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Read Ebook: Letter to the Friends and Subscribers of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society occasioned by a letter from the Rev. Dr. Molesworth by Whitefoord Caleb Rev
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LETTER TO THE FRIENDS AND SUBSCRIBERS OF THE CHURCH PASTORAL-AID SOCIETY.
CHAPLAIN TO THE INFIRMARY OF ST. JAMES'S, WESTMINSTER, DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ROXBURGHE AND TO THE MOST HON. THE MARQUESS OF BUTE.
Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
LONDON: L. AND G. SEELEY, 169 FLEET STREET; AND NISBET, BERNERS STREET.
SYNOPSIS OF THE SOCIETY.
OBJECT.--The salvation of souls, with a single eye to the glory of God, and in humble dependence on His blessing, by granting aid toward maintaining faithful and devoted men to assist the Incumbents of Parishes in their pastoral charge.
PRINCIPLES.--That, in a Christian land, a Church established should adequately provide for the spiritual instruction of all the people; and that it is part of the duty of a Christian Legislature to furnish the Church with means to this end: but that, if the Legislature should fail of this duty, then, rather than souls should perish, Christians must join together, to supply the deficiency, and make the Church as effective as it is in their power to do.
PLAN.--The Church Pastoral-Aid Society strictly regards the wants of the Church on the one hand, and the order of the Church on the other. It would make the Church efficient; it would carry the Gospel, by means of the Church, to every man's door, but it never intrudes its aid: the Incumbent must apply for aid, or sanction the application; and until this is done, the Society cannot move. When aid is sought and granted, the Parochial Minister must say how it is to be employed--he must nominate the persons to be employed--he must engage them, as well as superintend and entirely control them. All that the Society does, is to provide for their remuneration; and, while so doing, to ask satisfactory proof of their qualifications.
OPERATIONS. RESULTS OF AID. Incumbents aided 275 Grants now in operation: Population under their 2,035,556 for Clergymen 230 charge Average population to each 7,375 Lay- 40 Assistants Average income of ?163 Additional Churches and Incumbents Chapels: Without Parsonage-houses 138 Opened 67 The Society's aid is to provide Proposed 59 for Clergymen 293 Addit. Licensed Places used as Chapels: Lay-Assistants 42 Opened 106 Total charge on the ?26,198 Proposed 20 Society, when all are in operation, per annum Charge of those now in ?20,908 Additional full Services operation established: Income of the Society for ?16,176 On the 401 the year 1839-40 Lord's-Day On Week-days 172 Additional 161 Cottage Lectures
Page 14, he had remarked--
Little as I am disposed to bandy words, I might ask, if a Society, having fully, fairly, and publicly declared its principles, and had thereby published upon what terms its money was subscribed and its grants made, so that there could be no mistake; and if others, knowing and hating its principles equally, had, notwithstanding, proposed themselves as parties to benefit by its funds whilst they eluded its principles; who would be raising money upon false pretences, in that case?
"An Incumbent of a populous town in the West of England applied for two Lay-teachers, who were granted; but who, after establishing an acquaintance and intimacy with the parishioners, became Dissenting Ministers of the town, drawing to them those whom they had visited as the delegates of the Incumbent."
"Dark with excess of light:"--
Let us come to the actual law and system of the Church. Laymen, consistently with the order of the Church, purchase or inherit, and appoint to benefices; and afterwards the Bishop inducts. This is in no small degree analogous to granting the means for, and consenting to, the nomination of Curates to the Bishops for licence. Corporate bodies, as the Haberdashers' or Goldsmiths' Company, without a Clergyman among them, exercise the right of patronage over livings in their gift. The Trustees of new Churches or Chapels, commonly laymen, upon providing a certain endowment, obtain Episcopal consecration for their edifices, and exercise the whole right of selecting and appointing Ministers, to be afterwards licensed by the Bishop; the consecration of their wealth to the Church entitling them, I suppose, in the Church's view, to this privilege of nomination in return. The parties I have specified make election according to their views of Clergymen or applicants, their doctrine and manner of life. Nobody has ever objected to it, as far as I know at least, as inconsistent with the present order of our Church. Late Acts of Parliament are enlarging the facilities by which the Laity erect and endow Churches upon consideration of the selection and nomination of Ministers being in their own hands.
The Bishop of RIPON said--
The Bishop of CHESTER said--
The Bishop of NORWICH said--
The Bishop of Winchester having been prevented by domestic affliction from attending the last public meeting, and the Bishop of Llandaff being absent in his diocese, their testimony is derived from public declarations of a year previous, 1839:--
The Bishop of WINCHESTER:--
The Bishop of LLANDAFF:--
"The Right Rev. Prelate said, that though it might appear late in the day, he had been anxious to make amends for apparent neglect in past time, by taking part in the proceedings of the Society, and ESPECIALLY TO EXPRESS HIS BELIEF, THAT THAT PREJUDICE, WHICH FOR SOME TIME HAD KEPT MANY BACK FROM SUPPORTING THIS DESIGN, WAS ENTIRELY UNFOUNDED. EXAMINATION AND EXPERIENCE HAD TAUGHT HIM, that general, religious, and benevolent purposes HAD ANIMATED THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, and A CAUTIOUS AND SOBER-MINDED DESIRE NOT TO DEPART FROM THE TRUE DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH. HE COULD NOT BUT ADMIRE THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER AND ABILITY WITH WHICH THE SOCIETY HAD BEEN CONDUCTED, AND BY WHICH ITS MANAGERS HAD ENDEAVOURED TO LIVE DOWN ALL PREJUDICE AND OPPOSITION. HE LOOKED TO THIS SOCIETY, THEN, WHICH WAS NOT INFLUENCED BY A PARTY SPIRIT, AS A REMEDY FOR THE EVIL. He was happy to have this opportunity of testifying his cordial approval of the designs and operations of this Society."
The late Bishop of CHICHESTER , in supporting the Resolution, bore his testimony to the excellent effects produced by this Society, not only upon the country at large, but upon that sphere of Christian action over which he had the superintendence.
There is but one Layman whose testimony I shall quote; for I know not where I should find another worthy to be added to the above list, as an equally devoted and energetic friend of the Church, and of this Society. It is not so much Lord Ashley as President of the Society, I quote, as Lord Ashley known and esteemed in every relation of life, public and domestic, in office and out of office,--by the Court, the statesman, the operative, and the Christian. At the last public meeting, Lord Ashley speaks thus:--
"Perhaps in the history of all the Religious Societies, there was no parallel to the sudden rise and rapid progress of that which they were that day celebrating; no one on which the blessing of God had more immediately and more manifestly been bestowed. It was the very thing demanded by the exigency of the times: and had accomplished, in proportion to its means, the entire object for which it was instituted. Of its holy and beneficial effects on private life, wherever its labours extended, he would say nothing; they were amply and nobly recorded in the periodical Reports; but he would assert his firm and conscientious belief, that the operations of the Society had mainly contributed to abate the hostility that had raged against the Church of England; by making her known among those by whom she was little known, to render her honoured and beloved, and to enable her friends in another place to fight, under God's providence, the great battle of our civil and ecclesiastical constitution."
I am, &c. CALEB WHITEFOORD.
Printed by Richard Watts, Crown Court, Temple Bar.
FOOTNOTES.
See the Note at the end of this Letter.
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