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"MY DEAR SIR,--I do not like writing letters, especially on subjects
of importance. There are a thousand chances of misunderstanding.
Whereas, in a personal interview, there is a possibility of
controversy being hallowed by communion. Come and dine with me
to-morrow, at any hour convenient to you, and make my apologies to
Mrs Templeton for not inviting her with you, on the ground that we
want to have a long talk with each other without the distracting
influence which even her presence would unavoidably occasion.
"I am," &c. &c.
He accepted my invitation at once. During dinner we talked away, not
upon indifferent, but upon the most interesting subjects--connected
with the poor, and parish work, and the influence of the higher upon
the lower classes of society. At length we sat down on opposite
sides of the fire; and as soon as Mrs Pearson had shut the door, I
said,--
"You ask me, Mr Templeton, in your very kind letter--" and here I
put my hand in my pocket to find it.
"I asked you," interposed Mr Templeton, "how you could belong to a
Church which authorizes things of which you yourself so heartily
disapprove."
"And I answer you," I returned, "that just to such a Church our Lord
belonged."
"I do not quite understand you."
"Our Lord belonged to the Jewish Church."
"But ours is His Church."
"Yes. But principles remain the same. I speak of Him as belonging to
a Church. His conduct would be the same in the same circumstances,
whatever Church He belonged to, because He would always do right. I
want, if you will allow me, to show you the principle upon which He
acted with regard to church-rates."
"Certainly. I beg your pardon for interrupting you."
"The Pharisees demanded a tribute, which, it is allowed, was for the
support of the temple and its worship. Our Lord did not refuse to
acknowledge their authority, notwithstanding the many ways in which
they had degraded the religious observances of the Jewish Church. He
acknowledged himself a child of the Church, but said that, as a
child, He ought to have been left to contribute as He pleased to the
support of its ordinances, and not to be compelled after such a
fashion."
"There I have you," exclaimed Mr Templeton. "He said they were wrong
to make the tribute, or church-rate, if it really was such,
compulsory."
"I grant it: it is entirely wrong--a very unchristian proceeding.
But our Lord did not therefore desert the Church, as you would have
me do. HE PAID THE MONEY, lest He should offend. And not having it
of His own, He had to ask His Father for it; or, what came to the
same thing, make a servant of His Father, namely, a fish in the sea
of Galilee, bring Him the money. And there I have YOU, Mr Templeton.
It is wrong to compel, and wrong to refuse, the payment of a
church-rate. I do not say equally wrong: it is much worse to compel
than to refuse."
"You are very generous," returned Mr Templeton. "May I hope that you
will do me the credit to believe that if I saw clearly that they
were the same thing, I would not hesitate a moment to follow our
Lord's example."
"I believe it perfectly. Therefore, however we may differ, we are in
reality at no strife."
"But is there not this difference, that our Lord was, as you say, a
child of the Jewish Church, which was indubitably established by
God? Now, if I cannot conscientiously belong to the so-called
English Church, why should I have to pay church-rate or tribute?"
"Shall I tell you the argument the English Church might then use?
The Church might say, 'Then you are a stranger, and no child;
therefore, like the kings of the earth, we MAY take tribute of you.'
So you see it would come to this, that Dissenters alone should be
COMPELLED to pay church-rates."
We both laughed at this pushing of the argument to illegitimate
conclusions. Then I resumed:
"But the real argument is that not for such faults should we
separate from each other; not for such faults, or any faults, so
long as it is the repository of the truth, should you separate from
the Church."
"I will yield the point when you can show me the same ground for
believing the Church of England THE NATIONAL CHURCH, appointed such
by God, that I can show you, and you know already, for receiving the
Jewish Church as the appointment of God."
"That would involve a long argument, upon which, though I have
little doubt upon the matter myself, I cannot say I am prepared to
enter at this moment. Meantime, I would just ask you whether you are
not sufficiently a child of the Church of England, having received
from it a thousand influences for good, if in no other way, yet
through your fathers, to find it no great hardship, and not very
unreasonable, to pay a trifle to keep in repair one of the
tabernacles in which our forefathers worshipped together, if, as I
hope you will allow, in some imperfect measure God is worshipped,
and the truth is preached in it?"
"Most willingly would I pay the money. I object simply because the
rate is compulsory."
"And therein you have our Lord's example to the contrary."
A silence followed; for I had to deal with an honest man, who was
thinking. I resumed:--
"A thousand difficulties will no doubt come up to be considered in
the matter. Do not suppose I am anxious to convince you. I believe
that our Father, our Elder Brother, and the Spirit that proceedeth
from them, is teaching you, as I believe I too am being taught by
the same. Why, then, should I be anxious to convince you of
anything? Will you not in His good time come to see what He would
have you see? I am relieved to speak my mind, knowing He would have
us speak our minds to each other; but I do not want to proselytize.
If you change your mind, you will probably do so on different
grounds from any I give you, on grounds which show themselves in the
course of your own search after the foundations of truth in regard
perhaps to some other question altogether."
Again a silence followed. Then Mr Templeton spoke:--
"Don't think I am satisfied," he said, "because I don't choose to
say anything more till I have thought about it. I think you are
wrong in your conclusions about the Church, though surely you are
right in thinking we ought to have patience with each other. And now
tell me true, Mr Walton,--I'm a blunt kind of man, descended from an
old Puritan, one of Cromwell's Ironsides, I believe, and I haven't
been to a university like you, but I'm no fool either, I
hope,--don't be offended at my question: wouldn't you be glad to see
me out of your parish now?"
I began to speak, but he went on.
"Don't you regard me as an interloper now--one who has no right to
speak because he does not belong to the Church?"
"God forbid!" I answered. "If a word of mine would make you leave my
parish to-morrow, I dare not say it. I do not want to incur the
rebuke of our Lord--for surely the words 'Forbid him not' involved
some rebuke. Would it not be a fearful thing that one soul, because
of a deed of mine, should receive a less portion of elevation or
comfort in his journey towards his home? Are there not countless
modes of saying the truth? You have some of them. I hope I have
some. People will hear you who will not hear me. Preach to them in
the name and love of God, Mr Templeton. Speak that you do know and
testify that you have seen. You and I will help each other, in
proportion as we serve the Master. I only say that in separating
from us you are in effect, and by your conduct, saying to us, "Do
not preach, for you follow not with us." I will not be guilty of the
same towards you. Your fathers did the Church no end of good by
leaving it. But it is time to unite now."
Once more followed a silence.
"If people could only meet, and look each other in the face," said
Mr Templeton at length, "they might find there was not such a gulf
between them as they had fancied."
And so we parted.
Now I do not write all this for the sake of the church-rate
question. I write it to commemorate the spirit in which Mr Templeton
met me. For it is of consequence that two men who love their Master
should recognize each that the other does so, and thereupon, if not
before, should cease to be estranged because of difference of
opinion, which surely, inevitable as offence, does not involve the
same denunciation of woe.
After this Mr Templeton and I found some opportunities of helping
each other. And many a time ere his death we consulted together
about things that befell. Once he came to me about a legal
difficulty in connexion with the deed of trust of his chapel; and
although I could not help him myself, I directed him to such help as
was thorough and cost him nothing.
I need not say he never became a churchman, or that I never expected
he would. All his memories of a religious childhood, all the sources
of the influences which had refined and elevated him, were
surrounded with other associations than those of the Church and her
forms. The Church was his grandmother, not his mother, and he had
not made any acquaintance with her till comparatively late in life.
But while I do not say that his intellectual objections to the
Church were less strong than they had been, I am sure that his
feelings were moderated, even changed towards her. And though this
may seem of no consequence to one who loves the Church more than the
brotherhood, it does not seem of little consequence to me who love
the Church because of the brotherhood of which it is the type and
the restorer.
It was long before another church-rate was levied in Marshmallows.
And when the circumstance did take place, no one dreamed of calling
on Mr Templeton for his share in it. But, having heard of it, he
called himself upon the churchwarden--Mr Brownrigg still--and
offered the money cheerfully. AND MR BROWRIGG REFUSED TO TAKE IT
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