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Text
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
II THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
Price Threepence.
.8
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
MAY,
"Y^'ERY little has
V circles during
18 76.
•
.
been stirring in ecclesiastical
the past month, except in the
way of preparation for the battles to come. The din
of arms is heard, but the blows are not struck against
the foe, but only on the anvil, to mould the blade for
future use. Hot indignant words are heard from the
Ritualist camp, whispers of a Uniate Church, of se
cession, of rebellion, but the angry tones are hushed
down by the wiser leaders, and the speakers are
bidden to possess their souls—and their benefices—
in patience until brighter days. Menaces answer $
from the Low Church battalions, who, flushed by.
recent victory, dream of a resurrection of the palms'
�2
Simeonitish days. The Broad Church stand care
lessly as ever, indifferent to attack, knowing that the
spirit.of the age is flowing against their enemies, and
conscious that they are more in harmony with it than
either High or Low. Outside the Church progress
is visible on every hand. As science spreads scepti
cism increases; as eastern researches are more eagerly
prosecuted the true foundations of popular Chris
tianity are being laid bare, and their real nature is
seen; as criticism lays down its canons with morecertainty the Bible becomes more and more dis
credited as Divine, more and more proved to bo
human both in its beauties and in its faults; every
advance, in every direction, is leading men further
and further away from their ancestral faith, and is
building up brains too large and too strong to be
moulded by priestly touch or to be bound in ecclesi
astical bands. Cheering is the prospect to the lovers
of humanity, and ever fuller and fuller swells the
hope which animates them ; the hope of that glorious
day when man shall no more be the slave of super
stition, and woman no longer the tool of the priest.
A curious point of contact between the ecclesiastical
and civil lawsis now before Parliament, and the Rock
is loud in its denunciations of the proposed legisla
tion. Many of the colonies have passed a law legal
izing a marriage between a man and his deceased
wife’s sister. This law has, in due course, been
sanctioned by the Home Government, and a Bill is
now introduced to make such colonial marriages legal
in England, should the parties come into this country,,
and to protect their offspring from all disadvantages
they might otherwise suffer from here, owing to the
difference of the colonial and home marriage laws.
Upon this Bill the Rock writes a very bitter article,
speaking of such marriages as “ a form of incest,”
and saying that “the present law of Great Britain is
avowedly founded on the law of God,” and that
�3
Christian men in Parliament” ought to be verycareful not to “ legalise what God condemned in the
case of the old Canaanites.” It seems a pity to raise
angry feelings by dealing with an important social
question in this style; the Hock ought to confine
itself to Church garments and the personality of
Satan, and not venture into the delicate domain of
social legislation; in that sphere the bitter tone of
theological controversy is out of place, and is even
dangerous.
Another strange interposition of the Bock in poli
tical matters is found in an article upon the proposed
new title of the Queen: if the mischief of the name
Empress be averted, then may “England,as specially
favoured by the Most High, continue to hold the
highest place among the kingdoms of the earth, in
stead of—in an access of pride—provoking Him to
leave us to ourselves, and so perhaps add another
chapter to Volney’s famous book, ‘The Ruins of
Empires.’” So not only is this magic title to scare
away the Emperor of Russia from our Indian frontiers,
but it will also frighten “ the Most High ” away from
our borders. What a curious juxtaposition 1
The Rev. Flavel Cook is prospering; can he—ac
cording to mediaeval stories—have entered into some
compact with the Evil One, for whom he is now
suffering ? A church, seated to hold 1,000 persons,
is to be erected for him near Clifton; the testimonial
fund has already reached the sum of l,000Z., the
Exeter branch of the English Church Union contri
buting 100Z. as “ a public and tangible mark of
sympathy ” with his treatment of Mr. Jenkins. The
costs of the trial are a warning to ecclesiastical
litigants; those of Mr. Cook amount to between
l,200Z. and l,400Z., and those of Mr. Jenkins to be
tween 800Z. and 900Z. The Wesleyan body have
spent some 3,000Z. in vindicating their right to the
title of Reverend, so that, on the whole, suitors and
�4
defendants in these courts must often exclaim:“ How
dear are thy counsels unto me, 0 Lord ! How great
is the sum of them.”
The Church Herald has found a successor; this
valuable paper is called The Pilot, and is “ A Journal
of Religion, Politics, Literature, and Art.” It is
neatly printed on good paper, price threepence. To
what party it belongs it is hard to say, but it appears
to be of very extreme High Church views, and yet
not Ritualistic, while it evidently is issued to promote
union with Rome. It advocates the Roman primacy,
in preference to the present Parliament primacy, and
is the sworn foe of Erastianism. It speaks with high
approval of a pamphlet entitled “ The Discipline of
Christ, or the Discipline of Devils;” and the discipline
of devils is, according to the publication in question,
that of Lord Penzance : the Royal Suprcm a p.y is (1q)
huge Tudor imposture,” and the following passage is
endorsed: “Forced to choose between the Crown, as
advised by the Senate, and the Pope, as advised by
his theologians, or to sink into a sect aKtyahos and
avopos, increasing numbers of us are learning to pre
fer the Bishop to the Crown, the rules of the Congre
gation of Rites to the dicta of the Privy Council.
The rule of a Catholic Metropolitan, with right of
appeal to Rome, is at least preferable to the rule of
‘ Archbishop’ Penzance, with the sorry right of ap
peal to. my Lords of the Judicial Committee, a body
which is, now and henceforth, the ‘ Holy Governing
Synod ’ of the Anglican Church.” On this subject of
Lord Penzance and his Court, much wrath is poured
forth : the Pilot maintains that Courts which judge
Church matters, ought to be “ Courts Christian,” i.e.,
ought to “ depend upon the Synods of the Church
“ the law which ‘Courts Christian’ ought to adminis
ter is the Divine Law;” “ but nothing of this kind
obtains in the case of Lord Penzance and his Court.
He can only be likened to a comet which belongs to
�5
no recognised system whatever.” a Suppose some
‘ question of the law Divine ’ to arise; it may be a
question of ritual, as in Mr. Ridsdale’s case; or it
may be question of doctrine, as in Mr. Bennett’s case ;
or a question of the exercise of the power of the keys,
as Mr. Cook’s.” This question, when raised, may
seriously affect the welfare of the whole Anglican
Church ; it may touch in their tenderest point the con
sciences of the most devout Churchmen and Church
women of the day ; the very character of the Anglican
Communion fororthodoxy, or the validity of the Sacra
ments, may be involved in it; and by whom is it to
be decided ? By Lord Penzance in the first place ;
and by Lords Cairns, Selborne, Hatherley, and a few
Other lay judges in the last resort.” Horror of hor
rors ! a layman, with unconsecrated hands, is touch
ing the ark of the Lord. “ They may condemn what
the Church approves; deprive a Priest whom the
Church would gladly retain and support in the exer
cise of his ministry ; admit to Communion a layman
whom the Church would certainly repel; and all the
whileBishops, Priests, Deacons, and faithful laity, must
sit still and see the doctrine, discipline, and worship of
the Church dislocated and mutilated, and say no
thing.” And what does the Pilot advise among so many
rocks, and stress of weather so terrible? “Uncom
promising resistance.” Such is the mot d’ordre of the
new paper, and when the strength of the “ Catholic
party” within the Church is remembered, the ap
pearance of this paper at the present critical juncture
is a “ Sign of the Times ” not lightly to be ignored.
If this party, as a whole, resolve on a policy of resist
ance to the Secular Courts now ruling the Church,
and decide for union with Rome rather than submis
sion, the days of the Establishment are numbered.
We have always hoped much from the attempt to
“ stamp out the Ritualists,” and our hopes seem
likely to be realised. The attitude of the Pilot to
�6
wards the Rationalists also deserves a word of notice;
if its policy towards Lord Penzance is one of uncom
promising resistance, its policy towards the Free
Thinkers is one of uncompromising hostility. Mr.
Gould speaks of God’s Truth before “ the bar of
Reason.” “ ‘Before the bar of Reason I ’ We thank
him for the admission. It is Reason, then, that is to
decide matters of Faith ! The very Truth itself was
once arraigned at the bar of a ruler who, sitting as
the Representative of the World, asked, with uncon
scious irony, the scoffing question, ‘ What is Truth ?’
And Pontius Pilate remains, for all time, the typical
representative of all Rationalism. ‘ Before the bar of
Reason !’ Yet the author of this book professes to hold
the Catholic Faith, provided always that its ‘ imper
fections ’ be supplemented by the gospel of science.”
The Belfast address of Professor Tyndall is “ a display
of second-hand erudition,” than which “nothing
could be more pitiable.” Mr. Mill is “ an over
rated writer of so-called philosophy, who has been
dead for some time, and is now almost forgotten.”
This is quite up to the Church Herald standard. As
to education, the “ Act of 1870 is efficiently doing
the Devil’s work,” by teaching children without
dwarfing them with dogmas. It attacks the late
Lady Augusta Stanley for her sympathy with Pere
Hyacinthe in his marriage, and says : “We are glad
that the Father — now a father in quite another
sense—did not adopt her Ladyship’s loose views as
to vows, and apply them to what Dean Liddell terms
the ‘yet dearer confidence of wedded life.’ Yet if
one kind of religious vow may be broken with im
punity and commendation, why not another ? Phi
lanthropy, of whatever kind, and rotten sentiments,
are very poor substitutes for Christian principle.”
What Christian principle it shows to write thus
coarsely over the scarce-closed grave of a good and
noble-natured woman, respected by all for her gene
�7
rous work among the poor, and her wide-hearted
charity ! Our new paper gives an interesting account
of “ Religion in Germany,” where “ Strauss—who
was personally honoured by some of our English Royal
Family—and other odious infidels of the same kind,
have done their dark and deplorable work. Except
amongst Roman Catholics, Christianity is practically
banished and inoperative.” “ The decline of what is
called ‘Evangelical Lutheranism’ has been at once
rapid and sure. Reason has triumphed over Reve
lation. For example, in the year 1831 eight Prussian
Universities could boast 2,203 theological students ;
in 1873 no more than 740. . . . The supreme govern
ing body has had to proclaim to the world that in a
year or so one-sixth of the vacant benefices will have
none to fill them. Pastors cannot be obtained for the
churches, which are being closed for lack of them.”
Truly, the labours of German rationalists have not
been without results, and we, in England, who follow
in their steps, may well rejoice in the success which
has crowned their labours.
Our old friend, the Church Times, seems quite mode
rate and charitable after this terrible Pilot. Far from
urging uncompromising resistance, it counsels sage
policy. In writing on “ the Persecution,” while it
proposes that a Sustentation Fund should be formed
for the support of clergymen dispossessed of their
benefices under the new Act, it at the same time
counsels the clergy not to unwisely precipitate mat
ters, but to distinguish between the essentials and
the accessories of divine worship. A “cute” sug
gestion is also made—that when a priest is dispos
sessed for “Catholic practices,” and a successor is
placed at his post by the bishop of the diocese, the
congregation should withhold all their customary
offerings, whether through the offertory or otherwise.
“ There is not the least reason why any question of
charity, or rather of want of charity, should come in.
�8
The whole thing should be regarded simply as a pure
matter of business, and be conducted in a business
like way. The absolute stoppage in all such cases of
all voluntary offerings whatsoever would, we shrewdly
suspect, soon very palpably change the general aspect
of affairs.” This is really very sensible advice from
the Catholic stand-point, and shows that the children
of light are endeavouring to use somewhat of the
wisdom of the children of this world in dealing with
the foe. But a sharp battle is imminent when com
batants begin girding up their loins in this fashion,
and since brother is going to war with brother, and
that before the unbeliever, we may look forward to
the downfall of the Establishment, as of a house
divided against itself. There is a rather clever skit on
“I ho Law,” published in the Church Times, contrast
ing the legal Church decisions given from time to time
since Henry VIII.
“ ‘ The Law’ made it penal to read in the Prayer Book,
And waited until it became quite a rare book,
Then made an engine of greater enormity,
And cut off our toes with the Act Uniformity.
*
*
*
*
*
‘ The Law’ gave its blessing to Essays, Reviews,
And settled the clergy may write as they choose ;
But Voysey and Heath, who believed what ‘Law’said,
Were seized by its minions and thrown out of bed.”
And so on, for half a column. How bitterly the
Church party.feel regarding the Law may be judged
from the following extract from a leading article in
this same number. The Record, “ it seems, is very
solicitous about the majesty of the Law—the Law,
namely, by which it was declared that a churchman
may hold the New Testament to be a pack of lies,
and our Saviour’s own words to be ‘ quite incom
patible with decency and religion.’ ” One cannot
but wonder how long it will be before the State sees
the unwisdom of meddling in these Church squabbles,
and recognises the real danger implied in the growing
�9
contempt for law; wherever the law comes into con
flict with the rights of conscience, the law will
assuredly go to the wall, and wise statesmen will
make such conflict as rare as possible by carefully
avoiding all State interference in matters of religion.
Some terrible things have happened lately. Dr.
Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, has actually given
the benediction in an Ulster coat. Once before he
has been known to deliver it in evening dress. Truly
shocking I “ Yet this is the prelate who wishes to
prohibit the true devout Catholics of the Church of
England from worshipping their Lord in the ‘ beauty
of holiness.’ ” What can be hoped for a Church whose
chief minister worships the Lord in an Ulster ?
Another burial scandal has been added to the many
which, week after week, make the Burial Bill more
necessary. At Dore, near Sheffield, a young child
died, and, when all arrangements for the funeral were
completed, the Vicar of Dore, the Rev. J. T. F. Aldred, said “ that he could not inter the boy, inasmuch
as he had not baptised him.” The child had been
baptised, it seems, by the sacrilegious jhands of a
Primitive Methodist minister, instead of by the
divinely appointed Vicar of Dore. The Vicar, how
ever, gave permission to bury the corpse in the
churchyard, and the friends decided to hold a
service in their own chapel, and that Primitive
Methodist Mr. Whitby should complete the service
in the road, the body being placed in the ground
meanwhile. The programme was duly commenced,
but when the funeral procession arrived at the grave
yard, behold the Rev. E. B. Chalmer, of the Church
of England, advancing to meet the body, reading the
sentences from the Burial Service. The rival clerics
glared at each other, and the following conversation
took place :—
Rev. W. Whitby.—“ Stop, sir, if you please. We
do not want any service read. We have had a ser
�10
Vice in our chapel, and we do not wish any service of
your Church.”
Rev. E. B. Chalmeb.—“Ton cannot bury here,
then.”
Rev. W. Whitby.—“ I say yes. It has been done.”
Rev. E. B. Chalmeb.—“ But you cannot have the
body interred here unless the service is read.”
Rev. W. Whitby.—“It shall be buried like a dog,
then, without your service.”
Such was the conduct of these two Christian
gentlemen over the body of a dead infant, while the
mourners stood around sobbing. The mother was
almost fainting, naturally suffering intensely at this
quarrel desecrating her baby’s funeral; at last she
prayed that the child might be interred in peace,
with any service, and Mr. Chalmer victoriously carried
off the corpse, and read his service over it without
further interruption. In this fashion are Dissenters
taught to reverence the Establishment, and thus it is
sought to convince them that the Church is the Church
of the nation. The Dore case seems likely to create
some interest, as the Bishop of Lichfield has been
appealed to, and questions have been asked about it
in Parliament. It appears, nevertheless, that the
clergyman must have acted in accordance with the
law, for there is manifestly no right on the part of a
Dissenting minister to read any service at the actual
burial, although he may hold a service in the road,
provided he create no obstruction ; and the clergyman
has surely a right to use the Burial Service over any
corpse buried within his freehold, unless it comes
within the excluded classes mentioned in the rubric.
The unjust state of the law as regards Free Thinkers
is painfully exemplified in the case of the children of
the late Lord Amberley. These children were com
mitted, by their father, to the care of Mr. Spalding,
a tutor chosen by himself, whom he could trust, and
who understood his wishes with regard to their reli
�11
gious, or rather non-religious education. The grand
father, Earl Russell, claimed the children, pleading
that children could not legally be committed to the
care of one who would educate them in no form of
religious belief. A case was submitted to counsel, and
was decided in Earl Russell’s favour, and the children
of the heretic were handed over to the Christian, to
be brought up in a creed detested by both their
parents; these children, if they grow up Christians,
must believe that both their father and their mother
have perished everlastingly. People talk of religious
equality in England: how much equality does the
law allow to the Free Thinker? If this case had
happened in Spain, and the parents, being rigid Pro
testants, had confided their children to the care of a
Protestant, and the law had stepped in and handed
them over to a bigoted Roman Catholic grandfather,
to be brought up in the Roman Catholic creed, we
should have heard enough cry of “injustice,” and
“intolerance,” from those very people who approve of
such treatment when it is only against the hated Free
Thinker. Earl Russell has also seized his dead son’s
manuscripts, and stopped the publication of a book
on religions, to which Lord Amberley had been devot
ing his time and strength. Not content with all this,
a final outrage was perpetrated on the helpless dead :
the bodies of Lord and Lady Amberley, buried at the
dying wish of each in unconsecrated ground, have
been exhumed and reburied in the Russell consecrated
vault, so that those who, in life, could not be forced
within the Church, may be handed over to her when
they can no longer defend themselves. Thus bitterly
intolerant does the so-called Liberal Earl Russell show
himself; protesting against persecution of his fellowChristians abroad, he persecutes those who disagree
with himself at home, and pours the cruelest insults
possible on the head of his own dead children ; for he
destroys the one immortality for which Lord Amber
�12
ley hoped and laboured, the immortality of his thought,
enshrined in the suppressed book; he takes his children
to bring them up in a superstition hated by both their
parents; and he takes the most cowardly of all re
venges on the dead bodies reverently committed to
the bosom of the mighty mother, by insultingly tear
ing them from their resting-place, thus desecrating
even the last home of the dead. Will the day ever
dawn when honest heresy shall be as respected as
honest orthodoxy, and men and women shall reverence
in others the freedom they desire for themselves?
Sometimes orthodox Christians complain that the
tongue of the Free Thinker speaks bitterly; and that
sharp taunt is used where gentle persuasion would be
more attractive: but can they wonder that sometimes
our words are bitter: can they wonder that our arrows
are sometimes keenly barbed, when they know that
no thought is taken how our tenderest feelings may
be trampled on, and our hopes crushed; that no voice
will be raised in defence of the sacredness of the tie
between parents and children of our brotherhood, no
word of rebuke spoken to those who desecrate our
graves, and who crush out the one hope of immor
tality to which we cling, the hope that our thought
shall live, and may serve the world of men when we
are gone to our rest.
c
PRINTED BY C. W. REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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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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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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Signs of the times. May, 1876
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
Date
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1876
Identifier
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CT174
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[Unknown]
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Christianity
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Signs of the times. May, 1876), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Christianity-Controversial Literature
Conway Tracts