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 A LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CONGREGATION OF S. PAUL'S, 
 
 DUNDEE.
 
 Oxford, Nov. 5, 1859. 
 
 Brethren beloved in the Lord, 
 
 The approaching completion of the period 
 of twelve years in the history of our pastoral relations makes 
 it not unsuitable that I should address a few words to you 
 concerning it. A connection of twelve year.s implies no small 
 fraction of human life ; and many events most intimately 
 affecting all of us have during the lapse of that period 
 occurred. How many during that time have been summoned 
 from this earthly scene to render an account of every thought, 
 word, and deed, to their God and Judge ! Plow many new 
 miembers have been aggregated into the Church ! What 
 varied changes must have passed over the spiritual conditions 
 of most of us — advances, retrogressions, recoveries, periods of 
 sloth, j)eriods of increasing strength under the disciplining 
 hand of God, times of inward joy, hours bordering upon 
 despair, drynesses, desolations, and again the abiding sense of 
 God's mercy ! Who shall number the graces which God 
 from time to time has bestowed upon us ? His corrections. 
 His encouragements. His warnings. His interferences, the holy 
 visitations of His Spirit, the mighty working of His Sacra- 
 ments, the rich abundance of the manifestations of his blessed 
 Presence, in so many ways bestowed upon us ? How have 
 we treated these ? Is ours to be an account of correspondence 
 with grace, or of its deliberate rejection, or its neglect ? Have 
 we by that grace continued in that state of salvation unto 
 which we have been called, or have we forfeited it ? And, if 
 so, have we by the same grace recovered it through lowly and 
 earnest repentance ? Are we that for which God in His 
 eternal purpose of love created us, or have we lost our voca- 
 tion ? Have we, in short, fulfilled the mighty purpose which 
 God has had for each of us, one by one ; or have we neglected 
 that which we were called upon to do ? 
 
 In looking back upon the past, so far as externals go, we 
 have much to be thankful for. Twelve years ago, one small 
 chapel sufficed for the Episcopalians of Dundee. Now we not 
 only occupy the beautiful church which God of His great 
 mercy has permitted us to raise to His honour, but the 
 flourishing congregations of S. Mary's, Broughty Ferry, 
 S. Mary Magdalene's, Blinshall Street, and S. Sah^ador's,
 
 Maxwelltown, with our ample supply of Day Schools and Night 
 Schools, attest the increase of the Church. The Orphanage, 
 and other institutions connected with her, give evidence of 
 the charity and benevolence of many of her members. It is 
 true that much still remains for us to do ; nevertheless, we 
 should be thankless to God if we did not in all gratitude 
 acknowledge that hitherto God hath helped us. 
 
 The same thing holds good with regard to the interior life. 
 I believe that many during the last twelve years have made 
 an excellent use of the means of grace placed within their 
 reach, and that the greater part of the congregation are really 
 desiring to do the will of God in a humble, practical, and 
 unostentatious way. I believe that there is a real religious- 
 ness amongst many; and that, especially in the duties of charity 
 and mercy, much is being done amongst us. Still, I would 
 wish that there were even more of this. Devout as, God be 
 thanked, our communicants are, would that there were more 
 who regarded the Communion as the centre of their spiritual 
 life, the special means of habitual communion with their God 
 and Saviour. Would that they who now content themselves 
 with one attendance on the Sunday, felt more their need of 
 their Redeemer, and morning and evening sought Him, with- 
 out whom we can do nothing, in His House of Prayer, where 
 He has promised to be found. Would that those who have, 
 or can make, leisure, profited more habitually by the daily 
 opportunities of public worship. Would that the blessedness 
 of almsgiving were yet more felt, and that the happy provi- 
 sion for giving alms in secret which the poor man's box, now 
 erected in the church, affords you, were more employed by all 
 of you. Yea, would, altogether, that we all were more 
 awakened to the blessedness of union with our dear Redeemer 
 in His Mystical Body, the communion of Saints. We must 
 bear in mind the great law of Christian responsibility, that to 
 whom much has been entrusted, of him much will be required. 
 Our concern is, not only what we have done, or forborne from 
 doing, but what we have done, or left undone under the cir- 
 cumstances in which God has placed us. 
 
 And now, brethren, as I have always desired to act with the 
 most perfect candour towards you, to whom I am bound by 
 the strongest bonds both of duty and of love, I would wish to 
 re-assure any of you, if the heavy charge of depraving the 
 Formularies and teaching of the Church, which a Presbyter 
 has thought right to bring against me, should have perplexed 
 and disquieted you, as I have no doubt they have distressed 
 you. It is, indeed (so far as my memory serves me), an 
 
 U.UC '
 
 unprecedented, as, I am sure, it is an unnatural relation of a 
 clergyman to his Bishop. Of his act, however, I will now 
 say nothing. To our own Master each of us must stand or 
 fall. If he has acted wrongly — as I believe he has acted 
 wi'ongly — I pray God not to remember it against him. But 
 since he has impugned my teaching on various solemn points, 
 in the Presentment, which has been doubtless circulated 
 among you, I would just recal to you sayings of some of the 
 Divines ever held in repute in the Chm'ch, as strong as any 
 which I have expressed. Since they have never been thought 
 to have depraved the teaching of the Church, so you will 
 believe neither ought this grave charge to be imputed to me. 
 Is anything that I have written in the Charge more fervid 
 than these words of the holy Bishop Ken ? 
 
 " I believe Thy Body and Blood to be as really present 
 IN the Holy Sacrament as Thy Divine Power can make 
 IT, though the manner of Thy Mysterious Presence I cannot 
 comprehend." — Kens Manual of Prayers, jp. 72. Ed. 1840. 
 
 Have I, on the subject of the Sacrifice, used any expression 
 so strong as those of Bishop Wilson ? 
 
 " May I ATONE Thee, God, by offering to Thee the 
 PURE AND UNBLOODY SACRIFICE, which Tliou hast Ordained by 
 Jesus Christ. Amen." — Sacra Privata. Complete Ed. 1 853, 
 p. 105. 
 
 Again, — 
 
 " Give me such holy dispositions of mind whenever I 
 approach Thine altar, as may in some measure be proportion- 
 able to the holiness of the work I am about, of presenting the 
 prayers of the faithful, of offering a spiritual Sacrifice to God, 
 in order to convey the Body and Blood of Jesus Chiist — the 
 True Bread of Life — to all His members. Give me, when I 
 commemorate the same Sacrifice that Jesus Christ once 
 OFFERED, give me the same intentions He had, to satisfy 
 
 THE JUSTICE OF GOD, TO ACKNOWLEDGE HiS MERCIES, AND TO 
 
 PAY ALL THAT DEBT wliicli a crcaturo owes to his Creator. 
 None can do this effectually but Jesus Christ. Him, there- 
 fore, WE present to God in this Holy Sacrament." — 
 Sacra Privata, p. 199. 
 
 With regard to the opinions I have stated concerning the 
 relations of unworthy communicants to the Holy Mysteries, I 
 have spoken far less positively than the holy man whose 
 sayings I have just quoted.
 
 G 
 " To offer tlie prayers of the fciithful to God with polluted 
 
 lips, to BREAK THE BrEAD OF LlFE WITH UNCLEAN HANDS, tO 
 RECEIVE THAT BrEAD INTO A SOUL DEFILED witll Unchaste 
 
 thoughts, — how dreadfully provoking must it needs be !" — 
 Sacra Frlvata, p. 205. 
 
 Again,— 
 
 " It being the greatest indigtiity to Christ and the Divine 
 Ordinance, to prostitute the Body and Blood of Christ 
 TO notorious evil livers." —Sacra Privata, p. 227. 
 
 On the remaining point excepted against me, I cannot think 
 that I have gone beyond the obvious sense of these words from 
 that well-known Manual, Bishop Jeremy Taylors "Worthy 
 Communicant ": — 
 
 " Place thyself upon thy kness, in the humblest and the 
 devoutest posture of worshippers, and think not much in the 
 
 LOWEST manner TO WORSHIP THE KiNG OF MEN AND ANGELS, 
 
 the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the great Lover of souls, the 
 Saviour of the body ; Him whom all the angels of God. 
 worship ; Him whom Thou confessest worthy of all, and 
 whom all the world shall adore, and before whom they shall 
 tremble at the Day of Judgment. Foe, if Christ be not 
 
 THERE after A PECULIAR MANNER, WHOM, OR WHOSE BODY, DO 
 
 WE RECEIVE ? But if He be present to us, not in mystery 
 
 ONLY, but in blessing ALSO, WHY DO WE NOT WORSHIP ? But 
 
 all the Christians always did so from time immemorial. ' No 
 man eats this Flesh, unless he first adores,' said S. Austin. 
 ' For the wise men, and the barbarians, did worship this Body 
 in the manger with very much fear and reverence : let us, 
 therefore, who are citizens of Heaven, at least not fall short 
 of the barbarians. But thou seest Him not in the manger, 
 but on the altar ; and thou beholdest Him not in the Virgin's 
 arms, but represented by the Priest, and brought to thee in 
 sacrifice by the Holy Spirit of God.' So S. Chrysostom 
 argues."— Jere????/ Taylor's Works, vol xv., p. 671. Ed. 
 Heher. 
 
 Since these books have for so many years been' the comfort 
 and edification of succeeding generations of English and 
 Scottish Churchmen, I doubt not that what I have taught 
 will, rightly understood, commend itself to all those who have, 
 by God's help, formed their devotional characters upon these 
 excellent models As regards the delated Charge, beyond the 
 duty to truth which its publication recognised and sought to 
 fulfil, I had, in a great degree, the union of Christians in my
 
 mind when I wrote it. I believed that I was stating things 
 in a way which might tone do\vn the acerbities of polemics, 
 and induce men to look upon the most mysterious and blessed 
 doctrine of the Holy Eucharist in a devotional and uncontro- 
 versial way. You may judge of my disappointment and pain 
 when I found it the occasion of a devastating strife on these 
 solemn subjects. 
 
 Much, however, as I have deplored the loss of Christian 
 love, which is, I fear, almost inseparable from controversy, I 
 think that the late agitation has been no unmitigated evil. 
 Our good Father brings good out of all evil, and truth suifers 
 yet more from being neglected than from being controverted. 
 I shall be very much disappointed if the result of all this dis- 
 cussion be not a much higher standard of faith on these 
 supernatural verities. The individual may suffer ; words or 
 phrases which have been misunderstood will find their real 
 signification. The cause of truth will triumph ; and there- 
 fore I am persuaded that the consequence of these dissensions 
 will be a deeper appreciation of the high mercy of God, 
 who has " given to us His only Son, not only to die for us, 
 but also TO BE OUR Spiritual food and sustenance in the 
 Holy Sacrament." 
 
 I need not assure you, my dear Brethren, of my unshaken 
 adherence to the documents and standards of the Church ; of 
 my repudiation of all the errors and false teaching which the 
 Church repudiates ; and of my desire for the |)eace of our 
 Communion, and for the abatement of these troubles. 
 
 You yourselves can bear witness, that even the points 
 charged against me, on which I individually feel so stiongly, 
 I have never pressed upon you as truths necessary to salvation, 
 I have never made their acceptance or non-acceptance a term 
 of Communion among you ; and while I have never failed, at 
 the fit time and place, to give an account of the faith that 
 was in me, I have seldom in the pulpit directed your thoughts 
 to these abstract and theological points, but rather to the 
 practical aspect of faith as it worketh by love, and to that 
 charity springing from a pure heart, which the Apostle calls 
 " the end of the commandment." 
 
 All cousolation'5 must come from Him, whom in tliis, as in 
 other offices of my ministration, I have desired to serve : But 
 among the external consolations which have supported me, I 
 should be most ungrateful did I not express my warm acknov.-- 
 ledgments of the conduct of the Congregation of S. Paul's. 
 I cannot give too much prjiiso to the calm, thonghtful, and 
 considerate attitude which they have assumed in this matter.
 
 With some few exceptions, as I understand — for I have 
 thought it best not to inquire too curiously into any one's 
 secret opinion — I have found that they have conducted them - 
 selves under the very trying circumstances with Christian 
 prudence and moderation. They have trusted their Pastor 
 till he should be found untrustworthy ; and exhibited to the 
 world the spectacle of a large religious body bent upon doing 
 right, and unswayed by passion or religious excitement — 
 convinced that it is not by the intellect alone, but by the 
 exercise of the holy affections, that men obtain light as to 
 Divine truth — and tiusting all things unreservedly to His 
 will, who maketh all things work together for good to ihem 
 that love Him. 
 
 Yet He, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray, 
 deigns to desire our prayers for the fulfilment of His good 
 designs towards us. I therefore earnestly crave the benefit 
 of youi- good prayers, that it ma)^ please Him, of His great 
 mercy, so to overrule these present sorrows, that the Church 
 may again give Him thanks for " blessing her children within 
 her," for " making peace in her borders, and filling her with 
 the flour of wheat." 
 
 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
 God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, 
 evermore. Amen. So prays your affectionate Friend and 
 Pastor, 
 
 ALEXANDER, Bishop of Brechin. 
 
 To THE Congregation 
 
 OF S. Paul's, Dundee.
 
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