Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

spectacle to the Heathen to see Christians at variance, saying, Lo, here is Christ, and Lo, there! or, which were more lamentable yet, agreeing to give up the truths, which He has bestowed upon the Church, as a secondary thing. Truth must lose either way; and though it will be often a painful effort, the only sound principle for a member of the Church, is to support those institutions which have the sanction of the collective Bishops of the Church, leaving the responsibility to those whom God has set as Fathers over us, and whom we entitle our "Fathers in God," and abstaining from joining those in religious undertakings, who profess to be unable for conscience sake to join with us in the worship of our God.

I have said, that we have in connection with this Society an organization, such as God has hitherto elsewhere blessed with success; not a dead organization, but a band of soldiers and servants of Christ, each occupying his allotted post, in those harmonious relations of authority and willing obedience, guidance and submission, such as were ever seen in the " willing armies z" of our God. It is wanted only that we should supply the treasures for this holy warfare, that our alms as well as our prayers should ascend up as a memorial before God, that His blessing may descend upon them and us. The State contributions, which for twenty years of this

Z Ps. cx.

century, furnished a considerable proportion of what was done through this Society for our North American colonies, though insufficient, have been since 1833 diminished, and gradually withdrawn ; and that on the ground that land had been reserved for the clergy, (in lieu of tithes, which there were not,) and that that land should now become available for their support. That land had been granted, pledged, pledged in Canada to those who had been faithful to their Mother-land during the American war, who would have restored peace, if they might, and at last abandoned their new homes, and their all, rather than abandon the band which bound them to this country. It was pledged to them; but modern views have changed all this; those lands are kept in abeyance or alienated; and the pastors of our countrymen abroad are now mainly dependent upon the love of the Church, since the State has cast them off".

The French, when they had possession of Lower Canada, amply provided for their Church, and we

a From 1813 to 1833. See further, Note C.

"On the Reserves, and a plan by which they might be brought into speedy cultivation, and an independent Clergy secured, see below, Note H.

"Every Romanist parish has its priest, and no priest has less than £200, the average is £300, per annum. Besides there are the Monastic establishments, and the British Government pays £1000 per annum to a Romanist Bishop. One was appointed in 1833," [the same year in which the grant to the Protestant Clergy, who were appointed as it was thought for

have secured them this property, and granted them more; our State was for a time kindled with a holy jealousy, and then first bethought herself of making religious provision for her colonies; but liberalism has checked liberality, and the stream is dried. And yet year by year the inhabitants of our towns and villages are systematically tempted to pour themselves in shoals upon the Canadas; they are invited to go by accounts of increased wages, by the fertility of the soil, by worldly prosperity; they are invited to go to relieve our burthens; but they are not reminded that they have souls to be saved, nor is any provision made for securing them within Christ's fold; rather they are exported as oxen or life, was withdrawn.] Hist. of the Church in Upper Canada, p. 64, by William Bettridge, B.D. Richelieu, from whom the charter of the French colonizers of Canada was obtained, included in it an engagement for the appointment of three priests in each district, whose stipend for twenty-four years was to be paid in money, and after that period in opened lands, fitted for immediate cultivation. No such antecedent provision was made for the Protestant Clergy by the legislature of England; unopened lands were left for them as a barren provision, -which indeed might at that time be almost obtained for nothing, and which to the Clergy would be peculiarly valueless, inasmuch as (individually) they are not permanent landlords, and would consequently be expending large sums in reclaiming the land, with no prospect of receiving, perhaps, any income." (Brit. Crit. Oct. 1838, p. 416.) So now the State turns round and says, that its own unwise provision is a hindrance to Colonial improvement, and even when it does give the proceeds to the Church, sells them at a ruinous loss. See below Note H.

66

sheep for the slaughter, where death is death eternal. They have been accustomed at home to find, every where, one set over them, who should care for their souls; if, in health, some may not have availed themselves of these blessings as they ought, yet all doubtless in a measure felt them; they had them, at least, to fall back upon; and who has uniformly used and valued them as he ought? They knew of no other state of things; they knew not that this pictured paradise of abundance and plenty, was a wilderness, a land of drought of the word of God, a desert land,-but where God was not present in the cloud to overshadow them, nor did the Rock, which was Christ, yield the water of Baptism for their children, nor the manna descend for themselves;-they knew not that they were being lured to purchase the nourishment of their bodies by parting with the food of their souls; to go to the dry places" where Satan dwells, where they and their children may be excommunicated from Christ's blessed Sacraments, from every sound of the word of God, no one to support them in their trials while living, or to arm them for their struggle with their last enemy, Death; or in that last trying hour to point to their Saviour's Cross, and impart to them the pledges of Life Eternal, His Body and His

66

d Some affecting instances of the value for Church privileges and of the destitution, are given, (from the "Stewart Missions,") in the Brit. Crit. Oct. 1838, p. 403 sqq. and of the evils of the neglect, p. 411 sqq.

Blood. Yet in the year that this aid was taken away, above 80,000 of our countrymen were tempted to migrate to Canada; up to 1837, 215,000f had left our Christian land, to a land of death. Shall we then continue to tempt those, who with us have been made members of Christ, for our supposed benefit, to relieve us, to leave the home of their fathers, and their fathers' graves, their village church, their homes, their pastors, their Altars, and all those bands, which the laws and habits and institutions of a Christian land, and the memory of childhood, weave around us, and place them in new scenes of trial which we are spared, and not accompany them on those trials with such aid as we can give them, little compared to what they enjoyed here, yet a mitigation of their needs? God forbid that we should act the part of tempters, that we should be Satans!

Again, year by year, 6000 persons are forced into exile for crimes, to which it must be said our neglect in providing pastors for our great towns has led many. For our safety, they are transported; that we may sleep, walk, at ease; that our property may be secure. While confined in this land, they have means of grace; every prison, by the law of

e

* Speech of J. S. Pakington, Esq. M.P. "Proceedings at a public meeting of the members and friends of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, June 22, 1838," p. 17.

f Ibid.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »