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THE SUFFERING CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

No. I.

"IF ye know these things," said our Lord-" If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them:" a warning, which, necessary in all ages of the Church, is peculiarly so now. For it cannot be denied that the Church is influenced in some degree by the atmosphere which surrounds her—the air which she breathes. And the age in which we live is one in which there is a fearful tendency to cultivate the head instead of the heart; to instruct the intellectual, to the neglect of the moral faculties. In such a state of things, it is impossible to impress too often upon the Christian reader, that it is the duty of every Christian man to feel and to act, as well as to think; and that whatever knowledge he may obtain, whatever advantage he may possess-nay, whatever accomplishment he may acquire, he is bound to make subservient, to the glory of the Creator, and the happiness of His creatures.

To trace the fortunes of communities, civil and ecclesiastical; to investigate the causes, moral as well as physical, which have influenced the happiness and the prosperity of mankind; to follow the thread of Divine destiny through the tangled tissue of events, and point out the hand of Providence in all the changes and chances of this mortal life; such should be the object of the Christian philosopher, when arranging or perusing the annals of history. Nor should he treat these subjects as matters for mere abstract thought, mere intellectual speculation. His object, from first to last, should be not merely to teach men what is right, but to teach them to do what is right. From first to last his aim should be ov yvwois aλλa mpağıs—not knowledge, but action; not theory, but practice; to make men acquainted with happiness and virtue, not by hearsay but experience.

From these principles, if granted-and who dares avowedly to deny them ?-from these principles it will follow, that the study of history should be undertaken by the Christian citizen, not as a mere amusement, nor solely as an exercise of the intellectual faculties, but with a higher view-with the view of applying the knowledge thence acquired, not, as is too often the case, to the purposes of individual aggrandisement, or selfish interest; but with the higher, nobler, holier view of promoting the glory of God and the happiness of man.

We use the term citizen, as at once denoting the dignity and inferring the responsibility which belongs to those who, like ourselves, form a part of the State of which they are the subjects. We use it in thankfulness and in fearfulness: in thankfulness, for the blessing; in fearfulness, at the responsibility of that which has for ages been, and which will, we trust, for ages be, the proud possession of our countrymen-freedom.

But if it be true that the Christian should never lose sight of Christ, it must assuredly be most peculiarly imperative on him not to do so when reading the annals of His Church. The subject of these papers embraces a portion of history full of deep interest, deep instruction,—

F

we mnst add, of deep humiliation to every English Churchman, containing as it does the trials and sufferings of that pure branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church—to which we owe our warmest love and strongest sympathy, our most urgent prayers, our most earnest services-after our dear mother of England"-the Scottish Episcopal Church-our fair and faultless sister whom we basely abandoned to her enemies in the hour of her defenceless calamity, and whom we even now continue to treat with a chilling coldness, but ill suited to her merit and our duty.

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It is so difficult to distinguish between what is essential, and what is merely accidental, that our knowledge is greatly improved by surveying under different external circumstances, that which is essentially the same: and thus we obtain a more accurate, as well as a more comprehensive view of the true character of our sternly Protestant, yet fully Catholic Church, by surveying her under the three distinct aspects which she exhibits, according to the political circumstances in which she is placed.— In England she has dominion; in America, equality; in Scotland, toleration;-in England, she is a sovereign; in America, a citizen; in Scotland, a stranger, and a sojourner.

Yet in all she is the Church of Christ, bought with his blood-holding his faith, cherishing his hope, blessed with his love, gifted with his treasures, guarded by his angels, ruled by his deputies, served by his priests —in all, she is the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church-against whom the gates of Hell shall not prevail,-with whom the Lord abideth even unto the end of the world.

Throned on her seven hills, the Lady of nations heard with astonishment not unmixed with contempt, that a powerful prince, and a prudent prelate, had dared to join the ranks of her bold but undisciplined assailants. The Vatican poured forth its thunders, heard and re-echoed in fearful reverberations from the shores of the Baltic to the Pillars of Hercules, the tombs of the Cæsars were startled by fresh invasions of the regal prerogatives, the ashes of the Gracchi were disturbed by fresh outrages on popular rights, and the sorrowing shades of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, beheld the ancient church which they had founded, exert every energy, and employ every art to check the progress, and destroy the existence of that faith which they had preached-that faith for which they had died-that faith once for all delivered to the saints, which still remains, and may it never cease to be the glory, the pride, and the blessing of the Church of England.

But vain was the anger-fruitless were the exertions of Rome. True that the wilful Henry died; that the gentle Edward followed to the tomb, and opened the path to Roman intolerance, and Spanish cruelty. True, that the blood of our mother's best and holiest sons was shed; that they were sent to their shadowy home with the crown of martyrdom on their brows, to swell the company of the church expectant; those spirits and souls of the righteous, who bless the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. But the short duration of the Marian persecution served only to secure the true faith more firmly in the hearts of our countrymen, and the accession of Elizabeth, commenced the æra of final liberation.

Again did Rome lift up her voice; far and near was heard the summons -"el rauco suon del Tartareo trombo;" from every land our ruthless sister's vassals hurried to chain and destroy her, who like Abdiel of old, was, faithful found "among the faithless," the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together; the prophets that prophesied falsely, and the priests that bare rule by their means; the teachers of fatal errors, and the workers of lying wonders; all answered her call:-the learning of the scholar; the sword of the soldier; the skill of the statesman, and the power of the prince; the wealth, and the pride, and the wisdom of this world; all were enlisted in her service; and as if to appal her intended victims, by so daring an impiety, the cross of Christ itself was transformed to the abomination of desolation.

But what availed these things?—He that sitteth in heaven laughed them to scorn-the LORD had them in derision! He bruised them with a rod of iron, and brake them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Many have been our struggles since that day; many a time from my youth up may Israel now say have they fought against me, but have not prevailed. The thunders of Rome have rolled harmless round our keep; the surges of Geneva have roared idly against our battlements; the heretic and schismatic; the infidel and destructive, sometimes singly, and sometimes united; often from without and sometimes alas from within, have assailed our Holy Towers.-The rain descended, the flood came, the wind blew and beat upon our house, but it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock; the living Rock of ages.

Shame on those unduteous sons of our church who love not their holy mother, with a full unhesitating trustful love, such as is her due; to us she is and ever shall be our dear mother of England. We wish not to see her calm meek eyes brightened to frenzy; her graceful form convulsed with fever by the air of Rome-we wish not to see her full sweet smile dimmed, her firm commanding step made to totter by the Alpine breeze, unvarying symptoms of disease, and frequent forerunners of death. Neither the gaudy Rome nor the grim Geneva, possess sufficient charms in our eyes to change, to lessen, or in any way affect the deep, entire, unreserved loyalty of heart and purpose which we cherish towards "our dear mother of England."

Unrivalled in her purity, unequalled in her power, she had seen the desolation of those who strove to lay her desolate, whilst she remains unshaken. Her banner glances in the morning light, the cross of Christ is there; her voice is heard in all lands; her sound is gone forth to the ends of the earth; no doubtful note; no uncertain tone; but the blessed word of the LORD "This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

Whilst the zealous sons of her erring Sister strive, but vainly strive, to trim with the oil of Aaron the lamp where the light of truth has not been kindled; whilst unauthorized teachers madly attempt to light it with strange fire; fire which, though bright at first to the sight, too often consumes both soul and body, she takes a surer course. She lights the lamp from the altar of Jehovah, and feeds it with the holy oil of the sanctuary.

That portion of her wealth she still retains, the pious gifts of pious men for pious uses, she devotes to the service of her MAKER and REDEEMER, Truly may it be said, that she hath made her friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness. Her shrines ascend in every clime; her altars rise on every shore; throughout the earth her ministers convey the knowledge of the Gospel and the gifts of the Church.

Pure in her holiness, simple in her loveliness, awful in her majesty, brilliant in her glory; such is the Church of England. Her doctrine and her discipline are equally DIVINE. Her faith is inviolate-her commission uninterrupted; great, indeed, should be our thankfulness for the possession of such a Church; great our thankfulness that, although the great convulsion which liberated her from foreign dominion deprived her of many possessions lawfully her own (some of them her's by divine right); that although her enemies have striven in every way, both by force and fraud, to injure her temporal, as well as her spiritual welfare; although her needs are greater than her means-and every day those needs are increasing; yet still she is the Church of England, the mother of our children, the teacher of our people, the helpmate of our State, and the guardian of our throne.

From the glad picture of England and her Church, her priests and her people, her parishes and her parsonages, her colleges and her cathedrals, let us look towards the north, and ask how it fares with our gentle sister our suffering sister of Scotland.

How sad the change-how drear the desolation which meets the churchman's eye beyond the Tweed! The night wind pours the only vespers that are heard by the grave Ninian; the lonely eagle screams over the desolate dwelling of Columba.

The splendid fane consecrated to be the Cathedral of Moray for ever lies level with the ground; levelled by those who had knelt within its walls. Of all those magnificent edifices, the work of our pious ancestors, which make us inclined to say, in the words of the indignant poet

"Terra malos homines nunc educat atque pusillos

but one remains; remains in awful and ominous grandeur to mourn over the destruction which surrounds it, and to chide the bold irreveronce which violates its sanctuary. The traveller walks through a land of ruined shrines and desecrated altars; where the priests, the ministers of the Lord, have been succeeded by the sons of men. The Catholic faith is hated the Catholic Church blasphemed-the successors" of those holy men who spread the Gospel from the Clyde to the Thames, are outcasts in the land of their fathers. Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; THY servants look upon her stones, and it pityeth them to see her in the dust. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised THEE, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

37

REVIEWS.

Caste and Slavery in the American Church; by a Churchman. Pp. 51. New York and London: Wiley and Putnam. 1843. We cannot too highly recommend this admirable pamphlet,---too strongly denounce the iniquity which it exposes, or too deeply sympathize with those whose wrongs it details.---For force of argument, eloquence of style, and felicity of illustration, we have seldom met with its equal.--The object of the writer is to proclaim and condemn the crimes of the Anglo-American church, in fostering the unchristian prejudice of caste and protecting and participating in the inhuman system of slavery.

We subjoin a few extracts on the subject of Caste, and must reserve the other question for a future occasion.--

"In the month of June, 1839, the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary, composed of the bishops, and clerical and lay delegates, from the different States and Territories, met at New York: and their proceedings were subsequently published in a pamphlet. From the minutes, it appears that a candidate for holy orders in the diocese of New York, now the Rev. Alexander Crummel, applied to them by petition, to be allowed to enter the seminary as a student; that the petition was referred to a committee, consisting of the Right Rev. Bishop H. U. Onderdank, Rev. Dr. James Milnor, and Hugh Smith, and William Johnson, David B. Ogden, and Edward A. Newton, Esquires, who after deliberate consideration, recommended a resolution of rejection, which on the motion of the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D., was adopted; That the Right Rev. Bishop Deane asked leave to enter his protest against the decision, and that leave was not granted. Neither the reasons for their decision, nor the disqualification of the candidate, are even intimated by the minutes; but it does appear that the right of every candidate for orders to enter the seminary was expressly guaranteed by the constitution, which the trustees were bound to obey: and that this fact was well known to them, also appears from an amendment proposed by the Bishop of New York, while the matter was pending, to the very cause upon which they were trampling.

The true cause which led the trustees to nullify the constitution, and deny the right of the candidate, and which they were ashamed to acknowledge, was, that he was a coloured man; and this was the only cause; his diocesan, Bishop Onderdank, of New York, having declared in "The Churchman" (November 4, 1839); that he explicitly stated to them, "that if they should think it right and proper to admit a COLOURED MAN into the seminary, he considered the applicant before them, one in whose case it might with great safety and propriety be done."

Nothing can be clearer than that the trustees, by the act, not only exceeded their powers, and violated the trust reposed in them, but deliberately established a system of CASTE in the church,-not among the lower members only,-not among the laity alone, but among the very clergy, who approach us as ambassadors of God, and ministers at his altars,-caste as palpable as that which separates in heathen India, the Brahmins from the Soodra.-p. 6—8.

*

No wonder that Bishop Deane rose in the Board of Trustees, to enter his protest against that cruel decision. We know that there are some, we trust there are many, who are ready, on all fitting occasions, to follow his example. Two instances we will mention, because so nearly connected with our subject. The Rev. Mr. Burgess, and the Rev. Mr. Core, of Hartford, have disregarded and treated with contempt the principle acted upon by the Board. The very individual, whose petition the trustees rejected, and whose name was stricken from the roll of candidates in this diocese, having been admitted to deacon's orders, by the late excellent Bishop Griswold, officiated in the churches of both these gentlemen, was received and treated by them in the presence of large and fashionable congregations as an equal brother, and not