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=-NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

! THE BISHOP AND THE LAWYER.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

THE BISHOP AND THE LAWYER. Different men have different opinions, and the Bishop of St. Asaph's opinions are not exactly the same as those of Mr Osborne Morgan, to which we drew attention last week. So long as five years ago two gentlemen came into mild collision, when Mr Morgan had the temerity to say that the Burial Service is "abhorrent to the feelings in nine cases out of ten, and a clergyman called him to account for such a wild statement. And now the Bishop has been opening a church, and Mr Morgan has been laying the first stone of a chapel, and the one speech certainly had a very different tone from the other. It is possible that Mr Morgan still calls himself a Church- man, though it would be difficult to point out wherein his. churchmanship consists. It cer- tainly does not consist in attachment to Church doctrine and discipline, nor in knowledge of Church history, for he had not a good word to say for the Church whilst he plastered the chapel thick with compliments. And when he spoke of John Wesley as having separated himself from the Church of England, he shewed how little he knew of the rise of the denomination whose chapel-stone he bad just laid. John Wesley never separated from the Church, and strictly forbade his followers to do so. The Primitive Methodists assembled at the public house at Frood must have listened with considerable amazement to Mr Morgan's new version of the work of Wesley, and before his speech was ended they probably came to the conclusion that he knows as little about Wales and its wants as he does about the origin of Wesleyan Methodism. He is, how- ever, so little of a Welshman that his con- stituents are ready to make ample allowance for his defective acquaintance with the county and people whom he represents. They do not expect a London lawyer to know much of them and their country, when his opportunities, hitherto, of gaining knowledge have been limited to a flying visit now and then to Wrex- ham or Denbigh in hot haste to deliver a political speech and hurry back again tu the metropolis. Bishop Hughes, on the contrary, has spent a lifetime in Wales, and knows the people thoroughly. He is a Welshman, heart and soul, and sympathises with Welsh opinions and wants, and he represents, in the Upper House of Parliament, the national feelings, which Mr Morgan misrepresents in the Lower. What the Bishop says, then, may be accepted as a good indication of the views of Welshmen generally. In his speech at Esclusham last week he discussed the probable future of the Church of England. He takes a hope- ful view of her future prospects, not believing that she will fall whilst so much religious work is being done, and so much spiritual life kindled within her communion. He does not expect to live to see her either disestablished or disendowed. These were no idle utterances of the Welsh Prelate, but the reason for them is evident. In this country there is more religious liberty than in any other country in the world, and this liberty is clearly traceable to the connection of Church and btate. The Queen is the head of both Church and State, apd the people possess considerable influence in the government of the Church and it is not likely that either the royal prerogative or the popular influence will be thrown away in order to gratify the eccentric theories or the personal ambition of Mr Morgan and the Liberationists. Changes may be expected in the future, such as have been in the past; but not such changes as would interfere with the fundamental principles of the Church. Those principles are substantially the same now as they were in apostolic ages, and the Church of England has a history extending back through nearly eighteen centuries, which every true-hearted Englishman and Welshman ought to be proud of. But some who are Englishmen and Welsh- men in name only, and not in heart, feel no love for the institution under which popular liberty and general enlightenment have flourished and spread. Their desire is for its destruction, and they would be proud to pull it down. Happily, however, the Church has a devoted though small phalanx of soldiers and servants in the House of Commons, and by their earnestness, wisdom, and fidelity, evil legislation may be arrested. In foreign countries, not unknown to Mr Morgan in his travels, a remarkable tree is to be found which fulfils an office somewhat resembling one of the benefits accomplished by our Church. It is called the Eucalyptus tree, and it is of use in parts of Itfily and Africa where deadly marshes and swamps abound whose miasma is fatal to human beings. This tree has the power of absorbing the impurities of the air and rendering it fit for man to breathe. It kills the plague, and makes a poisonous swamp as healthy as a garden. Plains uninhabitable by man become delightful for residence when planted with the Eucalyptus, and a sickly peasantry grow healthy after its introduction. The Church is the Eucalyptus tree of England and Wales, making tha moral and religious atmosphere of this inland pure and holy and healthful. Such .l- a tree cannot be spared from our soil, and even the venerable woodman of Hawarden must not be permitted to cut it down. Society of every class would speedily degenerate without its purifying influence, and religion would be lost amongst the wranglings of the sects, and morality would be forgotten when no voice spoke any longer with authority. The National Church is as much needed in this country now as at any previous period of her history, and her healthful activity and practical utility are plain grounds for hope that the hour of her death is not yet at hand. She willliv8 and labour and pray, holding aloft the light of divine truth, long after Mr Morgan's attacks upoH her have been forgotten; and there is every reason to believe that the Bishop of St. Asaph's predictions will be amply verified.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

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