THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

Evening Star, Issue 3622, 1 October 1874, Page 2

THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

The annual meeting of the Church of England Diocesan Synod opened ytsterday in the Temperance Hall, Moiay place. The Right Rev. Dr Neville presided. There were also present—Tiie Ven. Archdeacon Edwards, Rev. Messrs R. L. Stanford G. Beaumont, J. Jones, E. G. Penny, R_ Coflfey, E. J. Withy, W. N. Leeson, W. P. Tanner. Laity ; Messrs Quick, N. L. Buchanan, G. F. Reid, W. Pillans, T. A. Man-ford, H. Howorth, A. U. Lubecki, John Dewe, D’Arcy Haggitt, and James Smith. The right rev. r red lent delivered a lengthy, but interesting adlre >s, from which we make the following extract; The following is a list of the subjects upon which the General Synod desires an expression of our mind, to "which it would direct our attention, viz.:—l'he practical working of Stat. No. 5, G. S , together with the mouons of Archdeacon .* toek and Mr Lnsk thereupon ; the Pension Boa d; Education ; Intemperance ; (the recommendations of the reports of Select Committees on the Supply of Candidates fur Holy Orders, and on the Circulation of Religious knowledge; the Alteration of Formularies Bill ; the form for General Syno I Returns ; Resolutions on Missions, rndowments, Christian Guity. Also a recommendation upon the Management of Trusts, p. 206, and a reference to the Instructions to trustees. Formidable as this list may appear, I would remind you that it is by no means necessary that we should undertake the consideration of all the many and very important queai ions contained therein during the presenr. session o' our ynod. into a -me of these subjects, indeed, it would, probably, be undesirable to enter so long before the discussion of them can be of practical value. I venture to think that we should do well to defer the expiessiou of our opinion on the Alteration ef Formula ies Hid, jior example, until nearer the time of the next General Synod We should be able to apply to the question minds naatur. d by the calm study of it, and our conclush a would ca-ry corresponding weight. Again, it is doubtful whether w« can profitably enter upon any consideration ** o Pn 'l aotß ot Pension Board before t at Board baa had time, either to submit a scheme for our approval, or even to present to us the form in which it would have the necessary preliminary data supplied. vi the remaining subjects there are seme

with regard to which nothing more is re* q nrad from me thau the oirectioi of your attention to them; bat of others I will sp* ak moi e folly as being those upon which I ! we n, * v most advantage iusl> conoenrate our minds. Among these, perhaps, none is of greater importance than the subject of education; by which I mean of a T T u ? iucat !? n "Mob does not iunore the highest attributes and grandest capa* biht’ee of the being to be educated. I give prominence to this subject over that of in* temperance, on the principle that it is better to assail the root of an ev 1 than to attack the effect. True, we occupied much time at our last meeting upon this question, yet I think that we shall do well to be engaged upon it again, as the e are few which lie more directly in the pathway of our duty as a hurch, and few, too, L regret to say, which ha e received less serious attention at the hands of Churchmen. L should be doing violence to my own c evictions, as welt as, t ne Ive failing to present the question upon its true basis, wete I not to say at onoe that regard education a<i pre eminently the duty of the Church lam aware that s-une of my brethren, possibly even some within these walls, will be unprepared to admit this: they have come to regard the work as rather appertaining to the State. And yet I think th when the matter is either pondered in the abstract or viewed in the light of his* tory as revealing the opinion ef the past, yea even back to the primitive « hurch—this will be found to be so. The argument in the abstract rests upon much the same grounds as the abstract argument in favor of a separate ministry, the complex condition of society which involves the delegation of .P I ‘ leßtl y functions inherent, vis,, in the individual—the ordinary parent cannot ordi* nanly be either priest or preceptor of the child to any great extent; and of functions so kindred, so interwoven as these of the teacher of adults by the teacher of babes, why should the delegated instruments fnr the carrying out of each derive tbeir authority from a separate source ? This can only consis ently happen by first degra ling the con* cepttou of education itself. When at length, not only every sanctifying iuflueaoe, but almost everything that is really en* nobhng and elevating, is severed from >t, the miserable residuum of the structure of ” pothooks and the cultivation of the calculating faculty may pe.haps be entrusted to a mere agent of the State; though in truth it is the very severance of tfi t which in i self is one into widely divorced zones of so-called secular and religious education, which I protest against. The border line should not be strongly marked; the distinction is artificial, not real. Every kind of knowledge is. '^fr^ gre !‘* a u re u e ’ ation of the Mind which meted out the heavens with a span and therefore the importation of every kind and degree of knowledge should be by those who have been trained to see God in everything, as they should do who take their mission from the Church. The lowest rvunls of the ladder of knowledge rest! indeed, upon the earth; but the topmost, as in Jacob s vision, reach to heaven • and there is no breach of continuity. Let the rudiments, indeed, be taught by the leu instructed, and the sublimed byZ ordained minister; but Jet the teacher of every grade fee. that he receives his t on from the Church to do a sacred work. Why restrict to the ordained the scope of St. rr. a d TT n ' ‘i Tbe thiQ 8“ which thou ast hoard of me the same commit thou to faithfu! men who shah beabla to teach others 8 ’ • , 18 doubtless owing largely to the growth of convictions in this direct on. and to the stimulus to zaal in work which springs therefrom, that we may ascribe the unquestionable hold which the Church School of hi gland have of late years obtained on the minds of the people. That Church Schools were founded in the KU lie M &S K 8 ° f c ; hr . ißti . anit y '« highly probable. Mosheim, mdeed, states it as a nutter not admitting of doubt, that St John, at Po 'j jar P Smyrna ounded such schools ; and const )era it most likely th ? V f, ark the ori gwator of the bu b t a?n Ale^ an( Jr ia - which m subsequent, And I 1 t arly t i me8 ' b " came 80 famous! i u° e be rs BQ eers many levelled v J l L Chtlr h ch J ‘ C , no ° l ? of ihe mi,ld,e *ges, yet those who make them might at least remember that outside of those 6 the light was larkness indeed ; and if th-. forghffkheU %iU A hers t0 thr °w down the shutters and let her light shi e L.rth at lea«t at this tune she d. sir. sto do so. ’ She would execute her appointed task Ihe initiative has already been taken in the rnaiter, so far as this Diocese is conmned, by the Rev. B. L. Stanford, sSJ wil “f able ZBal aud co u r age, folaZt 7 th ! d,SC T i L ° a wh ch took pWe at our la t meeting of the 'ynod. by opening a !£•??* ° Wn Pa y* h ’ wti ch has been gattended with a considerable amount of sueorioiLf K a W i Ug \ aß been add «d to the original building fur the separate teaching of girls I may add that steps have alsf been taken in the direction of establishing a school in connection with at. Paul's parish, lfc f lB ln Ji! n . ,,|ed under the of an efficient certificated mistress who has received her training in one of the Church colleges at Home. * ' v , ll ‘ take . tblß opportunity of informing you that inquiries have been nude, with a view to the opening of schools of a higher Sex , es ’ aDd <hat there is a probabiluy that ere long the e will be in existther,f ,r e, be desira le for «^ n °i d fco Proceed to the constitution of our school system.