No. 1.-Vol. I.

ABROAD.

OUR PRESENT DANGERS.

THERE is nothing more disheartening than to mark the cynical apathy with which so many Churchmen contemplate the various perplexing and extending dangers of the Church of England. It may be true that some of these appear greater than they really are, from the fact of their constant discussion and exaggeration by those who are external to the National communion. But recent events, more especially the rapid and startling manner in which the Irish Church was shamefully robbed by a confederation of political Dissenters, adventurous Whigs, and designing Roman Catholics, should make us realize our dangers and strive to meet them.

As regards the numerical position of the Church in the nation, we quite believe that the Census of twenty years ago was planned in fraud and taken by trickery: but the moral effect of the trick has not the less been both damaging and disadvantageous to us. It may be a question how far the Catholic movement has numerically strengthened the Church. Morally, intellectually, and doctrinally it has done much politically it has effected little or nothing. Circumstances which of old made some of its leading representatives at Oxford warm and active allies of the Whigs and Liberals, and more recently their docile and obedient creatures, could not do other than cause weakness and create dangers. Of old the Church and the Conservatives were properly and reasonably allies. Such an alliance was natural, both as regards principles and precedents. A Whig parson, at one time a very lusus naturæ, has been and is at all times an Ecclesiastical abortion. It is absolutely impossible for a Whig or a Liberal to be a sound Churchman. For the unchangeable principles of both these sections are utterly contrarient to the great principle of authority. Where is the Whig who in his inmost heart does other than look upon the Church as a mere means and instrument for preserving social order and advancing Whiggism-an institution like in kind to that in Scotlandyard, the officers of the former merely wearing surplices and black scarves instead of blue tunics and helmets.

Where, again, is the Liberal who, without being painfully shallow or glaringly inconsistent, can be a Catholic Churchman? The Whig and Liberal systems are founded on principlesmore or less developed or obscured as necessities arise identical with those set forth in "The Rights of Man," and wholly repugnant to any coherent Christian system which, on Divine authority, claims the obedience of the faithful because of the Incarnation of the Most High. What do the flippant young gentlemen of the cheap Ritualistic press, whose notions and noise are so distasteful to their seniors, understand by the promise that the nations of the World should acknowledge and accept the Christian principle? Are the sober members of the English Church-forgetting the history of the past twelve centuries-to ignore all that has been won, to repudiate all that has been effected, to barter away all that has been bequeathed to us by the faith and piety of past generations, for some paltry favour from the present Prime Minister; who, in his turn, will expect his fawning and obsequious followers to follow him in the future whithersoever he may lead? If

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"freedom for the Church of England from State control" means, for example, such a deplorable and disheartening position of affairs as exists in North Britain, may the Saints preserve us from contemplating such an unlovely precedent, still more from imitating it!

It should be noticed that the very men, who by their pens and pamphlets, their well-organized "Unions" and their underground burrowing, their abuse of the Bishops and their insolence to authority, have done so much to weaken the alliance between Church and State, and to produce the existing anarchy, are expectant Scotchmen and daring Irishmen who should have continued to bless their native countries with their pleasing presence and labours, instead of making foraging expeditions and experimental revolutions here. These are the persons who for a long series of years have laboured with a quiet determination and an energy unsurpassed to detach the English Clergy from the Conservative party. This they have to a great extent succeeded in effecting, first by sanctimoniously declaring that any alliance with any political party is a spiritual mistake; and then, when this policy has been recognized, by preaching an unquestioned adherence to Mr. Gladstone as the sum and substance of their political creed. The palpable fallacies of such need not be further dwelt upon.

If, as we believe, there is an abstract truth in politics, independent of time, country and circumstance, then it follows that the Parish Priest has just as much right to take an active part in such questions as the parish beadle. And even greater. For the Parish Priest has to teach. He is responsible for the souls of his people. And if he would benefit them here, and prepare them for hereafter, he cannot fail to be constantly called upon to expound political truth,-pointing his moral and adorning his tale from the events of the day. The reason why the pulpits of the Church of England have lost their power is because the Clergy have unwisely renounced their legitimate position as public teachers, and have relegated this duty to the anonymous writers of the press.

Christianity has an enduring and unchanging principle to apply to wars and their origin, to diplomatic intercourse, the relations of colonies to the mother country, the power of a large State over a small, as well as to every subject of internal social legislation. To disconnect the Christian principle from Education, the rights of individuals and corporations, the care and sustentation of the poor, the relation of King to subject and of subject to King, is to set God at defiance and to deny His interest and authority in the world. We are well aware that this is done by "Liberalism"-falsely so-called: and that where Liberalism permanently attains the upper hand, nations as well as individuals go to the dogs. It was so in England during the Commonwealth for a long series of disastrous years; and such a result would then have happened to this country had not the good sense and sound principles of a few great men cut the knot and sent adrift the canting impostors and crafty hypocrites, who by the power of Might had for a while obtained the upper hand. Puritanism was the scourge then now it is Infidelity. With this danger, everywhere extending, with an unnatural alliance between Roman Catholics and Dissenters of all kinds-an alliance

Ecclesiastically speaking, the spirit of anarchy has fallen upon us. Dreamers, in the quiet of their libraries, dream that disestablishment would bring down a heaven upon earth, making all our rough places smooth. And the Scotch and Irish prophets of destruction, with rant and rhapsody, go about preaching this newly-found Gospel. If only beardless youths and sentimental women were entrapped by their frothy eloquence, little harm would ensue. But old principles are forgotten by others, and even certain elders now seem to be ever on the look out for novel sensations, and appear to despair of the ancient republic."

Of one fact in the future our readers may rest assured. Every fresh step that is taken to weaken the alliance between Church and State blots out the Christian principle from our legislative acts as a nation. And any step that does this hastens the coming day of certain punishment. In consenting to the making of new experiments, we may wonder at the patience of the Great King of the whole Earth. We may hug the delusion, that though other nations may appear to have suffered in byegone ages because of such, we shall be certain to go unpunished. We may be tempted for a time even to accept the shallow falsehoods of self-worshipping philosophers and Liberal "thinkers" as true; but so surely as the nation rejects the Christian principle-embodied in an Established Church and in Christian legislation-so surely shall we be punished for our sins.

There is a judicial blindness on many. The paltry pettiness displayed regarding some detail of external worship; the unprecedented narrowness of thought exemplified by aliens and adventurers who have thrust themselves forward to lead; the infantine simplicity and delusive hopes of the led, are each and all details of the warning which stands silent to warn. And the dangers and perplexities thicken daily; for, while the present is an age of random change and unprecedented propositions, our chief and most dangerous foes are those of our own household.

MR. GLADSTONE'S BISHOP-DESIGNATE OF EXETER.

THE appointment of Dr. Temple of Rugby to be Bishop Phillpotts's successor is certainly as plain an insult to all Christians of the Church of England as could possibly be conceived. Dr. Temple, we are aware, is unquestionably a man of high intellectual ability. In Easter Term, 1842, he was placed in the First Class at Oxford in both schools, in disciplinis Mathematicis as well as in Literis Humanioribus, and has since done something to promote education. He is, however, one of the leaders of the Broad Church sect, and the chief writer in Essays and Reviews. He has never been a Parish Clergyman, and his chief merit, from a Liberal point of view, seems to be that at the last election he generously stumped the country on behalf of Mr. Gladstone in his hour of need. What else he has done to merit a Bishopric even the Guardian is unable to tell us. Within the last two or three years, in conjunction with Mr. McArthur, the M.P. for Lambeth, he publicly assisted at laying the foundation-stone of a new Wesleyan preaching-house at Rugby-where, as we learn from the Rugby Advertiser, he formally declared of the schismatics there-"I wish you from the very depth of my heart all the success that can possibly be granted you, and that your congregation may increase." Such an act of "Liberality" will no doubt be very consoling to the Clergy of Cornwall where the heresies and vagaries of this sect

say, has created a positive consternation. For ourselves we pity with unfeigned pity those disappointed dupes who during the University elections were so completely misled by leading men at Oxford professing to be the exclusive recipients of Mr. Gladstone's confidence. We need not mention them for they are known to all. We have not forgotten the curious and amusing Happy Family exhibited at a Trafalgar-square Hotel-birds and beasts, clean and unclean, whose claws were pruned lest they should fight, and whose instincts were artificially deadened, lest they should devour each other-an exhibition which won applause and excited admiration. We have not forgotten the urgent, pressing letters of the Secretaries to doubtful Puseyites-promising a state of unchanging Ecclesiastical bliss so soon as Mr. Gladstone should be duly installed in Downing-street. The deceivers are at present up in armsthe dupes are ashamed of themselves. Sceptics now ride in triumph on the shoulders of Oxford professors and Tractarian devotees; and the principles of Essays and Reviews are to become an authorized part of the Church of England's tradition. The Guardian, inspired from Carlton House Terrace, informs us in its last number that it is for "the good of the Church to have at least one very vigorous and thoroughly Liberal Bishop"-as if there were not plenty already-and elsewhere threatens those who may counsel opposition, that such "in the present state of one's feelings might prove the signal for mischief of which no one can tell the end." The smaller fry of Liberal Church papers, in announcing the appointment, are remarkably coy and common-place. Valiant defenders of the use of extreme ceremonies shrink out of sight and are silent in the present difficulty, while the coarse language of the traducers of the Reformation gives place to words of butter and honey just now.

Dr. Pusey, however, is not silent. He has written a long letter to the Guardian, and a second, equally long, to the John Bull. With him the appointment is a "horrible scandal." His one remedy, however, is-Disestablishment. Throughout the letters there is not a single word of apology for, or explanation of, Mr. Gladstone's scandalous appointment. From end to end his followers get no light thrown upon a dark subject, foreboding nothing less than future disruption. For if the Essays and Reviews and their principles are now to be legally a part of the Anglican tradition, the Archbishop of York's treatment of Mr. Voysey becomes unjustifiable. The Incumbent of Healaugh, however heretical in his notions, is at least honest and plain-spoken. He did not, like others, wrap up his notions in language which was misty. For as Dr. Pusey writes of the Essayists:They undermined men's faith without denying it themselves in such definite terms as would materially injure their offices and positions." Quite true is this, but then, what a queer remedy is the Doctor's proposition ! Politically speaking, he has misled a section of the Catholic party for years. has promised and given pledges again and again. The late Mr. Keble unfortunately did the same. And now a crisis is upon us. Dr. Pusey can only recommend disestablishment. What an impotent anti-climax! Had Churchmen during the past thirty years generously given their confidence to their natural allies the Tories, Church parties would have been in a very different state from what they are now. Instead of chaos, we should have had order: instead of cliques and sectarianism, discipline and united action. But we are all at sixes and sevens. Our Unions" have promoted disunion: our great leaders' political idol is placing Dr. Temple upon Dr. Phillpotts's honored throne.

He

We remember Dr. Pusey's weighty words after the Essays and Reviews' judgment-words which stood in the Preface of a notable Sermon. They created a profound sensation at the time. Men, if we remember rightly, were urged not to contribute to any Church works, not to promote the consecration