128 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE IN ENGLAND. the Evangelical creed is held and taught by the great bulk of professing Christians, both within and without the pale of the Established Church. It is, however, a matter too patent not to be seen, and too painful not to be deplored by all lovers of Protestant and Reformation theology, that the largest and most influential of the branches of Christ's Church in this land-that branch which claims pre-eminently to be the Church, and which some have lauded as having been in the past the "bulwark of Protestantism "-has of late years been changing its front, and fostering and propagating a kind of Ritualism which is, in my humble opinion, only a thinly disguised Romanism, foreign to the spirit of the Gospel. For proof of this I shall not make my appeal to any writings of those who may be regarded by anyone as being the rivals or opponents of that Church. My arguments will be drawn from the testimonies of the friends and adherents of that Church themselves. The Ritualists themselves do not speak of their forms as the mere decorations of religion. Here are a few of the questions and answers :-What is baptism? Washing away of sin. Can a child go to heaven with sin on its soul? No. How can this sin be washed away? By baptism. What other sacrament is necessary for all men? The sacrament of Christ's body and blood. What commandment did Christ give His apostles? He told them to "do this in remembrance of Me." What took place when the Apostles spoke the same word? The bread and wine became Christ's true body and blood. Did our Lord give this power to anyone else? Yes; to the bishops and priests who came after the apostles. What is the holy communion besides a sacrament? It is also a sacrifice. (In plain words, a mass.') Respecting the 'altar,' so called, we have the following teaching: 'Towards the altar it is right to bow as we enter and leave the Church, and, if the blessed sacrament be upon it, to bend the knee." If this be not full-fledged Romanism, then I do not know what Romanism is. "Canon Liddon is accused of saying, 'As the earthly father transmits the gift of physical life, so the bishop is a father in this sense, that he alone can transmit ministerial power to others. Intelligent laymen in the Church of England are mourning that so little is being done by the Evangelical party to expose and condemn the Romanising tendencies and teachings of the Ritualists. Many ministers, or, as they choose to call themselves, 'priests,' in the Church of England are teaching rank Popery. Even the Bishops themselves avow that Evangelical doctrine in many quarters within the Church of England is being supplanted by the errors of Romanism. Depend upon it, CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE IN ENGLAND. 129 this wave of Ritualism is not receding. The promoters of it are gradually assuming a bolder front-a more defiant attitude. We all know how eager Rome is to get England back under her domination—she is prepared to make almost any sacrifices to gain that end. Surely,' says Cardinal Manning, 'a soldier's eye and a soldier's heart would choose by intuition this field of England. England is the head of Protestantism, the centre of its movements, and the stronghold of its powers. Weakened in England, it is paralysed everywhere; once overthrown here, all is but a warfare of detail." To the following words we give special emphasis, as being exactly in accordance with the spirit in which the Free Church of England strives to supplant Ritualism by planting in every corner of the land a centre of Protestantism, where pure worship is observed and sound doctrine preached: "Let us seek to do our part in protesting in the spirit of meekness and love, but in a spirit of true fidelity, against Romanism in its NEW as well as Romanism in its old garb. Let us as pastors tell our flocks what Protestant truth is, and what Protestantism has done for us as a people politically, commercially, intellectually, and socially, as well as religiously, and tell them to stand fast in the good old faith,' and never to be ashamed to let it be known that they are the followers of men who counted not their lives dear unto them" if only they could free their country from the yoke of Romish superstition and Romish oppression and despotism. Establish a Church that believes in no priest but One-the great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, and acknowledges no altar save the Cross of Calvary, and tells men everywhere to look for salvation, not to man, or rites and ceremonials, however strong, but to Him who in the end of the age has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." " ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.-The Vicarage of Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, is vacant by the decease of the Rev. Jonah Greaves. The patronage is in the hands of the Trustees of Lady Huntingdon's College. F. W. Willcocks, Esq., a representative of the Connexion, and Rev. Dr. Allon, and some other members of the Congregational body, are the present Trustees. Will the nominate have to declare for disestablishment? SPA FIELDS CHAPEL.-The preparation for the foundation of the new church is being rapidly proceeded with. We understand it is intended to invite the Hon. Lord Donington, who represents the Hastings family, to lay a memorial stone. By a coincidence the contractor for the new building was many years since scholar in Spa Fields Sunday-school, and on that account expresses a large amount of enthusiasm in the matter. A NEW theory has in later years been propounded and much circulated under this title, whereby we believe souls are being misled concerning the all-important subject of life and death, time and eternity. "A good hope through grace" is set forth in the Word of God—an allsufficient one, we think; "Christ formed in the heart the hope of glory," "that blessed hope," "the hope of eternal life," as thrice echoed in St. Paul's Epistle to Titus. Surely if in this life we have hope in Christ, no "larger hope" can be needed; but the new theorists desire, seemingly, to encourage sinners, if they die in sin, that by and bye, in the love and mercy of God and after some hundreds of years of fiery purification (a sort of purgatory) they may be taken to Heaven, where God the Saviour reigns, and be happy for ever. They think God is too merciful to keep His word and punish sinners with " everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." His Love is exalted at the expense of another of His attributes-viz., Justice, although He vindicated it at so awful a cost as in the sufferings and death of His dear Son, and Justice is considered now non-existent. O, readers and friends, believe that God and His Word are unchangeable ! To be consistent, those who believe in an everlasting life of happiness for the righteous or justified ones, must also believe in an everlasting state of misery for hardened sinners, since the same word is used concerning the sheep and the goats, the righteous and the wicked, for the happiness and misery of either. The sharp contrast is drawn by our Lord Himself, "Come, ye blessed;" "Depart, ye cursed." No one thinks a parent cruel or unkind, but loving and justified, in punishing a rebellious, disobedient child, who, continuing contumacious, is sometimes finally disinherited; and shall not the Great Father do as He will with His own, He who could foresee from all eternity those who would receive His grace through a personal, living faith, and those who would reject it? "The Holy Spirit is given to every man to profit withal;" and if it could be said of Israel, "Ye do alway resist the Holy Ghost," and by many He is resisted, grieved and quenched, surely their blood must be upon their own head; and thus, self-doomed, there can be no hope, but that of endless perdition. "Foolish and hurtful lusts drown men in perdition," "the perdition of ungodly men," such as have pleasure in ungodliness and none in Christ or in the society of His people; such as our Lord called "a generation of vipers," asking, "How can ye escape the damnation of hell ?" There is amongst many, to-day, a great shrinking from strong, clear, plain language on sacred subjects, and it may be feared the socalled Church's charity" goes beyond that of the Bible and truth. Our loving Lord, whose tenderness was ever conspicuously mani fest, shrunk not from stern denunciation of sin and its evil consequences. He taught no such doctrine as "the larger hope." In the wonderful insight He gives us of life beyond the grave He says of 66 the rich man in the torments of hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, Between you and us there is a great gulf fixed”—mark the fixity" so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, and neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." He further clenches the matter by saying, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” The unrisen Saviour, while His sacred body rested in the grave, went and testified of His "finished" work to "the spirits in prison," to confirm and vindicate the faithful preaching of His servant Noah, while the ark was a preparing; but nowhere is it given to us to infer that pardon was extended to the scoffers who perished in the flood, any more than forgiveness is to be theirs who are out of Christ, in that day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Assuredly the poet was inspired with Divine and awful truth who wrote— 66 “There are no acts of pardon passed In the cold grave to which we haste; It is recorded of the missionary who was so remarkable for his Herculean labours in the Crimea and afterwards in Scotland, named Duncan Matheson, that throughout his Christian course one thought was never absent from his view, one motive never ceased to work mightily in his heart, one argument never failed to drop from his lips with amazing power on the ears of thousands, and that was the endlessness of eternity. The dread of future punishment held him in check even in his most lawless days. "The eternity of it," he says, than anything else, awed me, and if I could have persuaded myself that after thousands of years the torments of hell should cease, I would have given full swing to my evil heart, and more madly than I was then doing, would have rushed on to eternal death." 66 more May all who stand up to preach and teach God's Word be enabled to do it faithfully and fully, having "an unction from the "It is a solemn thing to say to-morrow' when God says Holy One." to-day;' for man's to-morrow and God's to-day never meet; the word that comes from God's eternal throne is Now." And what fatal consequences may follow the reception of "the larger hope" who may say? Duncan Matheson points the warning. God's revelation is for time. None may hope for anything beyond this life who has not asked for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit given now to "them that ask,” and "He is to take of the things of Jesus and shew them unto us." God grant all who read, to know and taste His love, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, to have no confidence in the flesh, or in any erroneous teaching of man; that each may be enabled to say, "We know whom we have believed;" "We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul;" "having everlasting consolation and good hope through grace," the large, the larger, the largest hope any one can have for time or the endless Ages of Eternity. SPECIAL NOTICE.-SALE OF WORK.-We cordially invite the attention of our readers to the following_extract from a circular which has been sent to us: "Emmanuel Free Church of England, Stansfield-road, Everton, Liverpool. Minister, Rev. William Baker. This Church, which is situated in the midst of a dense working population, and doing a good work, is unable to pay its way without extraneous help. The Committee have therefore sanctioned the holding of a Sale of Work on Tuesday, October 13th, and two following days, in aid of the funds. Donations of money and all kinds of saleable goods will be thankfully received by Mrs. Baker, 108, Garfield-terrace, Belmont-road." The names of the ladies are mentioned, but want of space forbids their insertion. RECEIVED.-Once a Month, a Magazine for Australia. London: Griffiths, Farren, and Company. Reformed Episcopal Record, for August. COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON'S CONNEXION.-We are informed among the appointments to fill vacant Trusteeships, &c., are the following: Rev. Chas. E. Story, M.A., of Wealdstone, Middlesex, to the Vicarage of Great Missenden, in the gift of the Trustees of the College. William List, Esq., J.P., of Spa Fields and Margate, to the Trusteeship of the Connexion. John Brown, Esq., of Lewisham, as a Trustee of the College. |