R\. 
 
 !•..,:*( 
 
 
 - w'l'-M'j^ #-\W^ -lite
 
 "%\u ^vimp of <Sdtiatton." 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN ELY CATHEDRAL, 
 
 ON SUNDAY, JANUARY •27th, 1878, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 .Societg for promoting tije Emplonmcnt at UtrDitional Curates, 
 
 THE REV. JOHN OAKLEY, M.A., 
 
 Vicar nf St. Saviour's, Hoxtmi. 
 (Published by Bequest.) 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE SOCIETY. 
 7, WnrTBHALL, London. 
 
 1878.
 
 To 
 
 The dear Memory of One 
 
 Whose death-bed I quitted (unknowingly) 
 
 To preach this Sermon ; 
 
 Returning to find it bright to the last 
 
 with the steady tranquil Light 
 
 of 
 
 The Lamp of Salvation, 
 
 By 
 
 "Jesus Christ the Righteous':" 
 
 I reverently Dedicate these pages. 
 
 " O, ye holy and humble men of heart ; 
 " O, ye spirits and souls of the Righteous, 
 
 " Bless ye the Lord, 
 " Praise Him and magnify Him for ever."
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 " For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's 
 sake I Avill not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as 
 brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. — 
 Isaiah lxii, v. 1. 
 
 This morning's lesson belongs to the final section of the great 
 Evangelical prophec}^ It seems to find the fullest meaning 
 we are yet capable of finding in it, as we read it under the 
 influence of the faith and hopes stirred in the heart of the 
 Church by the Feast of the Epiphany. " Arise, shine for 
 Thy light is come" is its keynote.* "And the sons of 
 strangers," the prophet goes on, " shall build up Thy walls, 
 and their kings shall minister unto thee * * * there- 
 fore Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not 
 be shut day nor night ; that men may bring unto thee the 
 forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought."f 
 Such is the substance of the vision which began to be fulfilled 
 as the three wise kings trod close upon the heels of the 
 shepherds who came first to the cradle at Bethlehem ; and 
 which has gone on fulfilling itself as the kings of the earth, 
 through century after century, have become the Church's 
 nursing fathers and their queen's her nursing mothers, and as 
 the isles of the most distant seas have, one by one, been 
 brought under the dominion of Him Who was made known to 
 wise and simple by the sign of the swaddling clothes and the 
 manger. 
 
 And to this grand vision has succeeded that revelation of the 
 true office of the Saviour Whose birth was tidings of great joy 
 to all people, which was one of the lessons for last Sunday :;{; 
 " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord has 
 annointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath 
 sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to 
 the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are 
 * Is, Ix, 1. t id. V, 11. J Cap. LXI. v, 1.
 
 4 
 
 bound." And in the strength of these combined anticipations 
 — of the outward and inward power, the public and personal 
 influence, of the Redeemer and King of men for whom He 
 looked and longed, — the prophet gathers himself up, so to speak, 
 and braces himself for a strong cry of mingled earnestness 
 and joy, in the enthusiastic call to confident zeal for the Church 
 which we read just now. " For Zion's sake I will not hold my 
 peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the 
 righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation 
 thereof as a lamp that burneth. I have set watchmen upon 
 thy walls, Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace 
 day nor night ; ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, keep 
 not silence . . . Go through, Go through, the gates ; pi'e- 
 pare ye the way of the people ; cast up, cast up the highway ; 
 gather out the stones ; lift up a standard for the people. 
 Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the woiid, 
 say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy Salvation cometh ; 
 behold. His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. 
 And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of 
 the Lord : and thou shalt be called, sought out, a city not 
 forsaken."* 
 
 Accordingly nothing can be fitter than that we should turn 
 this Epiphany season to account in trying ourselves by the 
 standard of prophets and apostles in respect of our own zeal 
 for the extension of Christ's kingdom at home or abroad. And 
 this in fact is our business this morning, as regards its spread 
 at home. To it accordingly I at once turn your thoughts. 
 
 Let us keep in mind however as we descend to the details 
 of the question, the dominant ideas which are to actuate 
 us : recal the prophet's characteristic expressions. Right- 
 eousness is the burden of his song:. Salvation is the message 
 of his ideal but most real Church. It is brightness. It burns 
 as a 'amp. Her children are a crown and a diadem even to 
 their Lord. '■ Forsaken," and " desolate," ai"e to be words 
 unknown : " Hephzibah," the Lord's delight, " Beulah," the mar- 
 
 Is. LXII. vv, 1, 10, 11, 12. 
 
 <f^\ 
 
 u.uc^
 
 fied one, these are the images of their favour in His eyes. But 
 if is reward His with Him, His luork is also before Him. It is 
 work indeed. A way is to be prepared. A highway has to be 
 cast up. Stones need to be gathered out. A standard must be 
 lifted up. " Holy" and " Redeemed" are the significant names 
 of the chosen people which they must never forget. And 
 they must he sought out on the one hand, and, on the other, 
 the city of God must not be forsaken. 
 
 How can we listen quietly to such language ? If it stirs it 
 also saddens and shames us. I cannot stay to press it home 
 upon ourselves. But we can never do amiss to take in simply 
 however hastily, the glory of the ideas of prophets and 
 apostles as they forecast the Church of the redeemed. It is a 
 spiritual Society — that is, an organization and association for 
 the spirits of men, as nations and kingdoms are the organiza- 
 tions and associations for the fellowship and government of 
 man on the temporal side of his being and life. It is a perpetual 
 witness to, and provision for, his spiritual nature, and his need 
 of other food and sustenance than bread alone, other satisfac- 
 tion for the secret hunger and thirst of his soul than his own 
 reason and mind can adequately supply. It is a Society therefore 
 with principles and laws of its own — not disdaining nor invad- 
 ing the right of societies and families of men framed for 
 other, and in some instances, for scarcely lower objects, but 
 holding terms with them, recognizing and accepting them as 
 equally part of the divine order, — but offering to kings and 
 people alike a divine sanction for their authority and their 
 mutual relationship, and offering to all of them equally the 
 only true rest for their souls. It is a society, therefore which can- 
 not be ignored, yet which holds its own whether men will or 
 not; sustained in being by its direct dependence upon the 
 Lord and Giver of Life, and its correspondence to the most 
 universally felt needs of men. It keeps alive the loftiest ideas 
 of human destiny, the most awful sense of human responsi- 
 bility. It enforces these by a Divine Example of which all men 
 at their best admit the perfection and the power, enabling men to 
 reach them and discharge them by the aid of a body of teach-
 
 ing so simple and yet so profound that the wise and learned 
 find anchorage and rest in it, when the last word of scientific 
 strife is spoken, and " the wayfaring men though fools cannot 
 err therein." And it keeps up these ideas and aims, and keeps 
 alive this fellowship of man with God, by the perpetual 
 virtue of divine Sacraments, entrusted to this Society, where- 
 by the gift of new creation, brought to us in the Incarnation 
 of God may be sealed upon each individual, and kept alive 
 in him; making us "partakers of the Divine nature," so that we 
 " dwell in Him, and He in us." It is a Society therefore, finally, 
 which keeps before us the most tremendous sense of our high 
 calling, and shrinks back from no language, by which it may 
 be kept alive in our hearts and consciences ; which speaks of 
 " a holy nation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood," — " thy 
 people shall be all righteous," — "I will make thine ofiicers peace, 
 and (even) thine exactors righteousness." And we know equally 
 well the language of the New Testament, both of precept and 
 imagery, which culminates in the Apostle's vision of " a 
 glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." 
 We see then our calling, brethren. And this Society, so full of 
 light and heat from above, is further bound to let its light 
 shine around it before men ; that they too may come into it, 
 and learn to glorify God. It must be enough for ourselves, 
 this morning, to have listened once more to the terms of this 
 vocation, " called by My Name" — " called to be saints." But 
 the special appeal to us to-day is to estimate our responsibility 
 for making known the calling of God to the rest of mankind, 
 rather than that of making our own calling and election sure. 
 And in all simplicity I advocate this Society for the Employ- 
 ment of Additional Curates because I believe that amongst 
 outward agencies for doing this, as regards our fellow-country- 
 men at home, it stands out as the foremost and best possible 
 instrumentality for enlarging tlie borders of the Church, and 
 spreading the kingdom of Christ in our own land. And I 
 shall ask you to follow me in a careful consideration of its 
 claims. First, however, what is the need of such Societies, and 
 what is their true relation to the Church ?
 
 I have called this Society by implication, and I now call it 
 explicitly the most strictly and characteristically Church 
 Society we have for Home purposes, at all events. And I do so 
 for a higher and larger reason — though this is important 
 enough — than that it is absolutely free from any party bias, 
 and abstains from all manner of dictation in the bestowal of 
 its funds ; leaving the clergy whom it helps to select their 
 own colleagues, subject only to the Bishop's approval as 
 expressed in the bestowal of his licence. But the Additional 
 Curates Society does a great deal more than this to justify its 
 claims to be called perhaps the Church Society, the Society 
 which busies itself not with promoting this or that opinion or 
 idea, or even only mth promoting the EmplojTnent of 
 Additional Curates, but with the promotion and extension 
 of the Church of England itself. It is the nearest approach 
 we have at this moment, as I hope to make you see, to a central 
 body sitting and taking counsel, either through its general Com- 
 mittee, or some of its sub-committees, on the practical affairs 
 of the Church at large, and taking steps to meet, — on the 
 best plan that can be devised, — the need which is perceived, 
 whatever it be. The Society in this way succeeds in being 
 and doing a good deal of what Convocation itself might be and 
 do, but is not and does not, though there is every reason to 
 hope that the action of this Society may lead to Convocation 
 fulfilling some of its natural functions more completely than 
 at present. For this Society in fact goes far to supply at 
 present, unofficially and of course imperfectly, a central organ- 
 ization for the practical purposes of the Church, the recovery 
 of which, in a formal and constitutional shape, is a foremost 
 need among many urgent needs, of the Church of England at 
 the present day. And this useful action of the Society is none 
 the less valuable because it may quite possibly have been 
 entered on unconsciously. It comes about on this wise. The 
 original and still principal business of the Society is and 
 always will be the employment of additional clergy. In a 
 word the Society goes to the root of the matter. For after all 
 said and done, and after all the largest possible admission of
 
 8 
 
 the need and of the value of Lay Help, the systematic and 
 organized work which is needed to bring the ministrations and 
 the influences of Religion to bear upon the people, especially 
 under the conditions of life in the great towns which seem to 
 be absorbing England, can only be supplied by a large and 
 constant increase of the separate ordained ministry. 
 
 And further the Society has learnt that the employment 
 of Additional Curates need not and ought not to mean 
 the incessant and unlimited multiplication of parishes. 
 There is not much room to doubt, that although it might be 
 easily shown that there are many places still where the forma- 
 tion of a new parish is the right step to take, in other places 
 the process of sub-division has been carried imprudently far, 
 and struggling districts of poor people with an ill-endowed 
 pastor are left to struggle, ruinously to every higher capacity 
 of either priest or people, with the problem of pounds, shil- 
 lings and pence ; while the richer and older parish from which 
 they have been cut ofl leaves them to struggle alone, or main- 
 tains an uncertain and almost more damaging protectorate. 
 Nor is it much more doubtful from what cause this tendency 
 to subdi%dde has sprung. It has that coumon root of nearly 
 all the other weaknesses of the Church of England, viz., the 
 tendency to treat her parishes and their endowments as so 
 much property, whether of the holder or of the so-called 
 patron. Every new parish however poor and ill-endowed is 
 another piece of " property," " preferment," or " patronage," 
 for some one, — for the patron, at all events, if not, as is some- 
 times said, in melancholy jest, for the incumbent. This is 
 inevitable as matters stand, and I say again that sub-division 
 is of course the right policy in many cases. But it is not 
 so always. And this Society has found this out, and is 
 acting on the knowledge ; at least so far as to prepare the 
 way very carefully before any subdivision is attempted, and 
 to provide a larger clerical staff for the existing parish 
 churches. And it is clear that a growing favour may be per- 
 ceived for what has been called the Minster system of working 
 large Parishes ; by which is meant the employment of a num-
 
 9 
 
 her of curates, perhaps with Mission chapels, attached to the 
 Parish Church, in preference to the abrupt formation of star- 
 veling district parishes. Thus we read in the Report for 
 1876, pp. 15-16 : — " The Society's main work is to extend and 
 to make perfect the existing parochial system by throwing 
 that life and warmth into the various and multiplied labours 
 of the parochial clergy, which must result from the cause just 
 stated, viz., the supply and co-operation of faithful Assistant 
 Curates. But while this is o-oinor on, while existing Parochial 
 institutions are being fostered, and well-founded plans of 
 already systematised work, strengthened, neiv ground is con- 
 stantly being broken up by the Curates working from these 
 parochial centres. Of the 637 grants made by the Society in 
 1876, 48-5 were for Curates who in addition to ordinary Par- 
 ochial duties, were also emploj^ed in sustaining Mission Ser- 
 vices in licensed rooms. This statement briefly indicates the 
 course of the Society's action. 
 
 It is this: The Society holds that, as a general rule it is unde- 
 sirable to cut off a poor mission district from the sympathy 
 and co-operation of the mother church and parish until the work 
 of the parochial Curate in such Conventional Mission District, 
 I'adiating from the licensed room as its centre, has so far 
 advanced as to have gathered together a congregation which 
 should form the nucleus of a new jDarochial S3^stem. * * * 
 The plan of the Society is not only to supply the first 
 requisite of mission work — the living Ministry — but to sup- 
 ply it in such a way as to make it most eflective. It aids in 
 placing Missionaries in the overcrowded Parishes of our large 
 towns, but by its firm adhei-ence to the ancient Parochial 
 system of the Church, those Missionaries are not, in the earlier 
 years of their work living and working in isolation." 
 
 The working of this plan is well illustrated by an example 
 from your own Eastern counties. 
 
 Great Yarmouth is one of the few great parishes that still 
 remain undivided, and is worked on what may be described as 
 the " Minster System." To its noble church is attached a 
 large staff of clergy who while sustaining frequent and varied
 
 ^ 10 
 
 services at this their common centre of work have, as it were, 
 their special centres of more missionary labour in the conven- 
 tional districts into which the ground is pai-celled out. To 
 each of these districts a clergyman is attached who has the 
 charge of a Mission Room for week-day services and other 
 work. This represents, I believe a growing conviction. And 
 in the act and in the course of acquiring this experience and 
 information the Society has insensibly but irresistibly become 
 a centre of knowledge and influence, as to the work and the 
 methods of work, not only in the parishes aided, but in those 
 others, — alas! by no means few — which it cannot aid, but 
 which besiege the Society with evidence of their need ; and 
 a centre of influence with which nothing else exists to come 
 into competition. It is necessary to say this in order to avoid 
 the appearance of some assumption or forwardness in the 
 recent development of its action ; and to say it before we 
 answer the question what is the true ofiice of Church Societies, 
 and their true relation to the Church. 
 
 They were originally a makeshift and an expedient, and such 
 they still remain. The great Societies remain the monument, and 
 in varying degrees the living witness and expression of the first 
 attempt to combine organized voluntary effort for the extension 
 or efficiency of the Church, with the established position of the 
 Church of England, and to avoid recourse to Acts of Parliament 
 for her benefit, and at the same time to own and act upon the 
 duty of each generation to itself and to its neighbours and to its 
 posterity. But they are also the evidence of a great weakness 
 and defect. The need of them arises out of the defective, too 
 often the totally absent, organization of our dioceses. It has to 
 be owned, and I do so freely, that the best diocesan organiza- 
 tion must leave room for such central Societies, at all events 
 for the raising and administering of a central fund. But it is 
 equally clear that for its effective distribution, the aid of local 
 knowledge and organization is necessary, and the problem of 
 the future is to combine the two. The risk hitherto has been 
 lest societies should obliterate this conviction. The true unit 
 of Church organization is the Diocese, and there may have
 
 11 
 
 been, perhaps still may be, some risk of late that in re-affirming 
 this fact, the place of the Societies should be ignored. 
 
 Let our first answer then to the question before us be — the 
 character of these Societies is that of voluntary organizations 
 of the living energy of the Church, in particular directions, by 
 furnishing it with a central fund, and a central council for that 
 particular object. And their true relation to the Church of 
 England is that of stimulating and keeping alive the energy 
 and action of the Dioceses, in the same direction. And our 
 answer ^^'ill involve the fui'ther important inference necessary 
 to complete it. 
 
 In proportion as this office of the Society is realised, will 
 the sense of its subordinate, and subsidiary character, in rela- 
 tion to the whole Church and its natural organisation grow. 
 The readiness even to efface and suppress itself, where possible 
 and desirable will be seen. The tendency to create a central 
 Bureau with absolute though vague authority of its own "wdll 
 be held in check, and will approach the vanishing point. And 
 this is what we do see in this Society. The complaint has 
 never been heard of its assumption of authority that belongs 
 to others ; the influence naturally acquirea has been used in 
 in the most practical and public-spirited way. The rare virtue 
 of unselfishness, the almost impossible virtue for a corporation 
 of modesty, seems to have been nearly attained by this Society. 
 We find a perfect readiness to retire into the back-gi'ound as 
 the proper organisation of the proper agencies acquires liie, 
 and takes a really working shape. 
 
 Accordingly we find the present excellent General Secretary 
 of the Society, who has proved his loyalty to it by the 
 unwearied work of nearly twenty years, moving a series of 
 resolutions* in this sense at the recent Diocesan Conference in 
 
 * The following were the resolutions referred to (see Report of the Tiiiro 
 Diocesan Conference in the Ucnnc Mission Field of the Additional Curates 
 Society for April, 1878) :— (1) That the existing organisation of the Additional 
 Curates Society for the collection of funds in the Diocese be accepted 1. y the Con- 
 ference in preference to the creation of a new and independent Diocesan Fund. 
 (2). That a Committee of this Conference be appointed to work in active co-oper-
 
 12 
 
 that infant Diocese of Truro, which it, warming so many hearts 
 with the evidence that not only is work of the wisest and most 
 patient, still at our disposal, but that ideas, enthusiasm,andpoetry 
 are not dead in the hearts of English Churchmen, and English 
 Prelates. We find the Society itself, I say, promoting the 
 development of Diocesan action and authority, and devolving 
 some of its own acquired authority upon the more natural 
 holders of it, and while asking for local advice for the central 
 body, offering to leave local administration in local hands. I 
 cannot enter into details : but the main features of the scheme 
 of this true relationship are these. Experience has shown 
 that on the one hand. Diocesan Societies, or Committees fail to 
 raise adequate funds locally for the extension of Home Mission 
 Work. Central organisation and machinery is needed: and the 
 duty of the richer Dioceses to help the poorer needs to be 
 enforced. On the other hand local knowledge and authority is 
 needed not only for the more satisfactory application of the 
 gTants in aid, but for discerning the places where they are most 
 needed, but where perhaps neglect, and other local causes, leave 
 the need unknown. Central Societies of this kind only move 
 when they are moved. They need local knowledge to show them 
 what Parishes need moving, local influence to move them, and 
 to give the Society its work. For this pui'pose we can see the 
 wisdom of the plan advocated by this Society, and adopted 
 already in the youngest Diocese, soon to be copied, let us hope, 
 in all : — 
 
 1. A great Central Home Missionary Society as the best 
 means of raising funds, securing its equal distribution, and 
 both exciting and directing zeal. 
 
 2. Committees of Diocesan Synods, presided over by their 
 
 ation with the Central Committee. (3). That such Committee draw up a scheme 
 of co-operatiou to be submitted to the Central Committee, and that such scheme, 
 when agi-eed upon by both Committees, be submitted to the next Conference for 
 confirmation. (4). That the Society's District Organising Secretary be ex officio 
 an Hon. Secretary of the Diocesan Committee. (5). That for the year now com- 
 mencing the Committee of the Diocesan Conference have power to co-operate with 
 the Central Society in whatever may be mutually agi-eed upon.
 
 13 
 
 own Bishops as the best means of assigning and applying the 
 grants. And, if to this be added the suggestion that every 
 Diocese should seat a member of its Synod, probably one of those 
 who represent it in convocation, at the general committee of 
 the Central Society, it is clear that much has been done to 
 combine the maximum of efficiency and public profit, with the 
 minimum of inconvenience and officialism in the workinof of 
 the Society; and to obviate the risk of that unauthorised 
 bureaucratic dictation and im worthy jealousy which have 
 wrought so much confusion in some directions, and still 
 threaten it in others ; and which have tended to create in the 
 Church of England a Society-ridden system, the paradise of 
 Committees and Secretaries, the despair of reasonable and 
 practical Churchmen. I have shown reason enough, as I 
 believe, for my claim for the Additional Curates Society to 
 be par-excellence the Church Society for promoting the 
 Church's work at home. 
 
 Nor will it be wonderful that a Society which has suc- 
 ceeded in so organising itself should have drawn into its hands 
 affairs not originally lying within its reach. To some of these 
 I now call your attention. 
 
 1. Whatever movements of spiritual life have stirred the sur- 
 face of the Church's life have almost insensiblj'", as they grew, 
 and drew attention to themselves, found a focus for their action, 
 and a framework for their fuller organisation in this Society. 
 This has been the case, in the first place, with what we now 
 know as Parochial Missions, — those special effi^i-ts to quicken 
 the vital force of any paiish or congregation, by a series of 
 special preachings of God's Word, special ministries to the sin- 
 laden, or the doubtful, or the enquiring: — endeavouiing by 
 the concentrated energy of spiritual activity for a week or ten 
 days, to " stir dull souls to prayer and praise," to lift the 
 standard both of work and zeal throughout the parish, and to 
 lay the foundation of new operations. And the blessing of 
 God has rested on these, and they have borne surprising frait 
 in all these directions. A good deal of this eludes organisa- 
 tion, and cannot be definitely prepared for, being in fact
 
 14. 
 
 effective in proportion to its more or less spontaneous and 
 unforced character. But the need of some preparation, the 
 value of experience in such work, the importance of knowing 
 the fittest men to send to this or that particular place, and 
 the necessity of arriving at some certainty, that the work 
 begun in a Mission will be carried on, — all these requirements 
 have led to the formation of a Central Council for trying to 
 satisfy them, and the employment of a clergymen to go before- 
 hand, and to lend his help in the various forms of needful pre- 
 pation, to organize them, to bring the right men to the right 
 place, to keep up a spirit of devotion by keeping those inter- 
 ested in the work informed of Missions as they are held, that 
 they may be remembered in the prayers of the faithful. And 
 for all this the Additional Curates Society has at once been 
 found the natural home. And it is willing to receive special gifts 
 for the necessary cost of holding Parochial Missions. I know 
 not what may have been done at Ely. But if any of you here 
 or elsewhere have owed blessings — whether of awakening, of 
 enlightenment, or of reconciliation, — to a Parochial Mission, 
 and have had occasion to bless God for some voice of grace or 
 warning which has come to you then, I wish not only to 
 suggest to you the fitness of an offering of your substance for 
 the furtherance of similar Mission Work at home, for the 
 quickening of the soul's life of others, but to ask you to keep 
 well in mind that in being asked to support the Additional 
 Curates Society you are not merely— though that is important 
 enough — facilitating the employment of another Clergyman 
 in some distant parish unknown, but strengthening generally 
 the hands of a Society which has come to be charged with the 
 main responsibility for one of the most important religious efforts 
 of our day. In this respect certainly the Additional Curates 
 Society is working as no other Society has the opportunity of 
 working, for the general welfare of the Church of England. 
 
 2. In a like manner another enterprise from which much 
 good may under God's blessing, be looked for, has found a 
 centre and a sheltering roof in the Additional Curates Society. 
 I refer to the assistance of suitable young men in their educa-
 
 15 
 
 tion for Holy Orders, who may be hindered by poverty from 
 giving themselves the necessary training and tuition. The 
 question is too large for discussion, but we may take it for 
 granted that a real need exists of such a benevolent fund, 
 administered at once with discretion and delicacy. The sup- 
 posed failure in the supply of candidates for Holy Orders is 
 probably only partly true. The educational changes at the 
 Universities — useful and valuable as many of them are in the 
 interests of general education — have certainly reduced the 
 chances of the sons of the poor — in whatever station born — 
 of obtaining money assistance in their education. The 
 exhibitions fall to those on whose pi'evious education the 
 most money has been spent. Were there no other cause for 
 the promotion of such a fund as I am speaking of, this would 
 suffice. It is probable that the alleged unwillingness of able 
 young men to serve the Church on the score of sceptical mis- 
 givings, has been absurdly overstated, and is being disproved 
 every day, by the enlistment of the best University men in 
 her ranks. And it is certain that some recent influences, in the 
 field of ecclesiastical rather than strictly theological controversy 
 have had at least as much, if not more, to do with such hesita- 
 tion and falling off as has really been f omid. " But the main 
 cause," of such failure as has occurred, it has been truly said 
 " is to be found in the new careers in all directions which are 
 open to young men of good education in the rising generation, 
 and which attract many whose mental gifts and moral bent 
 would have inclined them in other circumstances to seek 
 Holy Orders." Meantime, and here I cannot do better than 
 quote one who has been largely instrumental in starting and 
 working this fund as it is worked now through this Society,* 
 " There is a remarkable and increasing disposition on the 
 part of young men in poorer circumstances to devote them- 
 selves to ministerial work. They would become clergymen 
 if they could, from motives of pure and unselfish enthusiasm ; 
 
 * Dr. Liddon, in a letter published by the Committee of the OrdinatioQ 
 Candidates' Exhibition Fund.
 
 16 
 
 and would probably be found some years hence, among the 
 most untiring and efficient of the Church's workmen. The 
 Ordination Candidate's Fund is an effort to assist young men of 
 this description to complete their education with a view to 
 Ordination, Possibly, in times to come some fund of this 
 kind will form part of the working machinery of every one of 
 our Dioceses. But the needs and the opportunities of the 
 present moment are too great to allow us to wait for this. The 
 Church needs men more than buildings, and men are to be had 
 if some effort is made to meet our changed and chanfjine; cir- 
 cumstances. To assist this effort, if not the most showy, is I 
 believe, one of the most useful ways of helping forward the 
 Church's work that are open to her wealthier members in the 
 present day.'" 
 
 Nor is] the testimony of one of our most active and 
 experienced Bishops to the need of such a Fund less emphatic. 
 The Bishop of Lichfield speaking expressly in behalf of this 
 Society said: "Again, when I say that this Society has multiplied 
 the number of parishes, what follows? Why, that we must have a 
 larger supply of clergy. Where are we to get them ? That, again, 
 I say is a people's question, I say go to the very source of supply 
 from which our Lord drew His disciples. Go to the poorest 
 of the poor, and trust to God to raise up from that depth men 
 capable by His grace to be effectual ministers of His Gospel. 
 There is a great scarcity of clergy. The want is felt every- 
 where. In the " black country," my clergy tell me they may 
 advertise but it is often in vain. Now, if we take from the 
 lowest ranks, without any invidious feeling, if we find the 
 Universities fail to supply us with the requisite number of 
 men, what must we do ? Why, open our hearts and doors as 
 widely as possible to every young man in whom we may dis- 
 cern the promise of early piety, which leads us to hope that he 
 may become a faithful minister of the Gospel. "Lower 
 the standard," people say to me, — I say I will not. My 
 business is to raise up these men, and not to lower 
 the standard ; and I say that the raising of these men 
 to the requisite point of real efficiency in the ministry can
 
 17 
 
 not be done but by the personal superintendence of the 
 Bishop. The superintendence of Candidates for Holy Orders 
 devolves upon the Bishop, and the natural result is that we 
 must have Dioceses of such size that the Bishop can take the 
 oversight of all that belongs to the Diocesan system." If then 
 any single Churchman whom God has blessed with ample 
 means, should be inclined to further in this way the work of 
 this Society, and the spread of the Kingdom of Christ, by the 
 multiplication of well-ifained and well-educated ministers and 
 messengers of the Kinodom of Heaven, it is hard to see how he 
 could more directly and more effectively aim at his object 
 than through the fund which is now being adminis- 
 tered by what is practically a sub-committee of the 
 Additional Curates' Society. In the three years of its exist- 
 ence it has raised above £2,000. It has received 195 applica- 
 tions for aid, and has given aid in 73 of them, sending half of 
 the candidates to one of the older TJnivers: ""ies, and exhausting 
 (at the date of the last report, Easter, 1877) all the funds in 
 hand. 
 
 8. But I must not be silent upon another and perhaps the 
 most fc' r-reaching department of Church Extension to which 
 the last sentence of the great Bishop just quoted has already 
 pointed. I refer to the need of reduction in the size of 
 Dioceses and of increase in the number of Bishops. Hear 
 again the same Bishop who has already spoken : — 
 
 "Now, let me speak of what has been the effect of this 
 Society's work. It is, as we see, carrying the influences of 
 religion into places, and among persons who were not subject 
 to those influences before. What must be the first direct effect? 
 Why ! — to add very considerably indeed to the work of the 
 Bishop ! The Bishop of Manchester confirms 10,000 candi- 
 dates a year, I — 9,000 a year : Bat if the Society and all the 
 other means of which I have spoken, blessed by God's con- 
 tinued presence, produced to the fullest extent the work they 
 are intended to do, our confirmations must be doubled, and 
 then it follows that the work of the Bishops must be lessened
 
 18 
 
 by the division of their dioceses. Tlie first effect of the Society's 
 work is to create a demand for more Bishops. " * 
 
 And the supply of this need too, has, once more, been 
 brought within the range of this great Society's operations, 
 and has done more perhaps than aught besides to make it, 
 what I have ventured to call it, — our great Church Society, — 
 our makeshift and experimental Central Council, — if you will, 
 — but still the best and only one we have got, — possessing at 
 once knowledge and experience, freedom . from hampering 
 traditions and dictation, able to act to the extent of its ability 
 as soon as a conviction is reached, and a plan laid for giving 
 effect to it, — and possessing no inconsiderable means for 
 giving effect to it, — through the liberality of wealthy and 
 self-denying Church Men and Women. Much has been done 
 by the Committee formed by and from the Additional Curates 
 Society, to bring to its present completion the scheme for the 
 new Cornish Diocese already spoken of; and to effect the sub- 
 division and re-arrangement of London and Rochester — (of far 
 less happy omen, and which cannot be accepted as a per- 
 manent settlement, — but) which has resulted in seating a 
 Bishop at the Shrine of the Proto-martyr of Britain, and in 
 one of the noblest of English Minsters, S. Albans Abbey. And 
 several similar schemes are receiving the attention and will 
 receive the active support of this body. The whole matter is 
 more beset with difficulty than either of the others. It raises 
 questions for the discussion of which this is neither the time 
 nor the place. But I cannot be content without offering two 
 remarks. 
 
 It is impossible to withhold sympathy from those who main- 
 tain that many changes are needed before they can heartily 
 throw themselves into a movement for the extension of the 
 Episcopate as we have it amongst us to-day. But the answer 
 
 * It is startling, and in one sense sad, to read these words of the great Bishop 
 of the Maoris of New Zealand, and of oiir "Black Country at home," 
 with the terrible commentary supplied by his recent deeply-mourned departure 
 from us ; another victim of overwork, and of the inveterate jealousy and preju- 
 dice which have hitherto kept, and still try to keep, the Dioceses of England 
 of the same number and extent as they had in the reign of Henry VIII.
 
 19 
 
 to this misgiving, to which the utmost respect and tenderness 
 is due, coming as it does from the men who have the highest 
 veneration for the Episcopal office, and the deepest desire for 
 its restoration to complete efficiency — seems to be, first, that 
 it is right and wise to work for the best with the materials 
 you have, and on the lines of existing institutions, — to wade 
 boldly through the strong current of tradition, in its deeply 
 channelled bed, and not to sit waiting for the formidable 
 stream you want to cross, to flow by of its own accord ; 
 and secondly that every addition to the episcopal body 
 in England tends imperceptibly but distinctly to the very 
 changes we desire, inasmuch as the worst mischiefs to be 
 redressed, are the mere incidents of an almost absolute and 
 a virtually irresponsible oligarchy. And the second obser- 
 vation is this. We may fairly unite in declaring that we 
 want real and proper new Bishops, with Dioceses, Diocesan 
 jurisdiction and Diocesan powers, and a responsibility of their 
 own, and not mere suffragans, the paler reflection of an already 
 pale original, the deputy drawing his inspiration and traditions 
 from the ideas or authority already acknowledged to be weak 
 or insufficient, and which are supplemented solely because they 
 are so. It may be doubted if in any single case such a solution 
 can be accepted as satisfactory. It is certain that in most cases 
 if not in all, it could only result in perpetuating the very evils 
 we are trying to root out. And with this great question again 
 the Additional Curates Society, through a very representative 
 special committee, is vigorously trying to cope. Let any who 
 feel its importance strengthen their hands by their alms, and 
 send at least a prayer for their guidance in a difficult task to 
 the Throne of Grace. 
 
 But I have occupied you too long. I have travelled over 
 so wide a ground and tried to enable you to survey the 
 whole work of the Additional Curates Society because I 
 conceive that to be my special errand here to day — or I might 
 have been easily content to try and lead you in thoughts of the 
 more general and elevating character with which the Prophet's 
 lofty words inspired us as we began. Let us briefly recur to them.
 
 20 
 
 We do so to-day with the added sanction of the blessed memory of 
 the great Apostle of the Gentiles still hanging about our minds, 
 if in any real way we "had his wonderful conversion in remem- 
 brance" on His Festival last Friday. Let us catch up one or 
 two of his characteristic sayings, and weave them with the 
 Prophet's longing cry. " The love of Christ constraineth us ;" 
 " In labours more abundant ;" " Love hopeth all things, believ- 
 eth all things, endureth all things. " " I am made all things 
 to all men, if by any means I may save some. " " To make 
 known the mystery of His will — that in the dispensation of 
 the fulness of time, He mif^ht rather too-ether, in one, all 
 things in Christ." " Built upon the foundation of the Apostles 
 and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner 
 stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth 
 unto an holy temple in the Lord. " " That now '' — not to all 
 nations only should the EpijDhany of Jesus Christ be made, — 
 but that now even " unto the principalities and powers in 
 heavenly places should be made known by the Church the 
 manifold wisdom of God." Such is St. Paul's conception — 
 such too is his way of going about to realize it — of the office 
 and witness, in earth and heaven, of that great Societ}^, that 
 true Zion, of which Isaiah spake beforehand by the Holy 
 Ghost, and for which he too longed and strove : " For Zion's 
 sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will 
 not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
 and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." Can we 
 hesitate, as we hear these tremendous aspirations, and see these 
 superhuman efforts of Prophet and Apostle to kindle that 
 Lamp, to keep it alight, and to hand it on undimmed to all 
 generations," — as we listen to their loud and well-proved 
 professions of a zeal that will not hold its peace, and an energy 
 that cannot rest, till righteousness and salvation be the light 
 of all the nations and the glory of the Church of Christ, — can 
 we hesitate, I say, to pray for the peace and safety and vigour 
 of our own Jerusalem, and to lend her sorely taxed energies 
 the utmost assistance in our power, by supporting loyally 
 and liberally her tried and trusty handmaid, the Additional 
 Curates Society ? '
 
 /