Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/202

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188
EMINENT LIBERALS OUT OF PARLIAMENT.

eloquent and uncompromising advocate of church disestablishment than Mr. Dale. lie approaches the question primarily from the old Puritan stand-point; viz., that the State cannot rightfully legislate for the Church. The latter is to the former what the conscience is to the individual. The things of Cæsar and the things of God must be kept asunder. Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo. The union of Church and State is a foul liaison, which use can never convert into just matrimony. Such is his theory. Now for a statement of the practical disadvantages of the Anglican establishment. "To a Nonconformist," he says in his "Impressions of America,"—a series of admirable sketches, political, social, educational, and religious, contributed to "The Nineteenth Century,"—"travelling in America, one of the freshest sensations arises from the absence of an ecclesiastical establishment. In England I am reminded wherever I go that the State is hostile to my religious opinions and practices. Diocesan episcopacy, in my judgment, deprives the commonalty of the Church of many of their rights, and releases them from many of their duties; but in every parish I find an Episcopal clerg3'man, who, according to Mr. Forster's accurate description, is a servant of the State. Though I am a minister of religion, the civil government has placed me under the spiritual charge of the Vicar of Edgbaston: that excellent gentleman is my pastor and religious teacher, I am not obliged to hear him preach; but the State has thought it necessary to intrust him with the duty of instructing me in Christian truth, and celebrating for my advantage the Christian sacraments. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration seems to me a mischievous superstition; but