THOMAS DALE HART, Esq., Barrister-at-law, New Court, Lincoln's Inn. My Lord allows me to say I am the last speaker, and I wish to add I shall be a short one. I am very sorry for your disappointment. If you had heard Sir Richard Webster to-night, you would have listened to one who not only is an eloquent and dutiful son of the Church, but who, by his industry and talents, has raised himself to the highest position at the Bar. I am sorry that instead of hearing one who is at the top of the ladder, you have to listen to one whose feet have been placed only in the lower rungs. But I wish to do to-night what I am sure the Attorney-General, had he been here, would have done, and that is to repeat the advice given you by the Bishop of Carlisle in regard to the National Church-"To let well alone." I have no political fish to fry. Shameful as the confession may seem to you, I am hold to declare that I do not know even the names of the rival candidates for your votes. For myself, I may say I am glad this is not a party question or a test. Mr. Gladstone has declared it is an open matter, one for discussion; and my object to-night, if you will allow me, is to tell you shortly, and at the best I fear imperfectly, some of the things which are said in opposition to the statements of the enemies of the Church. I do not stop to prove them, my time is too short. I submit them to you as wise men, asking you to judge between us and our enemies. And first, let me say, I often marvel at the lightheartedness of those who wish to disestablish the Church, and wonder if they appreciate the gravity of the task to which they have set their hands. Liberationists appear to be of the opinion held by the old lady who said, "For her own part she regarded the moon as a more useful planet than the sun, because whereas the moon shone in dark nights when one wanted light, the sun was always blazing in broad day when one didn't want it." So they think that they can destroy the light and warmth which the Church sheds through the land, and yet have all things as bright and comfortable as before. Do they know, I wonder, that Mr. Gladstone in the hey-day of his power as Prime Minister, declared in the House of Commons, when opposing a motion for Disestablishment, that "I do not envy any man who ventures to take in hand the business of disestablishing the Church of England. Even if it were as fit to be done, as," said Mr. Gladstone, "I think it unfit, there is a difficulty in the case before which the boldest man would recoil. It is all very well as long as we deal with abstract declarations put upon the notice paper of this House, of what might be done or ought to be done but only go up to the walls and gates and look at the way in which stone is built upon stone, on the way in which the foundations have been dug, and the way they go down into the earth, and consider by what tools, what artillery you can bring that fabric to the ground. The Church of England has not only been a part of the history of this country, but a part so vital, entering so profoundly into the entire life and action of the country, that the severing of the two would leave nothing behind, but a bleeding and lacerated mass. Take the Church of England out of the history of England, and the history of England becomes a chaos without order, without life, and without meaning." I do not envy the man who would destroy the fort which has protected generations of mariners on their way to the "haven where they would be." I do not envy the man who would quench the light which for centuries has shone on the troubled waters of the world. And her enemies would destroy the Church if they could, though when they talk of disestablishing her they use a word which, in the sense they mean it, is a misnomer and a mistake. The Church was never established, made, created by an Act of Parliament. She was here long before Acts of Parliament, or indeed, before any Parliament existed which could pass Acts. It would be truer to say that the Church established the State, for the State to-day works on the lines laid down by the Church centuries ago. Wherever you are in England you find "the parish;" you know the power "churchwardens" have. You know how much the vestry "does; how important are the functions of the "overseers." All these the State uses, and she got them from a great Archbishop of Canterbury, named Theodore of Tarsus, who came to the Episcopal Throne in 668. When men talk of disestablishing the Church, they do not mean repealing any law which established her, for no such law has ever been produced, because no such law has ever existed. They really mean withdrawing from her the protection of the State, that they may disendow her. But no Statute has ever been produced, for none exists endowing the Church. Her endowments came to her far back in the history of England by the voluntary gifts of her faithful children. They amount to something between four and five millions a year before they are taxed, which taxation they bear in common with 66 all other property. This sounds a large sum, but then compare it with the twentyfour millions paid for duty alone in 1883 on beer and spirits-that is nearly five or six times as much as all the revenues of the Church from her ancient endowments. And these endowments are not taxes. Someone early in the year determined to set this question at rest, "Are the clergy State paid?" and he got replies which he published in the Daily News for April 18, 1885, from Mr. Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, and Lord Granville. Mr. Gladstone said, “The clergy of the Church of England are not State paid." Lord Salisbury said, "The Bishops receive no grants from the State." Lord Granville said, "Tithes existed in England before Acts of Parliament." And if the State took these endowments, what then? (A Voice : Robbery.") Well, I should not have used that word myself, but now that one of your number has said it, I am not disposed to grumble at it. But compared with the 100,000,000 we have to pay a year as taxation, these four or five millions of endowments will be but a drop in the bucket. If distributed all round, it would not bring about the millennium the Bishop of Carlisle described, when as it seems to me we should be reduced much to the condition of the Orkney Islands if the undergraduate is to be trusted, who in answer to the question "What is the principal source of revenue in the Orkney Islands?" replied, "The inhabitants of the Orkney Islands gain an honest but precarious livelihood washing one another's clothes." As I was quoting the authority of Mr. Gladstone, I was reminded of what, in the hurry of the moment, I forgot to mention to you, and that is that the Church of England does not begin her history with the Reformation. Some people give you an account of the Reformation something like this: In the reign of Henry VIII., the State took from a Church, called the Roman Church, all her property and endowments, and bestowed them on a new Church, which it created at the same time, called the Church of England, or the National Church." Nothing can be a greater mistake. This is theory, not fact. The Church of England existed here before the first missionaries, under Augustine, came from Rome to the shores of Kent: it flourished on influences wholly unconnected with the Papal power. As Mr. Gladstone has said, the theory of the Reformers was that by the Reformation they were restoring the ancient regal jurisdiction in the place of one which had been usurped. And Dr. Freeman, who is a layman and Regius Professor of History in Oxford, sums the matter up thus, in a book he has published:"We must assume, because the facts of history compel us to assume, the absolute identity of the Church of England after the Reformation with the Church of England before the Reformation." And since the Reformation what a work has the Church of England done. From the bleak hills of Cumberland to the warm slopes of Devonshire; from the shores on which the German Ocean breaks to the cliffs against which the long rolling waves of the Atlantic thunder in vain; in quiet villages and hamlets nestling on the hill sides and amid the noise of cities, the din of factories, and the tumult of commerce-she has never ceased to teach and preach, to visit the sick, to comfort the dying, to pay the last tribute to the honoured dead. And to-day, in 14,000 parishes, with over 23,000 clergy, and with more than two million children in her schools, she carries on her work. But not only is she great in herself, but she is the mother of Churches. Wherever the British flag flies, and the English language is spoken, you will find this Church. In the torrid plains of India, and on the chilly shores of Labrador; in the quiet islands of the Pacific, and in the busy, bustling, hearts of men in Australia she has planted her banner-her bishops rule--priests of her communion tend and teach the people on the same lines, with the same doctrines, out of the same prayer book, and from the same Bible. Truly it may be said of her, "Her sound has gone out into all lands: her words unto the ends of the world." Such, then, is the Church, feebly as I have described it, in her property and position. She has been a good friend to your forefathers. At her fonts they were baptized; at her altars married, and under the shadow of her walls they rest in peace. In their lives she taught them the right way, and encouraged them to walk in it. In their deaths she comforted them with the sure and certain hope she had helped them to realise and secure. She has been a good friend to you. Will you desert her in her time of need? The Church lives in and for you; if you will help her with your prayers and your lives, she is safe. Comforted by your love, and encouraged by your devotion, she will go from strength to strength, vanquishing her foes and gaining fresh converts, until that glorious day when crime and oppression shall have been put down, and sighing and sorrow shall have fled away, and the angel shall proclaim upon earth that "The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord.' A LARGE number of working men who were unable to get into the Congress Hall filled the Parish Church, where, after a brief service, read by the Vicar, the Rev. E. P. Grant, they were addressed. ADDRESSES. The Ven. W. EMERY, Archdeacon and Canon of Ely, My friends, we are sorry indeed that the Church Congress Hall, though it is a very large building, is yet too small for the number who wish to be present, and I am sadly afraid there are many who are outside who are disappointed. We cannot do more than we can, and it was scarcely expected when the invitations were issued that so many would have accepted them. At the same time, dear friends, there is something very solemn, very affecting on our meeting here, for we are meeting in a place far more sacred than the Congress Hall-we are meeting in a place far more ancient than that. It is more sacred, because it has been solemnly dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, and it is more ancient because it has been the place of worship for many generations during hundreds of years in this old town of Portsmouth. You have only to look round in this restored building—and I am thankful to believe that the restoration has been quickened somewhat, and, perhaps, made more complete in consequence of the coming to Portsmouth of the Congress this year-to see the correctness of what I have said. If you cast your eyes at the features of this church you will see at once that this is a far more ancient building than the Congress Hall, which has been reared but for a few days, and then must be taken away. Look at this ancient church. It reminds me of the beautiful Cathedral of Ely, where it is my duty and pleasure to worship. I live in the centre of the Fens, and there is a hill there not very high-only about sixty feet above the level of the sea-on which some hundreds of years ago was erected the Ely Minster. There was an earlier building which was destroyed by the Danes before William the Conqueror came into the land. But the present one was built about 800 years ago by the brother of the Abbot of Winchester, when he became Abbot of Ely. A pious old abbot he was, for he began to build the new cathedral when he was 84 years of age. You have in this church features somewhat like those of Ely Cathedral. There is a Norman chancel and early English lancet windows. That will tell you at once that parts of this church have been in existence from the 12th century. You may be a little disappointed at not getting into a mushroom hall like the Congress Hall, but here you are worshipping in the place where your forefathers worshipped according to the doctrines of the old Church of England, and where your ancestors offered up prayers, first in Latin and then in English, to the God we now worship. We may take a retrospect of the work of the Church of Christ in considering the history of this church. It has been the house of prayer for many a generation, helping them to the happiness of the world to come, and we may be thankful that we are able to meet thus in this ancient holy house. Knowing that it has been the church of the people and the nation from century to century, you will see at once, therefore, that I feel quite at home here, and that looking at the chancel I might fancy myself in Ely. I hope you love your old church. I feel very much touched in addressing you to-night, for I am the son of a working man who, by his industry and economy, enabled me to go to a public school, and by whose constant love I was enabled to go to the University. By God's blessing I was prospered in my studies, and so I have the pleasure, as the son of a working man, of taking my place amongst some of the most intellectual people in the world. I have had the pleasure of representing working men in the high places of intellect, and by God's blessing and by the kind patronage of the Bishop of Winchester, once my bishop, I am enabled to hold the solemn and serious position which I now occupy, and to come and speak a few words of friendly, brotherly counsel to you. My dear hard working father in his early days was tempted to trade on Sundays, but he could not forget the Commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," and although the world said he would lose money by refusing to work on the Lord's Day, he did not. God in his love, as he used to tell me, seemed to prosper him the more, and humanly speaking, I am here to-night because some sixty or seventy years ago my father resisted temptation, and tried to obey God rather than men. I have mentioned this because of the remarkable telegram which I have just read in the Congress Hall. It is a telegram sent from the working men of Leicester. (The Archdeacon then read the telegram.) If you had been in the Congress Hall you would, I am sure, have cheered as lustily, and have held up your hands in favour of it as your friends did who were there. Let me as a minister of Christ-as a minister of the old National Church which every Sunday and other days reads publicly the Ten Commandments-entreat you, my dear friends, as far as you can for the sake of yourselves and of your families, and for the honour of your God to do all you can to keep holy the Sabbath day. I know what our dear Lord said. He knew our wants, and trials, and difficulties, and He would not press the commandments too hardly. I know what He said when he was reviled and abused because He did not keep holy the Sabbath day, in the strictness of the letter. He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath;" but still it is God's day which I call on you as His children-surely you believe in Him?-to keep. I know there are weak men, and poor and deluded men who say they do not believe in God. Do not you follow them! God has given you the Commandments for your own good. I have been speaking about the Lord's Day. In the very early days of Christianity, after our Lord ascended to Heaven, the Christians changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week, but still we are religiously bound to keep the spirit of the commandments, and I trust you do so. It is said, indeed, that in many places the Lord's Day is not kept holy by a large number of people in Portsmouth—that it is not kept in the way that your forefathers, who built this church, and who worshipped here, kept it holy. I am sorry to hear that. My father always took me to church, and I have heard a great many sermons. I was a good listener, and I think they did me good. He pressed it on me that I ought to go to church on a Sunday, and learn to love Jesus Christ, because we are His. Of course I am His. Was I not baptized at the first, and made his soldier and servant there, and should I be doing my duty if I refused to go to the sacred temple and with his people worship God our Father in spirit and truth? I should be happy if I thought that my weak words would be effectual in making you more regular in going to God's House, and worshipping Him as His children. Oh, my friends, believe me, He is the living God, and willing to pardon. He sent His Son to save us sinners. I see young men here who are starting in life-whilst I am beginning to reckon from the end, and my lease of life is fast running out-they and all will agree with me it is well to prepare in this life of trial for that better life and world beyond, where we are promised that we shall see Jesus as He is. This is my hope. I do not deserve it, for I am full of sinfulness. But, believe me, the blessings of wife and children, a fair income, and kind and loving friends, would be nothing for me if I did not feel in my heart that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that Jesus has redeemed me to something higher and nobler and better than this world can give. I know there is in store for me, when this short life is over, a better life in the new Jerusalem above, where there is no temple of stone, but where God is the temple, and the Lamb is the light thereof. I earnestly entreat you, then, to walk in the way to this blessed happiness and home according to the teaching of our Mother Church, and to love God with all your heart, and your neighbour as yourself. Then you shall be truly happy, and whether well or ill, whether a poor shopman or a hard working mechanic, or otherwise, all will be well with you at the last, and you will be able to say with the Apostle, "Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly.” Right Hon. A. J. B. BERESFORD-HOPE, M.P. My friends, I need not tell you what this meeting is, because Archdeacon Emery has so well explained the reason why we are here. In the circumstances of this Church Congress, and as we are calling on you to work with it for holy things, there is nothing wrong or strange, though unusual, in holding this meeting in this church. It is not a church service, or you would not see a layman allowed to occupy the pulpit for the purpose of making a speech. I dare say many of you have asked yourselves what is the meaning of this Congress. It is a Congress of the Church of England—a meeting of the members of the Church of England, laymen, and bishops, clergy, and ladies— met together to talk over, and to take sweet counsel together on Church interests. But thinking men will ask themselves further why has the Church Congress met at Portsmouth, for only a few of its members are inhabitants of this town, the rest come from London and other parts of England? That is coming to close quarters-that is asking a sensible question, and it deserves an answer. We meet at Portsmouth because the Church Congress is a congress of love and sympathy, and it feels love and sympathy for you, as a population of fellow-men, as no other body of persons in the world can do in a similar manner. It is an organised portion of the great Christian commonwealth of all the world, which is called the Christian Church. It is the Christian Church, because it is the living body of all baptized Christian men. It is to be met in various forms in different lands. In England, there is the Church of England. I do not go into questions of divergence of views. We are judging no man. It is sufficient for you, and for myself, that I should tell you that I belong to the Church of England, and those who meet at the Church Congress belong also to it, and show it by this open confession of membership. We say that we believe, and profess, and we proclaim that the English Church is a sound, true-living branch of that living Body of Christ-the Church of Christ. That being so, we are doing our duty in following its teaching, looking neither to the right, or to the left, and judging no one. Others may judge us, but if the judgment is mistaken, we cannot help that, we can only live it down by good lives and good deeds, while we hope that we are actuated by the love of Christ. Then being a congress of the body of Christ in this land, we feel a sympathy for others, which leads us to go year by year from one place to another, until we have traversed the land, looking into all the dark corners, and striving if we may make the people more happy and better, while we are doing something to make ourselves better also. On these grounds, and feelings, and intentions here we are. We go in for sympathy. If you will look at the matter temperately, you will see that is so. We take up that body of men, and then another body of men, first one and then another, each as it comes to us at our annual congress, helping them in this world by advice which is at once Christian and worldly, and so making them more fit for the next, for in the future we hope they will make a happy ending by a holy death. Look at the subjects we discuss. One day we take young men's and working-men's associations-I am sure that is a sympathetic subject -then the work of women in the Church, and the evangelising of the masses. go to India, and see how the Church is doing its missionary work there. Then comes the spiritual life, and, after that, legislation on the question of intemperance. We are to have a meeting for soldiers and sailors, and we discuss emigration. Any one of you can understand the aid the Church can give, and does give, to emigrants going to a strange land, helpful for this life, and helpful for the next. Another meeting considers the doctrine of the Church with regard to war; and then, again, we discuss the relations of the Church with reference to the employers, and the employed. That is the question which is occupying the attention of eminent men all over the country, and, I venture to say, that nowhere could it be discussed more fully in all its bearings than in the Church Congress, because it is there handled in the light of love, as well as science, for we know that all men are equally precious in the eyes of the Great Creator, and our blessed Redeemer. So, you see, how the Congress loves to take up neighbourly, timely, and practical work as it comes before us, enlightened by the sympathy of Christians for one another. There is another kind of so-called sympathy very much about just now, but it is not the real thing-only pinchbeck. It is a sympathy for classes, and not for individual men. This sympathy is shown for classes as if they are great mechanical bodies moved by certain impulses, as clock-work goes by springs. But every class is made up of individuals--we have rich men, poor men, agricultural labourers, mechanics, but every one of those classes is made up of Christian souls, with trials and temptations, blessings and sorrows, sacred in the secret heart of each. True sympathy, I say, looks at the wants and We |