An address delivered

li'^:

i^'

%-'''"

.. -^r

^^^'

Carlisle Church Congress.

\

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED BY

HARVEY, LORD BISHOP OF CARLISLE,

AS

PEESIDENT

OF THE

CHURCH CONGRESS

ASSEMBLED IN CAELISLE ON TUESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 30, 1884.

CARLISLE :

CHAS TIIURNAM & SONS, 11 EXGLISH STREET,

1884,

My Lord Archbishop, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is nearly a quarter of a century since the first Church
Congress assembled in Cambridge. I was present at that
Congress, and had the honour of reading a paper, to which
I turned the other day, with some interest, if not- with
profit. The perusal of the Eeport of the infant Congress had
the advantage of bringing to remembrance some forgotten
facts and supplying some useful topics of thought. It was
interesting to observe that one of the papers was written by
Eichard Assheton Cross, B.A., M.P. for Preston, in connection
with the fact that Sir Eichard Assheton Cross has done
good work both for Church and State since those days and
is about to read another paper in Carlisle. I found other
names connected with the present Church Congress ; I will
mention one, because Congresses almost own him as a father
and still enjoy his paternal care. I refer to Archdeacon
Emery, who holds the office of permanent Secretary, and to
whom I should be disposed to apply the words sedet ceter-
numque sedebit, were it not that sitting still seems scarcely
to describe the Archdeacon's character.

It is a far cry from Cambridge to Carlisle. There is
scarcely as much resemblance between the two places as
Fluellen found between Macedon and Monmouth ; for while
both begin with a C, and for that matter both end with an E,
the possession of a salmon river can be asserted only of
Carlisle. I call your attention however to the manifest con-
trast between the infant as it was seen in Cambridge and the
full grown Hercules which is to be seen to-day, for the pur-
pose of indicating in a few words what are the special

features of this Congress and what have been the guiding-
principles of those who have been making preparation
for it.

I should consider myself to be wasting your time, if at
this time of day I undertook to expound the raison d'etre of
Church Congresses. It was necessary to do this in the
earlier stage of their existence : it is not necessary now.
To assert such necessity would be the most practical method
of throwing doubt upon the truth which we desire to estab-
lish. The healthy strong man does many things because he
knows and feels that they do him good : he takes his exercise,
he climbs his mountain, he gets his friends about him and
enjoys their society : a medical opinion, signed by some dis-
tinguished physician, would chiefly tend to prove that the
man was out of health.

I shall assume therefore that the Church of England is
following an instinct of health and strength in holding these
periodical gatherings, and in discussing those great religious
social and moral questions which must ever be rising to the
surface and demanding consideration on the part of earnest
and thoughtful Englishmen. I shall assume also that these
gatherings have incidental advantages many and various,
which need no description ; and with these assumptions I
venture to point out, that while in many ways we must be
content to look with humble respect to such a place as
Cambridge, and may even fear comparison with the Congress
held last year in Keading, with Oxford on one side of it and
London on the other, we nevertheless have certain advantages
which may justify us in the modest hope that this Congress
will not fall below the average in general interest and in
permanent influence.

For example, our Border situation is an element not to

r>

\ /

be forgotten. The relations between Carlisle and our Scotch
neighbours have not always been of the most loving kind :
any of you who visit our Castle will see the accommodation
which in former days was provided by Eeception Committees
for visitors from Scotland. Those days have long passed ;
and I need not say that we have done what we could in the
choice of preachers and the choice of subjects to prove our
desire to hold out the right hand of fellowship to those who
are willing to grasp it from the other side of the Border.
I know that in speaking of holding out the right hand across
the Border I have to reckon with the fact, that the religious
body in Scotland chiefly interested in our proceedings claims
only a small fraction of the population ; but it is a very
interesting fraction and one connected with a remarkable
history, one having (as I venture to think) great responsi-
bilities and a hopeful future, one moreover enjoying in the
minds of thoughtful Scotchmen an increasingly high position.
The Seabury Festival to be celebrated next week in Aberdeen
will bring to mind that a century ago, when the condition of
this poor persecuted Church was very different from what it
is now, she was able to confer a spiritual boon upon our
transatlantic brethren which was sought from England in vain.
But I feel confident, that though it is only Scotch Episco-
palians to whom we can consistently send an invitation to
take an active part in our proceedings, there are many of
our Presbyterian brethren who will feel an interest in this
Congress ; possibly some may attend our meetings ; if they
do so, I am sure they will receive a welcome.

I have spoken of the Seabury Festival. The date of our
meeting was arranged with reference to this event, and it
was hoped that the American Prelates might pause on their
pilgrimage to Aberdeen for the purpose of attending the

Carlisle Congress. I grieve to be compelled to announce
that circumstances have interfered with the fulfilment of
this hope. I may say however that all visitors from our
great sister country and our sister Church, whether Bishops,
Priests, or laymen, will have a hearty greeting. One well
known American Clergyman appears in our list of speakers ;
I trust that others may be induced to take part in our
discussions.

To pass on to the arrangements made for the present
Congress. We have followed to a great extent established
precedents. In fact the little book which was published
after tlae Derby Congress has made preparation for a Church
Congress comparatively easy. We have ventured however
upon one innovation. We have allotted to all who have
been appointed to read or speak the term of twenty minutes,
not dictating to them which form of utterance they shall
adopt, and giving up the distinction between readers of
twenty minutes and speakers of fifteen minutes, which has
hitherto been the rule, while we retain the rule which allots
ten minutes as the limit of speeches made by volunteers
who send in their cards to the Chairman. We have in fact
adopted the policy of the Midland Kailway Company, and
have abolished second class passengers.

One other innovation — though scarcely an innovation —
will be found in our arrangements. We propose to give a
more honourable and distinct place to working women than
they have had hitherto. In one or more previous Congresses
something has been done in this direction. The innovation,
and, as we think, the improvement, which we have intro-
duced, is this, that we intend to invite our working sisters
to meet in all the dignity of this Congress Hall. We did
not feel ourselves justified in contracting our series of

subjects in order to compass this end, but we attain our
purpose by holding the meeting on Saturday evening, which,
though after the close of the Congress, will, as we believe,
be practically convenient ; especially if I am successful in
persuading a few of our distinguished members to remain
behind for the purpose of speaking at the meeting. I trust
it will not be regarded as an evil omen that our meeting will
be coincident with a total eclipse of the moon.

We have had probably the same amount of difficulty,
neither more nor less, which has been experienced on former
occasions, in the selection of subjects. Some two hundred
were suggested ; and this large number was reduced, by a
process which has (I trust) resulted in the survival of the
fittest, to the required limit of eighteen. Many con-
siderations have to be taken into account in making se-
lection ; especially the existence of what are called schools
of thought, or what in less exalted language are called
parties. The fact is that in England, not in Church matters
only but in many others, we are under what may be de-
scribed as a dual control : dual at the least, sometimes
plural. We have two sides of the house in Parliament :
two political organizations in every town and county: two
newspapers in each place which can support one : nay we are
expected at every railway station to take a side on the
important domestic question of mustard ; one manufacturer
claiming our preference on the ground that his article is
universally used ; the other on the ground that his establish-
ment is the oldest ; while, as if to show that two schools of
thought do not always exhaust what is thinkable, we find at
some places an appeal from a third manufacturer, who,
despising the semper of one competitor and the ubique of
the other, assures you that in his establishment there is
no adulteration.

8

The admitted duality or plurality of schools of thought
in the Church of England we have of course been compelled
to take into account with regard both to subjects and to
speakers. May I say that I see no necessary evil in this
plurality ? If we have thought in any true sense of the word,
we must have diversities of thought : if men think at all,
they will be certain to think diversly, and within limits
appropriate to each particular subject diversely : absolute
unanimity is not possible in a congress of men : it can only
be realized in that perfect unity of utterance which dis-
tinguishes the cackling of a congress of geese. We who
meet togetl^er in this hall to-day recognize our unity as loyal
members of the Church of England ; we recognize a still wider
and deeper unity as members of the Holy Catholic Church of
Christ ; we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Grod
and Father of us all; but, subject to the conditions imposed
by these great bonds of unity and union, we claim for each
section, each school, each individual soul within the Church,
that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.

To pass to the particular subjects which have been
selected for discussion. It will not be necessary to dwell
at any length upon our programme, the meaning and im-
portance of the constituent portions of which the next few
days must elucidate : but a short explanation may perhaps
be given with advantage.

Some of the subjects have been suggested by special
circumstances. For example, the duty of the Church with
regard to the overcrowded dwellings of the poor is inevitably
suggested by the issue of a Eoyal Commission of inquiry,
and by the interest with which that inquiry is regarded : the
discussion of the Church's duty in this Congress may be
regarded as the recognition of this duty, and as the public

9

avowal by the Church of her williDgness to co-operate with
the State in a great work of social improvement.

The question of England's religious duties towards Egypt
is new, as England's political position towards that country
is new. It is not for a Church Congress to discuss political
questions, except under special conditions ; but when
political facts have developed themselves, and when states-
men, whether wisely or unwisely, have brought a nation
into new relations with ourselves, we are within our right
in asking the question whether those relations are purely
political and commercial, and not also emphatically
religious.

The lapse of just five centuries since the death of
John Wycliffe has suggested a subject, which, though in
one sense old, is also in a very real sense new. We have
thought it impossible that the many voices which have been
shouting out the name of John Wycliffe, and glorifying his
memory, should not find an echo within the halls of this
Congress. As claiming myself to be of Wycliffe's family,
I may perhaps be permitted to feel a personal interest in
this undoubtedly remarkable man. But we do not insist
upon any glorification or hero worship : we have challenged
the consideration of the influence of his work and his
writings, and we have invited some eminent students to
initiate a discussion upon the great question of the Eeform-
ation contemplated from the stand-point thus supplied.

There is one other subject which I venture to characterize
as new, and which I tiust will be found acceptable. We pro-
pose to ask in this English Congress what we can learn from
Scotland and Ireland in religious matters. The proximity
of Carlisle to Scotland, and to a large portion of Ireland,
the peculiar and very different positions of the Church in

10

each of the sister kingdoms from that occupied by it in
England, and the presence amongst us of representatives of
distinguished ability from each of the sisters, combine to
commend this subject as one having a peculiar propriety
in the present Congress.

There are several other subjects which I might claim as
new ; but I would rather call attention to the pains taken
by the Subjects Committee to exhibit old friends with new
faces. Thus we hope to have a lively discussion upon the
wickedness of pews, in the battle against which we have
frequent signals from Lord Nelson, that " England expects
every man to do his duty"; but we have so framed our
thesis as to indicate that there may be other rights in Church
than the right of each worshipper to do exactly as he pleases.
Again, we have proposed for discussion the not altogether
novel subject of Parochial Missions ; but we have tried to
cast its enunciation in such a form as to bring under dis-
cussion the beginning, the middle, and the end, and to
suggest that while the beginning and the middle may be the
most exciting, it is the end which is most difficult and which
alone is valuable. Again, elementary education has often
been discussed ; but I think that for the first time the subject
has been so formulated as to force the consideration, what
can we do to save Board Schools from the curse of mere
secularity and to ensure that they shall be truly religious.
Once more. Foreign Missions do not strike the ear with a
novel sound ; but they who know most of the home work of
Foreign Missions will perceive that the subject as formulated
in our programme touches a point of vital interest, which is
of recent growth ; I mean, the comparative advantages and
the comparative claims of Missions directed by great Societies
and of those which have a special organization of their own.

11

There is only one other subject upon which I think it
necessary to make a separate reniark. It was impossible not
to find a place for the Report of the " Ecclesiastical Courts
Commission." The question of legislation is a pressing
one ; and it is the question of legislation which has been
specially propounded for discussion. When Parliament
meets, does the Church wish, does the nation wish, that
action should be taken upon the Report, or not ? There
will be wise and honest men on each side of the alternative ;
and it is well that wise and honest men should have the
opportunity of expressing their opinions frankly and en-
deavouring to persuade others to adopt them. We cannot
have monster meetings, such as are held upon secular
questions ; but we may help to form public opinion ; and
Church Congresses may endeavour to teach, not only the
House of Lords, but, what is almost as necessary, the
House of Commons, how it ought to behave itself.

Speaking generally of our programme, I will say that
we have endeavoured to act in the spirit of the admirable
motto of the City of Carlisle, which has been adopted by
the Congress, " Be just and fear not." We have shrunk, so
at least we believe, from no subject because it was un-
pleasantly warm ; we have blackballed no suggested speaker
on the ground of party ; we have tried to hold an even
balance with regard to both men and things ; if there are
some names which might have been expected to appear on
our list and do not, I may remind you that the list indicates
not all those who were invited, but only all those who were
able to accept the invitation ; and if there be subjects the
non-appearance of which causes surprise, I can only fall back
upon the classical example of the groom, who, being required
to put five horses into a four-stalled stable, frankly threw
up the problem.

12

And so much for the proceedings which are to take place
within our two Congress Halls. But before passing to actual
business, I should like to invite you to look with me for a
moment outside the Congress, upon the Church from which
the Congress takes its name, and the people for whose benefit
the Church exists. When the Congress met seven years ago
at Croydon, there were few passages in the opening address
of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, which more completely
carried his audience with him than the following — " The
work before us," he said, " is great ; the prospects of this

Church of ours are not dark They are bright.

Look abroad. What other country in the world would you
change churches with ? Look at home. Which of the
denominations would you prefer ? Look back. What age
are you prepared to say it would have been more satisfactory
to have lived in ? For my part, I thank Grod and take
courage. . . ' . . Grod knows the age has its difficulties,
and those very difficulties will, I doubt not, make you more
ready to unite more closely in the great work which Christ
has committed to this Church of England — that grand old
historical Church, happily preserved to us in its distinctive
features as they have come to us from the fathers of the
Eeformation." I thankfully take up such words as these,
emphasized as they are by the thought, that the lips and heart
which uttered them are now cold in the grave ; and I shall
be thankful if anything seen or heard or done in this Church
Congress shall, by Grod's blessing, tend to make men feel
more deeply the privilege of having in our midst such a
branch of the Catholic Church as the Church of England is
and may be. I have quoted the bright hopeful language of
Archbishop Tait ; let me quote a few words spoken in a very
different tone, more than forty years ago, by one who was

13

then, what I would that he were now, a Priest of the English
Church — I mean John Henry Newman. "0 Mother of
Saints," he cries, " 0 school of the wise I 0 nurse of the
heroic ! of whom went forth, in whom have dwelt, memorable
names of old, to spread the truth abroad, or to cherish and
illustrate it at home ! 0 thou, from whom surrounding nations
lit their lamps ! 0 virgin of Israel ! wherefore dost thou now
sit on the ground and keep silence like one of those foolish
women who were without oil on the coming of the Bride-
groom ? . . . 0 my mother, whence is this unto thee, that
thou hast good things poured upon thee and canst not keep
them, and bearest children, yet darest not own them ? why
has thou not the skill to use their services, nor the heart to
rejoice in their love? how is it that whatever is generous in
purpose, and tender or deep in devotion, thy flower and
thy promise, falls from thy bosom and finds no home within
thine arms ? Who hath put this note upon thee, to have
' a miscarrying womb and dry breasts,' to be strange to thine
own flesh, and thine eye cruel toward thy little ones ? Thine
own offspring, the fruit of thy womb, who love thee and
would toil for thee, thou dost gaze upon them with fear, as
though a portent, or thou dost loath as an offence ; — at best
thou dost but endure, as if they had no claim but on thy
patience, self-possession, and vigilance, to be rid of them as
easily as thou mayest. Thou makest them ' stand all the
day idle,' as the very condition of thy bearing with them ;
or thou biddest them begone, where they will be more
welcome ; or thou sellest them for nought to the stranger
that passes by. And what wilt thou do in the end thereof? "
I am not going to criticize or weigh these terrible words :
but that they should ever have been spoken by such a man is
a fact of tremendous significance. What I should like to do

14

however is this : to pass from the denunciatioD of barrenness
and the prophecy of evil, which I have quoted from a sermon
preached forty years ago, to the later utterance of Archbishop
Tait and to our own experience of to-day. Look upon that
picture and on this. Which corresponds more nearly to the
actual truth of things ? Where is the indication of the
miscarrying womb and the dry breasts? where the jealousy
and fear and distrust which are represented as paralyzing all
healthy action ? where the evidence of children compelled
to stand idle, or cast out, or sold to strangers ? Let the
answer be found in the work actually going on in our own
country and throughout the world : let our churches and our
mission rooms, with all their varied services and their efforts
to bring the (rospel into contact with the souls of men,
our organizations in favour of soberness temperance and
chastity, the self-sacrificing labours of holy women to lift
the fallen and to save those ready to fall, let India and
Africa and the isles of the Southern Sea,— let all these give
answer : nay let us appeal to the programme of this great
Church gathering, and when we have examined the catalogue
of subjects to be discussed and the names of the men who
are to discuss them, and still more the fact that men
and women come from all parts to listen , then let us ask
with hearts of thankfulness and gladness, Where are the
signs that Grod has put the curse of barrenness upon our
dear spiritual mother ? Causes for anxiety, sources of weak-
ness, calls to watchfulness, the presence of enemies in divers
forms, dangers from the allurements of the world and the
flesh and from the craft of the devil, — these things and the
like belong to the condition of the Church Militant in our
own country and time, as in all countries and in all times ;
but these sorrows are different in kind from the sorrow of

15

sterility ; they involve no curse, they imply no sin ; they are
simply the conditions under which the great battle is to be
fought, for the fighting of which the Church exists. Why
then should we quail with fear, or sink despondent, or lose
heart and hope concerning the Church of England ? Why
not rather praise Grod for what she is and what she is able
to do, and pray for increased blessing upon her?

0 my mother ! sorrows have been thine in times past
and are thine now ! thou hast foes without, lukewarm hearts,
divided counsels, and too much of the world within : thy
face is scarred, thy garments are soiled and torn : but thine
is not the curse of the miscarrying womb and the dry breasts :
Grod hath given thee the blessing of sons and daughters, and
the wide world is their possession and inheritance. In days
of trouble, of rebuke, and of blasphemy, thy testimony to
the truth is the chief bulwark of the Church of Christ : the
best hopes of the world are bound up with thee and thy
steadfastness in the faith once delivered to the Saints : we
thy children are not ashamed, but we rejoice in thee and
praise God for His goodness. " We will not fear though
the earth be moved, and though the hills be carried into the
midst of the sea." Grod is in the midst of thee, therefore
thou shalt not be removed ; Grod shall help thee, and that
right early. The Lord of Hosts is with thee ; the Grod
and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ will be thy refuge now
and for evermore.

0HA8. THURXAM AND SONS, STEAM PRINTERS, CARLISLE.

^,Ai'

^m-m

^.

^ /^'l

MM

%^

\\> f}

'ti.

Mi

^^: '^y