CHAPTER VIII. Church-Discipline. Is there no sound about our altars heard, Lyra Apostolica. On the following morning, Bradwell was sitting with his wife, when the servant ushered into the room Mr. M'Adams, a neighbouring Roman Catholic, who was in the habit of paying occasional visits to Bradwell, when they commonly engaged in some friendly discussion upon one or more of those points of difference which unhappily separate the English and Roman branches of the Church. On the present occasion, he came to ask some questions on the subject of the confirmation which had taken place on the previous day, to all of which Bradwell answered as well as he was able. "Well," said Mr. M'Adams, after a lengthened conversation, "I really have little to complain of, as to the view which you set forth as being that of your Church with regard to confirmation; there are points of difference between us, but by no means as great as I had imagined them to be; nevertheless, I cannot believe that your view is correct; or if it be, I must say that there is something radically defective in your discipline, as I know several clergymen who set forth quite a different statement from that you have given. I allude particularly to what you say of its being sacramental in its nature. Now I fancy there are very many in your Church who do not believe this; just as there are many F who deny regeneration in baptism, and the real presence in the holy Eucharist." "I fear there may be such," replied Bradwell; "and, as you observe, if it be so, it is certainly a great proof of a want of discipline in our Church, that such different doctrines should be taught by her clergy; and, indeed, I will not deny your charge as to our defective discipline, there are certainly many things I could wish to have amended." "Ah," said M'Adams, somewhat triumphantly," we have discipline." "Yes," replied Bradwell, quietly, "you have, and I trust may long preserve it; but still you have some points on which your clergy do not agree, and which should teach you to be charitable in your remarks with regard to the present differences which exist among us. Besides, I might add something on the subject of your agreement, and turn round upon you by asserting that our differences, distressing as they are, in reality bring less evil to us than your admitted union does to you. Surely it is less fatal for a body of men to be divided in points of doctrine, than it is for them all to retain error." "Doubtless," replied Mr. M‘Adams, “but this is begging the question; so we will go on with our former subject, in connexion with which, I must tell you of a circumstance that occurred during this confirmation. I have a friend residing in a hamlet belonging to the neighbouring parish of Weavey, upon the truth of whose statement I can rely, who tells me, that just a fortnight before the Bishop's arrival, the curate of the parish, Mr. Willey, went round to many of the houses, and told the people, that if any of them wished to have tickets for confirmation, they must meet him at such a day, at-where do you think?" "I really cannot tell," replied Bradwell. "At the Wesleyan Sunday-school," answered the other. "You surely must have been misinformed," said Bradwell. "No," continued Mr. M'Adams, smiling, "little fear of that. But I have not done yet. The day arrived for giving out the tickets, as they are called; a great number of young came -for Dighton, the hamlet in question, is, as you know, very populous ;-the greater portion were dissenters! What do you say to this?" Bradwell was silent. "The tickets were dis Mr. M'Adams resumed. tributed by Mr. Willey. There was no examination into their creed, no inquiry into their mode of life, both of which the curate certified, on the ticket, were satisfactory. Well, sir, I have yet a little more. On the following morning, the day appointed by the Bishop, these young persons met at the same place, the Wesleyan Sunday-school. Carts were provided, as the distance, I suppose, was greater than they liked to walk, into which this motley congregation of all denominations was put; and away they drove to participate in what we consider a sacrament-you, at least a religious ordinance. I was present when they left the village; and can assure you that I have seldom been more shocked in my life. The whole affair had any thing but a serious look about it. The girls were dressed up with all sorts of trumpery, as though they were going to a fair; and both boys and girls laughed and giggled, as you might expect to see them do when engaged in some expedition of pleasure. But their want of reverence was not the worst part of the business to my mind. Just remember: these persons who laugh at all your ideas about the Church, who deny every thing you assert concerning it,—some of them Baptists, some Independents, some Wesleyans, and I am not quite sure, but some, I think, Socinians,—these persons, utterly ignorant of what they were doing, went, at the invitation of a clergyman of your Church, to a solemn religious ceremony, where, in the face of God and the congregation, they told a dreadful lie. They were accepted as members of your Church-as members of your Church they were confirmed; they left the place, and probably, from that time to the day of their death, they will never enter a church again. It is really monstrous, in my opinion most fearful, that such things should be allowed among you; most cruel to these poor dissenters, as you call them, who know no better; and most dreadful to yourselves, as likely to bring down God's righteous vengeance upon those who thus act." "It is indeed,” replied Bradwell," very sad that such things are permitted; but I would hope that this case is not a common one." "By no means," answered the other. "Were it so, I should not have been a Catholic, or, as you would term it, a Roman Catholic." "I was not aware that you had ever been other," said Bradwell. "Yes," added Mr. M'Adams; "I was brought up in the Church of England; but left it, first of all, from disgust at the utter want of discipline in it, and then became confirmed in my secession by the clearer truths which afterwards broke in upon my mind." "With regard to the latter point," added Bradwell, "I will not now speak. Of course, I think on that head differently from you; but with relation to your first reason for leaving the Church of England, I would simply say, that, born in her bosom, you owed her a son's duty, which you ill repaid by deserting her." 66 'Why, what would you have had me do?" asked M'Adams. "To my mind your course was plain," replied Bradwell. "You saw, we will admit, that your holy mother was not free from faults; as a dutiful and affectionate child, you should, in an humble and quiet, but persevering manner, have endeavoured to procure an amendment of what was wrong. You would thus, in a measure, have repaid the filial debt you owed her. Surely you could have no right to leave her, even supposing that you had found a branch of the Church in which you perceived none of those evils you complain of. Just suppose for a moment that every child who discovered his parents erring was to desert his paternal roof, start off, resolved to make a home for himself, which is what Protestant dissenters in the first instance do, or to go to a house where he was offered an asylum, which is what you did. In such a case, you do not think the child would be acting properly. I certainly cannot, for one moment, think you did right, even supposing you had discovered, which of course I do not allow, a home which is freer from faults than the one you left. I know many persons like yourself who, searching after a visionary good, perfection on earth, fancy it is to be found in other situations than that in which they are; the consequence is, they wander about in an unsettled and most unsatisfactory way. It is possible, my dear sir, that the time may come when you will discover quite as much cause to leave that portion of the Church to which you now belong as influenced you in the former instance to leave that in which you had been baptised.” At this period, Henry Howard entered the room to say he brought a message from Mr. Milles, who would be glad of Bradwell's company, if so disposed, |