But nevertheless not a reply which was permitted to pass
muster. Mr. Fremantle, Rector of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square, —with whom we very much agree, except in relation to what it is reasonable to expect from persons situated like the Bishops,— was down upon them at once, and in a letter to Tuesday's Times reproached them for putting fellowship with Nonconformists
■ - and the stimulus to "sacramental confession " at all on a par. The practice of " habitual confession," he says, "though it is not in express terms forbidden, yet is absolutely contrary to the whole drift of our Church's teaching." That, though we quite -sympa- thise in Mr. Fremantle's dislike to it, is what we can never see. All that we can see is that the Church is neutral in relation to it, and does not encourage it, except, perhaps, for the sick when communicating. We find no positive discouragement of it anywhere ; we wish we did. If there were any such, we should have a less satisfied and strenuous Puseyite party. The question of Nonconformist or lay preachers, on the contrary, Mr. *Fremantle calls "a mere question of discipline." The Bishops think not, and say they have no legal power to license such preachers, even if they wished it. But be that as it may. Can a Broad Churchman fairly expect the Bishops to stretch a point for us, and refuse to stretch a point for the school we disapprove and resist? There is reason in the roasting of Bishops as well as in "the roasting of eggs," and sometimes we think our own best friends are not governed by reason when they indulge themselves in that very agreeable pursuit.
Previous page
