ページの画像
PDF
ePub

our enemies make what use they please of this admission. We wish they could give it a thousand tongues, and make it vocal in every part of the kingdom. Some of our readers may be startled by it, and perhaps will deny its truth. But let them canvass it thoroughly, and our end will be obtained. It will lead to a selfsearching which will bring out the spiritual leaven that, a long dominant Church has diffused through the heart of these kingdoms. These are not times in which the iron and the gold must be mixed up together. Either our principles are scriptural, and should be followed out to their legitimate issues, or they bear the impress of error, and should at once and for ever be abandoned. Dissenters themselves, though in advance of their countrymen, have yet much to learn. The shadows of past ages linger around them, and they have need to purge and unscale their long 'abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance.' Let this be once accomplished-whether by the persuasions of friends or the taunts of enemies-and they will no longer hold fellowship, even for a moment, with the secularized and impure Church of England.

Let us now see how the chapels registered are distributed. Returns have been obtained respecting 1,257 of them, and are exhibited in the following table, which we transcribe, simply premising that some of the names specified are unknown to us.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

From the chapels which have been registered we proceed to notice the number of marriages celebrated. The following table will show this.

[blocks in formation]

The general result is briefly told. According to the rites of the Established Church, there were celebrated, during the year embraced in these returns, 107,201 marriages; while the number of dissenting marriages, embracing those of Jews, was only 4,280; being in the proportion of about 1 to 25. On these facts we wish to fix attention, for we are satisfied that they are more significant than some of our friends admit. It would, of course, be preposterous to allege, that the numbers here exhibited are indicative of the proportion of Dissenters to Churchmen. The hardihood of our enemies, though equal to most assertions, has not ventured so far as this; at least no statement of the kind has fallen under our notice. The novelty of the system must no doubt be taken into account. The old mode of marriage was well known, while the machinery of the new system was very imperfectly understood. Moreover, there had grown up an undefined feeling which identified marriage-the legal and civil rite -with going to Church, and the performance within its walls of a certain round of religious services. This had been so long customary, and the influence of association is so powerful over the mass of mankind, that it required some effort, some special act of thought, to dissociate the two, and to feel assured that the integrity of the one was preserved, while the other was neglected. There was more of sentiment than of intellect in this. It had no reference to religious creeds, or to ecclesiastical platforms, but was the growth of association, acting on an unreflecting multitude. It was one of those impalpable impressions which men do not analyse, but under which they act, till some circumstance occurs to call thought into existence, and the spell is then instantly gone. Now this cause has had, we doubt not, extensive though imperceptible influence in swelling the number of Church marriages, and in diminishing proportionably those of Dissenters. But its operation can only be temporary. It is dependent entirely on the circumstances out of which it has grown; and, as these are giving place to a new class of facts, we may look for the speedy emancipation of the public mind from a thraldom, as discreditable to its intellectual pretensions, as it is incompatible with the real nature of the marriage contract.

The sixth section of the Act for Marriage, which requires the publication of banns at the weekly meetings of the Board of Guardians of the Poor, has also operated to diminish the number of dissenting marriages. We always regretted the determination of government to retain this provision of their statute, as tending to irritate and annoy where conciliation alone was designed. It gave the aspect of degradation and insult to that which was offered as a boon, and has led many sensitive men to spurn the concession which was made to their righteous demands. We think Dissenters unwise in having permitted such feelings to operate.

It has given an air of irritation, of mortified vanity, to their conduct, which ought to have been calm, dignified, and religiously consistent. The great object which they sought in their reiterated and urgent appeals to the legislature, was relief from the occasional conformity to the Established Church to which the old marriage law compelled them. This plea was ever foremost in their petitions, and was urged with signal ability by their advocates. Consistency therefore required-it was due to themselves, to the professions they had made, to the prayers they had uttered, to the high-minded men whose eloquence had pleaded their cause that they should at once, and gladly, have availed themselves of the relief offered, however repugnant to their feelings the mode prescribed for its attainment. It should have sufficed to determine their preference, that another concession had been wrung from the hard hand of clerical intolerance-that another fetter by which dissenters were bound to the state church was broken-that the sacredness of conscience had been again proclaimed, and the freedom of religion, its spontaneity and heavenly character, been recognized in the statute-book of the land. Every man who had urged the plea of conscience in petitions to the legislature had but one course before him; and we regret that many have been diverted from it by pique, resentment, or other equally unworthy motives. The scruples of conscience are too sacred and imperative to be overruled by the suggestions of party pride, or of personal vanity.

6

It is due to Mr. Lister to remark, that he has done all in his power to render the working of the new Act consonant to the feelings of his Dissenting countrymen. This is shown in the circular addressed to superintendent-registrars, (Appendix F,) in which a spirit of kindness and consideration is evidenced that ought to have been promptly and thankfully met. The Registrar of Marriages,' it is observed, will act almost exclusively in connection with persons who do not conform to the Church ' of England. It is proper that this circumstance should be borne in mind in_carrying into effect the provisions of the aforesaid Act; and I therefore recommend, that in your selection of fit 'persons for the office of Registrar of Marriages, you carefully consider whether they will be likely to conform to the spirit of 'the statute, and to conduct themselves in a manner acceptable to those with whom they will be brought into contact, at the same 'time that they perform their duties with fidelity and care; and 'that you shall not select shall not select persons whose acts or declared opinions 'may reasonably cause them to be regarded with unfavorable feelings by those at whose ordinances it will be their duty to ' attend.'

We should not, however, perform the part of frank and honest journalists, if we did not, before closing our remarks, admit that

us.

much thoughtlessness, and consequent indifference, exist amongst We have been so long habituated to the past state of things, it has interwoven itself so dexterously with our earliest associations, has gathered to itself with such inimitable skill the force of sympathy, and the venerableness of age, that but few of us are duly apprised of the poisonous influences which it has spread through all the ramifications of English society. We permit ourselves in consequence to lend to the system the occasional sanction of our support. Our opposition is reserved for its more avowedly religious aspects. Here, dissenters are firm, unswerving, and high minded; but, in the thousand other cases which occur, we suffer our judgments to be harassed by an unscriptural charity, the impulses of pride, or a disgraceful love of ease. We want minds of a larger growth, and of a wider range of thought --intellects, that will trace the latent influences of systems, and find in their pernicious fruits evidence of their impiety and wrong, Let such men abound-we could name a few such-and let their influence fairly tell upon the dissenting public, and a mighty change will take place among us. The puerility and halfheartedness now frequently met with, and commonly mistaken for charity, will give place to a far-searching intelligence, combined with a strength and determination of purpose, which will know no limits, and admit of no rest, short of an entire emancipation of the church from its present degraded and corrupting alliance with the politics of this world. Then shall the sweet odour of the returning gospel imbathe our soul with the fragrancy of heaven.' Charity, so long misunderstood, so seldom practised, shall obtain a dwelling in every human heart, and the reign of righteousness and peace dawn upon our apostate world. Come, therefore, O thou that hast the seven stars in thy right hand, appoint thy chosen priests according to their orders and courses of old, to minister before thee, and duly to press and pour out 'the consecrated oil into thy holy and ever-burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon thy servants over all the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows as the sound of many waters about thy throne. O perfect and accomplish thy 'glorious acts! For men may leave their works unfinished; but thou art a God, thy nature is perfection. Shouldst thou bring us thus far onward from Egypt to destroy us in the wilderness, though we deserve; yet thy great name would suffer in the rejoicing of thine enemies, and the deluded hope of all thy servants..... Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth! put on the visible robes of thy majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, * and all creatures sigh to be renewed.”

Milton's Animadversions upon the Remonstrants' Defence.

« 前へ次へ »