Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

to the doctrine of Christ. But unless we intend to select for ourselves what portions of the Holy Gospels we will accept, and what reject, these problems must be fairly faced.

Nor is this the only difficulty which, in our humble judgment, besets the view of this gifted and accomplished writer. Let us try for a moment (so far as it is possible) to follow his advice literally.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

We listen, then, to those eight Beatitudes, which have been termed quasi octo Christi paradoxa; and shortly after we hear the following words: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.' Here is surely a clear recognition of a dogma; namely, the divine authority of the law and the prophets. Now this is one of Gibbon's stumbling-blocks. He complains of the Reformers that (like their Roman Catholic opponents), with the Jews 'they adopted the belief and defence of all the Hebrew Scrip'tures.' Nor is this all. As the speaker utters these words, and then proceeds emphatically to contrast the older precepts with his spiritualized expansions and modifications, the question must inevitably arise in the mind: Who is this that dares to place Himself on a level with the law delivered of old?' 'But I say unto you ('Eyò dè Xéyw iμîv)?' The Church's answer is simple and obvious. He, and He alone, who gave the law can possess authority thus to modify and enlarge it. What Professor Goldwin Smith says, we do not know: but even with his abilities, he would, we suspect, find it extremely difficult to give any clear and intelligible reply without trenching upon his profession of Christianity without dogmatism.'

6

To return, however, to the volume before us. If the author of such a work can, in these days, hope for comparatively few readers only; it does not the less remain true that those few become in their turn instructors of many, and that most influentially. It is not easy, in days of laxity and misbelief, to overrate the influence exercised by those who know distinctly what they hold, and why they hold it. Teachers, thus fortified, find welcome listeners, even when their system is that of a narrow Calvinism: much more may we hope for a full and lasting blessing upon their labours, when their range of theology embraces so wide, and yet so well divided and marked-out a territory, as that of primitive Catholic theology.

Among the checks to that spirit of worldliness which embraces us on every side, and whose presence must often startle those who are at all watchful over themselves, is certainly to be reckoned the study of theology. This is true of all its branches.

1 Decline and Fall. Chap. liv. versus fin.

Yet, without detracting from the merit of other branches (such as exegetical or moral theology) in this respect, it is really possible that to a certain class of minds, and that a lofty one, dogmatic theology may appeal with a charm and force peculiarly its own. It may, of course, sink into coldness, formalism, and aridity, or seek to be wise above that which is written: but to admit the possibility of such fatal error is only to admit that students, even of the holiest themes, are men. Nor, indeed, are the other departments of the science in any wise free from their own peculiar dangers. What moral theology may become, we see in bad and dishonest works of casuistry; what exegesis may become, we see in the works of German expositors, and, alas! in volumes nearer home. The long list of dogmatic theologians must be admitted, even by those who have little taste for such studies, to include abundance of all that is heroic in action and devotional in temper of mind. It is something for the humblest pursuer of such investigations to be joining himself to a band that contains such names as those of Athanasius, Leo, John of Damascus, Peter Lombard, Aquinas, Bradwardine, Pearson, Möhler, Mill. And our free exposition of whatever seems to us defective or one-sided in Mr. Owen's volume must not be supposed to lessen our gratitude for a publication of so much thought and learning, which few, if any, can lay down without having added to their stores of knowledge on the most momentous themes that can engage the attention of the human mind, nor without having often been carried away in thought from things of earth,

'To where beyond these voices there is peace.'

200

ART. IX.-1. Kaiserwerth Deaconesses.

Masters.

2. The First Ten Years of the House of Mercy, Clewer. Masters. 3. Thoughts on Religious Communities, or Letters of two Friends. Masters.

4. The Constitutions of the Guild of S. Alban. Masters.

5. Hospitals and Sisterhoods. John Murray.

6. Church Deaconesses. J. H. and J. Parker.

7. The Oxford Churchman's Union. 1st Report. Oxford: Vincent.

8. Historical Sketch of English Brotherhoods. Masters.

9. Josiah Woodward's Rise and Progress of Religious Societies of London. Published 1712.

It is probable that the heading of this essay will raise but a confused suggestion as to its contents. The schemes of religious combination are now proportionably numerous and varied, as the principle itself is, in this country, new and untried. Amid pressing demands for work to be done, and the almost overpowering sense of how much has been left undone, we resort to the principle of association, as at least the most promising remedy. It is the observation of Bunsen that the principle of association, in religious matters especially, is one of 'the universal and significant characteristics of the age.' ('Signs of the Times.')

However this may be, under the particular circumstances of this Church and country, there is no cause of wonder that something like united feeling and united effort should be awakened. Independently of the fact that this principle has so long been utterly dormant in the Church, and therefore must eventually vindicate itself, the well-known state of religion in this country is such as to raise the most serious doubts whether some important resources in our Christian warfare may not lie hidden as yet amid the prejudices and worldliness which have encompassed us. We do not say that the Church of England has done less to commend itself to the masses, as they are called, than other Churches. In all ages, and in all countries, the consistent professors of religion have been a scanty minority. The History of the Church is but an expansion of the prophetic parable of the seed-sower: but though we may admit that no new thing has happened to us, it is always our duty to see whether any especial defects in our organization have contributed to any especial failures. One deficiency in our parochial system seems to be prominent.

No one can read the assertion lately published by the Additional Curates' Society, that in thirty-four of our great towns, fifty-two per cent. attend no place of worship whatever, without the thought, that surely some fresh organization might at least be tried; while, if the inquirer proceed further in the subject, the former report will tell him, that the average number of people to each clergyman in parts of the metropolis is about 5,000; of sittings available for the poor, in some of the richest parishes, about one to every twenty. Let him further ask of clerical friends engaged in our larger cities, and he will discover that there are cases which have failed to invite the assistance of any but the home missionaries of dissent, where the nominal charge of 15,000 or 20,000 has been committed to a single man. From such data as these, it was calculated in a recent report of Convocation, that at the end of this century the number of practical heathen in our large towns will be raised to 74 per cent.

In attempting to deal with this subject, we have to meet also a second difficulty: there are no precedents by which to try and to compare the methods which come under our notice; designs of the most opposite character drawn from Protestant Germany and from the Roman Catholic orders of charity have, by turns, excited the public mind. But of schemes of practical selfdevotion the Church of England presents no authorized standard; we might catalogue our schools and hospitals, and show an honourable list, but when we look for personal sacrifice and Christian labour, but little offers itself beyond the service of the hireling or the individual efforts of a few, whose names are justly cherished but whose example has never been elevated into subsequent system and permanent institution.

In attempting, therefore, to gather up the varied efforts which are now being made, into some more general and persistent form, we must deal with most as isolated portions of our Church's future, rather than as institutions which have won the character of tried usefulness. The increased earnestness of the present day has, by God's mercy, suggested the solution of a

1 For thirty years past the Béguines of Flanders, and the Soeurs de la Charité of France, have been referred to in popular publications on the social condition of England.

The Hospitals and Sisterhoods' cites a valuable extract from Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, urging a 'Protestant Diaconate' to be raised from the lay orders of Communicants.

The English Woman's Journal, a periodical employed in the discovery of the due part of women in the world, frequently urges the associated principle. For the last few years, the Kaiserwerth institution has furnished the most widely spread idea of combined religious work, at least for women. An order of nurses to be trained upon that model was contemplated by Sir E. Parry for the Haslar Hospital, but totally failed.

mighty problem, which for three hundred years has been only faintly entertained; we mean religious associations for charitable labour; a problem which, as we will endeavour to prove, is as closely connected with the cultivation of personal holiness throughout the Church, as it is with the stemming of the torrent of vice and impiety, which is yearly gaining on our neglected multitudes.

Though the basis of religious associations may be extremely various, the main object of those which are in the present day attempted, is that of practical charity. The interesting little work, Hospitals and Sisterhoods,' arose from an inspection of the hospitals of this country. The result of extensive inquiry and correspondence was, that so far was any religious impression from being regularly aimed at, that not even outward tenderness of manner and treatment could be secured for the sufferers. The writer then put out the idea of so educating the nurses as to enable them to act in subordination to the chaplain; but this was responded to on all sides by the assurance of its impossibility; the character of persons supplying the office of nurse being often destitute of even moral principle. Some were altogether abandoned, while, to fill the inferior posts, the lowest class of charwomen had to be called in. In the 'Thoughts on Religious Communities' there is the same motive, though more broadly entertained.

"Think of our closely crowded cities, and of the hundreds within them of sick, and suffering, and dying, with no one to minister to their bodily necessities, none to whisper consoling words of the "land very far off," and of that blessed and awful day when he shall see the King in His glory. Think of the little children, each possessing an immortal soul, growing up in ignorance and vice, going daily further from God and Heaven. cannot pursue the picture -our penitentiaries, our workhouses, our prisons, all crowd before me. Why are my words so cold?'

An appeal from the Pasteur Vermeil in support of the Protestant Sisterhood in Paris, founded in 1841, is made in the following words:

The master calls you: He calls you to serve Him in serving His Church and His poor. You desire to give yourself to Him? Well then, you will find Him in the poor that you relieve, the sinner that you console, the sick that you nurse, and the child that you receive in His name, and what service is so sweet as that of the Saviour?'

In a statement of the 'Principles and Objects' of the Guild of S. Alban, the list of practical works contains:

'Visiting the heathen, distressed, sick, hospitals, gaols, workhouses, &c.'

The Confraternity of the Holy Cross presents us with the following Spiritual works of Mercy; Instructing the Ignorant,

[ocr errors]
« ZurückWeiter »