Carlisle Patriot 18 May 1844 Propagation of the Gospel (3)

Propagation of the Gospel (3)

Carlisle Patriot - 18 May 1844

..... continued ..... The Rev. J. HEYSHAM moved the first resolution, which was as follows: - I. It is our bounden duty as Christians to promote by every means in our power the extension of our Saviour's kingdom. The Rev. Jas. THWAYTES seconded the resolution, and said that he advocated the spreading of the principles of this society in foreign countries, especially because it professed to carry into those countries the whole constitution of our Church, and, as he believed, the whole constitution of the Church of Christ. There the deacon laboured under the priest, the priest under the bishop, the bishop under the Church, and all under Christ. On this ground, therefore, he advocated the spread of the Gospel abroad, under the especial auspices of the society. The duty of spreading the Gopsel abroad must be recognized by all who name the name of Christ. If they were Christians, by the very name they bore they were obliged to obey the commands of our Saviour; and when they found it enjoined upon the Apostles, and their successors, the Bishops, by the Lord Christ himself, to disciple all nations, to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature - they recognized a principle obligatory upon them all, to do what little they could in their respective situations to further this blessed cause. In this work they must be interested - they must be more or less engaged - or they were undeserving the name of Christians. Now, if they were under the influence of this feeling, they would be ready to act on those principles; and here, was a society affording the means of carrying them into effect. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was projected as early as the year 1647; of course it could not at that time be fully established, because, as they all knew, the Church was about that time deprived of its property. The Presbyterians first, and then the Independents, considering the Church of England to be papistical, robbed it of all its possessions, overthrew its altars, desecrated its sanctuaries, proscribed its sacraments and liturgy, and compelled its prophets to prophecy in sackcloth and in secret. Of course, at such a time, our ancestors were too much busied in self-preservation to turn their attention to foreign parts; but in the year 1701 this society was established. To its constitution he did not think any true Churchman could object; it was under the government and able superintendence of the two Archbishops in both the provinces of the Church, with their suffragan bishops; and the society, being a society, attached to the Church of England, naturally deferred to primitive principles and precedents for the direction of its various operations. (Hear, hear.) When therefore they looked at the primitive Church, they found that its missionary labours were thus conducted. A few individuals were led, apparently by business; but he humbly conceived by the Providence of God, to visit some foreign land, there by their example, their conversation and discourse, they made an impression. They then saw that the door was open for the Gospel, and they went to some neighbouring Church, and that Church immediately sent to that foreign part a Bishop, with his priests and deacons, so that the people of that country were afforded the means of knowledge, and the means of grace: their children were educated, the Gospel was preached to adults, and the country was gradually converted. (Hear, hear.) It was in this way our own country was originally converted; and such was the principle upon which the society has always endeavoured to act. But during the last century, a century of spiritual apathy, it found it impossible to obtain Bishops for our own Colonies, those Colonies consisting for the most part of what now form the United States of America. It again and again, applied to government for that purpose; the Dissenters would not allow them to act on their principles in the Colonies; the government at that time thought it policy to court the Dissenters, and consequently would not allow the Church to appoint Bishops there, and what was the consequence? What lost us our splendid possessions in America? What severed us from the United States? There was no doubt whatever it was the want of our national religion. (Applause.) At the time they were severed from us, we had not, he believed, a single Bishop throughout the length and breadth of the United States; and the proportion of the clergy to the inhabitants was very scanty and inadequate. Hence the United States were not bound to us by the most indissoluble of all bonds - the possession of a common faith, a common religion, and a common Church. It was religion which bound heart to heart, and hand to hand; and had we but bound the United States around us by the golden girdle of our Catholic Church, there was no doubt, he thought, but that the United States would at this moment have been part and parcel of the British empire. (Hear, hear.) Sometimes an objection was brought against the society because it confined its operations to the colonies and dependencies of the British Empire. It was said, why confine yourselves to the colonies and dependencies of Britain, why not go into all the world? But the Crown of England has upwards of seventy-five millions of heathen and Mahommedan subjects, and until they converted them they had enough to do. If the Church was enabled to convert these seventy-five millions of heathen and Mahommedan fellow-subjects, then doubtless it would labour elsewhere, but if they looked at our vast colonial possessions and remembered that they are so great that the sun never sets upon them - they must admit they have a very solemn and prior claim upon the members of the Church of England. He was firmly convinced that the Almighty never conferred favours upon a country solely for mere temporal enjoyment. He knew that His object in making nations great was not merely to make them temporarily so, but that they should be the means of spreading the gospel to fallen creatures. In history they found one Church had fallen after another, and he believed the reason of their fall to have been their own internal corruption, coupled with a neglect to spread that gospel which they for a time enjoyed, but kept it selfishly to themselves instead of spreading it throughout the world. They know that the sun, the religious sun of Jerusalem had set, and the sun of Alexandria also; and when their religious purity declined, their civil liberties were also taken away. Had we not then great cause to fear, that if we, who now had the vine planted in our land, did not so cultivate its shoots, that they might overshadow not merely our own country, but all those colonies with which we were connected, had we not cause to fear that the vineyard would be taken from us, and given to the care of husbandmen who would render to the Lord of the vineyard its fruit in due season. (Applause.) He called upon them to consider this, and while our ships were sailing in every ocean, and our sails were swelled with every gale, it should be the main project of all to hasten that prophet day, when "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." (Applause.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ..... The second resolution to follow .....

 

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