THE LONDON CITY MISSION MAGAZINE ON THE ORDER OF DEACON IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

From the London City Mission Magazine, for April, 1847.

"We do not purpose to advert further to those parts of Mr. Kingscote's zealous letter which have reference to an inferior class of clergy. On this it would not be exactly our province to write. There are undoubtedly difficulties connected with it, as well as advantages; and we are not quite sure that these difficulties would not be found to be even greater, so far as a disturbance of the existing order of things is concerned, than the extensive employment of lay agency. We are inclined to think that this would be the case; although any additional spiritual agency, of whatever order, for our neglected population is what we could not but rejoice in.*

"The object of the Memorial to the Archbishop was to obtain his sanction to an increased number of inferior clergy, and to a recognised order of lay agents. But we have met of late with several excellent and devoted clergymen, from whom we certainly little anticipated such an idea, who have contended that all individuals filling such an office as that of our missionaries ought to be ordained. We considered such an idea as most erroneous and dangerous, and one which if acted on cannot but impede the progress of the Gospel.

“As an intimation has been recently given that one or two of the bishops have some intention of receiving as candidates for ordination those who have been a certain period engaged as lay agents in the kindred societies with our own in connexion with the Church of England, if they have approved themselves during that time to those with whom they have been connected, we venture to remark, that for many years the Committee of the London City Mission found the working of such a system so almost entirely destructive of the performance of that important work which they seek to accomplish, that they at length came to the unanimous conclusion to regard as inadmissible into the number of their missionaries candidates for the ministry, and have ever since refused to entertain their applications, however suitable the individuals might be. The Committee came to this conclusion as the result of their experience in a considerable number of missionaries of this order in the earlier years of the Society. The employment may be, and doubtless is, desirable to the candidates as an introduction to the engagements of the ministry; but the Committee found that the heart was not in their work-that the time was occupied (as far as it could be) in preparing for examinations and in studies very remotely connected with missionary employment- that the discipline of such candidates was more difficult than that of others-that ordinarily they were far less useful in their districts--and that their speedy removal was both an inconvenience to the Society and a decided obstacle to the good which might otherwise have been accomplished. That class of work which has been perhaps of all others most neglected, and which therefore seems to claim the most especial attention at the present time-we mean the carrying the Gospel to the abodes of the poor-appears to us to be far too important to be delegated to individuals who shall make a mere stepping stone of it. Nothing appears to us more likely, humanly speaking, to paralize its success than to select for an attention to it indi viduals who professedly have some ulterior object speedily in view, rather than individu. als who con amore profess to devote and consecrate their existence to its solemn duties.

"We may further add on this subject, that many of our missionaries, notwithstanding their professions on admission, have afterwards, we should almost say, been tempted to leave us and enter the ministry, both in the Church of England and among the Dissenters, injudicious friends having in most cases urged them to do so; but that in most of these cases, the missionaries have afterwards themselves seen that they took a false step. Missionaries have been taken from an occupation in which they were eminently useful in the conversion of the souls of men, and of just that class of men for whose souls no one else was caring, and who were the farthest removed from God, and they have been

"But as a new class of clergy of a lower rank is not favoured generally among the Bishops of the Church of England, and as by no one Bishop, that we are aware of has it yet been actually created, the practical question-and that with which we have to do at present-is, a consideration of such agency as does exist and may be obtained.

"It is an indisputable fact, that a growing feeling exists in the Church of England, and even among the clergy, in favor of lay teachers. The Church Pastoral-Aid Society, which makes grants for ordained or unordained assistants, according to the wish of the clergyman who applies for help, never had so large a proportion of its agents unordained as at this time, and this although the Scripture-Readers' Association, which employs only unordained agency, was thought by many persons at the time of its formation to be likely, almost entirely, to take the lay part of the operations of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society out of its hands. The number of the lay agents of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society was in fact very small, until the Scripture-Readers' Association was formed, in 1844. It had then 236 clerical and only 32 lay agents. Before this time the feeling against lay agency was so strengthening, that the number of its lay agents decreased almost year by year. In 1913 they were 31, but in the three preceding years they were 37, 39, and 34; and in the first of these years (1840) they had only increased during the year 8, although the number of clergymen had increased 97. But in 1845 the lay agents had increased from 32 to 41, although the general increase in the agency of the Society was very trivial. At the last Annual Meeting (1846) the 41 lay agents had increased to 48, although the clerical agents had actually decreased. And since May last the lay agents have increased from 48 to 75! From the date of the establishment of the Scripture-Readers' Association in 1844, the clergymen of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society have increased about one-sixth, but of lay agents the number has one-third more than doubled itself. The increase of lay agents as compared with that of clergymen is, therefore, that of about eight to one, although a new Society has been established which has employed lay agents alone, on the application of clergymen. If this increase of lay agents had been on the application of lay members of the Church of England, it would have been important as an index of the public mind; but as the voice of the clergy themselves, it is far more important as a fact. We believe it is felt by many excellent clergymen, that a highly educated and refined agency is not precisely the best adapted to the character of the work to be attended to in our large, poor, and neglected parishes, and that practically it scarcely tells AT ALL upon the adults of the working classes of society."

The above Extract is inserted to show the sentiments of Dissenters and some few Churchmen.

placed in other stations for which it has soon been found they were comparatively quite unsuited, and in which their usefulness has been incomparably less. Almost in every single instance has this been the case, where ordination has been conferred on leaving the Mission, and without any intermediate training or instruction.

"We believe, to anything approaching to a general ordination of lay agents, the Dissenting Churches in general would decidedly object, as in the highest degree inexpedient for the credit of the ministry and the ultimate welfare of the flock. Is the Church of England to be less careful in her standard of requirement?''

It would, however, be most erroneous to imagine, that the largest proportion of the members of the Church of England, either Clergy or Laity, would prefer increasing her efficiency by an increase of Layagency, rather than by the Restoration of the Order of Deacon.

It is very much to be doubted, whether the writer of the article in the City Mission Magazine is sufficiently acquainted with the sentiments of the Bishops, to justify the assertion that an increase of Deacons is not favoured generally among the Bishops of the Church of England. Perhaps the difficulties connected with such an increase of Deacons, may have made their Lordships' cautions that such a step should not be taken, until due consideration had been given to the whole question, and that such time and attention might be given to the preliminary arrangements, as should secure a greater measure of efficiency to the Church.

In the selection of persons to be ordained as Deacons, it ought always to be understood, that their previous training or instruction has been attended to in such a manner, that they are competent to undergo the required examination for Deacon's orders.

REPLACING THE CHEST FOR THE POOR IN ALL

CHURCHES.

SCRIPTURAL

TESTIMONY.

"From some scriptural expressions it is clear, that the giving of alms accompanied the performance of public worship both in the Jewish and Christian Church: when the Jews went up to the temple, they cast their alms into the treasury. From this custom, or rather from an abuse of this custom, our Lord is led to give this warning instruction in St. Matthew vi. 1-4, 'Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven; therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward; but when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right right doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.' The interesting anecdote of the poor widow casting in her two mites into the treasury illustrates the same. 'And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how people cast money into the treasury and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites

which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury; for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want 'did cast in all that she had, even all her living.' St. Mark xii. 41-44. And from the angel's testimony in favour of Cornelius, (in Acts x. 4,) Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God,' we may fairly infer that his alms accompanied his prayers."

PRIMITIVE PRACTICE.

"In the primitive times there were collections for the poor every Lord's day. 1 Cor. XVI. 1, 2. A consecrated day being fittest for a consecrated dole: the week day being the seed time, the Sabbath the harvest for Christian clarity. This sacred stock (as one calls it) which is laid up in the week day, will be put to the highest, and the holiest usury on the Lord's day, if the hearts of the poor be filled with food and gladness, and the backs of the poor wear the livery of our bounty. Justin Martyr, speaking of the order of Christians upon the Lord's day in his time, affirms, that alms are given according to the discretion of every man, for the relief of the poor, the fatherless, and the banished. Chrysostome observes, that the duty of charity is most seasonable on a Sabbath, because it is a day wherein God appears in his best and largest bounty to us, then he gives us his sweetest ordinances, then be enricheth us with Gospel privileges, then he drops down upon us his divine graces. In our churches at this day, the poor's bread is set up for distribution on the Lord's day. which imports the sweet correspondency between that day, which is a day of love, and the duty, which is an act of charity. A learned man takes notice, that this custom of relieving the poor on the Lord's day, was grown obsolete at Constantinople, till the worthy Chrysostome restored that commanded duty. And this custom well becomes the Sabbath, for what are we but alms'-men at the throne of God's grace on the time of God's day? Indeed, the Sun of Righteousness as on this day arose, and scattered his beams of light and love, and the world rejoiced in that appearance; let us scatter our bounty and laudible charity on this day, that the poor may rejoice in our seasonable contributions; Let us remember that in 1 Cor. xv. 2. the Greek word we render, laying by, be more correctly rendered, treasuring up. Hle that lays un, and treasures for the poor, lays up an everlasting treasure for himself. And let us consider, charitable words are not enough; the love of the tongue only is flattery, not charity, it is adulation, and not affection. Words are cheap, and the pities of language are at no cost, or charge. The belly is not filled with roseat phrases, nor the back cloathed with the embroidery of indulgent language; only to bid the poor be filled,

or be cloathed is not compassion, but derision: And therefore on the Sabbath, our love must be the charity of the purse, and not only of the lip; we must act good works, and not only give good words: Faith acts not without love, Gal. v. 6., and love acts not without works. Heb. XIII. 16. When we are blessing God on a Sabbath, let the poor be blessing us, it will be sweet harmony, when our heart, and the poors loyns both praise God together. On the Sabbath we must appear before God, Psal. XLII. 2. And the Old Law commands us not to appear before God empty, Deut. xvI. 16. Charity on any dayis Silver Bullion, but on the Sabbath is Golden Ore. Let us therefore on that holy day, feed the hungry, refresh the thirsty, receive strangers, cloath the naked, visit the sick, and comfort those in prison; this will redound to our account in that day, when acts of charity are the recorded characters' of a sincere and sympathizing Saint, Mat. xxv. 35. And happily capacitate us for the donative of a Crown."

From "The Practical Sabbatarian;" or, "Sabbath Holiness crowned with Superlative Happiness." By John Wells, Minister of the Gospel. London, printed 1668.

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

"I wish now most respectfully to suggest to my Lords and Reverend Brethren-the Bishops and Parochial Clergy of the Church of England, the benefit which would arise both to the poor and to the church from the renewel of this godly and charitable custom. In every parish, let the clergyman, assisted by some upright, religious, and judicious members of his flock, make a collection for the poor on the first day of the week, that every one, when going up to the house of God, having laid by him in store as God hath prospered him, may have an opportunity of casting in his free-will offerings into the treasury of the Lord. Care must be taken that this fund should always be kept as a purely charitable fund, free from all legal interference, so that it shall be entirely left to the judgment and discretion of the Clergyman and his parochial advisers and helpers, to dispense it for the benefit of the poor as they shall deem best. The church would then be doing its duty to the poor, who would again regard the ministry of the church with that fond affection which they were wont to do in her purest and most prosperous days."

This Extract and the Scriptural Testimony are from "A Letter to the Bishops and Parochial Clergy, in behalf of the Deserving Poor," published by the Editor in the year 1838.

It is the intention of the Editor that the Third Number of the Advocate s'all appear (1.v.) on the 1st of November, All communications connected with this publication are requested to be addressed, "To the Editor of the Deacon's Advocate, Norfolk House, Shirley, Southampton."

TUCKER, PRINTER, HIGH-STREET, SOUTHAMPTON.