Observer, Mar. 1, 72. THE MANCHESTER NONCONFORMIST CONFERENCE. THIS Conference was held too late in January to be noticed in our issue for February, and now it is too far past to attempt an outline of its proceedings. Not that they have ceased to be important, but that their vast importance has compelled the daily and weekly papers, in every direction, to give ample reports, so that we can only tell over again what our readers have previously become acquainted with. It does not, however, follow that there is no room for comment. The Conference ranks among the great facts of our time. Nearly two thousand delegates from nearly one thousand churches, or other bodies of Nonconformists, represent a political power that no liberal government can afford to neglect, much less to despise. The term Conference leads one to expect not merely a public meeting to register a previously accepted opinion but a deliberative assembly designed to come to an agreement upon the subjects submitted to it. Most surely it would have been no marvel if this Conference, composed of men from so many Nonconformist churches and sects, had manifested considerable difference of opinion, and finally carried its programme by a respectable majority. But though the resolutions went to the root of the matter, and embraced the greatest questions, politically and religiously, that could be submitted, the unanimity was, as nearly as possible, perfect; all resolutions, save two, being carried unanimously, and those two voted against, as we believe, only by one objector. Nor was the assent a cool and formal one; the enthusiasm of the assembly brought the multitude to their feet and evoked all the usual demonstrations of deep feeling and purpose. A contemporary well observes, that-" Three main characteristies will make the Manchester Conference memorable in the history of Nonconformity: its thoroughness, unanimity and enthusiasm. There was no playing with language, no half-heartedness, no halting or faltering in purpose. Everyone saw clearly the mark to aim at, and in no instance did the arrow fall short of it. Simplicity and straightforwardness ran through all the papers and speeches. The concord of so many minds was still more remarkable. Nearly two thousand men, each man accustomed in his own locality to lead others, conferred together. There was evident independence of judgment, individuality of view, and yet all, though by different routes, reached the same terminus and came to the same conclusion. As one man, the Nonconformists asserted principles and resolved on a policy, every resolution of importance being carried unanimously. There was no lack of enthusiam. The public meeting on Tuesday night might have been expected to partake of the character of a Manchester demonstration. But the Conference itself was no less demonstrative. The opening address of Mr. R. Johnson, the inaugural of Mr. E. Miall, the speech of the Rev. Dr. Raleigh (for which Dissent owes much to the great preacher), and the paper of Mr. H. Richard, M.P., elicited a response which left no doubt respecting the earnest purpose and burning zeal of the two thousand, fit representatives of those other two thousand im 1662 who chose Nonconformity as preferable to infidelity to conscience. With all this enthusiasm there was marked self-control, an ever-watchful intelligence, a significant determination that the resolutions should say neither more nor less than the Conference meant. It was a series of meetings of which Dissenters may be proud, for which we should be thankful, verifying the saying of Edmund Burke, that in Nonconformity is found the Protestantism of the Protestant religion.' Almost reluctantly Observer, Mar. 1, '72. 66 we take leave of the Manchester Conference. The pure sentiment, the lofty patriotism, the earnest religiousness, the firm tone, the rare concord, and the determined purpose of the Nonconformists assembled at Manchester last week, mark off the past from the future. What 1662 was to the next two hundred years, 1872 will in all probability be to the succeedcentury. From 1662 we date the beginning of religious liberty: from 1872 will be dated a new era in the history of religious equality." Yes, religious equality! Nonconformists have till now been the humble followers of political leaders who could not have been leaders but for their support. In return they have received toleration and, now and then, the removal of some small measure of oppression. But now they take their stand for absolute religious equality, not for themselves only, but for every subject of the British Empire; and no candidate for Parliament and no Government can have their support who will not oppose every step in an opposite direction. This may break up the liberal party, but if so, it will only be because the leaders of that party have forsaken liberal principles. The Parliamentary battle arising from the action of the Conference, will begin with the education question, and the ground to be taken is that the State shall provide for all uneducated children, a literary education, and that it shall not supply religious teaching. Bible teaching will then be left to the churches, and as they will be released from the labour of common secular instruction, which has so largely, heretofore, fallen to their care, they will be equal to the emergency. It is not unlikely that some few of our readers, not having fully grasped this subject, may feel reluctant to sanction a national school system which excludes the Bible and religious teaching from the schoolroom. But there is no other escape from religious inequality and concurrent endowment. We go with the Nonconformists, not because of our Nonconformity, but solely on Bible ground. Our principles, and those of our readers generally, cannot be otherwise completely carried out. We shall be happy to receive suggestions or queries on this point, during the next few days, and we hope to deal more largely, in our next issue, with the Bible and the Schools. ED. THE BEST MEANS OF ASSAULT UPON THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.* I Do not ignore the fact that godly persons are occasionally found in the Church constituted by Act of Parliament-it is of the system in its constitution and prominent aspects that I desire to speak. The corporation called "The Established Church" is only a church in the sense in which the word is used in Acts xix. 32" Some, therefore, cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly (ecclesia or church) was confused, and the more (greater) part knew not wherefore they were come together." The modern assembly or church is in the same confused condition as the ancient one: "High Church," ," "Low Church,” “Broad Church"-some cry one thing and some another, the greater portion not knowing why they are gathered. They are, however, all of one mind * This paper is sent to us as having been written for the Manchester Nonconformist Conference. Of course it was not read; nor would it have been in place in a Conference called to consider the political relations of Nonconformists. The question there was not that of this paper; which, however, we commend to the careful consideration of every reader.-ED. Observer, Mar. 1, 72. about the "silver shrines," and can still fling dust into the air, and make as much noise as ever when they see danger to the "craft by which they have their wealth." I wish to indicate rapidly the best means of prosecuting a war against the entire guild. There are millions of persons in our land, chiefly found in the embrace of the Established Church, living in the practice of all unrighteousness, stained with almost every vice, and seldom troubled by any remorse, who yet believe that something was done for them by the priest in their infancy which changed their relation to God. They have been informed that by some ordinance or incantation, imposed upon them before the period of consciousness, they were translated from the uncleanness of raw nature. and flesh into a charmed region of supernaturalism and sanctity. This deadly spiritual poison has immense prevalence and power. I think that we Nonconformists are called upon to do more than ever we have done in enlightening the masses of our people. An infant (not an infant in law, but an infant in arms-a babe at the mother's breast) is as incapable as a stone of any moral change or spiritual transformation. All the conditions and possibilities of regenerate life are utterly absent. It is impossible in the nature of things for any of the three divine sisters, Faith, Hope or Love, to dwell within; nor is repentance over sin or choice of righteousness conceivable. As a rule, the sprinkled children grow up in the rankness of the flesh, under the dominion of all the passions and sins which darken and deform our fallen humanity. Nor is there any hidden life within, or the signs of any conflict between the opposed forces of a deposited divine life and the inheritance of nature. Any occasional battle betwixt conscience and passion is just as common among those who have never gone through the mystic ceremony as among those who have been subjected to the spell of the priest. We feel sure that a thousand sprinkled children transported to Thibet or Bagdad would, on the development of understanding and speech, worship the "Grand Lama" in one place, or cry out in the other, There is one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." It is perfectly certain that without any mysterious inward repugnance they would breathe the moral atmosphere circulating around them, and would never be haunted by dim reminiscence of any early glory or more ancient and better life. In short, the evil plant which we seek to eradicate has no roots in reason or revelation, but can only flourish on the soil and under the shadows of hoary superstition. We Nonconformists have a great battle to fight with the old pernicious fiction of regenerated babes, and I am sure we could fight that battle with far more power if our own hands were quite clean and our own houses thoroughly purged from the corruption. 66 There is another point of fundamental importance in the Holy War at hand. We must insist with more impressiveness than ever on the entire abolition of the priest. Spiritual men will not misapprehend this. There is a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a Peculiar People, called out of darkness into marvellous light, whose business it is to offer up "spiritual srcrifices, acceptable to God through Christ Jesus." All the ransomed are of one spiritual order; redeemed by the same blood, sealed by the same Spirit, inspired by the common hope, they can all draw near to the Holiest of all by a new and living way. They can ascend through the majesty of darkness and through the insufferable light, to clasp a Father's feet with trust and rest with gladness in His love, because they have at Observer, Mar. 1, '72. His right hand a High Priest, royal and divine, ministering by the golden altar. That Priest, of endless life and unfailing power, is invested with the true tragic grandeur, for as He was victim on earth before He was Priest in Heaven, He presents a sacrifice of infinite value, and by His one sole offering all His holy people are sanctified for ever. There is no place for the human priest on earth, because the spiritual priesthood requires none of his services; his work among them would corrupt and sensualize all their proceedings, destroying the freedom and spirituality of their worship. There is no place for him in Heaven, for there is one sacrificial Priest already there, who can have no associate in His work. By himself he purged our sins, and then sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." 66 As there is no place for the hiereus or sacrificing priest either in Heaven or on earth, what is he but a monster? and, like other monsters, should be smothered! No one will suppose that the work is to be done by a mattress! We must smother him by intelligence, kill him by the force and fire of ancient and eternal truth. Now although the overwhelming mass of Nonconformist ministers would repudiate the naked "priest" in so many words, yet I have the fear -nay, the conviction, that by their clerical badges and reverend titles, they are helping to nourish the old noxious heresy of a priestly-clerical order. The Brahmins are not all found in Rome or Canterbury. Besides the abolition and ruin of the priest, there is another curious creature that we should seek to destroy-I mean the Layman! God made man, as we devoutly believe, but the priest made the layman. God made man in His own image, and the priest made the layman in his own image-each of the creatures speaks for his creator. We cannot discover all the duties of the abnormal being, but some of them are clear. It is his business to supply the priest with flesh, wine, gold, and considerable drapery, likewise to commit the keeping of his soul entirely into his hands; but on no account must he meddle with the diffusion of transcendent divine truths or the administration of holy ordinances all the deeps and mysteries are for the priest, all the shallows for the layman. I need not, however, point out any distinctive measures for the destruction of the layman, for when we get the priests abolished from the face of the earth they will not be able to make any more of these strange creatures, so the present stock will die out and the race come to an end. we are The priests of the dominant corporation were once in the habit of branding the Nonconformists who looked sharply after their citizen-rights as "Political Dissenters." This came with a bad grace from men whose social elevation was the result of State-craft-honour conferred purely for political purposes. They were not the men to employ the branding iron! Now the people whom I represent are not "political dissenters; far more inclined to say, "Let the dead bury their dead," and we will look after the things which concern the kingdom of God. However, the Lord has bestowed diverse gifts, and even among the "sons of light" has prepared instruments for all kinds of lawful work. Hence we do not for a moment think of condemning or judging our brethren who with mailed hands go right into the strife of human rights. They who have the power of fight in them and the conviction of duty, can march into the throng of that conflict and insist imperiously on social equality before the law. I represent, however, a small band who have chosen different ground, and we naturally think it better ground. We think that if by the diffusion Observer, Mar. 1, 72. of sound intelligence we can shake to pieces the rotten pillars of infant regeneration and human priesthood, the Established Corporation will fall with a crash! The human priest will vanish with the darkness which is his natural and congenial element; and as to the poor shivering layman left behind, the forlorn distracted creature will get so much ashamed of his name and position that he will either step into the Church and become a priest of the true spiritual order, or step into the world and be a man. G. GREENWELL. TRUE PROTESTANTISM. A SERMON BY JOSEPH ADAM.* DEAR FRIENDS,-Protestantism is a household word and in use all over the land among all classes of men. Its influence is felt upon the very framework of our social and national systems. It gives a name and colouring to our acts as a people. We are said to live in a Protestant country; to be governed by a Protestant legislature; and a Protestant Queen sits upon the throne. Protestant associations, for the protection of Protestant interests, are found in nearly every large town of England and Scotland, while the Orange societies of Ireland seek, in their own way, to advance Protestant interests. Springing up from all this we have Protestant professors and lecturers, such as Dr. Wylie, for the refined and intelligent, and Murphy, the zealot, for the excitable and lower classes. Again, in Parliament, extreme or ultra-protestantism is represented by such men as Newdegate and Whalley, while all the Dissenting M.P.'s and a proportion of State Churchmen are pledged directly to further its welfare. In fine, Protestantism, with many, is synonymous with ali that is noble, pure and good-their religion, in fact, for many names were put down in the Irish census, of this year, under the heading of religious persuasion, as Protestants and that alone. It is thus a moral force in our midst, a power for good or evil, and therefore well deserving the attention of all who regard their own interests or desire the true well-being of their fellows. What, then, is Protestantism? What are its distinctive principles, aims and objects? These are questions which, even in our enlightened age, are more easily put than an rd. "All who hold to Protestant principles are Protestants," says some one. Yes, but against what do they protest? There are many protesters in our time against certain alleged evils, such as the Anti-vaccinators against a physical evil and the Nonconformist protesters against the evil of the union of Church and State. The very term, then, is a relative one and suggestive of some evil complained of and if possible to be removed. In the case before us, then, what is that evil? All at once reply "Oh, we are protestors against the errors of Popery." Very good, but how far, we ask, do you protest? Varied are the answers. Many Episcopalians admit the Church of Rome to be a true although a corrupt church. Presbyterians and others deny, and so on. Again, we ask is this the grand yet uncertain basis of your religion, the acme of all that is desirable in Christian union and Missionary effort-simply to protest against Popery? Surely not. It is eminently dangerous and foolish to unite upon the mere basis of dislike to the Pope and opposition to his * Preached in Grosvenor Street Christian Chapel, Manchester. |