Page:A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Frome.djvu/23

15 in reply to the Memorial; and secondly, by the mere fact, that I stand before you at this present moment, by the Bishop's institution, Vicar of your parish. I trust that we may all act in accordance with the gentle spirit, but yet firm decision with which the Bishop has pronounced in our case.—I may be allowed perhaps to recite his words.

"'I am fully satisfied that Mr. Bennett has a firm and deep-rooted attachment to our own Church, and to all the doctrines of the Church of England, repudiating all Romish doctrines. I feel that I should he acting unjustly hy him, and uncourteously as well as unfairly to the Marchioness of Bath (whose firm attachment to our Church is so well known) if I were to refuse him admission into my diocese.'"

This admission has now been given. The charges of the memorialists are shown to be groundless, and the accused set free.

But there is one expression which the memorialists have used, full of perilous import in the teaching and salvation of souls. It is that which says that the memorialists hope no appointment will be made "otherwise than would he agreeable to the inhabitants of Frome." It is indeed a very happy thing, when the teachers and the taught, the shepherd and the sheep can all be brought to harmonize and fit in together without interests that clash, or objects that differ—a very happy thing, when the supply and demand, as in political economy, just so nearly balance each other that the whole body moves on without disturbance of the mutual powers engaged; but whatever it may be in the things of social life, it is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Religion, that its truths never can by their very essence be otherwise than disagreeable to the natural man. And as the truths, so he who brings them. Let the memorialists "search the Scriptures." They will find that even our Blessed, He Who was our great Pattern and Example in every office of the Ministry, even He "came to His own and His own received Him not," "He was despised and rejected of men, and we esteemed Him not,"