Y Tyst Cymreig

THE CHURCH IN waxes. 10 Iln; lucuii: lIüX. w. E. caADSio* q • q • un5~-Let us now Hear the conclusion of t-ie whole matter.' The yearly cost of main- taining the State Church. Machinery in Wales has been estimated to amount to nearly four hundred thousand pounds. Take the average annual income at three hundred thousand P°unds per annumn for the period from 1800 to 1868, and we find that a sum of money Counting to twenty millions four hundred thousand pounds sterling has been paid to this laiich ot the Established Church within these ^0 eight years. The question naturally arises, hat service: did the Church, render to flu < it ion in return for this enormous amount of Wealth ? We would interrogate her in the Words of .Jobf. to his friend Bildad, saying, Hosa hast chow helped tlit: powerless ? or saved the arm without strength ? How hast thou counselled the unwise ? or made known tillwh sound wisdom? To whom hast thou uttered speeches ? and what inspired words came from thee ?' If we were to search her Whole history 4-witit candles/ we could And but a few, it very few instances indeed, in Which she ever helped or saved eon-welled the unwise, or made known much sound wisdom, or uttered- speeches of inspired words: altholl gh she bad been instit- uted Qud paid by the state for, professedly, the Vcry purpose of doing this. On the contrary, ske became a 4 bridle in the jaws of the people to lead them astray:' more than that, she eonstallly exerted all her might and influence 0 °ppose and to hinder, to annoy and to per- mute the self-denying men, who at their own fX^Gn>< *>or ^le sa^<! God's name, went taking nothing of the gentiles—nothing ')t'the 'tltl to do the work which she had entirely neglected. Her clergy, like the law- yers in tho tim.o of our Saviour, Tcjok away t| *'J °* knowledge, they entered not in v jG VCs' an<l them that were entering they hindered.' since your re|ii0^lti°ns on the Irish hurch were brought before Parliament, WG l3on» -v 1 0 fellcn a cry of woe and wailing from j, 6 en^ °t- the land to the other, as if the 1j!aYCI1S Were about to fall! When it is pro- 1G0ht'^ ^c ^tate should listen to the de- 0;j> °f justice, backed by the universal voice Public opinion throughout the civilized orld, and take away the endowment which c°uferred on that Chureh, on account of utterly foiled to accomplish the £ 0°r ±,(}r which the endowment had been bes- porV 0111 Toiy l°r(ls, spiritual and tem- r "h aD<^ ^fC wb°le hotly of their confraternity pL laCl1 aU<1 Siate' denouncc the idea as a sol &UmptU°US Sin' and a ll0n'id «^J'iIege In tenT11 °amestness' wc would Put to the 61 .<;0USGlcnces of these men, whether it is a sm and a sacrilege that the Church in "Wales since the beginning of the present cen- UJ ?Uld havc .absorbed ^arly twenty mil- U1„ a lialf of tlui l)ublic money for teach- • Pf0ple m the doctrines and precepts of ^^tianity, a duty she had never seriously O** to Pcl'form ? Is it not a sin and a the ^lc Slackest and deepest dye, that ^W° m^^ons ail<^ a half of that °theiM' ^een swa^owe(l UP by bishops and (i ol'tiie Church who knew not they rp °f ^le \a71§ua8'c °f the people whom tliillri. 616 aPP°iuted to teach ? Is not such a have sai ^<^In:na^011 '• Yea, as .Job would 'Vges ?'K'/ An iniquity punishable by the V the' o t sitnotexprossly condemned Jvliick ^"ticle of the Church itself? f> £ (rod utterly contrary to the word > °n<[ f'°. ^le ma3e °f Me Primitive Church, tyht m the Church, or to administer ie ^(l>' m"nents, in a dialect unknown to the PeopleOut of her own mouth then is the ^Wh in scales judged and condemned. It Jas been saidviu the House of Commons that _0 Church in' ^Yales stands in a different pos- ition to that of thC Church in Ireland; granted -but wherein is the difference ? Is it not the ^Ureh of the minority and of a less minority Job xxvi. 2, 3, 4. botkroyd'* Tramlativn. in Wales than it is even in Ireland? The monstrous anomaly of having bishops and dig- nitaries set over the people as their qualified teachers, who are utterly ignorarat of their language, is not to be found in the Clrareh in Ireland. No, nor in any other CLweb in the whole world except in the Church in Wales. Yes, that is the difference, and where h the man in. his sober senses who would uiidbrtake to say that such a difference exhibits tlfee Chureh in the latter country in a more favourable ligl)t than it is found to exist in the forme?? ? In a tract entitled The Church Esto.blish- nmit in Wales/ published by the Liberation Society in 1851, the writer s-I The injus- tice of taxing a whole people to support the Church of the few is perpetrated, net only in Ireland, but in Wales, and that, if possible, under more aggravated circumstanccs. The Church in Ireland is the Church of one-eighth of the population. The Church of England in Wales is the Church of only one-ninth, or, ac- cording to some recent statistics, of a far less proportion of the people. In the Church of Ireland, generally speaking, the valuable pre- n tn ferments are held by Irishmen. In Wales, on the contrary, all the sees are held by English- men and it has been lately asserted, that not more than one dean can write a sermon in Welsh, read bis Bible in Welsh, or write the days of the week, without the aid of a dictionary. The wealthiest benefices arc in in the hands of Englishmen, who arc in general near relatives of the bishops a class of spiritual officers who have never been guilty of neglecting the duty to provide for their own household.' I This witness is true.' Sir, let us look at the other side; what has been accomplished by the free and voluntary Churches in the Principality during the same period of sixty-eight years, and that in the face of the most determined opposition on the part of the State paid Church ? The Dissenters of all denominations have about two thousand five hundred Chapels between them in the Principality. Those which were built before the commencement of the present century have been rebuilt and enlarged, some of them several times, since 1800. Take the average cost of the building and rebuilding of these two thousand live hundred places of worship at five hundred pounds each, we find that the sum of money raised by voluntary contribution* for this ob- ject, amounts to one million two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. An equal amount at least must have been contributed during the ZD same period for the maintainance of the minis- try, colleges, British Schools, Home and Foreign Missions, &c., which will make the sum total contributed by the Dissenters in Wales since the year 1800 to amount to two millions five hundred thousand pounds, all being the free will offerings, not of the nobility and gentry of the land, but of the middle and lower classes of the people. By these calcu- lations it will be seeu, that the English, bishops and other English dignitaries of the Cnurch in Wales have received within the same period an amount of the public money, equal to the sum collected and expended by the Dissenters of all denominations in the building of their chapels, and for the maintainance of their home and foreign institutions. Again, we ask, what are the special benefits, temporal or spiritual, with which the Welsh people have been blessed, through the instru- mentality of their English Church, dignitaries, in return for that vast amount of their money bestowed upon them by the State ? LcChe who can, answer the question. But, Sir, should any one ask what were the benefits conferred upon the Welsh nation, for the equal amount of money raised in this coun- try on the voluntary principle within the same time, by the different bodies of Nonconfor- mists? We would say to the querist Come and see.—Come and see, and you will behold a place of worship on every hill and in every glen throughout the country. You will see those chapels well filled with decent and orderly congregations every Sunday, and on week evenings. You will see the Lord's day better observed there than in any other part of Her Majesty's dominions. You will see the best attended and best conducted Sunday Schools under the sun. Yon will see, com- paratively empty Jails and dean Calendars. You will see a nation proverbial for its peace- ablencvs and loyalty; though it had been always treated with something- like studied neglect by the English Government. All these Ixmefits have been secured by the vol- untary efforts of men whose existence has neyer been acknowledged by the state. Sir,—I shall now conclude the subject mat- ter of these letters, ia the words of the writer of the tract to which I have just new referred: —The writer says: i.—That at no period of its history did the Church Establishment in "Wales provide few the moral wants of the people.' IL-'I'hat. during' its entire history, it bas been em- ployed for political, and not for pur- poses. III.—'That these political purposes have often p proved most detrimentaHo the National and moral welfare of those for whose benefit Hw Establish- ment is professedly ulPheId. IY—'That the inefficiency of the Establishment has not been occasioned by want of fuud", but rather by improper management of the property at its disposal.' V.—'That it docs not possess the sympathies of the people in general, and is, therefore, perfectly use- less as a National Establishment.' Yea, the writey might have said that this National Estab- lishment has proved to be something much worse than even perfectly useless. VI.Tliat as, after a long and expensive experi- ment, the Establishment has utterly failed to provide for the educational and moral wants of the Welsh people, it is highly inexpedient to bestow upon it, for both or for cither of tiiese purposes, any more public no#uey.' VII.-—4 That the past and present history of the Es- tablisliment in Wales loudly demands its separation from the State, and that that separation, due regard being had to vested interests, should bo immediately effected.' VIII.—That the history of Disseut in Wales affords abundant and most satisfactory proofs that re- ligious institutions host pro';ptl- without State interference.' IX.—'That as the history of the Church Establish- ment in Wales is but a specimen of the universal history of all such institutions, their separation from the State woidd greatly contribute. to the advancement of human liberty, popular enlight- ment, and spiritual Sir,—I beg to add in l onclusioji, that in taking the liberty of addressing to you these letters, 1 was not so vain as to tliiuk that I could say anything new on the subject to you, who is so well versed in every branch of ecclesiastical history nor did I. scarcely enter- tain a hope that you could spare the time to look over them. Neither had I at first any expectation that the organs of the English Press would have coiidesccnded to-notice them. They were solely intended for the eye of the few English gentlemen to whom the copies of this Journal, in which they appeared, were sent through the post. I thought when the question of the Irish Churcli was brought before Parliament, and was becoming the great question of the day, that, it was the right time, to bring the case of the sister State Church in Wales also before the notice of iu- fluential men of the Liberal party, who might bestow some attention to it; thinking moreover, that to no public man could communications on the subject be so fittingly addressed as to yourself. Contrary to all my expectations, the letters attracted much notice. Some of them were republished in many of the English papers, Dailies and Weeklies, and largely commented upon, and by not a few in favourable terms; in others, unfavourable; for which favourable and unfavourable criticisms, I beg to return my best thanks to the Editors. I am well aware that as literary productions they deserve no notice; but the facts and statements which they contain are well worthy of the best atten- tion of all parties, especially at the present time. That unexpected publicity encouraged me to continue the letters far beyond what I originally intended, in the hope that they might contribute in some small degree to serve the interests of truth in relation to the great question of the day. Sir,—I have done. Allow me to add only one remark more. The blessedness of those Those who would wish to become acquainted with all the details of the question which has been briefly discussed in these letters, may consult Johnes On the Causes of Dissent. in Thomas Philips' Wales.'—Dr. Rees's History of Noncon- formity in Wales,' also his '.JIi;scettaneous Papers on subjects relating to ¡Vales.' -And' the able letters of The Rev. H. Itickards o, Waips,l which appeared in the Morning Star, and were afterwards published in a volume. who are persecuted for righteousness sake is preeminently yours. You are the best abused man in all England, if not in all Europe; you are, ttso the most highly respected and hon- olirt-d person in the estimation of an overwhel- ming majority of the great and good men in the community. The confidence and respect of hait-a-dozen truly good, pious, and intelligent men;, are more than sufficient to counter-bal- ance the fowl slanders of thousands of men like thc who abuse yon through the press, and from platforms of public, meetings,, yea, Tell it -fy"t, in Gsth,'—from pulpit-- too! 1 urn, Plight Hon. Sir., Your obedieivC ,-ervaiit, W. 11-F E S.