POLITICAL RELIGIONISTS.
Iv is only within a veil- short period that the High Church party has pretended to such a vehement regard for the Bible. Most of our readers can recollect the time when fierce opposition was given by the Church to the establishment of Lancasterian schools, be- cause the children were taught to read the Bible only, without the Pra)er-book. This opposition is still ardent in many places. Bible Societies are also disagreeable to the High Churchmen for the same reason ; and we remember that the British Critic gave warm praise to a passage in a satirical poem called the Religio Clerici, elect', in derisive allusion to the Dissenters and their Bible Societies, concluded with this distich- " I preach from a pulpit, rather than a tub ;
Ne'er gave a guinea to a Bible Club."
It is, however, now become apparent, that if the abuses of the Church Establishment are to be preserved, the Dissenters must be cajoled into giving it support. Hence the incessant flattery of the Methodists, which is so disgusting in the Tory newspapers, and the affected eagerness to distribute the Bible among the poor. It is not credible that any considerable number of the Dissenters will be persuaded into the belief that the connexion of Church and State is beneficial to them, or to the spread of Christianity. Indeed, the very means which the High Church party is taking to gain the sympathies of the really religious portion of the commu- nity, will tend to increase the dangers which now threaten the Establishment. No person ever yet fell in love with a State Church from reading the Scriptures. On the contrary, the perusal of them is apt to suggest comparisons between the early preachers of Christianity and the beneficed divines—the men of purple and fine linen of the present day—by no means favourable to the latter. Almost every page of the New Testament conveys reproof to the men who force payment of tithes by the sword. For these rea- sons it would not have answered the Tory purpose to have set apart Sunday last fur the reading of the Bible only. The Orangemen of Dublin and In niskillen and the political religionists of Lend on would have thought that a very flat sort of a celebration. Doubtless there were many sincere Protestants who joined in the services of the day with a simple spirit of thankfulness, unconnected with party rancour; but the unction which the Standard lauds in the ser- mons of certain divines was, we fear, mixed up with uncharitable- ness, and the desire to convert a professedly religious occasion into the means of aiding the designs of a faction. It is to the knowledge of some, and the suspicion of more, that under pretence of doing service to Protestantism a simultaneous attack on the Reform Government was projected, that we must attribute the very cool reception which the proposition to celebrate the printing of COYERDALE'S Bible met with generally from the people of England. The suggestion originated with the Dissen- ters; and we have no reason whatever to suspect that, in making it, any sinister motive was harboured by them; but the eagerness with which the Orangemen received it at once exposed their cloven foot; and it is to the distrust thus awakened in the public mind that the failure of the "Bible Festival" is mainly to be attributed.
It is with the same view that an attempt is to be made to revive the celebration of the anniversary of the Fifth of November. A correspondent in Thursday's Standard asks- " Weether it would not be desirable at this moment, when so much danger is to be apprehended from the increasing power of the Church of Rome, that the approaching Fifth of November should be observed and set apart as a day of religious thanksgiving for our deliverance as a nation from Popish plots and Popish tyranny ? Our:excellent Church has appointed a service expressly for the occasion."
But the mere preaching of sermons and reading of prayers would not satisfy this writer. He is aware that displays of pulpit bigotry would never displace Lord MELBOURNE; and he therefore suggests, in connexion with the exercise of "parson power," that-
" Addresses should be presented to his Majesty, praying him to dismiss his present Ministers who have shamefully allied themselves with the Popish leader, and from whose favour and protection the Church of Rome is daily de- riving additional strength."
This man speaks out. The dismissal of Ministers is the real thing aimed at. Were it not supposed that the prejudices of the ignorant might be used so as to injure the Ministry and aid the return of the Tories to office, we should hear little of old MYLES COVERDALE or PETER DENS, and the Fifth of November would be left as usual to the especial care of the pickpockets and ragamuffin benfire-makers in our streets.
•
Previous page
