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 ■i FRSE SEATS IN OM CHnKCHBS. i 
 
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 H A SERMON PREACHED IN THE Jj 
 
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 LORD BISHOP OF ONTARIO, 
 
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 \\ SUNDAY, JANUARY ir», 1870. 
 
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 o PRINTBD BY JOHN LOVKLL, ST. NICFIOLAS STREET. i\ 
 
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 1870. <[ 
 
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FEEE SEATS IN OUE CHURCHES. 
 
 A 8ERM0N riiEACHED IN THE 
 
 €|urc|j of ^. lames t|c ^ipostlf, 
 
 Montreal, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF ONTARIO, 
 
 ON 
 
 SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 1870. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICDOLAri STREET. 
 
 1870. 
 
 Price 10 cents. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Look not every man on his own things, hut every man also 
 on the things of others. — Phil. ii. 4. 
 
 WHEN I was asked to address you this afternoon, I 
 felt that this service had an attraction for me, not 
 because it is a choral one, though that assists my devotion, 
 and connects me in association with the glorious services 
 of the Mother Church, but because the public notice of the 
 service contained the words, " Seats Free." Let me, then, 
 brethren, explain myself as plainly, as practicable, and as 
 briefly as possible. 
 
 Why do we go to church ourselves, or invite others to go 
 there, is a question worth answering. It is not a sufficient 
 answer to say that the Apostles (inspired men) instituted 
 the practice. Why did they command such observance ? 
 Why not say our prayers and read our Bibles at home, at 
 all events on all occasions when Holy Communion is not cele- 
 brated ? There surely must be some sentiment or emotion of 
 our nature acted upon, and used to promote religious ends, 
 because we fail to see at first sight how God is honoured more 
 by a man's prayer in the church than by the same prayer at 
 home. The fact is that the gathering of pcoi)le in masses 
 for the public worship of God is intended to intensify religious 
 earnestness by eliciting that mysterious sympathy whicli per- 
 
vatlcs and even olcctrifies a multitude animated by a common 
 purpose. Loyalty is fostered when with heart and voice a 
 multitude sing the National Anthem. The Avild cheer or the 
 measured tread of an assembled host infuses a common 
 coura;j;c to meet the enemy. A mass meeting intensifies 
 political feeling. The assembling of Christian people is there- 
 fLft-e intended to inflame religious feelings by working on the 
 emotional part of our nature. Just so far as gyynpathy in 
 hopes and fears binds worshippers together, so far and no 
 further is religious feeling promoted '" when we come to- 
 gether in the church."' It is to give exjjression to this 
 sym{)athy that so many people long for prayer meetings. 
 Everything, therefore, that tends to diminish the " Brother- 
 hood " feeling among members of the assembled church, so 
 far neutralizes one great object of public worship. St. Paul 
 accordingly intimates that in order to ^^ provoke unto love 
 aad good works " we should " not forsake the assemblins of 
 ourselves together." For many ages every church during 
 the celebration of divine service was, as far as possible, a 
 visible manifestation of the Communion of Saints. The 
 clmrch is a training school for Heaven. It is divided into 
 nave and chancel. The one symbolizing our common 
 destiny to pass through the waves of this troublesome world, 
 the (»tlier our conimov' haven to -wKv^ we shimldin heart and 
 soul asecnd — The Heavenly Temple. This training power of 
 the Church the Devil Avas resolved to frustrate, and accord- 
 ingly he infused into the minds of the primitive Christians 
 " a respect of persons " in the church. So early did this 
 seminal principle of evil creep into the Church of Christ, 
 from the synagogue of the Pharisees. In vain did the 
 Saviour rebuke the vanity of the frequenters of " the upper- 
 most seats in the Synagogues." In vain did S. Peter insist 
 on the maxim that God is no " respecter of persons." The 
 canker spread till it called forth the scathing rebuke of the 
 fir<t Bishop of Jerusalem. S. James, in his Catholic pastoral 
 
letter, commands the Church " not to Ijave the faith of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of 
 persons." Ilis ilhistration of this principle took a very 
 practical turn. Let me read it for you, as you can. find it 
 written in the second chapter of his Epistle : " For if there 
 come into your assembly a man Avith a gold ring, in goodly 
 apparel, and there come in, also, a poor man in vile raiment, 
 and ye have respect- unto him that weareth the gay clothing, 
 and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place ; ami say to 
 the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool ; 
 arc ye not, then, partial in yourselves and are become .judges 
 of evil thoughts ?" I shall not attempt to make this i)assage 
 plainer ; it is to bo feared that any laboured exposition of it 
 would but weaken its force, by diluting it or toning it down. 
 No one, however, will have hardihood enough to deny that 
 S. James wrote as though he were living in our times, ami 
 his remarks being confessedly part of the word of Goil, 
 demand that we ask ourselves in what consists their inspira- 
 ,tion ? Lotus see to this question, brethren, for we have, 
 when our prejudices oppose our principles, an unaccounta'jlc 
 repugnance to understand our own religion. As members of 
 the Church of England we avow our readiness to apply the 
 touch-stone of Scripture t(f our principles, that is, in many 
 cases — only when it suits us. But evasion is here impossible, 
 for the insj)iration of the passage consists in its containing an 
 intimation to us of God's will regarding a certain })ractieo. 
 There is a deep principle involved. There is a protest and 
 a warning against the introduction of class distinctions in the 
 House of God. Li that House, Jesus Christ is present when 
 two or three are gathered together in His name, and in that 
 august presence let there be no reco;3nition of Avealth, or 
 birth or rank. What ! assert the pri' ileges of wealth before 
 His presence '' who, though He waS rich, yet for our sake 
 became poor." What I acknowledge the prerogatives of 
 birth before Him, the Jewish peasant, the carpenters son. 
 
6 
 
 What! admit the claims of rank while addressing Him 
 Whose Majesty was meekness, the friend of publicans and 
 sinners. No, says the Apostle, " Have not the faith of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons ;" 
 and no one, perhaps, knew the mind of Christ better than 
 " James, the Lord's brother." How has the Church carried 
 out the spirit of this great scriptural principle ? I shall not 
 undertake to answer for any branch of. the Catholic Church 
 but our own, and the truth must be told, no Church has 
 been more untrue to this principle than the Church of Eng- 
 land. In reviewing the past, and as we approach the times 
 of the Reformation, the appropriation of seats was becoming 
 an abuse. There is something significant in the complaint 
 which the poor Commons addressed to Henry VKL in 
 reference to his decree, that a Bible should be in every 
 church, at liberty for all to read, because " they feared that 
 it might be taken into some pew." But if these poor 
 people had been able to look forward a century or two they 
 would have seen the Church seized with a spirit of insane 
 and unscriptural cxclusiveness. The area of those churches, 
 to which, by common law, every parishioner had an equal 
 right, was subdivided into a number of square boxes, so 
 high that people unobserved might defy the rubrics, and so 
 impenetrable that they only needed lids to complete the 
 exclusion. I need not prove that doors, and locks, and 
 keys and monopoly were not the agents to promote Chris- 
 tian sympathy, or increase devotional fervour in the profes- 
 sion of the same faith and the adoration of the same Lord. 
 The solemnity of this place forbids my dwelling on this 
 abuse. Ri<liculo and the holding the mirror of Scripture 
 and reason before men ti^' " they see themselves as others 
 see them," are perhaps the best instruments of correction. 
 Indeed there is no need of denouncing an obsolete practice. 
 A movement to build a new church on the old principle of 
 high square pews would excite doubts of the mover's sanity. 
 
I shall onlj dwell upon the awful results of two centuries 
 of disobedience to a first principle of the new Testament. 
 As the first fruits of parcelling out the Parish Churches to 
 the most influential and wealthy parishioners, or building 
 new ones the area of which was subdivided into lots to suit 
 purchasers, the poorer sort were obliged to sit in the aisles 
 or back part of the galleries— in short, they were told, &s in 
 S. James's day, " stand thou there." Thus were the feelings 
 of the poor wounded in their tenderest part, and being 
 poor they had no redress. But there was another class, ever 
 increasing, who were neither rich nor yet poor, for whose 
 accommodation no provision was thought necessary. This 
 class looked on and wondered. A large portion were young 
 men, who had come up to city life, clerks in offices, stores, 
 banks, students in colleges, apprentices to trades, who 
 could not, even if they were so disposed, hire a pew. Pew- 
 holders were and are proverbially selfish in the exercise of 
 the right to exclude, and so it came to pass that many- 
 young, unmarried men were furnished with a pretext for 
 absenting themselves from the Church, or for wandering off 
 to those places of worship where, whatever else they missed, 
 they found a welcome. They may have thought it strange 
 that there was no room in God's House for them, though 
 the House was not half full. They had Bibles, and if they 
 read them, they must have remarked the contrast between 
 what they saw, and what they read about " the poor having 
 had the Gospel preached to them," and " the common 
 people hearing Him gladly." They saw and wondered that 
 the principles of Gospel teaching had been reversed. The 
 few pewed sheep were the object of the pastor's care, the lost 
 sheep did not cost a thought, and yet the " general confes- 
 sion " might have suggested the idea that there were such 
 in the parish. They knew, too, that Heaven would have 
 rejoiced more over one erring or lost sheep restored to the 
 fold, than over ninety-and-nine that went not astray ; there 
 
8 
 
 would have been more joy in the presence of tlie Angels of 
 God, had the shepherds gone out into the higliwajs and 
 hedges, and compelled thera to come in, that God's House 
 might be filled. Many an honest pastor grieved over the 
 growing alienation of the people from their Mother Church. 
 In vain did they strive to persuade the " lower orders " to 
 take the lower scats, or the •' middle classes" to occupy the 
 middle aisles, A natural spirit of independence resisted the 
 appeal ^hat they should sue in Churcii as is done sometimes 
 in chancery, informd pai(perts. The " stand thou tliere," 
 or " sit here under my f(X.)tstool," was, they thought, rightly 
 or wrongly, a badge of inferiority. They did not want the 
 patronage but the sympathy of their fellow- ^vorshippers, and 
 so they sought and found it in the meeting house, on being 
 S(iuarc-pewed and cold-shouldered out of the Church. Thus 
 it came to pass that the alienation of one-fourth of the 
 population, and the wickedness of another fourth, at last roused 
 the Church to repentance and restitution. The astounding 
 fact was brought to light that in the cities and towns of 
 Christian England, not two per cent of the operative 
 classes fre(piented any p>lace of worship. Tiie Church Avas 
 allowing the masses to fall away into practical heathenism. 
 In former days persecution only nerved her energies ; mar- 
 tyrdom could not extinguish her ; but what neither could do, 
 exclusiveness was well nigh effecting — she nearly died of 
 respectal>ility. Of course, during this period of abuse, we 
 look in vain for missionary cttbrt. The heart was paralyzed, 
 and so the extremities were not warmed into activity. 
 Charity had not begun at home, and so was not to bo expected 
 abroad. The sarcasm Avas almost literally true, " the Church 
 of England was as local an institution as the Court of Common 
 Pleas." In that great revival of j)ractical religion, that 
 began about thirty years ago, it became evident to the load- 
 ing actors in the movement, that those hindrances which 
 prevented the masses from worshipj»ing must be removed. 
 
9 
 
 The evil was traced to its true source, and accordingly, never 
 did Puritans labour more zealously to break down with axes 
 and hammers tlic carved work of our Sanctuaries, tlian did 
 Churchmen to level the deformities that disfigured and 
 emptied our Churches. The truth flashed on carnest-miudcd 
 men, that they were bound as Christians " to look not on 
 their own things, -but also on those of others." They dis- 
 covered that the uneducated and poor members of the Church 
 have yet a strong vein of common sense, which they arc not 
 slow to use Avhen they can expose the absurdities of their 
 l)ettcrs. The mechanic and labouring man might sec selfish 
 monopolizers of more room in God's House than they needed, 
 giving their money to circulate the Bible, and thus circula- 
 ting their own condemnation. They read of Ilim, who once 
 " made a scourge of small cords," and who has granted a 
 dispensation to no one for making " His Father's House a 
 house of merchandize." Churchmen woke up to see all thisj 
 and the result is that they came to the conclusion that the 
 act of consecration gave the Church to God and not to pew- 
 owners, and that a joint proprietorship with Him was not 
 only blasphemous in tlieory, but ruinous in policy. Hence, 
 the wonder-working spirit of Church-building, now so prevalent. 
 Hence, the establishment of a society for promoting freedom 
 of worship, and restoring the Church to the people ; and hence, 
 blessed bo God, that catholic spirit of sympathy for the [)Oor 
 at home, and the spiritually destitute abroad, so that the 
 Church is now a witness, and a faithful one, to the truths of 
 the Gospel in India and in Africa, and to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth. 
 
 And now, brethren, what is our immediate concern with 
 this subject ? It is this : since experience has proved that a 
 fatal defect has been found and a remedy ap})Iied iu the 
 Church at home, let us be wise in time, and allow the light 
 to beam upon our own path. In proportion to our population, 
 the abuse of the pew system has been as destructive to the 
 
10 
 
 best interests of the Churcli in Canada, as it has been in 
 England. Let me tell you the case of many an immigrant 
 Churchman from the Old Country. He lands in Canada, and 
 feels, perhaps, on landing, a greater love for the Church than 
 he ever felt before, because he fears that he has been severed 
 from her ministrations. He seeks for the House of God, and 
 instead of meeting with a welcome, and a seat, and a kind 
 look, he too often finds discouragement and a frown. He 
 feels that he is an intruder ; he meets with the bye-word, im- 
 mortalized by S. James, " Stand thou there," and he goes 
 away sorrowful, and never returns. Thousands have aban- 
 done«l our communion, not because they disbelieved our 
 doctrines or disliked our ritual, but because they found no 
 sympathy where they had a right to expect it. Their defec- 
 tion is directly traceable to the freezing effect of the pew 
 system. And who is to blame ? The Clergy, it will be said ; 
 perhaps so, because they did not labour for the true remedy, 
 but the main fault rests with the laity. The Clergy will in 
 vain expostulate with the profaner of the Lord's day, or invite 
 the absentee to the Lord's House. They are met with the 
 reply, where shall we sit ? We do not wish to be eyed as 
 intruders, or frowned upon as interlopers. We may avail 
 ourselves of a friend's invitation once or twice, but we cannot 
 permanently occupy his pew. There are a large number of 
 us, young men, unmarried, and we cannot afford to pay pew 
 rent, and if we could it is absurd to appropriate a pew to an 
 individual. To such language, and much more like it, a 
 faithful minister has no reply ; his mouth is shut, and he 
 returns home sad to find that his labours must be considered 
 as thrown away. His Church is as full as it ever can hope to 
 be, that. is, it is half empty. Every pew is taken, more 
 apparently for the purpose of keeping people out than 
 inducing them to come in, and thus the maximum of success 
 is attained, and measured more by the renting than the filling 
 of the pews. What, then, is the remedy ? Why, of course. 
 
11 
 
 such services as the present. If we cannot have Free Clinrches 
 let us have the next best thmg, free services once on Sunday. 
 Until God puts it into the heart of the wealthy to 1)uild free 
 churches, and so become benefactors of their race, let us 
 utilize the churches we have by holding free services in ad- 
 dition to the conventional ones. It will entail more work 
 upon the clergy, but in these days when all work is done at 
 high pressure, let not the children of light bo less wise in 
 their generation than the children of this world. Agitate the 
 question whether the mighty may not consent to -' be put 
 down from their seats " once each Lord's Day, and allow 
 " them of low degree to be exalLod." Even if pew-owners 
 attend such services they will find by experience that 
 habitual attendants will not be much incommoded by such 
 freedom of worship. There will be the same courtesy in 
 the Church, it is to be hoped, which is found in the concert- 
 room, or drawing-room. The great point gained will lie that 
 instead of the assertion of exclusive rights, and hindrances 
 to attendance on God's worship, we shall extend a welcome 
 to all, and thus deprive absentees of all excuse. There will 
 be no loss in revenue, and there will be great gain in popu- 
 larity. Many will come to church from curiosity, but some 
 of them coming to scoff, may remain to pray. Oh, I know 
 not a more melancholy exhibit of strong delusion stujiifying 
 the faculties of Churchmen than was presented to view in 
 theatres crowded with worshippers in the neighbourhood of 
 empty Churches — the one was ./Vrf, the other was larred. 
 Theatres and concert-rooms taught Cathedrals their duty, and 
 who, that has long witnessed the effect of free services in 
 those grand buildings, could imagine that the same service he 
 was enjoying had proved for ages unattractive, if not repul- 
 sive, till the talisman of ivi'lconw sanctified the services, and 
 filled to over-flowing the Temples of the Lord. Can we, 
 brethren, hope for similar fruits ? I know not, but it is our 
 duty to test the matter. I am (|uito ctmtent to be considered 
 
12 
 
 an cntliusiast, because no one ever accomplished much for 
 either man's good or God's honour, who did not feel strongly, 
 and no one ever felt strongly v.itliout being an enthusiast ; 
 and my heart and conscience persuade mc to believe that so 
 long as a property qualification is retjuired from Church 
 worshippers, it will be in vain to attempt to quicken the 
 brotherhood feeling in the Church, to give anything like a 
 true expression to Church-membership, or to exhibit the 
 beauties of common prayer. A property qualification may 
 suit a House of Commons, but not the House of God. Let 
 public worship, then, bo open to the public once at least on 
 Sunday. Let us see the clfect of forgetting in God's House 
 the petty distinctions of time and earth. They are right in 
 their place, but the Church is a great leveller. She deals 
 with the soul, and as all are immortal, all arc alike. Li the 
 Church, rich and poor should meet together, God is the 
 maker of them all ; in the church-yard they must lie together, 
 God will be the judge of all. Study your obligations, then, 
 brethren, in the full light of Scripture, and uncontradicted 
 experience, so that "the word of God may have free course 
 and be glorified." Consider that isolation is no characteristic 
 of that heart which is daily renewed by the Holy Sfiirit ; 
 such a heart em1)races all for whom Christ died ; its motive 
 power is love to all men for Christ's sake. The Christian, 
 Avho, in the earthly temple, would prefer to worship alone 
 when he might induce others to accompany him, is like one 
 who w'ould Avish to go to Heaven alone, but such shall never 
 go there. It is inconceivable that it would have gratified 
 them that asked the (piestion : "Arc there few that be saved ? " 
 if our Lord had replied in the afiirmative, and blessed be 
 God, the glimpse we have got of Heaven, gives us reason to 
 hope that the number of the redeemed will be innumerable, a 
 host that no man can number. " In the House not made 
 with hands, eternal in the Heavens," we shall for ever enjoy 
 that Communion of Saints for which the Church is now 
 
13 
 
 educating hor faithful members ; then let our life and conduct 
 illustrate the aspirations of the man after God's own heart, 
 whose most exalted idea of friendship was " walking in the 
 House of God, as friends ;" whose enjoyment of holy worship 
 was increased by its being shared by others ; whose psalms 
 are both an expression of praise and an affectionate invitation 
 to all to unite with'him in the happy service of the sanctuary. 
 Strive to realize the po^Ycr of united hearty worship, to kindle 
 devotion, to quicken our aspirations, and to enlarge our 
 sympathies. There is a depth of affection unknown to the 
 world springing from common prayer to our common Lord. 
 Never is the wound caused by the removal of a loved mem- 
 ber of a family so painfully re-opened as when we revisit the 
 place where we knelt together and poured forth our united 
 supplications ; but such grief has the truest of all consola- 
 tions, for, , , 
 
 The Saints on earth, and tliosc above 
 
 But one communion make, 
 Joined to their Lord in bonds of love, 
 
 All of His grace partake. 
 
 One family we dwell in Him 
 
 One Church above, beneath, 
 Tho' now divided by the stream, 
 
 The narrow stream of death. 
 
 Assimilate, then, your earthly worship to that celestial em- 
 ployment which wUl be ours for ever, in proportion as we 
 realize here on earth the Communion of Saints, and prepare 
 ourselves for the society of the just, made perfect, by doing 
 good unto all men, but specially to them that are of the 
 household of faith— lovhig your fellow-meu for Christ's sake. 
 
 AMEN.