A CHARGE

TO THE CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF LEWES.

MY REVEREND BRETHREN,

When I cast my thoughts around with the view of ascertaining the subjects on which it will become me to speak to you on this occasion, the first feeling which rises in my heart, is thankfulness to Almighty God for the blessed change which has been wrought during the last few years in the aspect and prospects of our Church. No one, I think, can call to mind, what were his own anticipations with regard to the destinies of the Church, or what was the general tone and the common topics of conversation among her friends, only half a dozen years ago, without perceiving that there has in truth been a great change, that we stand more firmly, that we look around us more confidently, and forward more hopefully. Still indeed we are encompast by enemies, who are numerous, strong, and active; and many among them would gladly snatch at any opportunity to wound or shake us. This however has always been the case, more or less; and so far as we ourselves are concerned, it is not much to be deplored. Ever since Christ came to send a sword upon earth, there has always been hostility between the World and the Church. The World has hated the Church; and the Church has waged war against the World. Her spirit however has not

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been that of hatred, so far at least as she has been animated by the spirit of her Lord: for her appointed task has not been to destroy the darkness, except by transfiguring it into light, not to destroy the World, but to save the World. The spirit of the World on the other hand has truly been the spirit of hatred: and it has often happened that, in proportion as the light has brightened, the darkness has also become thicker; the more mightily the Lord has set up His Son upon His holy hill of Zion, the more furiously have the nations raged, the more blindly have the people given themselves up to vain imaginations. So far therefore is the enmity of the World from proving that the Church is not fulfilling her mission, it may rather be regarded as a witness of her activity and zeal, as a witness that she is not allowing the World to lie withering in the deathsleep of its sins, but is rousing and shaking and stirring it, and calling upon the children of Israel to come forth from their Egyptian bondage. But, though the enmity of the World against the Church is as bitter as ever, and though this enmity on the part of the World is the strongest testimony, short of sincere love, which the World can bear to the efficiency of the Church, yet, when we attend to the tone taken by our enemies now, and compare it with the common tenour of their language a few years since, we cannot but discern that their hopes have been cast down, that they no longer come against us with the same confident expectation of victory, that for the present at least they have slackened their attack, and are awaiting a more favorable season to renew it.

This however, were this the sole evidence of the increast strength and vigour of the Church, would be poor and unsatisfactory. For this might arise from the weakness of

our adversaries: or it might be the result of external circumstances: whereas no strength can be real and lasting, unless it be inward and inherent, unless it do not remain without us, like all the gifts of this world, but become one with us, as God's gifts alone can. And this, my brethren, is the great cause I see for thankfulness in the change which has been going on of late years in the condition of our Church: this is the change it especially behoves us to be thankful for, the change which has been wrought, not in our circumstances, but in ourselves, not in the feelings and conduct of our enemies, but in our own spirits and lives, the increase of activity, the increase of zeal, the increase of social energy and union. I say not this boastfully: God forbid! How can we boast of that which is owing to no merit of ours, which is in no respect our own act, but wholly and solely God's? When our Church had fallen into a low estate, when the spirit of this world had long been creeping through her with its insidious lethargy and infectious torpour,-when too many were seeking their own things, both in the region of action and of speculation, and too few the things of God,—then it was, that God arose and had mercy upon Zion: for it was time that He should have mercy upon her, yea, the time was come. Then it was, that He made the wilderness a standing water, and watersprings of the dry ground. So that in this, as in all other instances, the graces we receive, instead of exalting us in our own conceit, ought to fill us with a still more contrite humility, by freshening and strengthening the consciousness of our unworthiness. They ought to awaken us to a still livelier sense of our shortcomings. The more precious the treasure bestowed on us, the more it ought to shame us that we should hold it in such frail earthen vessels.

Therefore, when I thank God, my brethren, for the merciful change which He has wrought in the condition of our Church, when on my own personal account I bless Him, that He has called me to serve Him in a charge of such honour and such importance, at a moment when so many great births appear to be teeming in the womb of Time, when so much noble energy has been aroused, when the Spirit of good is stirring in the hearts of many people, and calling them forth to war against evil, to fight the good fight of faith and patience and selfdenial and selfsacrifice in behalf of Christ and His Church, - yet these very prospects only deepen my conviction both of your responsibilities, and, above all, of my own. They make me feel more strongly how much I need your help, the help of your friendly cordial active cooperation, how much I need the help of your prayers, how much we all need the help of that Spirit whose gifts are vouchsafed to the fervent prayer of faith, in order that, each in his station, we may quit ourselves less unworthily of the blessings vouchsafed to us, and may not waste and throw away the glorious opportunity which appears to be opening for establishing the Church more firmly and widely and lastingly than ever in the hearts of the English people.

For why? Surely we do not any of us count ourselves to have apprehended, even though we have been apprehended. We do not, we cannot count that the Church, in her earthly temporary state, as she exists at this day in this land, has apprehended the whole fulness of her divine mission, although she has been apprehended more powerfully than in ordinary seasons by the Spirit of God. Surely this is the very last time for such a delusion to find a way into our hearts. For whithersoever we turn our eyes, what