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 A CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE 
 
 ClecffP anti CIjurcIjtoarDens of tlje 2Diocccic of Eocljc^teu 
 
 IN OCTOBER MDCCCLXXIIJ 
 
 AT HIS SECOND VISITATION 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS LEGH 
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER 
 
 Eontron 
 
 RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 HIGH STREET I TRINITY STREET 
 
 ©iforli I CambriUflc 
 
 1873
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 My Reverend Brethren and 
 
 grentlemen churchwardens, 
 
 Before I enter on the various subjects which 
 during the four years which have elapsed since my 
 last Visitation have occupied the anxious attention 
 of all faithful members of our Church, I desire to 
 thank you for the answers you have made to my 
 Visitation Questions. 
 
 It is usual, as indeed it is necessary, for a Bishop, 
 before he visits his Diocese, to make himself ac- 
 quainted with the general condition of the Parishes 
 and Churches under his supervision, in case there 
 be anything which calls for special notice, or the 
 declaration of his judgment thereon. At the present 
 crisis, it was necessary that I should ask some 
 questions of the Clergy which were somewhat out 
 of the ordinary routine, and endeavour to ascertain 
 whether any of those deviations from established 
 usage which have become common amongst us 
 were to be found in my Diocese. One thing 
 also I asked with regard to your teaching ; I 
 mean on the subject of Sacramental Confession; 
 because I felt it my duty to ascertain the mind and 
 practice of my Clergy in that matter. But none of 
 
 A 2
 
 4 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 these things have I done, as I trust, in an un- 
 friendly or inquisitorial spirit. In the course of 
 my Charge, I may have to say things which may 
 be distasteful to some of my hearers ; hut I have 
 entered on ray task with the most earnest desire 
 that I may give no unnecessary pain to anyone ; 
 with a deep sense of the burden of responsibility 
 that is laid upon me ; with prayer for the guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit in wliat I shall speak ; and, as I 
 can safely affirm, with the one object only in my 
 mind, to maintain in my Diocese, with your assist- 
 ance who are my fellow-helpers, the plain teaching, 
 the simple customs and traditions, and the sober 
 Ritual of the Church of England. 
 
 We meet again in anxious — not to say perilous 
 times. But every day's experience tells us that the 
 dangers which threaten the Church of England are 
 from within, and not from without. The uneasiness 
 which prevails far and wide is distinctly trace- 
 able to causes which, if they continue in operation 
 for a few years longer, must produce- disruption. 
 And there are some who say, "Let disruption 
 come. We would rather have disruption, with 
 whatever it may bring, than go on as we are going 
 on." But they who thus speak are zealots. They 
 are not men who calmly survey the work which 
 Jesus Christ would have done in the world, and 
 the instrumentalities which He appointed for the 
 carrying on of that work ; but who have taken their 
 view of the Church and its accessories from a 
 
 ..^\
 
 CJinrchwardeiis of the Diocese of Rochester. 5 
 
 period in its history when, the land being over- 
 spread with darkness, they that had rule in sacred 
 things built churches, and instituted rites and cere- 
 monies, with intent to constrain and influence by 
 sounds and sights, and outward representations of 
 heavenly things, those whom for lack of ordinary 
 knowledge and intelligence they could scarce hope 
 to influence in any other way. The splendours of 
 mediaeval worship are the dream of men who live 
 in an age when the restoration of such pomp and 
 circumstance could only tend to a sickly senti- 
 mentality, such as is really fast spreading, especially 
 among women, and gradually through their inr 
 fiuence obtaining some hold on men also, but which, 
 it needs no prophetic power to foretell, never will 
 obtain a hold upon the mind and intelligence by 
 which this world is ruled. And yet, if religion 
 does lose its hold upon that mind and intelligence ; 
 if Christ's word to the men of His time, " Ye shall 
 know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
 free," becomes lost to us through the substitution 
 for the truth and spirituality of worship of a 
 number of minute observances and forms, and 
 imagery vainly representing heavenly things to 
 carnal minds, the inevitable result is infidelity — in- 
 fidelity in high quarters, infidelity in the ruling- 
 powers ; among the weaker sort, superstition. 
 
 And some apprehension of this kind is part of 
 the prevailing uneasiness ; men perceiving that the 
 simple worship of the Church of England, setting
 
 6 A Charge delivered to the Clci'gy and 
 
 forth sin, and the ProiDitiation for sin, and the 
 power of the Spirit of God in believers, and the 
 Resurrection of the Dead, and Eternal Judgment, 
 is being so altered that they cannot recognize it, so 
 dressed up and mutilated that they cannot join 
 in it. 
 
 That these alterations arose in their first begin- 
 nings — were, in fact, a reaction — from a careless- 
 ness in Divine worship), and an irreverence in 
 Holy things, and a neglect and defilement of Holy 
 places, and a manner of dealing with spiritualities, 
 which might well have drawn Grod's Judgments 
 upon this nation, is most true. And while a con- 
 siderable reformation has taken place and is taking 
 place, there are still corruptions and abuses remain- 
 ing uncorrected, which are also causes of the pre- 
 vailing uneasiness. Since I addressed you at my 
 last Yisitation, the faith of godly men in several 
 parishes in this Diocese has been so sorely tried by 
 the misconduct of their sjDiritual Pastors, that you 
 could scarcely have wondered if there had been a 
 deliberate secession from the Church of those over 
 whose loss w^e should have had most occasion to 
 mourn. Again, I grieve to say that notwithstand- 
 ing the signs of the times ; notwithstanding that in 
 so many parishes services are being multiplied, 
 efforts made to revive and quicken sjDiritual life, to 
 rouse and awaken the indifferent and those dead in 
 trespasses and sins; the solemnity of Divine 
 worship increased by a reverent carefulness in
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 7 
 
 every part of the service, there are still some where 
 no such efforts are being made, where the Holy 
 Communion is administered rarely ; where there is 
 no life ; no zeal ; alas ! no fire of love, so far as we 
 can judge by outward signs ; where " Let be " is 
 the M^atchword, where a protest against Ritualism 
 and Popery satisfies the consciences of men who 
 seem to forget that the only valid and effectual pro- 
 test against error is continuance in the word of 
 Christ, daily walking as Children of the Light, 
 speaking often to one another of Heaven and 
 Heavenly things. The protests of the dead in 
 formalism and indifference are but so many 
 encouragements of the errors that have crept in 
 among us. For, by confession of all men, among 
 the most advanced (as the expression is) — advanced 
 indeed they are, for they have outstepped the order 
 of march and are imperilling their own and others' 
 safety — amongst the most advanced Churchmen are 
 to be found those whose whole soul is in the work 
 they have in hand ; who are ready to spend and be 
 spent for their work's sake. "What do these men 
 care for the protests of the indifferent and the self- 
 seeking against what they do ? They hail it as a 
 sign that they are right; that God's blessing is 
 with them ; that if they are decried by men who 
 mind earthly things, and give to the world, and 
 pastimes, and domestic joys and satisfactions, the 
 time they pledged themselves to give to prayer 
 and the study of the Scriptures, it turns to them
 
 8 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 for a testimony that the views they have embraced 
 are the right views ; their words words of truth 
 and soberness and reahty. 
 
 What must be the effect on an ordinary English 
 Congregation, who have been accustomed to see 
 the worship of God conducted in the ordinary way 
 from their childhood upwards, who are not indif- 
 ferent to Holy things ; who are quite sensible of 
 what carelessness and irreverence is, and who would 
 really appreciate any improvement in the way of 
 greater solemnity in Divine Service — when they 
 see, more or less suddenly introduced, such a sight 
 as was witnessed in a church, not in this Diocese, 
 on last S. Peter's Day; i.e. three Clergymen 
 arrayed in green vestments, all prostrating them- 
 selves upon the ground at those words, " Incarnate 
 by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary," in 
 the Nicene Creed; wJio saw presently afterwards 
 the Holy table obscured from view by clouds of 
 incense, and other things strange and unusual, to 
 say the least of it ! Is not this sufficient of itself 
 to startle, to disturb, to unsettle the minds of nine- 
 tenths of the worshippers in any ordinary congre- 
 gation ? But those who are favourable to such 
 views and practices will answer, that congregations 
 ought to be educated up to this manner of service ; 
 that it did not startle or disturb the congregation 
 in which it was done : on the contrary, they in like 
 manner prostrated themselves; they on the same 
 occasion remained in the Church to the end of the
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 9 
 
 Commiinioii Service, not communicating, while the 
 officiating Clergy, or one or two with them, com- 
 municated. T^^e come then to the plain issue, 
 whether this is the mind of the Church of Eno-land 
 
 o 
 
 or no ; not merely according to use (that it cer- 
 tainly is not), but, granting that coldness and 
 carelessness and ignorance may have vitiated the 
 use, whether this was what was designed to be at 
 the Eeformation, when that form of service which 
 we still follow was settled by law. This question 
 has been in great part decided by the authorities 
 which bind us on all other subjects. It has been 
 laid down by the highest Court of Appeal that 
 such and such things are not according to the 
 mind of the Church of England accordiug to her 
 accredited formularies, historically considered, with 
 every light thrown on their construction and appli- 
 cation which careful research made by acute and 
 learned men could bring to bear. But it is further 
 answered, that this is not enough. It has been 
 argued by a Clergyman in this Diocese to me, 
 admonishing him that some of his practices are 
 inconsistent with his obligation to obey the law, 
 that there is a prior law to that of this Church and 
 Realm ; that in the ancient Church such things were 
 done ; continued to be done up to the Reformation, 
 were not expressly prohibited at the Reformation, 
 and therefore continued virtually to be the law of 
 the Church ; and that he, doing these things, could 
 not be justly censuied by me, his Bishop, or could
 
 lo A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 not be held as offending against the law of the 
 land. Surely this is setting up his private opinion 
 against the law. The law has pronounced ; and 
 every Priest of the Church of England promised 
 at his ordination so to minister the Doctrine and 
 Sacraments and the Discipline of the Church as the 
 Lord hath commanded, and this Church and Realm 
 hath received the same. What authority is to 
 settle a disputed matter concerning the Doctrine 
 and Sacraments and Discipline of the Church, but 
 the authority constituted in the Church and Realm 
 for the resolution of such differences ? " The 
 parties doul^ting or diversely taking anything shall 
 alway resort to the Bishoj) of the Diocese. He, if 
 he be in doubt, may send them to the Archbishop. 
 But both Bishop and Archbishop are bound by 
 what is contained in the Prayer Book ; and on the 
 question whether that which they order be or be 
 not contained in the Prayer Book they are subject, 
 as all other men are, to the decisions of the law of 
 the Realm, which the Church has received." 
 
 But there are other matters than those which 
 come under the head of Ritual, on which it is assumed 
 that the mind of the Church is not clear ; as for 
 instance, what that searching and examination of 
 the conscience is which constitutes a worthy pre- 
 paration for receiving the Lord's Supper ? 
 
 On this subject, it seems to me, the Church has 
 spoken so plainly that it were impossible, unless 
 we were misled by some previous tradition or con-
 
 CJmrchzvardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 1 1 
 
 ception, to err as to her meaning. " The way and 
 means thereto is," this is the voice of the Church, 
 " first to examine your lives and conversations by 
 the rule of Grod's commandments, and whereinso- 
 ever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended 
 by will, word, or deed, then to bewail your own 
 sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty 
 God;" and further, "If there be any of you who 
 by this means cannot quiet his own conscience, 
 but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him 
 go to his own Pastor, or to some other discreet 
 and learned minister of God's Word, for absolution, 
 for spiritual counsel and advice." 
 
 Now this second means does obviously come in 
 to be used only upon the failure of the first, fairly 
 tried and resorted to. The way and means to 
 come to the Holy Communion with a full trust in 
 God's mercy and with a quiet conscience, is, after 
 searching our own consciences carefully, to confess 
 oneself to Almighty God. 
 
 I would only ask any God-fearing man whether, 
 taking God's "Word for his rule, and considering 
 wherein, since his last communion, he has trans- 
 gressed any of these Holy Commandments, he can 
 ordinarily be in doubt about sin committed, so as 
 to require the help of a Confessor. We may not, 
 indeed, be able to search out with great minute- 
 ness our secret faults. " Who can tell how oft he 
 offendeth?" But if I cannot tell, can another tell 
 me ?
 
 1 2 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 The tiling is against reason. I may consult 
 another, and tell him of this or that weakness 
 which I feel, or this or that thing which I have 
 said or done. But his judgment of my case must 
 he founded upon that which I tell him, or upon 
 that which he — entering upon some inquiry into 
 which an incidental word has led him, and eagerly 
 following up that track with questions which take 
 their colour from the idea with which he started 
 — has conceived in his mind : or if at length he 
 finds himself mistaken, he must hegin again at the 
 beginning, having meanwhile suggested, say to 
 a young and tender, or a scrupulous conscience, 
 things which had not yet troubled it. I contend 
 that the substitution of a fallible confessor for the 
 Infallible Searcher of Hearts is evil and cometh of 
 evil. I contend that the ti'ue confession, so far as 
 the disburdening of the conscience is concerned, is 
 to God. 
 
 " I dare boldly affirm," saitli our own Hooker, 
 " that for many hundred years after Christ the 
 Fathers held no such opinion [he is speaking of 
 private confession]; they did not gather by our 
 Saviour's words any such necessity of seeking the 
 Priest's Absolution from sin by secret and (as they 
 now term it) sacramental confession. Public confes- 
 sion they thought unnecessary by way of discipline 
 (so does our own Church teach in the Commina- 
 tion Service), not private confession, as in the nature 
 of a sacrament, necessary." — Book vi., ch. iv. 6.
 
 CJmrchwardcns of the Diocese of Rochester. 1 3 
 
 But there are two cases which obviously may 
 occur, to both of wliich the compilers of our 
 Liturgy, some of tliem with the experience of — 
 and all of them with the experienced results be- 
 fore them of a system of confession to a Priest, 
 have directed their special attention. 
 
 The first is the case of a perplexed conscience. 
 " Let any of you who by this means — the ordinary 
 means — cannot quiet his own conscience herein — 
 come to me ; " who cannot c[uiet ; who requires 
 comfort ; who is so grieved for the greatness of 
 some one sin, or the pressure of many, of a long- 
 course of sin persisted in against mercies and warn- 
 ings, that he is afraid : or who requires counsel — 
 there is some intricacy in his sin ; for instance, he 
 has married the sister of his deceased wife, or he 
 has acquired large sums of money by trading upon 
 another's downfall, to which he saw him tending- 
 day by day, and did not say a word which might 
 have saved him — 'twas the man's own fault that 
 he was ruined — these are the sins in which it is 
 possible that a man whose conscience is awakened 
 may not be quite clear what he ought to do. 
 '" Put away this woman, who has borne me chil- 
 dren! when I overcame her first scruples by my 
 importunity — told her there was no harm in what 
 I solicited her to do — and now put her away ! I 
 cannot unravel this knot. I will go to my Pastor 
 — or if he seem scarce equal to the task, because 
 he is not a thoughtful man — or he is too young —
 
 14 A Charge delivered to tJic Clergy and 
 
 or he is too old — I will call upon some other dis- 
 creet and learned minister of God's Word to help 
 me." Or, in the other case — "I am told that I 
 must make restitution and satisfaction for all inju- 
 ries and wrongs done by me to any other. What 
 sliall I do in this case? I grew rich by taking 
 advantage of another's weakness. He is dead and 
 gone : to whom shall I make restitution ? To his 
 children ? He left no child. To some great cha- 
 rity ? Will this meet the case ? And what of 
 mine own children, guiltless of my fault?" A 
 thousand questions arise, and the more the man 
 thinks of what has ensued upon a course of action 
 which he entered on at first without considering 
 what it might entail, or without, indeed, seeing at 
 first that step by step he should enrich himself at 
 another man's cost, or by means which seemed 
 lawful in the way of trade, but would not stand 
 the light of some simple word the Preacher spake 
 one day — the more he is perplexed and amazed at 
 the deceitfulness of sin. In such cases of a trou- 
 bled conscience, the Church has clearly offered the 
 help of a confessor. " Are we not bound with all 
 thankfulness," saith Hooker, " to acknowledge His 
 Infinite goodness and mercy, which hath revealed 
 unto us the way how to rid ourselves of these 
 mazes ; the way how to shake off that yoke, which 
 no flesh is able to bear ; the way how to change 
 most grisly horror into a comfortable apprehension 
 of Heavenly Joy ? * * * it hath therefore pleased
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 1 5 
 
 Almighty God, in tender commiseration over these 
 imbecilities of men, to ordain for their spiritual 
 and ghostly comfort consecrated persons, which 
 by sentence of power and authority given from 
 above, may as it were out of his very mouth ascer- 
 tain timorous and doubtful minds in their own 
 particular, ease them of all their scrupulosities, 
 leave them settled in peace, and satisfied touching 
 the mercy of God toward them. To use the be- 
 nefit of this help for our better satisfaction in such 
 cases is so natural that it can be forbidden to no 
 man ; but yet not so necessary that all men should 
 be in case to need it." The help suggested by 
 the Apostle's word, " Confess your faults one to 
 another," is something altogether different in 
 kind from this, and will bear no such superstruc- 
 ture of doctrine as some are disposed to build 
 upon it. 
 
 There is yet another case in which the Church 
 has not, so to speak, offered the help of a Confessor, 
 but has required her ministers in that last, or pos- 
 sibly last, intercourse which they hold with a soul 
 committed to their charge, to move a sick person 
 to make a special confession of his sins if he feel 
 his conscience troubled with any weighty matter, 
 — if, after those ordinary bewailings and confes- 
 sions of sin to God, or, never having ordinarily 
 bewailed and confessed his sins, being now in 
 some dangerous extremity, he feels the need of that 
 loosing which Christ committed to His Apostles
 
 1 6 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 and their successors, saying, " Whose soever sins 
 ye remit, they are remitted inito them ; " if ye 
 remit them_, i. e. according to My rule, — My rule 
 of love and shame and sorrow and repentance. 
 The man who has sent for his Pastor to tell him of 
 his misery and his sin will joyfully accept the 
 conditions on which a wise and faithful counsellor 
 will assure him of the promised forgiveness, will 
 feel the burden taken off his heart just in propor- 
 tion to the depth and truth of his repentance, the 
 earnestness and sincerity of his Faith. I appeal 
 to those among you, my most dearly beloved 
 Brethren and fellow-helpers in the ministry, to 
 whom some cry for help and comfort hath come 
 from lips long unused to prayer, who have watched 
 God's wonderful Providential dealing with some 
 parishioner for whose conversion you have prayed 
 for years, till at length you were called in and 
 consulted where you would scarce have ventured 
 to proffer counsel ; I appeal to yoa who have 
 almost shared the wrestlings with Satan of some 
 soul agonized for the past, dreading the dark 
 future ; I appeal to the old and gray-headed 
 among you, — yea, in such matters as these wisdom 
 is with the aged if they be found in the way of 
 righteousness — I appeal to you here met in solemn 
 conclave, listening indeed to my counsel as set over 
 you in the Lord, but with whose hearts I desire 
 that my heart should beat in perfect unison, as I 
 speak on matters -where the clear truth of the
 
 Chiirchivardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 1 7 
 
 Gospel is liable to be ol)sciired by doctrines and 
 traditions of men, — I appeal to you to unite your 
 testimony to mine against the practice which is 
 growing up amongst us, of teaching young children 
 at the time of their Confirmation, before their first 
 Communion, not simply to search their ways by 
 God's Word and to confess their youthful sins 
 to Him, but to call in that help which they cannot 
 yet have felt the want of.. I appeal to you, Gen- 
 tlemen Churchwardens, representing as you do the 
 Laity in your respective parishes — I appeal to 
 you as to wise men, capable of judging in such a 
 matter as this — not, indeed, to go against your 
 ^ Minister in this or any other thing if he follow a 
 \ course diiferent from that which I have laid down, 
 but to represent to him (if the case require it) that 
 the Bishoj) of the Diocese has spoken with autho- 
 rity in the matter of habitual confession prescribed 
 as a rule, and that you feel (if you do so feel) that 
 he has rightly spoken. 
 
 God forbid that I should by any word I speak 
 diminish the respect that is due to the Minister of 
 God's Word, or bring his teaching into contempt. 
 Biit the times are critical ; the danger is great ; 
 we are on the very brink of a convulsion, if young 
 men newly ordained preach, as they are preaching, 
 Sacramental Confession, and set up to be directors 
 of consciences, without experience, without wisdom 
 and discretion, without that self-control which he 
 who would guide souls lost in the mazes of sin»
 
 1 8 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 perplexed with doubts, must needs have first at- 
 tained, lest indeed the blind lead the blind and 
 both fall into the ditch. 
 
 Nor can I think it expedient that wc should 
 adopt the remedy which has been suggested as a 
 means of guarding against this evil, i. e. the selec- 
 tion of certain persons in a Diocese, or in the 
 Church at large, to whom this difficult and delicate 
 task should be entrusted. Not to speak of serious 
 practical difficulties in the way, it would encourage 
 persons of morbid temperament to seek the prof- 
 fered help. It would be an admission of the prin- 
 ciple of habitual confession to an extent not con- 
 templated by the Church of England. I speak to 
 you as one who has had no inconsiderable expe- 
 rience for many years among a large body of 
 parishioners of the middle and lower classes, of 
 such cases as ordinarily arise in the ordinary 
 temptations and trials of life, I am convinced 
 that for persons in that class of life the best 
 adviser is their own Parish Priest, who is best 
 acquainted with their surroundings, who knows 
 more than any stranger could possibly know of 
 the nature and strength of the temptations to 
 which they are exposed. The pressure of the 
 present need (if there be any pressure) is probably 
 in that upper stratum of society, which is heaving, 
 alas! with the excitement of many unprofitable 
 and vain contentions about holy things. Women 
 especially, following uncertain guides, have over-
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 19 
 
 eagerly taken up this question, and seem as though 
 they scarce considered themselves safe without the 
 direction of a confessor. This habit of mind is in 
 direct opposition to the rule of the Church. It is 
 placing the last resort first ; it is substituting the 
 exception for the rule. If confession to a Priest 
 became the rule, there can be no doubt that the 
 manliness of the English character would shortly 
 be affected by it, especially that frankness and 
 openness which is so observable and so admirable 
 in our best educated young men ; which makes 
 their keenest competitions without envy, — which 
 keeps them in a wholesome contempt of what is 
 mean and base and dishonourable ; which is the 
 real nobility of those among them who have kept 
 themselves free from the temptations of their youth; 
 to which in no small degree it is to be attributed 
 that our English homes are what they have been, 
 and what Grod grant they long may be, abodes of 
 honour and love within, centres of kindliness 
 and generous sympathy to the neighbourhood 
 around. That which really threatens these homes, 
 that which may gradually weaken the manliness 
 of character of which I have spoken, is the daily 
 increasing luxury and selfishness and avarice or 
 greed of the age in which we live ; a certain base 
 pursuit of money with a view to the delights which 
 money can purchase, and this in conversation 
 flimsily concealed under a light manner of talk- 
 ing and conventional phrases. But what is our 
 
 B 2
 
 20 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 defence against such dangers as these ? Is it that 
 the mothers of onr young men, themselves under 
 the influence of some more or less learned and 
 discreet confessor, should endeavour to place their 
 sons and daughters under his direction ? Why 
 that would weaken the bond of filial love itself. 
 It would interpose that which God did never 
 design to interpose between parent and child. It 
 would spoil the confidence of youthful friendship. 
 It would sap self-respect. It would sow the seeds 
 of reserve in the heart at that very age when un- 
 suspiciousness and openness is natural, and so would 
 stunt the whole moral growth. Our true and only 
 defence against all this growing evil is in God's 
 sure Word ; in the searching of one's conscience 
 by that Word, taught and inculcated from our 
 very childhood as our first duty ; in the habit of 
 communion with God ever present ; in the sense 
 of a Mediator between us and a Being so great, so 
 pure, so Holy ; in the strength and ever-present 
 help of an Indwelling Spirit. 
 
 Another innovation with regard to the partak- 
 ing of the Holy Communion which has quite lately 
 assumed some considerable proportion in teaching 
 and practice is the supposed necessity of fasting 
 Communion. There being no trace of any such 
 rule or precept in our Service-book is almost in 
 itself a proof that no such necessity was ever taught 
 or intended to be taught ; that no such bar or hin- 
 drance was ever designed to be placed in the way of
 
 Chtirckwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. i\ 
 
 those whom by most urgent invitation we invite, if 
 we see them negligent, to come to the Holy Table. 
 The hours of celebration must almost necessarily 
 vary with climate, with custom of life, with distance 
 from the church, with circumstances of occupation 
 at home, matters quite external to Ecclesiastical 
 rule and ordinance. To say that there is a rule of 
 fasting to which all these must be subservient, would 
 be hard, even if we saw it clearly in Scripture, or 
 in the reason of the thing, or in ancient usage, or 
 in our own formularies, that the Holy Communion 
 must be so received. But being that there is no 
 rule in Scripture, no reason of the thing which 
 would not seem to be founded on some gross and 
 carnal conception concerning the Sacred Elements; 
 no ancient usage sufficiently extensive to bear 
 such a rule deduced from it, and not a trace of such 
 rule in our own formularies, the imposition of it 
 upon consciences is arbitrary and tyrannical. That 
 there is something in partaking of the most solemn 
 ordinance of our religion early in the morning 
 before the cares of the day have begun, before the 
 ordinary conversation of the morning has turned 
 away our thoughts from Him whom we have just 
 sought in prayer, is most true. Personally I would 
 always, if I could, partake of the Lord's Supper 
 in the early morning before I broke my fast. Of 
 evening communion, which is the use of some 
 sixty Churches in the Diocese, and in fifteen 
 others has been tried once or twice, I have great
 
 22 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 doubt. But to conceive a limitation which should 
 exclude from communion in half the country vil- 
 lages in this land, many a pious man and woman 
 who can with difficulty reach the place of worship 
 by the midday service, can only come, it is to be 
 feared, from a theory which is growing and 
 spreading among some, that it is sufficient to be 
 present at the celebration of those Holy Mysteries 
 without communicating. These eccentricities are 
 but parts of a system intended by degrees to be 
 introduced, or re-introduced, among us. And I 
 count it my most sacred duty to discourage as 
 far as 1 can — I would fain check by authority if 
 I were able — such deviations from received custom 
 and usage. 
 
 Since my last Visitation, a question which had 
 given rise to great doubt and perplexity in many 
 minds, concerning the Doctrine of the Real Pre- 
 sence, came to an issue in the decision of the Judi- 
 cial Committee of the Privy Council, in the case of 
 Mr. Bennett, of Frome. Following the precedent 
 established in other cases, the Judges pronounced, 
 with manifest doubt and reluctance, on the side of 
 toleration, and declared that what seemed to be on 
 the verge of a dangerous heresy was reconcilable 
 with the true and received theory of the presence 
 of Christ in the Sacrament. I do not deem it 
 necessary, nay, I think it undesirable to enter into 
 this matter. My own nature recoils from the 
 discussion afresh of a subject which never could
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 23 
 
 be designed to be made the matter of subtil argu- 
 mentation. 
 
 Whatever implies the lawfulness of the adoration 
 of the material substances of bread and wine after 
 consecration, is contrary to the mind and spirit of 
 the Church of England in her formularies ; and 
 those who are tempted to impute to the maintainers 
 of this opinion, that they are blind, and cannot see 
 into the life of things, will do well to examine more 
 carefully the ground on which they stand. 
 
 I fear that in not a few cases the Holy Com- 
 munion is administered where therfe are less than 
 three persons present to communicate with the 
 Priest, in disregard of the plain injunction of the 
 Rubric, that this shall not be done, even though 
 there be but twenty persons in the parish of discre- 
 tion to receive the Communion. On this subject the 
 rule is as clear as it is stringent. Our Reformers 
 absolutely prohibited the celebration of the Holv 
 Communion by the Priest, unless there were with 
 him a sufficient number to constitute a Com- 
 munion — unless the Holy Mystery by the very 
 circumstances of its ministration set forth not only 
 our Redemption by Christ's Death, but also the 
 love that we ought to have among ourselves one 
 to another, by a partaking together of the sign of 
 that most precious Death and Passion. The argu- 
 ments by which it is endeavoured to be shown 
 that the act of the Priest is beneficial for us, 
 though we do not partake with him, are in plain
 
 24 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 contradiction of the rule of the Church, Indeed, 
 some are not afraid to profess openly that " Mass is 
 said twice and thrice a day," affecting in their 
 speech the mode of that Church, from which to 
 dissever themselves as regards this thing especially, 
 our forefathers wrought so manfully, and strove 
 even unto death against what they felt to be a 
 dishonour to the truth. Nay, it would seem as 
 though some wished a Ee-reformation ; a going 
 back to something which we formerly abjured. 
 
 But this disobedience to the Church's rule is 
 found in some who, though they would entirely 
 agree in what I have just said, yet themselves 
 disregard other rubrics as plain. For instance, 
 " when there is a Communion, the Priest shall 
 then, i. e. after the offertory — then place upon 
 the Table so much Bread and Wine as he shall 
 think sufficient." It is not so done, in rather more 
 than half the churches in the Diocete. But i 
 these things the observance of a rule is the way 
 of order and peace. Deviations from a rule are 
 sure to be a stumbling-block to the weak, if not a 
 perplexity to godly and religious persons. And 
 while I am on this subject, 1 feel bound to 
 speak of one point of order and regularity in the 
 administration of the Lord's Supper. It is ordered 
 that the Minister, when he delivers the bread or 
 the cup to anyone, shall say the words appointed. 
 Some, for very charity, when there are many com- 
 municants; and some, because they think that a
 
 Churchivardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 25 
 
 repetition of the words would diminish their own 
 or others' fervour in that solemnity — say the words 
 once to all who can kneel at the rail at one time ; 
 and this, I am sorry to say, in some churches, 
 where there are scarcely ever twenty communi- 
 cants, and where there can be no plea on account of 
 weariness. There are 104 churches in the Diocese 
 where words are not said thus to each communi- 
 cant singly; in 39 of which, however, the words 
 are said to no more than two communicants at 
 a time. I earnestly hope the practice may not 
 grow. If the number of communicants be ordi- 
 narily so great as to render the individual admi- 
 nistration irksome, it is surely possible to increase 
 the opportunities of receiving ; on great festivals 
 to have an early as well as a mid- day celebration. 
 As regards the repetition of the words, I have 
 rarely found, in administering the rite of Con- 
 firmation daily, and often twice a day for two 
 months together, that the repetition of the words 
 of prayer and blessing over every candidate has 
 abated my own fervour ; and I have had frequent 
 proofs that the comfort of that personal blessing is 
 felt by the young persons on whom I have laid 
 my hands. One by one baptized and received 
 into the Congregation of Christ's flock ; one by 
 one sealed with the Spirit of promise ; one by one 
 strengthened and refreshed with spiritual food and 
 sustenance in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
 they go forth to bear every one his own burden ;
 
 26 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 to endure every one in his own person the hard- 
 ness which the soldiers of Christ are taught to 
 expect ; everyone to encounter personally and in- 
 dividually the sin that does most easily beset him. 
 And I am sure that a principle underlies these 
 directed modes of administering the ordinances of 
 the Church ; and that the claim on the part of her 
 members that these directions should be strictly 
 followed is a claim which we, who are their ser- 
 vants for Christ's sake, cannot justly disallow. 
 
 I noticed in the returns made to me, that in 
 one parish where the minister said the words 
 of administration singly to each communicant, 
 the parishioners had requested that he would 
 discontinue this mode. They were impatient pro- 
 bably of the length of the service. I think our 
 first duty in such a case would be to explain care- 
 fully the grounds upon wdiicli the rule of the 
 Church is based : to point out that we ought not to 
 grudge to Him who has given us all things richly 
 to enjoy, that portion of our time which is allotted 
 to His worship and service ; that we who spend so 
 many hours in seeking our own pleasure and 
 speaking our own words, should do well to re- 
 member the benediction declared to them that 
 dwell in God's House, and are always praising 
 Him ; and moreover to state that in these matters 
 we have a rule to follow, and are not at liberty to 
 depart from it. 
 
 I believe that though the times are difficult and
 
 Clmrchwardejis of the Diocese of Rochester. 2 7 
 
 critical, yet in almost every case consultation witli 
 the Churchwardens and some of the heads of the 
 parish about any change that may be contem- 
 plated in the service ; about the schools ; about the 
 application of monies collected at the offertory ; 
 about the various branches of parochial organiza- 
 tion which are now matters of deep personal 
 interest to many — will have its full reward in the 
 unity and good understanding between the Minis- 
 ter and his flock ; whereas if that is omitted, and a 
 Clergyman introduces changes on his own respon- 
 sibility, or seems to shut out the people from their 
 due share in the management of the jDarish, dis- 
 content is always felt, and will show itself upon 
 occasion. It was because by the confession of all 
 men the time was come when not only must the 
 Clergy come to a better understanding one with 
 another, but also when the Laity should begin to 
 take a more active part in our counsels than 
 hitherto, that I proposed at my last Visitation 
 Conferences ; whereat all needful reforms should 
 be considered and men's minds ascertained con- 
 cerning the changes which might become neces- 
 sary in the now altered position of the Church. 
 And notwithstanding some little hesitation, for I 
 can scarcely call it opposition, which manifested 
 itself at first, I believe that the principle of Diocesan 
 Conferences is now being generally admitted ; viz. 
 that it is necessary for men to meet together and 
 become informed of one another's views and feel-
 
 28 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 ings in the present state of affairs, with a view to 
 united action. 
 
 The first matter to which the Conference that 
 was held at Stratford in 1870 directed its atten- 
 tion was the great question of reh'gions Edu- 
 cation. It was just when the measure which had 
 recently become law demanded an extraordinary 
 effort on the part of those who wished to preserve 
 the denominational system intact. And it was 
 mainly through the presence of the Laity at that 
 Conference that the effort to maintain religious 
 Education in this Diocese was so successful. A 
 committee of the Conference was appointed to con- 
 sider the whole subject. A sum of 10,000/. was 
 collected for the building and enlargement of 
 schools. That sum, nobly assisted by a grant of 
 5000/. from the National Society, and further heljD 
 from the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge, was carefully apportioned by the Com- 
 mittee, and went far towards enabling us to meet 
 the requirements of the Act. 
 
 The great change that was made in the system 
 of State Education was simply this ; first, that no 
 child should be forced to attend the Scriptural 
 reading or religious lesson if its parents dis- 
 approve; and secondly, that the State Inspector 
 should not inquire as before into the religious 
 knowledge and attainment of the scholars. 
 
 Subject to this, with some alteration in details, 
 we educate as before in our Church Schools. But
 
 Churckwardtms of the Diocese of Rochester. 29 
 
 this carries with it a consequence, that the school- 
 master has no object to serve in endeavouring to 
 perfect the children of the school in religious 
 knowledge, as in other subjects. His reward ; his 
 position as a schoolmaster is independent of the 
 success of the school in that respect. But God 
 forbid that I should depreciate the work of a pious 
 schoolmaster. He may do much still. How much 
 of the whole tone of the school must depend on the 
 spirit of his teaching ; on the frame of mind and 
 heart in which he daily approaches his work. And 
 I have the comfort and satisfaction of knowing 
 that any fears which might have been entertained 
 on this subject have hitherto proved to be ground- 
 less. But no doubt it rests with you, my Reverend 
 Brethren, and you will not shrink from the re- 
 sponsibility, to see that children are trained in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord. It will be 
 your duty henceforth to take care that your absence 
 from your parish for needful recreation and rest 
 shall be regulated as far as possible by the time 
 when you can best be spared from the vigilant 
 superintendence of your school. From henceforth 
 your special work and labour of love in obedience 
 to your Lord's command, " Feed my Lambs," will 
 be to guard against the possible secularization of 
 your school, by giving every help and encourage- 
 ment in your power to the schoolmaster in his 
 arduous task. From henceforth the ancient rule 
 of tlie Church that all parents, masters, and dames
 
 30 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 should cause their children, servants, and appren- 
 tices, to come to the church at the time appointed 
 to be instructed in some part of their Christian 
 faith and duty, will assume new importance in 
 your eyes. From henceforth you will feel that 
 the simple faith of the children in your parish is 
 in your hands to guard and keep safe from the 
 prevailing errors of the time, that when they go 
 forth into the world to get their livelihood in other 
 places or in conntries far from home, they may go 
 fortified by the Scriptural teaching they received 
 when they M^ere under your care. Henceforth 
 none of those whom I ordain to the ministry shall 
 say to me, " We are in a lonely country parish, 
 where there is no society, and we know not how 
 to pass our time." For scarcely with all diligence ; 
 scarcely with most careful preparation for teaching 
 in the school, for catechizing in the church, shall 
 they be able to feel that they have done their 
 part, their difficult but blessed part, in impressing 
 on those tender hearts the great truth that they 
 have a Father, a Saviour, a Comforter in Heaven. 
 For the inspection of schools in religious 
 knowledge, which became doubly necessary when 
 the State Inspector ceased to have to do with that 
 department of instruction, the Rev. G. W. Fisher 
 has been appointed by me on the nomination of 
 the Rochester and Herts Boards of Education, 
 as Diocesan Inspector in the Archdeaconries of 
 Rochester and St. Albans, while in Essex the
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 3 1 
 
 religious inspection of schools is carried on as 
 before by a body of clergymen who kindly under- 
 take that work in their own neighbourhood or 
 some district agreed on. 
 
 I have before me the results of both these 
 systems of inspection ; and it is competent for 
 me to say that they are earnest, systematic, 
 thorough : they prove satisfiictorily that the 
 religious instruction of children has not as yet 
 suffered from the change of system that has taken 
 place ; and that there is no reason why it should 
 suffer ; that it is in our own hands to make it even 
 more efficient than it has ever yet been. It is 
 gratifying to hear that so far from the visit of the 
 Diocesan Inspector being regarded with indifference 
 — as some feared that it might be — it is on the 
 contrary looked forward to with interest by the 
 schoolmasters and mistresses and the managers of 
 the school. It is indeed greatly to be regretted 
 that the visit of the Inspector has been declined in 
 Essex in as many as thirty-two parishes ; in Kent 
 and Hertfordshire by twenty ; but in many cases 
 the ground assigned for this refusal was that 
 the schools were not yet ready for inspection, 
 but would be open to it at a future time. I 
 earnestly hope that those who have declined to 
 receive my Inspector on any other ground will 
 reconsider their decision. There is and can be 
 only one object of this inspection of Schools. It is 
 to perfect that which we all wish to see jDerfected.
 
 32 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 It is to profit by one another's experience ; to learn 
 from one's own or another's failure or success ; to 
 be enabled to see where we are weak that we may 
 strengthen ourselves in that part. Through the 
 careful inspection of all the schools in a Diocese 
 many things are ascertained which it is important 
 for the whole community to know. For instance, 
 great stress has been laid on the necessity for intro- 
 ducing a conscience clause ; or the hardship of 
 compelling parents to send their children to a 
 school when they conscientiously disapprove of the 
 religious teaching. Those who were best acquainted 
 with the working of our parochial schools were 
 well assured that this grievance was greatly exag- 
 gerated ; and so it has proved. The number of 
 children formally withdrawn from religious in- 
 struction on this account is almost infinitesimal. 
 To that very small number, however, we must add 
 in all fairness those who came too late for tlie 
 religious lesson ; which appears in many cases to 
 be done designedly that they may avoid it. On 
 this account it becomes a question whether it would 
 not be better that the religious teaching should be 
 given at another time ; say at the end rather than 
 at the beginning of school. " It would then," as 
 Mr. Fisher observes in his report to me, "be clearly 
 understood that all the children who had been 
 present at the secular instruction would remain for 
 the religious instruction unless their parents made 
 formal application for the contrary." There is
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 33 
 
 certainly something very unsatisfactory and posi- 
 tively injurious in a permitted irregularity of this 
 kind. But whenever the religious instruction may 
 be given (and that must depend on the varying 
 circumstances of parishes, the convenience of the 
 Clergy, or of the families who are so often the 
 ready assistants of the Clergy in this matter) it is 
 certain that the time devoted to this subject ought 
 not to be stinted, that everything should be done 
 which can be done to impress on the minds of 
 children that those who love them and care for 
 them have a special interest in this part of their 
 work. No time, my Reverend Brethren, which 
 you bestow in the administration of your parishes 
 will be so rewarded in a seen and felt benefit con- 
 ferred upon those to whose service you have 
 pledged 3^our lives, as the time spent in teaching in 
 the school, or in preparing and assisting the pupil 
 teachers for the part they must take in the 
 religious instruction of the younger children. 
 There is one unvarying testimony from every 
 State Inspector, and every Diocesan Inspector 
 with whom I have ever conversed, that a tone of 
 order and reverence is to be observed in those 
 schools where the Clergy aid regularly and syste- 
 matically. Nor can we over-estimate the relief 
 afforded to the schoolmaster, on whom devolves 
 daily these six hours' work in school, and one hour's 
 secular Instructibn to his pupil teacher afterwards, 
 to feel that the whole burden of that which he
 
 34 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 knows to be the most responsible part of liis office, 
 does not rest on him alone. It arises both out of 
 my conference with the Essex Diocesan Inspectors 
 and out of Mr. Fisher's report, that I should 
 suggest that special attention be paid to the 
 childrens' private praj^ers, to be used at home. 
 Not but that this important point is attended to in 
 many schools : out of 171 school departments 
 examined in Hertfordshire, 119 are favourably 
 reported of in this respect, but that it is the very 
 principle of dependence on God, and faith in God, 
 and recognition of God's presence with us in all we 
 think and do and say, which if we can instil into 
 the hearts of children while they are under educa- 
 tion in our schools, we shall have given them that 
 which shall stand them in good stead when all 
 earthly knowledge shall have vanished away. 
 
 Another subject discussed at the Stratford Con- 
 ference was, " Fees payable by churchwardens." 
 A committee was nominated by the Conference, 
 who, after careful consideration, made a report. 
 The result at which the committee arrived was in 
 effect this : that, as there are no means in 'many 
 parishes for the payment of these fees, and as it is 
 not to be expected that the officials of the Church 
 who were paid by those fees would work without 
 reward (for that the labourer is worthy of his hire), 
 tbe only remedy in our hands was that hereafter 
 the whole Ecclesiastical arrangements, as they now 
 stand, should be remodelled ; that the Archdeacons'
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 35 
 
 Yisifations should cease, and only the triennial, or 
 quadriennial, or as it is in some Dioceses, the 
 septennial Visitation of the Bishop, remain ; mean- 
 while, that the admission of the Churchwardens 
 and other necessary formalities should be trans- 
 acted at another time and place. This report was 
 submitted by me, at the desire of the Council of 
 Conference which met to consider these reports at 
 Danbury, to the Archbishop, and has been more 
 than once referred to by his Grace at meetings 
 held for the consideration of this difficult subject; 
 difficult because vested interests are involved, which 
 in all legislation in this country are carefully 
 guarded. In the Act for the Abolition of Church- 
 rates alone were these interests not sufficiently pro- 
 tected, but left to be maintained as they could. It 
 seems to me a principle of honour and equity not 
 to let the present holders of official positions, or 
 rather those who held them at the time of the 
 passing of the Act, lose what they had been used 
 to calculate upon for their maintenance, so long as 
 they perform the services to which certain fees and 
 emoluments were attached. I cannot see with what 
 justice their claim can be ignored ; nor can I feel 
 the least sympathy with the man who says, " Let 
 them get it as they can. I for one will never pay 
 it." Yet this kind of speaking is apt to be received 
 with applause. On the other side, it is most unjust 
 that the churchwardens should be compelled to 
 pay such fees out of their own pockets. It is a
 
 36 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 matter for parishes to consider, so long as those 
 vested interests remain. It is a matter for those to 
 whom power is given by law to adjust these fees, 
 to take in hand. 
 
 To get rid of the difficnlties which beset this 
 question of fees by the abolition of the Visitation 
 of the Archdeacon, would be a course attended 
 with great loss and inconvenience to the Church, 
 The Archdeacon lightens the burden of the Epis- 
 copate to an extent which is not perhaps easily 
 understood by those without. I am myself in con- 
 stant communication with each of the three Arch- 
 deacons of this Diocese : who by reason that they 
 are brought into personal contact, every year, with 
 the newly-elected or re-elected churchwardens, and 
 that it is their duty to visit churches; to inquire into 
 the manner of their sustentation ; to satisfy them- 
 selves that all is well duly ordered in them, — are 
 necessarily well acquainted with many things which 
 might not otherwise come under the notice of the 
 Bishop ; and by the jurisdiction which they hold 
 over church officers and servants do greatly assist 
 in the peace and well governing of our parishes. 
 Not then to abolish their Courts and diminish 
 their influence, just when it specially pertains to 
 their office to help in the working out of recent 
 enactments, such as the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations 
 Act, the Incumbents' Resignation Act, the Union 
 of Benefices Act, and others, — but to strengthen 
 their hands as the persons best qualified to watch
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 3 7 
 
 over the interests of the Clergy, would seem to he 
 the wisest course. 
 
 Brethren, there can be no doubt that the Clergy 
 and the faithful Laity have set their faces sted- 
 fastly towards supplying the spiritual needs of our 
 parishes. Since my last Visitation I have conse- 
 crated twenty-five new churches : and I have* the 
 satisfaction of knowing that one hundred and fifty 
 have been either restored or rebuilt, or internally 
 improved and re-fitted, during the same period. 
 Nor is it merely that by these buildings and re- 
 buildings of churches a larger number of wor- 
 shippers are enabled t(? attend, and do attend. 
 Divine Service ; but wherever this work has been 
 taken in hand, the love that men have shown 
 toward the house of their Grod and the offices 
 thereof has borne fruit — some thirty, some sixty, 
 some an hundred fold. I have seen with pleasure, 
 whenever I have been present at the consecration 
 or re-opening of these churches, how all things 
 within correspond to the outward restoration or 
 adornment of the fabric. No longer that appearance 
 of slovenliness and neglect which we remember in 
 past years —no longer that irreverence in the hand- 
 ling of holy things, which has passed away let us 
 hope for ever. The earnestness of both minister and 
 people in the service in which they are engaged — 
 the joyful interest — the solemn and devout manner, 
 without any modishness or affectation, of those who 
 know and believe that God is greatly to be feared
 
 38 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 in the assembly of His saints, and to be had in 
 reverence of those that are round about Him — 
 these are the signs by which we judge that the 
 restoration of the sanctuaries in our land is a work 
 which. Grod hath graciously accepted at our hands. 
 Nor is this all. Almost on every occasion of this 
 kind, my brethren have made known to me some 
 pious layman without whose willing aid the work 
 could never have been begun, much less carried 
 through : some women rich in good works, who 
 help continually in the service, in the school, among 
 the poor. The testimony of St. Paul concerning 
 Phebe, that servant of the Church which was at 
 Cenchrea, is not confined, God be praised for it, to 
 that age and generation. Many and many of my 
 brethren have said to me of such, almost in the 
 very words of St. Paul, " She hath been a succourer 
 of many, and of myself also." 
 
 Brethren, there is a matter which is very near 
 my heart, and which, while I am speaking of the 
 restoration of churches, I cannot forbear naming 
 to you. It is the restoration of our ancient Cathe- 
 dral. The Dean and Chapter have lately taken 
 this work in hand. But having spent 12,000/., and 
 finding as much yet to be done, they are unable to 
 proceed for want of means. In asking you to help 
 them, I do not ask you anything new or unusual. 
 The Cathedrals of Bangor, Carlisle, Chichester, 
 Chester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Llandaff, 
 Lichfield, Oxford, and Worcester, have all, within
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester, 39 
 
 these few years, been restored or are in process of 
 restoration. Surely there is no reason why we 
 should not do what is done in other counties. We 
 have inherited from those who built those walls and 
 caused holy ministries to be ke|)t up within them, 
 and Christian teaching to be maintained around 
 them, our faith, our Christian privileges, the peace 
 and safety we enjoy, the hopes which lie beyond 
 this present peace and safety. We cannot dissociate 
 ourselves from the first founders of Cathedrals, 
 Parish Churches, Colleges, and Schools. We have 
 entered into their labours. I ask you earnestly to 
 help. Within the borders of this Diocese dwell 
 hundreds of persons whom God hath so blessed with 
 temporal prosperity, that if they were so minded 
 they might take this work in hand and finish it. 
 I do not plead for a dead work. As much as any 
 practical work that can be named, this would tend, 
 like those other restorations of which I have spoken, 
 to promote the worship and praise of Grod. For 
 are not our Cathedrals, after centuries of almost 
 disuse, just now beginning to be made instrumental 
 in the great revival of religion which the Spirit of 
 God is bringing to pass amongst us ? 
 
 But of all restorations that of our ancient Abbey 
 Church of St. Albans, so lately rescued by ener- 
 getic effort timely made from dilapidation which 
 might have laid it in ruins, gives us most cause 
 for joy : not only for the grandeur of its propor- 
 tions, the memories of the past that are connected
 
 40 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 with it; its Laving been the scene of the first 
 EngHsh martyrdom ; the witness it bears to the 
 zeal and love of our forefathers towards the 
 House of their Grod — Imt also because we cannot 
 forbear to connect its restoration with the hope 
 of its being made, possibly within the lifetime 
 of some of us, the seat of another Bishopric. 
 I ask your careful consideration of the words 
 of the Commissioners appointed by Parliament 
 in the year 1858, to inquire into the state of 
 the four Dioceses lying within and around the 
 Metropolis : — " We may mention among the duties 
 which attach to the Episcoj)al ofiice. Ordination, 
 Consecration of Churches and Burial Grounds, 
 Confirmation, Visitation, and intercourse with the 
 Clergy by letters and personal interviews, attend- 
 ance at the House of Lords, and at public boards 
 and meetings connected with the Church, together 
 with a general care and superintendence of many 
 religious societies and institutions. According to 
 the circumstances of each see, these duties are 
 more or less frequent and pressing, and they now 
 demand for th^ir proper fulfilment a much greater 
 expenditure of time and labour than heretofore, 
 since the presence and counsel of the Bishoj) are 
 more frequently required in consequence of the 
 increasing efforts now made in every direction for 
 the advancement of religion and education and for 
 the general benefit of the people." 
 
 If such was the case fifteen years ago, it is ten-
 
 CJmrchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 41 
 
 fold more the case now. The ^^oiDulation of the 
 Diocese of Rochester in tlie time of my predecessor 
 was somewhat over 600,000. It is now more than 
 a million : and if the feeling should revive in the 
 county of Herts which prompted many noblemen 
 and gentlemen at that time to recommend to the 
 Commissioners the propriety of founding a Bishop's 
 see at St. Albans, and offering on their part to 
 contribute liberally towards restoring the Abbey 
 to a state and condition fit for a Cathedral Church, 
 it could scarcely be that such a proposal, with tlie 
 present feeling of Churchmen concerning the 
 increase of the Episcopate, would entirely fall to 
 the ground as that former proposal did. But 
 whether that be so or no, I trust the feeling of 
 veneration and love for that ancient Abbey which 
 svas called forth by the danger of its downfall, 
 will not die away till the disgrace and defilement 
 of the public footpath which passes through its 
 midst is removed : till the restoration of the Lady 
 Chapel, which the ladies of Hertfordshire have 
 taken in hand, is effected ; and the security at least 
 of the roof and walls of that magnificent Nave 
 against what is still imminent, is accomplished. 
 This cannot be done without further and increased 
 subscriptions. I deem it my duty not to omit the 
 present opportunity of bringing the subject before 
 the minds of the Churchmen in my Diocese, who 
 have ever shown themselves willing to help where 
 they are satisfied that the need is real, and that it
 
 42 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 pertains to Grod's worship and service. But it would 
 be useless to conceal from you that the present scale 
 of subscriptions has proved quite inadequate. I 
 cannot think that this great and wealthy nation 
 will leave this work unfinished in the midst. 
 
 Nor is it only in the building and restoring of 
 churches that the zeal of the Clergy and of the 
 faithful Laity for the salvation of souls has mani- 
 fested itself. Applications are made to me con- 
 tinually to license schoolrooms wherein the Word 
 may be preached to parishioners living too far 
 from the parish church. Iron churches have 
 been erected in several parishes for the same 
 reason. Mission halls in our populous districts in 
 the suburbs of London have answered the two-fold 
 purpose of religious instruction and of innocent 
 recreation. And how could all this machinery have 
 been set on foot, unless there had been men, full 
 of the Holy Ghost and of faith, content to dwell 
 in those quarters with no other aim or object than 
 to teach and preach Jesus Christ ? There is a 
 district in the parish of West Ham, known now 
 as the parish of Holy Trinity, Barking, bordering 
 on Canning-Town, where the name of Andreav 
 Delap will be remembered with affection and 
 respect, as long as any of those to whom he minis- 
 tered can call to mind, as I do now, his unweary- 
 ing labour, his godly simplicity in Christ. But 
 for such men — but for their truth and their humi- 
 lity, but for their being content to know nothing 
 
 J
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 43 
 
 among the people committed to their charge but 
 Jesus Christ and Him Crucified — how should the 
 woes and hardships of this weary life ever be 
 softened to those on whom they press most hea- 
 vily ? None can tell but those who have expe- 
 rienced it, the comfort of that one word, " Peace 
 be to this house," uttered by him who crosses the 
 threshold with that word upon his lips. Such a 
 comforter was that man of whom I have spoken. 
 
 To send forth such men, with lay -helpers to 
 assist them — scripture readers — parochial mission 
 and bible women — to provide churches, mission 
 stations, schools, parsonage houses, where they, 
 dwelling in the midst of the people to whom they 
 are sent, may go in and out among them daily, 
 preaching the Word — this is the work of what is 
 called " The Bishop of Rochester's Fund," which 
 is now entering upon its fourth year. Upwards 
 of 30,000/. has been paid or promised, of which 
 26,423/. has been actually received. The whole 
 cost of raising and administering the fund has 
 been 413/. 135., or about 1/. 8,9. per cent. Of the 
 money received, 5124/. 15s. has been the result of 
 Collections in upwards of 600 Churches in the 
 Diocese. There are still some few Churches which 
 have not contributed to this great Home Mission 
 work. The expenditure at the present time on 
 the most important branch of the work, viz. living 
 agencies, is about 3200/. a year. This goes to 
 support ten missionary Clergy, ten parochial
 
 44 ^ Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 curates, besides scripture readers and missiou 
 women : two mission districts have received their 
 endowment ; and it is hoped that two more will 
 soon be self-supporting also. Grants amounting to 
 4500^. have been made to eight churches which 
 will accommodate 5000 worshippers : 690^. has 
 been given towards schools or mission churches : 
 1000^. towards four parsonages : five sites have 
 been purchased for different objects at a cost of 
 1875^. : and schools for 7000 children have been 
 aided by grants amounting to 67G6/. Of these all 
 but two are completed. With regard to the 
 jDresent resources of the Fund, it must be said that 
 the available balance is insufficient for the con- 
 tinuance of the present grants to living agents ; 
 many of the larger contributions, spread over a 
 term of years, will shortly expire ; and unless their 
 place be suj)plied by fresh subscriptions, much of 
 the work must necessarily be given up. May we 
 not take example from the munificent gift of 
 500,000/. to the Church of Scotland ? The donor 
 has been moved to give this sum (it is thus recited 
 in the Trust Deed) " because he feels deeply im- 
 pressed with the extent to which spiritual destitu- 
 tion prevails among the poor and working popula- 
 tion of Scotland, and is satisfied that this proceeds 
 in a great measure from the icant of loroperly 
 organized and endowed territorial icork ; that there 
 is a tendency to a departui^e from the truth, and 
 to an exclusion of religion from the teaching
 
 CJmrchwardens of the Diocese of Rochestei\ 45 
 
 of the young, and that the means available by 
 law are insufficient to provide for the faithful 
 preaching of the Word of God, for the refu- 
 tation of error, and for the support of the 
 Church, and for Education, and other purposes 
 of a religious character." It may be needful 
 that I should make another appeal, not to the 
 deaneries of Barking, Greenwich, and Wool- 
 wich onl}^, as is done every year, but to the whole 
 Diocese. For as Churchmen we must regard the 
 unity of the body, and not those local divisions 
 which so much influence united action ; as men 
 say, " It is a county matter, and must be taken up 
 by the county." We should say, " It is a Church 
 matter, and should be taken up by the Church." 
 Or may I not venture to say, " Ye are Christ's, and 
 this is Christ's flock, whereof some of the members 
 are weak, some are strong ; and the strong must 
 help the weak ; and the weak and the strong 
 together must learn in whom their strength lies." 
 Lately, when we set ourselves in earnest to the 
 task of building and enlarging the schools in the 
 Diocese, we learnt something of the advantage of 
 working together in a body. I think we found that 
 the best heads in the Diocese could consult for the 
 advantage of each locality better than those in the 
 locality could have consulted for themselves. I 
 think the true strength of unity was perceptible in 
 that effort. Every one knew what to do : the 
 time was saved that must have been lost in seeking
 
 46 A Charge delivet^ed to the Clergy and 
 
 information from the Educational Department in 
 London, overburdened at that time with work, 
 and not disposed, from the circumstances of the 
 case, to lend itself to our needs, beyond that which 
 it was bound to perform. And, besides all this, 
 there was the sense of working together. It was 
 not Essex, Hertfordshire, and Kent; but it was 
 the Diocese. It was a matter of Eeligion. The 
 ordinary political differences were unfelt. And 
 if Nonconformists had only been actuated by the 
 same spirit (for they were really boiind by their 
 own traditions to maintain religious as opposed 
 to secular Education), there was a hope for once 
 of being united in the great cause which both we 
 and they have at heart. But that one word " un- 
 sectarian" led them astray. They thought they 
 were contending for religious freedom, when they 
 were deliveriug themselves and us into the hands 
 of the common enemy. And so that hope passed 
 away: and it seems as though we were never to 
 unite together but in some such strictly neutral 
 ground as that which is called Hospital Sunday. 
 I hope that in the course of another year when I 
 come to ask you to contribute once more, and finally, 
 to the Bishop of Eochester's Fund for the three 
 London deaneries, in which only in all the Diocese 
 the population has largely outgrown tlie ancient 
 Ecclesiastical provision, I shall find you in a readi- 
 ness to help me, as you readily helped me four 
 years ago. I say when I shall appeal to you
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 47 
 
 finally, for this reason, that in the course of three 
 years, or four at most from the expiration of the 
 first five j^ears from its commencement, that Fund 
 ought to have answered its end in the estahlish- 
 ment of new parishes, each with its proper paro- 
 chial machinery, and with the power of subdividing 
 itself hereafter with the aid of the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners. 
 
 It has been a custom in this Diocese for twelve 
 or thirteen years past that the Bishop should at 
 the beginning of the year ask the Clergy to devote 
 the Offertory twice in the year — once to some 
 object at home, once to some object abroad. I 
 have done this every year : last year I named 
 the National Society, which in 1871 gave 5000/. 
 for the building and enlarging of schools in this 
 Diocese. The sum collected was 800/., but this 
 came from under 200 parishes ; not one-third : the 
 remaining two-thirds took no notice of my request. 
 This year I named the Additional Curates and 
 the Pastoral Aid Societies ; the former of which 
 has made grants within two years to thirty-two 
 parishes, amounting to 1655/. The sum collected 
 has been 583/. for the Additional Curates; 136/. 
 for the Church Pastoral Aid Society ; from under 
 200 Parishes, probably the same parishes which 
 contributed 800/. in last year. The remaining 
 two-thirds took no notice of my request. 
 
 I know, my Brethren, that this is not out of any 
 indisposition to help forward good works, but
 
 48 A Charge delivered to tJic Clergy and 
 
 simply and solely from your unwillingness to put 
 before poor people the duty of giving. One thing, 
 I think, admits of no dispute, that it is not sincere 
 to urge the poverty of the parishioners as a reason 
 for not asking them to give, when in fact at every 
 celebration of the Holy Communion the plate is 
 handed to the poor in common with the rich. The 
 words of blessedness sound as sv»'eetly in their ears, 
 as they sound in the ears of the rich, " God loveth 
 a cheerful giver." Another argument has been 
 used to me against these collections which I almost 
 shrink from mentioning. It is that people will not 
 give, when they know that the money is to go out 
 of the parish. It is an argument which does not 
 consist with the support that is freely given to our 
 Missionary Societies in every parish in this land ; 
 among whose joyful supporters from the very 
 beginning have been the poorest members of our 
 Church. I venture once more to suggest that there 
 should be an Offertory from the whole Congrega- 
 tion once a month, not from the Communicants 
 only. This is a matter in which 3'ou, Gentlemen 
 Churchwardens, if you only throw yourselves into 
 it heartily, might greatly assist your Ministers, 
 who are unwilling of themselves to make any 
 change of this sort. 
 
 While I am on the subject of Home needs and 
 Home missions, I am bound to mention to the pro- 
 moters of such good works, as an instance of a 
 special need, the St. Andrew's Waterside Mission.
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 49 
 
 This was a Mission (the word has now become a 
 familiar word) set on foot to afford spiritual aid to 
 emigrant and other ships leaving these shores 
 while they lay yet in the Thames ; in which are 
 often to be found persons setting forth with little 
 thought for any other provision than that of 
 things needful for the body. Ten years ago the 
 Eev. Canon Robinson, then Incumbent of Holy 
 Trinity, Gravesend, saw that if a clei'gyman, 
 located where he then was, went on board these 
 ships, to offer service on the Lord's Day, a word of 
 exhortation on any other day, good books for the 
 voyage, Bibles and Prayer Books, to those emi- 
 grants, sailors, or others going forth to distant 
 lands, it might be the means, under God's bless- 
 ing, of putting good thoughts into their hearts, 
 sowing seed which might bear fruit in after-life, 
 and cast bright beams of Gospel light over their 
 departure from the land of their birth. He with 
 great care and diligence established that Mission. 
 It is now carried on by one who shared his labours 
 and has since succeeded him as Yicar of Holy 
 Trinity, the Rev. John Scarth. Last year he dis- 
 tributed about one thousand pounds' worth of 
 books; more than twelve hundred volumes were 
 sent to him for the purpose, besides thousands of 
 maorazines and tracts. He bears witness to a 
 great change for the better in the religious feel- 
 ings of both officers and men ; and has many of the 
 former acting as lay missionaries on board ship, the 
 
 D
 
 50 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 Mission supplying tliem witli books for service and 
 for distribution. I bad some tbougbt of proposing 
 tbat tbe Offertories at some places near tbe river, 
 at wbieb I beld my Visitation, should be devoted 
 to the support of this Mission ; but the Hockerill 
 Training College for schoolmistresses, to which in 
 Essex and Herts we owe so much, and. my Fund in 
 the London deaneries, seemed to have a stronger 
 claim. But it is my intention and my earnest 
 hope that I may be permitted to further in some 
 way that great and good work on the river 
 Thames. Like other good works it has had its 
 great discouragements and difficulties. But as the 
 consecration of the little clmrch on the river side 
 has given it a local habitation ; a place where 
 prayer shall ever be made for the souls of those 
 whom it strives to benefit, and for those who are 
 engaged in its holy ministrations, there is good 
 reason to hope that it shall have support from the 
 Diocese in which it stands, when its first founders 
 and we who wish it God speed shall be gathered 
 to our rest. 
 
 I do not forget, while I am addressing myself 
 in general to the Parochial Clergy, that I have 
 other fellow-labourers, who feel, and often keenly 
 feel, the same perplexities which trouble us 
 in our ministrations ; and who have likewise to 
 contend with other difficulties peculiar to them- 
 selves. In this Diocese, as much as or more than 
 in any other, are great military centres. Provision
 
 Chnrchzvardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 5 1 
 
 is made by the State for services. The chaplains 
 to the forces, under the general superintendence 
 of the chief Chaplain, minister to the members of 
 our Church. Nor is there lacking zeal among 
 military laymen to help forward Grod's work 
 among British soldiers. But one of the chief 
 drawbacks in the position of an army chaplain 
 is this, that while he has as much need or more 
 of the sympathy of his brethren than the Parish 
 Priest has, he has less opportunity of conference 
 with men like-minded, engaged in the same work. 
 He ministers to men, the greatest part of whom 
 are severed from their home ties, and who through 
 that severance and the absence of the ordinary 
 domestic influences, and often through the com- 
 pany into which they are thrown, are exposed to 
 a fiercer fire of temptation. He has to deal with 
 tempers chafed by the necessary strictness of 
 military discipline, and the hardness they have 
 to endure. He has to watch for opportunities 
 when the word in season, kindly spoken, may be 
 the very turning point between the fear of God 
 and the strength of temptation. And this too 
 when the times both for public worship and pri- 
 vate conference are rendered more difficult because 
 of other ministrations. I have often feared lest 
 it should seem to my Brethren the chaplains to 
 the forces that they are in any way overlooked or 
 neglected. Of their feelings towards their Bishop 
 I have full proof in the kind and considerate 
 
 D 2
 
 52 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 welcome I have always met with when I have 
 gone to minister in the Camp. And if any 
 changes should occur — as no man can tell in these 
 days what changes may not occur — detrimental to 
 their office and to the interests of true religion, 
 they may rest assured that the Bishop and Clergy 
 of the Diocese in which their lot is cast will hold 
 out to them the right hand of fellowship, and 
 regard their interests as their own. Like words 
 may be spoken to those who labour in our gaols 
 and workhouses and infirmaries. In this assembly 
 are represented very various offices, degrees, and 
 dignities in the Church ; and I will venture to say 
 that in no age of the world was the esteem in 
 which every one was held more entirely measured 
 by his fruitfulness and diligence in the work to 
 which Grod has called him^ than the age in which 
 we live. Whoever does his duty honestly, remem- 
 bering his stewardship; whoever approves himself, 
 in difficult and trying places, as the Minister of 
 Christ ; whoever sustains the Clerical character by 
 his bearing and deportment as he mixes with tlie 
 world in which his mission lies — though indeed it 
 • be a very little thing that he should be judged of 
 men and of man's judgment — yet is by that 
 judgment and by the sympathy of his brethren 
 supported, cheered, and comforted in his task. 
 
 The sympathy of many members of our Church 
 with persons holding Latitudinarian opinions, 
 though not with the opinions themselves, led to
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 53 
 
 frequent and prolonged discussions, Loth in the 
 Ritual Commission and in both Houses of Convo- 
 cation, on the expediency of retaining the Atlia- 
 nasian Creed in the services of the Church. It 
 must be borne in mind that the exjDediency of 
 retaining it after its established use for 300 years 
 is a very different matter from the original ques- 
 tion of its adoption into the Service. No one can 
 doubt that to have made its use optional, or to 
 have diminished the frequency, or to have ex- 
 punged it altogether, would have been a slur cast, 
 whether on an Ancient Confession of Faith, or, as 
 some have been anxious to regard it, on an expo- 
 sition of a Confession, or, as others, upon an Hymn 
 sung in honour of the Eternal Trinity. And it 
 was this feeling which led to the decision pro- 
 nounced by the Clergy wherever they were con- 
 sulted on the subject, adverse to any change. It 
 was this feeling so general among the Laity, not- 
 withstanding the signatures of many hundreds or 
 thousands to a document expressing an opposite 
 opinion, which has justified the action of Convo- 
 cation in retaining the use of the Creed. Relief 
 has been afforded to some by a Declaration put 
 forth by that body, affirming what I do not see 
 how any could have doubted, viz. that we are to 
 bear in mind when we utter those strong condem- 
 nations, that we are not condemning those who 
 have not been duly instructed concerning this 
 holy mystery, or any who do not in truth come
 
 54 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 under the sentence pronounced by the Lord Him- 
 self, "He that believeth not shall he damned." 
 And now this question which agitated so many 
 minds, and led to so many hard words and so 
 many lamentable misunderstandings, is for the 
 present set at rest. Nor do I believe that, except 
 in a comparatively small number of instances, the 
 Athanasian Creed has been so great a stumbling- 
 block as has been represented, either in the way of 
 members of our own Church or of our Noncon- 
 formist Brethren, as hindering them from joining 
 our Communion. It is a grievous thing to put a 
 stumbling-block in a brother's way : but it is a 
 weakness surely to be ready to risk Holy Truth 
 and the wounding of pure minds and consciences 
 for the sake of quieting and ajDpeasing an unheal tliy 
 sensitiveness. In such matters we can only com- 
 mend ourselves to God ; respect what we have 
 received to hold ; do nothing lightly ; and rest 
 assured that He will guide His Church aright in 
 the end through the conflict of opinions and the 
 strife of tongues. 
 
 I advert to the subject of the Public Worship 
 Facilities bill, which was rejected by the House 
 of Lords, for the sake of reminding you, my Re- 
 verend Brethren, that the bill which appeared to 
 give power which might have been abused, to 
 the Bishop, was not of the Bishops' seeking; was 
 submitted to their consideration by the framer 
 of it, and after very great hesitation accepted
 
 Chirchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 55 
 
 by them, with the full consciousness that they 
 should expose themselves to misunderstanding, 
 but with the strong conviction that they had no 
 right to refuse that responsibility, because the 
 power might in many parishes, with great con- 
 sent of the jDarishioners, have been used for good. 
 The charge that we were either seeking power, or 
 over eager to accept it when offered, was not borne 
 out by the facts. I can only assure you that in 
 certain cases of neglected duty, of souls left to 
 perish for lack of spiritual care — cases in which, 
 if I submitted them to your consideration at this 
 moment, you would say, " Take the power, do 
 what 3^ou can," I stand ' powerless to interfere. 
 Whether for some phantom fear of giving more 
 power to the Bishop those cases ought to be left 
 untouched, those souls left unholpen, those pastors 
 left to do as they will, contrary to the feeling of 
 the best of the parishioners, is a question in which 
 it cannot be absolutely demonstrated which is the 
 right course to pursue. But there is a busy, bust- 
 ling suspiciousness which, taking advantage of 
 the semblance of a sinister motive, may sometimes 
 decry unfairly and dissuade unwisely, and rather 
 seem to be than be truly on the side of justice and 
 truth. 
 
 I have confirmed, since the year 1868, 50,000 
 persons : in the present year 8255 ; of whom 3417 
 were males •, 4838 females. In the notices I have 
 issued of my intention to confirm, I have hitherto
 
 '56 A Charge delivered to the Clergy mid 
 
 left the age at wLicli children should be presented 
 to the Bishop to the discretion of the Clergy. But 
 inasmuch as some of my Reverend Brethren have 
 interpreted this discretion more widely than I in- 
 tended, and have presented children of nine or ten 
 years of age to he confirmed, I am compelled to 
 limit the age to somewhat over fourteen years ; nor 
 will I confirm any child under fourteen unless on 
 special application made to me in the particular 
 case. I regret to he obHged to adopt this course, 
 because there is a great difference between children 
 in regard to the age at which their religious im- 
 jDrcssions become deeper and more distinct. 
 
 The first year after Confirmation, provided that 
 young persons are brought to be confirmed at an 
 age when they are capable of discernment between 
 the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, and 
 the law of sin and death, is often the turning- 
 point of their Christian deportment and behaviour. 
 If they never communicate ; or if they communi- 
 cate once or twice, and then slacken and leave off, 
 they gradually fall into the world's ways. And it 
 is here, above all other opportunities, that of moi'tal 
 sickness not excepted, where the unremitting care 
 and vigilance and tenderness of a Pastor is sure 
 of its reward. It is not, as we know, in preparing 
 candidates for confirmation, but in guarding them 
 from falling into temptation and a snare afterwards 
 that our time and diligence are required. The in- 
 creased frequency of confirmations, which began.
 
 Churchwardens of tJie Diocese of Rochester. 5 7 
 
 we may almost say, during- the vigorous adminis- 
 tiation of the Diocese of Oxford by him whose loss 
 to tlie Church, to his Diocese, to his friends and 
 brethren, has not even yet begun to be felt as it 
 will be felt — has done much to bring the reality of 
 that holy rite home to men's hearts. For we must 
 not measure the advantage of more frequent con- 
 firmation by the numbers confirmed. There is all 
 the difference between the resort of young people 
 from a country village to a neighbouring town, 
 amidst all the circumstances of a holiday, to be 
 confirmed in a strange church, and their quietly 
 going up to their parish church and there in the 
 presence of their kinsfolk and near acquaintance 
 taking their Baptismal promise on themselves. 
 The Episcopate must be considerably increased ere 
 this be possible in our larger Dioceses. It is in 
 itself a strong argument for the subdivision of 
 Dioceses ; for the subdivision of Parishes ; for 
 everything which helps forward that individual 
 ministration to individual souls to which I have 
 before referred as the end of our conversation and 
 ministry ; till St. Paul's words to Barnabas, " Let 
 us go again and visit our brethren in every city 
 where we have preached the word of the Lord, 
 and see how they do," be more a reality than they 
 can be now : and we can feel ourselves, in the 
 discharge of our ofiSce, as some of you, my Brethren, 
 who liave the chai'ge of small parishes, have the 
 happiness of feeling yourselves personally instru-
 
 58 A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 mental, by God's grace, in bringing men one by 
 one to the knowledge of the truth. 
 
 I think it is some feeling of this kind (for God 
 speaks to ns " TroXv/xepcos /cat noXoTpoTrco^," in many 
 portions and in divers manners, in the economy 
 of grace) which has stirred the hearts of many 
 of His servants in these days to undertake the 
 work of Missionary Priests, Missioners as they are 
 called. It is the feeling that the individual appli- 
 cation of the Word to the individual conscience 
 was being lost in the endeavour to work upon 
 men congregated in masses, by the aid of this 
 marvellous pulpit eloquence which in our Home 
 Church has never attracted multitudes together 
 as it does now. The vast congregations in our 
 cathedrals and larger churches, assembling regu- 
 larly, and yet lacking that enforcement of the 
 word which the Parish Priest in his daily visita- 
 tion brings with him as it were to the souls com- 
 mitted to his cure and governance — suggested to 
 spiritual minds something which this manner of 
 ministration failed to supply. That this move- 
 ment may be overruled for good ; that it may not 
 run into any strange excitement, nor degenerate 
 into rigorism, but may be restrained within the 
 bounds of sober-mindedness and an holy modera- 
 tion, ought to be the prayer of us all, and the 
 earnest effort of those who shall be led either by 
 their office and position in the Church, or by the 
 guidance of the Holy Ghost, to take part in it.
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 59 
 
 The multiplication of these efforts to bring the 
 blessed truths of the Gospel home to the hearts of 
 our people — by these Missions, by Services at the 
 Holy seasons ; by the a^^pointment of lay readers 
 to conduct services in schoolrooms, and rooms hired 
 for the purpose; by the help of scripture readers 
 and mission women in large parishes ; and all this 
 followed up, as it always ought to be, by a closer 
 Pastoral Visitation — is surely to be reckoned by us 
 a reviving of God's work in the midst of the years. 
 And truly we need to see the tokens of the work- 
 ing of God's Spirit among us ; for there is enough 
 to alarm us in the loosing of the bonds that hold 
 society together ; in the growing independence of 
 children ; in the disrespect to superiors ; in the 
 increase of wealth and the luxurious enjoyment 
 of that which wealth can purchase, side by side 
 with deep poverty and suifering ; in the growth of 
 discontent consequent upon this; and while this 
 is going on around, in the distracted state of the 
 Church; for it is nothing less than distraction, 
 when in so many parishes we may truly say that 
 men set up their ensigns for signs; almost point 
 to the vestments they wear, and ask, " Who is on 
 the Lord's side. Who ? " Bishops are accused of 
 always expressing their disapproval on one side. 
 In what I say now I certainly intend no side. I 
 intend to express my strongest disapproval of jDarty 
 spirit on any or either side ; that party spirit which 
 is fanned into a flame by the religious newspapers
 
 6o A Charge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 of the day. Siicli is the bitterness of party publi- 
 cations, that it is impossible for any man to read 
 them and not be defiled by the spirit which they 
 breathe. Just as the general public contracts its 
 spirit of indiiferentism from the indifferentism 
 with which religious questions are too often treated 
 in secular publications, so is the mind of the reli- 
 gious public inflamed by the sarcastic and uncha- 
 ritable tone which pervades some of those publi- 
 cations, alas! on both sides. Surely hard words 
 are no test of spirituality : surely self-seekings and 
 standings apart, " epiQIici, St;)(ocrTacriat," are not in- 
 dications of zeal for the truth ! One can conceive 
 in the midst of the unprofitable and vain conten- 
 tions that are rife amongst us a man or a woman of 
 a sorrowful spirit, who longs for Gospel comfort, 
 saying and feeling, " I care not about these dis- 
 putes : oh ! that I might have my request : that 
 God would grant me the thing that I long for, 
 that He would carry me somewhither into the 
 wilderness; that He would take me away from 
 these cavillings and evil surmisings ' to where 
 beyond these voices there is peace!' " And it is 
 certain that there are souls in this very distress ! 
 It is time, whether we profess ourselves Protes- 
 tants, or whether we rejoice in the name of Angli- 
 cans, that we did consider poor people who have no 
 heart for these distinctions ; to whom the strongest 
 words we can utter against Popery, the strongest 
 sarcasm we can level against Puritanism, is no
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 6 1 
 
 more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 
 Can it be sujDposed that when we are thus puffed 
 up one against another Satan doth not use his 
 opportunity to sow the seed of unbelief in men's 
 hearts ? Is it not certain that the true reason why 
 Spiritual Religion is not progressing among us, as, 
 with all the efforts that are being made on every 
 side to promote it, it might have been expected to 
 progress, is this, that even carnal and worldly- 
 minded men perceive clearly that true religion 
 cannot consist with these wearisome contests ; for 
 that where envying and rivalry is, there wisdom 
 cannot be. For she is the breath of the Power of 
 God ; and a pure Influence from the Glory of the 
 Almighty ; the brightness of the everlasting 
 Light ; the unspotted mirror of the Power of 
 God ; and the Image, the reflected Image, of His 
 goodness, which in all ages entering into holy 
 souls, maketh them friends of God. 
 
 I impute it far more to these vain contentions and 
 to their most unsettling diversity of practices in 
 the Church than to causes which have lately been 
 insinuated — that we have lost, if we have in any 
 degree lost, the affections of the labouring classes 
 of the people. In the first place I do not believe 
 that we have lost them. It were a grievous thing 
 indeed, if, dwelling in the midst of them as we do, 
 sympathizing as we do in their joys and sorrows, 
 their trials and sufferings — ministering spiritual 
 comfort to them at those times when souls are
 
 62 A Chai'ge delivered to the Clergy and 
 
 drawn most nearly together in tlie bonds of the 
 Gospel — if with all the motives to brotherly kind- 
 ness and love which the relation in which we stand 
 to them can supply, and with tlie superadded sense 
 of our responsibility toward them as pastors, 
 stewards of the Heavenly mysteries, dividers of the 
 word of Grod — I say if with all these great advan- 
 tages we have lost the hearts of the people of Eng- 
 land, it would almost stand to reason that ue had 
 been unfaithful to our trust, that we were unpro- 
 fitable servants ! I do not for one moment believe 
 that it is so. I believe the hearts of the English 
 people are stedfastly attached to the Church of 
 their forefathers. And let Rome attempt to put 
 forth a hand against her, it will be found that they 
 are so. Let Nonconformity, which is far more 
 congenial to their minds and religious aspirations 
 than Rome, succeed in disturbing the present 
 settlement by vote in the House of Representa- 
 tives, which no doubt does represent the true feel- 
 ing of the country on great political questions, but 
 does not entirely represent it in what pertains to 
 God and the conscience — and it will be seen 
 whether tlie English people are attached to their 
 Church or no. 
 
 I do not anticipate Disestablishment : but I do fear 
 Disruption. I greatly fear it. I cannot think that 
 we can go on long, provoking one another, envy- 
 ing one another in spiritual things, which are very 
 near the nation's heart ; for this nation is a deeply
 
 Churchwardens of the Diocese of Rochester. 6 
 
 J 
 
 religious nation. If my feeble voice could touch 
 the heart of a man who thinks that to minister in 
 almost sacrificial pomp with lights and incense and 
 sounds that have a charm for the educated, but 
 have none for the unlearned ; (yes : it is not these 
 outward things that attract the poor, but the 
 devotion, the love, the self-denial of those that use 
 them) — or the heart of a man who counts it a glory 
 to preach in a black gown : I say if my voice could 
 touch such men as these, I would say, For Grod's 
 sake — for Souls' sake — for the Church's sake — for 
 the Truth's sake, lay not these Holy ministra- 
 tions to which God has called you open to the 
 assaults of infidelity by laying stress on such things 
 as these. It is the woe of calling evil good, and 
 good evil ; of putting darkness for light, and light 
 for darkness ; of putting bitter for sweet, and sweet 
 for bitter : disguise it from yourselves as you will, 
 it is the woe of being wise in your own eyes, and 
 prudent in your own conceits ! 
 
 There is now open before \)i\Q Church of England 
 as grand a calling as was ever open before God's 
 Church in any land ; to wield the weapons of Faith 
 against immorality ; against infidelity ; against 
 self-seeking in every kind ; against that which is 
 called by a feigned name, Communism — which is 
 another name for the worst of all selfishness. 
 
 If you, my Brethren, are true to your Heavenly 
 calling, faithful to your Ordination vows, loving 
 fellow-helpers to God's people committed to your
 
 64 A Charge delivered to the Clergy, &c. 
 
 charge, every separate parish will be a fortress, 
 but not an isolated fortress, against these enemies 
 of all righteousness. If we are vainglorious, 
 seeking our own glory ; if we are lovers of pre- 
 eminence, contending always for' our own side or 
 party; if we, who are dead with Christ to the 
 rudiments of the world, turn again to its weak 
 and beggarly elements, to be in bondage to them, 
 then indeed will the Enemy come in like a flood, 
 but the Spirit of the Lord will not raise up a 
 standard against him !
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 The answers I have received concerning the administration of 
 the Lord's Supper, show that in 402 parishes it is celebrated 
 monthly ; in 105 bimonthly ; in 91 weekly ; in some, it is 
 vaguely said, two or three times a week ; in 2, daily ; in 8, four 
 times ; in 10, six times ; in 32 from 8 to 11 times in the year. 
 Since my last Visitation, the bimonthly communions have in- 
 creased from 80 to 105; the weekly from 50 to 91 — while 
 there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of 
 parishes where it is more rarely administered. There has 
 been a celebration of the Holy Communion on Ascension Day 
 in 240 churches. The number of parishes where the church 
 is open for daily jirayer has increased from 31 to 73 : for service 
 on Holy Days, other than the Great Festivals, from 117 to 258 ; 
 on Ascension Day from 450 to 561. 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 HOCKEEILL TRAINING INSTITUTION FOR SCHOOLMISTRESSES. 
 
 91 schoolmistresses, trained in this Institution, are now 
 working in schools in Essex and Herts — 179 in other counties. 
 Accommodation is provided for 60 students, all of whom are 
 resident within the building. The annual expenditure is 2700/. 
 of which sum 1900Z. is paid by the Government Grant, 120/. by 
 the students themselves, 80Z. by children in the practising 
 schools, leaving 600Z. a year to be raised by subscriptions and 
 donations. There are 70 clerical, 119 lay subscribers — whose 
 united subscriptions produce about 500Z. a year ; leaving a defi- 
 ciency of lOOZ. a year. I earnestly hope the Laymen now 
 present and any others whom these words may reach will 
 consider whether among other claims on their bounty in the 
 neighbourhood where they dwell, and where the schools are 
 dependent on local exertions, they might not support the 
 Diocesan Training Institution at Hockerill, which has sent
 
 66 Notes. 
 
 forth in the 20 years that have elapsed since its foundation, 
 450 schoolmistresses, of whom 280 are now, generally with 
 great success and approbation, employed in schools. 
 
 NOTE C 
 
 DIOCESAN CHUBCH ENDOWMENT FUND. 
 
 This Fund was founded by my predecessor Bishop Wigram, 
 for the purpose of aiding livings under 200Z. a year, by grants 
 not exceeding 200/., to be met by private contributions to the 
 same amount, conditionally upon the same being met by the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission, or Queen Anne's Bounty. Owing to 
 the stringency of the terms, the grants during the last four years 
 have not exceeded 3500Z., and a sum of 7800Z. still remains out 
 of 14,5 OOZ., or thereabouts, originally subscribed.
 
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