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THE STATE OF OUR EPISCOPACY.

butable to the deep anxiety that we are all feeling for the greatest measure of the efficiency of the Church, as well in external as in its more internal development.

Men whose minds have never known, or who have thrown off the shackles imposed by a blind and ignorant adherence to the prestige of ancient claims and arrangements, are beginning to manifest a resolute determination to reject what is altogether wrong or useless, and to remodel what clearly demands and is susceptible of safe re-arrangement. What our forefathers have done in civil matters has, during the last quarter of a century, been treated with but little ceremony by those who have professed to feel that the lapse of time, further enlightenment, and increased experience, fully warranted the application of remedial mea

sures.

The time has now arrived when our episcopacy must be dealt with in the way which shall give greater promise of stability and real efficiency to the Establishment, than the basis on which it at present rests. Our bishops are losing the confidence and attachment of the laity; and their influence, as heads of the Church in this country, is to a great extent paralyzed by the unfortunate position in which they are placed in two particulars: first, their revenues, and the source from which they are derived; secondly, the rank they occupy.

With regard to the first particular, it were easy to cull from many ecclesiastical reports and other sources, facts which would tell most strongly against that system which has for so long a period rendered the bishops liable to something stronger than a suspicion of having more than adequate incomes for ruling ministers of Christ's Church. Their ordinary and published incomes may vary from an inconsiderable to a large yearly amount; but, besides these, there have been ways and means in the shape of fines upon the re-letting of the respective properties of the sees, which have been understood to have yielded very large additional sources of revenue. It is true that these va

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rious properties have been affixed to our episcopal sees, and are legally enjoyed by those occupants who were appointed before the ecclesiastical commissioners endeavoured to secure a re-adjustment of their future incomes. Yet it is no less true, we fear, from the facts which are now too frequently brought forward, that those who have taken the sees subject to these re-arrangements, do still really enjoy far more than was ever contemplated. But, whether they do or do not, the evil remains unredressed, in bishops having to manage and square accounts arising from the settlement of purely secular matters. All this cries for speedy and complete reform. The Church in the present day especially, has the most urgent need of men for the high and responsible office of its rulers who are not entangled with such irreconcilable duties as bargaining for fines, and the temporal stewardship of lands, or other property. The temptations which the possession and control of such matters bring with them, ought not to be allowed to subject ministers of Christ to their unholy and secularizing influence.

The difficulties in the way of a perfect transfer of our episcopal property into the hands of proper trustees, may be very great, yet they are not so great as to deter those who are in reality the best friends of the Church from attempting to cope with so plain a duty. It is not desirable that the pages of the Christian Guardian should be occupied with the details of the various sources from which the episcopal revenues are derived; the present debates in both Houses of Parliament, on the accusations of improper appropriations, and the explanations and letters which such charges have elicited, are quite of sufficient force to show how imperatively that measure at least of reform is called for, which shall place our bishops upon a far higher and more spiritual footing than that which these partial disclosures of their moneymatters gives to them.

It is no sufficient answer to the urgent objections against the present sources or amounts of episcopal in

comes, that our prelates bestow largely the proceeds in deeds of munificence and charity; the world, and even the Church, is naturally apt, where all is concealment or uncertain, to exaggerate the amount received, and can never rightly or fully know the manner of its expenditure.*

The system is altogether so bad, that if the episcopate is to stand well with the Church and the country, and to be really a blessing to both, it must cheerfully, by the consent of its present members, abandon all claims to the management and incomes of the properties of sees, and be content to be placed on the same footing as to income, as are the judges of the land.

The cry of sacrilege and innovation may be raised by those who blindly prefer, either from inveterate prejudices or motives of personal interest, things as they are to things as they ought to be: it is, however, one of the safety-valves we believe it is essential for the Church's stability to open, that our bishops be immediately released from the care of estates and manors. They will then cease to be open to the accusation of a love of filthy lucre, in taking advantage of unexpected rises in the value of episcopal property and hagglings for large fines for the renewal of leases.

Upon our second particular, the rank our bishops occupy in the State, and society in general,- -we also have a few words to offer. Here we must be prepared to look with boldness at the real position which these men occupy, as ruling ministers of Christ and as peers of the realm; and a long and attentive consideration of the re

It has been discovered with some astonishment that the last Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, did actually receive, a year or two before his death, the round sum of £40,000 in a single year. And that the Bishops of London and Winchester had realized incomes of £24,000 and £28,000 in particular years. These receipts violated no law or compact, since all these prelates held their sees before the Act of 1837 passed. Still, however, the bare fact of the realization of such large sums startled most

people. The returns of 1835, we believe, gave the respective sums of £19,000, £14,000, and £11,000, as the average incomes of the sees of Canterbury, London, and Winchester. In some way or other, an increase of a very extraordinary kind seems latterly to have taken place.Record, July 24th.

lative position, claims, and duties of the two characters, has, most unwillingly, brought us to the conclusion that they are in many ways incompatible. We say unwillingly, because we not only ourselves desire to avoid the slightest unnecessary change, but are deeply averse to say or write anything which shall causelessly unsettle the minds of our brethren, as to the customs and constitution of the Church and country. What man can sketch with truth and fulness the character and relative duties of a minister, and, above all, a ruling minister of the true sanctuary, of which

our

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own Church rightly claims to be a part? If St. Paul, after minutely describing the solemn duties and responsibilities of the ministerial office, could say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and "Give thyself wholly to them;" and that they are the servants of the Church for Christ Jesus' sake; it is no light matter to see super-added to these responsibilities and spiritual duties, and declared position, the entanglements of earthly business and high temporal rank. Twenty years since we should have set down as a dissenter and a leveller, the man who even ventured to balance the advantages and disadvantages arising from the twin character of our bishops, ministerial and senatorial; but years and unprejudiced observation, with, we trust, a sincere and growing desire for the spiritual character and increased utility of the Church, has deeply convinced us that our bishops do not and cannot sustain the true dignity and spirituality of the christian ministry, while they are so manifestly raised above their brethren in worldly honours.

We recently heard in conversation the following brief, but complete description of what is really the scriptural end and object of the establishment of a Christian Church in any country,-The conversion of sinners, and the sanctification of God's own people. That these purposes, in a great degree, form the faithful and largely blessed work of a large portion of our clergy, we thankfully admit; but we cannot and dare not

THE STATE OF OUR EPISCOPACY.

blind our minds to the fact, that with the actual accomplishment of this work, our hierarchy have had but too little to do.

We have had some great and good names in our English episcopacy, and they have left behind them decided testimonies of what faithful men may do for the cause of Christ's Church, when invested with authority, even amid the temptations of rank and affluence. When, however, we study attentively the characters, doings, and influence, of the long list of bishops, from the Reformation to the present time, we cannot fail to be impressed with the conviction, that the Church has suffered, rather than benefited by the worldly position which our prelates have been forced

to assume.

Let us look at this question in the light of God's truth, and with minds unclouded by prejudice. Let us compare the rank and income of our bishops, with that station and those means which we really believe to be in accordance with the mind of Christ, the Chief Bishop of the Church, and not according to those false and visionary notions by which even the most spiritual Churchmen seek to excuse and to continue the present anomalous state of things. It were easy to run over a long catalogue of the many ways in which the subject we are treating of operates prejudicially, independently of its striking inconsistency with Scripture. What is the relative position,-what the intercourse, the counsel, the comfort, carried on and given between the bishops and their clergy? The most favour ably inclined apologist for things as they are, cannot be in any measure satisfied at the broad line of separation unavoidably drawn by the present system between those, of whom Christ declared, "All ye are brethren." The working clergy must be fully sensible of the countless evils arising from the distance at which they are kept from those to whom they ought only to look up as unto fathers in Christ. Doubtless, there are many instances in which

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individual courtesy, and the influences of personal piety, tend to mitigate this evil; but these do not in the slightest degree affect either the reality of the undue elevation of bishops, or the varied evil consequences arising therefrom.

As for the vast lay community, whatever they know of their bishops, is mainly gathered from the few and far between opportunities in which the ceremonies of confirmation or consecration may bring them together. They may hear them preach charity sermons, and those who are more than ordinarily interested in Church matters, may bestow some attention upon the periodical charges of the bishops to their clergy; but, apart from these objects, there is, but little in the office and duties of our episcopacy, as at present constituted, either to secure the regard of the laity, or to deepen in them those principles of faith and holiness, for the more perfect exemplification of which they have a natural right to look to their spiritual rulers.

For the right and more efficient exercise of episcopal duties, we want more bishops; but the order, both in station and emolument, must be far different from what now exists. The property of the Church must be gathered into the hands of other and. more suitable trustees, who, by a faithful and judicious management of its revenues, shall be enabled to divide them amongst a much larger body of the episcopate, and yet have somewhat of value to spare for that most invaluable, yet miserably paid body, the working clergy.

An episcopate so extended in number, and reduced to its scriptural position in rank, may not be a desirable body to rank with peers of the realm; yet would it, and the Church generally, gain inconceivably by this apparent loss of earthly dignity; while some other and more consistent plan must be devised, to prevent the Church from being without a voice or a proper representation in the legislature of the country.

C. A.

THE EXCHANGE.

AN EXTRACT FROM DR. HAMILTON'S "ROYAL PREACHER."

"He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver."-Read ECCLES. v. 9-20; vi. 1-9.

THIS passage describes the vanity of riches. With the enjoyments of frugal industry, it contrasts the woes of wealth. Looking up from that condition on which Solomon looked down, it may help to reconcile us to our lot, if we remember how the most opulent of princes envied it.

1. In all grades of society, human subsistence is very much the same. "The profit of the earth is for all; the king himself is served by the field." "What hath the wise more than the fool?" Even princes are not fed with ambrosia, nor do poets subsist on asphodel. Bread and water, the produce of the flocks and the herds, and a few homely vegetables, form the staple of his food who can lay the globe under tribute; and these essentials of healthful existence are within the attainment of ordinary industry. "The profit of the earth is for all."

2. When a man begins to amass money, he begins to feed an appetite which nothing can appease, and which its proper food will only render fiercer. "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver." To greed there may be "increase," but no increase can ever be "abundance." For, could you change all the pebbles on the beach into minted money, or conjure into bank-notes all the leaves of the forest; nay, could you transmute the solid earth into a single lump of gold, and drop it into the gaping mouth of avarice, it would only be a crumb of transient comfort, a cordial drop, enabling it to cry a little louder,-Give, give. Therefore, happy they who have never got enough to awaken the accumulating passion, and who, feeling that food and raiment are the utmost to which they can aspire, are therewith content.

3. It is another consideration which should reconcile us to the want of wealth that, as abundance grows, so grow the consumers, and of riches less perishable, the proprietor enjoys no more than the mere spectator. "When

goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" It is so far well, that rank involves a retinue, and that no man can be so selfishly sumptuous, but that his luxury gives employment and subsistence to others. On the other hand, it is also well that riches cannot retain in exclusive monopoly the pleasures they procure. A rich man buys a picture or a statue, and he is proud to think that his mansion is adorned with such a famous master-piece. But a poor man comes and looks at it, and, because he has the æsthetic insight, in a few minutes he is conscious of more astonishment and pleasure than the dull proprietor has experienced in half a century. Or, a rich man lays out a park or a garden, and, except the diversion of planning and remodelling, he has derived from it little enjoyment; but some bright morning a holiday student, or a townpent tourist, comes, and when he leaves, he carries with him a freight of life-long recollections. The porter at the gates should have orders to intercept such appropriating sight-seers; for, though they leave the canvas on the walls, and the marble in the gallery,-though they leave the flowers in the vases, and the trees in the forest,-they have carried off the glory and the gladness; their bibulous eyes have drunk a delectation, and all their senses have absorbed a joy for which the owner vainly pays his heavy yearly ransom.

4. Amongst the pleasures of obscurity, or rather of occupation, the next noticed is sound slumber. "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Sometimes the wealthy would be the better for a taste of poverty; it would reveal to them their privileges. But if the poor could get a taste of opulence, it would reveal to them strange luxuries in lowliness.

THE EXCHANGE.

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Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? Then, happy, lowly clown!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

5. Wealth is often the ruin of its possessor. It is "kept for the owner to his hurt." Like that King of Cyprus who made himself so rich, that he became a tempting spoil, and who, rather than lose his treasures, embarked them in perforated ships; but, wanting courage to draw the plugs, ventured back to land, and lost both his money and his life: † so a fortune is a great perplexity to its owner, and is no defence in times of danger. And very often, by enabling him to procure all that heart can wish, it pierces him through with many sorrows. Ministering to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, misdirected opulence has ruined many both in soul and body.

6. Nor is it a small vexation, to have accumulated a fortune, and when expecting to transmit it to some favourite child, to find it suddenly swept away. (Vers. 14-16.) There is now the son, but where is the sumptuous mansion? Here is the heir, but where is the vaunted heri tage?

7. Last of all, are the infirmity and fretfulness which are the frequent companions of wealth. “All his days also he eats in darkness, and suffers anxiety and peevishness along with sickness." You pass a stately man

Henry IV., Second part.

Procul dubio hic non possedit divitias, sed a divitiis possessus est; titulo rex insulæ, animo pecuniæ miserabile mancipium. - Valerius Maximus, lib. ix. cap. 4.

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sion, and as the powdered menials are closing the shutters of the brilliant room, and you see the sumptuous table spread, and the fire-light flashing on vessels of gold and vessels of silver, perhaps no pang of envy pricks your bosom, but a glow of gratulation for a moment fills it: Happy people who tread carpets so soft, and who swim through halls so splendid! But, some future day, when the candles are lighted and the curtains drawn in that self-same apartment, it is your lot to be within; and as the invalid owner is wheeled to his place at the table, and as dainties are handed round, of which he dares not taste, and as the guests interchange cold. courtesy, and all is so stiff and so common-place, and so heartlessly grand, your fancy cannot help flying off to some humbler spot with which you are more familiar, and "where quiet with contentment makes her home." Nay, how curious the contrast, could the thoughts be read which sometimes cross one another! That ragged urchin who opened the common-gate, and let the silvery chariot through, oh, "what a phantom of delight" the lady looked, as in clouds of cushions and on a firmament of ultramarine she floated away What a golden house she must have come from, and what a happy thing to be borne about from place to place in such a carriage, as easy as a bird and as brilliant as a queen! But, little boy, that lady looked at you. As she passed she noticed your ruddy cheeks, and she envied you. That glittering chariot was carrying what you do not know, a broken heart; and death-stricken and world-weary, as she looked at you, she thought, How pleasant to have lived amongst the blossomed May-trees on this common's edge, and never known the falsehoods of fashion and the evil ways of the world!

y!

We have glanced at the sorrows of the rich; some will expect that we should now descant on the sinfulness of riches. And a certain class of religionists, misunderstanding the Saviour's precept, "Lay not for up yourselves treasures on earth," have spoken of money as if it were a malignant principle, and have canonized poverty

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