Page:A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Frome.djvu/12

4 allay it, do nothing but add to its bitterness, by every kind of personality and suspicion of motives, attaching all manner of party names to men, and saying, "I am of Paul, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Apollos." No; we are not one, but a thousand, forgetting, although we are nominally brethren.

You were witnesses a short time back of my first ministration among you as your Vicar, in saying the Prayers and performing the various offices appointed for Divine worship by the Church of England. At that time in obedience to the law of the Church I solemnly used these words:—"I do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by the book intituled 'The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments,' and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches, and the form or manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons."

Now I know full well that in the attempt to do this faithfully, I shall meet with the opposition of gainsayers, and perhaps with the hatred of many who differ from the rules of the Church, and endure not its authority. I want you to see and understand how it is most perplexing in these perilous times, on the one hand to be forced by the law of the Church and the law of the land to "assent and consent," to follow in all respects the Book of Common Prayer and Sacraments, and yet to know at the same time that many of the parishioners to whom I am sent to minister in this Prayer Book, and preach the Gospel of Love, deny its doctrines and have forsaken its inheritance. It is a very fearful thing when a man is placed in the midst of two contending points such as these;—one to teach others over whom he is set in the, to worship in one particular way;—and the other to know that by so doing, he is to suffer their bad opinion, their hard speeches, and may be, their withdrawal