Welsh Journals

THE WELSH WEEKLY. May 13, 1892. MAY MEETINGS. THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION. The Charge of Plagiarism Explained. These meetings were largely attended by delegates sent from the Congregational Churches of England and Wales. Old students were greeting one another on every hand, and old friends were renewing their acquaintance. The first meeting was devotional, being presided over by Dr. John Brown. Then a large multitude crowded the largest room in the Memorial Halt, in order to proceed with the business matters of the Union. Dr. Herber Evans occupied the chair, and, in the course of a humourous address, gave a welcome to the representatives present. He referred to ihe losses sustained by the denomination, and also to the encouragirjg c rcumstances under which the meetings of the Union were being held. It was then announced that the result of the ballot for next year's chairman was the election of Mr. Albert Spicer. 818 votes had been given, three papers were spoiled ; consequently, by rule, the number of 408 votes were necessary to secure election—Mr. Spicer had received 437. On coming forward to reply, Mr. Spicer was greeted with a loud outburst of applause. In a bri< f speech he askid for a few days to consider the question. The President caused loud laughter and cheers by remarking lhat he believed Mr. Albert Spicer would accept and would appear as an M.P. for Wales. Bev. D. B. Hooke, who is recovering from illness, was able to be present, and read the report. It reviewed the chief denominational events of the past twelve months, specially mentioning the International Congregational Council. With regard to the Free Church Congress, it stated that arrangements had been made for a preliminary Conference, and that the Manchester churches had resolved to hold such a Congress in November in that city. Con¬ cerning the amalgamation of the societies of the Union, a Special Committee had been appointed, which asked leave to continue its services and present a report in the autumn. The autumnal session would be held at Bradford, com¬ mencing on October 10, as the Baptist meetings and Missionary centenary took place in the first week of that month. The success of the Publication Department was reported; 71,000 copies had been sold of the Congregational Church Hymnal, making a total of 400,000; over 37,000 copies had been sold of the Mission Hymnal. The Sunday School Hymnal issued in August last had been a marked success, upwards of 40,000 having been already disposed of, as also 7000 of Dr. Brown's " Historic Episcopate." The statistics of the denomination showed that there were 4886 Congregational churches, branch churches, and missions in Great Britain, Ireland, and Channel Islands, and 721 in the British Colonies. The financial statement showed a total income of £15,813, of which £464 remained in hand after meeting all the expenses of the International Council and of the new Sunday School Hymnal. Various sums had been voted to different schemes, such as the Mansfield House Settlement, Browning Hall, <fcc. The Committee also proposed to make a special grant in aid of the Cen- t na*y Fund of the London Missionary Society. The report also recited various resolutions passed by the Committee ou such public questions as free education, gambling, the Salvation Army, and the proposed Albert University. A considerable portion of space was also occupied with the obituary of the year, which the report said was sadly rich in the names of honoured and beloved friends. Mention was made of the resolutions passed on the deaths of Mr. Spurgeon and the Duke of Clarence. The meeting was impatient to get at the real business of the gathering, and loud cheers greeted the Bev. J. Guinness Bogers as he rose to move the special report, " Be Secretariat." The substance of the report was as follows :— " The Committe°, acting in accordance with the resolu¬ tion of the Autumnal Assembly at Southport, immediately conveyed to Dr. Mackennal the vote appointing him as Secretary of the UnioD, and employed all their efforts to persuade him to accept the invitation. But the deputation which undertook the work, and which, at Dr. Mackennal's request, met, along with him, a strong representation of, the Church at Bowdon, was unable to overcome their s'renuous resistance, and Dr. Mackennal consequently Mt himself unable to accede to the request of the Union, hearty and unanimous as it had been. Acting in accordance with the rule which was distinctly stated to the Assembly at Southport, the committee next proceeded to invite Bev. G. S. Barrett, cf Norwich, to the vacant office. But here again they found the claims of an impor¬ tant and influential church too strong to be overcome. They next appealed to Bev. W. J. Woods, of Clapton, with a full consciousness that they were asking him to make considerable personal sacrifices for the sake of great denominational interests. His affirmative reply, while it relieved them from great embarrassment, at the same time shows how fully he has realised the situation, and in how Christian a spirit he accepts its responsibilities." Mr. Bogers contented himself with merely reading the special report. All the allusions to Mr. Woods were, how¬ ever, received with repeated outbursts of cheering, and when Mr. Bogers sat down the storm immediately broke forth. The President announced that Mr. Woods desired to make an explanation. The Chairman (interposing) : Mr. Woods wishes to offer the assembly a few words of explanation, if it is your pleasure to hear it. (Cries of " Yes " and " No," and con¬ siderable interruption.) The Bev. W. J. Woods-—(cheers and cries of "No" and " Yes " continued)—Mr. Chairman and brethren------(More interruption, and cries of "Not needed.") The Bev. Stockwell Watts: I submit we do not need any explanation of what appeared in the paper on Saturday. {Cheers.) The Chairman: He has been charged without notice, an 1 cannot expliin in any other way, The Bev. Stockwell Watts: I move that this assem¬ bly------■ The Chairman : It has been carried. Kev. Alfred Bowlands, at the back «f the hall, stated that it had been carried by a misunderotanding, owing to difficulty in catching the name. The Chairman having put the motion again, when but a few dissented, The Bev. W. J. Woods said : Mr. Chairman and brethren,—My statement shall be very brief, as brief as is consistent with respect for this assembly and for myself. You are all aware that a letter appeared in the Daily Chronicle on Saturday last—(Cries of " Shame, shame," "Dastardly," and "Have nothing to do with it") — charging me with plagiarism, and that with refeience especially to a sermon upon the text, " O Jerusalem, Jeru¬ salem, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." My statement shall be as complete as I am able to make it. It shall be absolutely frank. (Hear, hear.) I would be exceedingly unwoithy of your confidence if I endeavoured to hold anything back at su eh a time and with reference to such a charge. I say nothing as to the manner in which it has beeu brought forward. (Heir, hear.) I wrote a sermon from that text<=r-the only sermon on that text that I ever wrote—in the year 1873. (Hear, hear.) My friend, the Bev. Henry Barran, who was my companion at college, wrote to me this morning ihat be distinctly remembered my preparation of the sermon. If he is present, I dare say, if you desire it, he will confirm the statement. (Cries of " No.") This sermon, wri ten towards the end of my career at college, was what is known amongst students as a " traveller." (Laughter.) It has rendered me very good service in its time, and the subject was one which had a peculiar and growing attraction. I settled at Leamington early in the year 1874, and in the spring of that year I preached my sermon on this text. I did not think, you may imagine, that in 18 years anyone would be able to remember one word I uttered. But the letter in the Daily Chronicle found its way down to Leamington, and it has brought up more than one Leamington friend to this assembly. (Cheers.) But the secretary of a church here—a friend of mine, whim I used to be very much afraid of because he had such a careful and accurate knowledge of sermonising—(laughter) —he was, however, then, and has always been, the true friend of his church and of myself—he came to me this afternoon and said, " My wife remembers, and I remember, the sermon you preached on that text, and if you desire it I will come upon the platform at the meeting to-nig t and will declare the sermon which has been reproduced in the Daily Chronicle to be substantially the same as you preached eighteen years ago at Leamingtm." I went down to Manchester. There it was my privilege, and I counted it an honour, to be in the succession of Dr. Joseph Parker. (Cheers.) And in that pulpit I always tried to do my best—I always do in every pulpit. I never go into any pulpit that I do not do my best, whether the church be large or mall. There again my old "traveller " did service. (Laughter.) I came to Clapton Park ; and in 1889, one hot July day, after I had had a wearing and busy week, I found that my Sunday morning sermon was ready, and there was no Sunday evening sermon. I bad to do as sometimes (ministers will understand) becomes an imperious necessity—I had to fall back on " old material." I took out my sermon and I read if. When I had read it I sat down and I said to myself, " What have I that will help me further in reference to this subject ? " I felt the need that afternoon of inspiration. I thought it right, and I have always thought it right, if I have opportunity, to seek such as¬ sistance and inspiration as is to be had from the great preachers—not before my sermon is written, but when my sermon is written. And I say, speaking here to an audience largely composed of brother ministers, that when an old manuscript comes up there is an especial need of this kind of stimulus and assistance. (Cheers and laughter.) The volume that I took down was Dr. Oswald Dykes', and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Oswald Dykes that af.ernoon, and on many other occasions. If I had been preaching a sermon for tome public o3cas:on, if I had beeu sending my manuscript to the Press, I should have felt it to be my duty to make an acknowledgment of my indebtedness to Dr. Oswald Dykes. I was preaching to my own people. It was no extraordinary occasion, the congregation was sure to be thin, but my sermon was to be the best that I could make, and I preached that sermon as I have preached every sermon since I went into the ministry—without notes. (Cheers.) I have never used a note in the pulpit. (Cheers.) If.ankly recognise the effect of Dr. Oswald Dykes' tender and beau¬ tiful illustration upon my own sermon. I say upon my own sermon—(cheers)—for the trea'ment of that sermon was the treatment that it hid had from the first—modified, probably, every time I preached it, growing more and more to insist upon the tender side of God's love, and less and le-s upon the dark side of God's justice, for in the first instance it was pretty evenly divided between them. But it Was my sermon that I preached. (Cheers.) I dare to say that, in an impartial and charitable and brotherly judgment, even those two parts which are selected for animadversion—for the whole sermon is not put forward before you—do not justify the railing accusation—(loud cheering)—which at the last moment—(renewed cheers)—■ and in the most cruel manner—(more cheering)—and for purposes which had no regard to the interests of the Con¬ gregational churches or this Union, was shamefully launched against me, in a manner which is not only dis¬ creditable to those associated with it from the point of view of its being a church movement, but would have been branded as disgraceful even in a political assembly. (Loud and long-continued cheers). On resuming his seat, Mr. Woods was cheered again and aaain. Amid signs of impatience, Mr. Guinness Bogers moved that Mr. Wood "be hereby appointed Secretary of the Congregational Union, in accordance with the reeom- mendat on of the committee." Mr. Woods, he said, had an honoured name in Warwickshire, Lancashire, and London, yet he had been attacked " in a paper which practically few of us are in the habit of seeing.' (Laughter and Hear, h»ar.) This was not a new discovery. Bumours of it had been afloat a fortnight ago. Why in this process of incubation no attempt was maae to call the attention of the committee to it he did not know, but it certainly relieved the committee of responsibility. Com¬ paring the alleged pagiarism to a " trick of memory" of which he had be^n told by a " distinguished lawyer." Mr. Bogers proceeded, amid deafening shouts of "Vote, vote," general conversation, and obvious impatience. Hs persisted in mentioning that some friends of his had dis¬ covered, " in the museum," that the firt4 and main portion of Dr. Oswald Dykes' sermon had evidently been taken from a sermon by the Bev. William Cruden, published in 1787. This statement wa< naturally receive I with great hilarity, and an interruption of s veral minutes took place. Clamorous demands for " Vote, vote," per- si."tenfry greeted the speaker as he announced a Ltter from Mr. Ebenezer Giuld, for twenty-eight years deacon of Spencer Street Chapel, Leamington, who, with his wife, was prepared to say that the sermon quoted in •' that cowardly letter in the Daily Chronicle " was substantially the same as the one preached in 1874. Mr. Bogers concluded by affirming that it was a question which affect-d the Con¬ gregational Union of England and Wale?. Mr. Albert Spicer seeonde I the resjluion without com¬ ment. The Bj.v. D. Burford Hooke mentioned a request from Dr. Parker that the rule limiting speeches to ten minutes' duration should be suspended in his favour. For a time it seemeJ as if the meeting, which was becoming more and more noi y, would not hear of suspending tlM rule. On the appeal of the Chairman, however, Dr. Parker was reluctantly allowed twenty .minutes. He was received with boisterous disapproval, hissing being almost general. Dr. Parker said they had met under circumstances of a wholly unusual character, demanding forbearance one to each other. He thought they might listen to the speech of a man who for 40 y< ars had endeavoured to be faithful to the Congrega ional ministry. (Hear, hear.) He agreed with the previous speakers about the tmie at which the letter was introduced, and shaivd their indignation at the manner of its introduction. Personally he kne » nothing of the letter, whether written by man, woman, or child ; but he believed it was better to stat-a openly, before celebra¬ tion of a marriage than after, the objec i >ns which migh t be taken to it, and so far he exonerated t le writer. ("Shame," clamour, and mt irruption.) He vvm not going back upon his statements, and be associate! with an act which he condemned like themselves. (Hear, hear.) But the Union was faced with a question larger than they supposed. He held that Dr. Oswald Dykes had been placed on the defensive—(cries of " No, no")—ye?, tbH distinguished professor, this man of ni^h reputation, of great learning, of European fame, had been placed upon his defence by what had been said. (Interruption.) He would stand or fall by the verbatim report. (Continue 1 uproar.) The Bev. J. G. Bogers siid be only wished to show fie extreme length to whi jh such charges could go, and denied the justice of Dr. Park r's extreme criticism. Dr. Parker : I am a preacher of some length of service, and I am prepared to say toat as far as the structure, substance, purpose, metaphors, some of the phrases, and many of the Very words are concerned, they are pract cally the same in the two sermons. (Benewed clamour and interruption.) I cannot think that the second sermon ould have bee.i written if the first had not been written. Here is the evidence, if you wiil heir it. ("No, no.") This is not a question of personal feeling, but of evidence, valued, tested, and appreciated. [At this point the question of order wa3 raised, and the President ruled that Dr. Pa ker was strictly in order.] Not one unkind or ungenerous word would Mr. Woods receive from him. (" Oh, oh ! ") They were there to treat the question with honest generosity. (Laughter.) They had to vindicate themselves to the world. He could not distinguish between large and small plagiarism, or between burglary and petty larceny. They had been told thau the thoughts might have occurred to other minds. He bad gone through a homiletic index and found only seven sermons on this text, and there was not the faintest resemblance between them. He could nut regard these lofty images, these tender and pathetic appeals, as commonplaces which might occur to anybody. Tney were told that other people did the same thing, but they were dealing with a specific charge. What was the b st thing to" be done under the circumstances ? (Cries of " Vote, vote," and much laughter.) He moved as an amendment: "That the assembly proceed forthwith to nominate by ballot a secretary for the ensuing year." Dr. Parker did not utilise his twenty minutes, and was not permitted to read his evidence. The clamour which had obtained throughout, intensified when the amendment was seconded from the body of the hall by Mr. Chafen—to whom the President genially alluded as Mr. Chaffin'. Put to the meeting, only a few hands were raised in its favour. A diversion was raised from another quarter by Mr. Baker, of Guildford, who proposed to move "that Dr. Parker's speech was unworthy of his reputation." Mr. Halley Stewart, M.P., now came forward, and asked Mr. Woods for a categorical denial that he knew the sermon was to be published. This denial was promptly volunteered by Mr. Guinness Bogers, and Mr. Woods supplemented the state¬ ment of his colleague. Ultimately the President put the original resolution, that Mr. Woods be elected Secretary of the Union, which was carried with apparent unanimity. The meeting then broke up into noisy groups, and some formal business was rapidly gone through. Congregational Total Abstinence Association. The annual meeting was held in the City Temple on Monday night. Mr. George Williams presided, and there was a very large attendance. The Secretary, Bev. D. Burford Hooke, not being sufficiently restored to health, the Deputation Secretary, Bev. G. Ernest Thorn, read an abstract of the seventeenth annual report, which stated