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 • 
 
1 
 
 F<4.v£C ' 
 
 ^8 
 
 A 
 
 1 
 
 LAY SERMON 
 
 I \ 
 
 ON 
 
 OUE PRESENT DIFFERENCES. 
 
 TKXT : 
 " Lkt tuem Fight— Like Dooh and Christians as tiiky ark !" 
 
 (Turkish I'liiloiopliy.) 
 
 I 
 
 TORONTO: 
 llOWSELL & ELLIS, KINU-HTREET EAST. 
 " 1861. 
 
J//^ 
 
 V 
 
A LAY SERMON. 
 
 " Let them fight — like dogs and Christians as they are !" 
 
 ( Turkish Philosophy, ) 
 
 " Let them fight — like dogs and Christians as they are !" 
 exclaims the philosophic Turk, contemptuously regarding the 
 Greek and Latin devotees, who shew their zeal for orthodoxy 
 by an occasional murderous onslaught on each other in the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at the gracious season of 
 Easter. 
 
 " Let them fight !" says the " true believer," but the con- 
 flict waxes sometimes so serious as to require the interven- 
 tion of the Turkish guard, with musket and bayonet, to part 
 the Christian disputants. 
 
 There arc many to whom the highly edifying warfare, 
 carried on for for some time past amongst Upper Canadian 
 Churchmen, is an indifibrcnt, if not a positively gratifying 
 exhibition. Some watch the contest with a critical eye, 
 applauding the force or dexterity of especial combatants — 
 the point-blank directness of an episcopal " shoulder-hitter" 
 — the clumsy energy of a rampant Presbyter — or the 
 vindictive adroitness of a grim lay-brother Avho has scienti 
 fically caught an opponent's head into " chancery " — all in 
 turn earn their meed of applause. And the Turk (if we 
 
4 
 
 had liim) would say, " Sec how these Christians hate one- 
 iinother," and the indifferent woukl mutter with Bolingbrokc, 
 " the priests remind one of the nurses of Jupiter — they make 
 a chimour to drown the voice of their God !" 
 
 But there arc many, very many, we trust, to whom the 
 spectacle serves more for tears than laughter, and who ask 
 sadly, "What is to become of the one great cause — the spread- 
 ing of that Kingdom, whose professed subjects are engaged 
 in deadly civil strife ? 
 
 The leaders on each side will answer you with some com- 
 mon-place about doing your duty, and leaving the consequen- 
 ces in higher hands, or perhaps Avill urge that the fight must 
 go on till the adversary be crushed — that there can be no 
 halting between two opinions, and that God or Baal must 
 prevail. Brave and true words like these have been on the 
 lips of strong reformers of abuses, but have also too often 
 been used to justify the bigot, and to nerve the arm of the 
 persecutor. The grave question forces itself on all minds, 
 not hopelessly blinded by controversial zeal, whether such a 
 state of things can continue without deadly peril to the great 
 mission of the Church. 
 
 ii 
 
 Party spirit has moderated very much in England during 
 the last few years. Bartizans still exist on both sides 
 of the great questions, ready for any amount of recrimina- 
 tion and unreasoning calumny ; but, as a keen observer 
 lately remarked, it would be difficult just now to excite the 
 religious world to the boiling point of fifteen or twenty years 
 ago, or as when the war raged betAvecn Henry of Exeter and 
 the invader of Bampford-Spcke. 
 
 Public opinion has unmistakeably protested against the 
 revival of this horrible style of discussing religious questions, 
 and, but for the wicked course pursued by the so-called 
 
"religious newspapers,"- -ilisgraccful exceptions to the im- 
 proved tone of public journalism, — avc should hear but little ol' 
 the bitterness of theological ^vrangling. 
 
 In Western Canada, wo seem to be many years behind 
 our parent land in these matters. Ever since the abomina- 
 ble warfare that sprung up on the contested election for tlic 
 western diccese, party spirit has raged amongst us, aYid the 
 consequences are melancholy and humiliating to all true 
 lovers of the Church. Friends have been alienated — old 
 friendships rudely broken — the heads of our dioceses seem 
 hopelessly at variance— charges of heresy und unsoundness 
 bandied back and forward, and calumny and misrepresenta- 
 tions sown broadcast over the land. Every combination for 
 purposes of general interest, depending for its success on 
 the hearty co-opcratioa of all, is paralysed, and measures are 
 approved or condemned according to the "school" of the 
 men who propose them. 
 
 The design of these remarks is not to express any opinion, 
 or take any side on the theological merits of the (jucstion at 
 issue, but rather to draw attention to facts and probable 
 results. 
 
 1 
 
 A large party in the church is vehemently assailed by 
 another large party, as upholding certain views of a R i luin- 
 izing nature, especially on I'aptism and the Eucharist. J t is 
 retorted on the assailants tliat they arc schismatical Church- 
 men, ignoring the Prayer Book, Homilies,' and Canons, 
 which they dishonestly profess to be bound by, but practically 
 deny. 
 
 This controversy, developed in milder or stronger 
 forms, has existed since the lloformation, nor is it to be 
 expected that it should wholly cease until a clearer revelation 
 be vouchsafed. No freeman can object to its full discussion. 
 
It is of the essence of IVotestantism to enquire and to dis- 
 cuss ; and by such processes tlio theological mind must bo 
 developed and educated. 
 
 In tlic judgment of all but fanatixis, it is the glor^ of the 
 United Churcii of England and Ireland, to ollow as wide a 
 latitude to her children as is consistent -vvitli the great veri- 
 ties of tlic gospel, and not to place upon their necks a yoke 
 which neither they nor their fathers could bear. On both 
 the sacraments, great latitude of opinion exists, and must 
 exist so long as our Common Father is pleased to create the 
 infinite varieties of the human mind. 
 
 
 i 
 
 This generation -well remembers the satisfaction of mode- 
 rate Churchmen, when the higliest legal tribunal pronounced 
 that there was nothing in the iirticles or creeds of tiie Clmreli 
 necessarily to exclude the large number who held Mr. Ciror- 
 ham's views. An opposite construction would have rent tlie 
 Church asunder. Thousan<ls who then protested against the 
 decision, now ackno^dcdgo its wisdom. 
 
 It seems reasonably clear that our Churcli has her posts 
 of honour and usefulness for good and true men who difler 
 widely on the "baptismal" ([ucstion, as well as for those 
 whose sacramental opinions vary almost as widely as those 
 of Luther and Ulric Zwingle. If her courts of last resort 
 narrow her doctrine down to either the " lligli " or " Low " 
 Church standard, she must at once exclude tens of thousands 
 now embraced in her wide-spread arms. 
 
 Insist on a more dogmatic tlieology, and the fair globe of 
 the Church may be shivered into the elements of half-a-dozen 
 sects. Tiic majority amongst us will say that they desire 
 nothing of this kind, and wish our system to remain as com- 
 prehensive as it has ever been. 
 
 
i 
 
 !i. 
 
 
 It is idle, however to profess a theoretic liberality, if svc 
 enforce a practical persecution on all who differ from us — 
 pronounce them unworthy of Church membership, and use 
 all our power to destroy their usefulness, and drive them 
 from the common fold. When party spirit rages, as it unhap- 
 pily does in Canada, wo have the unreasoning and unreason- 
 able extreme High Churchman, denouncing his opponents 
 as schismatics, false to their ordination vows — false to 
 canon and formulary. Ilis antagonist upbraids him as a 
 Romish wolf, trespassing on the free pastures of a Protestant 
 Church. 
 
 Of the extreme classes to which the combatants belong, it 
 has been said, with great shoAV of truth, that the first too 
 often puts the Churcli above its Founder ; and of the second, 
 that its hatred of Popery far outweighs its love of Christ- 
 ianity. 
 
 All this, veiled as it too often is, under discreditable 
 professions of charity and zeal for the soul of erring brethren, 
 is simply persecution — the old besetting sin of Christian men. 
 Satan has no more powerful lever to stir up tlie vicious 
 inside of man's sinful heart than the appeal to his bigotry — 
 " his zeal for tlic truth " as it were — to start him on the task 
 of forcing all men to vicAv the great truths common to all 
 Christians precisely from his stand-point — precisely through 
 his spectacles, green, blue or yellow, as they may be. When 
 bigotry had power on its side, it crushed by physical force : 
 now that the power is lost, it develops itself in systematic 
 attempts to depreciate, to defame, and to ruin. 
 
 But little real difference exists betwixt the Torquemada 
 and the Dominic of centuries past, and your modern bigot, 
 " oily and venomous," ])rolosting his profound regard for 
 the soul of his erring brother, his desire " to speak the truth 
 in love," and then denouncing him cither as a schismatic or 
 
8 
 
 „„ ,„,„tof ovU-a..a all ^^<^^ _, ,,„i •^mct labouvcr u. 
 vU,,,ovation, (-'f"','""'Tl':„„ higher or lower view on 
 t,,o Master's »-■--•» 'tXthc'ohuvch a.A her wisest 
 
 ,,,;„. ...hamoaovn '■'"'f';;^ ;;,„;„nhc peace of a.,uiet 
 
 I, there n.>t instance « " " p' ,,„„ ^ot the less fa.th- 
 
 i,,„ (Where the Lonl s -^^^^Icn ,„,, the n.oMnoss 
 
 k„y, because -"-^''^fj^X^ the intrusive mcialins 
 
 ot its "'■■"■-'"■ »^".": f,™n " s eiing .he trnth in love 
 
 of ..,n " extven.e pa.tL.. n \ ^^ ^^^^ ,„„„„,„lness of its 
 
 „„a trying to 1«'-^""^', ",,s of a " religious newspaper : 
 P-'°'-- '^■■' : :u: -haritahleness ever presen s 
 
 ,vl,-,>t a mass ol nial ce an uttere.l-no convse too 
 
 itself '. No slanaer « too as to b „ ._^^^ ^ ...^^ 
 
 ,„ean to be resortcl t to g t n ^^ i„Mlihihty of 
 
 „,,„ ,vho lives \X JlL Z''^ complaint, however .U- 
 tbc journal and its '^'"t"°',;;;J„f„,isb against the poor 
 fomnlea, which anony,nousne can .^ 
 
 p,u.son iVon, any 'l"'f " ^'^ Ji„j, ,„a offensive lren> ..» 
 
 ^.Hh a commentary ' »" ^,^^. ;';:*ieetatlon of regret ; and 
 
 ostentatious parade of el.auty ^^^^.^ ^.^^^.^.^tc,! 
 
 though the slamler be prom J ex -^^^^^ ^^_^^,^, ^^^„ j„,,y 
 
 :::!:;r"':ior'ofcontroveLyr-ttUeyre.a. 
 
 ^^cles to readers of peculiar tastes. 
 
 1 „,Kr Miavf^c made by 
 
 .anai«-creutism;'willhet;-'^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 extreme men agams^_tl»^J^' _ "li-^T^lTi^ew 
 
 M 
 
It is easy to maunder about " Laodiccans " and " Gal- 
 lio.s." It is anything but oasy to undo tho horrid mia- 
 chicf done to the cause of Christ and his gospel by the men 
 ■\vlio will be too ready to fasten such names on .ill Avho see 
 ■with sorrow, verging on despair, the party feeling that is 
 desolating the Church. The true " indifferent " cares 
 nothing for these things. They jar not his moral epicurean- 
 ism. Our "Turk" would mutter, "Let them fight — dogs 
 and Christians as they arc !" 
 
 The educated mind is ever attracted to that religious 
 teacher Avho with tho humility of true wisdom, abstains from 
 unnecessary dogmatism — who shrinks from the presumption 
 that insists on positive exactness in defining, what Holy Writ 
 has (likely with wise design) omitted to <lefine. The 
 unthinking are top readily drawn to follow the shallow fana- 
 tic, who persists in fastening the interpretation patronized by 
 his own narrow-minded faction on the solemn truths of faith. 
 In proportion to the largeness of the intellectual grasp is tho 
 disposition to widen instead of narrowing the basis of ortho- 
 dox interpretation. 
 
 Profound thinkers — our Butlers, "Whatclys, and others, 
 well knew that our creed has truths not to be interi)reted by 
 mere reason yet to be realised by faith, — and their deep wis- 
 dom rev'olted from the presumption of dogmatism, where the 
 founders of our religion, and tho fathers of our reformed 
 church had refused to dogmatise. The self-confidence of 
 controversial bitterness knows no such restraints, and dam- 
 nation is launched with the fierceness, if not the power, of an 
 Innocent or a Ilildebrand, against all who dissent from the 
 interpretation of each noisy school. 
 
 Either of the extreme parties may hope to win converts 
 from the mass of those who are too ready to let their spiritual 
 " directors " think for them, and perhaps the more extrava- 
 
10 
 
 gant and offensively sectional the teaching, the more attrac- 
 tive is it to the multitude. But if the Church (to say nothing 
 of its extension beyond its present bounds) is to win the affec- 
 tions of sucli of its professed members as think a little for 
 themselves, — who shrink from all partisanship, and reject any 
 Aveighticr yoke than the law hath placed upon them, — is it 
 not time for its ministers to lend their aid f o allay instead of 
 exciting the personal bitterness exhibited in our controver- 
 sies ? Can the wildest optimist believe that aught but evil 
 
 can come out of such strifes as we have lately witnessed? 
 There is One who can bring good out of every thing and make 
 all redound to His glory : but such a comforting truth must 
 not leave us in judicial blindness as to the palpable tendency 
 of our lamentable divisions. 
 
 Repeating the desire to avoid all expression of approval or 
 disapproval of the doctrinal variances involved, it is necesary 
 to illustrate the views here presented by allusion to recent 
 events. 
 
 Can any Avell-balanced mind in the Church — any calm 
 believer in her creeds and articles — we appeal not to 
 the zealots of the extreme schools that distract her peace — 
 do otherwise than mourn over two striking developments of 
 the controversial spirit new exciting attention 'i 
 
 
 In one case we find a respectable layman, — zealous almost 
 to slaying, for his stringent views on baptism, — not merely in 
 rebellion to his spiritual pastor, but exercising his power to 
 eject him bodily from his charge, solely on this speculative 
 ground of difference. 
 
 Again, we have the case of an Institution founded not 
 many years past by the zeal of an aged Prelate, supported 
 by the generous liberality of Churchmen throughout the Pro- 
 vince, and once an object of just pride to all without distinc- 
 
I, 
 
 11 
 
 tion of party. As party spirit waxed fiercer and stronger 
 after its shameful development in tlie diocesan election 
 already noticed, it became known that the institution was 
 looked on with disfavour by one in the highest position in the 
 Clmrch, entitled by law to an absolute veto upon all its pro- 
 ceedings, and armed with extensive power to ensure to him a 
 due weight in its counsels. 
 
 Now if ever there was a case in which reasonable men 
 would have expected a resort to every legitimate means for 
 the (juiet reformation of any thing exceptionable iy doctrine 
 or discipline, — if ever there was a case for the tolerant con- 
 sideration and kindly forbearance of all generous minds, it 
 would seem that of an infant institution struggling for exist- 
 ence, and requiring the hearty support of all shades of 
 opinion. 
 
 But zealous, even unto slaying, as the layman above men- 
 tioned, the appointed guardian and governor of the institu- 
 tion, suddenly startled the whole Canadian Church, by for- 
 mally branding this, his own peculiar charge, as heretical in 
 its teaching, and pronouncing over it the "greater excom- 
 munication." The nature of this assault at once precluded 
 all hope of peaceful compromise,— its only result could be 
 resistance or surrender at discretion. 
 
 No event in our local Church history, perhaps, ever pro- 
 duced a deeper sorrow in tlie minds of a very largo, and pos- 
 sibly not the least devoted, educated, or disinterested of 
 Canadian Churchmen. 
 
 Like the zealous Layman, the zealous Churchman may be 
 orthodox in his individual opinions, and yet AvhoUy unwar- 
 ranted in the construction he tries to fasten on those of his 
 opponents ; but, be the abstract truth as it may, the con- 
 crete mischief is as palpable, as it is (we fear) irreparable. 
 
12 
 
 We point to sucli occurrences in a spirit of earnest sorrow, 
 with no unkindly feeling towards the actors, but with a deep 
 sense of the terrible consequences of this " throwing about 
 of fire." 
 
 There has o^'cr been, and now is, a party ready to ap- 
 plaud to the echo all acts of this kind. Consequences are 
 wholly overlooked ; temporary triumph over opponents is 
 the exultant feeling. The layman and the ecclesiastic both 
 doubtless have their applaudcrs, but the wounds thus inflicted 
 will continue to fester and bleed afresh, long after the echoes 
 of thoughtless applause have died upon the car. 
 
 The Church, as an organised body, sulVcrs deeply from 
 such proceedings ; but deeper and deadlier injury is, avc fear, 
 done to the souls of men. 
 
 There is bitterness enough in political and social dis- 
 putes; there might be some "charmed ground" left to 
 us within the wide arms of our mother the Church, where 
 peace and charity might find a resting-place. Our 
 minds are all too ready to take umbrage, and find occa- 
 sion for dispute. History, with uniform consistency, proves 
 the apparent paradox, that no animosity is so deadly 
 and so unreasoning, as that provoked by different views of 
 the great truths of the gospel of peace. In nothing should 
 we expect our spiritual pastors to be more scrupulously 
 careful, than in saying or doing aught to evoke the odious 
 demon of religious discord. Every parish in Canada con- 
 tains, in various proportions, men of antagonistic opinions on 
 the questions of the day. A discreet and kindly charity in 
 his words and acts, will enable a faithful minister, in nearly 
 every case, to preserve peace, without the least concealment 
 — much less abandonment — of his own convictions. He 
 may freely address his people, and urge them to embrace 
 his views, without danger of offence. But a harsh word — 
 
r 
 
 13 
 
 such as, unhappily, ^3 all hear too frequently — "will act like 
 a spark of fire tt I do the flame of religious disputation. 
 
 When we look to our spiritual advisers for the words of 
 peace and charity, for oil on our troubled waters, we hear 
 but "Curse ye INIeroz, curse yc bitterly!" The curse is 
 harsh enough on the ear at all times. Disgust is added to 
 disapprobation when the cursor wraps the imprecation in 
 some prostituted scripture formula, and assures his hearers 
 that he "speaks the truth in love," and that it is the doc- 
 trine, not the man, that he holds up to reprobation. 
 
 Is the case over-stated? Can any reader not readily 
 recall the bitter Avords he has heard from clerical lips against 
 some clerical brother, whose oidy crime was that he held an 
 opinion a shade lower or higher than that of the speaker, 
 as to the spiritual presence, or the efficacy of infant baptism ? 
 
 The most violent and ultra of the clergy, high or low, will 
 always have a small circle of especial admirers, whose ap- 
 plause will follow his every act ; and the more extravagant 
 the proceeding, the noisier will be the approbation. This 
 loud approval is too often mistaken by its object for the 
 voice of the public at large, and naturally so, as he hears 
 all that is palatable to his egotism ; while a far larger num- 
 ber of the most thoughtful and earnest-minded of the souls 
 entrusted to his care, view his proceedings and hear his 
 words of bitterness with silent reo;ret. 
 
 No man is asked to surrender or to conceal an honest 
 conviction. As frankly and uncompromisingly as ever he 
 may press his own views, — be they of Hooker or be they of 
 Simeon. He may, however, obtain by prayer and Avatch- 
 fulness the blessing of that quiet spirit, which is ready to 
 accord to his fellow minister the credit of labouring with 
 sincerity in the Master's service, at least as genuine as his 
 
14 
 
 own. ITc may succeed in exorcising that spirit of presump- 
 tuous dogmatism wliicli prompts him to denounce his brother 
 as an emissary of evil, and his (higher or lower) view of a 
 sacrament as heretical and soul-destroying. 
 
 It is not pretended that foolish partizans on either sido 
 have not occasionally said and preached in a style deserving 
 severe reprobation, straining an extreme view to apparently 
 dangerous practical results. Such weak brethren will exist 
 in every church — on the one side startling and offending by 
 idle and mischievous novelties, mediaeval millinery, gesture 
 and posture masters — on the other side treating all discipline 
 and rubrical direction with contempt ; and, in an unhealthy 
 zeal for spiritual liberty, over-leaping all decorous barrier 
 of article or canon. These "irregulars" can be best dealt 
 with and brought to their senses by very different weapons 
 from those commonly used against them. 
 
 Let not the spirit of these remarks be misunderstood. 
 They emanate from no personal bitterness. They are only 
 intolerant towards intolerance ; they pander to no party 
 spirit ; they espouse no party views. The writer desires 
 impartial justice on all the disturbers of the Church's peace. 
 Of his views this much may be said, that they possibly 
 accord most with those of the religious party which he fools 
 most inclined to blame, not for its opinions, but for its cruel 
 manner of enforcini; them. 
 
 I 
 
 ' ' 
 
 Is this .1, time for a church — struggling with heavy exter- 
 nal difficulties — to be distracted ])y " civil war ?'' Are the 
 two dioceses to be like hostile camps ? Is the training 
 institution, to which our Sovereign granted her charter, 
 instead of enjoying the generous su[)port of all, and having 
 any proved abuses corrected by the friendly hands of its 
 legal guardians, to be abandoned by those charged with the 
 solemn duty of upholding its usefulness, and denounced as a 
 
stronghold of heresy ? While a rationalistic theology is 
 openly assailing the traditions of our faith, is the Church to 
 ho internally at variance ? While tlic Roman is thundering 
 at the gate, arc John and Simon to be slaying in the 
 temple ? 
 
 We may be called alarmists — unnecessarily anxious about 
 temporary excitements which time will cure. The excite- 
 ment doubtless may pass away, but the wounds inflicted in 
 the contest will be long to heal — too ready to bleed afresh. 
 
 We believe profoundly in Time, both as the healer and the 
 avenger. The day will surely come, when reflection will 
 bring to the authors of present mischief, and the neglcctors 
 of solemn duties, a saddening and humbling consciousness 
 that when they lightly called down fire froin heaven, they 
 "knew not what manner of spirit they Avere of." 
 
 He who made us Avith minds of various powers Avill, Ave 
 trust, look more leniently on the existence of various shades 
 of opinion among His servants, on the intangible mysteries 
 of faith, than those servants — in their zealous Aveakncss — 
 looked on each other. 
 
 I. 
 
 > 
 
 FelloAV Churchmen — clerical and lay — arc those outside 
 our fold still, to say Avith the Ottoman sentry, — 
 
 " Let thcra fight I — Dogs and Christians as they arc !" 
 
 Toronto, January, 18G1.