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was tolerated in the Church. It is a wrong which demands, therefore, in the highest degree, repentance and restitution on the part of those who have promoted it or connived at it.
In this matter it is as easy to point out the remedy as it is to expose the evil. We cannot doubt that it is right and necessary to restore the Churches to the perfectly free use of all classes: we must not allow ourselves to doubt its being possible to do so. Well and happy is it that what needs to be done requires some earnest effort and self-sacrifice; for such are the works which God blesses, and which, therefore, as certainly secure success as they prove sincerity.
By the common law of England, all parishioners have a right to the common, free, and equal use of their parish Church.[1] In almost all cases of town Churches the great majority of parishioners have been despoiled—plainly robbed—of the enjoyment of this right—a most sacred right, sanctioned, as it is, by the principle of divine as well as human law. This inalienable right must be practically restored—perfectly and absolutely restored, without reserve or compromise.
This we can do—we can give back to all classes the power and opportunity of freely attending the services of the Church; and I believe and am sure that when this is done, the will to come will not be found wanting. For this, however, we may have to be patient. A disease does not always vanish immediately on the removal of its cause. And the very essence of the mischief of the pew system is that it has produced indifference and dislike to even a greater extent than inability to attend Church. It is this special evil effect of the system which constitutes the chief, it may almost be said the only, difficulty in the way of its removal; for were the people generally sensible of the value of that of which they have been robbed, did they prize it as they do worldly advantages and political privileges, there would be such an agitation and demand as would soon rescue the churches from appropriation. Private seats in the parish churches of London would then be as much out of the question as private paths in its thoroughfares!
- ↑ See Appendix.
