Religion.

IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF CHURCH PATRONAGE JUSTIFIABLE?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-III.

THOSE who are opposed to Church patronage as it at present exists, and who cite some superior mode adopted in the selection of ministers by the Dissenting bodies, have to be told, if they appeal to the Scriptures, that the selection of ministers rests not with man but with God; and that that cannot be a very healthy or Godappointed plan which generates more ill-will, or "bad blood," than any or all other causes existing in Dissenting Churches. The Negatives on this question would have a much easier task if they could show that by their plan, whatever it may be, more peaceful and solid results are obtainable than the results following the system adopted in the Established Church, which I deliberately and advisedly deny. Does any one, knowing anything of existing systems, point to the practice in the various Dissenting Churches as a superior arrangement and as a God-appointed plan? Here is the confession of "one of themselves;" let us see how the system works, according to his evidence, premising that the minister who thus gives his testimony occupies a pulpit in a large town, and ministers to a large congregation.

"We will suppose," he says, "there is a chapel in such and such a town, whose minister has almost grown up amongst the congregation; for twenty or thirty years he has preached to that people, and the same deacons have held office all the time. They have got accustomed to the preacher's style and doctrine, and their minds have gradually become cast into the same groove. In the course of time the minister dies, or resigns through failing health. The people begin to look about for a successor. Church meetings are held, and some suggest that they should look for a young man, and some prefer an old man. They say their late pastor was an old man, and that their new one should, though a new minister, be an old man. The young-man party urge that the late minister was a young man when he came, and that he got progressively the better of that fault, for he became older and older every day; and they infer that it is just possible that if they invite a young man, he, too, may manifest a similar tendency to amend his faults, and that, in ten years' time, he may discover that he is ten years older. At length it is decided to invite a young man. So a lot of students from colleges come over and preach 'on pro.,' as we used to call it, by which we meant on probation or trial. But oh, if those poor students could have heard the after criticisms of the diaconate upon their efforts, they would have thought it a sterner probation than it seemed to them. If the young Demosthenes who thumped his Bible so hard, and ran his fingers through nis hair, and drank water at the end of

each sentence, and waved his pocket-handkerchief about so gracefully, and wore black kids and a white stock, and who pretended to be so exhausted after his evening's discourse, that he had to ask for a glass of wine in the vestry,—if this fervid tyro could but have been at the Monday night meeting, and heard the deacons in solemn and bald-headed conclave discussing his discourse; if he could but have felt the scalping-knife of criticism, piercing, even to the dividing asunder of joints and marrow, he would at once have thrown his sermon into the fire, and either torn off the white stock and put on a white apron, or so tightened that stock about his neck, that no more water would ever go down, and no more eloquence could ever come up his rhetorical throat.

"After hearing any quantity of aspirants to the vacant pulpit, some fortunate competitor will be invited to come and 'supply' for a month; that is, preach for a month, so that the people may see if he can 'keep it up,' or whether be is like the old woman who sells strawberries in I.ondon-putting all the big ones at the top, and the little ones below. When I was a student, I only had two sermons, and if any one had asked me to preach at the same place two Sundays together, I should have been obliged to preach the same sermons over again. Well, if the young man proves that he can keep it up' to the general satisfaction, he gets an invitation-or, as you good people in Lancashire call it, 'an invite,' and he comes and settles as pastor of the congregation. Then the deacons come to chapel for the first twelve months, not as worshippers, but as critics. They stick their bald heads on one side, and screw up their mouths, while they try to ascertain what the young man is made of.' Then they meet together, and one of them, who has a son who can recite 'My name is Norval,' and 'My Lord Tomnoddy,' and who fancies himself a judge of good speaking, begins to find fault with 'the young man's'' helicution,' and hattitude,' and 'hemphasis.' Two or three of his brother deacons say they shouldn't care so much about that if they were quite sure about the young man's' doctrine. They then begin to smack their lips, and shake their heads, and roll their eyes about, and say 'Ah!' a great many times, and there is a long pause. The more the congregation increases, the stronger become the deacons' doubts about the young preacher's doctrine. They begin to fear that he preaches too much to the world,' as though the apostles had been told to go out of the world, and preach the gospel to nobody; instead of to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 'The young man' is loaded with advice and with suggestions, and all the rest of it, which he is affectionately assured are all intended for his good. But the more he tells the people that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, the more terrified do the greybeards grow about his doctrine. I have noticed that whenever elderly gentlemen begin to talk about doctrine, they nearly always begin to smack their lips. If they were discussing about raspberry jam I could understand this; but it is rather mysterious when abstract subjects are under consideration. The only way in which I can account for this phenomenon is, that they must have pinned their creed to the sleeve of some old divine who had no teeth, and always imitated his facial contortions whenever they spoke of the subjects to which he was most attached. length the preacher begins to perceive that his position is rather warm and uncomfortable. He feels at home with the people generally, but there is a coolness between himself and the responsible representatives of the church. These gentlemen have much power in their hands. They keep the minister minus the means of living, and withhold from him the support which they are bound to extend to him. They will sometimes embezzle, or keep back at all events, the supplies which the minister has created for himself, because they are afraid of his doctrine. This must be done under the idea that a hungry man is better able to feed others than if he were filled himself. However, it is easy to see how, by degrees, a young

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minister in such a position gets notice to quit-not because he has failed, but because he has succeeded too well.

"These are rare cases in large towns. But they are much more frequent in remoter neighbourhoods. There is not a more brow-beaten, abused, and overborne set of men out of slavery than some of the dissenting ministers in country places. They become the mere tools of one or two rich or well-to-do men, whose ignorance is only to be exceeded by their arrogance. And although, for my own part, I think them much to blame for submitting to all they sometimes bear, we must make some excuse for a man with many depending upon him if he should sometimes compromise the independence of a man by yielding too cringingly to those upon whose good will his daily bread, to a great extent, depends."

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That, let it be once more observed, is the testimony of " themselves." That, let it be observed, is how the system works outside of Church patronage. If a picture can be conceived inside worse than that,- -in which men, for a piece of bread, submit to the tyranny of petty tyrants; are their tools, the creatures of their beck and nod, then shall we at once become converts to the negative position assumed in this controversy. But if it is shown that this littleness, this despicable meanness, cannot exist in the Church establishment,-that its ministers are specially preserved from individual interference, that they are independent of the criticism of ignorant and prejudiced men, and thereby the freer for use and service among those to whom they minister,-if this is shown, why need more be said to prove that Church patronage is justifiable ? By their works ye shall know them," '-an admirable rule that. Many times the so-called reasonings of the would-be reasoner is put to the blush by the statement of a few simple facts. It is easy to say that the ministers of the Church of England are man-made ministers; and quite within the power of the eloquent to say and write severe things against many things permitted within the pale of the Establishment. But there is the one large, prominent fact staring you in the face in our own country, and in every country, that God owns and has owned the labours of the ministers of the Church of England in a signal manner, and that those ministers are, as a class, useful, laborious, devout, and Godfearing men. Instances to the contrary may be pointed out, a fact which we cannot deny but the same remark is applicable to any form or condition of dissent. No body of Christians that we are aware of-and our experience is not of yesterday—but furnishes instances of men who, joining the religious congregation for the means of living, have ultimately brought dishonour upon their profession. This to their shame. We do not charge their derefiction of duty upon the congregation to which they were united; we do not say their conduct was the result of the teaching of the congregation. Quite the contrary. We are amongst those who believe that the blessing of God is confined to no one relious community, but that all denominations of Christians who are pure in heart shall see God. To those who are inclined to be sceptical upon this subject, we say, look at that lamentable but

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glorious spectacle of the Hartley Colliery, - lamentable in its material results, but glorious in its development of the power of religious truth to sustain and cheer the heart when hastening to certain death. Yes, those poor men, for the most part members of the Primitive Methodist Society,-quite the humblest form of religious dissent, had yet penetrated the highest secret of humanity, -the relationship of God to man. We are not, then, amongst those who claim for any Church, or any form of Church government, the special conservatism of God's grace. We believe that to the rich, in the magnificent temple, the Gospel is preached; that to the poor, in the homely cottage, or by the way-side, amid the rustic gathering, the Gospel is preached; and we believe it will be so preached until the hearts of all men bow to His name, and acknowledge Him high over all.

And yet, with these sentiments, we venture to defend Church patronage, because it saves us from many things infinitely worse. It first demands that the man who is to be "patronized "-that is, put into any living-shall be duly qualified. He shall make a profession of his faith-the Dissenter does no more; he shall exhibit to the bishop, who gives him ordination, such proofs of his mental acquirements as in his (the bishop's) belief, aided by the bishop's examiner, will fit him for rightly informing and instructing those to whom he shall minister. The bishop, at the same time, demanding from him such a statement of his faith, and the grounds of his faith, as entitles him to commit to his charge the spiritual care of those whom he may be called to take charge over. And now there comes the whole gravamen of the matter, the congregation to whom he shall minister.

We have seen how he is known to be fitted for the position which he is to hold, when he is free to accept the invitation of those holding secular interest in the mere building in which the congregation assembles. And if I, or those connected with me, deem it right to build a place of worship, to endow it, so that the minister may live decently, it is surely not too much that I should have the nomination of that minister, the fitness of the minister being cared for by the bishop. It is in this way, and on this principle, that Church patronage exists; which is of four kinds-that exercised by the Crown; by the bishops; by corporations, colleges, and chapters; and by private persons. To say there are evils connected with the system is only to say that the human government of the Church is not yet perfect; a fact which all will admit. But taking the amount of influence exercised by the Church into consideration, is it too much to say that the Church establishment possesses fewer evils than the dissenting churches, governed, so say their defenders, by the Spirit of God himself?

Take as an illustration the Wesleyan body, formed by its excellent founder to exclude the evils of the Establishment, all its mirters being, so say its defenders, God-fearing and God-serving men. And yet the most cursory glance will show that Methodism, in its human

arrangements, abounds in imperfections. Its Church government is not formed upon any plan authorized by Scripture; resembling in no wise the system adopted by the Primitive Churches. "The master-secret of the society is the consignment of a boundless power to an oligarchy of clergymen, while the people are allowed to play with the forms of power, in the reality of which they have no share. Conference is a camarilla of priests, who, with closed doors, make all the laws by which the society is regulated, and, to the high prerogative of expulsion or suspension of any member of the society, they add the still more important one of voting, levying, and applying all the taxes, without consulting the people. In other words, absolute power is vested in the hands of a self-elected oligarchy; a form of government the most arbitrary and powerful that can be imagined.' Is anything worse than this to be found in the Established Church? is anything so bad to be found there? Have the people the power to nominate their own ministers ? Not so much as the members of the Church. For they, if they are so disposed, can erect their own church-can erect it for any minister in whose ministrations they are concerned, and obtain his settlement as they desire. This was the case with the Rev. Hugh Stowell, when he became the incumbent of Christ Church, Salford, the church having been built for him. The same thing could be done by any number of persons erecting a building, in which they might attend the ministrations of any desired minister; and then, when he was inducted, he would be free to act, or refrain from acting, according to his own judgment, without fear of interference from those who, in other churches, would be his masters and dictators. How could he, under bondage, be a true minister? He must, of necessity, carve and shape his words to suit his masters; he could not be that free and independent guide and spiritual director, uninfluenced by circumstances, and independent of human motives. This he could only be in the Established Church. There, without fear or favour, he could declare the full counsel of God, no man making him afraid; the result being, a delightful scene of sincere and spiritual enjoyment, with a description of which we must close this paper.

"What can be more delightful than a country village, under the pastoral care of a pious and respected clergyman? We go through the little street of cottages, feeling well assured that every one of those neat and humble mansions will, on the next sabbath, send forth some, if not all, of its inhabitants to the old church, to hear the Gospel well and truly preached. When the sacred day arrives, and the village bells have finished their melodious invitation to prayer, we enter the venerable building; and after a liturgy, which antiquity has rendered respectable, and good taste dignified and harmonious, we listen to a plain and affectionate discourse, in the old reformers' style, truly setting forth the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the love of Jehovah to His covenant people: the preacher is a grave divine, with we marked traces of deep piety and rious thought on his cutenance; his language is somewhat quaint and antiquated, not by design, but by habit, and owing to a constant and affectionate acquaintance with the old school of sound divinity. We visit the cottages, and direct our conversation towards 'the