Page images
PDF
EPUB

DISCUSSIONS SUR LES PROPOSITIONS du Rév. Père E. REBREYAUD, S. J., to EDMOND DE CHAZAL. Maurice, 1874.

INSTRUCTION PREPARATOIRE POUR LA PAQUE PROCHAINE DONNEE, par EDMOND DE CHAZAL. ler Mars 1874.

LA FEMME SAMARITAINE: INSTRUCTION DONNEE A LA PAQUE DU 5 Avril 1874, par EDMOND DE CHAZAL, disciple de la Nouvelle Jerusalem. Maurice Imprimerie du Commercial Gazette, Rue de la Pandrière.

1874.

:

It is always pleasant to hear the voice of a brother from his home in some far distant land and in an isolated condition-isolated, we mean, compared with ourselves, who possess, if we do not always appreciate and enjoy as we ought, the advantages of social intercourse and worship.

In Mauritius there are a few who acknowledge and worship the Lord Jesus as the only God and Saviour; but these consist chiefly of the family of M. Edmond de Chazal. Some years ago an effort was made by the friends there to secure the services of a minister; but the difficulty was to find one who could conduct the services in French. They succeeded at last in obtaining one, unknown, however, to the Church in this country and in America. He had belonged successively to the Greek and the Roman Catholic Church; but he seems to have pursued an eccentric course. He did not remain long with them; and we have since found him in India, in America, and recently in Australia. A friend in Sydney informs us of the sudden appearance there of the "Right Reverend Bishop Bugnion," and has sent us a copy of the Liturgy and Hymns which he uses in his services. He announces himself as of the New Church, and is said to be an eloquent preacher. We see little to object to in the creed and form of worship; but the liturgy bears evident traces of Harrisism and Spiritism. Since the "Bishop" left Mauritius, service has, we believe, been conducted by M. de Chazal; and we hope that, in their peculiar circumstances, he exercises all the functions of a minister.

A man who has taken a prominent part in the cause and services of the New Church must have attracted the attention of other religious bodies; and we find, from the pamphlets whose titles are given above, that he has long been regarded as a wanderer from the true fold, and treated as an alien. Recently an effort has been made to restore him. A newly appointed priest of the Catholic Church addressed a letter to M. de Chazal, the purport of which will be sufficiently learned from his reply, of which the following is a translation

"CLARY, 25th January 1874.

"Dear Sir and Rev. Curé of Saint Philomène.-It was at Mesnil, in Clary, my refuge in summer from the fever and heat of the coast, that I received your very friendly letter of the 23d instant, on your entrance into the cure of Poudre d'Or. You offer me your good wishes for the New Year, having, you say, heard much of me; and you wish me

me.

"1st. To retake a good place in the Church of St. Philomène which has not forgotten

"2nd. Another good place, later, in the cemetery of this parish.

"3rd. At last, a final good place in heaven, which always awaits me, and which, in the expressive language of the Creoles, you say, hopes for me.

"These wishes come evidently from a good heart, but from a mind little enlightened, at least so far as I am concerned. I can however but thank you for them, although I can neither accept them nor desire that they should be ever realized. In fact, you ought to know, since you have heard much said of me, that for many years my faith has been different from that professed by the ministers of your congregation.

"I by no means believe that our place in heaven depends on our fuueral ceremonies here, still less on our place in the cemeteries of this world.

"I believe still less that my place in the cemetery of the Church of St. Philomène can be more advantageous than the place which I have reserved in the cemetery of PortLouis, where I have had a vault constructed for the remains of my own and my family's remains, if it is my destiny to terminate my earthly career in this colony.

"I believe still less that my place in heaven can depend upon what I could learn in the Church of St. Philomène respecting eternal life, in the seat you desire I should take in that Church.

"What has the country we inhabit or the place we occupy to do with eternal life? or the earth which covers our mortal remains to do with the fate of the soul?

"Is it not the state of our soul on quitting this world, after a good or bad life that we have led in it, which decides our future fate?

"Is not this the teaching of the Divine Master whom you as well as I profess to serve?

"Is not this the promise of our All-Powerful Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, according to His two Testaments?

"In the Book of Revelation are not these promises summed up in these words: 'Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, and their works do follow them' (Rev. xiv. 12-14).

"The Word of God is the foundation of all my belief. A life according to His precepts is that in which I place all my hopes. It is in His doctrine that I seek enlightenment on all things. For nearly twenty years I have nourished myself, and all those belonging to me, with this heavenly manna. In each of my dwellings, be it at Poudre d'Or, Port-Louis, or here at Mesnil, there is always a place consecrated to this teaching, not only for the Sabbath of the Lord, but for every day of our lives.

"In return for your kind wishes, permit me to offer you a place round this pulpit of truth raised in my house to the Name of Our Lord God, the Saviour of the world, to the Name of Christ resuscitated, of Jesus glorified!

"Until now you have heard but the tinkling of the funeral bells announcing Jesus dead upon the cross, the Christ of the tomb. In hearing the new song which we repeat here below in reponse to the halleluia of the heavens at the tidings of the definitive recognition, in all the degrees of life, of the omnipotence of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only God of heaven and of earth, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, perhaps you will perceive clearly, as I do, that our place in the cemetery here cannot decide our place in heaven in the life hereafter. Perhaps you will repeat with us this song of glory, which ought to put an end to all our sufferings in this world, by causing to cease all our theological and religious errors: "Alleluia! Salvation, and glory and honour and power, unto the Lord our God: Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. xix. 1-6).

In the hope that a common faith will reunite us one day in the House of God above, as already here below the desire for the good of our neighbour has put us in relation with each other, believe me, dear Sir and Rev. Abbé, your devoted servant,

EDMOND DE CHAZAL."

Subsequently M. de Chazal issued, for the use of his little flock, "Preparatory Instructions for the coming Easter." This he dedicated to the Rev. Père Rébréyaud, and sent him a copy, but the pamphlet was returned in the same envelope with "not acceptable" written thereon.

Another address on Easter appeared a few weeks after, prefaced by a response to the Reverend Father. The address consists of an exposition of the Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria. It is, however, with the view of giving some particulars of the writer's experience in his connection with, and separation from, the Church of Rome that we notice it, as it shows how much those who are in the Romish Church need the light, and how much they have to endure if they receive it. This we may best do in his own words. Addressing the Rev. Abbé, he says—

"Dear Sir and Rev. Abbé,-You have condemned the religion I profess, without having evidently any knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church of the Lord. To enable you to judge of these doctrines, I addressed the instruction that I gave to my co-religionists on the purification that our Lord requires of us before receiving the bread of life; a purification represented and signified and being in actuality the Baptism of repentance of John, and the Baptism of Jesus, according to which we are taught in John, chap. iii.

"To the dedication that I have made you of this publication, you have replied by return under the same envelope, the copies that I had sent to you, with only the substi tution of my name besides yours on the address with these words, not acceptable,' followed by your signature.

[ocr errors]

"This mode of action, you cannot ignore, is in our modern usages a mark of the most profoun i contempt that one can give to those with whom one wishes to have no relation whatever. Have you a right to act thus in respect to me? Does my conduct towards you authorise such an offence? You consider me as a sheep strayed from the Catholic flock, was it not your duty to enlighten me and not to offend me, since I gave you the reasons which had made me abandon the Catholic faith?

"But I cannot believe it of you personally. You have evidently only obeyed the order of the Society of which you are but the instrument, for such has always been in my opinion the line followed by the Catholic clergy since I have had a true Christian belief. To search for or proclaim the truth, in whatever degree, has always been a cause of anathema or of persecution on the part of the Catholic Church; she pretends to have the exclusive privilege of truth; she is offended with all who attempt to show her her errors, she feels, in a word, that domination over the world cannot but escape her because liberty of conscience is increasing by the free examination of Christian truth.

"It is a sad story to relate my struggle with the Catholic Church in this colony, in order to have the free exercise of the worship of God according to my own conscience. But I must return to the past,-however painful its recollection may be to me; for it is important in this debate of our personal convictions that you should know why and wherefore my relations have been broken off with the Church in which I was born and into which you wish me to return.

"I received my religious education under the reign of the Bishop of Ruspa. It is I think sufficient to tell you this, that you may understand how and why I fell into this incredulity and scepticism which have invaded particularly all Catholic countries. I was more than forty-five years of age when I began to feel that Religion is a thing indispensable for man. I was the father of a family, and was a sugar planter, that is to say, I had charge of souls, having to govern a considerable number of people who worked for me. It is when man cultivates the earth for his daily bread, before that heaven the operation of which is as indispensable as his own labour for the fruitfulness of his field, that he has the most lively feeling that there is a strange power on which he depends, and from which he cannot escape, a supernatural, Divine power, beyond his reach, but of which he needs to know its evident though hidden influence over all his actions and all his enterprises. This evident influence must be not only in nature, but also in the mind of man, so that his acts may be good and useful, as the fruits of his land profitable. I began to see that without this influence in my disposition on the minds of those who were about me, what were called the laws of honour could not but be insufficient to obtain them, not more than in whatever condition we were in, an honest and useful life free from all reproach. If to guide my children right according to these laws of honour is a difficult if not an impossible thing, how could I hope by them to govern these labourers, who come to us from Africa and Asia, ignorant, vicious by nature, and degraded to the last degree, without any education whatever, and having, so to speak, nothing of man but the name and the form. Religion was necessary! I set myself to study the different doctrines current in Christendom. It was at this time there came into my hands, evidently by Divine Providence, The Doctrine of the Lord according to the internal sense revealed in the Word, and the exposition of which is contained in the writings of Swedenborg. It is needless to say that my choice was at once made; and that the study of these works was from that moment my constant occupation? I saw the principle of all the hidden and spiritual influences in life; I saw the Divinity of the Saviour of the World; I believed in this Divinity and in its three attributes; but not in that Divine Hypostatic union of three divine Persons from all eternity, which I was never able to comprehend. I saw the cause of all the errors, theological, dogmatical, and doctrinal that have invaded the world, the cause even of all our moral and social sufferings. I hal in a word a true religious belief."

(To be continued.)

Miscellaneous.

MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.-The month this year to have been quite as successful

as on any former occasion, and the reports are all of a more or less cheerful kind. We select brief notices of some of the largest of the societies.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.-The gross income of this Society for 1873 was £110,259, the receipts, from subscriptions, donations, and collections, being £13,600 more than in 1859. The work of the Society which has led to most comment has been the

staff of helpers for Madagascar, to which allusions are made in the reports both of the "Church Missionary" and the "London Missionary" Societies.

of May witnesses the annual assemblies of these societies, which are now very numerous. Exeter Hall is day after day occupied by large assemblies, and eminent ministers both from the provinces and the metropolis take part in the proceedings. One of the strong arguments hitherto employed at these meetings in support of missions to the heathen has been the supposed danger of everlasting death of those who were without the faith of the Saviour. The appointment of a missionary bishop and progress of Christian culture has rendered this position exceedingly unpalatable to large numbers of Christian teachers; and distrust of its soundness has slackened the zeal of many of the supporters of missionary societies. It was reserved to Dr. Raleigh to give a new key-note to the motives for missionary labour. This he did in the able and cloquent speech in which he moved the adoption of the report of the "London Missionary Society." In the course of this address, he said: "I speak for myself, and I speak, I am sure, for a great many more, if not for all, when I say that we make no judgment of the heathen as to their final and eternal condition." Other causes for declining interest in foreign missions are thus alluded to by the Bishop of Ely in his sermon at Westminster Abbey on the setting out of the Bishop of Madagascar:-"In the first place, there had been on the part of individual missionaries, and on the part of missionary societies, concealment of failure and exaggeration of success. In that manner an impression had been created that there were no trustworthy signs of progress in the Mission field. In the next place, there had been a decay of the old feeling, that there was no salvation for any without a knowledge of Christ; and with that had grown up an indifference to the conversion of the heathen. In the third place, Churchmen had awakened to a sense of the spiritual destitution at home, and had felt bound to devote themselves to work which seemed both to have a prior claim upon them, and also more likely to yield a return for their labours.”

The feelings thus alluded to are evidently giving way. The meetings seem

Church Missionary Society.-The great feature of the seventy-fifth annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was the extraordinary balance-sheet of the year. The receipts for the year ending March 31, 1874, were announced as upwards of a quarter of a million sterling-in exact figures £261,221. At the last annual meeting a defcit was announced on the receipt and expenditure account of nearly £12,000. This year the friends of the society were informed that this deficit was made good, and that, after meeting all the claims of the past twelve months, a surplus remained of no less than £10,407. Legacies and "benefactions seem to have poured in during the year, the two most noticeable among many large contributions of this kind being a legacy of £22,800, by Mr. T. W. Hill of Bristol, and a gift of £20,708 by Mr. Walter Jones of Manchester, as a thank-offering for the recovery of a beloved child from illness. The general summary of the Society's missions gives 138 stations, 207 European and 147 native and countryborn preachers. The Society has withdrawn its missionaries from the Island of Madagascar. For this action they offer in their report the following reason:

[ocr errors]

"The consecration of a bishop for Madagascar, and the announcement of his intention to commence missionary operations on a large scale at the capital, have, in the judgment of the committee, rendered it impossible for the Society to continue its labours in the island without being implicated in difficulties

Baptist Missionary Society.-The re

which they consider is most important to avoid. Under those circumstances port of this society speaks encouragingly they have come to the conclusion that of the work of their Missionaries in the they will be acting most consistently East. "The increasing power of miswith their Church of England character, sions among the Hindus," says the report, with the truest loyalty to their invariable "may be gathered from the testimony of principle of non-interference with the Professor Max Müller, given in his work of other Protestant societies, as lecture in Westminster Abbey:-'I do well as most in accordance with the not shrink from saying that their reliprovidential indications of their duty, by gion is dying or dead. And why? Bewithdrawing from the island." cause it cannot stand the light of day.

- The

London Missionary Society. report of this society says, The number of English missionaries now engaged by the society is 155; but beyond these there are happily an increasing number of fairly qualified native agents engaged as pastors and teachers. During the year 33 offers of service have been received by the directors, and nine of them have been accepted. In regard to funds the directors report with pleasure the success of efforts made to raise money for special objects. For example, the students of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland have collected for the New Guinea Mission £1,206, and the New Year's Offering has risen this year to the unprecedented sum of £4,477, the produce of 25,000 cards. The latter amount-an interesting illustration of the power of littles-is designed for the maintenance of the missionary ships-the John Williams, and the New Guinea steamer the Ellengowan. The Bengal auxiliary, established in 1817, had now become a separate society to work for the evangelisation of their own native neighbours-a true gain in progress. The balance-sheet showed that the income for the year was £115,909, and the expenditure was £1,847 less than that sun.

One of the principal scenes of labour of this society is Madagascar. The fearful persecutions to which the first Christian converts were exposed, and the final triumph of the society's efforts, have given a marked prominence to their labour on this large island. As stated in the Report of the Church Missionary Society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has obtained the consecration of a bishop and the appointments of a large staff of Missionary labourers for this Island, and diversities of Christian faith and discipline are thus brought prominently before the court and the inhabitants. This is not regarded with favour by the Directors of the Society.

Ask any Hindu who can read, and write, and think, whether these are the gods he believes in, and he will smile at your credulity.' How long this living death of national religion in India may last no one can tell." A marked feature of Baptist missions has been the attention given to the translation and circulation of the Scriptures. One striking feature of progress given in the report is the large number of the Scriptures which have been purchased by the people, and Bible translations are still going on very successfully. "The native churches in Delhi, Jessore, and the villages to the south of Calcutta, are becoming more and more independent of the society's funds, and in the most cases the converts are active in their exertions to spread the Gospel. In Ceylon education is being largely extended, the schools containing more than 2,000 children. The mission is carried on among a population of 530,000 souls. There are more than 600 persons in the membership of the churches. One new chapel has been opened during the year, at a cost to the people of £380. The Rev. C. Carter is carrying through the press his new version of the Old Testament in Singhalese. In China, the Rev. T. Richard has visited many important places in Shantung, Dr. Brown has relieved and attended to the sickness of nearly 3,000 persons in his dispensary in Chofoo." Jamaica has always held a prominent place in the missionary labours of this society. The report narrates respecting it :-"The Jamaica churches are prosperous. The persons baptized this year number 1,277, and there is a clear increase of 736 in communion. There are about 24,000 persons in the fellowship of the churches. The number of Baptists in the island is stated by the census to be 112,604 souls, that is 221 per cent. of the entire population. The entire ordinary expenditure of the society during the year has been £34,640 and the ordinary receipts have

« PreviousContinue »