A poor Vicar trying to be like St. Peter.

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ministers by church dignitaries. Nonconformists, as a body, are conformists to the Bible. They have conformed to be among the most liberal subscribers to my church. God bless all good men; and may He make church-folks as good as the nonconformist good Samaritan who saved the bleeding man, whom the Church priest and Levite had passed by!

The glories, comforts, and luxuries of this palacetabernacle, had the same effect on my excitable Irish brain as the Transfiguration-glories had upon impulsive half-Irish Peter. So, like him, instead of praying and working in the church militant, in a natural way, I preferred to be fed by others as all worthy and honoured ecclesiastics have the good luck. to be in their Transfiguration-comforts. I confess I longed now for Peter's Transfiguration-tabernacle. The Pope and Anglican Bishops are the successors of Bishop Peter in the Transfiguration-See. But the poor minister is not the successor of St. Peter, or of any apostle, for the Apostles were allowed to work at tools, and to catch fish for their support; and they were allowed to preach where they could get their livelihood, instead of tempting God to work a miracle to fill their stomach.

It appears that a Bishop can put laymen under ecclesiastical censures, and that he can excommunicate them, and surely he can exhort them to pay a poor vicar honestly for his work. But, be that as it may, my good Bishop preferred to tell me to go to the public to beg money for my church, and, naturally and reverentially, I obeyed him in this profitable and really "godly admonition."

198

The origin of Priestcraft.

The subject for pious meditation which crossed my soul when I appealed to the country to support me, in consequence of my livelihood having been taken away by Henry VIII. and his party, was the life of Simeon and Levi. These men, under the pretext of religion, did weaken by means of the rite of circumcision, the bodies of the Shechemites to prevent them from defending themselves (Genesis xxxiv. 25). They slew them in this weak state. Honest Jacob, like John Bull, cursed Simeon for his patriarchal trick, and Levi for his priestcraft. It is remarkable that it was from Levi the priesthood arose; and it appears that the affairs and proceedings of the tribe of Simeon, and their mode of living, savoured more of the ecclesiastical element than those of any other tribe. by being teachers, and by being scattered up and down among the people. Their system was neither religious nor civil. It was good for neither body nor soul, Church nor State, man nor beast. Such was the origin of Priestcraft.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The Government re-endowing itself out of Church Appeals--The injury done by opposing the endowment of a church in private patronage-The title Englishman or Christian mould the character better than that of Duke, Marquis, or Earl, &c.-The reason why a clergyman is one's worst enemy-Opposing clergymen is unordaining them, and even when they are guilty it brings a curse upon those that trouble them, as Noah's case proves.

ΤΗ

HE just Government of this country should, in fairness, give free postage to all church appeals, as it has occasioned them by having deprived churches of tithes formerly and of church-rates latterly. As matters stand now, it gets thousands of pounds annually in postage stamps, to re-endow itself out of the money given a second time for purposes of religion and of loyalty, in response to church appeals. My appeal for providing spiritual food for 500 souls was attacked, when made even through the Post Office, on the ground that a Church in private patronage should have no religious supply given to it except by its lay Rector. Every trumpet sounded, "No Irish need apply." Like Levi of old I would fight on the Lord's side, and my being Irish made fighting natural and easy enough to me. The interests of lay Rectors, being big men, are considered by keeping a church and a vicar's condition in their existing state without improvement; and poor vicars and everything of a church character are sacrificed to please them.

200 Terrible injury done by attacking church work.

Doing nothing for a church or a vicar is opposing both, for not to advance is to recede. Nonconformists are not the only Dissenters in England, for those High and Low Churchmen who do not help each other's church, or those who are at daggers drawn with each other in English Church Unions and Church Associations, are really Dissenters from the Moderate, peaceable, and comprehensive Church of England.

It is impossible to destroy altogether the injury of an attack. I would rather have a grain of attacking metal than a stone or two for defence purposes. The attacks upon my effort to endow a church in private patronage caused me to travel, on foot, between thirty and forty thousand miles, beside railway, &c., travelling, to raise the money required. Thus I was forced to spend a large amount of money in these ways, beside postage stamps, printing, stationery, &c.

Opposition caused me to search England to find out the Christians, who love the Church, and who pray for her peace and prosperity. Poisonous plants are plenty enough; but it is labour to find the honeyproducing flowers. Although I was Irish I would not let the courageous and ever-persevering bee excel

me.

I give three cheers for the title "Englishman," as the man that is worthy of bearing it is not narrowminded; for he encourages steam and energy, progress and perseverance in a good cause, even in an Irishman, notwithstanding that there may be discouraging features in his mode of proceeding. I say again, three cheers for the Englishman and the Christian; for these say that a clergyman and every

The virtue of being a real Englishman.

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man ought to have sufficient food to eat, and that every church should have a fair stipend, notwithstanding the discouraging circumstance of private patronage.

"

No man wants better titles than those of "Englishman" and " Christian," or even "Churchman if he is a right one. We ought to be ashamed of those who kiss the ground upon which big people walk in order that they may get the title of Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baronet, or Knight; for such are ashamed. of the titles Englishman and Christian; or they are discontented with the titles which alone mould their nature for the better.

If I could become an Englishman at heart and bear this title, I would cheerfully give up that of " Reverend" for it. I can never forget the warm reception which a gentleman in Wisbech gave me, when I canvassed him for a subscription to endow my church. He embraced me, saying, "Welcome to England with all your faults. We want more of your race over here to improve and civilize them. Oh! that every Irishman were to follow your example by coming to England until none would be left in that country. No matter how much badness you have had, half of it is left behind in the Irish Sea."

A poor vicar once dashed into the house of a Lord Chancellor, asking for a good living. "Who recommends you?" asked the Lord Chancellor. The vicar replied, "Lord Almighty, and He says I am fit for it, and worthy of it too." "I have never heard of such a Lord in my life," returned the Lord Chancellor, "and He is not in the Peerage book at all; so be off out of my house, for you are an impostor."