Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

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14 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

Letters to the Editor. I

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A New Skin Cure.

Presentation Meeting at Tylorstown.

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The Incorporation of the Rhondda.

"The Church in Wales."

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"The Church in Wales." Rev. S. B. Johnj Replies to Vicar of Clydaoh Vale. To the Editor of the Rhondda Leader." Sir,—The letter of Mr. Morris in your last issue in reply to mine of the previous week, for calculated offensiveness would be hard to beat.. He seems bent on making strength of style compensate for poverty of argument. Still, I am not surprised. He objects to the word hypo- crites I object to the hypocrisy." A better way for him to disprove the charge is to disprove the argument upon which it is made. I say that the claim of the Anglican Church in the education ques- tion is sheer hypocrisy. To keep other efforts in abeyance by main force, and then glory in what they themselves have done, seems like cutting a man's head off and then abusing the body for its want of vitality. Did not the Bishop of Here- ford denounce the wear and tear clause of the Education Act, 1902, as a game of grab "? What sort of conscience does it take to play a game of grab," elastic or otherwise? Moreover, he credits me with an assumption I do not hold, charges people of my class" (whatever that means) with spreading "some yarn," and says I do not care a jot about history, and winds up his display of bumptiousness I and conceit by a little lecture on good mannere." It is all very funny, but not! very edifying. Does he think he proves his case by charging not only myself, but a host of others both outside and iiiside a host of others both outside and iiiside his own church, with ignorance of his- tory ? The present Archbishop of Canterbury, when Bishop of- Winchester, spoke of the distinctive character of the Church of England." Is he thereby ignorant of history Sir William Harcourt, in a letter to the "Times," November 25th, 1898, spoke of "the fundamental distinction between the Eng- lish Church and that of Rome." Was he therefore, "ignorant of history"? Dr. T. W. Mossman, an Anglican historian, in his book, The Relations between the Church and the State in England," says that on Midsummer Day, in the year 1560, the Church of England ceased to worship, &c., after the manner of their predecessors, and thenceforward had to worship according to Act of Parliament, and laments that this made her the creature and absolute bond-slave of the State." For further confirmation I rely on Dean HooK, Freeman, Dr. Stubbs in his Constitutional History," Dean Milman in his Latin Christianity," Mr. Gilbert W. Child, M.A., in his Church and State under the Tudors," the late Bishop of Liverpool, &c. Yet, I suppose, Mr. Morris will loftily wave the testi- mony of these historians of repute all out of court! Sir, Mr. Morris is at variance with his own standards; but there! "What does he care for history"? His aim is to undo history. I assert, with the rock of history under my feet, that the present Church of Eng- land is not continuous with the pre- Reformation Church. I always understood that Mr. Morris' school claimed to be the sole teachers of religion, but I did not know they made this claim over history, too. Evidently, they are THE people. But when I find people taking up this silly attitude, I am reminded of the young woman and her mother, seeing her brother marching past in the regiment. Look, mother," she said, they are all out of step except our Jack Since Mr. Morris offers me advice, I'll offer him some, too. It is this: Let him come down from his ecclesiastical high horse and talk like an ordinary human being. Let him not im- pute to people opinions they do not hold, actions they have not done, intentions they have not dreamed of. Let him play the game fairly, even if he be an Estab- lished Churchman and his critic a poor Dissenter." Now to his arguments (?). 1. He calls what I alleged to be a contradiction of terms "small matters." If they were not too small to be circulated by him, they are not too small to be criticised. However, I agree that they were small, decidedly so, as small as the whole case for the Establishment! 2. He says that I assume that his Church differs" root and branch" from the Roman, that the Church of to-day is totally different from that of Henry's day, and that I am thereby" flying in the teeth of historv." As I do not make that assumption (I wish I could), the teeth of history have not yet begun to bite. But sir, I do not assume, I assert as a matter of historical fact that the Anglican Church is intended to be a different Church to the Roman. Mr. Morris quotes Mr. Gladstone, but I wonder how much of Mr. Gladstone is he prepared to accept? Mr. Gladstone said: Tithes were national property." Mr. Gladstone disestablished and disendowed the Irish Church, and a member of his Government brought in the Welsh Dis- establishment Bill of 1895. I repeat, how much of Mr. Gladstone will he accept? Why did he not say that Mr. Gladstone, in later life, abandoned the main argu- ment of his book as no longer tenable? But let that pass. Against anyone's opinion, I place the fact that in the Accession Oath the King vowed to main- tain the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law." This is not an

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An Interesting Personality.

Mid-Rhondda Y.M.C.A.

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The Incorporation of the Rhondda.

"The Church in Wales."