1863.] EXTENSION OF THE WORK. 237 CHAPTER X. DURING the year 1863 the position of the Irish Church in its relation to the State and to the Roman Catholic population, began to be discussed in Parliament; much was said which led to inquiry, and awakened in the minds of the clergy generally, a sense of the necessity for more openly manifesting their care for the souls of their Roman Catholic parishioners. It seemed an occasion not to be lost for offering to them the aid of the Society in the furtherance of this object. A letter was accordingly written to every Incumbent in Ireland, signed by the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Colquhoun, and stating the nature of the Society's operations, and their readiness to supply agency according to the means placed in their hands. With this was enclosed a Memorial which had been sent by some of the clergy of the Co. Limerick to their bishop, in which they earnestly prayed that his sanction and influence might be given to the introduction of Missionary work in their several parishes. This letter of the Committee had many responses expressing the readiness of the clergy to accept the offered help; and thus a way was opened in many new districts for the extension of Missionary work. In one instance alone this letter was the cause of offence, and gave rise to serious opposition and unfounded calumny against the Society. Charges which had originally emanated from Romanists, and had been again and again proved to be false, were brought forward by a clergyman in the diocese of Cork, who even in his pulpit mentioned the Society with disapprobation, and assertions were made maligning the Agents, and stigmatizing the whole system with bribery and corruption. These slanderous statements were spread by the enemies of the truth far and wide, while all the friends of the Missionary work were greatly distressed and discouraged. It was very important that they should be at once refuted, and the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Colquhoun, undertook this task. Letters were written to the clergyman by him, and also by the Missionary Secretary, Mr. Cory, which led to a lengthened correspondence, and appeared in the Cork Constitution, and other papers; and as in the English Telegraph, the false charges were stated as proved facts, and in Dublin also an opposing spirit was aroused in some of the clergy, it was most important that this correspondence should be brought before the public. The food and clothing supplied to the children of the Ragged schools and the poor converts from time to time, appear to have been the ground of these misrepresentations. The fact is still often forgotten, that no money of the Society is thus expended, and that these charitable adjuncts have been always supplied from private and independent sources. Another objection which assumed to the world a more specious form, was that the people were induced to act contrary to their conscience, and that in reading the Scriptures or in any other way acting against the order of their Church they were guilty of moral delinquency. Conscience being thus the ground of attack, Mr. Dallas felt it important to open this subject in its true Scriptural light, and he published a tract, in which he brings this objection to the test of Scripture, and shows the three classes of Divine law:-1. The natural law of right and wrong 1863.] INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES. originally written by God in the heart of men. 239 2. The declared moral law stated in the Decalogue, which "was added because of transgressions." 3. The law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He then adds: "The fallacy of this dogma is, that conscience is put into the place of law, and instead of witnessing whether the man has followed God's teaching, assumes the authoritative teaching itself. Such a doctrine, carried fairly out to its consequences, would be nothing less than a refined phase of Pantheism, constituting each man his own God. "In the Epistle to the Romans we find conscience characterized as a witness to testify to ourselves how far we have conformed to the law of God, and as an advocate pleading our cause against the accusations of the law, or pleading the law against our defence." To put conscience in the place of law is therefore to endow it with Divine authority. "The unenlightened conscience of St. Paul, which led him to oppose the Gospel and to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth," is an illustration of the fallacy of this common argument against Missionary effort. A thorough investigation of the charges brought forward also took place in Dublin, before Archbishop Whately, when general vague statements were brought to the test of particular facts, and exaggeration and falsehood were exposed, and the principles of the Society fully justified. The attack was one of bitter animosity, and the more painful as coming from those who as clergymen of a Protestant Church were pledged in one bond of union to "banish and drive away from their communion all false doctrine;" in the end, however, it only more fully gave occasion to verify the Divine Word, "The wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain."-Psa. lxxvi. 10. The persistency of bitter hostility to the Irish Church Missions produced a reaction of feeling in the country in their favour. A public meeting was soon afterwards held in the city of Cork, when a nobleman of great influence in the neighbourhood came forward to take the chair, and the explanations which he gave were received with enthusiastic applause. At the public meetings in Dublin, the same earnest feeling of approbation and appreciation of the Society was manifested. This reaction was shown in many expressions of sympathy; and a memorial was signed by fifteen of the Dublin Incumbents, expressing their earnest desire to strengthen and increase the operations of the Society, and commending it to the consideration and support of their congregations and friends. The improvement in the general tone and habits of the people resulting from the Scriptural education of the schools, could no longer be ignored by the world. The Times newspaper, after putting forward arguments for the disendowment and disestablishment of the Irish Church, thus refers to it : "Where the clergy of the State Church have congregations large enough to occupy them in parochial duties, the grievance is less felt, and where, as in some districts of Connaught, a real and progressive work of conversion is going on, a strong argument in favour of the existing system may be urged. We believe that this (the Missionary work) is the most active and successful part of the whole religious enterprise of that country.... What has been done, has been done chiefly by voluntary agency." Another important testimony to the beneficial effects of Missionary labour on the country generally was given in a speech of the Right Hon. J. Whiteside, Q.C., who says: "The crimes of Tipperary and the South are unknown in the West. Connemara is a singularly peaceful district. That district of one hundred miles, as it is now worked by able, zealous, indefatigable men, is less stained by crime than any other portion of our Island, and in that view alone this is a great, a useful, and a wise work to follow on." The distress in Lancashire concentrated the charity of England; the winter of 1862-3 had threatened a grievous famine among the cotton-spinners, only to be 1863.] PECUNIARY PRESSURE. 241 averted by prompt and vigorous relief. The gratitude of the converts in Ireland was proved by a self-denial which fully acted out that of the early Church, expressed by the Apostle, 2 Cor. viii. 2, "The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality." It is remarkable that the offerings of the Convert Churches were the first contributions sent from Ireland to this relief fund; and the poorest of the Connemara congregations were eager to swell the collections sent to their suffering brethren. It was evident, however, that contributions to the Irish Missions diminished, and that the stream of English benevolence was gradually diverted into other channels; and the Committee felt it to be their duty, though with great sorrow, to contract their operations. The Honorary Secretary had the painful and difficult task to apportion to each Mission a certain fixed sum to expend; and at a time when the blessing vouchsafed to every one seemed to demand extension rather than contraction, it was difficult to convince the Missionaries that it was a duty to yield to this necessity. Under this trial there were not wanting many instances of personal selfdenial and of increased labour, which proved the devoted spirit in which this work was carried on. Letters were received from several of the Missionaries, offering to give up part of their salaries for a time. Retrenchment tested the true feeling of the people, and when, on the ground of economy, it was proposed to discontinue one Scripture Reader at. Sellerna, no less than forty Roman Catholics waited on the Misssionary to beg that they might not be left without a Reader, and they requested that they might sign a petition to the Society, praying that the good man might be reinstated in his work. With the hope of modifying some of the retrenchments, the Honorary Secretary gave his assistance in the department which was now generally left to others, |