CHAPTER XIII.
Preachers.—Divine Service.—Divisions of the Bible.—Funeral Service.—Burial in Cities.—Absurd Interments.—Monuments.—Private Mausoleums.—Harmless Absurdities.—Church Endowments.—State of the Clergy.—Religious Communities.—Admission Fees to Institutions.—Ecclesiastical Societies.
It happened in the earlier part of their visit, when the travellers were less familiar with the peculiarities of the Southland phraseology, that they were inquiring one day whether there was in the neighbourhood where they then were anypreacherof more than ordinary celebrity, and were surprised at being answered that there were no preachers within two hundred miles. As they had, before this, attended public worship, they perceived at once that there must be some misapprehension. They found that “a preacher” denotes—according to its primitive sense—whatweunderstand by amissionaryamong the heathen. “Expounding,”“lecturing,” “discoursing,” are the terms used by them to denote what we call “preaching.”
When the difficulty was surmounted which they felt at first in following what was said, from the novelty to them of the dialect, they were very well pleased with some discourses they heard, which appeared to them sensible, pious, and instructive; but they never heard any one who came up to the idea of what we call “a fine preacher,” or “a very nice man,” for the reason already mentioned in the notice of their parliamentary debates.
The strangers were at first puzzled by another peculiarity which they met with in their attendance on divine service. The minister referred, not to the chapter and verse of any book of Scripture, but to the page and line, or rather to what arecalledpages and lines; that is, certain equal divisions, which are indeed the actual pages and lines of their large editions of the Bible, but of course do not correspond with those of a different size. These artificial pages and lines, as they may be called, are marked by horizontal (P. 25,─) and vertical (L. 5.│)lines, respectively. The origin of the custom, it seems, was, that their first edited translation having beenpaged, and subsequent editions being, for some time, fac-similes of it in point of size, the custom grew up,—indeed there is reason to think it was designedly encouraged,—of making the references to pages and lines; and these same arbitrary divisions were accordingly retained in subsequent editions. Generally, though not always, the chapters and verses are marked in the margin, for the convenience of scholars who may wish to consult some of the old editions of the Bible in the learned languages, or who may be reading, in old editions, some works of the earlier divines containing references to those divisions. For their own use, they consider their method as preferable to ours, inasmuch as their divisions are exactlyequal; serve perfectly for theuseintended,—that of facility ofreference;—and carry on the face of them a plain indication that they are designed for nootheruse, and therefore cannot mislead the reader into the notion of their having a connexion with the sense, and being thework of the sacred writers, or designed by editors as a suitable distribution of the matter.
The funeral service varies in a slight degree in the rituals of the several churches; but in one point they all agree,—that in the prayers used, and in any discourse delivered on the occasion, no allusion is made to the particular individual deceased. The shortness and uncertainty of life generally,—a future state, and the requisite preparation for it,—with other such general topics, are the only ones allowed to be introduced. Any mention of, or allusion to a particular individual, in the way of panegyric or otherwise, on such an occasion, would be regarded as invidious and highly indecorous.
“When a man,” they said, “has departed this life, to pronounce upon his condition in another world, or to pray that that condition may be altered, we regard as presumptuous, and especially unsuitable in a Christian congregation assembled for a religious purpose.”
Their cemeteries are never contiguous to their places of ordinary religious worship, nor within any of their towns or villages; but at some little distance, and generally within, oradjoining, some park or other public pleasure-ground. They imagined it must be deleterious to the health of the Europeans to inhabit towns, the site of which consists in great measure of stratum upon stratum of decomposing animal matter, continually renewed and continually stirred up.
“We are well aware,” they said, “what gave rise to the practice. It was the notion entertained by our ancestors (and, it should seem, by some of their European descendants) that demons are scared away by the sound of church-bells, by lustrations of holy-water, and the like; and that the departed, accordingly, derive from such things some kind of comfort and protection. We hold, however, (and we hoped our European brethren had long since come to the same conclusion,) that the only injuries of which a corpse is in any danger are from the plough or the spade, the carrion-crow, the swine, or the wolf;” (so they call the Dingo, the New Holland wild dog;) “and that protection from these is to be found in stone walls, boards, and mounds of earth, not in any religious ceremonies.
“As for spiritual danger, we conceive that the body becomes exempt from everything of that kind, precisely at the moment life departs from it; and, accordingly, that religious appliancesthenemployed resemble the practice of the savages, who clothe the dead body of a friend in the best skin robes they can procure, and bury it, surrounded with a store of food, and with all the implements of hunting and fishing. If these poor heathens were to go a step beyond this in absurdity,—if they were to refuse to supply a famished companion while living with needful food, clothing, and shelter, and then, as soon as he was dead, and no longer sensible of cold and hunger, were tobeginto supply his dead body with provisions, which it could no longer use,—they would then be treating him, as some of our European forefathers treated themselves; who seldom or never, during their lives, frequented a house of worship to any profitable purpose, while they might have derived benefit from their attendance; but reflected with satisfaction on the idea that their dead bodies would be brought into the house of worship,and perhaps interred there, as soon as the time should have passed when their presence there would be of any avail.
“It is partly in order to guard against any relapse into such superstitions that we make it a rule never even to bring a dead body within the walls of a place of worship.”
There are no monuments in their burial-grounds beyond plain slabs, containing the name of the person whose remains are interred, with the necessary dates, &c. But in other places they have monuments of the nature of cenotaphs, in memory of persons who have been in any manner so distinguished as to be allowed this posthumous honour, by the direction, or with the permission, of the civil authorities.
Statues are sometimes erected, in places of public resort, to men of high eminence: but usually the memorial consists in an inscription (sometimes accompanied with decorative sculpture) placed on thehousein which the person in question was born, or lived, or died; or on any public building, such as a college, or library, or the like, which was in any way connectedwith his useful labours. In all cases, any monument so placed as to meet the public eye, cannot be erected without the permission of the proper authorities; whose approval of the inscription, decorations, and all the particulars, is essentially requisite.
“If a man chooses,” said they, “to erect within his own private house or garden the most extravagant mausoleum in honour of some ancestor, and to cover it with inscriptions of the most fulsome and groundless panegyric, he is quite at liberty to do so. We do not profess to make laws to prevent a man from playing the fool in private; but whatever is obtruded on thepubliceye is fairly placed under public control. And monuments,” they added, “when thus duly regulated, constitute a useful kind of record of departed worth, and of the several degrees and kinds of it; the utility of which record would be greatly impaired if mixed up and interlined, as it were, with the aberrations of the private partiality, or ostentation, or absurdity of individuals.
“It is the same,” they said, “with titlesof honour, and decorations of office borne by the living. If a man has a fancy to wear in private a dressing-gown decorated like a robe of state,—to have his easy-chair in his study made after the fashion of a regal throne,—to make his own family in private call him your lordship or your majesty, or to amuse himself at his own home with any such folly, the laws would not take cognizance of his harmless absurdities; but if he were to do all this in public, he would not be allowed thus to go about to break down all distinctions of rank, dignity, and office, by assuming what did not belong to him. Now, we consider that monumental honours, when displayed before the public, are a kind of public posthumous dignities; over which, accordingly, the Public has a just right of control.”
All the churches are possessed of endowments (greater or less); generally, though not exclusively, land, which are held by bodies of trustees (variously constituted), recognised as corporations; these receive and distribute therevenues, and, in some churches, have the nomination to benefices; in others, this is placed in their hands conjointly with the overseer (somewhat answering to bishop), or council of overseers, of the church.
What is called among us the ‘voluntary system,’—the maintenance of the minister by the voluntary contributions of his congregation,—is not only unknown, but distinctly prohibited, in all the churches, by a regulation which forbids the minister even to accept any kind of gratuity from his flock, or to derive any profit from the letting of seats, or any other such source.
Dr. Campbell, a clergyman and theological professor at one of their seminaries, from whom among others their information on these subjects was derived, observed, that he was not sure (as the experiment never had been—and he hoped never would be—tried among them) whether any of their States would even tolerate a religion whose ministers were to be maintained by the congregations as hired servants.
“A pastor,” said he, “appointed by the people,—which is bad enough,—or removable bythe people,—which is still much worse,—or supported by the gifts of the people,—which is far worst of all,—has everything to encounter that can tend to make him what he should not be; and that can expose him to suspicion of this, even if undeserved; and that can lower his character, and lessen his deserved influence, if he is such as he ought to be. No plan,” he added, “could possibly be devised more calculated for debasing and corrupting both the clergy and people, and for perverting religion, and turning it into a source of evil, instead of good, to both. The people would be taught to seek for, and their pastor (I should rather say, theirservant) tempted to supply,—instead of honest and profitable instruction and seasonable admonitions,—flattery to their prejudices,—indulgence to their vices,—encouragement to their superstitions,—assistance and counsel in political schemes and party machinations,—amusing theatrical excitement to itching ears,—and flattering delusions, as opiates to the soul, instead of wholesome truth.”
On its being remarked, in reply, that many persons in England contend for the benefit ofmaking a minister’s income depend, in some degree at least, on his own exertions, and are accustomed to adduce instances of the inefficiency of some whose revenues are secure and independent, Dr. Campbell replied that it is true such instances do occasionally occur, and are much to be deplored.
“But, after all,” added he, “we ought to remember that, bad as it is for a minister to be useless,uselessis thebestthingsucha ministercanbe. A clergyman who is capable of being stimulated to exertiononlyby motives of interest, and is careless and apathetic whenthatis wanting, had much better beleftcareless. When gain does rouse such a man to exertion, he will most likely exert himself as a demagogue or a mountebank. A man whom neither conscientious motives, nor desire for the respect and esteem of good men, can rouse to efficiency in doing good, is very likely to become an active doer of evil, if he have any dormant energies and talents that can be roused at all.”
On inquiring whether the governments, accordingly, insist on paying all ministers of religionwho are not otherwise provided for, the travellers were informed that Government never pays any. Occasionally, indeed, grants of state-lands are made to various public institutions, and to religious ones among the rest; but this is always by a distinct act of each legislature in reference to the circumstances of each case that is brought before them. But any persons who can raise among themselves, and from their well-wishers, funds towards building and endowing chapels, &c. and who prefer forming themselves into a distinct religious community, never find any considerable difficulty in obtaining a charter of incorporation for such trustees as they appoint. And it has often happened that, by accessions of donations or bequests from time to time, and also of members, some, both ecclesiastical and also academical corporations, have, from small beginnings, grown into considerable importance.
“The voluntary system,” said Dr. Campbell, “which we condemn, is not voluntary gifts towards a common fund for an endowmentin perpetuity, but voluntary payments from time to time to a particular minister for his yearlyor weekly maintenance by his people,—by those, I was going to say, who are placed under him; but, it should rather be,under whom he is placed.”
It is a custom, it seems, for those admitted on any academical or ecclesiastical foundation as partakers of the endowment, to contribute themselves towards the fund, by paying a certain admission-fee, as it may be called, on entrance. In the greater part of the institutions whose endowments are sufficient for their objects this is little more than a nominal payment, a sort of ceremonial acknowledgment, trifling in amount: but in less amply endowed societies it is something considerable; in those whose common funds are still smaller, it is more; and in some,—chiefly such as are in their infancy,—a man has to pay, on being admitted a fellow, an associate, a pastor, or whatever it may be, of one of these colleges, or churches, &c. a sum equal to, or even exceeding, what his maintenance derived from the society will probably cost, according to the principles of annuity-office calculations. In such acase, the advantages sought by the man or woman who is a candidate for admission (for there are several female institutions of this kind) are the pleasure and honour of being admitted into a society, perhaps in high repute for the intelligence, worth, knowledge, and agreeableness of its members,—(the same objects that make it in England often a matter of earnest competition to be elected into a particular club,)—the conveniences, sometimes, of a common library, museum, table, &c.; so that a person who may have paid more than he or she will actually cost the society, may yet have made a very good bargain in the purchase of a comfortable and respectable maintenance; and, lastly, the advantage of the purchase of a kind ofannuity; paying down a certain sum, and being secured, as far as a decent subsistence, against all chances, by insuring a maintenance during life, or during single-life, according to the regulations of each society.
The fellowships, &c. ofcollegesare, for the most part, held during celibacy only; and some of them make little or no provision for any but those actually resident. Persons admitted onthe foundation ofecclesiasticalsocieties, as ministers or other officers, receive a stipend for life, unless regularly expelled for misconduct.
There are several further particulars relating to these matters, on which, as has been already mentioned, Mr. Sibthorpe hoped to obtain fuller information.