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 OUR DUTY IN DANGER. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 THE REV. CANON HOLE 
 
 OF CAUNTON MANOR, NEWARK, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ANNUAL MEETING 
 
 OP THE 
 
 OHUECH DEFEI^CE INSTITUTION^ 
 ON MONDAY, JULY 9, 1883. 
 
 '*In what place, therefore, ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither 
 our God shall fight for us."— Nehemiah iv. 20. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE CHURCH DEFENCE INSTITUTION 
 
 9, Bridge Sttieet, Westminster. 
 
 1883.
 
 OUK DUTY IN DANGER, 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the Church Defence Institution, 
 held at the National Society's House on July 9th, 1883, the 
 Eight Hon. H. Cecil Raikes, M.P., having moved, "That in 
 view of the good work already done by the Church Defence 
 Institution in setting before the people of this country the true 
 position, history, and value of the Established Church, as also 
 of the continued agitation in furtherance of the Disestablishment 
 movement, this meeting is of opinion that the Church Defence 
 Institution is deserving of the hearty support of Churchmen ": — 
 
 The Rev. Canon Hole, in supporting the resolution, said : — 
 My lord, ladies, and gentlemen, — I know no Society connected 
 with the Church which is so honourably patronised (on paper), 
 and which has such large sympathies (verbal) from our brethren, 
 whatever may be their longitude or latitude, their height or their 
 depth, in other regions of thought — I do not know any institu- 
 tion which has been so slightly scorched by the vitriol or smeared 
 with the treacle of criticism, and yet has received so small a share 
 of that general practical support which everybody says it so well 
 deserves — as the Church Defence Institution. It is the old story 
 of the man who had great facility in expressing his commisera- 
 tion when any neighbour was in trouble — " no one knew how 
 much he felt for him " — until he was silenced by the Quaker's 
 inquiry, " Friend, hast thou felt for him in thy pocket ?" That 
 little drop of biting acid exposed the base metal beneath the 
 superficial plating, and the coarse wood was visible through the 
 gaps of the thin veneer. A society has been formed to deprive 
 the Church of its national position and of its ancient property. 
 The process is called " liberation,'' and closely resembles that 
 form of procedure by which, some century ago, the traveller on 
 the lone heath of Hounslow was liberated of his purse ; and this 
 society, we are told, has an income of 10,000/. a year and agents 
 in every part of the country ; whereas the Society organised in 
 defence of the Church of England has an income of 4,000/. only. 
 
 Why is it so ? There are certain elderly ladies and gentlemen 
 who seem never to recognise the proximity of an omnibus until 
 the pole is parallel with their right ear. And there are, un- 
 hai)pily, a largo number of people in the Church of England 
 who will not believe in danger because there is no uproar in 
 their own street. If there be any peril. It is a long way from 
 them ; and why should they be afraid ? They have all the
 
 courage of the absentee landlord, who wrote from his cosy club 
 in London to his Irish agent, " Don't let them suppose for a 
 moment that by shooting you they will in the least degree in- 
 timidate me." But only wilful blindness, or mean selfish apathy, 
 only the heart waxed gross, and the ear dull of hearing, can 
 ignore the peril. 
 
 Some say, " We are fully aware of all these schemes of attack, 
 but we have too much faith to fear. It is not a matter for a 
 Society, for circulars and subscriptions. The ark of the Church 
 may seem to travel unsteadily at times over the rough places of 
 the world, but woe to Uzzah if he put forth his hand to touch 
 it ! Will not God maintain His own cause ? Is it not written 
 of His Church, ' No weapon that is formed against thee shall 
 prosper, and every tongue that is raised against thee in judg- 
 ment thou shalt condemn.' You cannot disestablish the truth, 
 the faith once delivered to the saints. You cannot disendow 
 those unsearchable riches which empower men to say, ^ Silver 
 and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the 
 name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' The 
 Church has not been for generations so strong, so full of ener- 
 getic zeal, as now. Let each go on working in his own sphere 
 of duty and all will be well." 
 
 We know that He will maintain His own cause ; but it will 
 be through human agency, and you and I may promote or 
 hinder it. Proofs come to us from time to time — signal indica- 
 tions — it may be when we least hoped for them, as on two recent 
 occasions,* that He will not allow His truth to fail ; but they 
 follow work and prayer. And work and prayer, without which 
 faith is dead, being alone, have no parochial bounds. It is with 
 us Christians building up a spiritual house, restoring the old 
 waste places, renewing that which has been decayed by the 
 fraud and malice of the devil, as with the Jews in the days of 
 Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem. It was not only that they 
 which builded on the walls and which bore burdens wrought 
 every one with one of his hands in the work and with the other 
 held a weapon ; it was not only that every man did the work 
 assigned to him ; but because the work was great and large, 
 and they were separated on the wall far from one another they 
 were commanded in what place they should hear the sound of 
 the trumpet to resort thither. And it is so with us. We 
 are not only to do our own work, but we are to be ready to 
 march to the relief of others. So we of the Church are sum- 
 moned to unite and repel the enemy, ever changing his place 
 
 * The rejection of the Bills for Abolition of Oaths, and for Marriage with a 
 Deceased Wife's Sister.
 
 4 
 
 and method of attack ; and, as in our army the different regi- 
 ments are trained and armed for the various emergencies of war, 
 and are not only taught in the barrack each soldier his duty, but 
 are massed together in the camp that they may know how to act 
 in unison, so must we not only be valiant and stand fast, and 
 quit us like men, and be strong wherever we are placed, but we 
 must be ready to march to support the weak when the cry is 
 raised, '^ Come over and help us." Wherefore, it must be the 
 plain duty of faithful soldiers, pledged to contend earnestly 
 for the faith, to support institutions such as this ; and the main- 
 tenance of that faith is a matter of subscriptions and societies. 
 For societies like this not only notify the presence of the enemy 
 and the points of his attack, but, having made his stratagems a 
 special study, they can explain them to those who are ignorant 
 of his devices. And they know how to confound and defeat 
 him if they be duly supplied with the munitions of war. 
 
 As to the argument that you cannot disestablish and disendow 
 the truth, or destroy Divine institutions^ they who use it seem to 
 disregard the very awful witness of history that, though the 
 Church itself is imperishable, Churches may fall, like stars from 
 the firmament. It is impossible to destroy the true Vine ; but 
 vineyards have disappeared because the phylloxera of sin was at 
 their roots. And suppose that the Church of England, disestab- 
 lished and disendowed, were still to retain all which she values 
 most, and were ultimately to acquire an influence more truly 
 national than she had ever known in the hearts of the people, 
 what should we anticipate meanwhile — a blessing or a curse — 
 upon those who deliberately reject not only the system but the 
 main principles of Christianity ? And during that process of 
 recovery the mere thought is intolerable of the desolation and 
 distress which would ensue in countless places where there 
 would be no public worship, no means of grace, no true consola- 
 tion in pain. What would become of the poor of England ? At 
 this moment there is hardly a village in the land in which there 
 is not a man ready to answer the first call of sickness and sor- 
 row — to minister to the souls and bodies of the poorest, and 
 minister as lovingly as to the noble, as to the rich, to advise in 
 perplexity, to relieve in want. Yet a system which brings to 
 almost every home this sympathy and help is to be disestab- 
 lished, and the estate which supports it is to be disendowed. 
 
 And when we, whose privilege it is not only to preach the 
 Gospel to the poor, but to realise its Divine obligations by 
 sharing their distress, by visiting the fatherless and widow in 
 their affliction, by comforting those who are in any trouble by 
 the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God — 

 
 when we protest against our eviction, which is intended if it is 
 not avowed, we are accused of seeking worldly influence, of 
 gratifying our vanity, of desiring to lord it over God's heritage, 
 and a cry is raised of priestcraft and sacerdotal pretension. 
 " Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." Priests we 
 are, and priests we shall be until an (Ecumenical Council re- 
 arranges the forms of Church government in Christendom. 
 But, surely, there is no craft, no pious fraud, nor personal pride, 
 in defending that which has been committed to our trust, not 
 only as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, but as 
 guardians of the children and trustees of the property of the 
 Church. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Then they accuse us of political bias, and they say that we 
 want to meddle with the Legislature. My own experience — 
 and it has been somewhat large—has been that I never heard 
 of a Bishop or an Archdeacon or of a dignitary of the Church 
 advising his younger brethren to take a side in politics. I be- 
 lieve that there are a great many men who, like myself, would 
 have considerable difficulty in answering the question, " What 
 is your political designation?" I believe that the Clergy 
 honestly criticise measures and appointments, if they criticise 
 them at all, and that they criticise without reference to the poli- 
 tical opinions of those who make them ; and, therefore, it does 
 seem to me a little hard that if, having votes, we use them, or if, 
 having strong convictions, we express them, that we should be 
 thus censured. It seems to me a little hard that Bishops and 
 Clergy should be described in the newspapers and delineated in 
 Punch as old women. And I must say that some of my dear 
 friends, the laymen, seem to me to think that we, who, when 
 we were at the University with them, held our own not only on 
 the stream and on the sward, and over the stone walls and the 
 brooks, but in the schools, upon taking orders took leave of our 
 virility and of our physical and mental power. I think it is still 
 more hard to expect us not to make a little demonstration when 
 things which we feel of most vital interest are not going as we 
 think they should — not only to behave like that brave Spartan 
 lad who smiled when the fox was gnawing away under his 
 garment, but to superintend cheerfully our own hari kari. It 
 reminds me of a very clever burlesque I once read upon the 
 foolish, high-flown, over-wrought style of our modern novel- 
 writers, in which the hero, when about to be thrown from a 
 very tall tower, was particularly requested, if he had any re- 
 mark to make upon the proceeding, to make it in a whisper, 
 because there was a wood-pigeon sitting on two eggs in a tree 
 contiguous to the place of execution. (L^^ughter and cheers.)
 
 6 
 
 They say, moreover, that our notions are antiquated. Well, 
 our notions are antiquated, because the truth is ancient and 
 immutable. They say that we are opposed to the genius of the 
 age. The religion of the Cross and of self-denial, purity, and 
 hard work, always was oj)posed to the genius of the age. They 
 say we are opposing civilisation. I have never met with a 
 satisfactory definition of civilisation ; but, if it means mere 
 knowledge, then the power of civilisation to do away with war, 
 and to lessen suffering, and to promote the happiness of the 
 people at large, has yet to be proved. They say that we are 
 opposed to science. There is no class of men who so admire 
 science as we Christians of the Church, because we know that 
 in the end it must endorse, as it always has done, the statements 
 of Revelation. They say that we are obsolete and moribund. 
 '^ In the beginning was the Word;" and the Word has said, 
 '' Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." 
 
 Then it is said that not only should minorities give way to 
 majorities, but that, as the temporal power is supreme, we 
 should never seem to come into contact or opposition with it. 
 They say that while in all other arguments and difficulties 
 people are ready to make concessions, we, of the Church, are 
 always obstinate. It is because we have to defend that which is 
 not ours to concede — because we are told to buy the truth, and 
 get understanding, and get wisdom, for all the things that we 
 can desire are not to be compared with it — but sell it not. We 
 cannot concede one jot or one tittle when we appeal to the law 
 and the testimony, because we feel that if one link is taken from 
 the chain which binds us to the shore of eternal truth, we may 
 drifb into unknown seas. They ask us to make a breach in our 
 own citadel ; and they know, while they ask, that, so long as 
 we can keep the bank of the reservoir intact, the great water- 
 flood shall not come nigh us ; but when there is a fissure or an 
 opening — and especially if we put out a hand to make it — it 
 will be as when one letteth out water ; and who shall stem the 
 tide? (Hear, hear.) 
 
 We cannot make a concession. A very simple old man in 
 my village had a wild and vicious cow, and she ran Her 
 Majesty's lieges who went upon the pathway of the field. In 
 reply to their remonstrances, the owner of the cow fastened a 
 piece of sacking over the animal's eyes. A man told me — and 
 ^^ he stands in the comitium to witness if I lie," that is, he lives 
 in the county of Nottingham — this man told me that he remarked 
 to the owner of the cow, as he passed through the field, that it 
 was a great pity that the poor animal could not see to drink in 
 a pond hard by ; and, when he returned, the benevolent owner
 
 had cut a small hole in the sacking over the animaPs right eye. 
 My lord, was this concession a success ? Did this compromise 
 ensure a lasting peace ? Did the cow honourably conform with 
 the intentions of her benevolent master ? On the contrary, she 
 abused her freedom. She abused the first opportunity she had 
 of exercising it, by charging the man who had proposed itj and 
 running him out of the field. (Laughter and cheers.) 
 
 My lord, ladies, and gentlemen, pardon me if I seem to go 
 too abruptly "from grave to gay, from lively to severe;" for, 
 indeed, I speak every word from my heart ; and what I mean is 
 that, in following the things that make for peace, as our duty is 
 as Christians, and especially as ministers, let us never be de- 
 ceived by that vile counterfeit which means apathy, cowardice, 
 surrender, " Miser am pacem vel hello heno mutari.^' " They 
 make a desert, and they call it peace." We are attacked, and 
 we must repel our assailants ; and our defence must be organised, 
 because we are fighting against trained troops. And I do not 
 know how we can have a better organisation than this of the 
 Church Defence Institution. To its vigilance we owe in a large 
 degree the apprisals of our danger — the lighting of the beacon ; 
 and through its wise, observant, and courageous zeal we know 
 the weak parts of the enemy's line as well as we know the in- 
 justice of his claim. We are forewarned of the invasion, and we 
 are forearmed to repel it. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Church Defence Institution has had great success. " Non 
 .nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam." We 
 have our commander-in-chief at our head, and we have more 
 than thirty bishops to support him, with noble men having noble 
 hearts who feel that. 
 
 Not to the past, but to the future, looks true nobility, 
 And finds its blazon in posterity — 
 
 with tried and trusted champions of the Faith — men whose 
 praise is in the Churches for their loyalty and zeal. And let* me 
 ask — and I know that I shall have it — special praise and special 
 sympathy for those men who have gone almost single-handed to 
 attack the vantage-ground of the enemy, and have not only dis- 
 turbed but in some cases dispersed him.* But, in spite of all 
 those auspices and of this aid, there is still great work to be done. 
 " The agitation against the union of the Church and State is 
 still kept alive by parties who, for various reasons, are interested 
 in its dissolution ff a large amount of misrepresentation is con- 
 tinuously published wilh regard to the principles and the rights 
 
 * I mean such men as Mr. Byron Reed, Mr. Helm, and Mr. W. H. Mason, 
 t See Report for 1882-3.
 
 of the Church ; Bills to impede her progress, to weaken her 
 authority ; to evade her laws, are constantly brought before Par- 
 liament, in the next Session a motion is to be submitted in 
 favour of disestablishment ;* and, therefore, my lords, and ladies 
 and gentlemen, thanking you for your kind and patient sym- 
 pathy, I beg to support the resolution. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 * The Disestablishment Question.— At the Liberation Society's recent 
 triennial conference it was resolved that, in view of recent occurrences within 
 the English Church Establishment, and of the advanced state of public opinion, 
 the question of disestablishment should be raised in the House of Commons in 
 the present Parliament. Since then the Executive Committee have decided on 
 the expediency of submitting a motion in favour of the disestablishment of the 
 Church of England in the course of next Session ; and have requested Mr. 
 Richard, M.P., to give notice thereof before the close of the present Session, 
 which he has consented to do. This motion will be in addition to those relating 
 to Scotland and Wales, of which notice has been given by Mr. Peddie and Mr. 
 Dillwyn. Arrangements ore being made for a vigorous agitation in support of 
 the several motions during the recess. — Daily Papers, July 1883. 
 
 Speeches pubHshed by the 
 
 CHURCH DEFENCE INSTITUTION, 
 
 9, BRIDGE STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 
 
 THE PRIMATE ON CHURCH DEFENCE, 
 
 Being a Speech made by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 at the Annual Meeting of the Church Defence Institution, July 9, 
 1883. Price Id. 
 
 SPEECH of the Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. in the House of 
 Commons, May 16, 1878, on Mr. Miall's Motion for the Disestablishment and 
 Disendowment of the Church. Price Id. 
 
 A SPEECH delivered in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, May 9, 1871, 
 by SIR ROUNDELL PALMER, M.P. for Richmond (now Lord Selborne), in 
 opposition to Mr. Miall's Motion for the Disestablishment of the National 
 Churches of Great Britain. Price \d. 
 
 Printed for the Church Defence Institution, St. Stephen's Palace Chambers, 9, Bridge Street, 
 Westminster, S.W.
 
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