When Out and About

An artist's impression of Archbishop Polding wearing a shovel hat 
and clerical frock-coat.

With one known exception (1),  portraits of Archbishop Polding shew him wearing what might be described as "episcopal dress".  Surviving contemporary portraits of him are painted, drawn and photographed; and there are quite a lot of them.

In keeping with the dignity he perceived in his Episcopal office, it is not surprising that John Bede Polding always wished to present himself in portraiture in the formal dress of a bishop.  The impression might be drawn, however, that he dressed in such a formal manner on a daily basis.  This was not, in fact, the case.

Documentary evidence and one drawing of him indicates that he normally (and especially when travelling around Australia) wore a white shirt with a clerical collar attach to it,  (2)  black trousers and boots, and over the top of these a black waistcoat and frock-coat.  One anecdote  (3)  preserves the detail that beneath his trousers, he wore the purple  (4)  socks required of bishops.  He also seems usually to have worn a hat for protection of his head.  This also was a black hat and - at least in his earliest years in Australia - it took the form of a shovel hat.

The shovel hat is the millinery successor to the three-cornered hat typically worn by men in the 18th century, and which is frequently shewn in period dramas on television &c.  The shovel hat was made of  fur, had a broader brim and was turn up a little at the sides so that it loosely formed a triangular shape.  It gave good protection for the head and face.

Certainly on liturgical occasions, the Archbishop would always have been vested either in his choir dress or in pontifical vestments.  Whether he wore his Benedictine habit when in the precinct of the Cathedral or the Seminary is not known, but will be discussed in another post.

NOTES

1.  A drawing of Bishop Polding from the late 1830s is preserved in the State Library of NSW and depicts him astride a horse, riding through Hyde Park with old Saint Mary's Cathedral in the background.

2. This is not at all like the so-called tab-shirt  : a modern development.

3. The anecdote is recorded in the autobiography of Archbishop William Ullathorne.

4. We use the word purple here, but most likely they were violet in colour and not fuchsia, or Roman purple.

AMDG

Archbishop Polding & the Angelus

 

AMDG.

Archbishop Polding's Advent Pastoral Letter 1856

The Holy Season of Advent, which commences this day, has been instituted to dispose the faithful to celebrate with proper sentiments the feast of Christmas.   Sorrow for sin : atonement for it by prayer and penitential exercises, in union with all our dear Saviour suffered for our sins; meditation on the Incarnation of the Son of God; [these] are specially recommended and enjoined by the Church, as suitable for this holy time.   It is therefore a Lent, mitigated in form, and shortened in its duration, during which, gratitude for the first coming of Jesus in the flesh, a great desire of His coming and taking possession of your hearts; a preparation for His third coming in great power and majesty to judge the world; these dispositions ought to influence us to amendment and holiness of life.

First, never let us forget the deplorable state from which the Blessed Son of God, by becoming man, has delivered us.  He has opened for us the kingdom of Heaven; He has obtained for us and granted us the means of rising out of the abyss of sin; He has redeemed us from a most cruel bondage.  He is our Saviour.   O, can we reflect on all that He has done and suffered for us, unmoved by feelings of profound gratitude?  Whilst yet in His Mother’s sacred womb let us unite ourselves with her in adoring, in thanking Him with all the affection of a devout and grateful heart.  And for this purpose, let us be assiduous and exact in reciting three times a day the Angelus, a short an excellent exercise of piety, instituted to keep before the mind of the faithful the remembrance of the Incarnation of the Son of God.

A second disposition for this holy time, is to have a great desire for Jesus Christ to be in possession of our souls.  This is the case when his grace is our spiritual life, and his spirit is the animating principle of our conduct. “If anyone love me” He says “the Father will love him, and we will come to him and abide with him.”  Entertain, therefore, a strong desire to be thus united and made one with your Saviour; and as it is impossible for an affection for sin and the love for Jesus Christ to exist in the same soul, hate and detest sin as the greatest of all evils and use the means appointed to be delivered from it.  Prepare to make a good Confession.  Invite your Saviour to come to you in Holy Communion …. Desire with a strong desire to eat the Pasch with your Saviour.  He is our wisdom.  He is our light.  He is our life.  Come then sweet Jesus, delay not! sin in our hearts shall be destroyed, and thou alone shall reign therein.

A third disposition proceeding from the consideration of the third coming of Jesus Christ in judgement, is to have a deep regret for our sins, and in earnest desire to do penance for them.  To inspire us with this disposition the Church brings before our minds on the first Sunday of Advent, the description of that judgement.  For the same reason she, on other Sundays of Advent, addresses to her children the admonitions John the Baptist gave the Jews: “Do penance” said he “the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The axe is already at the root of the tree - every tree which brings forth not good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight his path, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  Moved by these admonitions, the faithful from the earliest times, consecrated the four weeks preceding Christmas to fasting and to prayer.

Excerpts from Bishop John Bede Polding's Pastoral Letter published 30th November 1856 as contained in the anthology The Eye of Faith.

AMDG

NOTES

The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  The editors were Gregory Haines, Sister Mary Gregory Foster and Frank Brophy.  Special contribution to the volume were made by Professor Timothy Suttor and James Cardinal Freeman.

Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney 1928

 

Between 1913 and 1928, the construction of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, was continued and more of William Wardell and Archbishop Polding's design came into existence, even though both men were long-since dead.  

The nave of the Cathedral was completed, terminating in the magnificent southern facade with its twin-towers.  The photograph above shews that work during its concluding stages in 1928.

The photograph below is a similar view taken 8o years later.  By then, trees in Hyde Park had grown considerably and the twin towers of the Cathedral had been crowned with their splendid spires, constructed exactly to the design of Mr Wardell.

AMDG.

Pastoral Address 1792 : 3

This post concludes our presentation of the Pastoral Address of the Reverend Richard Johnson which dates from October, 1792.  This long address, which took the form of a small book, has been presented here in order to give a clear illustration of the religious and moral state of the infant Colony of New South Wales, as seen by its first Christian minister.  Anglicans, Catholics and Methodists, convicts, military and government officials were all under the pastoral care of Mr. Johnson.  His address confirms that no matter the status or persuasion of the inhabitants of the Colony, Religion and Christian morality was of little significance to them.  Decades later, our Catholic pioneering clergy, Father John Joseph Therry, Father William Ullathorne OSB and Bishop John Bede Polding OSB, all complained of the same lack of interest in religion and the same pervasive immorality.  This dynamic was present from the foundation of the Sydney colony in 1788 and persisted well into the nineteenth century.  The Ministers of Religion were all faced with these same challenges and worked - with varying degrees of success - to overcome them.

The Rev'd Richard Johnson

An engraving of 1787

Image : State Library of NSW

In the first part of his Address, Mr Johnson gave a discourse on what he termed "The Great Truths" of Christianity and reminded all his readers that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,  there being no coming to God, either in this world, or in that which is to come, but through Christ.  Much of our previous post was devoted to Mr Johnson's urging of the importance of keeping appropriately the Lord's Day.  This was an issue of particular importance to his thinking.  

This concluding part of the Address, however, now given in this post, focusses on particular moral issues which Mr Johnson was faced with on a daily basis in the Colony.  It is important to observe, however, that he did not present his address as part of the Established Order of the Colony, requiring adherence to laws for its own sake.  He wrote as a minister of the Gospel seeking to win souls to Christ.  He observed that the same lack of interest in God's message was found in the personnel of the Colony's Government as it was in the convict themselves.  Although he encourages respect for Authority, he does not dwell upon this.  He is especially scornful of foul-mouthed people and even more reproving of the practice of teaching the indigenous peoples such profanities.  We might see Mr Johnson's attitudes towards Australia's Indigenous people differently now, but he was motivated by charity and respect towards them.

PRAYER

Be constant and diligent in prayer to God. Intreat him to give his blessing to what you read and hear, and to all your concerns.  As we are weak and needy creatures, always dependent upon God, and always receiving mercies and favours from him, we ought to be frequent and earnest in prayer ... I hope you will be punctual in prayer, morning and evening, at least.  So long as any of you live without prayer, you live without Christ, without hope, and without God in the world.  They, who do not pray to God while upon earth, will not be admitted to praise him in heaven.  When the rich careless man who had feasted sumptuously every day, for a time, lifted up his eyes in torments, he only desired and prayed for a drop of water to cool his tongue, but it was not granted to him.  Oh! if you value your souls, pray earnestly to God.  Consider your obligations to do so.  He is your Creator, Preserver, Benefactor.  In him you live and move, and have your being.  And therefore not to acknowledge, by prayer, your dependence upon him, would manifest the greatest; ingratitude and insensibility.  Consider, likewise, the encouragement you have to pray.  Though you are by nature sinners, and by practice enemies and rebels, he gives you free and sure promises, that whoever is disposed to return to him, and seek him by earnest prayer, shall not seek him in vain.  Oh! My brethren, that there was less cursing and swearing, and more prayer among you!  

After these positive directions what you ought to do, I proceed to some necessary cautions, against what you ought to avoid.  

PROFANITIES

Profane swearing is one thing against which I am especially bound to warn you, because it is an evil which so much abounds amongst you.  God has said, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain.  Our Saviour likewise has said, Swear not at all.  *  (Exodus 20:7 ; Matthew 5:34 )  But how can you reconcile these prohibitions to your conduct ; or your consciences?  When instead of not swearing at all, many of you seldom open your lips, but the first and last words which you utter, are blasphemous oaths, and horrid imprecations? Is this acting like rational or accountable creatures?  Who gave you the powers of reason and speech?  Was it not God?  And can you think that he gave them to you, that you may blaspheme his holy name, and to use the most profane, obscene, and desperately wicked language your hearts can invent; a language only fit for incarnate devils, and shocking to the ears of the ignorant heathens?  ...

... It would be well, both on their own account, and for the good of others, if magistrates would strictly discharge their duty, by enforcing the laws of our land, which are enacted against this horrid practice. And in few places, perhaps in no place, such strictness would be more needful, or more salutary, than in this colony.

Our Lord assures us, that for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgement! *   (Matthew 12:36 )   How dreadful then will be the case of those persons, who during their whole life have employed their tongues in cursing, swearing, lying, and all manner of vile and unclean conversation.  Oh! think of this in time, and tremble and repent, and learn to use your tongues to better purpose in future!  Read carefully the third chapter of James, and pray to God for his grace, and use your best endeavours to bridle your tongue, which, if you do not subdue and conquer, will surely destroy and ruin you.

Convicts of New Holland, 1793.

a watercolour by Juan Ravenet, member of a Spanish scientific expedition 

to Australia and the Pacific. 

The convicts of this early period had their owns clothes, not a form of prison uniform.

Image : The State Library of NSW.

ADULTERY

Consider, also, what must be the consequence of that unclean and adulterous course of life, which many of you follow.  Common as this wickedness is in our colony (I believe nowhere more so) do not suppose, that the frequency will take away, or in the least abate the criminality of it.  Neither suppose that this sin is less odious in the sight of God if committed in Port Jackson, than in England.  You may frame excuses or plead necessity, for what you do, or permit to be done, but the word of God by which you must be at last judged, admits of no plea, or excuse.  The command is positive and absolute. The declaration of God, Thou shalt not commit adultery * (Exodus 20: 14 )   is equally binding upon persons of all ranks, to whom it is known, at all times, and in all places.  Think not, that the holy and just God will dispense with his law, or relax the sentence he has denounced against the breach of it, that you may with impunity indulge your corrupt desires. ... The apostle [Saint Paul] declares this warning nearly in the same words, a second and a third time. . (Hebrews 13:4;  Galatians 5:17-21; Ephesians 5: 3-5 ) ...  And therefore, however this sin may be connived at by some, and committed by others, God will severely punish offenders, unless they repent of their wickedness and forsake it.

But I need not enlarge upon this subject, I have told you my thoughts of it again and again with faithfulness.  It seems the plainness of my language has hurt the delicate feelings of some and the faithfulness I have used has excited the censure and ill-will of others. ... But whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, I must repeat the unwelcome truth.  My conscience, my duty, and my compassion, all urge me to deal faithfully with you.  I mean and desire to be understood, and therefore I must speak plainly.  It is my intention and desire to awaken and alarm your consciences: but alas! after all I can say or do, I am too little understood or regarded. ... 

THEFT &c

The conduct of too many of you induces me to exhort and caution you farther against theft, and all kinds of dishonesty and villainy.  I have often told you both publicly and privately, that honesty is the best policy.  None have more reason to be convinced of this, than you who come hither as convicts.  You have known by bitter experience, the unhappy consequences of dishonesty.  Have not many of you, for the sake, perhaps, of a few shillings, unjustly obtained, plunged yourselves into misery for the remainder of your lives?  Several have made this acknowledgment to me, in their dying moments.  Learn therefore, strive, and pray to be honest.  Honesty has its present advantages.  An honest man, however poor, can face this world with confidence.  But a dishonest behaviour, with its constant attendant a guilty conscience, will always fill the mind with fear and dismay. * (Job 24: 16, 17 )

I do not mean, my friends, to reflect harshly upon you for what is paid, and cannot be recalled.  I pity your past misconduct; I sympathize with you under your present sufferings.  And therefore I admonish and caution you to abstain from this course for the time to come.  Let then the troubles and afflictions you have brought upon yourselves be a warning, to regulate your future behaviour.  Learn to be thankful for what God in his providence gives you, whether it be more or less.  Attend to what our Lord says, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.  And to his apostle’s direction, Let him that hath stolen, deal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  * (Matthew 7:12. Ephesians 4: 24 )  Follow this advice, and you will soon experience the benefit. 

IDLENESS

Beware of idleness. This is the forerunner of many evils. Poverty, disease, disgrace, misery, and too often an untimely death, are the consequences of sloth and indolence. Yield not to idleness; if you indulge it, you will find it grow upon you. Therefore, be diligent and industrious in your lawful callings. It is written in the Bible, and confirmed by experience and observation, The idle soul shall suffer hunger, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. * (Proverbs 19: 15 & 13:14 )

William Bradbury's sketch of the Governor's House at Sydney Cove, 1791.

Image : State Library of NSW.

RESPECT TOWARDS SUPERIORS

Be careful also to pay due respect, submission, and obedience to your superiors. It is the good pleasure of God that some should be placed in more exalted, and others in amore humble station. And it is a proof of his wisdom and goodness. The present state of the world, and the general good of mankind, render such distinctions necessary. But, whether we are high or low, whether called to command, or required to obey, our duties and obligations are mutual. It is in society as in the human body. There are many members, and every member has its proper place, and its proper office. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers.*  (Romans 13:1 )

THE BENEFITS OF LEADING A GOOD LIFE
I have thus given you my best advice respecting what you ought to do, or to avoid. Permit me to invite your serious attention to what I have written.  Consider it carefully for your own sakes.  It concerns your present comfort.  For though no works of ours, or what are called, moral virtues, can possibly procure us the favour of God, (for our best services are imperfect and defiled, and need forgiveness) yet that knowledge and experience of the gospel, which I have explained to you in the first part of this Address, (and which I earnestly pray you may be made partakers) must be accompanied by a correspondent conduct, such as I have set before you in the second part.  And this knowledge and this conduct will always be attended, though not always in the same degree, with an inward settled peace, whereby the mind is reconciled to support crosses and afflictions, however great, or of long continuance, with a degree of fortitude and resignation.  Persons under this influence will say, when they meet with troubles, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him * (Micah 7:9)   Should it please God, to answer the earnest desire of my soul, by giving you an experience of the gospel peace, you will thank and praise him, even for bringing you hither; and you will see and confess, that your heaviest afflictions have, in the event, proved to be your greatest mercies. 

Your future comfort and welfare in this world, depends upon this knowledge, for though no one knows what may befall him in this life, yet the real Christian has the comfort of knowing, that however it may go with the wicked, or whatever may happen to himself of a temporal nature, or whatever may become of his body, he is sure (because God has promised) that it shall be well with his soul at death.  Ah! my brethren, then, more especially then, believers will find the advantage of having made the word of God the foundation of their hope, and the rule of their life! 

Several of you, some to my knowledge, have left affectionate, tender, and serious friends, husbands, wives, parents, brothers, sisters, or children, in your native country, to lament your misconduct, the sufferings you have brought upon yourselves, and the disgrace in which you have involved your families.  Let me intreat you, for the sake of these, to consider your ways.  Great comfort it will afford to those who are now almost overwhelmed with grief on your account, to hear of your reformation and conversion.  These would be glad tidings, indeed, from a far country.  The hopes they might then form of seeing you again, would be truly pleasing; it would be little less than receiving you again from the dead.  Or if they never see you in this world, the prospect of meeting with you in heaven, would add comfort to their dying hours.  Oh! let not their prayers and their tears be lost upon you.  

Attend to these things, for the sake of others, who may follow you hither, in the like unhappy circumstances.  When they see your reformation, and that, in consequence of it, you are more comfortable here, than you were at home, they may be induced and encouraged to follow your examples.  Thus you will be instrumental in saving souls from death.

GOOD EXAMPLE TO THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

I would further plead with you, for the sake of the poor unenlightened savages, who daily visit us, or who reside amongst us.  If these ignorant natives, as they become more and more acquainted with our language and manners, hear you, many of you, curse, swear, lie, abound in every kind of obscene and profane conversation, and if they observe, that it is common with you to steal, to break the Sabbath, to be guilty of uncleanness, drunkenness, and other abominations, how must their minds become prejudiced and their hearts hardened against that pure and holy religion which we profess?  Oh, beware of laying stumbling-blocks in the way of these blind people lest the blood of their souls be one day required at your hands. *  (Leviticus 19:14 ) 

An aboriginal family of New South Wales
as engraved by William Blake c. 1790.
Image : State Library of NSW

And yet I fear, yea, I well know, that they have already heard and seen too much of such language, and such practices among us.  Already some of them have been taught to speak such language as they continually hear, and though they do not yet understand the meaning of the words they use, they can utter oaths and blasphemies almost as readily as their Christian instructors.  Bystanders divert themselves with their attempts in this way, and think it is fine sport.  But, my friends, the scripture declares they are fools who make a mock at sin.  *  (Proverbs 14:9 )   But these things cause much sorrow to those who have any reverence for God, or pity for their fellow creatures.  I readily profess my own deep concern for these proceedings, and my utter abhorrence of them.  And I most earnestly intreat you, if you cannot instruct them in what is better, to have no communication at all with them.  For if you make them partakers of your sins, you must answer for it at the great day of judgement; if they then rise up against you, for misleading them, it will be much more tolerable for them than for you.

But consider, on the other hand, what may be the happy effects, were the natives to see, hear, and observe in you, and in all the Europeans here; in ministers and people, high and low, a conduct answerable to the doctrine and precepts of the Gospel. This might, by the blessing of God, be one of the most effectual means, to bring them to reflexion, and to engage them to seek an interest in the blessings of the Gospel for themselves. 

CONCLUSION

My brethren, what shall I, what can I say more. I neither know what to add, nor how to leave off: once more, I beseech you, for God’s sake, for the sake of Jesus the Saviour, who shed his precious blood to redeem sinners, and for the sake of your own souls: by the holy incarnation of the Redeemer, by his agonies, temptations, death and resurrection, by all the terrors of his frown, and by all the blessings of his love, by the joys of heaven, by the torments of hell, and by the solemnities of the approaching day of judgement; by all these considerations, I most earnestly, affectionately, and faithfully admonish and intreat you, carefully to weigh what I have now set before you. And oh! that the holy angels may carry to heaven the joyful news *  (Luke 15:10 )   of some sinners being awakened and born to God, by reading or hearing this little book.  O gracious God, do thou, by the power of thy Holy Spirit, make it thus effectual to the salvation and happiness of this people! 

And now to this gracious Lord, and to his care and blessing, I commend you.  May he enable you to examine your hearts, principles, and practice, by the standard of his holy word.  ....  Read this plain, affectionate Address seriously.  Read it a second, a third, and a fourth time, till your hearts are affected by it.   Remember, this is the advice of a friend, of one who sincerely seeks, wishes, and longs for your happiness.  It is the advice of your minister, expressly appointed to watch over your souls, and who must shortly give an account of his mission to the Great Judge of all.  Whether I shall die amongst you, or be separated from you while living, we shall, at last, meet before him.  Then I must answer for my preaching, and you for your hearing.  Oh, that this awful day of judgment may be often, yea, always, present to your thoughts, and to mine! that we may live in constant expectation of its approach!  So that when the last loud trumpet shall sound, we may stand with acceptance and boldness in his presence, and be admitted as believers in the great Saviour, into his heavenly kingdom, with a “ Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”  * (Matthew 25: 23 )

This will be my daily prayer to God for you.  I shall pray for your eternal salvation, for your present welfare, for the preservation, peace, and prosperity of this colony: and especially for the more abundant and manifest success of the Redeemer’s cause and kingdom, and for the effusion and outpouring of his Holy Spirit, not only here, but in every part of the habitable globe.  Longing, hoping, and waiting for the dawn of that happy day, when the heathen shall be given to the Lord Jesus for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession: and when all the ends of the earth shall see, believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God. * (Psalms 2: 8, & 98: 5 )

I am your affectionate Friend and Servant in the Gospel of Christ,

RICHARD JOHNSON.

NOTES

1.  Sub-headings in this post have been added by the editor for the ease of readers.  They were not found in the Rev'd Mr Johnson's published address.

2. A following post will conclude our study of the Reverend Richard Johnson with a description of his ministry in Sydney, 1788-1800.

AMDG

Saint Mary's Cathedral circa 1890

Saint Mary's Cathedral circa 1895
Image : State Library of NSW
Digitally restored by the Saint Bede Studio. 

This marvellous photograph was taken in about the year 1895.   During the last years of the 1880s, after the arrival of Patrick Francis Moran as Archbishop of Sydney, the upper walls of the northern end of the Cathedral (the sanctuary) were raised and a permanent roof set in place.  Notably missing from this depiction, however, are the transepts and central tower, which were completed by 1900.

The photograph was taken by Henry King (1855-1923), an English-born photographer, known for his studies of Australian Aboriginal people and his views of Sydney.  King was one of Australia's most significant late 19th century photographers.  The exceptional clarity of this image is due to the fact that the original large glass plate negative survived and was electronically scanned to give the greatest possible resolution.  Click on the image for an enlarged view.

In the left mid-ground, a Hansom cab can be seen moving up the road and beside it a tram bearing the sign "King Street".

Much the same view of the Cathedral, taken in 1981.

AMDG.

Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney circa 1942

Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney early 1940s.
Digital restoration by the Saint Bede Studio

This image, taken in the early 1940s, shows the southern facade of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney in the form it took between 1928 and 2000.  For those used to the stone spires which soar above Hyde Park, the Cathedral might look somewhat odd and incomplete. It was always the intention to complete the Cathedral with spires on the southern facade.  The construction of stone spires concealing a structural steel frame, was completed in 2000.

Without the spires, the similarity between the facade of Saint Mary's Sydney and Notre Dame, Paris (see below) is more readily evident.  But the Sydney Cathedral is a more "precise" form of Gothic, that of the Victorian period, whilst Notre Dame is very much the sum of several periods of architecture, commencing in the 12th century.  The composition of the facade of Notre Dame is common amongst the Cathedrals of France and it is obvious that the architect William Wardell had these facades in mind when he drew up his design for a new Sydney Cathedral in 1865.

Notre Dame de Paris
Image : Wikipedia.
 

AMDG.

In Diebus illis 2020 - 2021

Over the past year, we have been tracing the beginnings of the Church in Australia. Even the story of pioneering days is so immense that preparing well-researched articles for presentation on this blog is a time-consuming process.

The portrait of Archbishop Polding in the refectory of
Saint John's College, University of Sydney.
Image : Giovanni Portelli Photography

The following is an outline of the subject matter we intend to present over the ensuing year, covering the period 1788 - 1835 :

The challenges of establishing Christianity in a Penal Colony

The convict priests 1800 - 1810 : Fathers Dixon, Harold and O'Neill

Initiatives by laypeople to build-up a Community of Faith in the Colony

The ministry of Father O'Flynn in Sydney 1817-1820

The arrival of the first permanent chaplains, Fathers Therry and Conolly.

The foundation of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney 1821.  

Other pioneering priests : Fathers Power, Dowling and McEncroe

The work of Father Ullathorne OSB, first Vicar General.

 

Amongst these posts will be our ongoing work to publish the life, work and writings of Archbishop Polding OSB

A great deal of effort is made to present our Australian Catholic story on this blog with as much accuracy as possible.  Many others have and continue to present this story, but we believe that it is convenient to present it in one place, in a united way : a continuous story of fumbling steps, faith and hard work in discouraging circumstances.

AMDG

Pastoral Address 1792 : The Evangelical School

John Wesley preaching in a church-yard
an 18th century engraving.
Image : Wikipedia.

In Britain of the 1730s a young Church of England parson underwent a form of spiritual conversion.  This was the Reverend John Wesley.  His father had been a clergyman and he himself had been educated at Christ's College, Oxford.  Wesley, and a group of his confreres at Oxford, devised a method or a rule for living a more devout Christian life and because of this were called Methodists.  Their method subsisted in reading and praying together, the strict observance of The Book of Common Prayer (including weekly attendance at the Holy Communion service) and a disciplined approach to life. Subsequently, Wesley taught these principles whilst a missionary in the American colony of Georgia.  John Wesley and a number of others became seized with a zeal for the souls in a time when religious fervour was at a very low ebb.  Wesley travelled the length and breadth of Britain preaching this message and attracted many similarly-minded men to this Evangelisation.  Within the Church of England, they came to be known as Evangelicals. 

The Evangelical Revival (as it came to be known) began as a protest against two things : the frivolous and dissolute state of eighteenth century English society, and the impoverished theology and worldly state of the Church of England. They rejected the concept that the Church of England subsisted in the English social and political establishment, instead focussing their ministry on the poor and un-Churched.  Above all, the Evangelicals were earnest and single-minded. In a careless age, they stood for discipline, fervour and zeal.

The Rev'd John Newton
Evangelical Church of England 
parson and mentor of the 
Rev'd Richard Johnson.
Image : Wikipedia.

The serious-minded Evangelicals were somewhat puritanical in their disapproval of things such as theatres, card-playing, dancing and sensationalist literature.  Their attitude to the Scripture was fundamentalist, whilst more extreme elements disdained scholarship.  At first, the Evangelical clergy worked within the Church of England with no intention of going outside the system of parishes. They found, however, many of the parish clergy preaching very poor stuff and devised a new style of preaching altogether.  This became their hallmark. Man, they believed, was fallen and in need of salvation; that salvation was through Christ alone and dependent upon faith.  The acceptance, by faith, of Christ as saviour was called conversion and would lead on naturally to sanctification and growth in grace.  This the believer found through prayer, through study of the scriptures, through sermons and, to some extent, through the sacraments. But increasingly, the Evangelicals had little sense of the Church and its authority.  To them, it was the individual soul which counted above all else.  Their object was to deliver their message to as many people as possible, whether in church or out of it.  They were indeed men afire with the message of the Gospel. They had something vital to say and many of them developed almost hypnotic powers conveying it.

Of a similar persuasion within the Church of England was the first chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales, the REVEREND RICHARD JOHNSON.

Richard Johnson was born in the village of Welton in Yorkshire. He was educated at the grammar school at Kingston-upon-Hull, and engaged in farming and teaching until 1781, when he was awarded a sizar scholarship  (1)  to Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.  Obviously he studies were directed towards ministry within the Church of England, since he was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford in 1784.

In October, 1786, Mr Johnson was nominated to become the Chaplain to the intended Penal Colony in Botany Bay.  At this time, he was 31 years of age.  He owed his appointment to the influence of three men : the renowned Evangelical parson John Newton, the Reformist parliamentarian, William Wilberforce and the British Prime Minister, William Pitt ("the Younger").  This was an impressive team of supporters.  (2)  Newton had written to Mr Johnson in October 1786 :

A minister who should go to Botany Bay without a call from the Lord and without receiving from Him an apostolical spirit, the spirit of a missionary, enabling him to forsake all, to give up all, to put himself into the Lord’s hands, to sink or swim, had better run his head against a stone wall.

William Wilberforce
Parliamentarian, Social reformer,
Evangelical Christian.
Image: Wikipedia

We can only surmise that Newton and Wilberforce believed that Richard Johnson would be such a zealous missionary.  But we should be honest : it is hardly likely that Church of England clergymen were falling over each other to obtain the post of Chaplain to the new Colony.  It was not intended as a settlement of free men, but a repository - largely unknown - for felons, the outcasts of society, whom England was very pleased to be rid of.  At the time of his appointment in October 1786, Richard Johnson was taken to inspect one of the prison hulks which housed wretches at Woolwich on the Thames River.  That might have deterred any man.  He accepted his appointment, none-the-less.

John Newton wrote at this time about Mr Johnson :

He is humble and simple-hearted ... I think he would not have thought of this service had it not been proposed to him; for some time he wished to decline it, but he could not, he durst [sic] not.

Captain Arthur Philip R.N., the man chosen to be the Commander of the First Fleet and Governor of the intended New South Wales settlement, also gave his approval to the appointment of Richard Johnson, but cautioned him that his ministry was to focus on "moral subjects" rather than the personal salvation of his spiritual charges.

Some months before leaving England for Botany Bay, Richard Johnson married Mary Burton, who at that time was aged 34. The young couple departed Portsmouth on the ship Golden Grove along with the other ships of the First Fleet.  Mr Johnson took with him a large number of bibles and other books on religious subjects, which had been supplied to him by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.  (3)

Two ships of the First Fleet at anchor in Portsmouth harbour, May 1787.
These were the Lady Penryhn (left) and the Charlotte.
Image : Wikipedia.

These words of introduction being concluded, we now continue with our transcription of Mr Johnson's pastoral Address of 1792, commenced in our previous post.

THE SECOND PART

In the former part of this address, I have already laid before you, in the plainest manner I was able, my views of the gospel of Christ. And as an experimental knowledge of this gospel is so very important, I have endeavoured to press that importance upon your consciences. Whether you have paid that attention to the subject, which it deserves and requires, yourselves best know. I can only say, that if I did not know it to be of great weight, I should not either speak or write of it with so much earnestness. .... I ought to be very indifferent what men of depraved morals, and corrupt principles may say, or think of me, if I have the witness of a good conscience, and the approbation of the God whom I serve. My concern is for your welfare and salvation; for l am certain, as I have told you before, and now tell you again, that unless the gospel is made the power of God to your souls, you must be miserable in time, and to eternity. 

I propose now to give you some advices, to assist you in understanding the gospel for yourselves, which if you observe, I trust, you will attain to the possession of those principles, and walk by those rules, which will both afford you present peace, and secure your future happiness. For godliness has promises pertaining to the life that now is, and to that which is to come.

Let me then exhort you to attend seriously to what you are to believe and to what you are to do. These two points include the sum and substance of the gospel, the whole of the Christian life, and may be comprised in two words,  faith and practice.

FAITH AND PRACTICE

You must learn from the word of God, what you are to believe.  True faith is the root and foundation of all real religion. Without this inward principle, nothing that we have done, or can do, will be acceptable to God.   ( Hebrews 11: 6 )   I have briefly informed you what you are to believe – That you are sinners, that Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient and willing Saviour and that the word of God both warrants and commands you to look to him for salvation.  This looking unto Jesus, is what we particularly mean by faith or believing.  When we cordially and entirely rely upon him, upon the invitation of the promises of God, for pardon, peace, and eternal life, then we believe. 

All who thus believe, through grace, are required and commanded to be careful of maintaining good works.   (Titus 3 : 8 ) As our moral, and what are often called, our virtuous actions, are to be tried by our religious principles; it is equally true, that our religious principles, or at least the proof that they are indeed our principles, must be evidenced by our moral conduct. These two are so inseparably connected, that you may depend upon it, where one of them is wanting, what bears the name of the other, is no better than pretended. If what we profess to believe does not make us humble, honest, chaste, patient, and thankful, and regulate our tempers and behaviour, whatever good opinion we may form of our notions or state, we are but deceiving ourselves.  The tree is known by its fruits. (James 2: 17,18;   Matthew 7 : 20).   In this way true believers are equally distinguished from profane sinners, and from specious hypocrites. The change in their hearts always produces a change in their whole deportment. Sin, which was once their delight, is now the object of their hatred. It was once necessary as their food, but now they avoid it as poison. They war, watch, and pray against it. And their delight is to study the revealed will of God. 

By these tells, you may judge of your true state before God. Surely you cannot suppose that your inward state is good, while your outward conduct is bad. Hence you may be assured that no unclean person, or profane swearer, no one who lives in direct opposition to the commands of God, can be, while he continues in this course, a true christian. ... I hope you will not mistake me. I do not mean that true Christians are without sin.  But I affirm, that no true Christian can live in an habitual course of sin. No, sin is their grief, their burden;  (1 John 3:8,9; Romans 7: 23, 24 )  and when through temptation, or unwatchfulness, they are drawn aside, like the dove sent out of the ark, they can find no rest, till by hearty repentance, and true faith, they obtain a new sense of forgiveness. 

I now proceed to offer you some directions, with which if you comply, I trust, that by the blessing of God, you will enjoy peace in your souls, and be enabled to regulate your conduct and conversation, as becometh the gospel of Christ. 

READING THE SCRIPTURES

Read and study the scriptures. This was our Lord’s direction to the Jews : Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they testify of me.  (John 5: 37; Acts 17:11 )   ...  The Bible is our only sure and infallible guide. It was given by inspiration of God. All other books, however good and useful, are but of human composition, and are therefore not perfect. (2 Timothy 3 :16;  Isaiah 8 : 20 )

This sacred book, as I have already observed to you, contains all that is needful to make us wise unto salvation.  It informs us of our original, how pure and innocent  and our present condition, how guilty, polluted and miserable! and the happiness or misery which awaits us in a future state.  ...  I intreat you, therefore, to read the word of God carefully.  Many of you have had Bibles or New Testaments given to you, and others might have them, if they had but an inclination to read. 

Some of you will perhaps object, and say, as you have already said to me : We cannot read. Others : We have no time given us.  If you cannot read yourselves, you might prevail on some of your comrades to read to you.  *   As to your having no time, I much question it.  Rather you have no inclination. Too many of you can find time to jest, to talk obscenely or profanely, to read and sing idle songs; why might not some, or rather the whole of this time be employed in reading or hearing the Bible?  You might find time, if you could find a will.  But remember, that such excuses as you now make, will stand you in no stead when you appear before God in judgment.  There are few, if any of you, but might have opportunity of attending to these things, if you were but willing.

*  Two or three hours thus spent on the Lord’s day, in instructing each other to read, would be a very commendable employment. I have often expressed my longing desire that such a plan was set on foot among you. And if there could be a convenient building erected for this purpose, I should think myself happy, not only to furnish you with books, so far as I am able, but also personally to attend and assist you, as much as my immediate calls of duty would permit.

OBSERVING THE LORD'S DAY

Observe and reverence the Sabbath, or Lord’s day. Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy,  is a solemn and positive command of God.  ( Exodus 20: 8 ) ... It gives me a deep and continual concern to observe how the Lord’s day is spent by many of you. What would a stranger think, who regards the Sabbath, if he visited every part of this colony on the Lord’s day ? Ah ! my brethren, I have seen and heard enough (alas! much more than enough) to form my own judgment on this subject. If my duty did not require my attendance on the public worship, and were I to visit your different places and huts, I fear I should find some of you spending the hours appointed for divine service in cultivating your gardens and grounds, others indulging themselves in mere sloth and idleness, others engaged in the most profane and unclean conversation, and others committing abominations, which it would defile my pen to describe. Now what must be the end of these courses? God says : Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But the language, both of your hearts and actions, is “We will not keep it holy. It is a day given us for ourselves; and we wish, and we are resolved to spend it as we please. We do not choose to be confined, or compelled to hear so much preaching and praying.”  Is not this the language of your hearts? Your conduct too plainly proves it: but, my brethren, let me reason and expostulate a little with you upon this head. 

Consider, what have been the consequences to many who have thus broken God’s commands.  I have known, and you likewise have known, those who have been brought to an untimely and disgraceful end, and who have dated their ruin from this one evil, the profanation of the Lord’s day.  Instead of spending it in the manner which he has enjoined, they kept bad and profligate company.  By this practice, all serious impressions (if they formerly had any) have been driven from their minds.  Their hearts have become more and more hardened and insensible till at length, lost to all prudent reflection, they have regarded neither the tender felicitations and tears of parents, relations, and friends, the faithful warnings of ministers, nor the checks and rebukes of their own consciences.  And what has been the event ?  I need not tell you, that having given way to their own wicked wills, the advice and example of their ungodly companions, and the temptations of the devil (for, be assured, that he is always at the bottom of these mischiefs) they have, at length, committed some act of depredation and villainy, which has brought them to an untimely grave. 

A map of the settlement at Sydney Cove prepared by Captain John Hunter
in 1788.  A star marks the place of the residence of
the Rev'd Richard Johnson and his wife.
Image : State Library of NSW.

Such, brethren, have been the free and ingenuous confessions of many of those unhappy people who have suffered death. And if you were to speak the sentiments of your hearts, I doubt not, but many of you, who by the mercy of God are yet living, would make the like acknowledgment that breaking the Sabbath was the first step towards bringing you into that pitiable situation, in which you either have been, or still are suffering. And will you still persevere in the road of misery ?  Will you still prefer the chains of your own depraved inclinations, to the service of God, which is perfect freedom ? ... But such is the long-suffering of the Lord, that though others have been cut off, you are spared to this hour. May his goodness lead you to repentance! Or otherwise, light as these things may appear to you now, and though you may plead a necessity for what you do, I tell you again, as I have often told you before, that a day is coming when God will call you to a strict account. 

Besides, if you would reasonably hope for the blessing of God to succeed your labours, it is certainly your interest, as well as your duty to obey his commands. And this in particular : Keep the Sabbath day holy. If, in direct opposition to this plain precept, you will work and labour, as on other days, what ground can you have to expect that God will bless and prosper your undertakings? You have much greater cause to fear that his curse will follow you in your affairs, and blast and disappoint all your wishes and prospects. 

Let then the misconduct and fatal ends of others, and the calamities and troubles that you have brought upon yourselves; Let the gracious promises of God, on the one hand, and his awful threatenings on the other, induce you, in future, to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy! 

And let me offer you a few plain directions, as to the observance and improvement of the Sabbath: 

Begin the day with prayer ; and for this purpose seek some place of retirement, if you find it impracticable to meditate or pray, from the interruptions you are exposed to, in your dwellings,  *   from those who ridicule and scoff at every appearance of religion. Retire from them, and pray to him who seeth in secret; and praise him for the many mercies you have received. Consider with yourself, how little you have improved them. Humble yourselves before God, under a sense of your sins and imperfections, and pray for pardon and repentance. Intreat him, to enable you to watch over your hearts, words, and actions, throughout the day, and that you may not be hindered or hurt by the snares and temptations around you. Intreat God to assist your minister, and to accompany what you may hear from him, with a blessing to your soul, and to all who shall be present with you. 

* Many complaints have been made to me on this head.

If you have families, you should call them together, and pray with them, and for them. There are many promises made to worshiping families, and to those who, like Abraham, endeavour to teach their children and household to know and serve the Lord.   ( Genesis 18:19;  Proverbs 3 : 33 )  And the neglect of this is one reason, why many families live uncomfortably. They live without prayer, and therefore without peace. 

Having thus endeavoured to impress your minds with serious thoughts, in secret or at home; attend constantly upon the public worship, and there pay a close attention to every part of the service. Remember that the eye of God is particularly upon you there. He has promised to be with two or three that meet together to call upon his name.  ( Matthew 18:20;  John 4 : 24 ).  He is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth ; and whether they assemble in a church, or in the open air, he can give them cause to say with Jacob, “This place is surely the house of God, and the gate of Heaven”.   ( Genesis 28:17 ) Attend the public worship again in the afternoon, with your hearts lifted up to God, that you may not hear in vain; and accustom yourself in the evening to recollect what you have heard, concerning the miseries which sin has brought into the world; the love of God in sending his own Son to redeem sinners from those miseries, the sufferings, life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour; and that eternal rest, which remained for the people of God.  For you, and for me, if we are believers in Christ.

If, by the blessing of God, I can happily persuade you thus to observe and improve the Lord’s day, I am sure it will promote both your pleasure and your profit. ...  [But] I too well know the indisposition and averseness of the carnal mind to God and his ways. Hence the thought of many is, “What a weariness is it?” and, “When will the Sabbath be ended ?” Hence that open contempt and scorn, which is cast upon the Sabbath and upon public worship by many, both high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, old and young, men and women.  To them, the worship of God is tedious and disagreeable.  They neither find pleasure in it, nor expect benefit from it.  And therefore their attendance is not from choice, but from constraint. 

But the thoughts and the conduct of true Christians are very different. No day is so welcome to them as the Lord’s day; not merely considered as a day of rest from labour; but because, having their heads and hearts freed from the cares and encumbrances of the world, it affords them opportunities of waiting upon God. And, brethren, you must allow that these persons are best qualified to judge of the question I have proposed. Whether is best, to walk in the ways of God, or in the ways of sin ?  For they have experienced both sides of the question. They have tried the pleasures of the world, and they have also tried the pleasures of religion. And they will readily assure you, that in their deliberate judgment, one day thus spent in devotion, and the exercises of religion, is preferable to a thousand days wasted in the vain and unsatisfying pleasures, which they fought in their former wicked practices.  (Psalm 84:10 )

I have written thus largely upon the due observance of the Lord’s day, because of that shameful, open, and general neglect, that daring profanation of the Sabbath, which abounds amongst us. It is well known, and it is matter of great grief and concern to me, that numbers of you pay not the least regard to this day. Numbers of you will not come to public worship at all, others but seldom, and then with much reluctance. And when spoken to, different persons frame different excuses, all which, when examined, amount to little more than a want of inclination.

SETTLERS AND FREE PEOPLE OF THE COLONY

I have here a more special reference to those of you, who are called Settlers and Free People. You think, perhaps, and some of you say, that having served out your appointed term, you are now your own masters, and have therefore a right to employ your time as you please.  But, indeed, it is not so.  I must tell you, brethren, that my commission from God, and my appointment from government, extend equally and alike to all the inhabitants, without distinction. It is my duty to preach to all, to pray for all, and to admonish every one.  And it is no less the duty of all, to come to public worship, to hear the gospel, and to pray for me.  The mutual ties and obligations between you and me, are not lessened by any change in your circumstances.  And remember, that the slight you put upon the public worship, is not properly a slight of me (if that was all, it would be a matter of utter indifference) but upon the Lord himself ; for I trust it is his message, and not my own, that I deliver to you.  ( Luke 10 : 16 )   I wish, therefore, what I have said upon this subject, to be understood as addressed to all, whether of higher or lower rank, who are guilty of breaking the Sabbath. Whatever our station or calling may be, our obligations to keep holy the Sabbath-day, are precisely the same.  If any are more inexcusable than the rest, it must be those who, from their station and office, are peculiarly bound to set a good example to others.  I hope this friendly hint will be received in good part.  I mean not to offend.  But I must admonish you, that whatever be your situation in life, you will gain nothing in the end, by doing what God forbids, nor will you be a loser by yielding first obedience to his commands.

The Second Part is to be concluded ...

Felons embarking at Portsmouth for the Voyage to Botany Bay, 1787.
Image : State Library of NSW.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

NOTES

1. A Sizar scholarship was given to poorer students in return for their carrying out what amounted to domestic duties around their college.  See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar

2. The Reverend John Newton was the principal figure in a group of evangelical clergy and laymen called The Eclectic Society, which was founded in 1783.  William Wilberforce was also a member of this Society. They discussed how they could evangelise the intended Colony at Botany Bay and became interested in the choice of a Chaplain to sail with the First Fleet.  The Society used its connections to lobby the Prime Minister, William Pitt, who was also an Evangelical.

3. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge were by the 18th century long-established and orthodox missionary departments of the Church of England. 

REFERENCES

MONOGRAPHS

Grocott, Allan M, Convicts, Clergymen and Churches, Sydney University Press, 1980.

Moorman, JRH, A History of the Church in England, London, 1976.

Chapman, Don, 1788 : The People of the First Fleet, Sydney, 1981

ONLINE ARTICLES

Percival Serle, "Richard Johnson, First Clergyman in Australia", Australian Dictionary of Biography : http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogI-K.html#johnson1

Anonymous "Richard Johnson, first Chaplain to Australia", Anglican Church League.

http://acl.asn.au/resources/richard-johnson-first-chaplain-to-australia/

Marylynn Rouse "Richard Johnson, 1755-1827" The John Newton Project.

https://johnnewton.org/Groups/252728/The_John_Newton/new_menus/Whos_Who/Richard_Johnson/Richard_Johnson.aspx

AMDG