HOW TO DEAL WITH DISSENTERS IN OUR PARISHES.

[IN our June Number, we had occasion to animadvert upon a "Short way with Dissenters," suggested, we regret to say, to a clergyman by the sight of the Flag of the Inquisition preserved at Evora; the following story, which has come into our hands, relating the experience of an aged country clergyman, sufficiently jealous, as the narrative testifies, for Church forms and ordinances, suggests another and, we think, a better "way" both for Dissenters, and also, in our judgment, for the Church.-ED.]

ALL separatists in Church discipline and Church ordinances from the Church of England are not, in my opinion, to be branded as schismatics. It was an admirable saying of Augustine, thus translated, "In necessary points,unity;' in doubtful ones, 'liberty;' towards all, charity."" It is no easy matter accurately to determine what the "necessary and what the " doubtful" points are. No model of a Christian Church, as regards externals, save the different orders and degrees of ministers, is recorded in the New Testament. The 19th Article of the Church of England, relative to the visible Church of Christ, although truly Scriptural, is vague and indefinite. The distinction between heresy and schism has been thus nicely drawn,-the former impugning the doctrine, and the faith, and the truth, which was once delivered unto the saints; the latter involving persons, discipline, and charity. From the earliest, and consequently the purest times of Christianity, there have been divisions on certain points of doctrine, and differences as to certain modes of public worship, among those members of Christ's mystical body "who hold the head." Provided no material and essential truths, essential to salvation, are denied or corrupted, the right hand of fellowship, as I believe, may be given to those who do not observe uniformity of discipline and worship. There may be separate pens in the fold of Christ, provided Christians, whatever may be their sectional denomination, agree in the unity of the Spirit, embrace the bond of peace, and walk in righteousness of life.

As this is not an essay on Dissent, I do not propose to enquire further into the various divisions and subdivisions under which many, professing to believe in "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all," have ranged themselves. It is enough, and more than enough, to know and to lament, that such differences do exist. That there is a certain amount of good as well as of evil in dissenting bodies, in the abstract, cannot, I think, be denied. Which of the two

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preponderates, I undertake not to pronounce. In our large and populous cities and towns, it cannot, in my opinion, be gainsaid, that were it not for the dissenting places of worship, a very large proportion of the population would be left with no one to care for their souls." Infidelity and ungodliness would be rampant. In such places (as a dissenting minister once said to the writer of these pages, when ministering in a parish of 50,000 souls) "there is room for us both," and he might have added, "and to spare." In small rural parishes dissent is far from being an unmixed good. Even a faithful and zealous clergyman finds it an obstruction to his ministerial influence and usefulness. With respect to the parish in which I have ministered for upwards of forty years, dissent, which was strong numerically, although not violent or bitter, when I first came to reside, has almost entirely disappeared. The chapel no longer exists. There is a service at a cottage, which does not clash with the church services, and by far the greater part of those who attend are also regular church-goers, and some of them are communicants. The system on which I have all along acted is this, to consider every inhabitant of the parish as part and parcel of the flock of which I am the regularly constituted pastor. Even with respect to those who do not avail themselves of the ministrations of our Church, I consider that they are still under my pastoral charge. I have never denounced dissent, still less dissenters personally, from the pulpit. I have only denounced error in doctrine and in practice. As some products of the earth grow from being trod upon, so opposition only begets greater opposition. In private conversation with some who do not worship with us, I have ever lamented that there should be any such differences and divisions; and I have always drawn a line between those who have been born and bred in the ranks of dissent, and those who have, without sufficient cause, from wilfulness, from caprice, sometimes from personal pique, left the church of their fathers in which they have been baptized. It has been my desire. and aim to inculcate "Gospel" principles, rather than mere "Church" principles, wishing rather to be instrumental in making those committed to my charge real Christians, than what is called "good churchmen." For it has been well remarked, "God's order is, not that souls become members of of Christ by becoming members of the Church, but that they become members of the Church by becoming members of Christ." In the spirit of the words uttered and acted upon by a valued clergyman, "I neither bless them at all, nor curse them at all." I have always endeavoured to manifest a Christian spirit, and invariable kindness of manner as well as in deed, when occasion offered, towards them. When in sick

ness or in sorrow, I have felt it my duty to visit them, and my visits have always been received with apparent and, I doubt not, real gladness and thankfulness. But I am bound in truth to make this statement: with but very few exceptions I have found them unprepared for the great and solemn change which awaited them. Some have acknowledged that they had heard so many different preachers and different doctrines, that they could not see their way clearly, being disturbed by doubts and distressed by fears.

R. R., when I first came to reside in the parish, was a dissenter; I believe, an Independent. He was deacon of a place of worship in a neighbouring parish, where he was, of course, a constant attendant. He was a man of a truly Christian spirit, and consequently was not hostile, although in principle opposed, to the Church of England. On the occasion of his wife being seized with a dangerous and, as it turned out, fatal illness, I visited her, unsolicited. I found her by no means clear in her views of Scriptural truth, and consequently she had not found peace where alone it is to be found; viz., in resting wholly and solely on a crucified Saviour. She found, however, as far as man can judge, peace at the last. After her death R. R. came to ask me a favour, which was, that I would lend him a light spring cart, to convey his wife's remains to the dissenting burial-ground at I immediately and willingly granted his request. On this, as well as on other occasions when we met, our conversation was of a spiritual and uncontroversial character. It was not long after that a confirmation was to be held in the Parish Church. He had a son and a daughter, who, as they had not been baptized in our Church, of course had not been confirmed. I had some conversation with him on the subject, the result of which was, that he was quite willing that his children should partake of that sacred ordinance. I mentioned the difficulty, in fact the obstacle; viz., his children not having been baptized in the Church of England, and that consequently they had no god-parents to release from their sponsorial engagements. On consulting the then Bishop of the diocese, he recommended that, if the parents had no objection, the only course open was, that the young persons should be rebaptized, using the hypothetical form prescribed, "If thou art not already baptized," &c. The result was that his children, with three others similarly circumstanced, were baptized and confirmed. Not very long after, his little daughter was taken seriously ill, and her illness proved fatal. I should have mentioned that she had for some time attended our Sunday school and the church. She was a meek and gentle child, and was prepared, I hope, for the great and blessed change. After her death her father called on me respecting

her burial; he supposed that, as she had been baptized in our church, she must necessarily be buried in the churchyard of the parish. I told him that there was no such necessity, although it was the usual practice. "Oh! sir," he said, with much feeling, "I wish I had known that, for Abi (his child's name was Abigail) did so wish that she might be buried by the side of her poor mother. But I supposed it could not be, and so I told her that it did not matter where the body lay, if her spirit was with Christ." I told him that I was sorry he had not mentioned the matter to me before the poor child died, for it would have cheered her last days to have known that her dying wish would be complied with. Under these circumstances he resolved to bury his child by the side of her mother; and asked me whether I would again let him have my cart for that purpose, which of course I consented to. A few weeks after, I observed R. R. attending the service of the church, which he continued to do, both in the morning and afternoon. On my calling on him, and expressing my gratification at seeing him at church, he told me that he had made up his mind to continue to do so in future; that he had experiencd much discomfort in attending the services at the chapel at

——, of which he had been a deacon; that he had had no peace from the occasional bickerings which took place between several parties; and that above all, he had found benefit from, and took great delight in, the devotional services of our Church, especially the Litany, which he had been accustomed to consider as a mere vain repetition of words. I was naturally pleased at hearing this; and I told him that if he had praised my sermons, I should have been tempted to question his sincerity; but that it argued no common discernment, as well as spirituality of mind, that he valued and relished our Scriptural and beautiful Liturgy, especially considering his former prejudices from education and habit. It was not long after that he expressed a desire to become a communicant, which he did, and for upwards of twenty years he was one of the most constant and devout attendants at the church and at the table of the Lord. He never missed an opportunity of attending a cottage lecture, which I have been in the habit of giving every Wednesday afternoon, chiefly to aged and infirm persons. On one occasion I had been speaking to them on the trials of old age, as well as the support and comfort which the Holy Scriptures are calculated, to administer, especially from several examples which are recorded of aged and pious servants of God. On overtaking him, he expressed himself as being very much cheered and strengthened by what he had heard, and he added very respectfully and modestly that I had omitted one point; viz., "they shall bring forth fruit in old age." I

would fain not have mentioned what I am about to do, as it savours of self-laudation; but he informed me that my great and unexpected kindness in lending him my cart to convey the remains of his wife and daughter to the burial-ground at had made a deep impression upon him, as well as my usual Christian spirit and conduct. God knows that I desire to take no credit for having done only a neighbourly and kind action, and which, I believe, ninety-nine out of every hundred clergymen would have done, had it been in their power. I cannot, consistently with truth, say that every clergyman would have acted precisely as I had done; for one excellent man, an old friend of mine, told me, when relating the circumstance in a conversation respecting our treatment of dissenters in our parishes, that, much as he admired my Christian spirit and conduct, he could not imitate it. I am satisfied, however, that he belied himself, and that if he were placed in the same circumstances he would do as I had done. "The law of kindness," (Prov. xxxi. 26,) how potent art thou to disarm an adversary, to silence a gainsayer, to conciliate esteem and admiration, if not affection! How inexpressibly gratifying to one's own feelings, apart from all self-glorification! Like mercy, "it is twice blessed-it blesses him who gives, and him who takes."

The sequel of the narrative of R. R. is of a melancholy, and yet of a bright and hopeful character. He was about seventy years of age, and was of a rather feeble frame, and in addition to the infirmity of deafness he had lost the sight of an eye. As he was on the level crossing of the railway which divides the parish, the express train came suddenly upon him, and killed him instantaneously, without any blame attaching to the driver. The sad accident happened on a Saturday, and I need scarcely state that it occasioned a great sensation throughout the parish. I made it the subject of both sermons on the following day, my text for the morning being taken from Gen. xl. 7, "Why look ye so sadly to-day?" and that in the afternoon from Mark xiii. 36, "Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." I mention this from the following somewhat remarkable coincidence. After the afternoon service, I called on his poor widow, and, on my mentioning the subject on which I had been preaching, she exclaimed, "Oh! sir, that was poor Richard's text yesterday morning. He was always in the habit of choosing a text for every day, and that was the text which he had chosen." Blessed be God, he was not "found sleeping."

I should add, that his remains were buried by the side of his wife and child, and I ordered the knell to be tolled as the funeral was leaving the village.

R. G.