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    76 T HE XE A D E'-R,. ' [No. 460, Januar...

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    THE CHURCH AND THE MASSES

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    Redmarsh Rectory. Redniarsh Rectory. A T...

    over the sunny interior of the Redmarsh Rectory . Edward Sidney is represented as strikingly handsome , dark-haired and browed , sallow , and sentimental . He quickly makes his way into Laura s affections . Sir Henry Lovell , who offers his hand , is discarded , and Edward Sidney accepted . Between the acceptance and the marriage a certain time is allowed to elapse , which gives an opportunity to the author to draw out and develop more at large the specialties of both hero and heroine . The first has throughout made serious love to Laui ; a , although uncertain whether he has not a lawful wife still living in Italy , exhibiting himself as a lackadaisical utterer ot overstrained

    sentimentalities , while the last comes out strong as a young lady singularly blind to the advantages of a suitable " match * and wonderfully awake to the raptures of a union with an unknown clerical roue and semi-adventurer . We have some new scenes and personages introduced on the occasion of _ a trip to Wales . Welsh life in one of its aspects ^ -its religious aspect—is well and truly painted , but we suspect from social conditions which existed some time ago , and which , if they have not wholly disappeared , are fast disappearing . TheT characters

    of Lord and Lady Meliord are contrasted with force and humour . Lucy Demster is one o the freshest characters in the work , and from the glimpse we have into her well kept " secret" we cannot help giving half a sigh to the dreary fate to which the author in his remorseless will has consigned her . Frederick Demster and the Irish heiress , and descendant of Irish kings , Miss O'Grady , f ive life and variety to several , ot the scenes . So o the pictures of mining l ife and miners , with their brutalities and low debaucheries . Then we are

    introduced to characters which are becoming very common in pur circulatim * library literature — Puseyite priests and their doings . We are made acquainted with a sprig of the Puseyite family in the person Of Mr . de Vere , who , haying contrived to pervert one young lady to Popery , weds her . We are occasionally treated to theological disquisitions something like what we might presume would pass between Dr . Pusey and Dr . Gumming over a bottle of Soyer ' s nectar . Mr . de Vere represents Puseyism , Miss Laura and Miss Lucy are an embodiment of unadulterated Protestantism . Mr . de Vere , we are bound to say , in

    these Tractarian logomachies comes off but second best . His array ot sophisms are bowled down like so many ninepins by the ladies , and he retires from the field , as such black sheep ought to do in every novel , with metaphorical marks of the mauling he has been subjected to . The climax of the tale by this time begins to develop itself . Suspicions have got abroad that Edward Sidney has a . wile yet living , nevertheless the bridal day arrives without any e ' claircissement on the part of Edward Sidney , who , however , on that day writes to his affianced , with whom he is represented as insanely in love , a noto ,

    taking leave of her for ever . He makes his way to Sardinia , and finds that his deserted , wife h » 3 died some time since , leaving a son . He falls mortally sick , and is attended in his last illness by Laura and her father . Several years are permitted to elapse ; Sir Henry Lovell then succeeds in his suit and marries Laura , who has b y this time become aware of the superior worth of her manly suitor . The novel has a great deal of merit , but it has some serious defects . It is written too much in fragmentary style- —abrupt transitions—sudden and spasmodic apostrophes , with the use of asterisks

    to mark the creaks . . We think these are defects- — in this opinion we shall be at issue with the author , who doubtless regards them as beauties . In summing up our review of this production , we do not hesitate to say that it exhibits more than common talent , and considerable originality , and , had the various strands of the narrative been more coherent and connected , the interest of the reador—who will possibly feel annoyed and disappointed that suoh an unprincipled clerical popinjay as Edward Sidney should have succeeded in captivating Laura Berosford rather than suoh a fine , manly rival as Sir Henry Lovell—would have been greatly enhanced .

    76 T He Xe A D E'-R,. ' [No. 460, Januar...

    76 T HE XE A D E ' -R ,. ' [ No . 460 , January 15 , 1859 .

    The Church And The Masses

    doctrine . To others the name is probably sug-Ses tiye of nothing but heterodoxy- ^ -Pantheism , rcolbgianism . He belonged to that clerical school which public nomenclature has confessed its incapacity to define , by clubbing it vaguely together under the designation of " Broad Church . " Now , within this field are contained two most contradictory elements : the one , a latitude of opinion and indifferentism , arising from insincerity and heartlessnessV the other , an earnest , manly , genial school of thinkers , certain of whose doctrines are > we verily believe , most dangerous , especially in the light of their further development , but whose efforts and public work are most disinterested , popular , and conducing in no small degree to the rej unction of the severed bond between the Church and the

    masses . To the ^ Broad : Church" party , and to its latter element , Mr . " Robertson belonged . We are glad that this book brings hiin and his mind and heart before us in what were , comparatively speaking , the secular aspects of his ministry ; for we are spared the unp leasant duty o unfavourabl y criticising the opinions of so estimable a man , which we should have felt compelled to discharge to the best of our light and ability had one of the volumes of his sermons been before us for review . The book is dedicated b y its ( anonymous ) editor to working men , and specially those of Brighton , among whom , and for whom , the author of the lectures worked . All that the volume Contains , with

    the exception of eight pages , was spoken , to the men of Brighton ; but there is not one word or idea of merely local interest . All might have been appropriately spoken , all may be most benefit cially read wherever there are honest minds trying to work out for themselves and their fellows the hard social and political problems which closely elbow them at all hands , and demand those definite answers to the arrival at : which minds have to balance so many considerations , and consciences to weighrso many conflicting rights and obligations . Two addresses delivered to the Brighton Working

    Men ' s Institute— -one inaugural , the other advocating the exclusion of sceptical works from their library ; two lectures on the Influence of Poetry on the Working Classes ; a lecture on Wordsworth , with notes of speeches and addresses delivered on five public occasions , make up the book . The key to Mr . Robertson ' s success with , and acceptability to , the alienated Working classes—whether Chartist , Socialist , Atheist , or representing : any other aspect of antagonism to established faith and opinion—is to be found in the following sentences , and they contain his own determinate theory and realised practise of life

    >—A minister of the Church of England occupies a very peculiar position . He stands , generally by birth , always by position , between the higher and lower ranks . He has free access to . the mansion of the noble , and welcome in the . cottage of the labourer And if I understand aright the mission of o minister of the Church of England , his peculiar and sacred call is , to stand as a link of union between the two extremes of society ; to demand of the highest in this land , with all respect , but yet firmly , the performance of their duty to those beneath them ; to soften down the asperities , and to soothe the burning jealousies which are too often found rankling in the minds of those who , from a position full of wretchedness , look up with almost excusable bitterness on such as are surrounded with earthly comforts .

    In these sentences a text is contained on which , without digression or irrelevancy , many a homily might be written . Whether rightly or wrongly , the opinion of those classes which are furthest alienated from the Church and orthodox . Christianity is that the clergy have not and are not occupying that position and discharging that conciliatory function designated by Mr . Robertsbn , as quoted by us . High Church is looked upon as an upperclass creed , Low Church as a middle-class , shopkeeping creed ; and after you have classified to High and Low Church their own clerical adherents ,

    few clergymen remain unappropriated . The tacit but deep conviction about Tractarianisnv is , that it is the addiction of fashion to exciting operatic and courtly display , rather than a self-originating , warm , emotional desire for sensuous worship , that creates a craving for ritualism in church services and infallible sacerdotalism in the persons of priests . Somehow or other , the shrewdness of tho on-looking masses opines that Messrs . Liddoll and Bonnet arc Bolgravian pots , because Bolgravia adores tho sonorous olangour of Trovatore or Le Propheto spectacular , choral , and orchestral shows . In the popular mind , crinoline and ohasublos arc classed together : and tho money that found the 80 , 000 / . worth ot gewgaws in tho Wells-street temple is

    thought to come from the same sources as supported Lord Ingestre ' Cremorne f & te . Believing , as we do , that the doctrines taught by the Low Church party are the doctrines for the teaching of which the Church of England was founded , that they are the doctrines of scriptural Christianity , and that they are inherently , , and in their own nature , popular , and calculated to command an affirmative response from every dispassionate and calmly-questioned human heart—we have to seek an explanation of the undeniable fact ¦ that . 1 they do not , with any marked progress , attract the masses

    to Christian teaching , in causes external to the creed itself and attaching to the conditions of its manifestation . We hardly need to stop to support our statement of the inherent and natural popularity of Evangelical doctrine . Every , religious movement in English history supported by the popular voice , has embodied a creed of the Evangelical type . In Lollardism , the Reformation , the Presbyterianism of the era of the first two English Stuart kings , Brownis . m , or the Independency ot the Commonwealth , Wesleyauism , the movement with which the name of Mr . Wilbcrforce is most naturaturally associated ,, which clothed itself in such

    works as the London Missionary Society , —in all these , what are called Evangelical doctrines were contained . Wicklifle , the Marian martyrs , Owen , Buhyan , Baxter / John Wesley , Whit field , Hervey , John Newton , and Rowland Hill taught no other doctrines than those now preached from Low Church pulpits ,- And these names , we believe , represent every religious awakening or . national testimony which England lias seen since Chaucer ' s day , which was really popular , and affected the people's

    hearts . We are endeavouring to look at this matter with dispassionate judgment and critically , and thus far we have arrived at this conclusion : that the EvangclLcal and Low Church party , though holding their own within the Church , acting vigorously and healthily , rearing up new generations in a thorough indoctrination of Scripture truth , identical in creed with the great majority of dissenters , ami acting with them on a large common ground , are yet not acting aggressively on surrounding irreligion with the success which it would be naturally imagined

    would , under the Divine blessing , attend the operation of such agencies as City missions , but-door preaching , special workingrclasses services , district visiting , arid the like . Without entering upon the polemical question of the relations between Church and State , we might have urged , as in some degree explanatory of this unsatisfactory state of things , that a state-supported religion , although possessing special advantages , is looked upon with a certain disfavour by large

    sections of the proletarian mass , who refuse to look upon a " parson" as a minister of Christ , but regard or pretend to regard him as a public official , wliose trade is the Church , and who is paid to preach out of the taxes paid by them . That this cause , however , whether largely applicable or not to the solution of the problem , is not adequate and sufficient , must bo at once admitted when it is reflected that dissent is no more successively aggressive on the outlying masses than evangelical Statccburchism .

    We do not pretend thoroughly to solve the problem ; nor , if we did , should we propose a solution where the full space requisite to substantiate it was wanting . But we do believe that evangelical churchmen would find at least one key to the popular heart , now unpossessed by them , if they pondered seriously the example of such men as Mr . Robertson , and tho statement we have quoted from his lecture . Let clergymen who wish to win tho masses to relisrion remember this serious fact ,

    that they start in their course with an encumbrance and a difficulty to which no othor national or nonconforming churoh in Europe is subjected . They are members of an- extremely rich establishment , almost every one , of whose clergymen springs from tho vpper and middle classes . Thero is hardl y a drop of proletarian blood in their body . In England tho Churoh is tho most exclusive profession . In every other country in Europe tho Church is tho only learned profession to whioh poverty is no bar , Tws statomont will appl y with ahnosjt equal truthfulnosa to Scotland , Ireland , Franco , Gdrmany , or Russia .

    The English masses boliovo that clerics , however well disposod , think / o / 1 thorn instoad of thinking with them . They repel thoir patronage and benofaotioMS . Their hoarts would opon , and romain open , in spite of any cross-grained ultraism ol opinion , to tuoir manly sympathy and free ,

    unostou-THE CHURCH AND THE MASSES . Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics . JJy t . ho late Rev . Frederick W . Robertson , M . A ., of Brighton . Smith , Elder , and Co . Most of our rpndors must bo acquainted with tho name of tho author of this book . By some , it may bo , ho is aocopted as a sound , oriunoiator of sound

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1859, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011859/page/12/