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COLONEL ‘ FORNEY’S
LETTER.
-r
V- £
REPRINTED FROM “ THE PRESS,” PHILADELPHIA, DEC. 2ND.
.1.
��n.
COLONEL FORNEY’S LETTER.
London, November 17, 1874.
Cosmopolitan London is in nothing more interesting
than in the variety of its numerous religious organizations. While the Church of England dominates
everything, so large is the population and so varied
the institutions of learning and benevolence, that
there is room for an infinite variety of thought and
organization. The Catholics of London are an im
mense body, and their edifices are numerous and
imposing.
I have often been impressed by the
earnestness with which, in passing through the ancient
churches and cathedrals, now in possession of the
Church of England, the followers of Rome denounce
the meanness which wrested from them these splendid
triumphs of architecture and placed them in charge of
the present reigning religion. In fact, the choicest
treasures of the widespread and absorbing Church of
England were originally the property of the Catholics,
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and it is difficult to deny to the latter their claim to
the credit of having founded these gorgeous structures!
Mr. Gladstone’s last pamphlet seems to have aroused]
the animosities of both sides, and it is curious to
notice that while he touches the sensitive nerve alike
of Catholics and Protestants, he has not yet received
that measure of Episcopal support which, in view of the
growing hostility in England to the Catholic religion,'
might have reasonably been expected.
He arraigns
the Church of Rome, upon authority sufficient to
himself, as claiming superiority over the civil system of
every government; and while this estimate or argument!
call it what you please, is differently answered by the
Catholics, the Church of England leaders accept it as
a substantial reinforcement of their own position,
while challenging the sincerity of Mr. Gladstone, whom
they accuse of intending ultimately to overthrow their
own establishment. The Catholics, including such
eminent prelates as Archbishop Manning and Mon-1
signor Capel, attack him with an acrimony which
shows the strength of his position.
Archbishop
Manning, in his letter to the New York Herald (by the
way, published in all the London papers the next day,
by the consent of Mr. Bennett), dated November io,
carries his reply to the late Liberal Premier to the
extent of declaring that the differences between them
have overcast a friendship of forty-five years. The
stoutest champion of Mr. Gladstone in this mel'ee will
be the German Protestant Empire, led by the
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dogmatic Bismarck, and there can be little question
that as the war of words increases it will crystallize into
a formidable conflict, both sides armed cap-a-pie.
However the present difficulty may end, it is easy to
■predict that all the Protestant elements will gradually
take sides against the Catholics, so that, although
Mr. Gladstone may be set aside, he will at least have
given coherence to elements long discordant. In
stating this case, I desire, without taking part in what
is evidently the beginning of a long and terrible
Struggle, and what may end in another great European
war, to be regarded as making a plain statement of
current history.
Another character seems to stand in a curious
relation to this bitter controversy between the
theologians. That is the strangely-gifted and wholly
original Moncure D. Conway, the head of the Material
istic congregation at South Place Chapel, Finsbury,
the temple in which for many years preached the
^celebrated W. J. Fox, some time member of Parliament
for a large manufacturing town, Oldham, and known
as the champion of the principles of Radical
Democracy. Mr. Conway is a Virginian, who came
here first as an advanced advocate of the Union cause
seven years ago. Having been previously well known
in our country for the great ability with which he
resisted the productions of slavery and took issue with
■he peculiar doctrines of the politicians in his native
State, the prominence with which he identified himself
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with the North in London soon gave him a large hold
among certain advanced thinkers who have always
sympathized with America. In this way he was called
to the pulpit at South Place, where he still continues
to preside, attracting large numbers every Sunday
morning by the peculiarities of his opinions and his
style. His ability is conceded to be of the highest
order, and when I sat under him last Sunday I could
not restrain my admiration of his genius. A tall,
spare man of about forty, with a most intellectual yet
ascetic face, closely resembling J ohn A. Kasson of
Iowa, member of the present Congress, his oratory is
quite unpretending, rarely rising to declamation, and
only when presenting his strongest point expressing
intensity. He is of the materialistic school, in fact a
bow-shot beyond John Stuart Mill in his Theism,
rejecting a personal Deity and insisting that what we
call God is within us—our inner conception, manifested
by our aspirations after truth. It was a novel sensation
to follow this brilliant student and scholar through his
intricate reasonings in support of this position, and to
mark the effect of his rhetoric upon his large and
thoughtful audience, most of whom belonged to the
better classes.
They accept his platform with
enthusiasm, and as most of them are people of rare
culture, their number is rapidly increasing. The
singing was exquisite, and the hymns, of which I here
transcribe two, were given with unusual sweetness and
power :
�7'
ANTHEM.
"We never, never will bow down
To the rude stock or sculptured stone.
We worship God, and God alone.
.
HYMN.
Everlasting ! changing never I
Of one strength, no more, no less,
Thine almightiness for ever,
Ever one Thy holiness ;
Thee eternal,
Thee all glorious, we possess.
■■■
.
.
Shall things withered, fashions olden.
Keep us from life’s flowing spring?
Waits for us the promise golden,
Waits each new diviner thing.
Onward! onward !
Why this hopeless tarrying ?
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Nearer to Thee would we venture,
Of Thy truth more largely take;
Upon life diviner enter,
Into day more glorious break ?
To the ages
Fair bequests and costly make.
By the old aspirants glorious,
By each soul heroical,
By the strivers half-victorious,
By thy Jesus and thy Paul,
Truth’s own martyrs,
We are summoned one and all.
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By each saving word unspoken,
By Thy truth, as yet half-won,
By each idol still unbroken,
By Thy will, yet poorly done,
O Almighty!
We are borne resistlesson.
Mr. Conway receives ^250, or $1,250, a year for
preaching once on Sunday morning at South Place
Church, and probably almost as much for his
discourses on Sunday evening at Camden Town. He
is also the correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial,
and his letters are as peculiar as his spoken essays.
He is also a contributor on theological subjects to
several of the London scientific reviews, and a great]
favorite in society. Very naturally, he will be found
foremost in the attack upon the Catholics, yet he could
not be more trenchant than in his various criticisms
upon the Church of England. He admires Bismarck
immensely, and prefers the German to the French
example, having sympathized with the former in the
late war. He is a welcome visitor in many houses, is
a charming companion, and outside his philosophical
ideas is one of the most agreeable talkers. South
Place Chapel is 11 Liberty Hall ” in the freedom with
which all creeds and opinions are discussed within its
walls. Robert Collier, of Chicago, filled his pulpit
several times a few years ago, and the Indian reformer,
“ Chunder Sen,” there set forth his views. Next
Thursday Miss Downing, a Catholic, is to discuss in
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the debating society of the chapel, from her point of
view, “ Conventual Institutions, their use, &c.” I
could not help smiling on Sunday, after Conway had
denied the existence of a devil, and proclaimed his
doubt as to a personal Deity, insisting that every man
had his own God in his better actions, when among
the announcements of the proceedings of the coming
week he read a notice of a lecture to be delivered at
St. George’s Hall, by Dr. Zerffi, of the South
Kensington Museum, on the “ Concrete and Abstract
Nature of the Devil.” An American gentleman at
my side, who had been repeatedly startled by the
extraordinary positions of Mr. Conway, quietly re
marked, “ What is the use of lecturing about the devil,
when he has just been trying to convince us that he
has no existence ? ” My friend left the chapel a
great deal terrified at what he had heard, and doubtless
went into quarantine, to get rid of the contagion, in
the nearest Calvinistic church he could find.
J. W. F.
[Note.—Colonel Forney’s letter has been reproduced without
corrections; although some of his statements, especially as regards
money matters, are not correct.]
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Colonel Forney's letter
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Forney, John W. [1861-1868]
Description
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Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 9 p. ; 17 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from 'The Press', Philadelphia, December 2nd. Letter dated November 17,1874
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South Place Chapel
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1874
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G5602
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Religion
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Colonel Forney's letter), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Moncure Conway