TRACTARIANISM IN CANADA. (From a Correspondent in the Essex Standard of April 4 ) To the Editor of the Essex Standard.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 572, 8 October 1851, Page 3

TRACTARIANISM IN CANADA. (From a Co rrespondent in the Essex Standard of April 4 ) To the Editor of the Essex Standard.

Sin, — It is by individual efforts combined for the attainment of the same object that nil great undertakings are carried on, and therefore I make no apology for addressing you at this time. To come at once to the object I have in view, I am placed in the midst of a population which numbers as many Dissenters as it does Churchmen ; as you will easily understand and credit me when I say, that the vague rumours from England of the wide-spread Romanism of the English Church is telling against the ministry of the English clergyman; Now, there is one duty wich I think it incumbent upon those who are at this time making a most noble stand against Tractananism, which is this, to ascertain and make known to the public the "prevailing feelings of the clergy upon the subject, in order to preclude misapprehension on the part alike of the friends and enemies of the Church. The feelings of the laity we know ; they are decidedly opposed to Tractarianisra. But, whether the number of Romanizing clergy in the Church be 1000, 2000, or 10,000, is wholly unknown to the great mass of the people. It appears to me that, at this great crisis, one of two courses is required of the clergy by the nation generally ; — either, first, to submit to and encourage, such a revision of the Prayer-book as shall result in a purging away of those passages that are made to favour " Sacerdotalism ;"* or, secondly, to allow the nation to see, by actual computation of numbers, who are on the one side, and who are on the other, of the mighty gulf that lies between Tractarianism and Protestantism. Should the first course be impracticable, the second might be adopted ; and then such a test as the following would, in the present crisis, be highly applicable — would be intelligible to the clergy and satisfactory to the laity :— " I renounce all pretension to ' sacerdotal ' power, and consider the office which I hold to convey grace only through, and by moans of, the ' truth as it is in Jesus/ which, by the Holy Spirit's blessing, I am the instrument of making known to sinners. Moreover, I explain the term * priest ' to mean, as being the abbr°viation of the word ' presbyter,' simply, an elder j and in conformity with the term, I consider that my office extends no further than tha ministry of the Word and the administration of those signs and seals of discipleship, which are the only means of quickening and refreshment to those who receive them in repentance and faith." It must be obvious that the Tractarian clergy, et hoc gemis o»me t deny the efficacy of the truth, per se, as a means to convey and accomplish a spiritual blessing. Here is the root of the error, which must be torn away. The truth is truth, however it may reach the individual sinner's heart, and is God's own sword to divide asunder the soul and spirit. Should the Church of England be ready to make a declaration substantially like the above, and it should be signed by the great majority of their body, the minds of a very large portion of the true belipvera in tbe Lord Jesus Christ in this colony would be relieved of their unjust; but very natural, suspicions of the Church, and the ministrations of the missionary be welcomed by thousands, who now receive nothing at his bands. Let me assure you that members of our community at homo have no conception whatever of the state of religion hore. They imagine, as I did preTiously to coming here, that the generality of the people are living the lives of heathens, and when they do not receive tbe word and sacraments fiom the Church, despise and neglect them. So far from this being the case, it is nearer the truth to say, that the Methodists and other Dissenting bodies are rapidly taking spiritual possession of the land. A well-educated member of my congregation, of great experience in the colony, snid to me the other day, '' Mr. Tucker, thidmrch of England will soon be extinct in the rural districts." In this remark there may be some exaggeration, but it is sufficiently true to arouse the Church of England to a different course of action. Not that the state of things in this country is to be imputed to Tractananism alone. The greatest reason, perhaps, why the Methodists advance so rapidly is, that they are men of an inferior class, are not icquired to be classical scholars, are able to live a bard life, and are content to do with little salary ; consequently, they generally manage to occupy newly-settled districts many (years before the Church has thought of moving into tlipm, Even fifteen and eighteen years pass away before the Church carries the Gospel into those districts. This happens in consequence of a bad rule (as I think) of the Society foi the Propagation of the Gospel, viz., the rule not to send a clergyman into a district until £50 a-year and a house have hem raised for him by the people. It may be asked, " What can the Church da if she cannot afford to ssnil a clergyman into those districts V The answer is, send some godly man of inferior manners, education, and expoettlions, to minister the Gospel of the blessed God. Is the Church of England for ever to hold he

aristocratic notions respecting the secular qualifications of her ministry ? Suppose they be not all gentlemensuppose they be not all graduates of Oxford or of Cambridge — suppose they be not even grammatical in their language; let them be learned in the woid of God, apt to teach the simple truth as it is in Jesus, reproachless in their lives, zealous for the conversion of sinners ; in short, competent to exeicise the office of a deacon well, (to which office they might be appointed without prospect of change), and all the great ends will be obtained by their instiunientahty. Lot it, however, be understood that, unless the Church of England will condescend to do this, she must be content to ses this country labouring under the disadvantage of her absence ; sho must be content to see Dissenting bodies, now perhaps holding all the faith, continually splitting into smaller divisions, now sacrificing one doctrine, now another, and ever and anon adding others, until whole communities bo overwhelmed by Universalism, Arianism, &c , as is now the case in similar circumstances in the United States. The Methodists, so far as I can learn, are now sound in the great particulars; so are the Congregationahsts ; but as the young seldom loam confessions of faith, and are rarely taught the impoitance of the seveial articles of the Creed, they are, and will be, within the ieach of the emissaiics of heresy. These men are to be found here in great numbers ; and I regret to say, in my own district. Youis ; faithfully, Wm. Guise Tuckeii, Chaplain Royal Navy, Now occupied as a Missionary in Upper Canada. Vaughan, Toronto, Feb. 19, 1851. * Sacerdoa, a person to whose office a propitiatory value is attached.