away from a missionary, but of the poor rough lad who, under pressure of misery or bad companionship, forgets or even puts from him the lessons of truthfulness which he may have heard at his Sunday school? He, and thousands like him, do to all appearance live without God, apart from the revealed conditions of salvation; and yet He knows their souls, and knows, as we do not, how far those conditions affect him individually. We have to keep His law in view; it is for Him, in each case, to apply it. Let the Remonstrant take a larger view of the solemn question which he touches so superficially. If the statements of the Quicunque as to three Persons and one Substance, or Trinity in Unity, or co-eternity and co-equality, or 'one Christ by taking of the manhood into God,' are logically contained in the original propositions which he owns to be de fide, the sanction of the clauses' is measured by those propositions, and the question comes to this, whether a real faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation is that right faith which is necessary to Christian salvation ? If it is not, what is? is any faith necessary? is faith in Christ's mission necessary? is faith in God's existence necessary? and the question of the future of disbelievers will recur at every step of this process; and a reference to God's equitable judgment will be equally inevitable, and equally reasonable, at the last step and at the first. If at the last step he were to make that reference, critics from the standpoint of unbelief would be ready enough to turn against himself the charge of 'sophistry and fencing' (p. 62); and he would then take shelter behind those very defences which now he seems to think that a fox could break down.' We will here cite some words from one of the most lucid pamphlets called forth by the controversy of 1872. Canon Woodgate, well known as among the acutest minds of the old Oxford school, and since then lost to the Church on earth, then wrote in his Commonsense View of the Athanasian Creed Question : 6 that any 'If you believe the declarations of Holy Scripture definite faith is necessary to salvation, say what that faith is ; but do not shelve or evade the question by platitudes about simplicity of faith, dislike of controversy, or the like. . . . If you will, strike out one by one the articles in the Athanasian Creed, the belief in which ought not, in your judgment, to enter into the terms of salvation. Stop, if you will, at our Lord's Sonship. . . . If you are asked to explain the nature of the Sonship . . . . you are bound to do so. The minor proposition . . . . must arise out of each succeeding one which you admit. This minor proposition is no less requisite in faith than in morals.' 02 6 To conclude. Our censor calls on the Church in general to give up the recitation of this formulary, without necessarily erasing it from the Prayer Book. Dean Goulburn, in 1872, curtly described this policy as that of muffling the Creed.' It is essentially an inconsistent policy; for the Prayer Book, as distinct from the Articles, is the Use' of the Church of England in regard to Divine worship. Logic would soon demand that the Quicunque should be relegated to a place among the Articles; and how long, we may ask, would it stand there? Our author encourages us to take the step he advocates by the examples of 'suppression' in America and of 'silencing' in Ireland. Surely we know a little too much of the circumstances under which, and the influences by which, the non-Eucharistic services of the Church were marred and mutilated by the Convention of 1789, at a period when theological and ritual knowledge was at its lowest; a little too much, also, of the anti-Catholic fanaticism which animated the majority of lay representatives in the Irish Synod' of Revision. That Revision is a warning and not a precedent. Our author, with his curious simplicity, bids us believe that if we followed it in this particular, our act would be hailed with a Never too late to mend.' 'Depend upon it, if you do the really right thing, men of sense and reason will not long, if at all, misinterpret your motives; and if they did, you would at all events have done your duty.' Ay, but should we? That is just the question. Would it be a faithful act to deprive our people of such teaching as that of the Quicunque under pressure of an agitation partly ignorant, and partly hostile to dogma? Meantime, the Remonstrant may be assured that the Church will never undertake any liturgical revision so long as there is a necessity of submitting it to a modern Parliament; and that if the State were to impose such a revision on the Church, the advocates of Disestablishment would see their work done to their hand. 1 'It would be impossible now to do the same act in the same easy and negative spirit in which it was done in America.'-Mozley, Lectures, &c., p. 191. ART. X.-CLERGY PENSIONS. 1. Church Finance. By the Rev. PREBENDARY WOOD. (London, 1874.) 2. The Clergyman's Magazine, February, 1882. WE need hardly apologize for recurring to the subject of 'Clergy Pensions,' already treated in some of its aspects in two articles in this Review. Since their appearance it has grown very largely in public, and more especially in clerical, interest. And that, not merely in view of the fact that without some such provision as may sustain existence in old age, many deserving clergy may, from want of professional success, be left destitute; but because the clergy have been quick to grasp our strongest point, the very great ulterior advantage to the Church itself which must result from any measure tending to encourage and stimulate the earlier resignation of independent clerical posts by elderly men, and their consequent earlier attainment by younger ones. Nothing can be more natural, or indeed more desirable, than that the mooting of measures towards effecting so promising an improvement in the conditions of clerical service and in the efficiency of the Church itself should suggest a very large number of proposals for dealing with so important a subject. Many persons, who have more or less studied the bearings of the question, have put forward schemes of action, which are at the present time, so to speak, in the crucible of public opinion; and those interested (as all our brethren of the clergy at least should be) in finding a good solution of the difficulties inherent in any reform whatever will surely join cordially with us in the hope that good results may flow from the fusion of all these different proposals, and come forth stamped with general approval and commendation in the form of a thoroughly sound and practical pension scheme. An important meeting on the subject of Clergy Pensions was held at the National Society's Conference Room on January 20, 1885, to which, amongst others, the members of the already existing Clergy Pensions Union,' consisting of a number of gentlemen, either authors of, or interested in, proposals touching the subject, were invited. The chair was taken by the 1 'Position and Prospects of Curates,' in No. 27, vol. xiv., April 1882, and 'Clergy Pensions,' in No. 31, vol. xvi., April 1883. Archdeacon of Middlesex, and a number of proposals were carefully discussed. A 'Clergy Pensions Committee' was nominated, which has since then held various meetings, and we are glad to say that there is every prospect of this important matter obtaining a prominent place in the discussions of the Church Congress to be held this year at Portsmouth. We had hoped in the present paper to compare and discuss the different proposals, of which we subjoin the following brief summary. PROPOSED SCHEMES FOR CLERGY PENSIONS. OBJECTS. I. Rev. PREBENDARY WOOD, Christ Church, Bath. (A) Clergy Aid Fund,' for Sick and Disabled Clergy. SOURCES OF INCOME. (A) 1. One tenth of all Sacramental Alms. 2. An annual Collection in every Church. (B) I. Collections in Churches. 2. Contributions of Clergy. The Fund to pay half the premium for the Annuity, the Clergyman the other half. [See Church Finance. (WELLS GARDNER, 2, Paternoster Buildings).] 2. Rev. CANON BLACKLEY, Vicar of King's Somborne. Two Propositions. OBJECT. Annuities for Clergy at 60 years of age. (A) All future Candidates for Holy Orders to be ordained deacon at 22 years of age, if willing, by paying down 50l., to secure a Pension of 100l. per annum on attaining the age of 60. (B) The purchase, by a lump sum or instalments, of ten rol. Annuities, payable on attaining the age of 60 years. In both cases the pension of 100l. a year to be claimed only by Clergymen being unbeneficed at the time of making their claim, and able to prove 20 years' parochial work. Provision for Widows and Orphans does not enter into this scheme. SOURCES OF INCOME. (A) The 50%. deducted from the Curate's first year's stipend, which he could not otherwise earn at all in his 23rd year. (B) Annual payment (for ten successive years) by the Curate, assisted by one-tenth of Sacramental Alms in every Parish in which an Assistant Curate is employed, or by any other diocesan or general organization which may be formed to aid the insurance. [See Church Quarterly Review, April 1882, and April 1883.] 3. Rev. GEORGE B. HOWARD, Oakhurst, Forest Hill, S.E. OBJECTS. (Secretary to Clergy Friendly Society.) (SA) Annuities for the Clergy. (B) Pensions for their Widows. (c) Allowances for their Orphan Children. SOURCES OF INCOME. 1. Subscriptions of Beneficiary Members in four classes at the option of the Subscriber, viz. :— § A. Class I. For an Annuity of £10, an annual premium of £ II. Ditto ditto 20 ditto ditto § B. (A) A donation paid by instalments within a certain period from date of marriage, or joining the Fund, with proportionate payments for disparity of age. (B) An annual premium according to the Class joined. §C. (A) A donation paid for each child placed on the Fund within a given period from birth. (B) An annual premium as in § B. 2. Church collections and other subscriptions, donations, &c. APPLICATION of (2), the augmentation of the benefits derived from insurance as above (1), thus :— Class I. Division I. Net income not exceeding 1257. for past five years, II. Net income from 1257. to 250l. for past five years, a threefold rate of augmentation. III. Net income from 250% to 3751. for past five years, a double rate of augmentation. IV. Net income from 3757. to 500l. for past five years, a single rate of augmentation. V. Net income above 500l. for past five years, no augmentation. In Classes II., III., IV., the rate of augmentation to be gradually lessened. N.B.-(1). A Clergyman must have subscribed 37 (or 32) years [See article in Churchman's Shilling Magazine, January 1883.] 4 Rev. HARDWICKE D. RAWNSLEY, Vicar of Crosthwaite, Keswick. I. OBJECT. Annuities for the Clergy, payable at 65 years of age, on retirement from active duty. II. SOURCES OF INCOME. (A) Subscriptions and entrance fees of Beneficiary Members. |