RESIDENCES FOR THE CLERGY IN THE MIDST OF DENSE POPULATIONS.

Here, however, arises an important inquiry touching the best means of locating the clergy in such districts. You who know (as I have known) what it is to labour in the very midst of a mass of fellow-creatures amongst whom deep poverty abounds, and where vice and squalor hold a dusky reign together-above all, you know (as I have known) what it is, not only to work in such a place, but to dwell therein for many months together, exposed to the frightful scenes of misery which vice and debauchery produce-to the midnight riot beneath your window-to the drunkard falling helpless at your door to the strange romances of crime which astonish and appal, and to that indescribable but fearful wear and tear of the spirits which a constant contact with sin in all its lowest forms of loathsomeness produces-I say you alone can tell at what a cost it is that you have carried on your ministry. If you were unmarried, then you know how the frightful depression of spirit which dwelling in such a place inflicted, would often tempt you to go away for a while to more cheerful scenes; and yet, what was this, often repeated, but to leave the sheep scattered amongst the wolves? Or, if you were married, and somewhat relieved at home from the sullen dullness naturally pervading such a wilderness of sin, it may have been to find yourself the spectator of a wife or of children pining away by reason of a tainted atmosphere, or borne down by anxiety for their maintenance even upon the most frugal principles of comfort, and, while giving all your energies to build schools for the training of the children of the poor about you, knowing not how to provide any proper education for your own!

It would be easy to paint some saddening pictures here, and easier yet to bring living witnesses before you of the truthfulness of these statements, but the object now, in connection with Church Extension, is rather to suggest how we may mitigate, if not avoid such trials as these.

This question becomes the more important from the circumstance of many of our richer manufacturers falling into the habit of quitting the scene of their labours after business hours are over, leaving the artisan and the clergyman alone to work together, and, deprived of those influences, which, in a mixture of society, may be so truly beneficial.

I think that, in such localities (and they are fast increasing), a central place of residence for all the clergy of the parish should be secured in as large and open a space near the church as can conveniently be arranged, in which, both on the score of economy as well as of comfort, and also for the purpose of maintaining social and cheerful intercourse, the unmarried portion of them might combine the advantages of a common board, and all of them of daily spiritual service, together with access to one common library. Each clergyman having, however, at his pleasure the privacy of his own chamber for study and meditation.

Time forbids my entering into details, but I think that if we would secure and enlarge the living influences of the ministry amongst our large populations some such scheme as I have now hinted at will be required.

A non-resident clergy will not do, if the tone and condition of the

masses are to be raised as they ought to be. But if they are to be resident, I claim for them the calm quiet and comfort of a good dwelling-house, and of profitable society; and I submit the foregoing as a likely scheme to secure it.

ENDOWMENT OF A FUND FOR A CURATE.

Further, to give the greatest possible effect to the use of churches already existing, an endowment to provide funds for one or more curates is desirable.

It is impossible that an original endowment (as a rule) can support all the curates required for the spiritual ministrations of a rapidly growing population, even where the church building (if made the best use of) might afford all the necessary accommodation.

Now, an endowment of the kind I suggest would simply provide the income of one or more curates; but with such arrangements as should secure in return certain defined extra public ministrations, both on Sunday and upon other specified opportunities.

SUBSIDIARY AID BY SERVICES IN SCHOOL CHAPELS AND TEMPORARY BUILDINGS.

But, while making all possible use of existing churches, other means in the more distant parts of a straggling or scattered population may be desirable.

School Chapels suggest one most useful way of providing for this want.

If built of cruciform shape; the two small transepts (one of which may contain an organ and the other a parochial library) become, during school time by means of thick curtains, two good class rooms; while, during divine service, they afford accommodation for worshippers; and then a small chancel at the end, containing the table, lectern, and pulpit (entirely shut off during school hours), renders the School Chapel complete.

Something, too, may be done in the large rooms of mills and factories (as constant experience tells me), and I know of one instance in Devonshire, where the manufacturer furnishes the salary for a clergyman, who, under the Bishop's license, acts as chaplain to the people of the factory. I know, too, a case in Norfolk where, under similar arrangements, a lay reader is sustained.

OUR SERVICES MUST BE MODIFIED, OR MORE SERVICES ADDED TO OUR RITUAL.

But I am thoroughly convinced that some modification of our services, or rather the supply of new services, for week-day purposes, in church or out of church, is absolutely necessary.-I will not say one word about revision; but I ask for more, and varied, occasional services. If we are to win the (so called) alienated masses and to

*It is a serious consideration whether many of the reforms, made by the Legislature in reference to our Cathedral establishments, have not been made in the wrong direction.

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Instead of reducing the prebends to a very small number, I think the constant presence of three or four of them ought to have been secured, who should have formed "Schools of the Prophets," becoming, in fact, the tutors of all candidates for Holy Orders, and also of probationary deacons," who could be sent forth (under episcopal direction) as missionaries, from time to time, in towns and villages within the diocese. This would have rendered "Theological Colleges" unnecessary, by readily supplying a very superior college for every diocese, and would have given great warmth and dignity to the Cathedral services. Is it altogether too late to entertain the subject even now?

retain them, I hardly think we shall succeed by uttering the selfsame words of a ritual in the ears of these people day after day. Indeed, I may well ask for some variety, for as we are now circumstanced, whether I met my parishioners last year to deprecate a famine, or this year for the purpose of a thanksgiving for the precious harvest God has graciously vouchsafed to give us, if we met on the same day of the month, our service must be word for word the same throughout! Can this be right, or wise, or to edification?

And why the same service when I go among the "outcasts" as when I minister amongst the assemblies of God's professing people? Why not a grand Te Deum Laudamus service for occasional thanksgiving?

Why not some variety in the services day by day throughout the week? I believe if Church Extension is to proceed well, this subject must not be omitted. In the new code of Canons of the Episcopal Church of Scotland is a provision (Canon xxxi. sect. 2.) allowing certain modifications of the services, and discretionary power as to the lessons, on week-days. I am not saying that this would be our best way of proceeding in England, but if Church Extension is to go on as prosperously as it ought and might, we must be furnished with short lively responsive services, varying somewhat from day to day, but so arranged that they may be easily found, and participated in by all the people. I lay great stress on their being responsive (having tried many experiments). I wish indeed, that a short original prayer were at all times permitted (not required) after sermon, in Church or elsewhere, but I am quite satisfied that for the most part the additional offices we need should be responsive.*

And whether in the Cathedral, or the Church, or the Chapel, you must also have preaching, if you will promote Church Extension in them.-Pithy discourses, telling commentaries, interesting lectures, not exceeding on week-days, ten minutes in duration, well prepared, and delivered ex tempore, should accompany every other service, at the least. Let those who prefer prayer and praise, exclusively, have the opportunity of enjoying them. But let not the multitude (who, after all, like to hear God's Holy Word expounded) be deprived of their preference. Here at least let us be "all things to all men that we may by all means save some." No one who has visited our Cathedrals

* I must, in mere self-defence, complain of the conduct of some clergymen who, though clamorous in their outcry against any revision of the Prayer Book, or against any proposal for the supply of new services, testify, nevertheless, to the great need there is of such services by using some of their own compilation, and do not hesitate to violate Rubrics, while condemning those who would alter them. Just as one example of this latter kind. There is a growing desire with many persons to receive the Lord's Supper, fasting. However excellent the motive of such persons, it may be well to recollect that the institution was rather the consummation of a feast, and that in the apostolic days a love feast often accompanied the Lord's Supper. But, in order to receive the Lord's Supper fasting, early communions are now frequent. I will not say one word against them, for any thing that calls men to early devotion on the Lord's Day is well. But this I say, that whenever the holy communion is administered without a sermon being previously preached, there is a direct violation of the second Rubric after the Nicene Creed. The language of that Rubric is clear and concise. There is nothing hypothetical about it. "Then shall follow the sermon." Or, if there be no sermon, "One of the Homilies." So, too, Jebb, Stephens, Whateley, and Sinnock.

As to a prayer before or after sermon, there is abundant proof that this was practised down to th time of the last Act of Uniformity, and was often much more of a precatory prayer than of bidding to prayer. We all know that the Act of Uniformity put a stop to this custom almost entirely for a specific political purpose., the cause whereof has now utterly passed away, while Bingham tells us-(Antiq., vol. iv., Book xiv., chap. iv., sect. xiii.)-"It is manifest, they used such short prayers both in the beginning and at conclusion of their sermons, and sometimes, as occasion required, in the middle of them also, and that these were distinct from the common prayers of the Church." He is here speaking of such men as S. Chrysoston, S. Ambrose, and S. Augustin. Permission for a similar practice now would remove every fair objection which can be urged against a form of prayer, as the clergyman could, by this permission, furnish a prayer suited to any emergency in the parish. Such prayer might be always written beforehand, and limited so as never to exceed in length that for " All Sorts and Conditions of Men." I will not offer any remark upon the objection that Christ's ministers are incapable of leading the devotions of the people for two minutes, upon an emergency, in their supplications by prayers of their own dictation,

and watched the services in them, will venture (I think) to say that they have the hold upon the mind of the people we all must desire. Another impediment to Church Extension is the difficulty of finding the places in the Book of Common Prayer. It is a very serious impediment and needs a very simple remedy, but I will not enter upon the subject further.*

ASSISTANCE BY THE LAITY.

And may not great help, even in the way of labour, be obtained from the laity at little or no cost, if kindly accepted and directed? I speak not now of scripture readers and visitors alone, such as the Pastoral Aid Society and other societies here introduced amongst us, but rather of unpaid assistance from the laity in the way of subordinate occasional spiritual services.

For while Holy Scripture seems to point out the permanent establishment of an ordained ministry, and that, not the Papal system, with its seven orders (whereof Episcopacy is not one),† or the Presbyterian system, or the Independent system; but the simple three-fold order of bishop, priest, and deacon, it appears also to encourage, under certain conditions, the valuable assistance of lay agency. And in lay agency the essential appears to be simply this, that it be carried on with the recognition, guidance, and approval of the ordained clergyman, and where it is so done, I believe it will work well, because then founded on right principles. Of undesirable lay agents S. Paul seems to have had at least one specimen in "Alexander the coppersmith." [1 Tim. i. 20., 2 Tim. iv. 14., and perhaps Acts xix. 33.] But this was an exceptional case, and we must not forget that goodly array of persons so affectionately spoken of in the conclusion of his Epistle to the Romans (men and women, husband and wife, sisters, mothers, brothers, and even the chamberlain of the city), almost all of whom are spoken of as lay agents in promoting Church Extension, and everyone of whom seems more or less entitled to the endearing term, specially applied to two of them, namely, "My Helpers in Christ Jesus."

I quite feel, in accordance with the report given by the Committee of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury on this subject, that lay agency may be well used in promoting Church Extension, so only it be done in an orderly manner; and I may here state, after nineteen months experience in what must otherwise have been a neglected

I have recently published my scheme for finding the places in the Prayer Book, having first most thoroughly proved its complete success. It is, to print in large type, a numeral before every section in the Prayer Book, so that any part can be found, on being announced by its numeral, as readily as a hymn, or a chapter of the Bible. After publicly using the numerals once or twice, it is unnecessary to revert to them, but they would always be of use, for indices and for lectures, and for teaching children in the school. A still easier way is that of consecutively numbering the pages of the Prayer Book. In this case, however, care must be taken to use the same edition; but the other plan is by far the better plan, and, if only our authorised printers would agree to one course of enumeration throughout, any one prayer in our Service Book could be found as readily as any one hymn in our Hymn Books. My enumeration, which runs throughout every page (preface, calendar, &c., &c.,) extends from No. 1 to No. 446, and, after many experiments, appears to me to be complete. My attention has been drawn to a fact, of which I was ignorant until after I had tried and published these schemes, that the Prayer Book and Homily Society, in their edition of "The Book of Common Prayer, with Scripture Proofs," A.D. 1857, have numbered the pages, and also "arbitrary sections from No. 1 to No. 410." But I cannot think the society, in doing this, had any such idea as I now advocate. Their enumeration was for another and most excellent object, but the figures are too indistinct and too much mingled with other type to be of real service for readily finding the place,

+"Docendum igitur erit, hosce omnes ordines septenario numero contineri, semperque ita a catholica ecclesia traditum esse; quorum nomina haec sunt: ostiarius, lector, exorcista, acolythus subdiaconus, diaconus, sacerdos. Catechismi ad Parochos, Pars II. cap. vii. Quaes. xii."

-Sacerdotii ordo] "Primus est eorum, qui sacerdotes simpliciter vocantur, quorum functiones hactenus declaratae sunt. Secundus est episcoporum. Tertius gradus est archiepiscoporum

Quæstio xxv."-See Preface to our Ordinal.

part of my parish, that such assistance, cautiously selected and wisely regulated, is a great aid to the parson, and of great benefit to the parish. But I think a special form of service for the exclusive use of lay agents is very desirable. Besides this, I believe it would greatly aid the clergyman, and give much interest to Church matters throughout the parish, if the churchwardens and sidesmen could be prevailed upon to regard themselves as the managers, with the clergyman, of all the ecclesiastical matters of the parish, and would undertake the financial affairs of schools, societies, collections, and the like. They are the legal representative body of the parish, and it would be well for all of us, I think, if these ancient and honourable offices of the church laymen could be raised into their due worth and dignity.

FORMATION OF NEW PARISHES.

But when you have done all that can be done to render your present organisation useful, the formation of new parishes will be requisite before you can effect all that is needed. If the parochial system be not the best, let us give it up. But if it be the best, let one place enjoy the benefit of it as much as another. Well, but those places do not enjoy it, whose populations are become so large that the chief pastors have more than enough to do, to direct other clergymen, and to manage the general proceedings of schools, meetings, and services.

I am aware that some persons argue strongly in favour of retaining the old Parish Church as the central head of every organisation, urging as one reason that in such cases the richer part of a large parish will help the poorer part. I answer, there may be some few cases of this kind, and I am far from desiring to lay down too strict a rule of proceeding. Nevertheless, I submit: (a) Such a scheme takes us back to the primitive episcopacy of the seven Churches of Asia Minor, to which there can be no objection if you make the chief pastor a suffragan bishop, but otherwise the scheme is antiparochial. (b) I think experience shows that wherever a parish has become very large, there is no more sympathy between the extremely poor of the one end of that parish and the rich of the other end, than though each had the benefit of distinct parochial ministrations.

A parish anciently signified a place and people possessing a church and parson (perhaps assisted by one or two curates in some instances), but implying too a population no larger than the church could accommodate and the parson himself visit and spiritually counsel. There seems to be a well-meant apprehension in the minds of some excellent friends of the Church, lest we should fall into a great error by the multiplication of parishes. And, no doubt, this is possible, but as far as my observation has extended, it is not probable, and has not yet occurred.*

The argument against forming new parishes is, that though you sever a population from a confessedly overgrown parish, you do so by erecting a church, endowed with some £50 a-year, where you place a parson, who, borne down by anxiety in begging money for the erection of schools and a parsonage, at length dies in utter poverty, bequeathing to his successor great labour and trouble to maintain in efficiency

* Some few places still exist, where the ancient plan of adding an aisle for the free use of a certain hamlet within the parish, and bearing the name of that hamlet, (e.g., "The Clifton Aisle"), might be adopted.