Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — April 1906, Seite 191

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Cited in Eckhardt's Reallexikon (1907) under: Gnadenwahl 3 · Synergismus 10

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Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches. 191

Geister nicht eher ruhen werden, als bis sich jede ehrlich denkende Seele mit
Ekel und Abscheu von solchen landeskirchlichen Zuständen abwendet!“ —
Nach Häckels „Welträtsel“ werden die zukünftigen Monistenkirchen nicht
nur eine Urania bergen, sondern auch Sammlungen aus dem Tier⸗, Pflan⸗
zen⸗ und Steinreiche. F. B.

Von dem passiven Widerstand der Nonkonformisten in England gegen
das Schulgesetz, welches 1902 angenommen wurde und demzufolge für die
16,000 anglikanischen Kirchenschulen auch von den Dissenters Taxen erhoben
wurden, schreibt der Western Onristian Advocatée: No wonder that Free
Churchmen, who areé taxed for fully onée-half the amount to run these
schools, are deeply aggrieved. Many of them who foresaw what was
coming vowed with Dr. Fairbairn that they would never submit, and became
Passive-resisters. They promptly and cheerfully pay all taxes excepting
the amount assessed for sectarian education. At this point they are un⸗
vielding. Sixty-five thousand of them have been summoned to court; in
thousands of cases household goods bave been distrained and sold at.
auction to satisfy the tax claim; 231 persons, 108 of whom were elergy-
men, have been imprisoned, some of them several times. This has gone
on for three years, while the zeal and deétermination of the Resisters,
instead of abating, have steadily grown. The third anniversary of the
resistance movement has just been held in the City Temple, London.
It was a gathering utterly unique in our modern eivilization. Whatever
one might think of the merits of the controversy, and of the poliey of the
Resisters, it was impossible not to be deeply moved by this vast concourse
of people, representing tens of thousands throughout Britain, who for
conscienee' sake are ready to endure the spoiling of their goods and im-
prisonment. Three hours were set apart for a testimony-meeting. The
platform was erowded with ex-prisoners. There sat the venerable Dr. John-
ston, à white-haired veteran of seventy-four, pastor of aà Congregational
Church just out of London. He had recently served a sentence in one
jail, while at the same time his daughter was imprisoned elsewhere. Near
him sat the pastor of the Primitive Methodist Church, of Southampton.
He had served five terms in jail during the last eleven months. As one
Baptist minister arose to relate his prison experiences, a telegram was
handed him announeing that aà warrant for his rearrest had just been
issued, and he must hurry bome to begin a new sentence. A Methodist
layman from Hull, nearing the fourscore mark, spoke with faltering voiee
of his féeeling on reaching the jail. Iam an old man. I had never been
in a prison-cell before in my life. I couldn't sleep a wink the first night.“
But he declared his willingness to go again and again, if need be. They
may break my body, but they can't break my spirit!' he cried. A number
had been incareerated in Bedford Jail, and they told of the eomfort they
had derived in thinking of Bunyan. The Passive-resisters neither expected,
nor, as a rule, did they receive any better treatment than the ordinary
prisoners. In some instances the warders subjected them to unwarranted
humiliation, as if they were degraded felons. The chaplains especially
seemed to delight in taking advantage of their opportunity, and more than
one of the ministers told of insults nothing less than brutal, heaped upon
them by these spiritual advisers.““ — Das neue „liberale“ Ministerium,
dem Balfour hat weichen müssen, wird wohl das anstößige Gesetz bald

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