eo many parts of the county can 
 testify to that. In politics men are kept asunder, not 
 only by differences, but also by party allegiance arising 
 from a system of party government ; but if ever there is 
 a national danger one neea that party spirit overshadowed 
 by the desire to unite in action against the common foe, 
 and I would ask whether there are not special dangers at 
 this present t'me menacing the Church, sufficient to make 
 all Christiana desire to combine to withstand those who 
 would pull down their Chriatianity— (applause).
 
 13 
 
 The objeota of this sooiety are plainly enumerated. 
 There are some, perhaps, as to which wepersonally can do 
 but little, such as the removal of all defects in the practical 
 working of the Church's system which may give offence 
 to Nonconformists; but there are others, as the pro* 
 motion of a freer social intercourse between Church- 
 men and Nonconformists, and the prayer for re- 
 union, which of course each one of us as indivi* 
 duals can help to carry out. 
 
 The cordial adoption of the resolution which has 
 been so ably placed before us may do some good 
 in this way, it it stirs up a feeling in us to do 
 all we can to promote unity in the Church of 
 Christ in preparation for His coming, if it leads 
 us to be 0!ireful, one and all, laymen and clergymen, 
 in the pulpit and out of the pulpit, to avoid any words 
 or acts which can add bitterness either by hostility or by 
 patronage ; if without assnmicg that unity must be 
 attiined by absorption into our own Church as it is, we are 
 guided by the hope that in some way, perhaps by means 
 which none of us can foraee, those who are working out 
 Qod's intentions in parallel, through separate lines, may 
 be brought nearer, we may be encouraging that general 
 desire for unity which will afford the best prospects of 
 its being realized--(loud applause). 
 
 Canon Buck : My lords, ladies, and gentlemen,— I 
 take shame to myself, and the clergy of my standing, 
 that this question should have been allowed to remain in 
 abeyance for such a time. What does Home Re-union 
 mean? It means unity. Unity is one of the great 
 cardinal doctrines of the Gospel, and, if so, ought it to be 
 allowed to drop out of sight ; ought wa ought not rather 
 to do all we can to bring it prominently before ou^ 
 people ? If we go forth and preach unity as it ought to 
 be preached, I am satisfied the hearts of men will receive 
 it— (applause), 1 hope, therefore, that this meeting will 
 take up the question earnestly. Thouaands, no doubtf 
 will be prr judieed by the thought that we of this gene- 
 ration m»y not see much fruit, but we must make a 
 beginning. Now is the time to make that beginning, 
 and now is the time for us t5 make up our minds that 
 things shall not remain longer in the state they have been. 
 Then I think we may go foruvard, and, perhaps, in a gene- 
 ration or two, our Church and others will be brought 
 together, and the time may not be so very far distant 
 when we may have a united people, a people united in 
 Christ— (applause). I cannot believe, if unity is a doctrine 
 of the Gospel, that the heart of man will refuse it, if it be 
 offered to him ai it should be offered— (applause).
 
 14 
 
 The Bishop then summed up the discussion i He said : 
 We catinot be top thankful for having this subject 
 brought before us in those most able and Christian papers 
 we have just heard read -(applause)— and we cannot be 
 too thankful for the tone the discussion has taken. 
 While on the one hand we are all alive to the fact that 
 premature compreliension might be the introduction of 
 fatal separation, on the other hand we do look forward 
 to compraheneion, not premature, which shall be real and 
 lasting union of the Church in Chriet. Lord Brougham, 
 some years ago, looking at the state of things in Eng- 
 land with quite an outside view, used to say that there 
 was not one Church in England— he was speaking of the 
 Church of England— but that there were two churches 
 which were held together by nothing beyond an external 
 bond, and if that were removed they would fly asunder. 
 I believe a more untrue view of the state of things was 
 never uttered. There are, and always will be, comple- 
 mentary tendencies in the minds of men, which have 
 existed in all schools of philosophy, and must extend to 
 all churches. That seems to be not only a metaphysical 
 but a physical fact, which philosophers have called the 
 phenomenon of polarity. Everythiijg that is beautiful, 
 and good and strong, is produced by the combination of 
 those polar forces. They have no tendency really to fly 
 asunder, owing to their different characteristics, but their 
 tendency is to blend, and as it is in all God's work so it 
 is with t be Church of Christ —(applause). Yet all that 
 Lord Brougham feared might come to pass if anything 
 like premature comprehension is produced by a sacrifice 
 of principle. But, on the other hand, we do believe that 
 the Spirit of God comes to all thoae who, whatever their 
 degree of faith, call upon Him in the name of our liord 
 Jesus Christ, the Savioar of all, but especially of them 
 that believe. If they go on ever invoking with pure 
 hearts the Spirit cf God to make his dwelling among 
 them, then surely and certiinly union will come to pass, 
 wh»n they are all permeated by the universal Spirit of 
 God, who is the one Spirit which will actually melt all 
 into one another. We have many of us stood on the bridge 
 of Lyons and watched the Ehome and the >?aone flowing 
 side by side for miles down bufcstill saparAte; yet a little 
 further we see that the mingling has begun, and in 
 another half mile no one can tell but that they were one 
 stream. So it will be in the Church of God. Let only 
 such religious feelings, and such philosophical views 
 prevail amongst ua in the Church as have been enunciated 
 this afternoon in this room, and let our dissenting bro*
 
 15 
 
 there go on in their own way, clearly and earnestly seeking 
 the Spirit of God, and endeavouring to arrive at the 
 truth, and the day will come when all parti-ooloured 
 streams will be one, flowing to the great ocean at last as 
 one Church, the fulfilment of Christ's own prayer— -(ap- 
 plase). I have much pleasure in preeentiog your earnest 
 thanks to those who have prepared this discusBion this 
 afternoon— (loud applause). 
 The resolution was then nnanimonaly adopted. 
 
 "Eoyal Cornwall Gazette," Truro.
 
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