The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
Cardinal Wiseman's recent Denunciation of this Agency in London.
This, however, is considered to be so derogatory to the functions of the hierarchy, that a pamphlet has just been | |
285 | published in London, dated , by "His Eminence ," entitled, "The Catholic Doctrine on the Use of the ." After quoting a long paragraph from a Report of one of the Auxiliaries of the , which the Doctor confounds with a Report of the parent Society, he proceeds-" Not a single clergyman is on the Committee, or holds any office in the Society.[1] Indeed, by the prospectus it is clear that mis- sionaries and Bible-readers, not the clergy, are the instru- ments of salvation that its authors look to. They speak of the people as not yet having had the Gospel sent to them. |
God certainly did not communicate to his Church the discovery of this age, that even to others every one is a doctor, and may become an apostle. . . . This is the result of universal Bible-reading. When a country had to be converted, like , or England, or Germany, bishops and priests were sent, &c. . . . There were not shipped off colonies of artizans, with wives and children, all pen- sioned for the work, under the title of missionaries, to convert the heathen-men uneducated, unspiritual, unquali- fied for the work. And why not, as well as now? Because now such men are deemed fully qualified if they have only a sufficient supply of Bibles to distribute, in some ludicrous translation, and have themselves learned sufficient of phraseology to perfect them in cant. And at home likewise we now see the episcopal office usurped by committees of gentlemen and ladies, who, neglecting all consideration of there being a paid and established clergy, take upon them- selves the duty of providing Bible-readers instead."[2] | |
The very appearance of such a warning from a quarter so high, would intimate that in the judgment of those to whom it is given, such efforts are producing effect. Nor is it lay agency to which Rome objects. The very High Church party of the have alone that scruple. Rome is far too wise in the wisdom of this world to discard lay agency in imparting religious instruction. When it has answered her own purposes she has always extensively employed it, as all history will testify. But that which Rome trembles at is the Word of God, whether written in the book or spoken by the lips, and be these lips laical or be they ecclesiastical, it matters not to her. | |
Footnotes: [1] This is not true, even with reference to the Auxiliary referred to. For many of its missionaries are both superintended and supported by clergymen and ministers, and all of them were only appointed on the examination of six reverend gentlemen. [2] Page 22. |