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32X

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A CHARGE

DELIVERED IN

CHRIST-CHURCH CATHEDRAL

FBEDERICTON,

i SEPTEMBER 13th, 1865,

k AT THE TRIENNIAL VISITATION,

JOHN, BISHOP OF FREDERICTON.

PIIBIISHBD AT THE REdl'BST OF THE CLERGY PRESENT.

SAINT JOHN, N. B. :

Wm, M. WRIflHT,

DKSPATCU PBINTINO AXn I'lULlSHINO OKi'ICR,
PRIXCR WILLIAM, 8TRKKT.

1866.

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A CHARGE

DELIVERED IN

CHIIIST-CHURCH CATHEDRAL,

PREDERICTON,

SEPTEMBER 13th, 1865,

AT THE TRIENNIAL VISITATION,

JOHN, BISHOP OF FREDERICTON,

PUBLISHBD AT THE REQUEST OF TBB CIERGT PRESENT.

SAINT JOHN, N.B.:

Wm. M. WRIGHT,

DISPATCH FBINTIKG AND PDBU8BINQ OPPICB,
PRINCB WILLIAM STREET.

1865.

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Reverend and Dear Brethren,—

If at our former Visitations I have met you with anxiety from the
loss of valued brethren, or other trying circumstances, much more do
I now feel the weight of the burden laid upon me when our infant
Church is subjected to a heavier trial, and the great question of the
personal attachment of our scattered and disjointed members is daily
before us. It would ill become one who has been spare*^ so long to
preside over you, to be distrustful of God's gracious providence, which
has, iii so many instances, watched over us. But I may be pardoned
for feeling a great fear, lest through our negligence, the blessings which
have been hitherto secured to our flocks by the liberality of our fellow-
Churchmen at home, should now, in some degree, be lost to us.

I may remind you that, on three several occasions, first in a charge
delivered in the year 1856, again in the year 1859, and still more
pointedly in 1862, I brought before you, and through you before the
laity generally, the necessity of adopting speedily some well considered
measure to meet the difficulty which was sure to come upon us. I
showed you, from the unquestionable experience of our brethren in
dioceses bordering on your own, and equal to it in wealth and popu-
lation, that the voluntary system had failed to secure for their pastors
an adequate support, and that a very small number of clergy, in pro-
portion to our own body, was maintained in these dioceses. I dwelt at
length on the misery of abandoning our missions, and of exposing our
flocks to the ravages of infidelity, or to the pernicious teaching of those
whose doctrines and discipline we cannot approve.

In my last charge I entered at length on the duty of contributing to
so worthy an object, and endeavoured to reply to such objections as
might be urged against the contribution. Unhappily, the history of
Church-endowment seems to be the history of individual enterprize and
affection, rather than that of a general duty recognized by all the mem>
bers of the Church. As far as my knowledge extends, the endowment
of churches in England belongs to past generations, rather than to the
present; and most men, (with some few splendid exceptions,) are con-
tent to contribute to build churches, leaving the pastors to be provided
for as they may. I mark this great failure of Churchmen in all parts
of the world ; and it is the more noticeable in England, where, in the
great majority of parishes, the continuQus services of the Church are
provided for by the abundant liberality of past ages. The notion that
such liberality is to be ascribed to the powerful influence of the clergy,
to the fear of purgatory, or even to other less worthy motives, which,
as a general rule, I greatly doubt, only reflects, if true, the more severely
on those who profess to bo influenced by a purer zeal, and to bo delivered
from all superstitious fear. If our religion be purer, if our motives be
higher than those of others, why are not our works of luorey more
large and liberal ? If the terrors of purgatory no longer compel us,

why does not th'> love of ('hiist constrain us? But tlio members of
the best endowed churches sit by in careless indifforeiioe, content to
enjoy all the assistance which cither the Crown, or other benefactors,
have bestowed on them, receiving an income adequate to secure for
them the services of an ablu and intelligent pastor, and practically dis-
owning the duty of ministering to the s|:iritual needs of those who .ire
too poor, too scattered, and often too thoughtless, to be able to provide
fully for themselves. That warning which the inspired writer gives to
the indolent, may well be addressed to the spiritually indifferent in our
own days: — "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and b»
wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler," prompted only by
the secret working of a heaven-imparted instinct, " provideth her moat
in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest," Small and
unintelligent as she seems to the unobservant eye, she is not content to
live from hand to n)outh, and make no provision for the future. She lays
up in harvest a wise store for the winter. She provides for the future
wants of a numerous and orderly population. And observe the con-
trast: — " Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a Httle folding of the hands
to sleep" ; a little more indifference to our real wants, and our real
dangers, and the necessity of strenuous and combined exertion, "so
shall thy poverty cime as one that travclleth," swiftly, speedily, and
before you expect it; "and thy want as an armed man." The pres-
sure of the evil thou niightest have averted shall be upon thee, when
thou shalt be both defenceless and secure. And the fear i.s, that so it
may be with us. Whilst we sleep, spiritual poverty will wake, and the
enemy will come in like a flood before our defences are raised, or our
preparations completed. The answer to which admonition, I presume,
is, that we are all labouring to promote this object by means of our
Diocesan Church Society, and that the effects of this labour are every-
where felt in the diocese. But the rejoinder to this answer is, that the
sums contributed to the Society do not in any degree answer to the
incomes men receive from professional sources, and from commerce.
Comparing what is wasted by intemperance and extravagance, i^hat is
spent on the luxuries of life, especially on house-building and house-
furnishing, even in rural districts, with the sums given to the Church
Society, the amount is miserably small. In some years, men ?^re blessed
with an unusually large and signal success. Then one would like to see
a more abundant contribution of a permanent kind. And a few might
combine to effect the endowment of a parish, which is pocr, and unable
to supply its own wants.*

*To show how far wo are, as yot, from bringfing the duty homo to every Churoh-
man, I observe that the Church Society's Report for 1865 gives a list of about 400
subscribers in St. John, including Portland and Carleton. This would give us about
2,000, if we suppose the 400 to represent heads of families, which in many cases they
do not. But according to the census, there are 8866 Church people in St. John ; so
that less than one fourth of the number are subscribers. And no doubt the obser-
vation would apply to other places in the Province.

The matter, liowovcr, now pros-ios on us in a way that must be met
one way or the otlicr Either we must rise to the emergency, and sur-
mount the difficulty, or we shall he crushed by it.

Havinc boon re(iueHtcd by the (/ommittoo appointed by the Diocesan
(/hurch Society, to endeavour " personally to see the Committee of the
Society for the Propi,u;ation of the Gospel, and if possible, bring the long
pcndiu!; negotiation relative to its grants to this diocese to a close." I
lost no time in repairing to London, and was enabled to be prej^ont at
the June meeting of the Committee of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel. I found that the grants made to all the Colonies had
already been the subject of repented discussion, and that the terms of
our future relations had been virtually settled by the Report of a Sul-
Committee, all members, I believe, of the General Board. These term?,
modified .slightly, so as to be somewhat more favourable to us, were
adopted unanimously by the General Committee, and have since been
sanctioned by the Board, and are as follows : —

1 After January 1, 18fi6, no missionary on the Society's list, in this
diocc.<o. is to draw directly on the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, but on the Church Society of the province, for his salary.

2. In lieu of the present stipends paid by the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel, the Society entrust to the Bishop and the Church
Society the sum of £2,860 stg., lea\ing it to them to arrange with the
clergy as to the sums to \)e paid to them.

3. This sum of £2,860 is to be continued undiminished for the next
three years, i. e. , till January 1 , 1 869.

4. In addition to this sum, the Society charges itself with pensions
to two clergymen and seven widow.^, amounting to £550 per annum, so
long as these pensioners live.

You may naturally expect from me some remarks on this determina-
tion of the Society at home.

1. It is useless to discuss the question whether the former terms
offered by the Society in the year 1861 were, or were not, more favour-
able than the terms offered to us in 1865. It is sufficient for me to
state distinctly, that those terms were accepted unanimously by us at
the Annual Meeting of our Church Society ; that the acceptance of the
terms was plainly announced to the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, and that the negotiation fell through ; not from any fault or
tardiness on our part, but because we never could obtain from the
Committee the names of the clergy, and other pensioners, whom we
were expected to pay, with the sums to be paid to them. In that case,
we certainly cannot charge ourselves with any want of readiness to dis-
charge our duty to the Church. What I now state to you has been
more than once brought under the notice of the Committee of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but no notioe whatever has
been taken of it.

2. I am, however, of opinion that if so great a change in our relations

to tlio Society at liotnc bo neccssury or dcKirable at this time, that there
are advantn'res which cannot he overlooked in having the whole Hum
placed at our disposal ; becaui-e in the ca.se ol' deaths, the Church here
will be better able to decide how the money uhall be employed ; and
should any death occur during the next three years, we uhall ho far
obtain a temporary advantage to the fund from it.

3. At the i<ame time, it is only fair to ourselves that I should publicly
state, what you no doubt must all sec to be the disadvantages to the
missionaries, of such a scheme.

I have no doubt that every missionary in the province paid in whole,
or in part, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, feels his
security somewhat impaired by so great, and, as eome may think,
undesirable a change in the mode of payment. When the older mis-
sionaries, thirty or forty years ago, embarked in the service of the Socie-
ty, the offer which was made to them was, that on their ordination, and
after proceeding to tho then Diocese of Nova Scotia, they would receive
£200 stg. a year from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and
that the people would be called on to pay £50 a year, and to provide a
parsonage house. After some years service, without, as far as I can
discover, any fault alleged on the part of the missionaries, this income
was reduced 25 per cent. This they regarded, very naturally, an a breach
of faith ; nor am I able to state on what grounds the Society for the Pro-
pagation of the Gospel i»rofessed to justify it, unless it be that the Parlia-
mentary grant of £16000 a year had been withdrawn from them. The
£16,000 fact is undoubted : and the missionaries submitted to the reduc-
tion. But they will, no doubt, feel themselves still more hardly used by
the present change ; because, though there is no reason to doubt, that,
for the next three years, their income will be secured without any very
serious reduction, yet, vhould they live beyond that period, and the
Society at home should contemplate another still larger reduction, they
may be exposed to great embarrassment.

Be this as it may, it would, no doubt, have seemed more like a busi-
ness transaction, carried out on principles accepted by all men of probity
in their dealings with one another, that the Society at home should
have continued to fulfil its engagements to all those missionaries who
remained in its service until death, to whom at the time when they
entered that service, no hint was given that the offer of salary was
limited and temporary. No man, after twenty or more years of faithful
labour, likes to be turned adrifib, and the responsibility he was led to
think would never be denied shifted to other men's shoulders ; whilst
we freely admit, that, in all cases, where the Society's engagements
with a man entering the ministry, was only for five or ten years, it is at
perfect liberty to free itself from all advances at the end of the definite
time proposed and accepted by both parties to the engagement. This
determination of the Society will press with special hardship on those,
whose failing health, after many years exposure to a severe climate,

renders them incapable of long and continuous exertion. They might
well suppose, that the small pittance granted to them, (and it is small
in every in'-*"''ce, ) would be gratefully continued, rather than parsi-
moniously u -, and that the sharp edge of reduction would not be
turned on the i^eakness of their few declining years.

Much of this is no doubt owing to the persevering efforts of a few
zealous members of the Committee, bent on withdrawing all aid to the
North American Colonies, at all huzaids, and aided in this resolve by
the profound ignorance which everywhere prevails among educated
Englishmen of our place, our u.sefulness, our feelings, and our interests;
and by the conviction entertained by many at home that it is necesjiary,
as they more pithily than compassionately express it, to turn the screw
on, and to .screw us hard, or we shall do nothing for ourselves.

Considering that during the time I have presided over you, the num-
ber of clergy has increased twofold, the contributions to the Church
Society sixfold, and the contributions of the laity to the support of the
clergy and other Church objects have also largely increased, whilst io
almost every town the Society at home has withdrawn its assistance,
and the provincial laity have taken the burden on themselves, it cannot
be said with justice that we have done nothing to help ourselves. That
we have done all that it is our duty to do, or that there are no supine
and inactive members among us, I am very far from affirming. But
this I may without fear of contradiction -ssert, that in the endowed
Church of England, there are few parishes which so much require the
assistance either of an endowment, or of benevolent Christians not resid-
ing in the parish, as the scattered country missions in New Brunswick.

The great question, however, now before us, as it is before all men in
daily life, is, what is to be done ? And how shall we best prepare our-
selves to meet the difficulty ? The clergy njay be divided into four classes.

1. Those who receive no support whatever from the Society for the Pro-
I)agation of the G-ospel, or who receive it in the parishes which might
exert themselves to relieve the Society at once from the contribution.
In some of these parishes the laity have as great a burden laid upon
them as they can discharge for the maintenance of their own clergy,
and we cannot reasonably look to them to help us. In a very few,
where the endowments are considerable, we naturally and reasonably
hope both for assistance and advice in the present emergency.

2. The second class of clergy cor ists of six only, who were ordained
and taken into the Society's list before the year 1833. These clergy,
according to the terms now offered by the Society, are entitled to a salary
of £150 stg. per annum, to a retiring pension of £100 stg. for life, on
their obtaining a certificate of approval from the Bishop, and to a pen-
.sion of £50 stg. per annum for their widows, should they leave widows
surviving. They were, with few exceptions, ordained upon the Society's
title, in which these terms were distinctly set out.

It would be a shameful breach of faith if these terms were not com-

it';,:

!im

plied with. In no one of these cat-es is the clergyman in possession of
a well endowed parish ; in every one of thcni he has laboured for more
than thirty years on a small income ; and in no single instance are hh
private moans sufficient to support him. If the block sum now granted
to us were continued till the death of these clergy, there would be no
difficulty in our complying with the same conditions ; but if it be
reduced, I see a great difficulty and a manifest injustice in the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel throwing upon our shoulders the support
of clergymen, and of the widows of deceased clergymen, who were sent
out to North America long before the Diocese of Fredericton existed,
and with whom a precise and definite compact was made at the time of
thei*- ordination, the terms of which, on the part of the clergymen, have
been diligently observed. Against this I have strctmously protested,
and shall continue to do so at every fitting opportunity.

3. The third class of clergy is more numerous, and consistfi of those
who have neither retiring pension nor pension for a widow secured to
them by the terms of their agreement with the Society, but to whom it
was never intimated, when they received holy orders, that the engage-
ment with the Society was only for a limited period. Some of these
clergy have been connected with the Society for nearly thirty years, and
were ordained by the then Bishop of Nova Scotia. I regard their
case as a hard one. They have no prospective advantage from pensions
to themselves or their widows : they are labouring, many of them, in
very poor missions ; they have committed no offence for which they
ought to be deprived of their salaries ; and the Church Society, with
its present amount of income, i& unable to make up so large a deficiency.

4. The fourth class consists of clergy to whom it has been intimated
by the Society, that the engagement made with them was only for a
limited period. There is no injustice in the Society adhering to its
expressed determination in their case. But it is no doubt an equal
hardship to deprive them of their means of subsistence, and it would
be a vast injury to the Church to abandon the missions which they
serve.

The most practical method of meeting the difficulty before us appears
to me to be this. The sum promised to us for the next three years is
£2,860 stg. This leaves a deficiency of £37 10s. stg., withdrawn dur-
ing the half year ending June 30, 1865, to January 1. 1866 ; and £400
sterling to be withdrawn in the year 1866, minus the sum of £150,
being Dr. Thomson's salary, which is included in the sum of £2,860.
We hav3 therefore £287, 10s. stg. altogether to provide for annually,
or about £345 cirrency. This must be raised before the end of the
next year, or such portion of it as will enable us to pay the mission-
aries from January 1, 1866, to July 1866, when the Church Society
meets ; and I think it not at all beyond our means to raise this sum by
supplementary subscriptions, or augmented subscriptions to the Church
Society for the next three years. We must remember that if this is

not done, the deficiency must fall somewhere. Either the loss must be
divided equally amongst the existing clergy, or two or three of them
must be deprived of their incomes altogether. It will however become
a matter of absolute necessity to consider in detail the wants, and the
ability to contribute, of nW the parishes in the diocese which receive
pecuniary aid from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and
to insist, as a matter of justice to the rest, that their contributions shall
be made proportionable to their means ; or that they will, within a
certain period of time, lose the benefit of religious services.

We must also be prepared to take into review, and calmly and im-
partially consider the whole question of Church missions within the
diocese ; what missions may be made (with proper energy on the part
of the parishioners) self-supporting ; what places require urgently our
help, and where, if we are obliged to withdraw altogether, our with-
drawal will be attended with the least injury. On these points it will
be our object to obtain and to itupart the fJlest information.

I must not pass over the important question of a general endowment
fund. It is evident to me, and will appear equally plain, I should
think, to many others, that a sum of money invested for this purpose,
which might without difficulty have been raised, would have served us
effectually at this crisis. But the opportunity was lost, and I know not
whether now it can be recovered. I should be more inclined at the
present time to advise you to press the duty of local endowments in all
cases where it is possible. Much more might be done in this way than
the fainthearted and timorous imagine. You have all seen the Cathedral
spring into existence ; you have known a heavy debt wipo4 away, and
a hearty support given to the clergy in it ; why should not each sepa-
rate pastor in his own sphere begin an endowment for his own mission,
or add to the small glebe which, in many cases, has begun to yield a
limited and scanty support? A general fund seems, indeed, more
magnificent, but a parochial endowment interests a larger number of
persons in its behalf; and men are often found to give or bequeath
money to the parish where their lives have been spent, when they
would give nothing to a general fund under the control of a committee.
No delicacy need be felt in urging that from which we shall, personally,
derive little or no benefit, and which wilL tend to secure to the laity
those privileges whi'ih they have so long enjoyed. Nor need you be
deterred by any objections to subscribing for the benefit of posterity, or
by any other of the thousand excuses for covctousness, which some will
ever make. If there be those among us who profess to think the
yoke of the clergy hard, I can tell thorn that the yoke of practical
atheism and irreligion, and even of some forms of religion, is much
harder than our own. Histoiy ought to convince them that those who
drove out the clergy at the time of the great rebellion, and brake that
yoke asunder, soon found themselves compelled to bear severer
burdens, and were very glad, after a few years' cx{)erience, to taLe

the clergy back again. Put the matter before your people in as plain
language, as conciliatory a manner, and as frequently as you can, listen-
ing to every reasonable objection, and furnishing a reasonable answer,
and something will be done. For T cannot help saying, that if we had
been thoroughly in earnest about the Endowment Fund when it was
first proporod, it would not have so entirely fallen to the ground.

But I must proceed now to another question of practical im])ortance
to us all.

You have been informed of the nature of the late decision of the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the question between tho
Bishops of Capetown and of Natal. And you may have read with
astonishment that the decision affects the whole Colonial Church, and
that when her Majesty 'vas advised to issue letters patent to bishops
about to reside in colonies possessing independent legislatures, she
exceedi,d the powers vested in her by the constitution ; and consequently,
that these letters patent did not carry with them all the powers supposed
to belong to them. This decision need not, however, take us entirely by
surprise, as I have been informed, for some years past, by high legal
authorities in the province, that it would not be safe to trust for coercive
jurisdiction to the power supposed to be given by the letters patent
to myself, or to rely upon their authority in this respect, in the courts of
law. Happily for me, and for us all, the question has never been raised.
It may, however, afford reasonable ground for astonishment, that those
who are learned in the law, and were called in specially to advise her
Majesty in the exercise of her powers, should never have been able, or
should never have taken the trouble to ascertain precisely the extent of
those powers ; and should have allowed the Queen's name to be used,
and her Majesty's seal affixed to documents which th*» highest legal
functionaries judicially pronounce to be defective. Still more surprising
is it, that the same learned and acute functionary, who informs tho
world of the defect of these letters patent, should himself have
drawn them up, only a few years since, for the benefit of the Metro-
politan See of Capetown ; thus pronouncing sentence, not so lauch
upon the Bishop, as upon his own acts. Such a decision, however, does
not, as it appears to me, deprive us of any power that is specially im-
portant. In considering its effects upon the Bishop of the diocese, upon
the clergy who are placed under his supervision, and on he laity to
whom it iS his duty to minister, we must recollect that if bishops, in
legal acceptation, be "creatures of law," this is nothing more than «U
persons are, who are subject to the laws of their country. But this i»
only one part, and not the most important part of our ofiicc and func-
tion. Tho law may or may not entrust us with certain legal powers,
which we are bound faithfully to use, according as "this realm " has
imparted them to us ; but if the realm, or the Sovereign who represents
the realm, have no such power to impart, we have not the special legal
power her Majesty assured us that we had— that is all. No fkult or

neglect of ours has forfeited the power we were supposed to have. We
never sought the power. It was voluntarily offered ; and now we are
told, that when it was oF red, it was not in the Soverign's power to give
it. We leave that question to be settled by those who ought to have
known better than to offer the advice. But it is admitted by all that
the Queen has power to issue her mandate for our consecration. That
mandate was issued. The consecration was duly performed, "he
••piritual power vested in us of ordaining men to feed Christ's flock, of
confirming the young, of governing and feeding the flock, of correcting
and punishing "according to such authority as you have by God's
word," was by the Archbishop of the province, with other com-pro-
vincial bishops, then and there committed to us. This is the authority
we most value ; this is the commission on which we have acted for
twenty years past, and on which, as long as life and health are spared
us, we shall continue to act ; and no Judicial Committee can deprive us
of spiritual powers, which no such body was empowered to entrust to
us. Legal questions, arising out of a difficulty not made by our own
misconduct, but by ill advice of others, we need not fear, nor even
anticipate ; and we feel assured they will do us no harm. They will
settle themselves, should circumstances arise which render a settlement
necessary. But even as regards the temporal question, the position of
the Bishop of this diocese is safe in several important points. The
Duke of Newcastle, late Colonial Minister, in his letter to Sir P. E.
Wodehouse, K. C. B., dated 4th February, 1864, affirms, that "he is
aware of no reason for supposing the letters patent to be invalid other-
wise than as they may assume to grant coercive jurisdiction." The
confirmation which, it '3 said, the letters patent required at the hands
of the colonial legislature, has been given in a great number of Pro-
vincial Acts to his title, and to his corporate powers. By virtue of
those Acts, which cannot be repealed without subverting the whole
course of law, he holds lands in trust to the Lord Bishop of Fredericton
and his successors for ever ; his consent as Bishop of the diocese and
under the aforesaid title is made necessary to the sqle of lands, he is
constitutionally and legally the head of the Diocesan Church Corpora-
tion, and nothing is wanting which the letters patent were supposed to
confer, but coercive jurisdiction. But it may be observed, that coercive
junsdiction is necessarily the exception, not the rule of the Bishop's
proceedings. No wise bishop would desire to coerce, when he could
persuade ; nor would he rush headlong into law, when he could possibly
avoid it. And even as regards the letters patent, take Ihem at their
best, it was obvious that their language was, in certain respects,
ambiguous ; that several matters necessary to the due regulation of a
criminal court were not provided for by them, and that the whole
question of criminal proceedings at law, and appeal after decision, was
so intricate, uncertain, and expensive, that if I ever had any enemies in
the province, they would never have had more signal occasion to rejoice

than that, on the strength of the letters patent, 1 should have erected
a legal court, and sought to establish legal decisions of my own. Into
that difficulty, though often urged, and sometimes even provoked, I
have, by God's good providence, never been permitted to fall. I have,
by His merciful help, endeavoured to administer spiritual discipline,
and to punish the disobedient and criminous, and have, I thank God
for it, succeeded without courts of law ; and though there have been
cases, in which persusaion and admonition have failed, yet in those
instances, and they are very few, no letters patent, no court of law,
much less my own court, would have given me any help whatsoever.
Though therefore some timorous and mistrustful persons, forgetful of
God's good providence, and of the promises of care and protection made
by the great Head of the Church to his ministers, have taken alarm at
the recent decision, and have come rashly to the conclusion that the
powers of the Colonial Episcopate are all swept away, that bishops are
without title, mission, or jurisdiction, and that their powers are alto-
gether placed in abeyance, they will speedily find themselves mistaken.
The Church of England in all parts of the world, within the Queen's
dominions, has too deep '\ I.old, morally and spiritually, on the affections
and consciences of its meiu'oers, to lead them to wish the power and
authority of its bishops, when exercised within reasonable limits, to be
destroyed or even diminished. All honourable men among the clergy
will agree, that no decision of the Privy Council, narrowed as it is to a
single point of law, can absolve them from their solemn oaths of
canonical obedience to the Bishop, or render null and void all their
subscriptions and declarations. These oaths and subscriptions are a
contract which the clergy have voluntarily entered into, and cannot now
conscientiously set aside ; and the principles laid down by the Judicial
Committee in the case between the Bishop of Capetown and Mr. Long,
clearly show that whatsoever partakes of the nature of a contract, will
be held binding by the law, and may even yet be enforced, where it is
made evident that a contract has been made, and that acts have been
committed subversive of the contract voluntarily undertaken. Nor
would the rightminded laity of the Church, I am persuaded, willingly
see the clergy set free from all engagements to their Bishop, and the
Bishop deprived of all power to be an effectual overseer of their conduct.
Every layman who has well considered the subject, knows that the
Bishop is entrusted with reasonable and limited power for the protection
of the laity in matters of faith. If he may not ordain but under certain
restrictions, if he is bound to require certain oaths, subscriptions, and
declarations, he is only fulfilling the promises made at his own conse-
cration, and the rules set him by the Church for the common benefit of
all ; rules which are the result of long experience, the fruit of ages and
wise consideration, which are the framework of our spiritual society,
and preserve it from being carried about with every wind of doctrine.
The terms "Gospel," and " preaching the Gospel," which some would

consider sufficient to decide every question, and secure the flock against
unfaithful shepherds, are far too vague, and admit of too many different
interpretations, to guard against error. For who is to decide what the
Gospel is in each special case ? Is the decision to ho left to the flock
over which the pastor presides ? As there is never likely to be a case
of a congregation perfectly unanimous, the majority would decide, and
the minority would be left unrepresented ; and the whole system of
Church doctrine and discipline, which is now guarded by the rules
enforced by the Bishop, would fall into a modified Congregationalism,
our flocks being so many separate units, having no bond of union, no
security for a continuance in the faith, no tie to keep them together.
It may possibly be objected, that the possession of the Scriptures is
sufficient for this purpose. But as all Christians enjoy access to the
sacred records, yet most widely differ, it has been found practically, that
no denomination is without some collateral security for the maintenance
of their own tenets. Whether it be the traditional system of Roman
Catholics, the Westminster Confession, the deed of Conference, the
Baptist Union, or the Church of England Articles and Subscriptions,
there is sure to be some test, and some authority to enforce it.
Those who reject Episcopacy have a stringent way of their own, a
power felt, if not openly acknowledged, to act upon the consciences,
and often on the temporal concerns of men ; and if they act wisely in
80 doing in their generation, and according to their views, we should
certainly act most unwisely in diminishing the power of any bond which
enables us to act together, so as to preserve the trust committed to us.
For we claim to be trustees for the faich once delivered to the Saints.
The dogmatic teaching of our liturgy and articles, no less than the
solemn protests contained in them, require of our clergy distinct guaran-
tees that our teachings will be in accordance with the truths there sot
forth ; and the Bishop acts as the representative, so to speak, of the
other trustees, to enforce the guarantee of fidelity to the trust. Even
should the general tendency of the late decision, or the mode in which
it was expressed, be supposed to lean towards the weakening of the
bonds of faith, and the removing the line of demarcation between belief
and unbelief, we should, I think, act wisely in not ascribing too much
importance to it. Certainly, we should not give it a moral significance,
which the framers of the decision manifestly disclaim. It is a legal
construction, narrowed to the smallest point, and not affecting the
merits of the case, of a penal statute ; it forbids nothing that the Scrip-
tures and the Church require of us as articles of frith, and only allows
doubts to be entertained, or hopes expressed, without penal conse-
quences, but without affirming the legitimacy of these doubts, or the
reasonableness of these hopes ; and it is to be specially noted, that the
points affected by that decision, are those on which the articles of our
Church supply us with no definition, and are less positive than on most
doctrines of our faith.

Fur be it from mc to say one word, which should appear, even by
implication, to weaken the confidence of any in the inspiration of Holy
Scripture ; yet candour obliges me to admit, that the popular view of
inspiration as often goes beyond the facts of the case, as the doctrine^,
propounded by the essayists fall within, or ignore them. For the
notion that the English version of the Bible, in every syllable and letter
of it, is as much the dictation of the Holy Ghost, as the Command-
ments written by the finger of God on tables of stone, certainly is not
in accordance with fact. Wo can only recommend it as a faithful and
8ucces.sful attempt, manifestly blessed and honoured by God, to convey
to the English mind the sense of that Word, which by its profound
depth of meaning, its manifold aspects of thought, its singular method
of preservation, and the difficulty of interpreting rightly the two chief
languages in which it was originally written, transcends all power of
translation, and leaves the ordinary reader in ignorance of much of the
fyrce, and occasionally of the meaning of the idiomatic expressions of
the original. Recognizing, as we may fairly do, our English version as
one of the most successful and accurate representations of the Word,
we must allow that, in numerous places, it admits of amendment ; and
we should be slow to frame theories of inspiration, when we know that
these theories will be practically applied by thousands, not to God's
Word itself, but to our English representation of that Word. We are
thankful for the widespread and general conviction of all Christians in
all Churches, that the Old and New Testament taken together, are true
and infallible guides to purity of morals and soundness of fuith, and
may be implicitly trusted to lead us aright in the way to salvation. So
far even a Roman Catholic will probably go with us, reserving to him-
self the question into which I need now enter, as to what is the true
source, and who is the proper interpreter of Scripture. And so far the
Scripture itself points to our conclusion, when an inspired writer deckven
that every Scripture inspired by God, is profitable for religious " doctrine,
reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness." But on several other
very important questions the Bible gives us no information whatever.
It does not tell us, what is nevertheless an undoubted fact, that for
three centuries after Christ's ascension, the canon of Scripture was not
precisely and accurately formed ; that wide differences existed as to the
authorship of particular books ; that the precise number of the sacred
books was finally agreed upon by the voice of the Church, not made
known to us by any inspired person ; that many and important varia-
tions occur in the manuscripts of the New Testament, which no inspired
author can help us to settle ; that an important difference is found in
the chronology of the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Samaritan texts of the
book of Genesis, which still remains unsolved ; that other chronological
difficulties wait for a solution, and that in regard to the Scriptural
account of the creation of our present woi'ld, we neither have sufficient
information at what point of time the inspired narrative begins, nor has

t.-

there been yet produced an interpretation in all respects satisfactory,
which leaves no doubt that the author of the book of Genesis was in-
spired by God to teach mankind the system of the world, as indicated
by the researches of modern science. Yet after making allowance for
all these difficulties, which it is worse than useles.s to igTiore, or deny,
how wide is the difference between the reverent admission, that the
right conclusion on many points is a complicated and by no means easy
task, and the hazardous and irreverent speculation, which deprives the
whole body of the sacred volume of all historical truth. Science itself
is in its infancy, as regards the development of the mundane system ;
and it might reasonably be expected, that, with our very imperfect
information, our interpretation of the Scriptures, and our deductions
from Nature, rould be found at times to clash. But on the truth of
the main facts connected with religious truth, the whole system of
Christian doctrine rests. If these facts are denied, our belief in the
doctrine fails. Whereas in regard to the connection of the Bible with
scientific discovery, it is frequently a traditional interpretation, or a
misunderstanding of what the Bible requires us to believe, or to take
for granted, that is overthrown. The Scripture vests on mor.il evidence
peculiar to itself, and independent of the deductions of the philosopher.
'ihe reception of one part of the volume by the whole Jewish nation,
and of both Testaments by the Christian Church, the originality, purity,
and sublimity of its moral and religious teaching, its depth, its pene-
tration into the heart of man, its power over his conscience, its consola
tion of his woes, its exhibition of sin in all its baseness, and of the
Saviour in his transcendant loveliness and greatness, its prophecies
amply fulfilled in the history of the past, its miracles abundantly attested
by contemporary witnesses, and confirmed by their analogy with God's
work in the lieart of man, its undesigned coincidences, and the simple,
sincere, and blameless manners of the writers of a life such as no men
ever conceived but the four Evangelists, such as no man ever would
have dreamed of, had he not seen it before his own eyes, such as no
man ever led but Jesus of Nazareth, this evidence, in part, capable of
being understood and felt by the most .simple, as a whole, appealing
with accumulated force to the understandings of the wisest, is sufficient
for our conviction, without a logical precise theory of inspiration, which
would exclude all imperfections in the transmission of the writing, in
the language, in the secular knowledge of the inspired writers. Of this
one thing t feel assured, as of my own existence, that we must not
frame a theory of inspiration first, and go to the Bible for texts to con-
firm it, but we must take the facts of the case as we find them in the
Bible, and not determine for ourselves apart from those facts, what the
Alraiglity ought to have ioZZ, l"? ""^^^^ ^^ '^^^'^^ ^"^ mankind so muctl
of diviqe trqth as He saw fit to impart by the imperfect raeaium 1
language, and by the assisted, yet even then imperfect medium of men.
I say imperfect medium, because, though the control of inspiration

cnablod the sacred wiitcr to eonmmnicatc divine truth, his natural
understanding remained fallible, and the inspiration was limited to
himself— not continued to his hearers or readers ; and his thoughts are
given to mankind In a language not their own. And then as to the
other still more awful subject, which was brought under the notice of
the Judicial Committee, the denial of the eternity of future punishment,
a few cautions may not be Improperly given to you on this occasion.

Ail the reverence, solf-dlstrust, and humility possible to a Christian
mind is too little, when we enter upon so fearful a subject as the just
judgments of Almighty God. Who, or what are we, that we should
question His decrees, or interpose our weak replies against the execution
of Ills final sentence? Yet In proportion as we feel, that in His pre-
sence every mouth must be stopped, and every tongue plead guilty
before Him, in the like degree should our reverence guide us to beware,
lest like the friends of Job, we curse those whom God hath not cursed,
and narrow the conditions of His mercy by a merely human and mistaken
interpretation of His words. '* Mercy," says a sacred writer, " rejoiceth
against judgment." " Yet have I left me seven thousand In Israel,"
was the reply of the Almighty Judge, when the stern prophet could not
count one faithful follower. To consign unknown millions to perdition
for not believing In that of which they have never heard— to speak of
their lying hopelessly In everlasting torments, without a pang, without
a tear — to think with remorseless Indifference of the Inevitable perdition
of the vast majority of souls plunged Into eternal fire irrevocably, after
this short life, from the beginning of the world to Its end — and of the
few, the very few, whom Infinite mercy would stoop to save, or Infinite
justice would permit to any share in His own endless bliss — surely this is
not the spirit of Him who came from Heaven to seek, to save, to suffer
and to die ; this Is not the ransom shed for every sinner, the blood freely
given in bcliaif of the wanderer and the lost ; those are not the bowels
of that compassion which is infinite, which brings in the lost child with
tender gvatulation, and celebrates with holy songs not his fall, but his
recovery. Yet we admit in simple, unquestioning faith, the truth of
those most fearful words, " Depart ye cursed. Into everlasting fire, pre-
pared for the devil and his angels." We can think of no limitation of
these words, which would not equally limit the blessedness of the saved,
and make heaven, the reward of faith and obedience, a place of security
from which many a soul might still more terribly fall. Neither can we
play and trifle with the word " everlasting," for we are met with an
equally awful declaration from the same lips. *' Fear Him who is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell : where their worm dieth not, and
the fire Is not quenched."

Yet we dare not limit, as some have limited, the mercies of the Most
High.

We mourn over those scenes in primitive history, when savage mobs
tore heresy to pieces with carnal weapons, and rival councils consigned

their opponents with equal indiflFerence to eteraal flames. But we can call
to mind, a time, (to speak of things nearer home,) when good and holy
men among ourselves, full of love and of good works, the autho^-i of a
greatrevival of godliness in England, confined salvation to the very few
elect christians, apparently of their own stamp and way of expression.
For the Papist, the Grreek, the ignorant heathen, scarcely even for the
merely moral Christian, was the least hope of salvation to be found.
We have seen also men of an opposite school dwelling so exclusively on
the tenet, ^^ extra ecdesiam nulla solufi,^^ and so limiting the bound of
covenanted mercy to their own Church, that it seemed impossible for a
dissenter to be saved ; and even now so wide-spread are the agencies of
Puritanism, so rigorous and unbending its decrees, that we see daily,
that unless we use its shibboleth, subscribe to its chosen means of doing
good, quote the well-known text in the one conventional manner, and
narrow God's Word and our understanding to the small channel of one
favorite phrase, we are ill considered "natural men," ignorant of
justification through the righteousness of Christ ; and we are gravely
exhorted to read our Bibles prayerfully, as if that Bible were not life
and death to us, and prayerful study of it had not been the main busi-
ness of our lives.

God be thanked, the spirit of intolerance has somewhat died out
among men, and their convictions partake of a wider spirit of charity.
Taught by experience of those fruits of the Spirit, which no unbiassed
reader of the Scriptures can mistake, they now admit and hope better
things of each other. They can believe that Christ loves the soul of a
Papist as dearly as he loves the soul of a Protestant ; they can hope
that His spirit is searching among all men, in all countries and in all
ages, for souls capable of salvation, and is manifesting His light to
faithful and obedient hearts, born with every conceivable difference of
intellect, of education, of religion, and of hope. And though there is but
one way of salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus, they tnist that
millions may be saved, to whom no kindly tongue has ever told the way,
to whom life was an overshadowing cloud of darkness, ignorance, and
sorrow : or who sought the aid of many physicians to heal their sin-
stricken souls, yet "never were bettered, but rather grew worse."
Then as to the case of that vast majority of mankind, baptized, or
unbaptized, who die in infancy, whilst we have no right to question the
value of baptism, even to an infant, nor dare we say that a compliance
with Christ's holy ordinance confers no special privilege on a member
of his body, of which an unbaptized infant, dying without baptism,
may possibly not be a partaker ; yet who will dare to say that the gates
of eternal mercy shall be shut on any to whom God has given life, and
from whom He took that life before it developed into choice of good
and evil ; or that the heart of that Saviour which burned with indig-
nation against those who would have spurned helpless babes from his
feet, will not open the everlasting arms to embrace them all, and

shield them from the accuser's clamour by his all-justifying blood ?

In estimating, then, the moral effect of this judgment of which we
have spoken, if in some respects it seem to lean away from faith, let us
recollect that it must not be regarded as a theological judgment. Its
authors must speak legally, and cannot speak theologically. All nhiOv
dicta of the presiding judge, seeming to have a theological bias, we are
at full liberty to discard, and the narrowness of the construction is fully
borne out by the very words of the Judgment. " If the book, or these
two essays, or either of them as a whole, be of a mischievous and bane-
ful tendency, as weakening the foundation of Christian belief, and Ukf^y
to cause many to offend, they will retain that character, notwithstanding
this our Judgment. " Most certainly; and the Judgment itself is as
nothing, compared with the general, growing verdict of honest and
impartial minds on the whole great question. And this verdict will
grow. The minds of men are not tied to courts of law, nor is their
faith bound up in legal judgments. The strength of the Church lies
not in courts of law, even if we could deprive every essayist of all tem-
poral means of subsistence. Even then we could not quench the light
of reason, nor by such means re-kindle the torch of faith. The great
lepson, it seems to me, is to keep out of the courts as much as is pos-
sible ; and while I would never shrink from a bold, manly confession of
what we believe, I think painful experience convinces us, that it is
better to meet the adversary and crush his arguments, than to cite the
adversary that we may crush his person. In this contest no man need
be at a loss for learned and substantial replies to everything that has
been advanced. But then I think we must admit, after all said and
done, that on the degree of inspiration, and the mode of inspiration,
we must expect honest and faithful men to differ. If in regard to the
person of our Lord, so great a difficulty exist in understanding, still
more in explaining, how Jesus increased in wisdom, and how in the
Son of Man, who is in Heaven, ' dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily " : we need not deem our faith in danger because men differ on
the question of the extent of the limitations of the divine and human
element in the inspired writer. It is easy to say every word, every
syllable, every letter in the Bible, is the dictation of God ; and it is as
easy to reply : In what one precious manuscript are those syllables and
letters to be found ?

Again, as to eternal punishment, whilst we hold, as I hope we all
shall hold, in childlike simplicity to the simple, severe truths of our
Saviour's words, we must not forget the wide differences among holy
and good men in various ages, as to the persons of necessity included
in God's eternal displeasure.

I have detained you longer on these points than I could wish, but
you will agree with me that one cannot over-estimate their importanc^e,
and it becomes each one of you to think deeply upon them, to search
out all the evidence on the subject to which you can find access, that

you may be prepared for tlie objections made to Christianity on these
and stieh like topics, and may not be unmindful of the difficulties which
uttend the solution of such questions. The worst answer you can pos-
silily give, because the answer which will have the least weight with
candid and intelligent minds, is to beg the whole question by claiming
for yourselves a special illumination of the Holy Spirit in answer to
prayer. The Holy Spirit was promised to the Apostles to " guide them
into all the truth." But into what truth were they to be guided?
Into that truth which their blaster had revealed to them, and which
they were to communicate to others. But as this truth is now con-
tained in the Scripture, and taught by the Church, it is manifestly
presumptuous for any individual minister to claim a direct illumination
from above, when all his brethren have the same Bible open to them,
and the same throne of grace to apply to for help. Unless he can show
that they never read the Bible which he studies, and never pray to the
same Father tc whom he offers his prayers, he has no more claim to a
spiritual illumination than they have ; and in practice it is very often
found, that a claim of this description is little else than a thin veil
drawn over self-conceit, and a cloak to conceal ignorance. "Give
attendance to reading," "meditate on these things," "give thyself
wholly to them," are directions given by an inspired Apostle to his son
Timothy; and " bring with thee the books," is the request offered for
his own use, showing how much need St. Paul thought there was of
study, and how little he relied on special illumination, to the neglect of it.
But I must pass on to other topics, which I cannot in justice omit on
the present occasion. We must all anxiously consider what is the
present position, and what will be the future of the Colonial Church.
^Ve cannot believe that we are one of those plants which our Heavenly
Father has not planted, and which will therefore be rooted up. Imper-
fect as our work has been, it is the child, we hope, of too many prayers
jtnd tears, to be lost. Even as to the connection between the province
and the parent country, one cannot but feel the deepest anxiety. Every
visit to England confirms my fear that the profound ignorance of the
masses in England, even of educated people, as to our geographical
l>osition, our separate existence, our feelings and our efforts to sustain
ourselves, is doing us incalculable harm. A knot of determined poli-
ticians are bent on the severance of the colonies from England : whether
they believe it, or not, they reiterate the notion of our uselessness, and
our inordinate expense to England. Their words are heard by men
immersed in business, who care nothing about the subject, and a vague
idea possesses them that some taxes will be spared, some commercial
benefit obtained by the severance. Religious truth is the last question
asked by any one on this subject, and loyalty may shift for itself. Yet
«loe8 England deal with itself as she professes to deal with us ? Where
are the richly-endowed parishes, where are the rich men in these
I'arisheSj many of whom are abundantly able to support their clergy

without impoveriBhing themselves, who would willingly sacrifice their
endowments, given by the benefactors of past ages, and throw them-
selves generously and venturesomely on the voluntary system ? When
wo are told to trust to the liberality of our rich farmers, how is it that
wo see no such experiment made on the richer agriculturists of Bedford,
Buckingham, and Norfolk ? Why is it that in wealthy London churches
have been built with so scanty an endowment, that the clergy scarce
know how to live ? Yet no one thinks how the missionary in a large
district of fifty miles in length is to live. " Fifty miles," cries the in-
credulous Englishman, " are not the acres of fifty miles sufficient for his
support ?" Much more than sufficient, if you " give him tithes of all."
But totally insufficient, if the majority of the farmers on these fifty
miles profess another religion, if he finds few of his flock settled in any
one place, if the quantity of acres is no measure whatever of their
ability to help him. These truths are not known to Englishmen in
general ; they have no notion whatever of the rough work of a New
Brunswick missionary.

Still, we should look at the matter in another light. " Even the
very hairs of our head are all numbered." God's gracious providence
is now preparing for us a severe trial. And as no trial happens withont
his foresight, both of the necessity, the use, the gracious end for which
He permits it, let us all look at it in this aspect. Murmuring will not
help us to bear it. Even a heathen's words are full of Gospel truth, if
we apply them right, " passi graviora, dabit Deus his quoque finem."
If we bear our trial humbly, if we cast all our burden on the Lord, if
we exert ourselves unanimously and manfully to do our duty to the
Church, and to each other, surely we shall not be suflFered altogether to
fall. But then the clergy must, in this present crisis, remember how
great a responsibility is laid upon them. Every man amongst us must
take his share, and those who are most able must help to bear the
burdens of others. No narrow party spirit, no disparagement of others,
no fault-finding behind one another's backs, no petty squabbling in the
newspapers, will do the Lord's work and business in this day of trial.
Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, we must strive together for the
faith of the Gospel, if we mean the Church to stand, not always requir-
ing of others that they view all things exactly in the same aspect with
ourselves, but ready to Sacrifice our pride, our self-interest, and all our
littleness for the general good.

We do not know whether any Imperial Act will be passed to " quiet
the titles," as we call it, which have been disputed, and set at rest
pressing questions respecting the government of the Church. But of
this we may rest assured, that whatever Act be passed, it will be of a
very general character, and will avoid detail as much as possible, to
ensure its passing, and that details will be left to us to settle among
ourselves. My strong conviction is, that reliance on English lawyers
and statesmen, is resting on a broken reed, and that we must apply to

our local legislatures for whatsoever help \re want. And the experience
I have had of colonial legislation warrants me in saying, that I do not
believe our legislature would refuse anything reasonable, if wo are
agreed among ourselves. I cannot, in twenty years, remember one
instance, in which any benefit was withheld from the Church, that
could fairly have been expected, when the Church was unanimous in
the demand ; nor any wrong suffered by the Church, which was not
due to the secret or avowed cabals and strifes among Churchmen them-
selves.

You might then, I think, now fairly and impartially consider,
whether you think the state of the Churcn requires, or does not require,
synodical action. You have all before you the recorded acts of those
colonial dioceses, in which synods have been duly held for several
years. You must be more or less familiarly acquainted with the synodi-
cal proceedings of our brethren in the dioceses of Canada and Nova
Scotia ; you are as competent to form a judgment as myself, whether
you suppose these assemblies to work beneficially to these dioceses or
no. Of one thing you must be persuaded, that no additional autocratic
power is given to the Bishop by calling together a synod. I am inclined
to allow some weight to the objection of those who oppose the veto of
the Bishop, that he presides in the synod as chairman, makes ad-
dresses, influences these assemblies by his presence and vote, and after the
debate he can veto the proceedings, if he pleases. It must be admitted
that his power is very limited, for he can never propose any measure
which may not be stopped by others. Still, I should be desirous of
removing every obstacle to union, and whilst I should desire to retain
the veto, I should not insist on being present, or in voting. But some
synod ical assembly seems almost necessary, if any discipline is to be
exercised. The Church Society is not a legally constituted body for
this purpose. It has no power to exercise any disciplinary powers, and
all it can do is to g'ant or to withhold the money entrusted to its care,
and this only for one year at a time. I may mention two facts which
show us the very anomalous and unsatisfactory position in which we are
placed. The two houses of convocation in England have agreed to
petition the Queen for liberty to alter the 29th canon, and the license
has been granted. But supposing the new canon formed, it is extremely
doubtful if it extend to the colonies. With the same general consent
the terms of subscription in the 36tli canon it is proposed to alter, but
the late Lord Chancellor gave it as his deliberate opinion, that this
alteration would not extend to the colonies. Are we then bound by the
new canons, or are we not ? Nobody seems able to tell us, and nobody
seems willing to tell us. Our misfortune is, that we are suffered to be
bound by the penalties of the law, but what the law is, nobody pro-
fesses to know. Under this painful deficiency of information, it seems
the most idle dream that ever entered into any man's mind, to lean on
the old theory of our established Church, and to re::jrt for help to

English statesmen and English lawyers. Distracted by appeals from
colonies diflferently situated, opposed and thwarted by political oppo-
nents, and bound by precedents which have no force or application in
our case, they seem unable to help us if they would, and often unwill-
ing to help us if they could. England herself seems to be undergoing
a wonderful revolution in religious matters, and the connection between
the State and the Church to be loosening every year. Why then should
we cling to ancient traditions which cannot have place in this new society
in which our lot is cast, instead of endeavouring manfully to help our-
selves ? Self-help is the title of a valuable little work which everyone
should read, and it must be the motto of all who mean to stand, though
I need hardly say that as Christians and Churchmen, our help is in the
Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. I can only then recom-
mend the fresh consideration of this question to your serious thought ;
and I shall say no more than that I shall ever be ready to work heartily
with you for the common good, with a synod, or without a synod, as you
may determine. Upon you, and upon the laity of the diocese, the
responsibility of this grave question must mainly rest.

There are a few points of ritual observance on which I wish to say a
few words. The Church has expressly appointed that baptism shall
take place in time of public service, after the second lesson, and has, as
you all know, assigned two reasons for her injunction, " that the con-
gregation then pre8fc.it may testify the receiving of them that are newly
baptized into the number of Chiist's Church ; and that every man
present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God
in his baptism." These are injunctions so pious and charitable, that
you cannot be justified in neglecting to comply with them ; and the
more so, as you have all, without exception, promised and set your
hands to a subscription so to minister the sacraments as this Church
und realm hath received the same ; a subscription and promise which
cannot be annulled by any decision of the J udicial Committee of the
Privy Council. I hope, therefore, that after this admonition, the
slovenly practice which prevails in some parishes, of administering
baptisnx after the congregation have departed, will be abandoned. I
must also enjoin upon you as a matter of duty, that you do not mutilate
the marriage service. Chanting a portion of the service, singing a
hymn, or even celebrating the Holy Communion at the time of mar-
riage, are not enjoined by the Church ; nor need I say anything oji that
part of the subject But the mutilation of the service is directly contrary
both to the letter and the spirit of the book of Common Prayer ; and if
it be more agreeable to light and frivolous minds, it must give oiFence to
the more earnest and attached members of our Church. Tn the Cathe-
dral, where the service has never been mutilated, I do not believe a
single instance of offence has occurred. In these matters, the clergy by
needless scruples, and by making light of their duty, often create the
offence which a more simple and straightforward obedience would tend

I."

to remove. And now before I conclude this address, let me not fail to
l)oint out to you the duties which seem to be peculiarly incumbent on
the clergy at the present crisis of our affairs.

Trial, my brethren, brings out of each man whatever of good or evil
is in his nature. It is the fire that reveals the dross, consumes the
stubble, and purifies the gold. It is certain, therefore, that this fire of
our trial, will manifest to ourselves and others, the depth or the shallow-
ness of our characters, the reality or the unreality of our minds. More
seriousness, more devotion to our work, more private and more public
pniyer, seem specially required of us ; not prayer by fits and starts,
with a frantic and spasmodic violence ; not prayer for unity, whilst we
practice disunion ; not exhortations to holiness, whilst we disparage and
devour one another ; not a love of fault-finding, not a " binding of heavy
burdens grievous to be borne ;" not a captious and litigious spirit, not
the selfish cry, that the "weakest must go to the wall," the poorer
clergy are to be sacrificed, while the better provided look on with
indifference, but an earnest, simple-hearted desire to promote the
general good, which must commend itself to all loyal members of our
Church, and for the rest, calm trust in God. " He will deliver us in
six troubles, yea in seven there shall be no evil touch thee."

It is necessary for us all to recollect that the trial through which we
are passing demands from us an increase of theological learning. It is,
no doubt, hard for a missionary in this province, labouring amongst a
population so scattered, to devote a regular portion of his time to study.
The calls upon him are both incessant and irreguiar, and if he could
find time, he may allege that he cannot find means to purchase books.
Much assistance, however, has been given you in this respect, by the
foundation of our Cathedral library, and by the establishment of deanery
libraries, through the liberaUty of the associates of Dr. Bray. I could
wish that the clergy who are not living at a jjreat distance from Freder-
icton, made more use of the Cathedral library. But I fear that the
ephemeral publications which engender a perpetual craving after ordi-
nary news, most sadly interfere with our love of solid reading. Un-
questionably, you cannot be sound interpreters of Holy Scripture, you
cannot inform and raise the raindj of your people, you cannot be pre-
pared to meet the objections raised everywhere to Holy Scripture, and
to the liturgy of our Church : you cannot, in short, be wise and faithful
dispensers of God's holy Word, unless you are careful and diligent
students. And a right understanding of the Scriptures involves so
many questions of exegetical criticism, of geography and history, and of
doctrinal accuracy, that you expose yourselves to the contempt of man-
kind around you, if you are wholly ignorant of these things. It is of
no use to declaim against the spirit of the age, or to fancy yourselves
raised into a position superior to such considerations; the age will
reason, will criticize, will advance, whether we will or no, and we must
endeavour to keep pace with its advances, as far as they are in a right

direction. There is no surer sign of weakness than pretended contempt,
either of the past or the present labours of mankind. For God's provi-
dence is ever working, not only in nature, but in the minds of His
creatures, and increasing intelligence and observation of His works, is
one of those precious gifts of God, which we should esteem and value
rather than depreciate. It is also of great importance to us to distin-
guish between "the faith once for all delivered to the Saints," which
in its great fundamental varieties cannot change, and our understanding
of these truths, which is liable to fluctuation and to progress, or decline.
And the vast field of interpretation of Scripture admits of many con-
clusions differing from each other, yet compatible with general sound-
ness of faith. When we see what the Bible in terms dogmatically
asserts called in question, our path is more easy, and our duty plain ;
but in many questions, on which the Scriptures have pronounced
nothing certain, we should be ven; slow to condemn as the fruit of
unbelief, what more learning in ourselves might show us to be the result
of long and patient research. For these and other like reasons, I
would urge upon you all, both the elder and the younger clergy, a more
careful and systematic reading both of the Old and New Testaments, in
their original tongues, of sound works of divinity, of which there is an
abunc \noe in the present day, and of books which convey secular know-
ledge. You need not be afraid that you will ever become mere students ;
bat my fear is, that you may become mere talkers — that in the absence
or neglect of reading, even the little theological knowledge you once
had may fail you, or degenerate into that empty verbiage, which is
never so pitiable, as when it is associated with a claim to high and
exclusive spirituality. No man knows what he can do in the way of
reading, till he has made the attempt sj'stematically. Map out your
time into regular portions, got hold of some portion of knowledge before
the world has had time to intrude, or in the long winter evenings ;
cease to thirst after that unprofitable, worse than unprofitable gossip,
which is the bane of all our communities, and the ground of half our
suspicion and distrust, and your minds will be improved, whilst you are
placing yourselves daily in a better position to improve others. But the
clergyman who reiterates the same discourses which his flock has per-
petually heard, or teaches them nothing, but the same truths constantly
insisted on as the only way to salvation, and not varied as the Bible
itself -.aries its instruction, must either send his hearers to sleep, or
must breed up a generation of ignorant and narrow-minded fanatics,
ready to condemn every advance in knowledge as an error, and to brand
with heresy every liberal and ingenuous mind. Into these mistakes
many are in danger of falling, and I therefore caution you, that study
and learning, under the blessing of God, are the surest preventives.
I may also say a word on Sunday School instruction. As the con.mon
schools of the country are in no degree under the clergyman's control,
nor are any definite religious principles taught in them, it is of great

importance that you should enter personally into all the details of your
Sunday Schools, that you should admit none to be teachers but those
who are sound members of our Church, and if of age, ccujinunioants ;
and that you should select suitable books for use in the school, illus-
trative of the catechism and liturgy of the Church, and that you should
insist that the catechism is thoroughly learned and explained to every
child capable of understanding it. And I would recommend a larger
and more special instruction to be given to all young persons to be con-
firmed. It would be far better that the number should be somewhat
smaller, than that they should come ignorant of those very privileges
on their appreciation of which the use of confirmation to them depends.
For this purpose classes of instruction in the catechism and liturgy
would be most valuable,. And as a far greater strain will now be put
on .he resources of our Diocesan Church Society, I do not think it
probable that you will obtain much help from it in the way of books.
This is another matter in which we shall have to help ourselves.

And now, my brethren, let ipe close this address with a few words of
parting admonition to the clergy and laity.

In the present trial of our infant Church, how much, my brethren of
the clergy, must depend upon your personal conduct. Though it be
very certain that the laity ought to esteem your oflGice more than your
persons, yet you must see how little the ofi&ce is valued when the man
is despised. You ought to consider that it is not eloquent preaching,
it is not intellectual eminence, it is not easiness and good nature, it is
not a talent for business, it is not running to and fro about the country,
it is not social position, which will earn for you the power to influence
mankind for good. All the earnest love of souis, all the guilelessness
and simplicity, all the fervour of devotion, all the goodness of heart,
all the humility and charity, all the wisdom and tact that can be
acquired is scarce sufficient for your duty ; and without such graces you
will too often labour in vain. Keen eyes are watching your every
action, and swift tongues repeating every word. The enemies of religion
rejoice in your haVdng, and excuse their own vices by every bad
example among you. And every vice in a clergyman's family assumes
a magnitude altogether disproportioned to the offence. But above all,
do not bite and devour one another. Never is a clergyman so obnoxious
to censure, so certain to be wrong as when he gives publicity to the
errors of his brother, and strives before the unbelievers. . And I grieve
to say it, but I believe it to be the experience of every bishop, that of
all the troubles that happen in a diocese, it is generally found that the
clergy have been at the bottom of the strife ; and if they would be quiet,
and each man mind his own business, the luity, with few exceptions,
would give little trouble. How soon will division about things indiffbr-
ent cease to be of importance in our eyes, and we shall all be called on to
give account of the way in which we have fulfilled the great duties of
our ministry.

But I must not omit to admonish the laity of the Church, as its
appointed leader.

You, my brethren, have the destinies of the Church committed to
your care. And I fear many are not half awake to the responsibilities
of their position. For a long time they have been leaning upon others.
They have not taken up the cause of the Church, as a body, with any
generous ardour, any heartiness, as if they loved it, and cherished it as
their own flesh. They dole out a miserable pittance, a bare existence,
to the clergy, but it is done by fits and starts, not as it is needed. And
instead of the whole mass of Church people contributing according to
their means, a few are called on again and again, known to be liberal
givers, and some of the richest people in our communion give miserably
little.

Every one may now know, from tlie changes made in our position by
Churchmen at home, that you must either endeavour to build up the
Church in the poorer parishes, or the services of the Church will be,
must be withdrawn. And the sin of that withdrawal vdll certainly lie
at your door. And without some local endowment it never has been
found that the voluntary system can stand the strain laid on it in
poorer places.

People make great and magnificent promises when they desire a cler-
gyman's 3er\ices, and under the pressure of their pledge they do some-
thing considerable the first year ; but as soon as the novelty is past, they
get tired, find or seek occasions of offence, diminish and then withdraw
their subscriptions, and finally the clergyman is starved out, the services
are ended, and religion is driven away. That this lamentable end may
not be seen amongst us, we must, as a body, be more zealous. I can
do no more than lay the matter once more plainly and tkithfully before
you, praying earnestly that God may incline your hearts to hearken to
words, I trust, of truth and soberness, and to act as becomes the mem-
bers of a communion which has it in its power, whenever the members
generally have the will, to be an instrument in Gt)d's hands of the
greatest good to the province and people of New Brunswick.

APPENDIX.

The following important paper has been prepared by Chief Justice
Parker, and I have his kind permission to print it.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN NEW BRUNSWICK.

EXTEACT FEOM JUDGMENT IN THE C0LKN80 CASK.

";Wk apprehend it to bo clear upon principle, after a colony has received legis-
" lative institutions, the Crown (subject to the special provisions of any Act of Par-
" liament) stands in the same relation to that colony as it does to the United
" Kingdom. The United Church of England and Ireland is not a part of the con>
" stitution in any colonial settlement."

As New Brunswick had a legislature at the time of the appointment of the
Bishop of Frederioton, it is important to examine how far the legislature have
recognized the Bishop, his diocese, and his corporate character.

The late decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the Colonso
case, has led to some rather flippant conclusions from it, in its appli' ation to
colonial bishoprics ; and so far as it affects New Brunswick, the judgment, uo doubt,
negatives the existence of coercive jurisdiction. But as none such has been exer-
cised or set up, we remain pretty much as wo were de facto, and may derive benefit
from the question of the de jure being settled without our interposition.

Some particular?, however, as to the legal status of the Church of England in this
province ought to be known in England, where there is too great a tendency to
ignore the proceedings of the local legislatures, and to assume that our venerable
Church is, in our colonies, looked upon with disfavour, and enjoys no status what-
ever.

The Province of Nova Scotia was constituted in about the middle of the last
century . what is now New Biunswick being then an integral part of it, and known
as the County of Sunbury. A contribution was granted to it, and its first legislative
assembly was holden in October, 1758, and representatives sent from Sunbury as
well as the other counties of Nova Scotia.

On the termination of hostilities between the old colonies in America and the
mother country, and the acknowledgment of their independence in 1783, it was
deemed advisable to divide Nova Scotia into two provinces, and to furnish a home
in the new province for a largo body of loyalists, who were anxious to preserve

their allegiance, and to live under Briti:«b institutions. Among them were many of
high character, education, and standing.

The commission to Thomas Carleton, Esq., the first Governor of New Brunswrick.
boars date August 1784. It was opened by him at St. John on November, 20, 1784,
and he assumed the government, aided by a very efiBcient council, the members of
which were named in the commission, and several ordinances wore passed and
grants made. The Supreme Court, with four judges, und having the jurisdiction of
the Common Law Courts at Westminster, was also constituted by the King, and sat
for the first time in April 1785. The Legislative Assembly met for the first time,
January 3d, 1786.

From October 1758, to November 1784, New Brunswick continued under the gov-
ernment and legislature of Nova Scotia, and the Acts of Assembly remained in
force, some until superseded by new Acts on the same subjects, and others until 1791,
when by an Act of the New Brunswick Assembly, (31 Geo. 3 c. 2,) it waa declared that
" no law passed in the General Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, before the
*' erection of the Province of New Brunswick, should be of any force or validity
" within the province : provided that the Act should have no retrospective force or
" operation."

By an Act of the Legislature of Nova Scotia, pasced at its first session in 1758,
(32 Geo. 2, c. 5,) it was enacted that " the sacred rites and ceremonies of Divine Wor-
" ship, according to the liturgy of the Church established by the laws of England,
" should bo deemed the fixed form of worship amongst us ; and the place wherein
" such liturgy shall be read, shall bo respected and known by the name of the
" Church of England, as by law established."

By the Act 33, Geo. 2, c. 2, the Parish of St. Paul's, in Halifax, was constituted, and
the last section of the Act enacts " that all ministers of the Church of England, not
" conforming themselves to the rules prescribed by the canons of the said Church,
"shall be subject to the penalties named therein, and none other: any law, usage,
" or custom to the contrary notwithstanding."

Such waa the state of the law relative to the Church of England when New Bruns-
wick became a separate province. No Rishop had th^a been appointed in any of the
North American Colonies, the Bishop of London being the only recognized diocesan.
The attachment, however, to the Church of England was great, a large portion of
the Loyalists being members of the Church, and several of its early clergy having
had churches in New York, New Jersey, and New England.

We are not, then, surprised to find among the first Acts of the Legislature of New
Brunswick, in 1785, 26 Goo., 3 c, 4, " An Act for preserving the Church of England
as by law established in this province, and for securing liberty of conscience in mat-
tors of religion." The first section of this Act provides that " no person shall be
" capable to be admitted to any parsonage or other ecclesiastical benefice, or pro-
" motion whatever within the Province of New Brunswick, before such time as ho
" sh..ll be ordained according to the form and manner by law established in the said
" Church of England "; and the second section provides " that every person having
" any ecclesiastical benefice or promotion within the Province, not having some
" lawful impediment to bo allowed and approved of by the Governor or Commander-
" In-Chief for the time being, shall perform service once a month at least."

It may be well here to mention that it was customary by the Royal instructions
accompanying the Qovomor's commission in the old colonies, as it waa to the Gover-
nor of New Brunswick, and prior to the legislature they formed part of the consti-
tution, to require the Governor to give all countenance and encouragement to the
exercise of the ecclcsia, 'ical jurisdiction of the Lord Bishop of London in the
respective provinces, excepting only the collating to benefices, granting liuonses for
marriage, letters of administration and probates of wills, which are expressly reserved
to the Governor for the time being.

In 1787 the Bishopric of Nova Scotia was constituted, and the Bishop exercised
episcopal jurisdiction over New Brunswick till 1845, when the Bishop of Fredericton
was appointed by letters patunt under the Great Seal of Great Britain.

By the Charter of the Madras School, dated August 23d, 1819, " the Lord Tishop of
* Nova Scotia, holding and exercising episcopal jurisdiction in and over the Pro-
** vince of New Brunswick, or the Bishop holding and exercising episcopal jurisdiction
"for the time being" is made one of the members ; and by an Act of Assembly,
60 Geo., 3 c, 6, this charter is expressly confirmed.

The charter of the College of New Brunswick, passed under the Great Seal of the
United ingdom, as was contemplated by previous Acts of the Legislature, see 4,
Geo. 4, c. 33, dated December 15, 1827, makes the Bishop of Nova Scotia, or the Bishop
for the time being of the 'diocese in which the town of Fredericton may be situate in any
future division or alteration of the said then present diocese of Nova Scotia, the visitor
of the College. This charter was expressly recognized by Act of Assembly, 9 and 10
Geo., 4 c, 29 : and all the property of the College which preceded it, constituted by
provincial letters patent, was transferred to the new College corporation, of which
the King was declared to be the founder. This Act has since given place to a new
Act, 22 Vic, c. 63, which constitutes the University of New Brunswick, and transfers
all the property of the College to the University. The Lieutenant Governor of the
province is made the visitor, and there is to be no professor of theology or religious
test. This Act was specially confirmed by Her Majesty in Council, January 13, 1860,
and the Bishop has ceased to have anyt,hing to do with the University. The govern-
ing body consists of a senate, all of whom are laymen, and one is president.

Act 16 Vice. 4, incorporating the Diocesan Church Society, and the Act 26 Vic, c 32,
recognizes also the Bishop as the Lord Bishop of Fredericton ; and the mortgage to him
by the Church corporation of St. John, does the same. Several other Acta contain a
similar recognition of the Bishop, e. g., 4 Vic, c, 3, 11 Vic, 44 and c. 45, 12 Vic, c 56,
13 Vic, c. 14, 16 Vic, c 47 and 49, 17 Vic, c 46, &c. All those Acts refer to the Lord
Bishop of the diocese, making his assent necessary to the transfer of lands of the
Chuv'sh corporations.

Act 17, Vic 11, recites as follows : " Whereas the Right Reverend John Medley,
" Doctor of Divinity, B'shop of the Diocene of Fredericton, is seized in fee simple to
" HIMSELF AND HIS SUCCESSORS forovcr, of a lot of land in Fredericton.

Act 9 Vie,, c. 69, recites a grant from the Crown of part of the Church green, to tho
Right Rnverend John, the Lord Bishop of Fredericton, and his successors, for the pur-
pose of erecting thereon a Cathedral, and no other building.

The Revised Statutes passed in 1854, although they repealed the Act, 26 Geo., 3, c 4,
recognized the Church of England, though not as the Established Church, and ro-
cnacts several provisions of the old Act, and that the rectors h )ld tho glebe in like

. ■ mM.aji! ' . ' H'..iii.ijU L^uiM. w i iw. ii mu in i i i iiw w m i j »

manner as glebe htnde are held in England, althoagh the fee is in the Church corpo-
ration of the parish. Our Acts always use the term the Church of England, and not
the United Church of England and Ireland, as the union in 1800 did not affect its
statutes.

These se reral legislative provisions recognice the Church of England, the rectors
of the parishes, the Lord Bishop of the diocese, his corporate capacity, and the
latter Act also the Cathedral, and most distinctly recognize the Lord Bishop of
Fredericton, Dr. John Medley, to be the Bishop of the diocese.

There are some Acts of Assembly bearing upon the subject not referred to in the
preceding paper.

1858. 21 Vic, c. 58. The Church corporation of Chatham, authorized to sell ferries
by and with the approbation of the Lord Bishop of the diocese.

1869. 22 Vic. c. 35, " An Act to regulate the sale and disposal of Church and glebe
lands of the Church of England in this province." This Act says that every con-
veyancer shall receive the sanction of the Lord Bishop of the diocese signified by
his being a party thereto, and executing the same. Several sales have taken place.

1858. 22 Vic, 0.54. Diocesan Church Society Amendment Act, recognizes the
Bishop of Fredericton.

1864. 27 Vic, c. 28. An Act to enable the Church corporation of Woodstock to con-
vey certain lands for the use of Canterbury. Section 1 enacts that half the lands
shall be conveyed to the Bishop of the Dioceae of Fredericton, to be held by him and
his Bueceetors for ever. 2. The said Bishop is to appoint one of the Arbitrators, and
the land is to be conveyed to the Bishop. 4. The conveyance to be made to the
Bishop of Fredericton. 5. The Bishop and his successors are to hold the land in trust.

R.P.

I desire, also, to call attention to the following extract from the
Judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in the case
of Long, V. the Bishop of Capetown, which are important : —

"We think that the acts of Mr. Long must be constiued with reference to the
position in which he stood, as a clergyman of the Church of England, towards a law-
fully appointed bishop of that Church, and to the authority known to belong to that
office in England ; and we are of opinion, that by taking the oath of canonical
obedience to his lordship, and accepting from him a license to officiate, and have the
cure of souls within the parish of Mowbray, subject to revocation for just cause, and
by accepting the living of Mowbray under a deed which expressly contemplated as
one means of avoidance the removal of the incumbent for any lawful cause, Mr.
Long did voluntarily submit himself to the authority of the Bishop to such an extent
as to deprive him of his benefice for any lawful cause, that is, for Huch cause, as
(having regard to any differences which may arise from the circumstances of the
colony) would authorize the deprivation of a clergyman by his bishop in England."

This, it will be seen, is altogether irrespective of the letters patent.