Excerpt from The State in Its Relations With the Church: A Paper Reprinted From the "British Critic," October, 1839 In the case of Dr. Colenso, Mr. Keble's anxieties respect ing the Spiritual dangers of Establishment at any price received a new impulse. Long before the trial and depo sitiou of Dr. Colenso by the Episcopate of South Africa, Mr. Keble had maintained that some similar measure was neces sary, if the Church was still to hear her witness to Christ. I think I know, he said sharply on one occasion, how St. Athanasius would have acted in this matter. It might have been supposed that an unestablished Church, like that in South Africa, would have been allowed to vindicate the truth of Holy Scripture by rejecting a pastor who denied it, without encountering let or hinderance on the part of the civil power. But experience has shewn that the disadvan tages of an Establishment may have a wider range of inci dence than its blessings; and the South African Church, herself unestablished, has paid dearly for a connection, which should have been only a source of Spiritual life and strength, with the parent and Established Church of Eng land. It is unnecessary to repeat in detail a sad story, the particulars of which are still fresh in the wounded hearts of Churchmen. Suffice it to say that, with Mr. Keble as with many others, the South African controversy did its work, as he said, its providential work, in reminding us that worse evils may threaten modern Churches even than total dis-establishment. In the summer of 1865, in private conversation, he asked a friend, which of the colonial bishops, in his Opinion, had done most for the Church in our day. On receiving an answer, he paused and said, No; I can not agree. If you ask me, I say, the Bishop of Cape Town. He seems to me to be the noblest, the greatest, taken alto gether; - and, depend upon it, he is teaching us a lesson which we shall before very long have to apply here at home. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.