Transcribed from the 1868 Church Press Company (Limited)edition ,
A Lecture
DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THEBRIGHTON BRANCH
OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH UNION, NOV. 27,1867,
(F. BARCHARD, ESQ. IN THECHAIR,)
BY
THE REV. M. W. MAYOW, M. A.
INCUMBENT OFST. MARY’S, WEST BROMPTON,
AND LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH,OXFORD.
CHURCH PRESS COMPANY (LIMITED),
13, BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND,LONDON,
AND G. WAKELING, ROYAL LIBRARY,BRIGHTON.
1868.
p. 2It isright to state that the Brighton Branch of the English ChurchUnion kindly requested leave to publish the followingLecture. It may be well to add that it was likewisedelivered at Bradford and Leeds.
The Executive of the BrightonBranch of the English Church Union, through you, sir, theirChairman, have, too rashly, I fear, as well as too kindly,supposed that I might have something to say upon the abovesubject which may repay this assemblage of Churchmen for theirtrouble in coming here this evening. It is certainly notfor me to say you have deluded them, but rather, without wastingtime in apology, to do my best to save (if it may be so) yourcredit and my own; and, what is of more consequence, to throwsome light upon the very important matter to which my remarks areto be directed. At any rate, the great importance of thesubject itself and the imminent likelihood of some action beingtaken to disarrange or subvert the present standing of the Churchof England by an alteration in her Book of Common Prayer willensure your deep interest, and, I do not doubt, secure me anindulgent hearing; whilst the very large and influential,and,—I think it will be on all hands allowed,—mostsuccessful meeting held last week in London, gives an additionalreason for strengthening, if it may be so, the action then takenby diffusing as widely as possible information as to the dangersapprehended, and the means of resistance to be used in order topreserve its integrity.
It is a trite saying just now that there is a great crisis inChurch affairs; but I think it must be allowed to be not lesstrue than trite, even after making all allowance for themagnitude with which the time present always invests thingspresent. In secular and material warfare it may be thatsometimes an underrating difficulties, a blindness to the peril,is the very cause and means of safety or success. But inassaults like the present, where the battle-field is the Law andOrder of the Church, where the contest is carried on not withsword or spear, but with the keen weapons of p. 4intellectualand moral contention, where very much turns and must turn uponthe enlistment of public opinion upon this side or that; whereprejudice, and ridicule, and sneer, and scoff, appealingconstantly to the irreverence and perverseness of the evil