■ i-«:i:-c. <:c<:_« £>ec: WW-'' CHARGE DELIVERED AT TUE TRIENNIAL VISITATION OF THE DIOCESE, NOVEMBER, 1857. BY SAMUEL, LOUD BISHOP OF OXFOED, CHJlNCELLOB of the OEDEB of the garter ; LORD ALMONER TO HER MAJESTY TUE QUEEN. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. X F 11 D, AND 377, STRAND, LONDON : JOHN HENllY AND JAMES PAllKER. MDCCCLVII. PRINTED BY MESSRS. PARKER. CORN-MARKET. OXFORD. A CHAEGE, I MEET you again, my reverend brethren and my brethren of the laity, at this oar accustomed gathering, after another period of three years, with many mingled feelings. That past reach of time down which we have floated together seems to ren- der up again its several eventful passages, and the hopes and fears, the successes and disappointments, the griefs and joys by which it was chequered, live again in musing retrospect. The emotions which such a survey must excite are, I suppose, in the main, common to us all. Humiliation before God for the want of a deeper and more loving earnestness of soul in our great work, for time lost, for oppor- tunities not duly used, and now passed irrevocably away; resolutions made in His strength, that for the time to come we will render a truer and more complete service to our crucified and risen Lord ; and gratitude to Him whose long-suffering love has so long spared us, and still continues to us op- portunities of service and gifts of grace ; — these, (which in their united action gather themselves up into a solemn and impassioned turning with our every faculty to the Lord, as our Helper and our B 2 portion) these, I think, must fill at such a time the souls of all of us. In my own case, one other master feeling is present, and must find utterance ; one of deep thankfulness to- you with whom the providence of God has connected me in the rule and government of His Church, for unnumbered acts of kindness. As I look around me at these gatherings of laymen and of clergymen from centre to centre in the diocese, I am moved to wonder and to doubt whether other dioceses can yield to their bishops such a body of kind personal friends and warm-hearted and able coadjutors as God's goodness has granted to myself. The three past years have added many new instances of such effective and affectionate support to those which I had before received, and have bound me by new ties of affec- tion to those who, in the work of the ministry, have been my helpers, in the rule of the diocese my ad- visers and support ; and who, when it pleased God to visit me with heavy family affliction, helped — He only knows how much — to hold up the flagging spirits, which deep gi-ief had worn down, by their loving sympathy and earnest intercessions. Truly I would take up amongst you this day the Psalmist's song, as best expressing my own mind, and say with him, " Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity." I proceed to pass briefly in review before you first the chief features of our common work in this diocese. I UiUC "■^ / For my own share in that work — would to God it had been better wrouglit ! — I have, in these last three years, ordained 133 candidates to the order of Priests, and 1 53 to that of Deacons ; and I think that I may venture unhesitatingly to say that I, and those who have assisted me in the appointed exa- mination of the candidates, have thankfully noticed in them a marked improvement, both as to the average amount of theological preparation for the ministry, and also as to, (if possible,) a yet more important qualification, — I mean the spirit of se- riousness and devotion in which its perilous func- tions have been sought. I see, on the other side, but this one question — Whether as many men of the highest powers of mind, as did so formerly, now give themselves to the office of the priesthood. In the same time I have confirmed in this diocese 16,586 candidates, being an increase in numbers of 2,529 upon the former period of three years: and as in most of our parishes the greatly increased exertions of the clergy through those and the imme- diately preceding years had already brought to that holy rite the older members of their flock who were yet unconfirmed, we may, I think, set down this increase of numbers as really drawn from those who are coming into life, and not from the heavy arrears caused by earlier negligence. The bearing and demeanour of those whom you have brought before me has, moreover, as a whole, borne undoubted and most grateful evidence of the greater seriousness and understanding of the rite with which your candidates have come to confirma- tion. Let me take this fresh opportunity of encou- raging your hearts in this eminently useful portion of your labours. Though only the last great day can fully reveal the blessed effects of a confirmation, the candidates for which have really been prepared by a wise and loving pastor with dogmatic teaching, with close instructions as to Christian living, with appeals to the conscience, with bringing home to them the unwonted touch of spiritual discipline, and, above all, with earnest prayers and endeavours to draw them one by one to their crucified Lord, and under the converting influences of His Cross, His love, and His grace : yet we are often suffered, through God's goodness and for our solace, to see even here some of its fruits, — to see those in whom the mighty change of spiritual renovation, or the great work of the restoration of one soul to, or the fixing another in, a life of holiness, was wrought by God's grace in connection with our labours and their reception of this ordinance. It is one as to which we should never despond, but work \yith all our energies, trusting to the faithfulness of God for that blessing which, even though its visible recep- tion be long delayed, will never be withheld from faith, labour, and prayer. The heart of some pas- tor who is almost ready to faint under apparent ill-success, may be encouraged by hearing of one such instance which came recentlv before me. A Crimean chaplain tending, after a battle, the dying inmates of the army hospitals, found one — and at that time but one — of the wounded men whose soul was manifestly filled with the love of Christ, and he traced all his religious life to the labours and the grace of a confirmation in this very diocese. As to this holy ordinance, my reverend brethren, I feel confident that the promise is eminently ful- filled, — " Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days." In this important work you, my lay brethren, may give us great help ; by using the influence you possess as parents and as god-parents to stir up the younger people to seek for God's blessing in this ordinance, and by coming with them at its celebration to witness their solemn profession of Christ's faith, and to seek for them the outpouring of Ilis Spirit. For myself, I grudge no labour which is needful to give the fullest eifect to this ordinance. I have, as you know, de- voted the season of Lent to going annually round each of the three counties of the diocese in suc- cession ; and I purpose, God helping me, to con- tinue this use, taking Oxfordshire in its turn next year. From the interlapping of our counties, this arrangement allows the clergy of the other two counties to find every year some neighbour- ing place for any urgent cases of those whom they wish to bring to confirmation before my next circuit in their own county. Such I am always glad to receive at the place which is most con- 8 venient for them. But, besides this, I am ready to arrange to come biennially or anmially to any parish in the diocese, as I have already done to many parishes, and, whenever it is possible, on the Sunday, the clergyman of which will give me due notice of his desire for such multiplied confirmations. My circuits for the administration of this rite have led me to confirm during the last three years in two hundred of your churches ; and, in addition to this, I have, through God's mercy, been enabled to preach and join with you in your ministrations in eighty-nine churches on other occasions ; so that 1 have ministered with you in the last three years in almost three hundred churches, and in some of them frequently. In these united services, and specially in celebrating and partaking with you of the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord, I have ever found the liveliest pleasure. As years pass on, this union in wor- ship breeds, as I rejoice to believe, between us a full, loving, and mutually trustful unity, which nothing else can equally engender or maintain. I trust that during the next three years, if it pleases God so long to spare my life and health, those 289 common services in various parishes may be yet further multiplied. In another and welcome department of my work, your zeal and energy, my reverend and lay brethren, has not suffered me to sleep. Again, you have called me to re-open twenty-six restored, and to set apart twelve new or rebuilt churches'', for God's glory and the souls of His people. Turning now from my own more special charge, I have again to thank the Rural Deans, the School Inspectors, and other officers of the diocese, for the continuance of their unpaid but able and energetic labours in the cause of Christ amongst us. Again, I think myself bound in justice to declare that I know not how, without their aid, I could wdth any- thing like efficiency administer the diocese. The Rural Chapters are reported to me as more and more proving by experience their great effect in bringing the clergy of a district into a harmony of feeling and action, which tends, I am convinced, greatly to our own growth in grace, and to increase incalculably our strength for good. I trust that, after the experience of these advantages in so many districts now for several years, these chapters may be begun without further delay in every deanery into which they have not been already introduced. At the last annual meeting of the Inspectors a general improvement in the schools of the diocese was reported to me, and an increasing number of * The restored churchos arc : — Aylesbury, Earford St. Michael, Charlbury, Chcddington, Clewer, Cuddington, Enstone, Finch- ampstcad, Henley, Hinton-'Waldrist, Horscnden, Hurst, Lane- End, :Mollington, St. Giles' and St. Michael's Oxford, Pidding- ton, Shinfield, Spelsbury, Stevcnton, Swalcliffo, Sydenham, St. Mary's "VVallingford, "Wantage, Westcotc-Barton, "Wooburn. The new or rebuilt churches are : — Akelcy, Filkins, Milton, Haw- ridge, Pyrton, Saltbrd, Sandford, Shippon, Tets worth, Tile- burst, "West End Mortimer, Wheatley. 10 schools were coming under inspection. I have known no instance in the last three years, in which school- managers have admitted the Inspectors without afterwards acknowledging with gratitude the effects of their visits ; and I would take this opportunity of recommending strongly to those who have not yet done so, the wisdom of obtaining for their schools the advantage which they may secure from these visits. It is by making our schools better that a great part of our work with the whole of our population must be done. For not only is this our only means for raising the next generation as a mass, but it is also one of our chiefest instruments for reaching the hearts and winning the affections of the adult members of our flock. We can do nothing effectual for them unless we possess their love, and their love is most directly won through the hearts of their children ; and to do this we must improve our schools ; for one main hindrance, undoubtedly, to our work of educating, especially the agricultural poor, is the early age at which the children leave us. Now when their leaving school is bond fide the con- sequence of their having reached the age at which they can, in work and service, at once enter upon the true labour of their lives, and learn in its lower beginnings what will make them hereafter better workmen, I do not think that we ought to regret their changing the class-room for the farm-yard, the stable, or the field. In truth, when that season is reached, it is in these rather than in school that 11 their true education is to be carried on. But what we must lament is, that for trifling and doubtful present earnings, obtained by occupations which do not fit them for the business of their lives, for the present convenience of thoughtless parents, or even to gratify the idleness of the children, the great work of their education is so often prematurely inter- rupted. Now there can be no great improvement here until w^e have so raised the character of the education we give, as w^ell as our mode of imparting it, that w^e at once win in its progress the affections of the children, and make their parents feel that by it real and substantial benefit is conferred upon them. We have, thank God, amongst us an in- creasing number of schools which are of this high character ; but much remains to be done before we can hope that it has been reached by the great majority : and no labour, depend upon it, is better spent than that wdiich brings religious training and loving instruction in the distinctive doctrines of our Reformed Church home to the hearts and lives of the young. The principles, afl^ections, habits, and belief of true Church-of-England-men grow in such cases, through God's blessing, with the natural growth, and strengthen with the strength of our pupils. The improvement of our Sunday-schools is an- other subject which I think requires our utmost attention. The danger which seems to me espe- cially to beset them is their becoming a mere re- 12 petition on the Sunday of the ordinaiy week-day school, with its drudgery and its weariness. Such Sunday-schools I believe to be positively injurious. The object of the Sunday-school ought to be not the mere teaching of school-children, but the pro- viding for young parishioners employment, and even amusement, suited to occupy and improve them on the Lord's Day. Thus all mere teaching of reading, and all wearisome tasks, should be avoided at it, and it should be made as attractive as possible. Scripture narratives, religious allegories, the histories of mis- sions, the recitation of hymns learnt at home, sing- ing, and other such employments, ought to occupy the time at school. This time, too, should never be long, — I would say, at most, one hour in the morn- ing and one in the afternoon, — lest the children should be wearied before attending church. When brought to church, however, the same principle should be carefully observed. Their whole treat- ment should suggest, from the first, to their own feelings, that they are brought there, not because they are school-children, but because they are young members of the great congregation. Thus every provision should be made to assist in fixing their /naturally roving minds. They should be placed where they can hear and see ; inattention should be checked rather by the eye of the clergyman than by the wand of the master ; and provision should be made for their kneeling in those parts of the service where that posture is enjoined on the congregation. 13 For how can we expect them to kneel when they grow up, if whilst they were under our special charge as children they were taught to sit or shuffle about as careless spectators of the service. Such treatment in our Sunday-schools would tend greatly to prevent the evil of which we all complain, that the children cease attending church when they leave school. For this is often the result of their having learned to consider their coming to church as a part of their schooling, and so they throw it off with the rest of their school-restraints ; whereas, if they had learned to come as young parishioners, they would still continue to attend, though their school-days were over. Your returns shew 33,938 children as under your daily instruction, besides 9,079 in infant- schools, and many more in Sunday and many in night-schools. This number, large as it is, from the incompleteness of many of the returns, is, I believe, below the actual total. But, much as we are doing in these schools, there is another not less important class for which we are, I think, provid- ing far less than we ought. Whilst through the system we have been reviewing provision is made for our labouring population, and whilst through our great public schools, with their dependencies of smaller schools and private tuition, and still more directly through such institutions at St. Peter's College at Radley, and St. Andrew's at Brad- field, within this diocese, the Church does provide 14 a Christian education for the highest class, she does scarcely anything for the great middle class of our people : and there is nothing I would press more earnestly at this moment upon the diocese, than that we should resolve to found colleges and institutions which would command the confidence of our yeomen and leading tradespeople, and afford them the opportunity of securing for their children a thoroughly good, sound, and useful education, in direct connection with our Church. We ought to he encouraged to make such by the support which, in spite of many deficiencies in its site and build- ings, our diocesan school at Cowley has received. I shall rejoice to join with you in fully considering the best means of providing for this most impor- tant want. From our provision for the training of the young, I turn naturally to what we are doing towards im- planting and maintaining the life of God in the busy, seething mass of our adult population. The returns which I have received from many of you are, for various reasons, far from complete. They state that the ordinary congregations of the parishes furnishing these returns amount to 1 17,789, and the communicants to 29,385. Accuracy as to these re- turns is for many reasons at this time so important, that I do not hesitate to ask you, my rev. brethren, to take the needful steps, and they are not difficult, for counting from time to time the actual numbers of your whole congregations, children and adults. 15 and to keep an accurate list of your communi- cants, with their names, and the number of times in the year they attend the Lord's Table. Two hundred and thirty-six such lists are already kept, and add a most desirable accuracy to the nu- merical returns of those parishes. These returns, with their numbers absolutely so large, yet rela- tively to our whole population so small, leading us, if they are correct, to the conclusion that, taking in all ages, only one in twenty of our population regularly communicate in our churches — suggest to us, I think, two most important questions. First, How can we bring under the influence of those means of grace which we administer, more of those who are as yet beyond their reach ? and secondly, How can we, my rev. brethren, make more full proof of our ministry amongst those to whom it does actually extend? Now, of course, the chief- cst of all the means which we can use for both of these purposes is the raising of our own spiritual life. To increase our ministerial strength, we must win from our God a more abundant indwelling of His Holy Spirit in our own souls. The effect of this on those around us will soon be felt. More true and earnest love of Christ and of our brethren in our own hearts ; more simple faith in Him ; more devotedness to His service ; more self-denial ; more study of God's Word ; more prayer, more labour, more unity amongst ourselves, more tenderness, — these, under the blessing of God, will both win over 16 to us many more of those who are now without, and build up those who are within. To causes which may be thus removed, many of your answers as to the hindrances to the success of your ministry have drawn my thoughts ; for you have named amongst them your "own shortcomings and in- firmity ; cowardice ; neglect of opportunities ; w ant of preparation ; too much generality ; insufficient study of God's Word ; restraint of prayer ; and a want of the outpouring of the Spirit." Plainly, then, must our own growth in the graces I have men- tioned be our first means for increasing the suc- cess of our ministry ; — means how easy to name, how difficult, alas ! through our natural corruption, heartily and habitually to employ. IMay the out- pouring of the good Spirit of our God work on us and with us in this, the very heart, at once of our certain difficulty and possible success. But beyond these general principles there are one or two special suggestions which 1 would wish you to consider : and first, might not an in- crease of jDublic catechizing, (I find at present but 173 churches where it is used,) if it were not a mere formal asking of set questions and repeat- ing of fixed answers, (necessarily a performance of little interest to the listeners,) but if (the children having been w^ell prepared by private instruction and questioning) it were the drawing out from their mouths not only of the great truths of the Gospel, but also of the distinctive teaching, and so 17 of the authority, of our Church ; and all this inter- spersed with short affectionate appeals addressed to the heart and conscience. Might not, I repeat, the increase of such a catechetical system tend greatly to the instruction, the interest, and the edi- fication of all ? Again : are our sermons what they ought to be, or what real labour and prayer on our part might make them ? Are we not too much in the habit of thinking of preaching as if it were that which all educated men could do competently, without any peculiar training or education of their faculties for that special purpose ? Now I am by no means dis- posed to give an indiscriminate assent to the truth of the popular outcry against our sermons, which has of late reached the ears of all of us ; but still, are they not, with many excellencies, too often defi- cient in precisely those qualities which are necessary to make them really effective with our people ? For is not their general cast that of essays or disqui- sitions ; their merit, soundness, moderation, perhaps exactness ? And is not their fault — that really un- pardonable fault with all listeners of every class, and specially with our class of listeners — that of dul- ness ? And is not what we want to reach our people a style of composition the exact opposite of this ; one which intellectually is terse, pointed, deahng in short sentences ; using Saxon words, as close to every-day life as it can be, without being profane or vulgar, in its subjects, appUcations, illustrations, and c 18 assertions? Should it not be rough enough to make itself felt through the dull skin of indolence and inattention ? Should it not startle the careless, and positively jog the drowsy man ere his sleep is sound ? Should it not be pathetic ? for who more need, or more answer, than our common hearers to what reaches them through the affections ? Should it not through illustrations convey truths which the unlearned never receive through argument? Should it not avoid the easy uniformity of a man applying a nostrum, and with the living earnestness of one who believes that he has all-important truths to convey, declare the curse of sin, and the blessed remedy provided for it in the sacrifice and offering of our Lord, and in the working of God the Holy Ghost ? Should it not dwell upon and pro- claim Christ on His Cross, Christ in His work of love, Christ in His Word, Christ in His Church, Christ in His Sacraments, Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ mediating, Christ saving ? And should it not impress these with all the variety, and fire, and love which belong, not to a mouth full of phrases, but to a heart, and mind, and soul full of their subject, and that subject eternal death or eternal life, man's loss or man's salva- tion, and the love of Christ, and the working of the Eternal Spirit, and the blessedness of the Church of the redeemed ? And should not all this be delivered as if we were in earnest, because we are in earnest ? I must leave it to you to determine for yourselves 19 whether you can best speak thus for Christ from or without a manuscript. I beUeve that the best course, generally, is to preach once each Sunday a written and once an unwritten sermon. But when I say an unwritten sermon, I by no means mean one which has been committed to memory, nor, on the other hand, one which is the mere pouring off of the first frothy surface of our minds ; but one which, though the fresh utterance of the moment, is the product of thought, and study, and prayer. For the written sermon secures exactness and variety, and the unwritten the habit of speaking to our people from the heart to the heart, instead of reading com- positions in their presence. It would help us, I think, to gain this mode of preaching, if we remembered more constantly, that, especially for the mass of our illiterate hearers, preaching commonly is and must be the great in- strument of converting souls to God ; and that it is only, for the most part, through this that the dull monotony of a life of worldliness is ever broken in upon in their case by that stirring of the spi- ritual affections w^hich belongs of God's mercy to devotional addresses. It is from my conviction of the great importance of rousing these affections, and above all at such a time, that I would urge you to aim specially at producing this result by short ser- mons, yet fuller than usual of affectionate appeal and devotional thoughts, before your administration of the Lord's Supper in your churches. I know the c 2 20 difficulties which indispose some of you to this, and which all run up into the length of the service ; but I would rather that you shortened the singing, or, after reference to me, divide the service, accord- ing to the declaration made last year by the bi- shops^, than that you should not preach, however shortly, before celebration. The more frequent administration of that holy Sacrament is another means I would mention to you for raising the tone of our ministry. The '' I subjoin a copy of this declaration : — "Eesolved, — il/(7y, 1856, " First, — That having regard to the declaration in the rubric prefixed to the Eook of Common Prayer, that ' for the resolution of all doubts concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the things contained in this Book ; the parties that so doubt or diversely take anything shall always resort to the Bishop of the Diocese, who, by his discretion, shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same and if the Bishop of the Diocese be in doubt, then he may send for the resolution thereof to the Archbishop' .... and such doubts having been expressed to some of us, as to ' the manner how to understand' the words in the rubric prefixed to the Litany ' to be said after Morning Prayer upon Sundays, "Wednes- days, and Fridays, and at other times when it shall be com- manded of the Ordinary,' whether, that is to say, the * other times when it shall be commanded of the Ordinary' ai'e limited by the words ' after Morning Prayer' or no, — we, having taken the matter into our consideration, do * take order for the quieting of the doubts' aforesaid, by declaring, that in our judgment the command of the Ordinaiy is not limited by the words ' after Morning Prayer' in such sense as that the Morning Prayer is always to be said befoi'e, or as a preceding part of that service at which the Litany shall be so used ; but that it is left to the discretion of the Ordinary to command the use of the Litany as a separate service at any hour of the day, so that no ordinary 21 system of the Church of England plainly supposes a weekly communion in every parish where three or four communicants can be found to receive with the minister ; and whilst such a frequency of celebration would probably diminish the numbers present at each time of administration, and so diminish the evil of the length of the service at each time of cele- bration, it would, 1 have no doubt, increase the total number of communicants ; and that to encourage it was therefore one of the wise and godly deter- service of the Church be thereby set aside, nor the Litany sub- stituted for either Morning or Evening Prayer. " Secondly, — That by the same authority it is lawful for the Bishop, at his discretion, to allow the use of the Morning Prayer and Communion, with Sermon, at the first or Morning Prayer ; and after such interval as he shall direct, the Litany, with or without a Sermon, as he may dkect. " (Signed) J. B. Cantuar. " (Signed) J. P. Manchester. T. Ebor. R. D. Hereford. J. G. Armagh. S. Norwich. Ed. Dublin. A. Llandaff. C. R. Win ton. J. Lincoln. C. Bangor. W. K. Sarum. G. Bochester. Auckland Bath & "Wells. J. H. Gloucester & Bristol. M. Carlisle. H. Exeter. H. Sodor & Man. C. T. Ripon. J. H. Meath. G. Peterborough. Ludlow Killaloe. C. St. David's. Plunket Tuam. H. Worcester. R. Cashel. A. T. Cicestr. J. Cork. J. Lichfield. R. Down & Connor. T. Ely. W. Derry. S. Oxon. H. Limerick. T. y. St. Asaph. M. G. Kilmore." 22 minations of our English Reformers ^ But even if this frequency is as yet generally impossible, we may do something ; and much, I am thankful to say, has been already done in this respect. In the year 1848 there were reported to me as being in the diocese six churches in which the Holy Communion was administered only three times in the year ; 238 in which it was administered only four times ; only 98 in which the celebration was monthly, and 7 in which it was w^eekly. Whereas by your last returns I find- that there are but 3 where it is administered only thrice, and they the smallest parishes, in which greater frequency, from the ab- solute absence of communicants, has been at times impossible ; but 84, as against 238 in 1848, where it is administered only four times ; and 160 where it is administered monthly, or monthly and also at * On this point the opinion of the continental Reformers coin- cided with that of our own Church. I quote from Les Adieus d'Adolphe Ilonod, p. 13: — " C'est un gi^and mal que la Com- munion soit cclebree si raremcnt dans notre Eglise, et un mal auquel de toutes parts on s'applique a remedier. Nos Reforma- tcurs, en etablissant cet ordre de choscs, out pris soin d'cxpli- qucr qu'ils ne la faisaicnt que pour un temps, et pour prevenir des abus fort graves qui s'etaient glisses dans I'Eglise primitive. Mais ce qu'ils avaicnt fait pour un temps est demeure pend int des sieclcs dans la plupart de nos eglises. En fin nous touchons an temps on la frequente Communion nous sera rendue. Calvin dit quelque part que la Communion devrait etre celebree au moins tous les Dimanches II y a lieu de penser que c'est cette rarete de la Communion, qui a donne lieu a la plupart des controverses soulev^es sur ce sujet." 23 the greater festivals, or yet more frequently ; and 20 where the celebration is weekly, or more fre- quent'\ Whilst I should gather from your returns that 29,335 are in the habit of partaking of the holy Eucharist. I have no doubt that, in fact, the number is greater. But, gratifying as is this in- crease, I would earnestly beg of those who have not yet done so, to bring up the number of their communions at least to a monthly celebration. Many, I know, are doing this already ; and the communications I have had with many others pre- paratory to this visitation, lead me to know that they have resolved on the same course. I cannot doubt that by it the number of our communi- cants, as well as the frequency and the devoutness of their attendance, would be increased, and the cause of God proportionably advanced amongst us. If any one still doubts this, I would ask him to consider what danger there is, when God has by His afflicting hand, or by any rousing of the religious affections, awakened in any heart the be- ginnings of penitence and of seeking after Him, if there be no opportunity for the man, in this crisis of his spiritual being, to come to the Lord's Table, to seal his new resolutions and seek for increased grace, until a quarter of a year has '^ The exact nunabers are as follows ; Times. Weekly. More than 12 times, & Festivals. 12 times & Festivals. 12 9 8 6 5 4 3 20 16 29 115 27 38 77 28 84 3 24 passed away, — what danger, I say, there is before this long-delayed opportunity arrives, that these emotions may have died out, and the world resumed ts dominion, and the soul perhaps be lost, because when the w^aters were moved there was no man ready to put him into the healing pool. The reason commonly given by tliose who are disposed to ad- here to infrequency of celebration is, that their com- municants are few. Now this reason appears to me to involve a double error : first, it forgets that there is no surer way of increasing the attendants than by multiplying the services ; and, next, it overlooks the master truth, that the whole machinery of gi'ace is intended for the comparatively few who do, and not for the many who do not, profit by its merciful provisions, I will mention only one more, but that I think a very important point: — we ought, far more than we do, to press upon heads of families and employers of labour in our parishes, the duty of using their influence with their dependants as a means of bringing them regularly to attend on the means of grace in their parish church. I am sure w^e have neglected here a great instrument of usefulness. We have continually pressed upon the poor the duty of attending church, whilst w^e have shrunk from setting plainly before the wealthier members of our parishes their clear duty of using their influence with their dependants to promote their coming. It is, of course, easy to ask what good 25 is there in men's coming to the house of God from such a motive as the desire of pleasing their earthly- master ; but sm^ely the answer is easy also. For, first, what the secondary motive here does, is only to bring men under the means of grace. To convert the soul is the high prerogative of God the Holy Ghost. The utmost we can do, in any part of our ministry, is to let down the net and leave the filling it to Him. And what, after all, is plainer, than that God is pleased to draw men on to a higher law of ser-- vice through their dutiful observance of a lower ? My brethren of the laity, suffer me, as the chief pastor of this diocese, myself to press on you this important matter. In not a few parishes, indeed, I rejoice to know that these high duties are al- ready nobly performed ; and that the clergy have in their work of love the hearty and affectionate support of the resident laity of all degrees ; and happy indeed are these districts. But there are others where the want of it makes the pastor's hands hang down, and weakens all his influence for good. From these parishes the clergy have mournfully returned to me as amongst the main hindrances to the success of their ministry, such causes as the folloAving : — "The indifference of their rich, and the degradation of their poor, pa- rishioners ; the bad character of their landlords, and their indifference. " " The great increase of a worldly spirit amongst the middle and rising classes in their parish, and their total indifference, and even aversion, 26 to anything approaching to Church discipline, au- thority, and unity." " Their want of lay aid." " In- difference of masters in this place to the characters of their labourers." Suffer me, my brethren of the laity, affectionately but earnestly to remind you, that for the use of our influence, as of every other talent, we must render a strict account before the judgment-seat of Christ. And in this matter your influence is very great. In some of our parishes our congregations would be well-nigh doubled, if its leading laymen and employers of labour would exert themselves to get their own dependants to attend ; and great would be theu' re- ward. Here, in the increased respect and affection which such care would soon breed. For though here and there a surly answer might be the first re- turn to such an effort, it would be short-lived, and it would be the exception. Your labourers would soon value the care for them which it would bespeak ; more than anything, it would tend to check that dangerous division of ranks, and insubordination of the lower, which is growing amongst us. Your men would serve you more heartily when they felt that they served masters who treated them as bre- thren in Christ, partakers with themselves of the heavenly calling, and not merely as instruments from whose thews and muscles, in return for cer- tain wages, they were to receive certain labour. Nor would this be all : great might be your re- compense hereafter, in the rich reward of souls 27 which your exertions would have mainly helped to save. One means to this end I would earnestly press on all employers of labour in the diocese ; — I mean the never paying their labourers on the Saturday night. The simple change of the pay-day to an earlier time in the week removes great hindrances to attending church on Sunday, often from whole families both of the workmen and of the shopkeepers by whom they are mainly supplied. Of our other work in the diocese through these last three years, I am able to speak with thank- fulness for the success which has been granted to us. I. The Theological College was opened for the reception of students at Michaelmas 1854. Since that time, up to Michaelmas 1857, 78 students have entered it. Of these, 36 have been ordained to curacies within the diocese of Oxford, and 16 to cures in other dioceses ; 5 have not proceeded to ordination ; and 21 are still in tlie college, which is now quite full. The demand for curates trained at Cuddesdon by incumbents in and out of the diocese averages at the present time fully double the num- ber which the college is able to supply. Whether the buildings should be enlarged is a question for future consideration, after a longer experience. Meanwhile the establishment of exhibitions for pro- mising candidates with small means is a matter I have much at heart, and hope, through God's bless- 28 ing, to see carried out. I may now*" state with much thankfulness, that since I began this circuit one member of the diocese has already replied to my invitation, and pledged himself to contribute twenty guineas a-year to such a foundation. The pay- ments of the students are fixed at the lowest standard consistent with making the college self- supporting : but there are many anxious to avail themselves of it who, after the expenses of a Uni- versity course, find an additional year's residence at a theological college beyond their means. And it is, I beg you to remember, for these that the college is founded. It is not intended as a substi- tute for, but as an addition to, the ordinary Uni- versity career : nor have literates been received at it, except in those highly exceptional cases of young men who appeared to have special qualifications for the ministry, and would therefore have been received by me as candidates for ordination even without its training. All that I have as yet seen of the effects of this attempt to improve the ministerial character of our younger clergy has more than equalled my expectations, and fulfilled the hopes I ventured to express in my last Charge. I have noted in those who have come under its training not only a marked increase in theological attainments, and in a prac- tical acquaintance with their future duties, of distinct enunciation in reading God's Word to the people, '' At Oxford. 29 of catechising children and visiting the sick ; nor yet, besides these, only in that highest object of such an institution, the increase of devotional habits, and so far as we may venture to jadge, of the life of God in the soul ; but also in an increased quietness and moderation of tone on things doubtful ; with, I thank God, a firmer, humbler, more intelligent and settled trust in the Church of England, as the true Catholic Church in this land. You will, I am sure, my rev. brethren, agree with me that the value of such results cannot be exaggerated, and you will, I trust, remember this institution in those prayers of yours to which I very earnestly commend it. The heads of the college are most anxious that the whole system pursued in it should be open to the observation of all clergymen in the diocese ; and would welcome them there as guests, and re- joice in their presence at the lectures given to the inmates. II. Culham College also has during these three years continued to flourish under its able and zealous Principal. It has, indeed, with a remarkable ab- sence of the ordinary feebleness of an infant institu- tion, sprung at once into full usefulness : for we have already sent out eighty-six actual teachers, of whom not more than one or two are even tempo- rarily out of employment, or are in any way likely to desert their vocation. We have now in the col- lege, completing their education, forty-four students ; twenty of whom have been pupil-teachers — ten from 30 the associated, and ten from other dioceses, — and twenty-four others ; of whom seventeen are from the associated and seven from other dioceses. Of the moral and reUgious as well as of the intellectual characters of the present students I am able to speak most hopefully. But to gain the full benefit which we ought from this institution, it is of the utmost moment that the number of pupil-teachers in the diocese should be multiplied, that so the stream of qualified scholars may flow into the col- lege with an ampler current. I would add, that it is most useful that the pupil-teachers should, where- ever it is possible, come up to Culham provided already with some instruction in playing on the harmonium or the organ. When they join the college it is too late to begin to teach this ; at that age the hand has become too stiflf, and the time is too short. Yet the possession of this power renders the future schoolmaster of far more use in many circumstances of his after parochial life. An alteration made by the Government in their mode of allotting the parliamentary grant to train- ing colleges, has for the time considerably affected the income of the college : but to prevent the drain on the resources of the Diocesan Board which this would otherwise have occasioned, and the crippling of its power of making grants out of the proceeds of the pastoral letter for the erection of schools in destitute parishes, seventy-three friends of Church education have guaranteed the sum of £300 to its 31 funds for the years 1857 and 1858 ; by which tmie, if the expectations of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, as to the increased number of Queen's Scholars, are realized, the amount which may be looked for from the parliamentary grant will render the college nearly, if not altogether, self-supporting^ ^ I add a synoptical view of the concerns of Culham Col- lege, which has been kindly prepared for me by the rev. Prin- cipal : — TABLE No. I. Number of students who liave passed through the college up to Midsummer, 1857 .....•• ^"^ Of these there went out as schoolmasters bearing certificates of merit from the Piivj' Council . . . .67 As schoolmasters in English dioceses, but not in connection with the Privy Council .... As schoolmasters in colonial service . Left from ill-health ..... As incompetent ..... Expelled ...... Total number passed through the college, ." So far the words of the Judgment. To it, on this, as on the former point, we are bound in con- science by our promises of obedience to yield an ungrudging assent. It is one thing to have fallen in, as many of us have, from the wish to avoid altercation, with a lax custom which had become common ; it would be quite another thing, per- versely to continue such a custom when the highest legal sentence warns us that "it is not according to the order prescribed," and when the voice of living authority calls, as it now calls on you by my mouth, to abandon it. Such a course would be willfully to » The Judgment of the Judicial Committee, by Moore, p. 187. E 2 52 violate our promise of canonical obedience, and to introduce into our common service the occasions of inevitable division. It will be my duty previous to any future Visitation to ascertain by direct ques- tion that these injunctions have been obeyed. During this Visitation another deficiency in too many of our churches has been brought before me, which I must call upon the churchwardens to supply. A table of the degrees of kindred and af- finity within which, by the law of God and our Church, marriages are forbidden, must be hung up in every church. These tables may be obtained at a very trifling cost from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. On one other subject of public interest I must yet detain you for a few minutes. It is, indeed, not my intention to take with you on this occasion any general review of recent legis- lation, as it specially affects our Church : but as to one matter, from its extreme importance, I must make an exception,— I mean the recent alteration in the laws of marriage and divorce. Until the last session of Parliament, marriage was by the law of the land, as holy matrimony still is by the law of the Church, a contract indissoluble during the lifetime of the contracting parties «. For I can •> So says that great jurist and historian, Sir James Mackintosh : " The law of England is now, in its letter and theory, conform- able to the ancient principle of the Roman Catholic Church, which regarded mari'iage as indissoluble." — Hist, of England, vol. ii. p. 277. 53 allow no weight to the fallacious objection to this assertion, which alleges that inasmuch as some marriages have been annually dissolved by Par- liament by the law of England, as it stood before the recent act, marriage was dissoluble. The mere fact that a special privilegium was required to dis- solve marriage, proved that by the law which the privilegium suspended it was indissoluble : or, to quote the words of that eminent jurist, Sir James Mackintosh, on this subject, " Whatever requires an act of legislature to legalise must in itself be ille- gaP." Thus the acts which Parliament annually passes to enable certain parties — the constructors, for example, of a railway — to take at a valuation the land of proprietors who are unwilling to sell it, prove, not that by the ordinary law of England owners can, but that they cannot be compelled to part with their property. No one will venture to deny that the introduction of a system under which, without such special acts of the legislature, such sales could always be enforced, would be an en- tire and startling alteration of the law of property, — an alteration exactly similar to that which has thus been effected in the law of marriage. Nor, again, was there any truth in the allegation that the bishops of the Church, by suffering these privilegia to pass unchallenged, had lost the right of consistently resisting the introduction of a law providing for the ordinary practice of divorce. P Hist, of England, vol. ii. p. 278. 54 For first in every bill for the dissolution of mar- riage, by a standing order of the House of Lords, a clause was inserted prohibiting the intermarriage of the guilty parties "^ ; and then further, by the prac* tice of Parliament, when one or more private acts have passed, granting some special license, they are treated as precedents, (to be set aside only by some subsequent general legislation,) which create a plea for all persons in precisely the same circumstances to solicit the extension to themselves, with whatever conditions Parliament may see fit to accompany the grant, of a favour similar in kind. Now these pri- vilegia were private bills ; the first of them was op- posed vehemently, though unsuccessfully, by the great body of the English bishops ; and their silence " Die Martis, 2 Maii, IS09. ^ " Ordered by the Lords spiritual and temporal in Parliament assembled, that no bill grounded on a petition to this House to dissolve a marriage for the cause of adultery, and to enable the petitioner to many again, shall be received by this House unless a provision be inserted in such bill that it shall not be lawful for the person whose marriage w^th the petitioner shall be dis- solved, to intermarry with any offending party on account of whose adultery with such person it shall be therein enacted that such marriage shall be so dissolved ; provided that if at the time of exhibiting the said bill such offending party or parties shaU be dead, such provision as aforesaid, shall not be inserted in the said bill. " Ordered, that the said orjler be declared a standing order, and that it be entered on the said roll of standing orders of this House, and printed and published, to the end aU persons concerned may the bettor take notice of the same." — M" Queen's Practice of the Souse of Lords, Appendix, 792. 55 on the introduction of similar bills was only in obe- dience to the general practice of Parliament with re- gard to private acts, and left them, therefore, at per- fect liberty to protest against a general alteration of the law which introduced into the jurisprudence of the country a new and vicious principle ; a prin- ciple, which in their judgment threatened to sap the very foundations on which the sanctity of family life amongst us, with all its train of blessings, has so long rested, as on a sure foundation. The law of the land, then, has been altered, and the opposition made by us to that alteration was not in contrast with our former conduct. Now I will not enter here into the question how far the law so altered is or is not in accordance with the law of God. "We all probably are convinced, that in one important re- spect at least there is such a variance. We may differ upon the question how far that variance ex- tends. But what I wish you specially to notice is that by this legislation (1.) That old harmony of two distinct codes, expressed so happily in our Ordination Service in the words, " as this Church and realm hath received the same," — a harmony which enabled us, with such full and undivided loyalty, to obey both in one, has been avowedly and rudely broken, and the law of the land and the law of the Church, for the first time, so far as I know, put into direct opposition to each other ; and (2.) That we in our character of the clergy of the National Church are required to perform, or 56 to allow others to perform for us, in the churches of which we are by law the guardians, certain so- lemn religious acts, the performance of which at the same time is forbidden to us by the law of our Church. Most dangerous consequences seem to me too likely to follow from such a state of things. For, first, such an opposition between the law of the land and the law of the Church tends more than anything else to dissolve that union between the Church and the State in this land, which has for so many years yielded such blessings to both. And accordingly this enactment was advocated in Par- liament by the bitter enemies of Church establish- ments, with insulting taunts at our captive con- dition, and insulting invitations to us to save our- selves from the immorality of our new position by quitting the Established Church and joining their ranks :"and next, and beyond this, such legislation seems to me to involve principles which are directly at variance with the claims of Christianity itself, to be the revelation of the will of God. For if the Church of Christ does in God's Word, the Creeds, and the like, possess such a revelation, and if her laws are the transcript and expression of it, then to allow any body external to herself to alter those laws, is to allow it to tamper with the revelation ; it is allowing that the State possesses the right of dictat- ing what we, as the authorized clergy, shall or shall not teach as the truth of God ; a concession abso- 57 lutely subversive of the claim of the Church to have received and to set forth a revelation from God Himself. And if, once more, we would estimate to what consequences such a concession may soon practically lead in our own case, we must take into account this further consideration — that under our representative form of government, the most active powers of the State are wielded by the majority of a body into which are freely admitted those who avowedly oppose all our distinctive teaching. Nor let it be said that these conclusions are in any degree avoided by the paltry concession that, as to one class of such marriages, the State does not require of individual clergymen the active violation of their own consciences. In truth, it seems to me that in this whole course of vicious legislation this so-called concession is the most faulty spot; — faulty every way : as sheltering no principle, and involving fresh confusion ; as in no respect preserving the Church's truth, and yet as yielding to the scruples of indi- viduals what, as individuals, they have no right to ask. For if that which is enacted be not a violation of the Church's law, then no clergyman has any right to entertain private scruples as to obeying the enactment ; and to yield him an im- munity as to obedience is to injure those who have a right to his services, and it is to set a perilous example of allowing public officers, on the plea of private opinions, to violate that law which is to be the common rule of all. But if, on the other hand. 58 that which is enacted is a violation of the Church's law, then no clergyman ought to be allowed to per- form it — not because his act would cross any scruples of his own, or even because it would violate his own conscience, but because it violates the law of his Church, and so is an injury, an insult, and a de- gradation to that Church, and to every member of it. For I am most anxious that you, my lay bre- thren, should distinctly understand that this is not a question concerning us of the clergy with any par- ticularity of application to ourselves, but that it con- cerns every one of you equally ; — equally, certainly, as to the maintenance of that sanctity of marriage on which the family happiness of England so abso- lutely rests ; and not less so as to the maintenance for our Church of its true character as a divine, and not a human, institution. For the purity of the faith, and the certainty of its being propounded to us by divine authority, are treasures just as precious to you as to us ; and it is these, and not our scruples, which are brought in question by this act. For if a body external to the Church can claim a right of altering God's law in the Church as to holy matri- mony, it may at any time claim the same right as to holy baptism, as to the Lord's Supper, or even as to our Creeds themselves. And remember that this is no question as to who has, in the Church, the right of revising such matters : I am not arguing that this rests with the clergy rather than with the laity, but merely that the right is inalienable from 59 the Church herself; that it is a power which she cannot abdicate in favour of any external body, but must use herself, in whatever way or degree it be- longs to her laity, her clergy, and her bishops, ac- cording to Christ's ordinance, to exercise it law- fully. It is, believe me, most important that the clergy and the laity of our Church should weigh this mat- ter well ; for depend upon it, if this alteration is successfully estabhshed, the principle involved in it will not long be allowed to sleep. The same external power which has interfered with the Church's law of marriage will interfere with her Book of Com- mon Prayer, and we shall have the attempt made, from the vantage-ground of previously permitted en- croachment, to thrust upon us an altered or brack- eted Prayer-book. There were two ways in which these evils might have been avoided. First, in exact harmony with the best precedents of the best times, the English Church might have been required, as she w^as required at the time of our Reformation, to reconsider the enactments of her law upon this subject, and to see whether, in accordance with the law of God, they could be altered : and I am far from meaning to dogmatise as to what relaxations in the desired direction she might or might not have found herself able to allow. Or secondly, the State might have considered what marriages she believed to be expedient for her subjects, and then have provided for their legal celebration by 60 that system of civil contracts for which the full machinery is already provided, and at work. For as to these marriages, the authority of the State is rightfully supreme. Unhappily, neither of these courses was adopted, whilst the dangerous line which has been followed was expounded and jus- tified by the yet more threatening assertion of the Attorney-General, that it was the duty of the clergy, as ministers of the national Church, to do whatever the State ordered ; drawing therein a pic- ture of a national Church as being necessarily so utterly degraded, because it is national, so incapable of retaining truth, so demoralized in character, so powerless as a witness or instrument for God, that the bitterest invectives of her bitterest enemy never represented her as more hopelessly subject to all the weakness and ignominy of a shameful slavery. Even in the despotic kingdom of Prussia no such servile yoke has been imposed on her Protestant Establishment ; for whilst by the civil law divorce is freely allowed, the law of her synod is so scrupu- lously enforced, that none of her ministers are per- mitted by it, or compelled by the State, to celebrate such marriages'. ' Extracts from the speech of Baron Von Gerlach, in the Prussian Chamber, on the Marriage Law, translated by H. Drummond, M.P. : — (Speaking of the causes of a slight dimi- nution in the number of divorces, he says), "The voice of the Church -was heard a few years afterwards. The consciences of the Evangelical clergy impelled them to refuse the blessing to new marriages contracted by divorced persons." Again: "There 61 Our duty under these painful circumstances seems to me to be plain. We cannot let the matter rest where it is : whether or not we think that the in- nocent party ought to be set free from an adulterous union, and suffered to marry again, is not the ques- tion ; it is, whether for ourselves and our children we can permit the Church of this land to be de- graded from being a witness for God, to being a mere earthly machinery to speak the words which, from time to time, the State may be pleased to put into her mouth ; and against this we ought to pro- test, by requiring that these marriages which the State resolves to legalize, whilst the Church's law forbids their being celebrated as holy matrimony, should be contracted before the civil magistrate, without the profanation of our appointed prayers, through their use in cases to which these words cannot honestly apply, or the degradation of our Apostolic Church, by having variations in doctrines of the faith, as she has once for all received it, dic- tated to her by a merely earthly authority. Here, then, brethren, I conclude our brief survey of our diocesan work and our public interests through appears to me no doubt that this decrease is attributable entirely to the refusal of conscientious clergymen, since the year 1854, when the Church Synod met in Frankfort, to give blessing on the re-marriage of divoi'ced persons." — (p. 11.) "I consider this measure as a civil one, as does also the go- vernment, because it is not introduced to satisfy the Church, nor is intended in any way to he binding on the Glmrchr — (p. 19.) 62 these three years. And now, before we part, I would once more solemnly " commend you to God and to the word of His gi'ace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance amongst all that are sanctified '." May He by His Holy Spirit blegs, may He of His exceeding mercy accept, for Christ's sake, our poor labours. May He enable us to re- member more and more in all our ministrations, that it is His glory, in the conversion and sanctifica- tion of souls, for which alone we labour. May He make us to be of one mind in His work ; free from party spirit, free from personal peculiarities, and harsh or violent extremes of opinion or practice ; tender, forbearing, loving, conscientious, active. May He, the Spirit of peace, make us to be at peace amongst ourselves ; enabling us, wherever we see activity in His work amongst our brethren, to work heartily and tnistingly with them, even though there be on some points allowed, and perhaps inevitable, differences of views between us. May He enable us to remember how short is our day of service, how near our sen- tence, how near our eternal doom or our eternal recompense : surely all things around us teach us this lesson. Of you, my reverend brethren the incumbents of the diocese, thirty-seven have been taken to their account since the last Visitation, to render up to their Judge their tale of souls for which He died, lost or saved under their ministry. For myself, I have the warning, that of all my pre- 8 Acts XX. 32. 63 decessors in this see from its foundation, but six have administered the diocese longer, one as long, as I have now served amongst you ; whilst eighteen have, in fewer years than the twelve of my episco- pate, rendered up their fearful trust to the great Bishop of souls. With increasing earnestness, if I know anything of myself, do I desire to be a fellow- helper of the joy of every one of you ; to rule — for so God has willed — as a brother amongst brethren ; to love all, to be loved and prayed for by all ; to help you all without distinction or difference in your work for Christ, that so through His grace " I and you may finish our course with joy, and the ministry, which we have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God*." t Acts XX. 24. PRINTED BY MESSRS. PARKER, CORN-MARKET, OXFORD. . vi^. ^^' >' -»r \\ -ju, >-7>».>