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■i FRSE SEATS IN OM CHnKCHBS. i

H A SERMON PREACHED IN THE Jj

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il Montreal, ^

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O BY THE ^

LORD BISHOP OF ONTARIO,

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\\ SUNDAY, JANUARY ir», 1870.

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PUBLISHED BY REQUEST- r

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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,

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.