17 to 20 contain directions as to the repair of pews out of the pew-rents, the letting of pews, and the application of the proceeds, according to the decision of a majority of pew-renters, at an annual meeting; the surplus, if any, to be accounted for to the commissioners; or the deficiency, if any, to be by them allowed; and arrears of pew-rents to be recoverable by action in the name of the churchwarden. Clause 21 secures the fees of parish clerks and sextons as heretofore. Clause 22 enacts that any Roman catholic or dissenter unwilling to serve as churchwarden, shall, on his declaration or affirmation before any two justices of the peace, be exempted from his liability to serve. Clauses 23 and 24 contain provisions intended to reduce the expenses attendant on ecclesiastical visitations, and exempt churchwardens from attending visitations in future. Clauses 25 and 26 are technical definitions of the powers of the commissioners, and of the words church' and 'chapel.' There is no clause 27. Clause 28 restricts the act to England and Wales; and clause 29 is to specify the date when it shall take effect.-Patriot. [Then follow two columns of objections, which are, principally, that the bill will increase the power of the commissioners, and deprive parishes of all control over the expense, or, as the "Patriot," knowing that parishes are to pay nothing, sagely calls it, over the application of public money to church purposes.-(Had parishes that right before?) Then the "Patriot" objects that this bill perpetuates the bad principle of taxing all for the church!-(Would that it did! In fact, it takes away the oldest title in the kingdom, and gives that of an act of yesterday.) Then there is no proof that so much is wanted, and there are fears that more may be given hereafter, &c. &c.] BUILDING CHURCHES AT GLASGOW. A MAGNIFICENT scheme for building and endowing Parish Churches has been commenced at Glasgow. It appears that there are 27,000 persons for whom no room could be found, and that from high pew-rents, and want of superintendence, near 40,000 never attend. Some excellent persons have set on foot a scheme for building 20 churches, each to cost 2000l., and to hold 1000; for endowing them with 80l. a year, and assigning a parish of about 5000 persons to them. This will cost 80,000l. They calculate that there are 4000 heads of families who could give 200l. to the object, and that one-tenth of those who can, will. Nor can it be seriously doubted that their hopes will be realized, as the paper which contains this first notice of the scheme contains the names of sixty-six persons who gave 2001., two who gave 5001., another 300l., and two Ladies (sisters) 100l. each. The whole paper, though applying particularly to Glasgow, is so admirably written, that the Editor regrets his inability to give it here. It is an excellent exposition of the blessings of the parochial system. But there is one paragraph which must be extracted. The writers are replying to those who say that it is useless to build more churches when all the present ones are not filled. May we in England seriously consider the solemn rebuke and warning conveyed in the following passage! "Our second reply is, That it is not merely our duty to provide church accommodation for all the people, but it is also our duty to employ the necessary means to secure their attendance. The simple fact, that there are 40,000 of our people who do not attend church, infers much more than a culpable neglect to provide church accommodation; it infers the not less criminal circumstance, that by our neglect, we have allowed them to sink and settle down into such a degraded and irreligious condition, that the desire of attendance at church has become to a fearful degree extinct. And surely it will not be alleged, as an extenuation of our neglect to build the requisite number of churches, that the disposition of the people to attend them does not exist so extensively as to secure their being filled, when our neglect has produced the very indisposition on which we attempt to found our plea of exemption from the duty of providing more churches. It is not less our duty to overcome their indisposition, than to make an adequate provision for their attendance. It is a position which can neither be weakened by argument, nor darkened by sophistry, and which no professing Christian will attempt to contravene, that all the people ought to be in attendance at church; but if all the people ought to be in attendance at church, then it as necessarily follows, that there ought to be church accommodation for all. "In the present condition of things, therefore, two evils exist instead of one, and it would be making the neglect of one duty to atone for the neglect of another, to evade the duty of providing the requisite church accommodation, by sheltering ourselves under the plea of the people's indisposition. If this be a valid reason now, it must be a valid reason for ever. Not only so, but the deeper and more extensively the people sink into ignorance and irreligion the stronger the reason becomes; and we have only to allow them, by our neglect, to sink into a complete state of heathenism, to be furnished with the most cogent of all reasons for never building another church. What a plea for a Christian community to urge! To urge such a plea is but to proclaim our own guilt. It is grievous to think how long this specious fallacy of unlet seats' has deluded and prevented us from doing our duty to a neglected and degraded population. What a fearful departure have we made from the spirit of wisdom and benevolence which animated the Founders of the Scottish Church! When they commenced the noble work of 'planting kirks' all over Scotland, the disposition to attend them did not exist among a barbarous and bigoted population. Had they delayed building churches until a desire to attend them spontaneously arose among the people, we should have been in a state of barbarism still. But, sunk in ignorance and barbarism as they were, they proceeded with the plantation of kirks;' and the appointment of pastors, who, by their assiduous and devoted labours, produced among the people a disposition to attend them, achieved for them a glorious deliverance from popery, and ignorance, and barbarism, and reared in our country a free, independent, educated, and pious population. Their first great duty was to provide the requisite church accommodation for the people, and the second was to secure their attendance. This was the manner in which the Fathers of the Scottish Church proceeded; and the result nobly vindicated the wisdom of their procedure. "When we complain of the worthlessness, and profligacy, and disregard of the ordinances of Christianity, which prevail among the lower classes, does the reflection never force itself across our minds, how much our own unchristian neglect of them has contributed to render them so? We lament the profanity, and irreligion, and absence of even the form of godliness, which so extensively exist, without ever reflecting that those means of grace, by which alone an opposite spirit could have been produced, have been denied them. There was a period when the church accommodation in Glasgow was commensurate with the wants of the population, and that period was characterized by piety, church-going habits, decent Sabbath-observation, and the prevalence of personal and domestic religion. But a woful degeneracy in these respects now extensively prevails. Whatever causes may have operated to produce such a condition of things, it will not be denied that a defect of church accommodation, and the no less inauspicious defect of strenuous exertions to secure their attendance, have largely contributed to its production. Had churches been multiplied, and the facilities of attendance been increased, and faithful pastors been appointed to gather in the people, it would have operated most powerfully to stay the degeneracy of which we complain. We may perversely decline or postpone the duty we owe to our outcast population, on the specious pretence of their indisposition to attend; but with what consistency can we urge this declension in the habit of church-going-the legitimate and natural result of our own criminal neglect-as a valid reason for perpetuating this declension? for it must argue a strange perversity of mind, to urge the previous neglect of our duty to the people as a reason for the farther postponement of that duty.' PROPOSED MEASURE AS TO PATRONAGE IN SCOTLAND. THE new measure is really this, that the majority of the parish (householders, heads of families only,) must subscribe the call when a patron has presented. If they refuse to do so, without assigning any reason, the presentation is void. The old rule was to accept of a small number of signatures, if no objection was made; but if any parties objected, their objections were entertained by the presbytery, and acted on or rejected. The patron is then to appoint again, I believe; but at last, if no agreement is come to, the presbytery are to appoint. Their appointment is final; but they cannot appoint the rejected man. The end of this will be a contest between the presbyteries and the congregations, which will end in the presbyteries being beaten, and popular election will be the order of the day. The half-movement party (the evangelicals, who are not anti-patronage people, will support the case of the new-fangled system of calls), expect the presbyteries to have the appointment; but, as Dr. says, they will be mistaken. I thought you might like this account of matters, which ten minutes' conversation with him and others puts one in possession of better than twenty books. The measure is not carried. It is only made an interim measure by the General Assembly, and, if confirmed by the presbyteries, will become a law. The ministers of chapels-of-ease are also to be made members of presbyteries, &c. This is another interim measure. DISSENTING CHARITY AND DECENCY TOWARDS BISHOPS. No. 1. "THE Religious Assemblies' Bill, the object of which was to enable any number of persons to preach, teach, and pray, in any private house, without the formality of license, has been thrown out in the House of Lords, by the instrumentality of that extremely pious personage, the Bishop of Exeter. This is the man who holds out the right hand of fellowship to the Wesleyan Methodists, who solicits a union with them, and who, in corresponding with one of their preachers, subscribes himself, My dear brother, your's in the best sense.' And why did this exemplary Christian minister-exemplary, chiefly, for his consistency-why did he oppose a measure desired even-nay, principallyby the members of his own church? Because it was directly in the teeth of one of the most important doctrines of the Established Church!' 'Here, then, we have two parties in that establishment holding diametrically opposite opinions concerning one of its most important doctrines.'* This disclosure is perfectly astounding. What! difference of opinion amongst the members of an established church! We thought it impossible: we thought it was one of the main-nay, the very main-recommendation of an established church, that it precluded the possibility of any difference of opinion whatsoever amongst its members! Talk about the dissenters endeavouring to pull down the Establishment! What have they ever done, or attempted to do, or thought of doing, that deserves to be compared with this insidious attack upon the old lady from her own children? What a brood of snakes has she been cherishing in her bosom! Well may she exclaim, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me,' when whole troops of her ungrateful and treacherous sons are found assailing her in one of her most important doctrines,' or, to avoid metaphorical confusion, in one of her most vital, and, therefore, vulnerable parts. Let her console herself, however, with • The ignorance of these people is surprising. Doctrines indeed! Of course the reporter, who is not expected to be a theologian, mistook the word. To what important doctrine of the Gospel could this bill be opposed? It was doubtless opposed to the discipline of the church; and, as much of discipline is a matter of expediency, this writer in the Christian Advocate is entitled to all the benefit he can derive from the admission, that members of the church of England differ on points of expediency!-ED. the reflection that she has yet her Philpotts, who will never leave her so long, at least, as any thing is to be got by sticking to her. As for those of her family who have the unparalleled audacity, if not impiety, to think of worshipping God in unconsecrated buildings, in places so profane as private houses, we see no chance for them: they must be excommunicated without doubt, and given up to their own hearts' lust!" No. 2. "We understand that several letters have passed between the Bishop of Exeter and the Rev. Corbett Cooke, superintendent of the Wesleyan-Methodist Society in that city. What are the contents of those letters, we do not profess to know; but we are informed that one of those addressed by the bishop to the superintendent (titles of identical import) thus concludes:-' I remain, my dear brother, yours in the best sense,' &c. Let us beware of men that carry a lie in their right hand.' No. 3. "It is possible that we may be wrong; but, if the Rev. Jacob Stanley be elected president of the ensuing Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, we shall take it as an earnest that the subtle resolutions of the Manchester district meeting, condemnatory of the Rev. J. R. Stephens, will be disallowed by that assembly. Our reason for the inference is this, that, by implication, Mr. Stanley has shewn himself to be as decidedly hostile to the church of England, as by law established, as Mr. Stephens himself. If any one can read—and what Wesleyan Methodist has not read the former gentleman's caustic letter to that silly person, the Bishop of Bristol, without coming to the conclusion that the author is a dissenter to the backbone, such a man will prove to demonstration, that reading is an art quite independent of the exercise of the understanding. Mr. Stanley's Letter is only second to Mr. Isaac's Ecclesiastical Claims, possessing all the force, without any of the vulgarity, of that celebrated book." [Thus, in one Number, we have the Christian Advocate calling one bishop silly, and another a liar, and characterizing him as a person who will not leave the church while he can get any thing by sticking to her. As a proof of the style of these people altogether, one of the correspondents of this wretched paper, in the war which is waging about Mr. Stephens, calls Mr. Bunting regularly Daddy Bunting !] DOCUMENTS. DISSENTERS' SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CHARITIES. "WHILE it (dissent) has done this, it has been made to contribute its proportion towards the support of an endowed church; and yet it has, as if refreshed by its exertions, greatly surpassed that church in its contributions of service and money to those greater efforts of Christian benevolence which are not of a sectarian, but of a general character."-("Case of the Dissenters.") SIR, The Eclectic Review, or some other organ of the dissenters, having, with unblushing effrontery, claimed for them a degree of liberality and generosity far exceeding that of the members of the established church, I propose, in accordance with your suggestion, to put this assertion to the test, as far as regards a most valuable institution, by comparing the number of churchmen * The virulent abuse here poured out on the Bishop of Exeter is the most satisfactory proof how formidable an antagonist the Dissenters feel that they have in him, -Ep. and dissenters who either have contributed or are contributing to the Stamford and Rutland Infirmary* : CHURCHMEN. Bequest of the late H. Fryer, Esq., in 3% £8,219 0 0 per Cent. Stock Legacies, including 600l. from two indivi duals since the publication of the Report Donations and Collections ...... DISSENTERS. 0 0 0 1,768 0 0 of this was raised by a Bazaar, to which dissenters may have contributed. No. 1, amt. £5 5 0 5, amt. 8 8 0 5, amt. 42 0 0 This statement may, I perceive, be better arranged; but perhaps it will be plain enough for those who wish to be rightly informed on these points. I write in great haste, otherwise I should attempt to put it in a clearer light. Your's, VERAX. CHARITY ESTATES. THE following is the return to the motion made by the Lord Chancellor (prepared by the Secretary to the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities in England and Wales), of the " Amount of the Income of Charity Estates and Property of all kinds, distinguishing those for Education in certain counties"namely, those undermentioned : Charities, from the counties not yet published in the Magazine, sent in? Is it really too much trouble to collect facts?-ED. |