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Untitled Article
idle . No ; but those did the work , who had not the money—and what is truly grievous ,, as formerly , so now—the labourers have had scarcely whereon to subsist . The Church has not been wholly idle—but is it in the present day doirtg its duty ? The Parish Priest proclaims the contrary with a loud and fearless voice . Notwithstanding its more than princely revenues , the ignorant are uninstructedv the vicious are unadraonished . ~
" Your Grace , " says our author , "I am sure , can scarcely conceive the deplorable state of ignorance aud spiritual darkness in which a vast portion of our agricultural population is buried ; and none but those who have been long and intimately acquainted with their habits and sentiments can at all describe it , or be aware of the l > aneful consequences which such ignorance produces . It must be witnessed to be believed . A single instance shall suffice , and I know it to be a fi&ct . A clergyman in the country was not long since called on to visit an aged man , lying on his death-bed He proceeded to inquire into this person ' s spiritual state , but , from his lamentable ignorance of the first principles of religion , could get but little information . At length he asked him if he had ever heard of a Saviour , Jesus Christ , who came into
the world to die for sinners . To his utter astonishment , a negative was given to this important question . The question was asked over and over again , but the same answer was returned . The clergyman then gave a brief history of the Redeemer , and pointed out the most remarkable particulars of his life , doctrine , death , and resurrection , with which he was evidently astonished and delighted ; and at the conclusion he made the following singular remark : — ' I never heard of Jesus Christ before \ he seems to me to have been a verygood man ! What , did heKve here in ¥ "
Such is the gross and palpable darkness in which the people are left , the clergy themselves being the vouchers . They have , therefore , betrayed their trust , and no project for increasing their revenues from the public purse can for a moment be entertained . Should such an audacious plan be mooted , the people of England would , we trust , rise indignantly from the south to the north , and from the east to the west , in the length and breadth of the land , to-stay the work of spoliation . Still , what are the half-starved curates to do ? We again say , Let them come out and be separate—not " lest , " but
because , * they partake of their plagues . " Let them come out , for it is the connexion between Church and State that is the cause of their grievances . The public have made an ample provision for them ; but power and political intrigue turn aside the bounty of the public from its proper channels into the pockets of those who can either , by their unscrupulous pen or their borough interest , serve the purposes of those who guide the State . Those
who have the money of the Church , have also the ear of Government , and of their tenacity the working clergy have had sufficient proofs . But these things would not , they could not , be so , if the Church was dissevered from the ktate . Equity then would take place of injustice , and honourable dealing of artifice . But when shall this unholy union be broken > Alas ! our wishes outstrip our expectations . Yet great changes have taken place , and greater may be in preparation . From the spirit of the times we hope muclx " Whatever , " to use the language of a writer in the last Quarterly Reviewlanguage truly gratifying when heard in such a quarter— " whatever is for the general good , whatever is just and reasonable , will ultimately stand ; but unless they who shall be the depositaries of power , when the storm rages , are so qualified as to make it manifest that it is for the general good , and , therefore , reasonable , and just * and necessary , that they should ' continue in their hereditary station , they must fall . It is no wisdom to dissemble this ; the way to overcome the danger is to provide against it and expect it , and
Untitled Article
State of the Curates of the Church of England . 235
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/11/
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