RANK INTOLERANCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3634, 15 October 1874, Page 3

RANK INTOLERANCE.

The Wes’eyan Conference week was the scene of great excitement over a series of letters which had passed between the Rev. Mr Keet and the Bishop of Lincoln. It appears that Mr Keet wisu< d to erect a tombstone to the memory of his daughter in the churchyard of the town whore ho lives, and with the view of giving effect to his wish he applied to the Vicar for permission. The inscription he wished to put upon the tomb stone was the following “In loving memory of Annie Augusta Keet, younger daughter of the Rev. H. Keet. Wesleyan Minuter, who died at Owston Ferry, May 11, 1874 —Safe, sheltered from the storms of life ■ The Vicar, to the no small surprise of Mr K- et, refused to allow the stone to be erected unless the words “ Rev.” ami “ Wesleyan Minister” were'lift out. Ho then wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and also to the Bishop of Lincoln. The former did not approve of the action of the Vicar, and said he would be surprised if the Bishop approved of it either. The Bishop, however, did approve, and Mr Keet was denied the melancholy pleasure of erecting the monument to the memory of his daughter. The objection of the Bishop is principally to the title of “Rev.,” which he thinks should only be homo by men ordained by a Bishop of the Church of F.ngland. We should have thought that, at this time of day, Bishops, at least, would have cast off such narrow notions, or, at any rate, re tained from giving expression to them in the face of such a strong public sentiment of a contrary kind. The conduct of the Bishop and the Vicar will have the tendency to do harm instead of good to the 1 church with which they are connected. Already the spirit of opposition is thoroughly roused in the Wesleyan body, and ifc will, in all probability, spread much farther.—Glasgow ‘ Christian A’ews,’ August 15.