Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/834

* CHURCH OF GOD. 734 CHURCH TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. as the Church of God : that the Scriptures, with- out note or comment, constitute a sufficient rule of faitli and practice, while creeds and confes- sions tend to divisions and sects; and that the ordinances of immersion in water in the name of the Trinity, the washing of the saints' feet, and the partaking of bread and wine in com- memoration of the sutfering and <leath of Christ, are binding upon all believers. The organization of the Church consists of seventeen annual elder- ships, covering districts in fourteen States and the Indian Territory, and a general eldership, composed of delegates from the annual elder- ships, meeting every three years, which has charge of general concerns, with an executive board serving three years. The words Cliurch of iSoiV in the titles of the general and annual elderships have recently been changed to 'Churches of God.' Xo official statistics are compiled. The ministerial register for 1001 con- tains 4G.5 names. Other estimates for 1000 give 5S0 churches and 38,000 communicants. The Church of God has a college at Findlay. Ohio, with an endowment approaching $100,000, and an academy at Barkeyville, Pa.; has a large bookstore and publishing house at llarrisburg. Pa. ; sustains a missionary in India, in part of the territory assigned to the Free Baptist Church, and is al.so represented by missionaries ■working in other foreign fields and under other boards; and has, further, an active Womaii's ^Missionary Society. It is interested in bene- ficiary edvication for the ministry, and is making progress in educational matters generally. Its organs arc: The Cliurch Advocate, weekly; The Worhtnan, quarterly; and five Sunday-school helps (all Harrisburg. Pa.). Consult: Winehren- ner, A Brief Mew of the Church of God (Harris- burg, Pa,, 1S40) ; id.. Practical and Doctrinal Ser- mons (Harrisburg, 1860). A History and Doctrines of the Church of Cod is in preparation by .T. H. Forney, under direction of the general eldership. CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST. See Men- NOMTl:S, CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. See Swi:iik.m;ougiaxs. CHURCH RATES. In England, a tax or assessment hiid on the parishioners and occu- piers of land within a parish, by a majority of their own body in vestry assembled, for the pur- pose of upholding and repairing the fabric of the cliurch and the bdfry. the bells, seats, and ornaments, the churchyard fence, and the ex- pcu'ies (other than those of maintaining the minister) incident to the celebration of divine service. The parishioners are convened for this purpose by the church-wardens (q.v. ). The chancel (q.v.) being regarded as belonging pe- etiliarly to the clergy, the expense of maintain- ing it is laid on the rector or vicar, though custom frequently lays this burden also on the ])arisbioncrs, as in London and elsewhere. The church rates were aii<iently a charge on (he tithes of the parish, which were divided into three portion-; — one for the structure of the church, one for the poor, and the third for the ministers of the church. This distribution is said to have originated with Pope Gregory I,, who enjoined Saint Augustine thus to divide .such voluntary offerings as might be made to his missionary church in England. A canon of .Arch- bishop -Elfric, in !170, and an act of the Wit- tenagenuite in lOlt, in Kthclred's time, have been quoted in i)roof of the recognition of this mle by our Saxon fathers. It seems to have been their custom, also, to devote to the repair of each church a portion of the fines paid for offenses connnitted within the district attached to it: and every bishop was bound to contribute to the rejiair of his own chuich from his own means, A third of the tithes thus originally devoted to the repairs of churches continued to be a])plied to that purpose under the Xornians down to the middle of the Thirteenth Century: and the manner in which tliis burden came to be shifted to the parishioners has been a subject of much discussion among legal antiquarians. Lord (then Sir .John) Campbell, wlio published a pamphlet on the subject in lS;i7, is of opinion that the contril)Utions of the parishioners were at first purely voluntary, and that, the custom growing, it at last assumed the form of an obligation, and was enforced by ecclesiastical censures. The care of the fabric of the church, and llie due administration of its ollices, are laid 111)011 the ministers and the churcli-wardeiis con- jointly, and the latter may be proceeded against by citation, in the ecclesiastical courts, should they neglect these duties. Hut there is no legal mode of compelling the parishioners as a body to provide the rate: and this circumstance has occasioned much difficulty in imposing the tax in parishes in which dissent is prevalent, and led to many churches falling into a partially ruinous condition. The priq)cr criteri(m for the amount of church rates is a valuation of the property within the parish, grounded on the rent that a tenant would lie willing to pay for it. Glebe land, the possessions of the Crown in the actual occupation of the sovereign, and places of public wor.ship, are not liable for cluircli rates ; but there is no other exception as regards immovable property, and in some parishes cus- tom even extends it to stock in trade. It has been often decided in the courts that a retrospec- tive church rate; — i.e. a rate for expenses previ- ously incurred — cannot be validly imposed. JIuch dilliculty has been experienced in recover- ing the rates imposed by the parish on individu- als refusing to pay. Previous to 53 Geo. 111., chap. 127, the only mode was by suit in the ec- clesiastical court. That statute, however, in all eases under £10, empowered the justices of the peace of the county where the church was situated, on ci>iii])laint of the church-wardens, to inquire into the merits of the case, and order payment, -Vgainst the decision of the justices an a])peal lies to the quarter sessions. In 1868 an end was put to all parochi;il contentions by enacting that no suit or proceeding should there- after be allowed in any court to enforce or com- jicl payment of a church rate, except where a local act authorized this rate. But. exccj)! so far as related to the compulsory iiaymciit of these rates, the church-wardens iiiiu'lil. as before, make, assess, receive, and deal with such rates. In each district parish the iiihaliitants may treat their own church as if it were their parish church, and make andVeceive rates for the repair of the same. A body of trustees may now be ap- pointed in each parish to receive contributions for eccle-inst ical piirjioses in the [larisb. CHURCH TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. A naticmal organization of the Episcopal Cliurch in the I'nitcd States for the promotion of tern-